Where Has the Summer Gone?

At the beginning of the summer, I had a huge list of projects I wanted to get done before school started again. Out of at least 10 massive projects, I only ended up getting a couple of them done. Oh, well. At least I got to go on a real vacation. And I earned enough money to buy a Playstation 3, a new phone, and some other fun stuff.

High School Musical is turning into one of the most frustrating shows I've ever worked on. The kids cannot shut up. Granted, there are some good ones, but some among 80 is not that many. I haven't raised my voice at a cast since I was an immature teenager music directing way before I was ready to. With this show, it seems like every rehearsal I have to yell at least a few times. And some of the kids are so irresponsible it makes me furious. Out of a group of 15 or so, only a few brought their music to rehearsal yesterday. And the ones that didn't bring any music didn't know the song we were working on. Luckily, we're halfway there, time-wise. The music is all taught, so assuming they can remember it from here on out, I just have to do polishing at this point.

Our youth theatre musical workshop this month was fun. We had two groups. The oldest was ages 12-18, and the youngest was 7-11 (and completely made up of girls). With the oldest group, we did "You Can't Stop the Beat" from Hairspray and "Can't Help Falling in Love" from All Shook Up. With the youngest, we did "I Will Follow Him" from Sister Act and "Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now" from Hairspray. It was a blast.

Speaking of youth theatre, this fall, we're starting a new group. We're so popular this year that we're completely full- AFTER adding space in each group. We had a big enough waiting list that we decided to add a second day of classes each week, where we'll be working with 6-9 year-olds (again, mostly girls). I'm stoked.

The Fray concert was incredible. They were much more fun and joked around with the audience more than the last time I saw them. They did several new songs, too, instead of just playing everything from their album.

The Oregon trip was nice. It really did feel like a vacation. Complete with my dad pissing off everybody and arguing with everyone. It was JUST like old times. :)

School starts in 3 days. Guh. I'm not excited at all. Oh, well. In a year and a half, I should have a degree. However, the director I clashed with during O, Pioneers! is going to be one of my professors again this semester AND next. I'm not looking forward to that. And the department is only doing one musical this year, and based on what I've read of it and heard of the music, I don't like it. I'm crossing my fingers that I don't get stuck working on it when there are so many other plays I could do this year to earn my scholarship.

I've been trying to keep up with my goal of watching movies this summer. I saw The Invasion last night. MUCH better than I expected. I also saw The Bourne Ultimatum this week- which was INCREDIBLE. And on the DVD/Blu-Ray front, I saw Night at the Museum, Fracture and Bridge to Terabithia this week. I enjoyed them all immensely.

On Thursday, I saw Anastasia and Brady for the first time in a couple years. Stasia and I had been planning it for a couple months. I was the only one who knew when they got back to the states. Teri, Bristol, Kimber, and I went to Stephanie's house and left to go to PF Chang's. On the way, I asked if we could stop at Best Buy- where Stasia and Brady were waiting. We went back into the CDs to look around and Stasia was browsing through CDs. Teri and I saw her right away, but Stephanie and Kimber were totally oblivious. When Stephanie finally realized that it was Stasia she yelled "HOLY S***!!!" right in the middle of Best Buy. It was great.

One of the hardest things about school for me last year was the limited amount of time I had to see friends. Luckily, I've been able to spend time with a lot of my good friends the last little while before the summer officially ends. In addition to seeing everyone on Thursday, last night I got to spend time with Matt, Mindi, and Kevin. Tonight, I spent time with Lindsay. Adam came over and recorded with me for a while the other day. Robbie and Sarah came and played with me and EmDab last weekend. Heather, Wendy, and their husbands came over last weekend as well. I'm lucky to have so many good friends.

I'm getting tired and I'm starting to ramble, so I'm going to end the blog now. Thanks for reading.

If you haven't already seen this, you must watch it. Robbie & Sarah introduced me and EmDab to it last weekend:

Blogging for Blogs Sake

(I tried to put an apostrophe in the title, but it wouldn't let me...)

I haven't blogged in a LONG time, and I'm purposely avoiding homework right now but must have SOMETHING to do whilst watching Firefly, so I thought I might as well write something. Especially since I suck at keeping journals, and years from now, this blog is probably the only record I'll have of my life...

