Dancing!

Went dancing tonight with Dancerfly!

Also saw Nolting there.

Met a couple awesome new people.

Had a FANTASTIC time.

Contra dancing is an incredible amount of fun!

Dancerfly is wonderful to dance with.

And to watch dancing.

And to kiss in the hallway in between dances.

I had a good time tonight.

Sarah Lawrence

Flew to New York on Monday to visit Sarah Lawrence college.

Had an amazing trip. After spending some time in the city and seeing the sights (and seeing Angela Landsbury in a Broadway show!!!) We headed over to Sarah Lawrence.

At that point I was sure I was going to go to Santa Cruz. I could not think of any possible way Sarah Lawrence could be good enough for me to agree to live on the East Coast.

Still, I agreed to go visit. I'm so, so glad I did.

I explored campus, talked to people, sat in on classes, and had long talks with friends who go there.

And I'm going.

I'm not sure what decided me in the end. Maybe participating in an incredible acting class? Maybe meeting some of the awesome people who go there? Maybe all the long talks with Impulse? Maybe just the fact that when all is said and done Sarah Lawrence is a better fit for me. It's small, personal and has an incredible drama department. It encourages study of as many fields as interest you, has no majors, has amazing teachers and is far less likely to be affected by the bad economy than a public school.

And I fell in love with it.

I spent the night there with Impulse and had a fantastic time. First getting to participate in a dramatic improv class (something I already know how to do and am pretty good at). Then hanging out with cool people at dinner, then watching Impulse direct her first ever rehearsal and even getting to help her a bit, then simply sitting in the empty theater with impulse and talking until we had to go back to her room where we talked till late at night and finally dozed off.

In the morning I went to a biology class with Impulse, then finally headed back to the city to meet my parents.

By that time I knew where I wanted to go to school.

I'm really excited and really scared and so glad to finally know where I'm going.

I think I made the right choice.

Growing up

I turn 18 today.

Adulthood has officially begun.

A silly concept really. I'm no different today than I was yesterday.

But things have started to change.

For the last month or so.

The way I act.

Trying new things.

Being open to new possibilities.

Facing fears.

Deciding my future.

Growing up.

Time to move on to the next thing.

I'm ready.

Tough choices

I heard back from Sarah Lawrence two nights ago.

Not only have they accepted me, but they are offering an 80% scholarship.

Seeing as Sarah Lawrence was my first choice for a long time, I'm really forced to do some serious thinking.

On the one hand Sarah Lawrence is a fantastic school with a better drama program than UCSC and somewhat more prestigious. It also has much more of a design your own major program, which I find really attractive.

On the other hand... It's on the east coast.

I really, really love California. I don't really want to move to New York. But as it turns out, Sarah Lawrence would actually be cheaper than UCSC.

I also just don't want to be so far away from home. I love the bay area, I love Berkeley, I love my friends who live here, and I love the stuff I do here. I had sort of planned on being able to come back on weekends when I felt like it...

I don't know. I'm really torn.

Of onsetting panic, of night walks in the rain.

Aie.

Richard is starting to reach the scary part. Six weeks left, people still don't know their lines. We are finishing blocking next week. (it took forever because of the length of the play)

We still have not done a full run through so we don't know how long this thing is. We may need to cut out chunks of the script. We are not letting our audience sit through more than 2 hours. We won't be able to do a run through next week. That leaves us ONE week to do a run before DRESS.

We don't have props yet. Or costumes. Or set. We haven't figured out who's doing our lighting and sound, and I have yet to block out the final battle.

So things are getting scary. They always do. This is admittedly a little worse than usual, but then again this play is far more challenging than anything we've ever done.

As always, I wish we had more time...

But on a more de-stressing note,

Nicole (the girl I'm doing the vamp spoof with) slept over last night, and after going over lines a thoroughly obsessive number of times, (she's just as compulsive about lines as I am!) we decided we needed ice cream.

We walked down to a corner store, which was closed, then walked down to downtown and finally procured the delicious dairy product.

Then we went and explored a parking garage that was being considered as a place to shoot part of the vamp movie. It was pretty cool looking. Then we ate ice cream on the roof. That was pretty cool.

