I've Lost My Mind, For Real This Time

I just came home from a rousing game of Cranium, but I can't sleep, despite the fact that I'm getting up early to go to Knott's with my dad and my sisters. Because it's so late (or early...?), I'm not expecting much coherence from this, so I apologize in advance.

Well, this semester is beginning to wrap up, and I've signed up for classes for next semester. Before I get into that, I have to say that this has easily been the most enjoyable semester I've had in college (not just at CSUSM either.) I've tried new things, been sociable, made friends, and learned quite a bit. Laura described it perfectly - "Not that you had much of a shell to begin with, but whatever shell you may have been in, it's completely gone now." I've also had some great opportunities and have found myself excelling at many things I never really thought I had a talent for. Case in point: my final performing arts workshop is an acting for camera workshop with the very talented actress Esther Chae. Out of many student screenplays submitted, mine was chosen by Esther and the CSUSM arts department to be acted and filmed for the workshop (with my serving as editor and director), which will then result in a public screening this Friday. Screenwriting is not something I've ever tried before this year, and I guess someone thinks I have talent.

A couple weeks ago I auditioned for the spring play. I did it mainly out of impulse, based on some encouraging words from one of my instructors. My thinking was that there would probably be quite a bit of people trying out, most of them drama students who knew the ropes of this sort of thing, and that I probably didn't have much of a chance, so my approach to this was very casual. As proof, I used William H. Macy's egg salad speech from Mystery Men for my monologue -

Well, I had them laughing at the audition, and I wasn't sure if that was good or bad at the time, but lo and behold, I made the cut! Must've done something right.

The play is called "Big Love", and from the little I've read of it, it seems pretty awesome. It's a drama/comedy set in Italy, with a lot of dark humor and such. It has nothing to do with the TV series on Showtime, which I'd never heard of until people started asking me about it when I told them about the play. I haven't read the whole play yet, but here's what Wiki says about it:


Big Love is a play by American playwright Charles L. Mee. Based on Aeschylus's The Supplicants, it is about fifty brides who flee to a manor in Italy to avoid marrying their fifty cousins. The play takes the plot of the original Greek play into modern times, including such details as having the grooms ambush the brides by helicopter. While the brides and grooms wait for their wedding day, the characters raise issues of gender politics, love, and domestic violence. The first production of the play was directed by Les Waters at the Actor's Theatre of Louisville in 2000.

In a 2003 interview with Open Stages newsletter, Mee said, "[I wanted to go back to what some people thought was one of the earliest plays of the Western World, which is The Suppliant Women, and see how that would look today. See if it still spoke to the moment, and of course it does. It’s all about refugees and gender wars and men and women trying to find what will get them through the rubble of dysfunctional relationships, and anger and rage and heartache. ...You know, unlike so much drama on television, where there’s a small misunderstanding at the top of the hour that you know is going to be resolved before the final commercial break. The Greeks start with matricide, fratricide..."


So that's all pretty exciting. I think being in a show is something I've always secretly wanted to do, but never pursued because I just thought it'd be something I'd never have a chance at. So this will be fun, and I'll be able to get it out of my system. Right now, though, I have to be honest and say that I've kind of been freaking out about it.

As for the rest of school, here's my tentative schedule for next semester:

Yeah, this is where the "I've lost my mind" part comes in. At the moment I'm signed up for Advanced Video Production, Advanced Computer Art, History of the Moving Image, Global Modern Dance, Vocal Ensemble, and Production Workshop (play rehearsals.) That's 19 units; the most I've ever attempted at one time is 15, and I ended up dropping one of those courses. Noticeably missing from the lineup is Spanish - I should be finishing the language requirement this semester, but budget cuts at all CSU level schools have led to the school cutting half of the Spanish courses, leaving the remaining courses to fill up within 2 days (2 days in which I was unable to register because I had a hold on my record for not knowing Microsoft Excel... a whole other aggravating story.) So that's something that'll have to wait until at least the summer, unfortunately.

How I'm going to balance this all with my job remains to be seen. To be honest, I probably won't; I'm anticipating dropping at least one of these courses (probably Vocal Ensemble, as much as I'd love to take it,) but I'm going to at least show up to everything for the first few weeks and see how that goes. There's just so many things I want to try, and I'm realizing that this is the time in my life where I need to start doing things.


Well, I had more to write, about life, friends, etc., but I'm actually tired now.

To Be Continued...

"I'm very pleased to see you again, Lara..."

I've been kind of MIA for the last several days. This is why.


In all seriousness, though, I've just been really busy. Lots and lots of school work to do, but it's all very exciting, and I'll probably detail all of it in another post in the near future. Despite my heavy workload I've really been feeling fantastic lately.

