On a Happier Note…

I should have posted that last post on my secret blog. Oops. Oh, well. Everyone needs some self-righteous, preachy person to remind them that lying is bad, right?

I realized that I haven’t really blogged about much lately. Since my blog is the only way I can keep track of life events (I can’t do journals, because writing takes too long and frustrates me that I’m wasting time), I should probably remind myself of important things that have happened since the last time I really blogged.

• I realized that I shouldn’t ever do a show just for the money. And then I made the mistake of doing ANOTHER show just for the money.
• Lauren and I got our apartment all put together. Okay, that’s a lie. There’s still random junk piles all over, but we deal with it. (It’s mostly just things that don’t have a home anywhere.)
• I’ve learned that some regular recipes can be cooked pretty well in a Crock Pot.
• I finished my first full year as a teacher, and by the end of the school year, I had a much more healthy outlook at my job.
• I did a couple of amazing shows.
• I worked on three shows at school. 1 was miserable, 1 was really fun, 1 was somewhere in between.
• I was invited to participate in a summer youth theatre camp, which I’ve loved every minute of, so far.
• I lost lots of blog traffic because I stopped posting.
• I’ve seen 3, yes, 3 movies in the theater this year: Alice in Wonderland, The A-Team, and Toy Story 3. I loved the 2 latter, hated the first. Never had such a splitting headache from 3d.
• I spent several months on a sourdough kick, and was making it at least once a week.
• I’ve had a younger family member go on a mission for the first time.
• I’ve proven that I CAN be even worse at writing a missionary than I was with Heather.
• I’ve gained a new-found love for sound editing.
• After almost a solid year of not playing Rock Band/Guitar Hero, I found my way back to them and started sharing them with my wife.
• I almost cried at the end of Lost, as well as the end of Toy Story 3.
• I learned that I can’t go into Costco just to pick up bottled water and a gift for Lauren. I end up buying Muppet Show and NewsRadio dvds.
• I learned that I’ve always looked the brilliance of Hamlet just because it’s too common.
• I’m coming close to making a decision about whether or not I want to pursue an MFA.
• I’ve learned that my writing skills are deteriorating the less I blog (not that they were good before, just worse now).
• I’ve realized that I’m too dang old to vent on blogs late at night when I have to get up early to go teach a vocal class.

Current (and Not-So-Current) Peeves

I opened Windows Live Writer to blog for the first time in months, and I found this unpublished post from a LONG time ago. I’m going to just add to the end.

• People who are REALLY nice to somebody’s face, to the point of making them believe that they’re good friends, and then say awful things behind their backs: this is why I don’t go out of my way to be nice to people.
• Students with smart mouths who are dishonest in order to cover their tracks
• People who cause Lauren stress
• People who try to tell Lauren how to do wedding stuff
• People who make a huge deal about how they expect a wedding invite, but don’t give you their address and won’t respond to a Facebook message requesting it
• OOH! People who finally respond when you send them a text asking for their address, who then slam the fact that your message over Facebook wasn’t “special” enough
• People who offer to help with wedding stuff and then either back out or sit and complain/whine the whole time they’re helping
• People who don’t say “please” or “thank you”
• People who CONSTANTLY expect people to do things for them
• One-way friendships
• People who respond to texts/voicemails on THEIR time
• Deceased grandparents who insist on haunting me – I’m already being followed by Eleanor
• The lack of communication between the rest of the faculty/administration at my school and me
• People who insist on turning right from the middle of the street – WHEN THERE’S A RIGHT TURN LANE

Some things are current peeves still/again. And now the new stuff:

• Watching Will & Grace reruns and remembering how much I was irritated by Woody Harrelson’s guest arc
• Girls that are less than a year away from turning 30 who act like they’re 13
• Said girls treating Lauren like dirt
• Having to wear long pants every day to school
• Feeling like I have to babysit techies
• The weather (don’t tell me that Utah is always this weird in April. It’s not. It CAN be, but it’s not ALWAYS this bad)
• Never having/making time to blog
• Never having/making time to write my missionary brother-in-law
• Finally making time to write a blog, and getting so tired that I can barely keep my eyes open

August 5, 2009

Dear Blogary,

I feel like we haven’t talked forever. And forever is WAY too long. I’ve had an amazing month, full of so much cool stuff!

First of all, there’s this super cute girl who I like a whole lot. Like a whole, whole, whole lot. Her name is Lauren. We’ve spent as much time as possible with each other the last month, and I hope we get to spend a lot of time together over the next month. And the next one. And the next one… I like her for lots of reasons. Here are a few:

• She’s hot. Even my 6 year old nephew agrees.
• She’s really smart, even though she says she’s not and pretends she’s not sometimes.
• She’s talented. She can dance real good, and she can sing real good, too.
• She brings me Dr. Pepper some mornings when I’m tired.
• She’s getting over her severe dislike of scary movies in order to watch them with me.
• She’s good at hugging and stuff…
• She’s into religion and stuff.
• She’s getting into Friends with me.
• She comes to church with me sometimes and then she wastes her Sunday afternoon/evening with me, when I’m sure she has better things to do.
• She’s never once tried to control my car stereo.

That’s enough for now. I don’t want to make you jealous, Blogary.

I also have a show running right now. It’s called Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and it’s playing at the SCERA Shell. Here are some reviews/write-ups:

http://www.heraldextra.com/entertainment/article_93ec55c7-7c60-5d51-b792-39bf91ea8f95.html

http://universe.byu.edu/node/1211

http://media.www.uvureview.com/media/storage/paper982/news/2009/08/03/Culture/Welcome.To.Fabulous.Egypt-3753762.shtml

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705320918/Joseph-good-but-he-needs-a-better-technicolor-coat.html

I’m getting ready to start another show called Little Shop of Horrors at the Hale Theater in Orem. Auditions are next week. I’m excited!

I’ve been teaching youth theatre workshops to kids and teenagers this summer, and it’s fun. When else can I find excuses to have kids perform scenes from Night of the Living Dead and Cash on Delivery, and songs from The Happiest Millionaire and Der Glockner von Notre Dame?

My favorite part of summer workshops so far was taking the acting class on a field trip to Macey’s. They had to spend 15-20 minutes shopping in character. It was really fun to see kids trying to stay in character in a public setting. The best part was the girl who was playing a shy character. She looked like she was going to die every time somebody tried to talk to her. When she was making a purchase at the end, the checker looked horrified as Lauren and I were giggling at “Annelle.” She made a valiant effort to pull “Annelle” out of her shell, but it didn’t work. The class did an awesome job!

I’m not really having any luck finding a job, but I’m not too upset. If I have a year off of teaching, I’ll live. I’ll just have to fill it with tons and tons of recording and show work.

I’ve been teaching Gospel Doctrine in Church, and it’s kind of fun. I try to do something different every time I teach, and so far, it seems to be keeping people on their toes and focused. It’s kinda fun.

My friend, Amber, took new headshots of me, and I like some of them a great deal.

Right now, this very second, there is the most insane thunder outside the window! I’m going to go see if it’s raining…

I can’t tell if it’s raining or not. I’ll check again when I’m done talking to you, Blogary.

I went to an AMAZING concert a few weeks ago. It was the Fray, with Meese and Jack’s Mannequin opening.