Then, as we were about halfway back, it started to rain. Both being warmed up from the uphill walk, this was extremely pleasant. As we walked on in the ever increasing rain, we saw a side path that looked utterly frothed with adventure and intrigue. So we took it. And wandered down a different street. Then took another path.

The next hour was walking wherever we felt looked interesting and fun, with no regard at all for what direction home was. All with the rain pouring down from the heavens, blocked only on occasion by trees, and all in the darkness and stillness and solitude that comes with the hours after midnight in a residential area.

Presently, with our hair soaked through, our jackets dripping, and our shoes water-logged, we squelched home. Wet, tired, footsore and very much satisfied.

What a wonderful thing it is that there are people in the world who, when caught in the rain at night, just don't want to stop walking...

Clam Chowder and College and all the Lovely People

Today Aaros and I had a long talk on the way to Berkeley High.

We left his bike locked outside the school, then went for lunch.

We ate lunch and talked about Watchmen.

I had clam chowder.

Then I walked him back to class.

Today Atrius and I wrestled with the school computer.

And talked and joked and snuggled.

Today I talked to Squeak for the first time in ages.

And made plans to see her Saturday.

Today I got two glowing letters of recommendation from two of my teachers.

Today I read them as I waited at the movie theater.

Today Dancerfly and I went to see Coraline.

What a strange film.

After the film we didn't want to part ways.

So we went for dinner.

And talked.

And had a delightful time.

And I ate clam chowder.

After dinner I walked her to Cafe Gratitude

Where she was meeting another friend.

And just as we were saying goodbye,

I asked her if she wanted to make next time a date.

She said yes.

And blew me a kiss as she walked inside.

And I walked home smiling.

Today I got home and had received my first letter of acceptance from a college.

I am officially accepted to UC Davis.

Today was a good day.

Today was a really good day.

Geeking out

Thursday:
Went to Comixs club
Went to sword fighting class

Friday:
Saw Watchmen movie
Filmed part of a vampire spoof movie

Saturday:
Watched finale of first season of Torchwood
Went on a late-night hunt for a copy of Watchmen for a friend.

Man I'm a geek...

Watchmen was great though! I was bracing myself for the bruised and broken tragedy I was sure Jack Snyder would present us with, but I have to hand it to the guy, he did a fine job. The characters were perfect, the imagery was lovely, the storyline was as intact as it could be, and the only change that was made was done quite well and wrapped the story up nicely keeping to the original premise. I enjoyed it a lot.

Sword classes have also been a great deal of fun. It was pretty wet on Thursday though, so we had class indoors... In a basement. Main problem being that the ceiling was about ten feet high. With an unprotected light bulb right in the center. So we ended up doing pointe work all class. This involved mainly holding the sword straight out at arms length for extended periods of time, performing very controlled, very small maneuvers. Unfortunately for me, I'd left me sword at home and had to use a much heavier sword than I was used to. Fun! My arm still hurts...

Oh yeah, and I seem to be co-starring in a vampire spoof. The lovely Nicole is playing my fellow vamp-slaying heroine. She also happens to be the one I was hunting for a watchmen comic with last night. We also watched Torchwood. While she read Watchmen. It was a geeky night. When we're done with the movie I'll probably post it here. It's a film-studies project Vendor's doing. Can't wait to get to the action sequences!

In other, only slightly less geeky news, Richard III is going great! Three acts are blocked, and we finally finished the elusive act 1 scene 2. Which might be my favorite scene in the play, but which has escaped being blocked up until yesterday. We also got the first execution scene done. The first of many. Oh how I love this play.

Rehearsal yesterday ended on a perfect note. I was working with Anne and Richard on 1.2, and just as we were finishing up, the rest of the cast filed in from outside just in time to watch the last few minutes of that wonderfully horrible scene. Richard delivered his last monologue and limped offstage and the entire cast burst into applause. I am so proud of these actors. I can't wait to start working without scripts. (Next week!!)

More from the world of geekery later. For now, I'm off to kill some space-orcs. Later!