Fantastic Firsts

During a recent conversation, my roommate made the comment that my stories for "first times"-- first kiss, first night out with someone, that sort of thing-- are more interesting than most people's.

She's right. And that's why I'm writing this post. Thank you, Tori.

Let's start with what is my favorite example.

I got my first kiss on the night of my senior prom. (Take that, all you kids that had your first kiss in middle school!) This seems like a pretty conventional story so far, but just give it time.

My date and I (and Tori and her date... we spend an unhealthy amount of time together...) had a wonderful dinner at a nice restaurant and had a decent time through the beginning of the dance.

As the prom was nearing it's end, I did what every girl dreams of doing on prom night.

Yes, that's right. I stepped in vomit. Fresh vomit, at that. Ew.

For those of you who don't know, I'm more than a little neurotic. I don't like other people touching me even if they've just washed their hands--you can only imagine the horror that stepping in vomit must've been for me. Thinking about it makes me a little sick.

But that didn't spoil the evening-- though God only knows why it didn't. Maybe the whole ordeal of stepping in someone else's puke traumatized me so much that I didn't realize that I should stop enjoying myself. Or maybe I was just putting on a brave face for everyone. Who can say?

Anyway, I got my first kiss that night (morning? It was after midnight) before I went home, scraping vomit bits off of the heel of my shoe.

A very memorable evening, all in all.

More recently, on one of the weekends when my roommate abandoned me (she does that sometimes--she's like Batman, only less masculine and not as dark) , I went out with a friend for the first time (um... the first time with that particular friend--I'm socially awkward, but even I'm not that bad). We went to Burger King for milkshakes. At midnight, because that's what we cool college kids do.

Yeah.

As we were sitting around, drinking our milkshakes and chatting, another friend of mine walks up to me, hands me a flower and walks off without saying anything. This didn't really strike me as being odd, but apparently, it was odd.

But it was no more so than what happened next.

About midway through my explanation of why I didn't find girls in Burger Kings handing me fresh flowers to be strange, the fire alarm in the restaurant went off.

I was blamed for this, though I'm not really sure why. Apparently, people seem to think that I have uncontrolled powers of telekinesis.

Which I do.

So my first outing with my friend ended with a Burger King burning to the ground.

Okay, so the Burger King didn't burn down. But wouldn't that have made the story more interesting?

People say that firsts are supposed to be memorable. I suppose if that's the case, I'm in good shape.

After all, who can forget stepping in puke?

Comedy Tragedy

Most of you probably know that Estelle Getty of Golden Girls fame died back in July.

And if you don't...what's wrong with you?

Anyway, it's not been a great year for me so far as deaths of funny people go. I'm not talking about George Carlin or Bernie Mac. To me, the losses of Estelle Getty and Harvey Korman are two great blows to the comedic acting world.

Just take a look at some of what we lost.

August: Osage County

Well, not really.

My apologies for my lack of content lately--I moved back to school a couple of weeks ago, classes have started, so on so forth, busy busy.

So here's an update on what I've been up to while I've been...not updating this blog.

Like I said, I've moved in to my apartment (which I'm sharing with my darling roommate from last year--thank God we didn't kill each other last year). The place looks beautiful: in the mid-afternoon, the sun comes in through the curtains in the living room, and the whole front room of the apartment is gold. I pretty much love it.

My classes have started. My Spanish teacher is still waiting on her visa (which doesn't bode well for me, but whatever). The freshmen are all bigger than I am.

I have my first audition in a week. It's for The Sugar Bean Sisters, which I know nothing about, but that's half the fun, right?

And I've been writing lately. Some of you (well, only Colby, really) have asked what I'm working on. There's a short story contest with a deadline coming up in November; I've been pulling together something for that. And I've signed up for NaNoWriMo (I'm gonna die...). We'll see how all of that goes--I might post bits of the story here, after the deadline, of course.

So that's what I've been doing the past few weeks. What have you been up to?

The Musical Stylings of the Muppets

I promise: real content is coming soon--maybe tomorrow.

But for now, please enjoy this musical interlude provided by the Muppets and YouTube.





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCbuRA_D3KU&feature=related

I Return to Blogging

But not with one of the posts that I had planned.

I found out recently (just a few hours ago, as a matter of fact) that my favorite musical, Les Miserables was performed in concert at the Hollywood Bowl last night.

