The Longest and Best "Day": May 17-27

I can only think of the sequence of events that have occurred from May 17-May 27 as one long day. Everything was so linked that it's hard to process it as the ten days it was. I also didn't sleep much for these past 10-12 days, so that links them together even more.

May 17 started out as an ordinary Thursday. I had my two classes in the morning from 10-1, but I had set my alarm to go off an hour earlier than usual so I could transcribe an interview for my sociology project. It took me about an hour per interview (the interviews were roughly 30 minutes and there were six of them) to transcribe relevant quotations, so I needed to continue the tedious work I had started the day before. After class, I went to a women in leadership lunch, then got to work on those interviews. I finished my transcriptions just before 7:00PM, and I texted my friend Andrew who was in charge of the zombie horde for a play called Night of the Flesh Eaters to see if they needed additional extras for the Thursday show. He said yes, so I got changed into clothes I didn't mind getting messy and headed over there with some homework.

When I got to the theater space, the zombies were in training. I learned how to walk like a zombie in both wander and attack modes, then was sent for costume and makeup. We did a big group warmup, then the zombies were sent backstage to the math building nearby and the cast went to start the show. I ended up coding all of the interview transcripts and field notes that I wrote throughout the course of the play and afterward. My part was to go on in the finale, eat a person, wander a little, then go into attack mode for the final moment of the show. It was so much fun!

Friday and Saturday evenings I did the zombie thing again, which was refreshing and awesome. During the day on Friday, I met with the lighting designer, two assistants, two producers, and one of the two directors of Pocs to get out lights and cable from the two locations on campus we were renting from. It took a few hours to get everything, but it gave us such an amazing head start going into tech week to have everything already. I went from that pickup to my 2:00 class, then had a little downtime before dinner and going to my Flesh Eaters call. With two shows, there was a lot of sticky stage blood going on. The makeup designer gave me a black eye that night, and it even convinced my tae kwon do instructor that I had been in a fight! That was pretty awesome.

May 19, I spent the day writing my History paper. I managed to write a 12 page paper when there was a 10 page limit, but character spacing was my best friend and I got it down to 10 easily. It was such a relief to get that done! That took all day, then around 7 I headed over to Flesh Eaters for the closing shows. I watched the 8:00 and was in the 11:00, and I was so glad that I got to see it because it was very thought-provoking and a not-so-traditional take on zombies. I went to the cast party with my friend Kaitlyn after taking a shower to remove as much blood as possible, and that was also nice.

Sunday, May 20, was a big day. I had load-in for Pocs at 4 and did as much homework as I could manage before that. At 4, when I got to the theater space (same one as Flesh Eaters), the U-Haul full of lights was already there. I was the Master Electrician, so I conferred with the Lighting Designer about how we wanted to delegate tasks, and then got to work. The funny thing was that Dan, the lighting designer for the first show I worked on at school, came back to help with load-in, and Brad, the designer I worked with this week, had me working with him. It was a very strange role-reversal for me to be telling him what to do. Kind of confusing, but one of those moments of, "oh, hey, I've actually learned stuff and know what I'm doing."

The best part of load-in was that the cast was there in full force and wanted to do the work of setting everything up. It was amazing to see that kind of enthusiasm and so crucial to getting everything done. 

As Sunday wound down, two of the assistant designers were moving the dimmer rack (that big metal box that broke my hand in the Fall). As they were getting it through a doorway, one of them got his hand squished and the ring he was wearing gave him a very deep cut. His hand was sliced, and the real blood mixed with the stage blood that was on the floor of the back room. My friend passed out and we called 911. The other ALD and I were on the scene trying to keep him safe, and then one of the cast members who was first-aid certified took over the situation. My friend is fine now, but I was very upset that he got hurt by the same instrument that hurt me.

As the night went on, we got more and more done. We stayed until about 11 and got all of the lights we had already picked up hung, cabled, and focused. It was a great start to tech week.

