However, after getting the afternoon off yesterday (Happy TFA Day!), which then allowed me to get four hours of sleep from 7 until 11:30 before I drove across town to a midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince with Stephanie before returning home at 4 to get two more hours of sleep, and after finishing three lesson plans tonight without breaking a sweat (and before 10:00PM!), I’m feeling like the two weeks and 2 days of Institute I have left are totally manageable. Especially since tomorrow at this time, I’ll be rocking out to Kris Allen, Adam Lambert, and Allison Iraheta at the American Idol concert…..andagainonSaturday.

Yes, I am going to the American Idol concert twice. And yes, I am aware that the do-gooders here at TFA probably judge and don’t understand my pop culture obbsesions. I know in my heart, though, that the fact that I’m going twice is just the consequence of a weird set of circumstances that involved me not thinking I could make the LA show, buying tickets to the San Diego show instead, and then finding out I could go to the LA show….but I digress.

The seeing HP and the seeing Kris Allen are the things that are keeping me sane and allowing me to plow through these last two weeks. I went into this thing telling myself that I would not change. I would not let TFA consume my life. I would not burn out by pushing away the things I love and becoming scary-serious-sanctimonious chick. I do want to give all I can to my new job, but not at the expense of my life. So…yeah, no guilt. And I won’t complain if I’m tired, which surprisingly after last night’s weird split up sleep situation, I’m not. (I still got 7 hours of sleep, which sadly, is more than I’ve been getting on a regular basis) Although, this post is sounding more and more like I am super tired. Or like I’m drugged.

Whatevs. The whole point is I’m alive. I’m going to make it through Institute, and I’m going to allow myself to have some fun along the way. The end. Good night.

1. Ira Glass – Last Thursday night, I dragged my mother to go with me to see “This American Life LIVE“, an event put on by the brilliant and addictive Public Radio show “This American Life” in which they do a live broadcast of their show in New York and beam it out to movie theaters around the country like freakin’ Star Trek! I was beyond excited for it, as my love for “This American Life” knows no bounds, PLUS the fact that actally watching Ira Glass, the freakishly amazing host, talk could entertain me for hours, as I’m so used to hearing him as this omnipresent voice on my walks to and from class rather than a noise actually coming out of a human face. When we got to the theater, we were one of two groups of people there, and my mother laughed at the lack of NPR listeners in the area – 10 minutes later the theater was almost full. Suck it, Mom! (Just kidding, I love you! And Happy Birthday!) I instantly wanted to befriend everyone there, as liking TAL (especially enough to drop $20 to see TAL LIfe) is one of my cool people indicators (you know you have them too). My love was even further solidified by the fact that they had word puzzels playing on the screen as the pre-show entertainment! It was like writing geek heaven. The show itself was great, as the radio show most always is. I cried at two stories and cracked up at all of them. My favorite comedian, Mike Birbiglia, told a story about a car crash in which he was wrongly found at fault (the other guy was drunk, so this was a pretty big slap in the face), and it was alterntately hilarious, infuriating, and touching, like every awesome story should be. (And because I haven’t mentioned it here before, I saw Mike’s off-Broadway show in March and it’s amazing! If you haven’t listened to his CD’s or seen is show, I strongly suggest doing so.) Basically, it was $20 well spent. I reccomend listening to the radio broadcast of the show next week, which you can do on their website.(It’s the episode titled “Return to the Scene of the Crime”)

2. Gregory House – Am I the only one who has noticed that there are only about 3 hours in the day when House is not playing on the USA Network? Take a minute, and check it right now. I’ll be you $20 bucks it’s on. Go ahead. I’ll wait…….As someone who has always thought I should watch House, because it’s a quality show and I am a lover of quality shows, it’s been nice to be able to watch some episodes here and there, but it’s becoming ridiculous. I watch one because it’s the only thing on, then I can’t change the channel in time before the next episodes starts and BOOM someone collapses with a siezure or heart failure that is TOTALLY UNEXPLAINABLE and OMGIHAVETOKNOWWHATTHEYHAVE!! Suddenly it’s three hours later, I still don’t exactly understand what was wrong with the patient, and I’m dreaming in medical jargon. Luckily, House’s witty dialogue and curmudgeonly attidute make it all worth while.

3. Flickr – This site is like photography crack. I get on to upload a few pictures then BOOM, I see someone made a comment on one of my pictures. “Join our group! It will be fun! Everyone’s doing it!” I click on the link to check out the group then suddenly I’ve lost ANOTHER three hours I thought I’d use to do something productive after breaking free of House, but instead I go from photostream to photostream with my mouth hanging open wondering how in the hell someone took this picture. It’s a problem. (Speaking of photos, have you checked out my new photoblog? Have you? Again, I’ll wait…../end shameless self-promotion)

4. Work – It’s slowly sucking out my soul. I don’t do well dealing with the public. At all. Especially when I have to work to please them and live with the mantra that somehow, despite how stupid and ridiculous and clearly WRONG they are, they are right. It hurs my soul. It really does.

And that is what has been taking up my time. Clearly, these are life-altering things I’m devoting myself to. I mean, I’ve got all major medium covered – radio, TV, internet. My life is crawling with excitement. Soon, though, that sarcastic statement could be true! Thursday, I’m headed to Boston for two days, then I’m back for a week, then it’s off to Boston AGAIN for senior week, then home for two weeks to pack up my life, then it’s off to Vegas, Baby (!!) for a little meet-up you may have heard about, then I’m flying to San Diego to pick up  my car and see the family, AND THEN I’m driving to LA and hanging out with my high school BFF and you know, starting my new life. So…yeah…this  may be the end of me complaining about how bored I am. Thank god.