Holy crap! Lightning just struck RIGHT BY MY HOUSE!!! Also, it’s definitely raining now. I can hear it.

Back to the concert. I still am not a fan of Meese. I hope the Fray can find a new opening act the next time they come. Jack’s Mannequin was pretty good, and of course, the Fray was AMAZING. It was general admission, and we had really good spots. We didn’t really fight with anyone, but a family near us did. Teri and I took their side, and I kind of laid smackdown when a bratty teenage girl almost trampled a poor tween.

I went to the new Harry Potter at midnight with Teri, etc. We wore matching shirts that said “Show me your patronus.” They were AWESOME. We got lots of compliments. The next day, I wanted to die. I didn’t get to bed until almost 5, and then I had to be up by 8. I decided I’m too old for midnight movies. And yet, I’m taking Lauren’s brothers to G.I. Joe this week. Ugh. At least I can sleep in Friday.

I think that’s about it for now, Blogary. Now you’re caught up. I’m going to let you get on with your life now, and I’ll get on with me. We’ll talk again soon, hopefully.

Love,
Jeremy

I’m a Good Man, Too, Charlie Brown!

You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown played its entire run this week. We moved into the Covey Center on Monday for an afternoon/evening dress/tech rehearsal, and then had performances every night from Tuesday-Friday, and morning performances on Tuesday and Friday for schools.

The kids did an awesome job, and I was very proud of them. I was grateful to the friends/family who came to support the show, too: Trash Ball, Ashley, Matt, Heidi C., Mom, Mike, Lori, Kaylee, Braden, Jason, Alyssa, Eric, Elijah, Nicholas, Zach, Teri, Quincy, Bristol, Madi, Melinda, Skylar, and Lindsay. (Those are all of the ones that I know were there because I invited them. I think. I hope I didn’t forget someone…)

Here are some things that I want to make sure I remember about the show:

• I loved my tracks. I don’t care if I go to Hell for being prideful, but I LOVED them. I love how real my new instrument patches sounded in places. The patches kind of ruined my concept of jazz combo with toy instruments, because the “toy instruments” ended up sounding too realistic in spots, but I don’t care. I loved my tracks. I want to do the show again right now just to use them. (Eh, Amesily?)
• I had fun with sound effects again. Best prank: demonic voice calling for Linus during “My Blanket and Me”. (It’s surprising how little I doctored my voice…) Runner-up: Charlie Brown’s loud, juicy, echo-y fart at the beginning of the show.
• Best non-sound effect prank: replacing the Little Red-Haired Girl when Charlie Brown had a bag over his head. When he pulled it off and saw me, I thought he was going to die of embarrassment. Good thing we caught it on tape for the backstage DVD!!! (The sound effect gags should be on the DVD, too.)
• One day at rehearsal, I got to play with a Wooly Willy for the first time ever. I made a Wooly Don King, a Sick Willy, and a Wooly Adolf. It was fun!
• Load-in day was actually pretty painless. Of course, my allergies flared up MAJORLY that morning, so I got there after the bulk of the work was done. I got to have fun with Lauren and Nick, and we watched fun Charlie Brown videos on my iPod. (“Say hello to the Kite-Eating Tree, you son of a….!”)
• The motto of our show (in-joke I started among staff) was “Keep It Straight”. If you saw the show, you might know what I’m talking about. If not, your loss!
• Sally saying “Betch” instead of “Bench”. “You’d be a great betch manager! You could say ‘Betch do this’ and ‘betch do that!’”
• Lucy saying “slut” instead of “slot”.
• Schroeder telling Lucy that she’s a “very crappy person” instead of “crabby.” Wow. Our kids had MAJOR diction problems. I won’t even tell you what it sounded like when Rerun first told Snoopy to fetch “this stick”…
• The parents!!! It’s funny that out of 65 kids, only the parents of 3 can have issues, and yet it means our program is awful, or else we have it out for their kids. Best parent moments:
• When one was totally yelling at one of the producers (do NOT mess with my ladies!), and she stormed off because she KNEW she was in the wrong, I blurted out “I LOVE being a grown-up!” and clapped my hands like a cymbal over my head.
• When a couple of families were angry closing night over something (that was their OWN kid’s decision) and they got up and marched out with their entire families in the middle of the show. *overhead hand clap!*
• I’ve NEVER had a youth theatre cast that got along so well. As far as I know, there were no problems with kids getting along. In fact, closing night, the kids were all BAWLING. It was hysterical. They were horrified that they weren’t going to see each other on a regular basis anymore. Well, at least until fall. I suppose it’s pretty sad for the three kids whose parents have seen how horrible our program is, and won’t be coming back. I pity those kids a little. Their parents are keeping them from reaching their potential. Oh, well. Back to the bawling: I got to the point where I would walk up to kids and pretend to be mad and tell them to knock it off or I was going to get them. That fixed it for some. To others, I told jokes. I also pretended to bawl to show some of them how ridiculous they were being, and I freaked one little girl out and made her think she had made me cry. Oops. Oh, well. She stopped crying. (Before you think I’m too much of a jerk, some of the parents were threatening to punish their kids if they didn’t knock it off. The bawling was THAT bad.)

There were many more good things about the show, but this is all I can think of right now. I may come back and add some more.

This very well could have been the last show ever for me with CSYP, and it was a near-perfect experience. It would be nice to come back (and I hope I can), but if not, what a way to go! If the kids cry when they find out I really might be leaving, I’ll probably bawl, too. Just to be safe, would you mind texting me Wednesday afternoon and telling me to knock it off? Or telling me jokes? Thanks.

PS – PICTURES!!!

We Thank Thee, O God

Back in February, I was accompanied my friend Wendy and her sisters for a concert. It was a great concert. If you ever want to hear the recording of it, let me know. Wendy’s brother-in-law recorded it, and it’s pretty good quality.

You may not have known about this, because my life was so consumed by student teaching at that point that I rarely blogged about anything else. Although, I looked it up, and I *did* blog about my future sitcom life the night of the concert.

Anyway, after the concert, Wendy’s sister, Laura, bumped into a man who had been at the concert. He told her he was organizing a banquet for President Monson, and asked her if she and her sisters would sing. They said yes, because of COURSE you say yes to the opportunity to perform for the man you believe to be the living prophet on Earth. They asked me to accompany them.

At first, I was hesitant. It was the same night as You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown’s opening. There was also the annual TAG awards banquet the same night, but I’ve always missed that because they ALWAYS schedule that during youth theatre shows. ALWAYS. Could I bail on the kids for the opportunity to play a couple songs on the piano?

Turns out I could.

We rehearsed a couple times, and then showed up tonight to perform. I didn’t know all of the details. I just knew President Monson would be there. When I walked in, Wendy’s sister-in-law, Laurel, was calling me to see if I wanted salmon or chicken. I didn’t even realize we were going to be eating. Turns out it was a dinner honoring people for their contributions through print. They inducted President Monson and a handful of dead guys into the “printing hall of fame.”

We went through our songs, and then sat down. The dinner was supposed to start at 7, and we were supposed to be there at 6. They placed us at a table in the corner of the large hall, with a sign alerting everyone that we were musicians. We lived up to the stereotype of being unruly and crude, because we dug into our salads WAY before 7. We were literally the only people in the entire room eating. I blame the pregnant girls. They started it, and everyone else followed. Wendy’s brother, Dave, and I were the last ones to give in and eat.