The cast included some of my favorites, most notably Brian Stokes Mitchell (who has one of the best baritone voices ever) as Javert, Lea Michelle (who was the original choice for this role in the revival) as Eponine, and John Lloyd Young (the tony winner from Jersey Boys-- I had the pleasure of seeing him as Frankie Valli... it kinda rocked) as Marius.

I've only seen a couple of videos from the concert-- I'm really hoping for a DVD version to be released.

Here's John Lloyd Young and Lea Michelle singing a wonderfully emotional version of "A Little Fall of Rain."

Enjoy!

Summer Winds Down

My summer at home is about to end: I move back to my school in about a week. And that'll mean course work and shows and all that sort of thing.

Anyway, I know I've let this blog slide this month-- there's been other stuff on my mind and, honestly, there hasn't been much worth blogging about. But I do have a couple of posts planned. They should be up soon. Ish.

I haven't been blogging, but I have been writing a little bit on something or other every day (except Sundays). If I come up with anything worthwhile, I might post some of it on here.

That said, I hope everyone's having a great summer-- even if it is almost over.

Cat-astrophe

This guy seriously must have the same cat that I do. My kitty does this not only when I try to watch TV, but also when I try to blog, read, use the phone, eat, sleep... well, I think you get it.

Summer Reading

I've always been a voracious reader. This summer, I've consumed even more books than usual.

Here's the list of what I've read since May. The ones that were being reread are marked with an "R."

Tennessee Williams--Four Plays (Summer and Smoke, Orpheus Descending, Suddenly Last Summer, Period of Adjustment)
Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss (R)
Talk to the Hand by Lynne Truss (R)
Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz (R)
Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz (R)
Forever Odd by Dean Koontz (R)
Brother Odd by Dean Koontz (R)
Odd Hours by Dean Koontz
Gone With the Wind by Margret Mitchell
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey (R)
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (I know, I know...)
New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
The Innocent Man by John Grisham
Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
White Oleander by Janet Fitch
In Odd We Trust Dean Koontz and Queenie Chan

Currently reading: As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

So, yeah. For not being busy, I've been pretty busy. Well, I've told you what I've been reading. What have you been reading?

This Would Be A Wonderful Thing

My competition piece has made zero progress in the last week or so. I love my characters, but I'm not sure where I want to take them.

I saw this little comic and made a decision.


Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

Yeah. I totally need one of those plot devices.

The Coolest, Weirdest Thing Ever

So my YouTube account knows that I'm a Bette Davis fan.

It's not a difficult thing about me to find out, really.

Anyway, my "recommended videos" has this listed on it when I hit the site today.

And it is the coolest, weirdest thing ever.

Someone (who probably has more time on their hands than is healthy) did a speed painting of Bette Davis. With a tube of mascara.

Check it out.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sahHSNy_Uk&feature=rec-fresh

Cats

So my brother-in-law (who hasn't updated his blog in quite some time-- content, Josh, CONTENT) has said several times that he wouldn't like to own a cat. All of the reasons he gives, I've noticed, are tied to some form of diabolical action on the cat's part.

But you know what I think the real reason is?

Small children. Oh yes. Just take a look.

more cat pictures

So I think the real reason he's so anti-cat is out of fear for the life of his small ones. I can see the wheels turning in that cat's mind-- it's planning its revenge.

Jist a Girl Who Cain't Say No

(Yes, that is an Oklahoma! reference. I know you're all shocked-- I certainly am. I hate that show.

But I digress.)

Last night, while I was eating dinner, the music minister from my church at home called me to ask if I'd be willing to sing with an ensemble Sunday morning. It was a last minute thing--which I have a hard time with, since I like to over prepare before I go in front of people-- and the group was going to get together to rehearse Wednesday night.

My mind immediately created a list of all of the things that I'd rather be doing Wednesday night. And it wasn't a short list-- let me tell you.

"Well, I can still do it," I thought. "I probably won't have to go to rehearsal; it's never hard to find the alto part in that sort of stuff."

I agreed to do it.

She told me she'd like for me to sing second soprano.

Here's the thing-- I can sing soprano. I can. But I don't really like it, and I'm much better with alto. I'm more alto than soprano, and almost more tenor than alto.

I was working fast to come up with a reasonable excuse for not joining the ensemble when she told me that she was having a hard time finding someone willing to sing the part.

"Wow," I thought. "Guilt trip, much?"