On Monday, the designer picked up the last of the lights from the rental company and brought them over to the space. Mondays are rough for me because I have class 12-5, but everything was up by the time I got back that evening. It was a fairly late night working out the patch for all of the instruments, and the gel scrollers (instruments that have a string of different colors to make the same light be different colors at different moments) were very fussy (there was one that would not stop twitching and it was very upsetting in a delirious sort of way). I did end up taking a break with my friend Megan, who was assisting on sound, to go to the late-night dining hall, and that was really nice. Normally I don't stay for production meetings, but I did this week because it felt important. It was a small tech crew and everything went pretty fast, but the most relevant comment to make is that everyone was so fantastic at what they did and so appreciative of what everyone else was doing. I love that about this team.

Tuesday I had Storytelling 11-1 where I had to tell my final story and my last Game Theory quiz at 2. After Game Theory, I climbed down the back of the building like we did for Flesh Eaters, which was really fun, but less so during the day while dressed normally. I was in the space until about 6:00 when I had to go to my study abroad orientation, which was good, except the whole program was a panel of students who went last year answering questions. One of the panelists was my friend Amanda, and I already asked her all of my questions, so it was less helpful for me, but they gave us dinner and a really great booklet of tips and such which was very helpful. I got back to the space during rehearsal and stayed for the prod meeting, which lasted until around 1:30AM.

Wednesday was a day kind of like Monday. I got up, finished my Storytelling and History papers, went to class 12-5, then went to rehearsal. It was my last History class, which was amazing, and in Sociology we had a poster session to present our projects to our classmates. I had my poster printed, and it is large, gorgeous, and amazing. I am so proud of it! I finished it during Flesh Eaters and literally showed it to everyone who agreed to see it. That part of the project made me really happy with where I was in academia because it felt like relevant work. After that, I ran some food to the crew in the theater, stopped home to change over my belongings, and went to my dorm's end of year banquet for a half hour. They gave me the happiest hugger award, and it was the most wonderful and adorable thing ever! Rehearsal was two runs of the show, the second of which had an invited audience. After rehearsal, we had our final prod meeting, then I went to sleep, and got up on Thursday for my classes 10-1.

Thursday was great. I turned in my History and Storytelling papers, my History TA baked cookies for our class, then I got to hang out with friends in the student center from 1-5 before going to the theater space to set up for our opening 8:00 show! The show was simply amazing; there is nothing like adding an audience to something that needs it so crucially. The enthusiasm in the room was the best and I am so happy to have been a part of creating something so beloved. After the show closed for the night, the prod team kind of plotzed in the wrestling ring (it was a wrestling show), and while we didn't actually have a prod meeting per se, we did discuss how awesome it was and that we were going to do some stuff with masking on Friday.

Friday, I got up, went to CVS for a prescription, a nail brush, and a new deodorant, got my bangs trimmed, and then headed over to the space to meet the director, Jon, and Megan to make the masking happen. I set up our two outside booms and waited. Jon arrived with his roommate's car and the three of us went to the student center to pick up a tub of black curtains to hang outside our space to hid one character's entrance and another character's exit from the 11:00 show's audience as the 8:00 show went on. We managed to get the curtains there, but then as we tried to tie one from the boom to the building, Jon got attacked by wasps (he and Megan later named him Walter the Wasp).

The wasps set us back. We needed to go back to the student center to get another boom base and some stage weights so we could tie the curtain off elsewhere. By the time we got back from that trip, I was already late for my last Game Theory class. Jon drove me (and Andrew) to that building, and I went to class, but my mind was with the show. I ended up getting a butt dial voicemail from him while I was in class, which was odd and slightly embarrassing, but I headed back to finish up after class at 3.

