Generous Subway Guards, The Theory Of Air Conditioning, and The 45th Floor

I'm telling you, laundry really is a time where I can sit down and think about how MUCH I do in a couple of days. Luckily, I keep a running list of highlights from each day on my phone so that I can remember to post it on here! So much has happened this week (which I am finding will be the norm for me each week) and I'm loving how busy I am! I can't believe that tomorrow night marks the completion of the second week I've been in NYC. It finally seems real, though strange because I had imagined coming here for so long. CAP21 is incredible. I cover the highlights of my CAP days for y'all to read about, but every moment on the 5th and 6th floor of that very warm 18th street building, I am learning and experiencing new parts of performance and technique that I didn't know I was capable of! It's amazing to think of the potential in everyone, and how the right education or experience is the key to letting that potential out of the box. I'm not sure if I've found the perfect key, but maybe I discovered a crowbar instead.

Sunday Evening: I saw Fuerza Bruta. This "show" is incredible. It's the most interesting thing I have experienced in a long time. Picture: a club with a DJ and incredible lights, take away the scandalous things that go along with the connotation to the word club, add in treadmills and incredibly athletic Spanish performers, and you get Fuerza Bruta. I NEED TO GO BACK. Victoria, Grace, and I will look for tickets again so that we can go. I want my CAP friends to go with us next time! Tonight is the end of my first weekend in NYC though, so tomorrow morning is school and I finish out the night with lots of music I play from Youtube, a gallon of water, and a ton of homework. I'd say this was a wonderful weekend. Danielle Stack...this is your shout out...are you excited?

Monday: It was one of those mornings where you wake up, feel fully rested, and for some reason you feel like you can accomplish everything you need to do to the best of your abilities. I'm ready to work today. The sun's a little bit brighter, there aren't as many people honking as usual, and I throw in headphones to walk to grab tea at a coffee house nearby. I honestly felt like I was reliving Joseph Gordon-Levitt's scene from 500 Days of Summer where he's walking in the streets and is happy as can be. I head to my 9AM rehearsal to knock out I'll Know from Guys and Dolls with my scene partner Lyndsey, who's incredible. Everyone I get to work with is intimidating (but in a good way) and I am learning so much from them! Like I've been saying, I'm already seeing improvements in class, even if it's the beginning of a change in my talents and abilities. Ballet is one of those where I can see the future possibility of improvement. With a ton of hard work. And dedication. And asking questions about how you're supposed to 'turn out' without dropping your frame or 'plie' while correctly holding a strong second position. Let's just say I'm not going to be joining a professional ballet company ANY time soon. Jazz, however, is simply enjoyable. I get rhythm and stuff like that, but Jazz just makes you feel good! Especially our dance teacher, Meg. She's just funny enough and enjoyable enough to make us really like her, but also she's so passionate about dance and she's going to kick our butts until we can proudly do some great combinations and really dance. Audition Tech and Music Theory finish the afternoon...and theory is kind of a joke. I'm not challenged at all right now, but I'm not going to complain because I've never taken a theory class. I've only studied music in Choir and when I was in band in high school. It'll probably get harder. Who knows? I hit the gym just to stay loose and get some good cardio and a light lift. I'm determined that this summer is the last where I don't have abs! I'm so motivated right now, I think it might happen! I spent the night doing more homework, but what was really fun was I went and did it at a local restaurant called Schnippers. It was the first place I ate here in NYC, and it's kind of become "my place." It's so cool that I have one of those, even already.

Tuesday: Another tea and homework morning! I like waking up early and taking time to get in the right mindset for class. Being more focused has allowed me to really get in the right mindset to allow myself to absorb all of this wonderful education and apply it to my own habits and performance style. And what's best, the morning STARTS with Tap! It's always been my favorite dance, but I'm getting pretty dang good at it. We learn a couple of standard licks and riffs which are a blast and continue a combination that he has been teaching the class. That ends and I realize that I'm about to have a heat stroke. It's interesting to me because people here don't make a huge deal about making sure the AC is working really well or on all the time like in Texas. Here...people believe in AC like a Seasonal/Holiday Catholic believes in confession: it's only necessary when it's REALLY bad. Anyway, on with classes and we will all have to deal with it! Vocal performance in the afternoon I sang "Mama, A Rainbow" and it went really well! I took notes I was given and I get to apply them to a second performance of that song next week! After class, a bunch of random people from CAP and I get together and go to a local, hipster place called Chat'N'Chew, where I had the best grilled chicken sandwich I've ever seen. I called Patrick on the way home because I MISS THAT KID. He's a goober and it was nice to catch up! We are going to Skype soon hopefully! After I drop my stuff in my room, a bunch of people from my class group in CAP get together at an Upperclassman's place for a little party because we don't have class tomorrow! It's so great getting to know these people so closely. I can't imagine what we are going to be like in Week 6. It reminds me of when you first get to college, and have a Welcome Week group and then get really close with them. We are by far the closest CAP group that i've seen. GROUP FOUR REPRESENT! Then it was a nice late night walk home with James and some other friends!