So I'm singing second soprano in an ensemble this Sunday. It could be worse, I know.

But still, sometimes it would be nice to be able to say no.

More Mia

There were two more Mia Michaels routines in So You Think You Can Dance last night, so I'm obligated to make sure that all of you see them.





I really can't get enough of these dances. When they're done the right way, they're just beautiful.

The Royal We and Why I Hate It

I think most of you probably know what I mean by the royal we-- when someone says "We think/say/do/eat/whatever" when they're really only talking about themselves and ought, really, to be using the pronoun "I."

I have a problem with this pronoun (I have a problem with a lot of things, as you might have noticed): when used in emails and the like, it's confusing.

Like, really confusing.

At work, I handle (mindlessly easy) paperwork and arrangements. There are only two things that ever make my job difficult: when everyone needs something at once and when people don't say what they mean.

The first problem is pretty unavoidable. Things happen-- stuff sometimes comes up all at once; I can usually deal with that pretty easily, though it does stress me out.

The second one, though....

There's been a situation today (forgive me, I have to be vague) where one of the things I worked on needs to be changed. But the person who needs the change made wasn't the one who told me that the change needed to be made.

Take a breath; I'll wait for you to catch up.

Ok, the person who told me what needed to be fixed is working on a similar thing with the person that needs the thing fixed (wow, the gossip in high school didn't seem this complicated). Long story short (er...kinda), I thought that what needed to be fixed was what BOTH of them were doing, not just the one.

I was wrong. I was told I was wrong. That's fine, I don't mind being wrong. I asked what I needed to do to fix the problem.

I got a response that uses the we.

After staring at my computer for a few moments, trying to figure out what the hell was going on, I got it.

"We" meant just the one guy. Apparently, it had all along.

So things are getting fixed-- hopefully, they're already fixed.

But, man, that was a lot of trouble for me to have to go through just because someone else felt like being pretentious.

Blog Envy

Last summer, while I was in Chicago, I saw the musical mentioned in yesterday's post (if you're reading my facebook feed, you'll have to go to my site to see the post I'm talking about).

A friend of mine from school saw the tour around the same time (er...maybe some time later... I don't know, I'm not always listening) and got to meet the cast.

I'm insanely envious, but that's not what this post is about.

Anyway, he became fans of the actors in that show. One of them has a blog...vlog...both...something.

I checked it out for the first time today. It pretty much rocks. Would that my blog was that cool.

If you're interested, here's the url for Andrew's blog: http://www.keenanblogger.blogspot.com/

Incidentally, it's Andrew's sister that I met after Les Mis. I think I mentioned that a couple of posts ago, too.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

So I had to go to the Strange Reunion today (I wish I was making this up), and I started thinking about things that are, well, strange.

One of the things that came to mind was one of the strangest and most clever things I've seen: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. If you aren't familiar with this, it's a musical that opened a few years ago that tells the story of.. a spelling bee. Kind of like the title would indicate. That sounds like it would be stupid and boring (or stupid AND boring), but it was probably one of the most enjoyable theatre experiences I've ever had. Here's a look at parts of it.

This is from the opening number on the closing night of the show. The quality's not so great, so I apologize for that. I didn't record this. Yay for YouTube.

And here's one of my favorite numbers from it: "The I Love You Song."





And this is "I'm Not That Smart"

Between Family, Friends, Writers and Facebook...

...I'll probably be doing memes for the rest of my life.

But I didn't have a post planned for today, so it's all good. Thanks to Colby over at Spittin' (Out Words) Like a Llama (http://colbymarshall.blogspot.com/) [Wow, I need to learn how to format stuff...] for this meme.

Here goes....

The Rules:List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your spring summer. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to.

1. "L'un Vers L'autre" from the original French recording of Les Miserables. I know that makes me lame (or so cool that you just can't get over it... one of the two), but seriously-- it's Les Mis in French. How do you beat that?

2. "Buddy Holly" by Weezer. This is one of my favorite (non-Broadway) songs.I mean, come on. It has a line in it that's "Don't look now, but I've lost my shoe." Plus, I dig Weezer. For serious.

3. "Time in a Bottle" by Jim Croce. This is one of those songs that makes me wish I had worked harder in guitar lessons. Another fun little fact: it was the senior song for my dad's graduating class. That aside, some of the lyrics describe how I view life a lot of the time. "But there never seems to be enough time/To do the things you want to do/Once you find them...."