Well, now I had the writing bug, but I think I just lost it. Crap. Well, I think maybe I just wanted to let my faithful readers know that I'm still around.

Speaking of faithful readers, I've picked up a few more in the last month or two. Whoever you guys are, thanks for caring :)

My Fifteen Seconds

(click image to expand)

So I was a featured artist in last week's issue of the school newspaper, which has probably marked the height of my achievements this semester. So far I've ranted in front of an audience about my drama filled life and my conquest of DDR, jumped out of a moving vehicle, ran into a swimming pool while fully clothed, chased seagulls around while screaming , become a malevolent cell phone demon, and shed blood numerous times, all for the sake of "art" - I feel like my mention in the paper is probably earned.

Wordle - November

www.worldle.net - click to expand

Obama FTW

So with all the good things to come with today's news, most people seem to be overlooking the two most important items of all.

1 - With Barack Obama now the president, we can all look forward to seeing an Obama ROBOT at the Hall of Presidents in Walt Disney World sometime this year. A robot. Awesome.

2 - In four years, when Obama is up for reelection, this video will once again be relevant! Hells yes!!!

In semi-related news, prop 8 is going to pass, so that's discouraging. All I can say to that right now is, well, we can't change the world all at once. The abortion thing also irks me, though I'm still confused on the specifics of that proposition. Guess it doesn't matter, as the results are already in.


Last night I went to my friend Katherine's house with a bunch of other performance arts kiddies and some of her work peoples to watch the election results and chase a cat around, which was all a good time in general. After that, we watched Rent until 2:30 in the morning. That was delightfully random.

Halloween Stuff

Took me a while to getting around to doing this ... I figure during class is probably a good time.

Oct 16th, Knott's happened, and it was pretty freaking rad, as usual.



Every new maze this year was impressive, which was quite a feat, as there were a whole six of them (as opposed to the one or two of them they usually add each year.) My favorite was probably Club Blood, which was a vampire nightclub which was both scary and hot at the same time.

Monday the 27th, Vince threw a crazy potluck party at Marlene's house. Punkin carving, spooky food, costume contests and Little Shop of Horrors happened. Amy, Ryan and I dressed as Lock, Shock and Barrel from Nightmare. That inspired Vince and Maritza to go as Jack and Sally, which made for a cool group theme.


(props to Maritza for the following pic)


A pretty good party, I'd say. Mostly box office people, who I don't typically hang out with, but I still had a pretty good time. My favorite costume was probably Kevin Glickman as Dwight from The Office.

Two days after that, we saw Nightmare in 3D at Horton Plaza. It'd been the first time I'd seen a movie at Horton Plaza since they re-released Empire Strikes Back in the 90's, interestingly enough. Also, I seriously freaking hate Horton Plaza. I think it was Vince who said something along the lines of giving a retarded child Sim City and letting him design a mall and parking structure.

But, of course, Nightmare Before Christmas was no less awesome as it's always been. Also, we stopped at a Denny's on the way back, but didn't eat there because there was a brawl between some white trash girl and a drunk zombie from Del Mar Scare Grounds. We instead went to Ihop where I enjoyed punkin pancakes.

Also, our theater in San Marcos is supposed to be getting RealD projectors early next year, so hopefully we'll be getting Nightmare 3d for next Halloween. I will probably watch it every night if that happens.


Halloween was a bit more low key compared to the events surrounding. From everyone I talked to, it seemed most people had relatively uneventful Halloween nights, but I think our group of friends had a good time. Most of us had work earlier in the day - a few good costumes there, but I was kind of disappointed that not many people took advantage of the chance to dress up for work. The best costume was easily the guy who came as Vince for his costume.

After work Vince, Amy, John, Lona, Ted, Jay and Kyle Foot came over to my house to watch these movies:



Before the movies we were able to squeeze in a Frugo's run, where I exposed even more people the the awesomeness that is self-serve frozen yogurt. But the highlight of the party was easily Ryan calling Vince on a restricted number while we watched The Ring, thoroughly freaking him out for most of the movie, and secretly camping out in my backyard for half an hour to scare us half way through the movie.

Finally, Nov. 1st marked the end of Halloween this year with Noella's Halloween party. Noella is a phenomenal hostess for these type of things, which was evident not only in extensive preparation and theming, but the huge amount of people who showed up. Even Ryan didn't know most of the people there. Ryan, Amy and I resumed out roles as Lock, Shock and Barrell for the party.



Also, these guys were awesome, even when drunk.



So, another October comes to an end, which makes me sad as it's always my favorite month of the year. Next year I'm hoping we can do a Universal Horror NightS visit, and maybe an overnight Knott's pre-scare trip. We'll see what happens.

On a closing note, today is election day. If you haven't voted yet and are still undecided, let Neil Cicierega show you how to do it.