At 3, Megan and I finished the masking and fixed the outdoor tarp tent that the actors stand under, and then we took a rest in the Ring. While we were chilling, Eddie, and alumnus of the show, came looking for Jon, who had left to do some life tasks. The three of us ended up hanging out for probably an hour, and in the meantime, I cleaned the space a bit. Megan needed a food break around 4:30, and while she was gone, the other director, Jesus, came over. While he was there, I took a half hour break to go home, get changed, eat dinner, and then come back for the 8:00 show.

The 8:00 was amazing!! As soon as the doors closed, I put up the last bit of masking and went backstage to cover the actor who was entering through those doors to bring him around to the front for his entrance. The show went very smoothly, and at the end, Megan, Jon, and a few of the actors went out to the doors to grab the masking to cover the other actor's exit. It went so well, and as soon as he was out of the way, I got out my ladder and took down the blacks while refocusing and gelling the outdoor lights for the 11:00. While the audience waited outside, they were fire colors pointed at the trees and as soon as the doors closed, I took out the color and focused all of them on the doors for those two moments. I made that lighting happen so many times throughout the week that I was very happy for it to be the last time and for it to be appreciated.

The environment of the 11:00 show was incomparable. As the house was opened, Megan and I were standing on the producers' chairs to save them, and I was just kind of dancing there to the pre-show music and periodically going to greet my alumni friends. One of them gave me the biggest hug and literally lifted me off my feet, which was unexpected and happy-making. At a certain point, Laura (our stage manager) asked me to switch places with her, which meant I ended up doing crowd control for the alumni section. It was insane and wonderful and slightly overwhelming. The space was packed and the enthusiasm from the alumni was out of this world. They all came in their character costumes, too, which made it even more fun. They know how to chant and cheer and how to respond to the cues of the show, and it was the best thing ever.

After the audience cleared out, the senior director passed the torch to the new directing team. We took some pictures, then the alumni got in the ring and did their signature wrestling moves from when they were in the show. After that died down, both this year's cast and the alumni went to the cast party. It was so much fun to feel that familial bond of everyone putting so much of themselves into this annual project and we were all connected by that lineage. When I got to the party, I sat down in the room where I knew a bunch of people, but then my legs started hurting a lot. Between the scrapes (I got at least one new one every day), bruises, and burns (from the beams of light...wtf), and the shin splints from being on my feet all day, it got to the point where I had trouble moving. My MO for the party was sit where there are lots of people then move when the room I'm sitting in empties out. It was a fun party, and I went to sleep at 6AM after coming home and taking a shower.

My alarm went off at 9AM, and I forced myself to jump out of bed and get ready for Dillo Day because I had to get to brunch at 10AM. I was a bit tired, but surprisingly energized. After the first brunch, I went to a second brunch, and when that one cleared out I switched from a backpack to a fanny pack and went to yet another friend's apartment to see them. After that third stop, I walked up to the field with my friends, where I witnessed natural selection in action. There were baby ducklings following their mother across the street, and one duckling couldn't walk because its legs weren't long enough. It was so cute, but also so sad because I could tell it wouldn't survive.

The opening of the field was delayed for about an hour because of weather and sound checks, but once we got there, there were neat water bottles, free pizza, and a lot of other fun things going on. I walked around with my friend Sean, we ran into Megan, then I lost the two of them as I found Kaitlyn, Emma, and Ashley. I sat with them in the sun on the grass to watch the Cold War Kids perform, and during that show we were joined by Brad, Shannon, and Samantha. When the band was done, we took a break and went over to the theater space to chill out and maybe have a dance party, but we couldn't get the sound to work, so we ended up just chilling there and cooling off before we went to see Reel Big Fish.

RBF was so much fun!! They did a fantastic set and we danced a lot. After their set, we went back to the theater, and I was trusted with the key to the space for the first time ever, which made me feel pretty awesome. The dance party happened, but all I wanted was to change into pants, so I ended up leaving with Laura (stage manager/DM friend) and the alumni as they went to dinner. I got my pants, but then joined them for dinner, where I discovered my epic sunburn. I connected with one of the alumni, Matt, about Doctor Who, and that was pretty freaking awesome.