4. "The I Love You Song" from The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. This musical is probably the most clever thing I've ever seen, and this is the sweetest song from it. I have a bit more of an attachment to it because I got to meet Celia Keenan-Bolger-- the original Olive Ostrovsky. Oh yeah. It was cool.

5. "Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk" by Rufus Wainwright. I heard this song on someone's MySpace page. I liked it so much that I kept visiting the page just to listen to it. Then the thought occurred to me that I could by the CD. Yeah.

6. "Hey There, Single Gal/Guy" from I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change. I hear this song, and I think of my parents. Scary. This whole show seems like it would be so much fun to be in, but this is probably my favorite number from it.

7. "The Next Ten Minutes" from The Last 5 Years. The prettiest song from my second favorite show. (Les Mis is first; Spelling Bee is third. In case you were wondering.) Really, I have a hard time with love songs sometimes because they tend to be really unrealistic-- "We'll always, always, always be together and everything will be sunshine and daisies"--but this one just seems so...I don't know. It seems more real. "Will you share your life with me/For the next ten minutes/For the next ten minutes/We can handle that/We could watch the waves/We could watch the sky/Or just sit and wait/As the time ticks by/And if we make it till then/Can I ask you again/For another ten...." Seriously--listen to it now. Now.

Okay, so now I have to tag seven people. (I wish I could tag more people. I'd really like to know what everyone listens to.)

Josh
Cait
Tori
Adrienne
Grant
Nathan
Kate

So go. Do the meme.

Debate

So Patti LuPone won a Tony this year for her performance as Mama Rose in Gypsy. This musical has been revived more times than I think anyone can count.

And, as with any musical that has more than one vision, there's a debate as to who did the best job in the lead role.

I'm not going to ask people to dig through every bootleg video of this show, but I am curious as to what other people think or the two most recent revivals: the one starring Patti (obviously) and the one starring Bernadette Peters.

Here's Patti.


And here's Bernadette.


Let me know which you like more.

I asked my mom who she thought was better between Patti and Bernadette, and she gave me the completely unhelpful though not untrue answer of Ethel Merman.

Here's Ethel. :)

I Hate First Drafts

Seriously.

Even for short stories.

I like for the things that I do to be as close to perfect as possible (just ask my roommate), so the idea of an unpolished piece of writing drives me crazy. I know the first draft is pretty much word vomit-- just getting the idea out in a form that will be only vaguely like the finished product.

But, God, it's difficult to leave things alone.

I'm trying to get better about it-- so far I haven't gone back and changed anything in my story. All of the writing I've done on it has been moving it forward.

That's not to say that, when the first round of edits comes, I'll be keeping it all. I might end up trashing most of it.

I know it's impossible to write something and have it be perfect after the first try. But wouldn't it be nice?

Best Stress Relief Ever

My job stresses me out.

Not because it's hard. It isn't. At all.

It does require that I be suspicious of people (there's a post about this somewhere on here, I think), which is not something I'm good at. I like to think that people are generally telling the truth.

Anyway, sitting at my desk for eight hours being suspicious and (at times) rude--you have to get the solicitors off the phone somehow-- stresses me out.

I'd love to be able to go home and collapse on the couch to unwind, but I'm not wired that way. If I lay down on the couch, I'll just think of a million and one things that I have to do.

Or Mom will tell me to get out of her spot. Either way, relaxing that way is out.

Some people who know me well might say that I should draw or write or sing to calm my nerves, but that doesn't work for me either. Those things all carry their own different stresses. (Especially writing, now that I'm working on a story for a competition--yikes!)

So all of that leaves me in a bit of a pickle. What can I do to de-stress?

My parents have a dog--a big, beautiful mutt-- that they don't get out to play with very often. Last week, I grabbed a tennis ball and went into the back yard to spend some time with the dog.

As the title says: best stress relief EVER.

The wonderful thing about dogs is that they realize that humans need to give love as much as get it. Petting and playing with a dog is the most relaxing thing in the world.

Even when you do have to remind the dog that a tennis ball is not the same thing as food (poor thing kept trying to eat the tennis ball--that's probably a good indication that she doesn't get played with anywhere near enough).

Now my problem is solved. Pretty great, isn't it?


see more dog pictures

This looks so much like Hershey! (I love my dog.)