After we finished our salad, and Laura apologized to the servers for eating so early (hehe!), President Monson arrived. He’s not as tall as I thought he’d be, and he looks older in person than he does on Conference in HD. They brought out our dinner, which looked like this:

I sure do love good salmon, and this was GOOOOOOOOOOOD.

As we ate, lots of old men (and a couple younger ones) talked about the history of printing. Then we were brought dessert, which looked like this:

It was no salmon, but I didn’t mind it. I didn’t eat all of it, though.

After the food, we performed. It was fantastic. The girls were AMAZING. Wendy and Laura sang “Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again” from The Phantom of the Opera, Julia and Laurel sang “Goodnight, My Someone” from The Music Man, and then all four sang “Pie Jesu” from Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s Requiem. President Monson likes showtunes, and he seemed pleased with the selections.

After hearing lots of people talk for what seemed like an eternity, President Monson spoke, which from our white trash table in the corner, looked like this:

He said a lot of cool things relating to printing, and then he talked about musicals. (Gosh, I love that man.) He talked about how he goes to all the musicals that come through town and he writes down what he believes to be the “key line” in each show on his Playbill. He shared a few examples. He also talked about how gorgeous Laurel’s high note at the end of “Pie Jesu” was and had her stand up. He then clapped for her, which made the rest of the room applaud. It was very classy and yet fun. He also mentioned A Christmas Carol and told us that the original manuscripts for that book are in the Church’s vault. Cool, eh?!

After he spoke, there was a beautiful number by a women’s acapella group from BYU (except I HATE the stereotypical breathy/80s pop “Mormon sound” – someday, I shall lead an LDS music revolution) and a closing prayer. Then we were asked to stay seated until President Monson had left. The second he was out of the room, we were up. I went out to the lobby, and saw him talking to some people. I TOTALLY could have gotten close enough to talk to him, but instead, I went to get the ladies to come and talk to him. By the time I was back, there were more people, and even though we followed him out to his car, we never got to talk to him. I was bummed.

On the way home, I stopped and got myself a vanilla Frosty, because dangit! I deserved it. I wasn’t able to finish it, but it was good until I was so full that I wanted to puke.

As a memento of tonight, I stole the card from my seat that let the servers know that I wanted the salmon. Is it wrong to steal when the Prophet is in the room? Crap. Maybe THAT’S why he didn’t come and talk to us. I ruined it for everyone. Oh, well. We’ll meet again, President Monson. Oh, yes. We’ll meet again…

Happiness Is…

Downloading multiple covers of “Holiday Road.” I was looking for Lindsay Buckingham’s version, but instead found 4 completely different but equally interesting ones.

Having a good final dress rehearsal for Charlie Brown. The tech this year is already better after one day than it was after the entire week last year.

Seeing Heidi and Holly this weekend for a few minutes.

Glenn’s homemade burritos. Even though they cause HORRIBLE gas. TMI, maybe?

Dum-Dums!

Uncle Buck on DVD.

John Hughes movies in general.

Another tentative job interview is scheduled. I should be hearing back about the last one any day now.

GRADUATION IS A WEEK AND A HALF AWAY!!!

Letters

Dear IRS,

I had to pay less than I ever have this year. That was nice. I hope you enjoyed my check with The Flash on it.

Sincerely,

Jeremy

*********

Dear Utah State Tax Commission,

I had to pay more than I EVER have to you this year. Literally 10 times more than last year. I hate you. I hope you got the message I was sending with the Wonder Woman check.

Hatefully yours,

Jeremy

*********

Dear Former Students,

I give up. I don’t know how to make you care. I don’t understand how you can claim to be “drama nerds” and yet you don’t give a flying #$%* about your work. Granted, there are a handful of you who really do care, and it shows. I helped you get to state, but I can’t hold your hand and drag you any longer. I officially don’t care any more. Even if your show IS kick-@$$. I will come to see the show on Friday, but I refuse to spend two hours on a bus with you. Especially after the shrewish girls were so rude and disrespectful to me and left while I was trying to give notes tonight. Also the kid who keeps forgetting things snapped at me when I asked him if he had placed all of his props and was ready to go on, and then walked on WITHOUT THE EFFING MONKEY’S PAW because he “forgot” to get it. The show is now officially called The Empty Hand. I hope you do well at state, even though I know full-well that you won’t learn any lesson about teamwork and investing in your work.

With next-to-no-love,

Mr. Showgren

*********

Dear Future Students,

Heads up: if you don’t care about our shows, I won’t either. I will cancel them, punks! PLEASE don’t make me get to that point. I haven’t met you yet, but I believe in you!

Cordially,

Mr. Showgren

*********

Dear Makers of the Movie Airplane!

Thank you. Thank you SO much. I’m probably going to stay up WAY too late tonight watching your product, and it is much needed.

Seriously,

Shirley

*********

Dear Career Services Department,

Thank you so much for the scolding form letter (for which you graciously took the time to add my name to the Word document) about how I missed an appointment for an interview. I’m so glad you recommended that I write a letter of apology to the interviewer, because I didn’t already think to do that on my own. Nor did I send it a week ago, right after I found out that you hadn’t canceled my appointment per my request. Thank you for that! At least if I had been smart enough to send a letter on my own, I also would have been smart enough to point out that it was YOUR fault I missed the appointment. If it messes up my chances of getting hired in either district for which you’ve now messed up my cancelations, I will be sure to send you a scolding form letter. I may go the extra mile, though, and save the letter as a more personal pdf, and not just a doc.

Sod off,

Jeremy

*********

Dear Amazon,

I’m getting antsy waiting for my Doubt and The Spirit blu-rays. I’m also getting antsy waiting for my Pride and Prejudice and Zombies book. I ordered all of these weeks ago. I understand that you can’t ship them until they’re released, but they’ve all been released now. Also, I got a shipping notice for Doubt over a week ago. Why isn’t it here yet? I’m sending Sister Aloysious after you.

Impatiently,

Jeremy

*********

Dear Charlie Brown Cast,

Keep up the good work. You’re making progress. Make the progress FASTER now, please. Also brace yourself: tomorrow is the annual “Jeremy has fun with sound effects on the track” day.

Happily,

Jeremy

*********

Dear Disneyland,

See you in a month and a half!

Excitedly yours,

Jeremy

*********

Dear Blog Readers,

I’m sorry you had to slug through all of that. Today really sucked, and I had to get it out somewhere. Thanks for indulging me.

Love,

Jeremy

Completely Random

I'm sitting in the most boring class of all time. ALL TIME. We're doing group presentations, and there's only so much group presentation "goodness" that you can handle in three hours. So, here are some of the thoughts running through my head today.

I'm excited for the show tonight. The Varneys are all coming, as are the Labrums, the Hutchings, and Laura. Hmm. That makes Laura sound lonely. Poor woman. It's her own fault.

Yesterday, in Acting Styles, Laura and I were doing an exercise by either Stanislavski or Meisner. I can't remember which one. Anyway, you bring up some kind of personal issue, and you talk about it by saying "Yes, that's true" or "No, that's not" and then following it up with another statement. Laura, being the horndog that she is (did I mention she met President Monson last night and shook his hand?), started talking about my fantasies, and I said that the only fantasy I have right now involves whipped cream and Thanksgiving leftovers. Elfi was listening into our exercise, and she got so embarrassed that I thought she was going to choke. Her face was as red as the label on the Dr. Pepper that I'm drinking right now. It stayed that way for a couple minutes while Laura and I laughed.

