One week from right now, I will be on a plane that is flying West toward Denver International Airport. An aircraft that will be taking me away from the summer of a lifetime and some incredible people. You know what that means? AN EPIC 168 HOURS ARE AHEAD OF ME. Let's talk about the last 140 or so though. Anything from sleepless (in every positive sense of the word) to adventurous to downright awesome. I saw some familiar faces, encountered some new ones, and was viciously attacked...by an inanimate object. Trust me. It's possible. Ooooo! Look! Foreshadowing!
Sunday: After calling Mom and Dad and Kelly and talking to them about their last day on the beach, I headed to Union Square and bought some street art! There is this really cool photography/drip art vendor who had some pieces I really liked, so I bartered to have another little memory of my trip! I ended up getting one of the iconic Brooklyn Bridge. Not only do I love the physical piece itself, but it's somewhat of a symbol of my trip! I had talked, and talked, and talked about this trip for the longest time and finally I was tired of simply talking about an idea and took action by sending in my application with my headshot and resume. Before I knew it, I was headed to NYC. I took action and followed through on something that I really wanted to do. From the first time I got here, I saw the Brooklyn Bridge in my first taxi ride from La Guardia and I told myself that I was going to walk across it at some point during my time in the Big Apple. It's down to the last week. I've let myself talk, and talk, and talk about going to the Brooklyn Bridge and I haven't taken action, until earlier this week! I made a plan for Monday or Tuesday, when, after CAP James and I are going to the 9/11 Memorial (with reservations this time) and then after to the Brooklyn Bridge! So in a cheesy way, I look at this street art as a symbol of the incredible and unique local culture of Union Square and as a reminder that I need to be a person of action, rather than just a person of words. There you go. There is your cheesy, meaningful comment of this blog post. #theremightbemore Around 6, James and I meet our friend Tess at a Thai restaurant called Spice and have dinner family-style, sharing entrees and enjoying the variation of choices we made as a brave trio. It's nice that we can be this close! Then the three of us are joined by another wonderful friend Kelan and the four of us go to an experimental theatre show called Fuerza Bruta. If you've paid attention to my blog, this is my second time to this show, but it's worth it! REALLY cheap tickets and an incredible show that's like Cirque du Soleil but in a club! And...SURPRISE! Steven Tyler just happened to be there with us. He looks just like you think he would in real life. We leave Fuerza and people are giving us the strangest looks, most likely because we are soaking wet. The end of Fuerza Bruta consists of a huge dance party on the club floor with tons of sprinklers turned on at full blast above the audience, and everyone enjoys it like there's no tomorrow! We decide that we have no shame and head to a frozen yogurt place called 16 Handles and sit for a bit, while we enjoy the occasional wondering eye that stops on the small group of 20-somethings that are beginning to cause a small pool of water to form on the floor. After we split our separate ways, I find myself enjoying a bit of homework and the pillow that could really use a bit of fluffing. Don't worry. I fixed that.
Monday: The official beginning of Week 5. I think this is the day that is also known as the day of productivity. Ballet and Jazz I really focus on getting technique. We started this really cool Fosse dance in Jazz to All That Jazz from the musical Chicago! It's a blast! Really specific and different than anything else I've done here this summer as far as dance goes. Ballet has been a lot of time figuring out where my true center is and how to always keep it lifted! After lunch is Audition Technique where I get an interesting note that I've never received before. My teacher said that I have a dirty cockiness behind my innocent eyes and smile that I need to bring out. Take that for what you think it means and deal with it. I'm still not sure what that means. Music theory is the same old song and dance, without the song or dance part. I can appreciate it for sure, but there is a reason I'm not a music major. The gym makes me feel better, and I do homework while listening/researching more music I can sing for the remainder of the program. The gym is getting to me. ZzzzZZZzZZzz.
Tuesday: I have a 9AM rehearsal to start of this great day, then I get right into Tap which has all of it's usual peppy awesomeness that it usually does. Vocal tech flies by as I enjoy listening to my classmates have breakthroughs and sing their individual songs. This week in vocal tech, we are getting time to work individually with the teacher which is an AWESOME opportunity. I'm excited for it! Vocal Performance is after lunch and my performance is alright. I have a sudden realization. I think I have a legitimate phobia of high notes. What is wrong with me?! Every time I sing up into my upper register I psychologically freak myself out and make myself believe that I can't sing that high, even though I know that isn't true. I've proved it to myself multiple times before. My performance was alright, but I wish it could have gone better. I sang a hilarious song about putting in a personal ad and the responses I got from the ad. It was a challenge and I really enjoyed the opportunity to work on my comedy! It's something I'm really looking to grow in, especially with Dirty Rotten Scoundrels coming up in the fall! Acting concludes the day where I have my scene performance with Kelan. It's a little rough on my end, but for some reason this scene just won't stick in my brain! I've tried and tried but for some reason memorizing this scene has been really difficult for me. Another gym day with weight-lifting and cardio and then homework later are enough to make my eyes heavy enough to sleep. But you know, if I'm exhausted I must be living each day to the fullest, so I must be doing something right.
