Monday already?

Well. That went fast. October sure didn't feel like hanging out any longer than it had to. October was the bored person at the party. October kept shooting its friend dirty looks, the kind that say, "Can we go now?" October has had one foot out the door for weeks. Bye, October. See you in a year.

Halloween tonight. I'll be in tech rehearsal. Until 11 pm. Then I'll go home and go to bed. Ah, tech week! You keep me from enjoying the rest of the world for five days!

NaNoWriMo starts at midnight tonight. Maybe that's what I'll do with my post-rehearsal evening. Start writing. Who knows: I may end up with a good hunk of text by tomorrow morning.

By the way, the St. John's University Abbey is one of the few pieces of architecture in the world that moves me to speechlessness. I am in love with it. I wish I could put it in my yard and stare at it all day long. The sense of space, of suspension, of stretching into infinity... It's everything I wish I could be when I dance. I want to go back.

Time to get off the compy. Load in is happening right now and I need to be there eventually.

Ciao.

Good gravy...

Just got back into town from touring Echoes to southwestern Minnesota. Fortunately for my opinion of that part of the state, our last show was well-received by students and faculty alike. The others, though...

I won't even start, because then I'll be here for hours, ranting, and I have things to do. But I'm glad it's done. That's all I'll say.

Now things start cooking for The Tempest. Tech week is on Monday. Run through tomorrow. Production meeting afterward. I think my head might explode.

I also need to wash my clothes, but when that will happen? I'm not certain. I may just go out and buy some more underwear. Heh.

Ok. To the cleaning.

I think Monday's are my brain's "scheduled backup downtime." Like Livejournal. Or my bank.

The dog is better. He was sick last week. But he's better now.

Advanced Ballet made me cry this morning, but it was good, nonetheless.

Touring starts tomorrow.

I finally gave in and bought Eragon. It was on sale. So far the story's engaging, but his writing isn't the greatest. His book has sold because he's young.

I need a vacation. Bleh.

Good thing I didn't actually buy a ticket.

The Lost numbers, well, lost.

Heeeee

Any one remember the numbers from Lost? I kinda want to buy a Powerball ticket. ;)

My elbows are dirty.

The dog and I have been having some adventures.

The dog's name is Maui, and I'm dogsitting him for the next week and a half. He'’s a cutie. I've probably mentioned him.

Anyway. We've been exploring Minnehaha Park. Yesterday we walked a long way down the creek path until we had to turn around because I didn't unlock the padlock for the potential owners. (:p) Today we went further down the path and ended up at the place where Minnehaha Creek joins the Mississippi River.

I think we take the river for granted much too often. It's massive. It's impressive. It used to be what fueled commerce in our town. It still does, only to a lesser degree. And I believe that if something happened to the river our city would be severely crippled. We can't forget about the river.

On the way back, we walked up the right bank of the creek instead of the left. There came a point where the path seemed to split. The lower portion was wet, muddy, and close to the water. The upper portion was less path-like, but drier. A man was coming over the upper portion as Maui and I approached, and I asked him if the path continued. He said that it did, and advised me to go the way he came. So I did. And realized that that man was wrong. Very wrong.

After hefting the dog to my hip, I started climbing the hill. I was wearing tennis shoes that were meant for concrete, not slippery black mud. I had no traction. I had to grab onto exposed tree roots to keep from sliding down. As I crossed over what I thought was the hardest part, I lost my footing - and the dog, though I still had the end of his leash - and started to slide down the hill. I probably would have ended up in the creek if I hadn'’t grabbed on to a knot of tree root sticking out of the ground. I was, however, laying full out in the mud.

Somehow I got back on my feet and over the hill to safer ground. I looked at my clothes, expecting to be covered in mud from head to toe. I only had two spots on my polo and one below the right knee of my tights. (Yes, I was wearing a skirt. I had not intended to do any hiking.) My hands were filthy, though. The dog was none the worse for the wear, and we continued on our way.

The path was much less eventful after that. Nevertheless, I've learned my lesson. Don't walk on that side.

In career news, I got that big thing that I auditioned for a while back. That big thing is an understudy role for The People's Temple at the Guthrie. So in January, I'’ll be a member of Actor's Equity. For a lot of young actors it's a questionable move. Those young actors probably also have other jobs. I do not. Acting is truly my career, and I need to continue moving onward and upward in that career. Small theatre is great when you want and need to take huge risks with the material, and I will miss that. But I can't eat on $100 for a month and a half'’s work.

And speaking of (sort of) small theatre, if you haven't, go see this show. It's phenomenal.

Please Don't Blow Up Mr. Boban
@ the Loring Playhouse
October 20th - Octber 22nd
Thursday and Friday @ 8:30
Saturday and Sunday at 6:00 and 8:30
This weekend is your last chance!
Live Action Set

Zbroz

Yesterday sucked.

I mixed up an audition time and showed up at my agent’s office three hours early. The time that the client was scheduled to come was a time that I had rehearsal. In addition, I was going to audition for the Aveda Congress that’s taking place this weekend, but I need to be available all day Sunday. I have a meeting and then rehearsal right smack dab in the middle of the day.