I'm also using this boring time to search for sound effects for my design of Dancing at Lughnasa. It's for a class, so it's not an actual production, but I'm still having fun. It's a great challenge to design a show you hate and make yourself like it because of your design. I have a fun concept involving the radio of the show. It's similar to what I did with Canyon Suite, but to a further extreme.

I'm really excited for Chess, and even more excited that I'm not going to have any shows to stress about next semester other than Charlie Brown. I'm a little sad, because I wish I had something else, but I know that I'll be needing more time to work on lesson plans and stuff.

Power Points are fun, but let's not put EVERYTHING on them and then read verbatim.

I bound my score for Charlie Brown yesterday, and I like the cover I came up with for it. Even more, I like the fact that I made it in less than 10 minutes.

I'm really annoyed that these presentations are supposed to last about an hour, and the first group today took almost two, so this one is all stressed trying to get their presentation done in time.

*****

Class ended yesterday, and I didn't get to finish this post. But now, I'm in the oh-so-exciting "show and tell" day in Lighting and Sound Design class. We're all sharing sounds that we've found for Dancing at Lughnasa. It's boring. So, here are some more random thoughts.

As egotistical as it seems, I'm keeping track of some of the compliments I'm getting for A Christmas Carol. I justify this for two reasons. 1) Because if you follow my blog, you know how much I've needed it in the past. 2) Because I use the blog as my journal, and you know what? You probably write down nice things that people say about you in your journal. Don't deny it.

Last night, I bumped into Bobby Swenson at the theatre. He is the grandson of the original Hales. He's great. Anyway, I said hi to him and then was going to go and get ready, and then he told me that he really knows the show (he must have seen it every year of his life or something...) and he really likes my rendition of Fred. I told him thank you, and he told me again how much he like what I was doing with the part.

Also, last week, the assistant director/production manager/whatever they call him came up to me and said something to the effect of "You're a great music director, but I hope you don't stop acting." Wow. Suck on THAT, [director/producer who told me I needed to not act and focus on music directing]!!!

The other night, the guy who plays Bob Cratchit in the other cast was performing with us. He basically told me that his wife said she had never liked the opening scene with Fred and Scrooge until she saw me. Woohoo! I want to meet her so I can thank her.

Sometimes, all I need in my life is a good conversation with Julie and Trash Ball for a couple hours. They're fun.

Matt and Melinda are coming to the show tomorrow night. Last time I was in this show, they came to see it and Melinda ate corn beforehand. Melinda is allergic to corn and has major reactions to it. As a result, she was miserable and sick during the show, and they had to leave in the middle. Therefore, she is NOT allowed to eat corn tomorrow. No corn at all.

I had a ton of people at the show last night that came to see me. It was very nice. Happy fun time!

I think I'm going to Twelfth Night tonight. I'd rather have a night to just not do anything and relax. Oh, well. After next week, I can find a few nights here and there, I hope.

I'm SO done with school. D. O. N. E. Next week, I have song to perform in Musical Theatre ("My Freeze Ray" from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog), a scene to perform in Acting Styles (An Ideal Husband), and a presentation in Content Area Reading and Writing. Then, the next week, I have finals which consist of performing 3 of the scenes I've done in Acting Styles, performing two of the songs I've done in Musical Theatre, and turning in my final sound design. Then, school is over. I'll actually be able to do some Christmas shopping and stuff.

This class is over, but I don't have time to publish this, so I'll come back later...

*****

Last time I edit before publishing, I swear...

Emily and I just got back from Twelfth Night. I wanted to like it so much more. I sure did love Katy and Sara, though.

I'm done with random thoughts for now, I think. I'm going to finish watching The Soup, play Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe for a minute (have I mentioned how much I love that game?!), and then head to bed. I have a crazy day tomorrow full of rehearsals, meetings, and performances.

Goodnight!

(PS to Julie G. - I made a special tag for you. I hope you know that shows just how strong our friendship is. I just might add you to MY blogroll!)

Hey, It's a Happy Day!!!

My new drive came this morning, with plenty of time for me to install it before school. I quickly got to work, and before I knew it, I had a brand-spanking-new optical drive in my computer....THAT DIDN'T WORK.

I spent the whole day being ornery. Poor youth theatre kids. And it didn't help to see a show at school in the mood I was in. I really wanted to like it, I swear...

I got home tonight and got online with another HP support technician. I decided after the She-Ra fiasco, I needed to speak with printed words. Serenity was very nice, and only said a few mildly Engrish-sounding things. She (I hope) gave me some new steps to try and solve the problem, but they included rebooting at the end. I did them, and nothing.

So, I started speaking to Sunny. I was very excited at first, because I thought that maybe Sunny Watts was moonlighting as an HP online support technician. I love that woman. However, I probably wouldn't trust her with my computer.

Anyhoo, Sunny gave me steps to follow, and when I finished them- the error message was gone!!! I popped the revival recording of Chicago into the drive, and soon enough, the master of ceremonies was telling me about adultery and murder. I then popped in my DVD of Strangers on a Train, and shortly saw Hitchcock in glorious black & white.

I was giddy like a schoolboy. I thanked Sunny and actually said "God bless you!" Sunny is my new hero.

I'm still sending back the old drive, though. I figure that I earned the new one, with a little help from Sunny. And She-Ra.

Other happy thoughts tonight:

• While I was going through the endless steps to try and fix my computer, I watched Pushing Daisies and Dirty Sexy Money. The former was just as good as ever, and the latter was even better than last season. Oh, and Ghost Hunters was great, too. Very scary.
• My new favorite line ever from a primetime soap: "I'm going to take a shower and try to wash whatever's left of this marriage off my body. Try not to fall down." (She did, in fact fall down in the next scene.)
• I'm going to audition for A Christmas Carol at the Hale next week. The last time I was in a show (I'm pretending Ah, Wilderness! didn't exist) was CC of 2005, when I played Fred, which was one of my dream roles. I'm super excited this time, because *if* I get cast as that part again, I'll most likely be playing off of Trash Ball as Mrs. Fred. Cross your fingers and pray for us, please. Having a fun acting experience is EXACTLY what I need right now. I just have to hope that they want me enough to work around my few Chess conflicts.
• I'm feeling really good about my musical theatre class. Especially being someone who doesn't "sing or act very well" and should "stick to music directing." I felt really good about my preview performance on Monday- which was while my cold/allergies were bugging me and I had a queasy stomach from taking my pills on an empty stomach. Today, we did a really fun exercise to focus on breathing. Good times.
• I'm almost done buying things for my Halloween costume. It's a brilliant idea, if I do say so myself. I hope I have somewhere fun to wear it, because if it's just to stay at home and hand out candy to kids who won't even know who I am because they're too young, I'll be bugged. I put in a bid for the last main part of the costume on eBay tonight. I'll know tomorrow if I need to look elsewhere. And then I need to start constructing the tricky part...
• The semester is about 1/3 of the way over. CRAZY! And yet, awesome. The senioritis isn't so bad right now, but I expect it to kick back in eventually.
• I feel like my Facebook status right now is really clever, because it's not one, but TWO pop culture references. If you get them, you're cool. If not, you're probably Heather. ;) David will get one, though.
• Speaking of the Masons, I GOT TO TALK TO THEM TONIGHT!!! We've played phone tag for over a month, and we finally made contact tonight. Heather hasn't picked up a fake NY accent yet. Thank goodness. Although, if she started talking like one of the sweet, old, Jewish ladies that I met in Rockefeller Center 9 years ago, I wouldn't mind. It would actually make her more endearing, I think.
• My youth theatre kids are harder workers than they were last year. Granted, there are probably 30 new kids, and only about 40 of the same, but still...they're learning better, and some are learning faster. It makes it easier for me to ditch the extra rehearsals if I get cast in CC. :)
• I get to see the Culps next week! And Keisha is supposed to be in town, too. I think she may have called me earlier, but I didn't get a voicemail. I hope she calls back when I'm not in the middle of teaching.
• I have a free night tomorrow (I think). I think I'll have a Blu-Ray marathon while I work on a lighting cue list for Sty of the Blind Pig - a.k.a. the most screwed up play of all time.
• I'm going to Disneyland next month, and while I'm excited about seeing the parks all dec'd for Christmas, I'm mostly excited for the Ace of Base marathon on the car trip down. I think I actually have enough Ace of Base for the entire drive. (Bwahahahahaha!)
• Robin Thicke's new album is In. Cred. I. Ble. If you like him, or even if you don't, check it out. Seriously. So far, I haven't noticed anything too dirty, either. Of course, I didn't notice anything dirty on the last one until my sister chewed me out for listening to such a dirty CD.

