A pyromaniac poem, stage fighting, and first flurry of a 10 min play :)

Happy Friday!
Zac just popped me a bag of popcorn. Now, I am popping the buttery, salty, and warm popcorn into my happy mouth. :) ohemgee. so om nom nom.

Words cannot describe just how relived I am to be sitting on my love seat, on a Friday afternoon, blogging.

From a pesky Psych paper, to red ink slashes all over my 10 minute play, to strenuous rehearsals, and the ridiculous poetry unit in my lit class, I AM EXHAUSTED. Not to mention my "grad plan" meeting with George Nelson...

In order to graduate by April 2013, I need to take 17 hours next fall. :O. I sure hope I have it in me to get a high GPA that semester. The biggest hindrance to any grade, by far, is attendance (for me). It's so crazy how absences and tardies add up so quickly! So far this semester, I've done really well. Granted, it is only the beginning of school. But I really want grad school. HIGH GRADES IN THE BAG. BADDA BING.

Yesterday, the first draft of my 10 minute play was read out loud in class...after we got them back corrected from George. Hearing people read my glaringly red obvious mistakes was so embarrassing. But, luckily, everyone else in class had the same thing happen to them. George told me at my grad plan meeting right before class that "we're a team, we're in this together." I just moaned and laughed. After that hurdle was cleared, I went to my play last night and erased EVERYTHING I had. "First Draft 10 minute play" is on my task bar, begging me to write. The plot's gonna be a lot simpler, so my characters have more room to grow and show depth. I am throwing out one of the three characters. I am cutting out exposition almost entirely so I can get to the "meat" or the action of the play. Yes, good things to come. :) Hard? Definitely. Rewarding? Undoubtedly.

I've had rehearsal for "The Stronger" every night since Tuesday. Today, though, we had practice at 2 pm in a study room at the library. A previous study group was quite put out with us when we informed them we had the room until 2:30. But they were wonderful and let us have the room that was rightfully ours. haha I wasn't so sure I'd do amazing, awe-inspiring work today because as I put it to Hannah, my director, I felt like I was "in a dream." But, to everyone's surprise, I reacted off of Taylor (my brilliant co-star :]) and Taylor reacted off of me and today's run through of the show went splendidly! I learned the blocking for the my first couple of monologues last night. So in this afternoon's rehearsal, I did the blocking and inflections up to what I've learned and then "improved" what I felt appropriate for the rest of the show. All I thought the entire time was, "Focus." And great, new, and powerful emotions and tactics were found! Ah, the gift of revelation and listening. :)

Along those same lines, I've been working with a wonderful girl in my Beginning Stage Combat class on a choreographed fight scene. Her name is Noelle Houston. My, goodness, is she amazing! We were good friends before this class, but being paired with her has made a whole world of difference to our friendship. This week, we met up on Monday and Wednesday afternoon to "fight" outside the HFAC in the bee-infested grass. She is so talented, you guys. She's a sophomore and already been a part of so many theatre projects here at BYU. Even right now she's taking 17 hours and involved in...2 shows if I remember correctly. Anyway, I love her to pieces. It may seem odd to say, but I love fighting her. We laugh and talk and repeat the fight until we are just exhausted. And our conversations are so intense and heartfelt. There are times, however, when I do a move wrong and she tells me flat out I need to fix it. It also took us a while to get the timing of her flipping me over her shoulder down. But we're in a great place for our first preview next Friday. :)

My lit class is highly frustrating at the moment. Poetry. Is. So. Hard. To. Grasp. Bah.
I keep applauding myself for not being an English major. haha I love English, but I think sometimes it's just a little too out of my sphere. :) We just read a really intriguing poem that was extremely difficult to decipher because of it's free form and content. But, oh, how beautiful it was.

How amazing is it to find you aren't perfect?
How amazing is it to find that you still have so much to learn from others?
How amazing is it to find you can learn from helping others?

I am just in awe at the many people in my life who've taught me something about living. Who've shown me I am not perfect. Who've shown me that perfection may not be necessary, but a desire to do the best I can is all that I need. Who've shown affection. Who've shown hard love, when needed.