Wednesday: To be honest, this is the first time in the entire four and a half weeks that I've really struggled with waking up and getting out of bed. I don't know what it is. I mean, I didn't sleep well last night at all. It was one of those nights where you constantly wake up and my AC unit stopped working for a bit, but CAP is waiting for me, so I plant my feet on the ground, force myself out of bed, run through the shower (metaphorically of course), and get down to 18th street! Ballet and Jazz wake me up a bit and after lunch is one of my favorite classes: Musical Scene Study. We have an incredible warm-today, and then we see some INCREDIBLE scenes! I love my talented classmates! It's awesome seeing a scene all the way through once, and then having our teacher go through and fix things which enhance the scene and take it to a whole new level. They are subtle changes, but a raised sternum and deep breath followed by a full exhale dramatically changes circumstances in certain cases. Business of Theatre class is really interesting today when we talk about agents and managers and how to get them! I RUSH out of CAP as soon as I can because I am off to see some wonderfully familiar faces. My Aunt Paul and cousin Colleen are in NYC and they invited me to see Harvey with them, a Broadway show with Jim Parsons based off of the Jimmy Stewart movie. We grab dinner on 54th street at a Mexican restaurant called Iguana and caught up! It sure is nice to see family! We get all caught up on each others' busy lives and then head to the show. It was quite the theatrical experience! I really enjoyed Harvey and was so grateful that Aunt Paula was generous enough to treat me to such a wonderful evening! We leave the theatre and want to see Rachel, one of Colleen's friends whom I've met before when Colleen was traveling with her across the country (they stopped into Baylor when they drove through Texas. We are trying to get a taxi when we realize that Colleen's phone is dead, so we don't have Rachel's number. We don't know the actual name of the wine shop where Rachel works. We also cannot get Rachel's number off of her Facebook because it's not on there. Hmmmmmm. *DING* Earlier in the summer, Dad emailed me Rachel's number because she had found out I might be headed up North sometime soon, and so much to Aunt Paula's and Colleen's disbelief, I'M actually the one who was able to contact Rachel. It was hilarious in the you-had-to-be-there sense. We get to Foragers and some shenanigans go down, which was expected because a couple of crazy Wilson cousins are together in NYC with some other REALLY COOL people too! Let's just say the "Youhooooob", a harmonica, and "This land is your land, this land is my land, from California, to the New York Island" were all involved. I take the nice 10 block walk home because Foragers is close to where I live! I'm pretty sure my extra-long twin bed has never been so comfortable.
Thursday: The trend of exhaustion continues, but you know what? I've decided that I will allow myself to slow down and sleep on August 5th, when I am depressed about the lack of my new close friends in my life and being out of NYC. I really am happy here and wouldn't want to be anywhere else this summer. It's been a dream, and is going to continue to be! Tap starts the morning which loosens me up a bit, but then in Vocal Technique, I think I got nervous to perform for the first time. But this isn't your everyday mild nerves. This is the kind of tense-up, locked knees, short-of-breath, cold hands sort of nervous tension that is preventing me from thinking straight and singing correctly for my performance today. DANG IT! I only have one more shot at getting individual attention from our awesome Vocal Tech teacher, and I feel like I kind of blew this chance! It's alright. At least I get a second pass! I'm singing Man from The Full Monty, by the way. Acting and Vocal Perf are the classes that complete my Thursday at CAP, and I'm already in love with the new song I was assigned! It's called Larger than Life, and it's WONDERFUL! It sits in my voice really nicely and the music/melody is BEAUTIFUL. I love when the right melody and accompaniment combine to make a gorgeous song, especially when I am the one who gets to sing it! Unfortunately, i come to the realization that my gym membership has expired! No longer will I be
running or biking at the New York Sports Clubs facility...so I'll have
to make up for that with push-ups and sit-ups this week. I'll put a
little extra into dance classes as well! I decide that a night to myself is a nice idea because I could use a little extra rest, so I grab dinner on the way home and a little dessert because I earned it this week, and then enjoy a relaxing night in. With good reason too. New York is getting drilled with some crazy weather. A tornado even touched down somewhere! Luckily, I just experienced intense thunder and lightning and crazy rain. I'm listening/researching the musical Parade, which my scene from Musical Scene Study class originated. I'm doing the scene with "All the Wasted Time" and if you don't know it, listen to it! It's beautiful! And the true story of Leo Frank is really tragic! I didn't know it was based on a true story! That's intense! I'll just stick to the beautiful song I get to sing and probably end up singing it in my sleep, which comes easily tonight.