And now, I'm going to bed. I have a feeling I'll be up way too early tomorrow because of stupid construction again. In the meantime, hey! It's a happy day!

Gratuitous Gratuity

Things I'm grateful for - right this minute:

1. Edited horror movies on Chiller. I've always wanted to see movies like Stephen King's Thinner and now I'm finally getting around to it. Stupid? Yes. Do I care? No.
2. My EQ Presidency. It's nice to be able to delegate and know that the job will be done better than I could do it.
3. I was finally told something that I've needed to hear for FOUR YEARS from somebody I never thought would say it. A huge burden has been lifted. If you've read all of blog entries, you should know what this is about...
4. The cast of Seussical learns quickly.
5. In a couple weeks, I'll have 1 1/2 full weeks of no piano lessons, no youth theatre workshops, no rehearsals, and no school. Taking a vacation is too expensive right now, so instead, I'll fill my days with things like script-reading, going to the temple, working on Nosferatu, cleaning out my closet, etc. Fun times! Oh, and I plan to watch some Alias, too.
6. Lagoon. I went for the first time since I was 15 the other day. And it was free. My brother bought me a ticket so I would go with him and his kids and there would be an even number of people to ride the "scary" rides. The twins were really good about going on things, other than Wicked, which they only went on after being bribed. Yeah, it's just Lagoon, but it was fun, and it was a nice blast from the past (with some fun new additions). If you go, though, STAY AWAY from Rock U2 the Top. SO flat and horrible. ACK! (Which saddened me, because I knew someone in the cast.)
7. I'm FINALLY on the homestretch of renaming all of my mp3s that I lost in the harddrive crash. When I copied them back to the computer from my iPod, all the names were messed up. I've had to fix them all manually.
8. My summer youth theatre workshops are fun, despite being work. The Advanced Drama class is especially fun so far. I'm finally putting my The Haunting of Hill House script to use!
9. I finished all the songs for You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. I just have some instrumental tracks to finish. I was going to wait to do them until Nosferatu was done, but I'm going to go ahead and knock them out tomorrow and Thursday, hopefully.
10. Wendy and Julie both had their babies, and they were fine. Julie's unnamed boy looks just like Trey in the pictures, so he's going to be cute and chubby. And according to Wendy's sister's Facebook status, Wendy's girl, Zoe, has fat rolls. I'm very excited to see both babies - tomorrow!
11. It's barely after midnight, and I'm already tired and ready for bed. Yay! Goodnight!

Near.....Far!

Hooray! It's one of Jeremy's random blogs where he just lists things that make him happy/pleased and sad/angry. (Sometimes, it feels like that's all he does, actually...) Tonight's blog is brought to you by Grover. And the letter Z.

• The TV show Fear Itself. The first and second episode were so-so, but the third and fourth are AWESOME. I just watched the last three straight, when I should have been going to bed. I can't get enough. James Roday as a possible serial killer? BRILLIANT. (I finished that episode while I was writing this blog, and holy cow!)


• WALL-E was great. I was worried that I wouldn't like it, especially since I was so disappointed by Ratatouille. However, it was awesome. Best love story I've seen in a while, and best Pixar since Nemo.


• Family night with Teri and Bristol: we really do look like a family, and then we do strange things like split checks or go to different registers in the concessions line.


• People who take their toddlers to movies and then let them sit and fuss/scream for a full hour before taking them out really: HONESTLY.


• I only had 2 classes this last semester, but I got a 4.0. That's my first since being admitted into the education program. The previous two semesters, I got all A's and one B+ each. And the B+'s were in the stupid education classes. However- both classes this semester were education classes. I've finally broken the education curse.


• Teaching "vocal basics" classes for a youth theatre festival: I had it confirmed by a raise of hand that NONE of the kids from a certain local youth theatre know how to support or even what it is. Most of them also don't know how to breathe correctly while singing. How in the crap do you claim to teach your kids musical theatre if you don't teach them the bare essentials?!


• Recording Charlie Brown is really fun. I'm working really fast, and I'm liking everything I've come up with so far.


• I have two more shows lined up to "score." One is like a silent movie that I really will be underscoring, essentially. The other is just a play that I'll be pulling incidental music for. Both of them are for directors who I really like working with (in this capacity).


• I can now say I've music directed not only all over Utah County, but essentially the entire "Green Jell-O Belt" thanks to Saturday's Warrior. I've music directed for at least 8 theatres/companies that I can think of off the top of my head. However, there is one theatre that I've been dying to music direct at for YEARS. That theatre is doing not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 of my favorite musicals of all time in the near future, and it kills me that they have never asked me to MD for them. As much as I'm loving my break right now, if they asked me to MD one of those shows, I'd do it in a heartbeat. It's a lot easier to commit to an MD job than acting, because I don't have to be to EVERY rehearsal and performance.


• My nephew Zach is visiting, and he's so cuddly that it kills me. If his mother knew he was hugging me, reading with me, and playing with me so much, she'd choke. Hmm...maybe I should let her know...
  
• I get really tired of friends who guilt me all the time for not talking to them more and not making time for them, and yet they won't even read my stinking blog. Then when I see them, they expect me to fill them in on everything, when they could have just been reading it all along. Not that I expect everyone to read my blog, because frankly, if it wasn't my own, I probably wouldn't read it. But come on! If you think you have the right to guilt me for not seeing you more, then I expect you to at least read a stupid website. Especially when you spend a lot of time on the computer anyway, and when you have tried to guilt me for not looking at your own websites and shtuff.

I'm really tired now, so I think I'm heading to bed. Goodnight, Gracie. Goodnight, Moon. Goodnight, John Boy. Goodnight, Grover!!!

