Yuletide Reflections

One of my favorite things is our nativity scene on the coffee table. I arrange it myself every year, because the wise men have to be with the camel and the shepherds have the be with the sheep, etc. Mom doesn't seem to grasp this. 
The Moreton Christmas card tree is always overflowing with warm wishes from family and friends from all over the country. 
And I always have a tree in my room dedicated to all things ballet. 
Morgan, Paige and I prepare for Morety's Annual Tacky Christmas Sweater Keg Party. 
Conversations with Sarah are some of my favorite. 
Grant Michael is 18 months now! We like to inspect Christmas trees together. 
The family room glowing-whoops! Forgot to turn on the fire. 
Andrew and I at his sweater party. 

So I've been enjoying this entire season (December is my favorite 1/12 of the year by far), and I was reading Christmas cards off the Christmas card tree in my kitchen the other day when it occurred to me that I really missed my friend Grace who lives in Las Vegas and goes to the University of Illinois. Not only did I miss her face, her voice, and her fabulously outrageous fashion statements, but I actually mourned for the loss of the months that have gone by that I have not been in touch with her. And then I chatted briefly with my friend Autumn who lives in Virginia and goes to Virginia Tech, and I realized that I haven't met anyone since as sweet and spunky as she is. And then I got a message from my very first friend Rebecca, who lives in Charleston and goes to Ole Miss, and I thought about how much I was looking forward to seeing and catching up with her. 

So I put this all together, and I think I'm figuring out why people send Christmas cards with pictures every year. As much as you really want to stay in touch with long distance friends, it is difficult! And you keep thinking you will, but then all of a sudden it's Christmas and you finally do! That's what's so great about this time of year. The other thing is that I also think I appreciate and value those friends more and more as the years go by. Even if I haven't seen them. Maybe it's an attempt to cling to my childhood, but that's ok too. I hope everyone has a blessed Christmas season, and I'm going to go call Grace. 

Fall, Flowers and Fridays

     The musical opens next weekend, and we all know what that means: THIS weekend was tech weekend, which equals 10 hours of rehearsal on Saturday and 10 hours of rehearsal on Sunday! Good times. However, thank heavens for the small blessing known as fall break, aka a Friday off. So I decided that because I only had one day off, I needed to do something on my graduation bucket list. This definitely included the Missouri Botanical Gardens, which I'm shocked and ashamed to admit I had never seen. 

       The weather was overcast and it rained on us a bit, but I was soaking up the cooler temperatures and the lovely feeling of fall. Jessie, Scott, Lionel, and I had a relaxing, silly afternoon of wandering aimlessly and taking lots of pictures. Following that experience up with a visit to Laura and then dinner and going to The Darkness with Kate made for as nice of a day off as I could ask for! 

Project Laura

  Yesterday afternoon Laura and I discovered the beautiful marriage of her artistic talents and my camera-hogging, attention-obsessed dramatics. I was SO excited when she asked me to model for her black and white film photography project, and yesterday she was picking out my wardrobe for the shoot when we decided to use my camera to see how it looked in black and white. Then we decided to add jewelry. Then we decided to add shoes. Then we decided to add hair. And make-up. And before we knew it we were doing a pre-shoot before the real shoot. I'm unbelievably impressed with what this woman can do with my little point and shoot digital camera and CAN'T WAIT to do the real shoot Monday. Maybe I should drop out of Wash U. Playing dress up is far more fun. 

Stop the Madness!

I sat by while Christina Applegate butchered "Sweet Charity." I kept my mouth shut while Brooke Shields stole the spotlight from "Chicago." I even laughed it up when Clay Aiken joined the cast of "Spamalot," considering it's a ridiculous show to begin with. But Katie Holmes on Broadway?? Really?? This is not ok. 

One Week!!

I can't believe our final dress is a week from tomorrow! Crazy! I feel like I haven't fully experienced this show in the way that I did "Fiddler on the Roof," but every show is a unique experience with its own tone, and I know that. (Note that I wouldn't even compare this to an Anna show, nor a Hotchner show.) "Fiddler" has a very homey, golden, emotional tone, and this show is silly and fluffy, so the rehearsal period has felt a little more superficial. However, I think it is going to be a highly hilarious and entertaining final product. 

My character, Diana, is totally ridiculous but so much fun. I mean, who am I kidding? She's fun BECAUSE she's so ridiculous. I get to be an attention-hogging girly girl who is constantly posing and being glamorous. I'm a total diva, and it's amazing! When else do I get permission to flirt with every boy onstage, primp myself ridiculously and constantly throw my body into sexy poses? I think I'm going to milk it for all it's worth. 