We all went to the last concert of the night, Steve Aoki. I went into the crowd with my friends Nate, Jeff, and Tina, but they're all tall, and I'm pretty short, so I was rather frightened by the press of bodies. While I was overwhelmed by being in the crowd, I was more scared to leave my friends by pushing my way out of the crowd, so I stayed. It was pretty fun once I got over the discomfort, and the fireworks were pretty nice at the end of the night. After the concert, we all went for ice cream, and I was just really glad to have joined that group and gotten to know some wonderful people a bit better. There were nice hugs at the end of everything :)

I didn't check e-mail or facebook or tumblr or YouTube at all from Friday to Sunday, and it was liberating to be truly living in the moment. Though, I did have a few hours of things to catch up on when I did check the internet.

On Sunday, after getting a decent amount of sleep (more than 3 hours), I made a stop at CVS to get aloe for my sunburn, and then headed over to strike which started at noon. I had the key, so that was pretty cool to be the one to unlock the door, except people had already climbed in the window and started working. Andrew, who didn't even work on the show, had taken my wrench and was striking lights. I was pleased with how fast things went and with the number of helpful cast members who showed up. The best thing that happened all day was that I got a call from my friend Jeff because he wanted to hire me as his assistant for this Thursday, which I was so sad to have to decline because I had school, but I am the most thrilled to be a person that he calls now!!!! It's really made me very happy to know that this particular person would think of me and I definitely want to be able to work with him at some point. At the end of the day, we had a pool party, and that was a wonderful way to end the weekend and the show.

The thing about this show in particular is that it's not the normal theater people; it's the people who love the satire and the wrestling. These people are football players, engineers, film kids, and, yes, theater majors, but the production has a spirit all its own. That's why the alumni love it so much that they come back. That's why we feel like family. A major factor in how that camaraderie comes together is that each person on the team does a very important thing for the show, and everyone appreciates each others' contributions to the whole. It's not as ordinary as it should be for a cast member to stop to thank me as I'm taking down the outside lights at the end of the night, but it makes a huge difference to the experience of working on the show. I love it; it's awesome.

Now, I'm writing for fun rather than reading the things I need to read to be prepared to go back to school tomorrow (I have two more classes! Both are Storytelling, very low-pressure, but I have to write my research paper for Friday, and I have to write my sociology paper, and I have a math final coming up). So, since I have now chronicled the amazing and busy past ten days of my life, I will get back to work.

I know that one of my next couple posts will be to this year's seniors since I can feel commencement (and China!) approaching.

Today is awesome because I can bask in the afterglow of such a great "Day."

Dillo Day 2012: Wins and Fails (and Pocs)

Last year at this time, I wrote a blog post entitled "5 Ways I Won Armadillo Day." Well, tonight (this morning?) I'm going to reprise that idea, but update it for a new year and a new me (the me that had evolved over the past year. It's a landmark reflective event, ok?).

Wins:
Being part of Pocs. It is probably one of the best decisions I have made, and it is an entity entirely its own. Not necessarily my proudest artistic theater experience (because that's not the nature of the show, nor does it try to be that), it is certainly a team I would do anything with and want to work with constantly. There was no divide between cast and crew, and the spirit of the show, the energy of the audience, and the enthusiasm and commitment of all those invovled is truly inspiring and joy to partake in. I want to throw out a special shout out to Brad, Skittles, Jon, Jesus, Greg, Jeremy, Aaron, Nate, and Josh, for being awesome. It was an amazing tech week, a freaking awesome show, and something I never want to leave. Additionally, it was so fun to meet/hang out with the Pocs alumni. It's really a "Pocs Family" in that we have all given so much of ourselves to making this crazy show for the past six years and iterations. I love this thing that we do!