I'm Free To Do What I Want Any Old Time

Another semester has come and gone. I only had 2 classes, but they had so much homework that it didn't feel much different from spring semester. Both classes seemed like kind of a waste. I expect to get pretty good grades, and that worries me. How come I can't get good grades in the education classes that aren't a waste of time for me? Oh, that's right. The Education department is messed up. Oh, well. This semester, I did the following projects (and got 100% on most): a WebQuest about the validity of doing High School Musical in a high school, a digital story about plot-development and using Wicked as a well-developed plot, a book report on Black Like Me which resulted in my hating white people for a few minutes, an autobiography, a biography of Elfi Panholzer, and a paper comparing my autobiography to Elfi's biography. There were smaller assignments, too, but those were the big ones. And now, I have one more semester of actual classes, and then student teaching. There is a light at the end of the tunnel!!!

I also recently took the PRAXIS-II exam. It was a 100 question test about my knowledge of theatre. It was ridiculously stupid. It is designed for secondary education majors, and yet there were questions about elementary school kids' development. What the?! The biggest kicker, which makes me hate the state of Utah right now, is the fact that it doesn't even matter how I score on the test. If I get a 20% or a 100%, they don't care. They'll certify me just for taking it. LAME.

Saturday's Warrior/The White Star is up and running. It was an amazing experience until the end. The last week, the gloves were off, and somebody on the production staff became very selfish and non-collaborative. There are some gosh-awful things about the music that I wish more than anything I could fix, but I was told that my opinion doesn't matter on the issues. The reason that I hestitated to do the show came true there at the end, and the last few rehearsals I went to were miserable. However, I still love the cast, I still love the director, I still love the choreographer, and I'm still glad I did the show. It turned out pretty darn good, too. There are some aspects of the show I don't like (basically all the tech, the manipulative slide shows, the tracks that I couldn't fix), but overall, it's a good show. And it blows my mind to see how many people are going to see it.

If you read my blog, you know that I've been dying to act lately. I actually have some free time for once, and a director has pretty much offered me a great part in a good show, and I would be paid. However, I just can't bring myself to audition. I feel like I need to keep taking a break until the fall. Heaven knows what I'll be stuck doing at school then, and I don't want to go a whole school year without any free time again. If I get a break, it will make that tolerable. For the first time in years, I don't have a show lined up, and while it was stressful at first, I'm kind of enjoying it now. I'm also worried that the second I get involved in another show, the Elders' Quorum will suddenly need more of my attention. I guess I should pray about it, and fast. The auditions are soon.

Happy stuff now:

• I'm watching Alias right now. I haven't really watched it in two years, and it makes me very happy.
• I've been able to have a few scary movie nights with my nieces and nephews. The Eye wasn't as bad as I had feared. Jessica Alba is as wretched as ever, but the movie rose above my expectations.
• Lego Indiana Jones is pretty much the coolest thing ever. I've finished all of the levels, and now I'm going back through to pick up things I missed on the first go-round. It's so stinking addictive.
• It's summer, and that means I'm fully addicted to Otter Pops again. Gosh, I love those little frozen sticks of delight.
• I've been catching up with more friends lately. Last night was Taryn's last night in town, and also the only night she could get together, so we bbq'd with Holly, Tavin, Megan, and Taryn's friend Karen. (I missed Family Home Evening for it. Ssh! It'll be our little secret.) She brought pineapples, and right in front of my eyes, she cut one. And I ate it. And it was amazing. I've never had pineapple that fresh. I've only had it after it's been cut for a while. Oh, and since Taryn has sat by me at Church the last couple weeks, people in our ward think we're dating, which makes me giggle. As if I could ever get a tall, artsy drink of water like THAT!
• I get to sleep in as late as I want tomorrow, and Thursday, and Friday, and Saturday... I love the last week of a semester.
• I've started recording tracks for You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, which I'm doing with youth theatre next year. I never knew the show until now, and I love it. I particularly love the chord progression at the end of "Happiness" when Lucy says the title line to Charlie. And I like the creative ways I'm using Schroeder onstage. He'll randomly play on his toy piano, and then it gradually fades into a full combo. Tomorrow, I'm going to record the title song. I'm excited.

That's it for now. Enjoy this funny video that brings me great joy:

High School Tony Awards Honor Nation's Biggest Drama Club Nerds

Ack!

Almost 2 weeks ago, I posted this:

I'm stressing about something which may or may not happen in the very near
future. I know SOMETHING'S going to happen, but I don't know the details, and
that in and of itself is enough to drive me bonkers. I'm really worried about
any of the possible outcomes that I can think of.

Well, it happened. And the absolute extreme outcome was the outcome of choice. I've come to terms with it, and I'm pretty sure I can handle it. I'm even starting to get excited about it. However, it's going to be stressful. More information to follow...

Is it bugging you? Are all 4 of you that read this (that I know of) curious? BWAHAHAHAHA!!! Teri and EmDab know. And they have been sworn to secrecy. You could probably torture it out of them if you really tried, though. They're both pretty weak. ;)

Okay, let's list some things that we're happy about, shall we?

• My SAST show was awesome. My concept rocked, my actors rocked, the make-up rocked, the costumes rocked, the lights rocked, the sound rocked....basically, it pretty much rocked. I felt really good about it. I smuggled a camcorder in to the last performance and now I have a DVD copy. If you were not Teri, Dave, Melinda, Matt, Lindsay, Kirsten, Emily, or Heidi and therefore did not see the show (well, there were OTHERS that saw it, but not on my invitation), you may watch the DVD if you'd like sometime. I might even put it up on Youtube at some point. It's really cool.
• Smokey Joe's Cafe is awesome. I haven't been able to see it this week, but when I last saw it, I really enjoyed it. The reviewer that came for the Deseret News sounded like a crotchety old lady at a rock concert, and she doesn't know how to spell "bass," so I disregard her review. Everyone I've talked to has liked the show, including Teri, who didn't like it the last time she saw it (and God bless her - she is honest when she doesn't like something).
• The Wizard of Oz opens this week, and it's awesome, too. I don't know how it always happens, but when I'm working on too many shows at a time, they end up better than some of the shows I do without other stresses. I'm really proud of the music in the show, and I'm even more proud of the kids.
• I got done with rehearsal at 7 PM the other night - CRAZY. It was my first night without a rehearsal or performance in WEEKS, and I hadn't even realized it was happening until a couple days before. I was going to go to Smokey Joe's, but instead I decided to go to the temple. I'm officially not a fan of the Provo temple, and from now on, I'll go to Timp whenever I can. However, cool stuff happened there, and that's all that matters, I suppose.
• My new guitar that works for both Rock Band and Guitar Hero III is supposed to arrive tomorrow! HOORAY! I'll even have time to test it this week! Huzzah for days with no school.
• Speaking of school, this semester is over! I say this EVERY semester, but this was seriously the worst semester ever. I'm not looking forward to the fall, because each semester seems to be exponentially worse than the one before. However, I'm down to just a few required credits, so most of this fall will be fun classes to fill out my scholarship requirements. Note to self: blog about lessons learned this semester after finals are done.

That's it for now. I hope your life is as awesome as mine is right now.

Massive Catching Up - AGAIN

Ugh. It’s been a month again. I’ve been so stinking busy that I haven’t had time to blog. Surprise, surprise!