The "Real" World

I had the rare opportunity to sit in on a professional rehearsal today! My Directing professor is directing a show at the St. Louis Rep that Carter Lewis (our WU playwright in residence) wrote, and she invited the six of us in her Directing class to stop by and observe anytime! So I was there for three hours today being a fly on the wall while they worked technicalities and trouble spots. It was soo interesting, but I also learned that what they do isn't much different from what we do here. Seeing them work made me so jealous, though. To think that they get to get paid for rehearsal and character study and that they have the rest of the time off without classes or homework just seems too good to be true. I was inspired by the adorable girl playing Evie to work on my character notebook for "Of Thee I Sing" that has been a little slacking due to the fluffy nature of the show and my character. 

The show was thought-provoking in typical Carter fashion. It is one continuous scene in real time, which is simple and refreshing. The scene shows a couple dealing with the news that their son took a gun to school (over an upper middle class suburban barbeque) interrupted by the visit of his girlfriend, Evie. I really hate to admit it, but I've always been morbidly interested in violence in schools--in a "I-can't-believe-this-actually-happens-how-in-the-world-does-it?" kind of way, of course. This show was particularly interesting, then, in that it explains how the son, Danny, and Evie came to this point. They are extremely humanized, and I began to understand the "how-in-the-world-does-this-happen?" question. It also brings up an issue that has always bothered me, which is the question of how much power parents actually have to control the behavior of their children. Can the ideal parents (who don't exist) still have a child who brings a gun to school? And can horrible parents somehow raise an exemplary child? I think the answer is yes to both, which is troubling. To think that truly scary situations can happen in average, well-meaning families is pretty terrifying. And I think Carter's play shows that they can and helps to explain how and why in a very believable way. That, my friends, is good theatre. 

Wonder of Wonders!

I had an epiphany today. My firm conviction that I have NO ability to think about science and quite possibly a mental handicap that causes me to become a complete idiot if I even look at a science book-- was shattered. Today I learned that I can do SOME science. If you let me use my book and I have a calculator, that is. 

I didn't study enough for my open book Solar System Astronomy midterm that I am taking pass/fail, because I also had a psychology test today. So I essentially planned to know nothing. However, much to my amazement, it turns out I went with my gut and WORKED SOME PROBLEMS CORRECTLY!! It was crazy, and I am still astonished. This is not to say that I actually did really well on the test, but I really think I'm going to pass the class! Wonder of wonders! Miracle of miracles! Who knew I had a LITTLE scientific ability? 

A Near-Death Experience

   Today was one of those days that starts out with a certain mood and then dramatically turns on a dime due to an unexpected event. I pulled an all-nighter last night to research and write a 20 minute speech, and I have two dreaded midterms yet to study for tomorrow on top of the fact that it was just a downright dreary day to begin with. 

    So I was nodding off during my Irish Drama class that meets outside on the benches near the Quad when I glanced at my right shoulder and saw what I thought was a fly. After about another millisecond, to my horror, I realized that it was in fact the most terrifying looking SPIDER I have ever seen! And call me crazy and say that I am seeing things out of sleep deprivation, but I would swear in a court of law that it had red stripes on it. I really think it was a black widow, especially since I didn't even know until I looked it up later that a black widow has these markings. 

Well folks, there's nothing that'll wake you up in class like a deadly spider on your shoulder. Before I knew it I had SHRIEKED and JUMPED out of my seat sending my binder, notebook, book and pen flying. It was quite the spectacle. Luckily, my friend Ben was right next to me and realized after a bit why I was freaking out and graciously knocked it off. 

Needless to say, I was awake after that. Although the internal giggling at myself and my ridiculous dramatics took a while to subside. 

Trial Run

This is me practicing to see how putting pictures on here works, but Laura and I couldn't have had more fun with the Vice Presidential debate on October 2, 2008. 

Laura's inspiring.

I've decided to try this blogging thing. I have realized lately that the most I'm learning in college has been coming from conversations with friends and with myself. I'm incredibly blessed to have this time to learn and grow in such a supportive, picturesque place, and I'm terrified to see it slipping away from me. I don't want to miss another moment! I think that I'll really enjoy having this as yet another form of procrastination and as a tool to record the many discoveries I'm making that have previously gone unrecorded.