Friday: There are those days where you really realize how blessed normalcy is...and brushing my teeth made me realize that I really enjoy when I can brush those pearly whites and for nothing to go wrong. But there has to be a day like today to make you appreciate the normal days, right? Yes, here comes the story of my violent, vicious account of the battle with an inanimate object. My bathroom is decent size, but I have little counter space. I store most things inside my mirror. I took out my trusty Colgate brush and paste so that I can start my morning right with some good old fashioned personal hygiene. I put a little water on my brush, then squeeze out the minty white stuff onto the bristles. I notice that there is less toothpaste in the tube than I expected as I close my mirror shut again, but I planned this right to be running out at the end of the trip. I set it down on what little counter space I have and, of course, I over-estimated how much room their was and it falls to the floor, naturally I bend down to pick up the tube while I continue to brush my teeth, and my ascent back to the counter is when the predator in this situation, also known as the mirror that swings open, decided to pounce on it's prey, also known as my right eye. Luckily my guardian angels, also known as my brain and peripheral vision, allowed my eye to dodge the sharp fangs of the bottom corner of the metal-framed mirror. Unfortunately, the crest of my cheek was not quick enough to come out of the battle unscathed. But it's alright. Nothing a damp Kleenex and 5 minutes of pressure couldn't temporarily fix. I finish getting ready and head back to CAP in the summer of blood, sweat, and tears. I have a quick rehearsal for my MSS scene, and then Ballet begins. WHAT IS THIS CLASS?! Suddenly I know where my center is, and if I can work on my turn out just a little bit more, my pirouettes are going to be fantastic! I did a double today!! As for Jazz, during the warm-up we have a bunch of exercises which involve our bodies being stretched over our legs with our head hanging heavy. I came up from a stretch, and my teacher let out a little gasp, which is when I realize my epic battle wound from this morning had re-opened. It's alright, a run to the bathroom and a band-aid fix that and I'm back in time to finish the warm-up! Musical Scene Study is great today. During the warm-up, we went to the beach. I'm not going to explain that, but it happened. And yes, this is one of those weird theatre school things. Deal with it. My scene with the incredibly talented Megan Martin went pretty well! It was a decent attempt at a first pass! I'm glad we have a second opportunity next week though! Audition Technique finishes out the day, and this class goes really well for me! I bring out a couple of audition bugs and fix them, and I really enjoy the work I did in class today. OH. AND I didn't freak myself out of the high notes in my audition cuts. SUCCESS! A group of 7 of us, Steven, Megan, James, Malik, Jonathan, Kelan, and I, go to grab sushi at a local Japanese restaurant which is DELICIOUS. Hits the spot! We all split and do our own thing for a couple of hours, because we are going to freshen up and get together later tonight! I don't have a TV here so I can't watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, but I sure see a TON of Facebook statuses about it. Sounded really cool. Maybe it'll still be on DVR when I get home! I decide that I could use some fresh air and I don't want to have to pay for a cab, so I walk to Megan's apartment where we are getting together. After about 22 blocks, I realize it was a little farther than I remembered last time. Oh well, this makes the cookie I ate for dessert an okay thing! I have a really nice, laid back night with my friends and we all have some wonderful conversations. I met some new people, including a fellow Baylor Bear! SIC 'EM! Maybe we'll see each other on campus back in Waco! I share a cab with James home and get ready to sleep. Brittney ends up calling me at 2:30 in the morning and we catch up for a bit, because apparently the middle of the night is the best time for us to do this. We are crazy! This is when it hits me. A week from tomorrow is the end. I'll be on a flight home. You know what. Let the weekend begin.
I'm going to be doing some incredible things this week. I'll maybe get 2 more blogs in, so look for them soon! I need to overwhelm myself with NYC experiences so that I can survive on them until I come back next time! And there WILL be a next time! Whether that is a visit or whether that means I decide that I want to live here, we'll cross that bridge when that time comes closer!
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