Wednesday: Happy Birthday America. I wonder if this is the opposite of a holiday in England...probably not. I wake up around 10:45...so I slept in a bit but still have enough time to be productive before today's festivities start! I called my family, which was a really nice and much needed conversation. Honestly, I have the BEST family and I miss them alot, so more separation from them is tough, but I know this is what I have to do this summer! Then it's just a subway train to Central Park where people from Group 4 and I have a small picnic. We grab some grass and fulfill our cheesy American stereotype by eating watermelon and hot dogs and delicious patriotic foods. It's interesting, I love Central Park so much because it's such an escape from the city. There are many parts of the park that made me even forget I was in NYC! After a quick rehearsal with Jenn my scene partner, we walk over to 19th street for a 21st birthday celebration of someone in the 2 year CAP program. We don't know them personally, but anything is a reason to celebrate on the Fourth of July...and the more the merrier! After an hour and a half, we head to a restaurant called The Cafeteria which was AWESOME! Really cool basement lounge atmosphere with great company makes a great meal. We are lucky enough to have a member in our group who lives in an apartment close to the river, so we all head there to watch this show that everyone has been talking about! To be honest, I didn't know that the NYC fireworks were so highly regarded or that much different than Texas or Colorado fireworks. However, getting to this place was a real adventure. Down in the subway station, our train is pulling in as we walk in! We all rush through the turnstiles until I nearly topple over and realize that for some reason my Metrocard won't go through! WAIT!! All my friends are on the other side and walking onto the train. I also have no idea where we are going. This is just great. And the machine which reloads Metrocards is malfunctioning. I'm on a time crunch! I need to get on that train! We even tried 3 of my friends' cards, and had no luck. This is where the generous subway guard stood up and I thought he was going to tell us to not make such a ruckus or something. He walks over to the buzzer gate...and he lets me through. A FREE RIDE because he wanted me to be with my friends. God bless America, right?! Faith in humanity restored. And I just have the Wilson luck...gotta love that. We get to this beautiful building, and our friend who lives here did not do it justice. On the 45th floor, we are not even two blocks off of the river. And there are floor to ceiling windows in this BEAUTIFUL apartment. I don't understand how people can afford to live like this in NYC! It looks like it is directly out of a magazine. Also, it looked like a nice apartment that you would see in a movie that takes place in NYC. CRAZY. Props to the owner of this apartment! We all celebrate and watch the beautiful firework show. This night has been the best! #'MURRRICA

Thursday: It was one of those mornings where you wake up...and you just know. You know that you must have slept through your alarm and you are late and the whole world is crashing in and nothing worse could possibly happen to you. I'm running around my room trying to figure out what I need to do to get to CAP as soon as possible. With only my shoes and shorts on (I don't know why I thought that was all I needed), I check the time. Yeah....it's 6 AM. I think I jumped the gun a little bit. But not I'm so jittery from the adrenaline that there is no way i'm getting back to sleep. This is going to be a long day. That's alright. I clean my room and do homework to kill time, when I realize that I didn't set an alarm to wake up. By some crazy chance, my body woke it self up....but better that it was ridiculously early rather than halfway through the day! Class finally gets started and I'm in love with Tap. For some reason, I was really on top of it today. I got the rhythm so well and had a BLAST doing it. Vocal Technique, Acting, and Vocal Performance finish out the day which seems to fly by, and then I have a rehearsal for I'll Know from Guys and Dolls, which is really coming along nicely! Nicely nicely that is (That is a joke from Guys and Dolls for any of you who caught that...yes i know...i'm a dork. But you're still reading, so at least i'm an entertaining dork). Finally I was walking home when I get a text from Victoria Teague that she is in Union Square and was just wondering if I wanted to hang out for an hour or so! OF COURSE. She made my night alot more interesting than I had planned, so we walked around for a while in Union Square and Union Square Park (AWESOME area. There's so much life, including street life and shops and restaurants!). I got some cheesy New York postcards which I'll send out to some people soon! To end the night, I hit the gym pretty hard and call Grace to figure out our plans for tomorrow...we are seeing the Tony winner for best musical Once with Baylor Theatre Alum Elizabeth A. Davis!! After I call Patrick to quickly catch up, I do homework and laundry, which brings us all to where I am right now. Exhausted. Ready for my next challenge. Regretting that pack of Pretzel M&M's that I let myself buy earlier and then mindlessly/instantly finished. If I want to be in shape...I need to drop that stuff. But those Pretzel M&M's are SO good. Hard to resist. Well. TGIF and I hope for the best this weekend! God bless!