The biggest thing that drained my time in February was An Evening with Jason Robert Brown. It was a musical revue that I put together, directed, ran sound, and music directed for the Theatre Arts Guild at school. It was an okay experience. There was only one cast member who I really wanted to strangle for arguing with me, and most of the cast did a fantastic job – despite having to cover for losing a cast member to pneumonia on opening night.

The best part of JRB was the fact that I had so many friends come and support me. The show was not advertised well AT ALL (partially my fault) and so the week of the show, I sent out a mass text and created a Facebook event to invite tons of friends to come and see it. When all was said and done, we raised several hundred dollars for TAG and close to half of the audience that came over the two nights were there because I invited them. I would publicly thank all of them individually, but I know I’d leave someone out. So, to those who came – THANK YOU!

Also in February, I went to Disneyland with my ENTIRE family – parents, siblings, in-laws, nieces, and nephews. It was quite an interesting experience, and I’ve been working on a blog about nothing but the trip since I was actually still in California. Someday I’ll finish it and post it. Of course, I still haven’t posted the half-finished blog from my trip to Texas in the fall of 2006, so don’t count on it.

School is kicking my butt right now. I have so many big homework projects and so many scene projects to worry about. It’s a really fun stretch, though. Besides directing a scene (a stylized classic Universal horror-style take on The Monkey’s Paw), I’m acting in three scenes right now for various classes, and I’m playing characters I would never be cast as. They have a great range, too: one scene I’m playing a tough, drunk military Sergeant, one I’m playing a closeted gay Mormon, and one I’m playing an older man whose adult daughter is coming out as a lesbian to him. Fun, eh?!

Also, for school, I’m required to direct a one act play for Short Attention Span Theatre. I picked my script last week, and it really is the perfect script for me: very dark humor with a nasty twist at the end – SERIOUSLY nasty twist. Think Hannibal Lector. I love it. I’ve been working on getting music and sound effects together this weekend because I’m so busy that I don’t want to put it off until the end. We finished auditions on Friday night, and I got a GREAT cast. I’m excited to start working with them.

One of the other projects that’s keeping me busy is The Wizard of Oz with youth theatre. I FINALLY finished recording all the tracks on Saturday. It’s definitely going to be an interesting show. I used the following inspirations in the music: smooth modern jazz, country-western, classic crooner, Maroon 5, disco, Enya, Backstreet Boys, and more random little things. The music is all taught except for one song, so from here on out, it’s pretty much just polishing. The kids are doing a great job, so it’s fun, even though it’s time consuming.

Broadway Bound, my youth theatre group for 6-9 year-old girls ended the last week of February, too. We had a performance on February 29, so you’d think I’d have more free time now, but my Thursday afternoons have already been busy and will stay that way until the end of April.

The other project I’m currently working on is Smokey Joe’s Café at the SCERA. I’ve only had a few rehearsals so far, because they did the choreography first while I was working on JRB. The cast sounds AMAZING. I’ve been able to push them really hard and add in some really tricky harmonies. I’m really excited for the show to open next month. (And not just because it means one more show out of the way, either!)

March is turning out to be as busy as February, and April will be even worse. Short Attention Span Theatre opens one night, and Smokey Joe’s Café opens the next. That week is going to be AWFUL. You’d think life would settle down after that, but you’d be wrong. The next week is Hell week for Wizard of Oz, and then I have the run of that and finals at the same time. However, on April 26, EVERYTHING will be over.

And then I start my new project on April 28…

For those I haven’t told yet, I’ve been asked to music direct the 35th anniversary touring production of Saturday’s Warrior and its sequel The White Star. I was very hesitant to accept, because I’ve never been the biggest SW fan. However, fun story: I was praying about whether I should accept the job or not based on some rumors I had heard, and RIGHT as I asked God a question, I got the answer in the form of a text message on my phone. How can you say no after that?! (Not to mention it’s paying REALLY well.) So, the month of May will be slightly busy, but not nearly as bad as the last few have been. Only one show for me, please and thank you (I’m counting them both as one show, because SW is only going to be a short revue as opposed to the entire show).

After JRB, I really got to thinking about how great and supportive some of my friends are. I’m so busy right now (I don’t really have any free nights between now and the end of April) that I hardly have ANY time to spend with friends. JRB was kind of an eye-opening experience for me. There were people that came that were JUST there to support me. They didn’t know the music, they weren’t part of TAG, they probably had better things to do on a Friday or Saturday night, but they made time to come and see me. I had given up on inviting friends to come and see shows because it always hurts when somebody goes on a rant about how much they hate theatre and even though they care about me, they won’t support what I do. However, friends came out of the woodwork for JRB. I had friends there that I hadn’t seen in MONTHS. I think I’m going to be more selective about who I spend my time with from now on. When I do have a random free night in the middle of 15 busy nights, the people who support me are the people who get first dibs. Either that, or I’ll just start auctioning my time on eBay. :) (I sound really egotistical, but that’s really not my intention. I’m not trying to brag over how many people want to spend time with me. Although it is pretty cool…) I do know that there are friends who had really good reasons for not being able to come to this show and to others in the past, but there are others who didn’t even respond to either the text or the Facebook invite – or both in some cases. I’m not mad at anyone, and not even really offended. I just know where my time priorities will lie for the next while.

I *think* that’s it. There are other things going on, but man! I’ve been writing this blog for over a half hour, and it’s already three pages single-spaced in Word. Someday, I hope to have a life that isn’t entirely based around the shows I’m working on. I doubt that’s ever going to happen, though.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy this short from last week’s SNL.

Playing Catch-Up

Wow. Where to start? I haven't blogged since the end of October.

I danced for joy when Ah, Wilderness! ended. Even though I was feeling a little better about the show toward the end, I still didn't enjoy the experience.

After that show was over, I had to get right to work on the sound design for Canyon Suite. I hated the script for that show, so it was kind of a challenge to get through it and come up with a concept for the sound. Eventually I came up with an awesome idea and had all the pre-show, intermission, post-show, and scene change music come from a radio within the hotel room set. Then to tie it together, I added interstitials of myself as a radio announcer. The show turned out to be pretty good, despite the script.

The week Canyon Suite opened, my youth theatre had a touring show with the oldest group, which turned out okay, even though the kids really scared us for a while. Then, we had our fall parent performance with all of the groups and finished the year out.

For my final project in my directing class, we had to direct a scene from the play Some Girls by Neil Labute. I was given the first scene, which was twice as long as the others, and I was told it was because they knew I was good enough to handle it. One other student and I got long scenes and had to find a clever way to use 4 actors when it only called for 2. I had a really good concept, and then one of my actors dropped out the week before we performed. The concept kind of suffered as a result, but it stilled turned out really well. After it was over, the department chair told me that my scene and one other were the best.

Fall semester ended, and not a moment too soon. I didn't get my usual 4.0 because of one class - my stupid Educational Psychology class. I expected some poor grades in a couple others, too, but this is the only one that screwed me in the end.

Christmas came and went too fast. I got LOTS of great stuff. I know I'll leave some out off the top of my head, but some of my favorites were: a new laptop, a naughty Batgirl action figure, an autographed(!) copy of Amy Grant's autobiography, lots of DVDs, Guitar Hero III, and Rock Band. The last two were presents to myself. :) I felt like I deserved them after the rough semester. Especially because I had major money troubles throughout October and November, and I had saved up a lot of money and had been good about not blowing it.