Seeing all of my friends. I feel like I did not miss seeing anyone, even the random people I am peripherally friendly with. I went to three separate group of friends' gatherings before the concerts started, hit the concerts with yet another group, and finished the day with dinner, the final concert, and ice cream with yet another group. All wonderful people, which made for a fantastic day.

The weather was perfect. When the concerts started, it was hot and sunny, and it did not rain all day, though it did cool off later.

I liked the bands I saw: Cold War Kids and Reel Big Fish.

I never felt tired.

There were lots of hugs and smiles.

I made new friends.

I was totally myself.

Fails:
Despite wearing SPF 50 Zinc Oxide under SPF 15 makeup on my face, I have a ridiculous sunburn. First of the season, but this is painful, man! The good news is that my arms have gone to their summer color I like to call "chocolate chip cookie golden brown and delicious" but there's an overlay of that pink-red sunburn color. Head start on the tan? Getting aloe in the morning.

I did not stay for the secret dance party.

I did not get sleep at either end of the day. From Friday 9AM to Sunday 2AM (that's 41 hours), I was asleep for 3 of them. And there's Pocs strike on Sunday at noon, so not much sleeping going on. Yes, I feel fine, but my body needs to readjust.

My bubbles didn't work. I learned that year-old bubble solution is not very effective.

Hydration was a bit of an issue.

Quote of the day: "It's only awkward when you make it awkward"

Basically, I had a totally awesome day with amazing people after a fantastic tech week for an indescribable show that has left me with an incomparable happy afterglow. What a weekend!

Today is awesome because of everything you have just read.

Starkid Apocalyptour and End of Quarter Thoughts

I went to the Starkid Apocalyptour concert with my friend Hannah last Wednesday. The show was at the House of Blues (same place as Dial Up Tour), and we stood pretty much opposite where I was standing for the concert in January. It was house right on the step up platform, right at the railing above the pit area.

I got a new camera so I could take great photos while I'm in China, and it arrived on Wednesday afternoon, so I charged it, got an SD card, and took that to the show. It has great zoom, focus, auto-adjustment, AND the video quality is great. I am able to zoom while it takes video, which my old camera did not do, so I'm quite happy with it. It is a silver Nikon Coolpix S9300.

The pace of the show was as follows: I think I know what they're about to do....wait, are they doing that?...Yeah, they're actually doing the thing I thought they were going to do...This is it! Yes! Yes! Yes!...SO MUCH YES!!!!!

And they built that suspense and excitement for a solid 2.5 hours. It was fantastic. I especially loved yelling for Ravenclaw when they sang "Goin' Back to Hogwarts." House pride forever.

Charlene Kay opened for the Starkids, and her music is pretty good. I wasn't expecting her or her talent, but I liked what I heard. I think I'm going to buy her album, but I've just been too busy to press that button (or blog about things that happened last Wednesday >.<).

The really cool thing for me was that Hannah had worked with Starkid's lighting designer last summer, so we met up with her at the show. I loved getting to talk to her, particularly about her work, because getting new perspectives on lighting design makes me really dorkishly excited. Her process for the concert lighting is that she has designed the show, but since they're traveling, she uses the house designer/electrician as a programmer/board-op so she doesn't have to learn new syntax every night. I thought that was really cool.

After the show, as we were leaving, I gave her my info in case she was ever looking for an assistant (maybe even for the next Starkid show? A girl can dream), and she was prepared to sign me up to work with her this summer. That was pretty awesome, and I hope she does contact me to work with her in the next year because I think I'd learn a lot from the experience. Yay networking, right?

So, yeah, other than that, I've been conducting interviews for my sociology research project, having meetings and dinners with friends, organizing a program that happened on Friday, going to my dorm's formal, and participating in Res College Field Day. I also taught a music lesson yesterday, which was pretty cool.