When our hero last blogged, he was preparing to open Kiss Me, Kate and going to see Harry Potter. Here's a rundown of what's happened in the last month or so:

Kiss Me, Kate was awesome. It was a great experience, despite having to deal with some of the biggest divas I've ever worked with in theatre. Seriously. Mind you, MOST of the cast was fantastic, and I miss them already. But there were a few bad apples (3, to be exact) who I wanted to strangle every time I looked at them, and they almost ruined the show for me. However, despite divas, horrible tech, and bad reviews, the show was fantastic. I'm VERY proud of the final product.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was also fantastic. It's officially my 2nd favorite Harry Potter book. I was pleased with almost every aspect. I got teary-eyed many more times than I care to admit. Here is my official ranking of Harry Potter books:
1) The Prisoner of Azkaban
2) The Deathly Hallows
3) (Tie) The Sorceror's Stone
3) (Tie) The Order of the Phoenix
5) The Half-Blood Prince
6) The Goblet of Fire
7) The Chamber of Secrets
I can't believe we have to wait three more years for the movie of Deathly Hallows. Guh.

I just started rehearsals for High School Musical, which is quite possibly the cheesiest musical ever written. The movie is seriously terrible. Luckily, the stage musical has been fixed up somewhat. And, Mindy is directing, and so going into it, we KNOW it's cheesy, and we'll embrace it- as opposed to trying to pass it off as serious. I was starting to get excited about the show after auditions and our first production meeting, and even after my first night of rehearsing with the leads. And then we had our first ensemble music rehearsal on Saturday. Good gosh. There are at least 80 kids in the cast (only a handful of 20-somethings, the majority are between 14-19), and I'm pretty sure at least 10 of them won't live to see the show open. They can't shut up. I had to get downright ornery with them, which I haven't had to do at a rehearsal in YEARS. I really am going to go certifiably insane before this is over...

I'm starting to count down the days to school starting, and NOT in a good way. I was looking forward to a relaxing summer, but it seems like I'm every bit as stressed as I was all through the school year. Blargh.

We had our first ever summer vocal classes with CSYP the last two weeks. They were great. The coolest thing in the world is having a room full of teenagers singing "Being Alive" with all the emotion the song deserves. The second coolest thing in the world is having a room full of kids between the ages of 7-12 singing "I Know Things Now" and getting excited about it. Of course, I didn't tell them that the song is a metaphor for losing one's virginity. They just thought it was all about Red Riding Hood being swallowed by the Wolf. Ssh! It's our little secret.

I'm going to The Fray on Tuesday night with Matt and Emily Smith. I'm so stinking excited. It'll be my second time seeing them this year. There is no band on Earth right now that I love more.

Then, first thing Wednesday morning, I'm going to the Oregon coast to visit my Uncle Dean for the first time in 17 years. I'm really excited about that as well. It will be my first real vacation in a year and a half. And that last vacation was miserable and exhausting, so I'm not going to count it. It was more of a trip. Anyhoo, we'll be staying in a suite on the beach- which I could NOT be any more stoked about. Let's just hope that my dad doesn't fight with everyone the whole time and make us all miserable. *fingers crossed*

My new music obsession is Robin Thicke. Usually, with guys like that, I just want to say "Dude! You're white! Sound like it!" But for some reason, his music brings me joy. Maybe it's because his parents are Jason Seaver and the chick who sang the theme to The Facts of Life. Maybe it's because he sampled "A Fifth of Beethoven." Either way- check him out if you haven't already.

The movie Hairspray was incredible. I went with Matt, Emily, Kaylee, Teri, Sami, Brooke, and Bristol last week, and I still can't get over how good it was. I even pestered my brother Glenn to go- and he loved it. We're going to try and force my mom to go when we get back into town. I think she'd love it. And she hasn't been to a movie in at least 20 years, so I think it would be good for her.

I've been trying to catch as many movies as possible this summer, because once school starts, I won't be able to see many. Ocean's 13 was downright incredible (when compared with the joke that was Ocean's 12). 1408 was LAME. Pirates was decent- much better than the second one, but still nowhere near as good as the first. The Simpsons Movie was pretty good. To promote it, they've been hosting a site where you can get "Simpsonized." Matt told me about it a while ago, and I've been trying to do it, but every time I've tried, their server has been so full that it hasn't let me. I finally got it to work today. I don't think it's THAT representative of me, but I didn't want to take the time to tweak it that much other than just changing shirt color and making my ears bigger and a couple other little things.

I think that's all I have to share right now. Enjoy this video that Matt introduced me to. I love it.