That Aveda job would have gotten me caught up with my bills and kept me from wiping out my savings to pay my rent. I left the office and had to work really hard to keep my face from scrunching and tears from falling as I got onto the elevator. It wasn’t that I was particularly excited about being a hair model for Aveda, it’s that this has been the fall of missed opportunities. I’ve missed out on several jobs because of the shows that I’m involved with. And as I have no other job, no steady paycheck to fall back on, not being able to work hurts. Especially when I would have made more in one day than I will in a month’s worth of rehearsals for the show I’m stage managing. It burns me.

Then I discovered a schedule change in the touring I’m doing with the other show I did in September, and it was the last straw. I’m already having to rely heavily on the swing Stage Manager to cover for me while I’m gone, and I can’t constantly be changing what dates I need her to fill in for me. It’s discourteous to her time. I’m hoping that there won’t be any more changes, but I can’t guarantee anything. I started throwing props around at rehearsal because I was so mad.

(Edited to add: On Monday one of the Zenon instructors asked if I would be interested in doing a project she was putting together. !!! Of course, it was slated for November 4th, final dress rehearsal. *headkeyboard*)

When I arrived at my second rehearsal of the day I was in a foul mood. But the director of my current show passed on some valuable knowledge after I told her my money and schedule woes. She shared that Stephen Pelinski had told her of a word he learned from a Russian actor he’d worked with: zbroz (and I’m probably spelling it wrong, couldn’t find a direct translation on the internet). As an acting term it means “getting out of your head, internalizing all that you’ve learned about the character, then letting it go and being in the moment.” It works for life just as well. And it feels good to say it, too. Your eyelids kind of droop and your mouth goes all smushy and limp; Russian “drips off the lips”, as Carin said. (Maybe I’ll take up learning Russian. It seems like fun to speak it.) And then one of the actors brought candy and my day instantly brightened.

So now it’s a new day, and all of yesterday’s crap is, well, yesterday’s crap. I have a whole new day to fill with brand new crap, and hopefully goodness, too. I did get to bring home the leftover candy, after all.

I need furniture.

So when I said "more later" on Wednesday I obviously meant today. And not later on Wednesday. Or on Friday. Yes.

The weather's cooling off and I, for one, love it. I like not having to wear a jacket or closed in shoes, but feeling like my skin is going to melt off in the summertime just isn't worth it for me. I'd much rather wear a cute skirt, tights, and a sweater. Fall clothes make me giggly.

I have a full day off on Wednesday. I don't know what I'm going to do with myself. I really don't. I should probably finish decorating my house and putting things away. That's difficult, though, when they don't have anywhere to go. For instance, all my clothes that don't hang or fit on the closet shelves are in a pile on the floor. I need a dresser, but I shouldn't make any more major purchases until I have some more money. I just don't know when that will be.

I had a full week of dance classes last week. I realized that 90% of my classes are ballet. The only deviation is modern on Thursdays. That's a lot of ballet, and I miss the variety I had last spring. Nevertheless, ballet and modern are the only classes offered in the morning, so I take what I can get. And I'm enjoying myself, so I see no reason to try to change things. I'm learning a crapload and becoming more skilled all the time. I still can't turn worth crap, but that will come in time.

No theatre auditions coming up that I know of. No shoots. This fall sucks that way. Change will come.

More later when it's not 6:30am

National Novel Writing Month is starting up again. Who's with me?

I can't believe I'm doing this again.

Ugh

I apologize if you're using Internet Explorer and my page looks like this:



and not like this:

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I don't know if it's because I'm using an older version of IE, but when I call up the blog it looks like poo. So...use Mozilla. Or Safari. But not IE. If you can help it.

Ballet+Hormone Changes=TORTURE

I went to ballet for the first time since September 23rd. I wasn't able to go at all last week for various reasons, and now I feel like my brain and body are mushy mushy mushy. I keep telling myself that I've been taking ballet for less than a year, and that I'm taking classes that are way beyond my level because I can't take any others, and that any skill worth having is worth working a long time to achieve...but I felt like crying today.

I'm not quitting anytime soon. I may whine and cry, "Oh, ballet is so hard! I can't do it. Waaahhh." But I'm not quitting. I haven't been studying long enough to know whether I should move on to something else. It may be four more years before I know that.

On top of ballet being hard, when one's body chemistry is all out of whack, balancing and staying mentally tough go out the window. Boys, feel blessed that you don't have to deal with the added challenge. I stepped out of a few combinations today because I thought I'd hurt somebody if I tried to do them. Not doing violence to anyone on purpose, but because I'd probably fall out of a turn and take someone else with me.

In other news, I started working on my novel again. I read bits and pieces to Christiana this past weekend and realized that I had a pretty good story going, whatever chronological and plot problems I may have. It's a good story and it deserves to be finished.

In other other news, I went on as an understudy for the role of Rheba at Park Square last Friday. I really started learning the show on Monday, was able to go through a few scenes on Wednesday afternoon and Friday morning, and then I did the show. I never got a run-through with the entire cast, which was nerve-wracking. I dropped some silverware offstage and fudged a few lines at the top, but after that I relaxed into it and it went fine. "Seamless" was what the stage manager said. So, yay!

And I just got a phone call for a VO job. Sweet. Monday's getting better.