This weekend, I took stock of which school assignments are left, and I am really finishing up this quarter. It's gone by so fast, and I'm super busy for the remainder of it! I have to prepare my final story for Storytelling, which comes with a response paper, and I have to write my Opus for that class. In History, I have a final paper that is getting assigned tomorrow plus a bunch of reading. Sociology calls for me to finish my research project with a poster and a paper, and Game Theory has two more weeks of class, homework, and quizzes before the final exam. I am checking things off one at a time, and the more I get done now, the better off I'll be during tech week for Wrestlepocalypse in the last week of classes.

Today is awesome because it was sunny and I made significant progress on my homework.

SO MUCH NERDY EXCITEMENT!

Almost typed a BEDA number into the title of this one. Habits.

I can only think of calling this week Nerd Week. On Tuesday May 1, Insurgent came out. I dressed in faction colors on Tuesday and Wednesday, and I finished the book on Thursday. Then Thursday at midnight, I saw The Avengers. Then Friday was May the Fourth, and I loved all the amazing content coming from the super-talented creators I subscribe to on YouTube. Today is Free Comic Book Day. Wednesday May 9 I am going to Starkid's Apocalyptour. Each of these things individually made me very excited to live my life; together, they make the most amazing week ever.

So. The Avengers. It was AMAZING!!! It succeeded as a superhero movie, an action movie, AND it was chock full of Joss Whedon awesomeness. I will be honest; I'm kind of a fail in the superhero department. I read Archie comics when I was a kid and never got into the superhero stories. Sure, I saw a bunch of movies or whatever, but I was entirely disconnected from the Marvel saga going into the premiere. I just knew it would be fun to see a Joss Whedon film with an awesome group of equally excited friends. It turned a movie into an event, and that was the most important to me.


I loved the way the characters were developed. The deliver of the line "Hulk: smash" was perfectly epic. The Legolas joke was perfect. I loved this movie. I will see it again.

As for Free Comic Book Day, I went with a friend rather spontaneously because I had forgotten it was today until I saw a tumblr post from Kristina Horner about it. He had never been to the comic store that changed my life before, and so I got to be there as the comic store changed his life in a very similar way. I got a Buffy/The Guild 2-in-1 magazine and an Archaia hardcover that was Moureguard and other stories. I recognized Archaia from the Con I went to because they publish Chad Michael Murray's graphic novel. It was a lot of fun :)

I also kicked off the Farmer's Market season with another friend (although that happened earlier) and I have cut lilies in my room. We had an awesome morning together of walking, shopping, and lunch.

Today is awesome because of Free Comic Book Day and the vase my lilies are in!

Insurgent! AHHH! (No Spoilers)

On Tuesday, May 1, I got my copy of Veronica Roth's new novel Insurgent, which is the sequel to Divergent, and the second in that trilogy. I finished it a few hours ago, and I have been screaming ever since. At first the screaming was vocal, and that lasted about two minutes, then it was sporadic when people asked me about it, and now it's internal (unless it gets brought up again).

This book was wonderful.

It has an epic cliffhanger.

The characters develop so much.

READ IT! If you've read Divergent, go get your copy right now. If you haven't read Divergent, go read Divergent then read Insurgent. You will thank me.

I dressed up the past couple of days in faction colors, first Erudite blue with a Dauntless tattoo and eye makeup, then Amity red/yellow with the same tattoo and makeup. I had Candor black/white on for a while today, but then I got soaked in a rainstorm and had to change. I don't think I'm going to be rocking any Abnegation gray though. I did Abnegation as my pajamas the night after I finished Divergent, so I'm counting that.

The book was so good. I'm just gushing. I want the next one!!

Veronica Roth graduated from Northwestern University, got a book deal for this trilogy, and is currently working on both the third book and the movie version of the first book. Good for her!! I really enjoy her work, and it makes me believe that college graduates really can make it despite what the economists say.

Today is awesome because I finished Insurgent, and I'm going to see The Avengers at midnight!