January and school started at about the same time, and even though I rather like my classload so far this semester, I wasn't fully recovered from last fall. Also, I was really sick the first week of the year and missed my first day of classes. And I've had pretty much non-stop colds since Christmas.

I was on the selection committee for next year's theatre department season. I was really bummed because one of the shows I really wanted to do was "off-limits" because of a professor's request. BUT! We're still going to have an amazing season next year: Flies in the Snuffbox, Nosferatu, Tea with Mint and Lemon, Twelfth Night, Burial at Thebes, and Chess. (It's a European-themed season.)

After an incredibly rough start, An Evening with Jason Robert Brown is now underway. I have an AWESOME cast, and I can't wait for the show to run later this month. We have a great songlist, and the songs are AMAZING.

In youth theatre, we've started working on The Wizard of Oz. I've completely reorchestrated it and made it funky. There are some numbers close to the original, but now there are some jazz, pop, hip-hop, swing, rock, disco, country, and metal aspects. I'm really excited for it. The kids are doing really well.

I'm also currently working on Smokey Joe's Cafe. It opens in April (just before Wizard of Oz). We just had auditions and rehearsals start later this week. It's going to be an incredibly hard show to cast. I'm really excited for it to get going, hough. Especially because I know it's the favorite show of many of my friends...;)

Oh, and I had my birthday, and I feel really old now.

I think that's about it for catching up. I'll be better about blogging in the future, I swear. Dammit.

Ouch!

This morning I had another crazy dream.

I was rehearsing for youth theatre, and for some reason we had another mix-up in the building schedule (long story, but UGH!) and so we had to move rehearsal to someone's house. However, the house wasn't big enough, so I had to take the oldest group out into the street. We set up chairs near an intersection, and started rehearsing.

At one point, one of the girls (who drives me NUTS in reality) started telling another girl how to sing her solo. I ignored it at first, but then I realized that the recipient of the "voice lesson" was getting really annoyed. So, I announced that I could hear somebody coaching somebody else, and it wasn't their place. If I found out who it was, I was going to give them a strike. The other kids don't like her, so they all ratted her out. I told her she had a strike, and that if I caught her doing it again, I'd give her two strikes, resulting in three strikes and being dismissed for the day.

We got back to rehearsing, and the girl suddenly got up and started walking toward the house where the other groups were rehearsing. I asked her where she was going, and she didn't stop to tell me. I threatened to give her a strike, and she stopped for a second. She bent down, picked up some gravel off the street and threw it at me. A chunk of rock hit me right next to my left eye, and it stung like crazy. I told her that she got two strikes for that. She ran into the house, and I left the other group practicing their song so I could chase her down.

I got in the house, where Lori (the director) was videotaping kids running down the hall for some reason. It was very chaotic, but I found Aimee (one of the producers) sitting in a chair near the hall watching the running kids. I asked her if she'd seen the little brat, and she said that she had. I asked if she had told her how she'd thrown rocks at me, and Aimee appeared shocked as she said she didn't know.

Then my alarm went off. I woke up, and I kid you not, the side of my face next to my left eye stung. I hate when this happens. It's too Nightmare on Elm Street for my taste.

The moral of the story: don't mess with the socially inept kids. They may grow up to become Freddy Krueger.

And now, the most cheesy "musical tribute" video I've ever found on YouTube. Enjoy!

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.

Why My Life Is Good Today

Here are some reasons for my love of life today, besides the one that I already blogged about, but many of you couldn't read, because when I asked everyone who reads my blog to let me know, hardly anybody responded, meaning that I didn't update my preferred list to make sure mostly everyone who reads it could access it...

The Semester from Outer Darkness is over. I'm now coming to grips with the fact that my life is going to pretty much suck, and my social life will be pretty much non-existent until I graduate (which should only be a year and a half away at this point). But! For four more days, I'm school-free!!! Today, I slept in until 12:30 PM, and then I took it easy. The only work I did today was 2 hours of piano lessons. It was NICE. So relaxing.

Lori was picking out songs for youth theatre today. I'm pee-excited about some of the songs we're going to do with the kids in the fall. "Oh, woah, oh, woah, oh!"

Speaking of youth theatre, Seussical, Jr. was AMAYZING (that's the way they spell it in the show). Seriously. I haven't admitted it to any of the kids, but there were moments at each performance when I teared up. One of the best parts of the show was the amount of friends who came to see it. Even more people came to support Seussical for me than did Honk last year. And most of them, I didn't even pester to come. They let me know on their own that they were interested. So, thanks to the following people: Melinda, Lindsay, Julie W. & her girls, Heidi, Julie B. & Trey, Matt, Andrew, Emily, Teri & Bristol, Quincy, Julie (the third), Pat, Tristan, Sami, and Madison. And 5 people from my family came, too. That's more people than usually come to my shows. And they all seemed to like it. Some (not to mention any names, Lindsay, Melinda, and even Matt) got so giddy and excited that they acted like little kids during the show.

I love doing youth theatre. I'm so sad that I didn't get to devote as much time to it this year because of school. It's going to kill me when I have to quit to focus on a full-time job someday. I love those kids so much. Well, most of them. I'm stoked that I get to do workshops with them over the summer. It's going to be a blast.

Ho, Pioneers! has been over for a month now. I never in a million years expected it, but I got an award from the theatre department for best stage manager of the year. The students (and possibly faculty) voted for it. I couldn't be to the awards ceremony because of Seussical dress rehearsal, and I'm sad. I wish I could have been there to see the director's face when it was announced, since she felt like I was such a bad stage manager.

Kiss Me Kate auditions are next week. I haven't been this excited about a show for a LONG time. The only show that I enjoyed working on this year at school was The Tempest, so I'm stoked to work with Chris Clark as the director and Daniel Whiting as the stage manager again. What a fun team! I hope we get an awesome cast.

The "String Quartet Tribute to The Fray" is awesome. It's like the Fray meets classical music, and it's great.

I always forget how much I love Coupling, and then I have a Coupling night with Jann and it comes screaming back to me.

I get to see Lindsay and celebrate her birthday tomorrow night. Yay!

It's a Friday night, and by choice, I'm relaxing at home and watching Sports Night with Matt. I haven't had time to do that for MONTHS.

It's taken me over two hours to write this blog, because I keep getting distracted, but you know what? WHO CARES! I have all the time in the world. At least until KMK starts on Tuesday and school starts again on Wednesday...

I almost decided to be daring and end this blog without a video clip, but then I found this. I'd always wondered what the original version of this song sounded like and how it would have worked with the movie, so with no further adieu, here is the title sequence to Goldeneye with the song that was originally going to be the opening title theme.

Kids RULE!

For those of you who didn't get the chance to read this elsewhere...

Yesterday in youth theatre, I was working with kids that range from 7-10 years old. I asked them to pass in all their music, and the boys were having a hard time for some reason. Knowing that they couldn't leave until it was done, some of the girls got frustrated and went to help them. An adorable 7 year old girl sighed dramatically and said "Do girls have to do everything for boys?!" Barely skipping a beat, a 7 year old boy leaned forward and pointed at her and VERY seriously said "Yeah! Make me some cookies!!!"