 
20SB Vlog Day #2 – My Love for HSM3 from In Development on Vimeo.

(You can check out all the 20SB Vlogs here.)

(To read my first two recaps click on over to here and then here.)

After Sydney, we headed down to Sarah’s parent’s beach house on the Mornington Peninsula. (It’s like Cape Cod for Australians!) We made a quick stop at her mom’s work to FINALLY meet the famous Helen. She was, of course, 100 times lovelier than I could have hoped and quickly became my Australian mother. After a quick lunch we finally headed to the house, which was adorable! It was covered in amazing flowers and trees, with an oasis of a backyard and a huge screened in porch. It was beachy and homey and just absolutely fabulous.

That night was Christmas Eve so we settled in to watch Carols by Candlelight, a Melbourne tradition of famous Australians singing every Christmas Carol known to man. We danced to High Five and cried at Silent Night and then settled into bed. Christmas morning was a little emotionally overwhelming. First, we opened presents! Sarah’s parents got me an Aussie Bar-B-Q cook book along with some other fine Australian items (chocolates, Tim Tims, Australian ice-molds, etc.), which was ridiculously sweet of them. Despite my amazing trip thus far, I ended up calling my family and getting choked up that I wasn’t with them. It was the first time I’d ever been away from my Dad’s side of the family on Christmas, and even though I’m Jewish, it’s still a big time of year for my family. Sarah’s mom gave me a big hug and all was alright, espeically when we got dressed up, and drove down the coast for an amazing five course Christmas meal complete with ocean views and party poppers filled with paper crowns and plastic mustaches.

The rest of the Christmas and Boxing Day was a blur of enjoying Entourage marathons, playing with Sarah’s dogs Jackson and Griffen, pushing our way through crowded Boxing Day sales at the mall and generally relaxing.

Sharon and Jackson on the beach

Saturday, the day after Boxing Day, Sarah’s parents had a big Bar-B-Q with all their friends and family. It was great to meet more of Sarah’s friends and talk with some more real Australians about our trip. Sharon and I figured out at the end of the day that we ate for 5 straight hours – starting out with meatballs, meat pies, sausage rolls, and other hors devours and ending with grilled lamb, chicken, and anything else you can think of. I’ve never been more full but it was completely worth every bite.

Sunday, we had another shopping excursion on Chapel Street, meeting up with Sarah’s friend Taff, who looks like an Australian Lauren Conrad but way nicer. We shopped and ate (sadly, at TGI Fridays…why must these thing spread?) and ended the day seeing Slumdog Millionaire, which Sarah and I then talked about the rest of the night. (Seriously, if you have not seen this movie, stop reading immediately and buy yourself a ticket. Right now.)

Things get a little blurry in my time line here…I believe the next day Sharon and I took off on our own to take in the Melbourne Aquarium. My favorite part was probably seeing all the real life Finding Nemo characters and convincing Sharon to face her fear of sharks in the Shark exhibit.

Nemo!

Monday night things got a little interesting – We decided to take in Melboune by night, which we hadn’t done yet and which was beautiful. After walking around a bit, Sharon decided she wanted to hit up the Casino along the Yarra River, since she’d never been gambling before. After taking in the Casino’s spectacular light show (note the intense sarcasm) we made our way over the slot machines. Having both been to Vegas before, Sarah and I explained to Sharon how to play the slots then sat by and watched. After a few rounds, some chairs down the row opened up and we decided to play a few rounds ourselves while we waited for Sharon. I put in a $2 coin that quickly ran out then put in another, figuring that would be my final bet as Sharon was going down quickly. Then, Sarah had some luck and won $8! We were excited to be able to pay for a cab ride home. On my end, I was down to my final 2 cents and bet it all on one last go. I was about to get up, when the guy next to me shouted “Oo, you are doing so well!” I was confused, but then I saw that my last bet had turned into one of those mini-games that comes up sometimes. The guy next to me seemed super excited about it,  but I had no idea what it meant. It reminded me of the game that came up when I won $15 in Vegas, so I figured maybe I’d add to our cab fund. The game involved flipping over cards, like in a memory game. I started picking cards randomly, because honestly, slot machines make little to no sense to me. But then the cards kept matching and the guy next to me kept getting more and more excited, until I turned over one last card and everything started flashing. The guy pointed to the top of the game yelling ” You won big! You won big!” I thought for a second he was pointing to the $64 prize, and I was pretty pleased with myself. Then Sarah noted that the big prize was flashing…the $1850 prize. Yep, I won the big jackpot. On my final 2 cent bet. Sarah and I started absolutely freaking out! People came over to congratulate me. A woman from the casino came and made me sign a slip of paper then brought me out cash in a locked black box. All the while, I looked like this:

I still can’t believe I won. I also can’t believe people asked me if I was going to keep playing. Hell no! I took that cash and ran. I really wanted to go out and get drinks, but Sharon was a little miffed about my winning when I didn’t really want to go gambling in the first place, so I settled for going home and attempting to explain to my dad in a 4 minute phone call what had just happened. I’m currently saving my winnings (which are sadly much less in US dollars) to buy my new MacBook!

After the excitement of the casino, I was glad to be headed back to the beach on Tuesday to stay at a huge vacation house with 20 of Sarah’s closest friends for New Years. Looking back, I think our three days at the beach house were some of my favorite days of the whole trip. For three days, we watched the boys play their own weird “catch” game based on cricket (complete with beer and cigarettes in every hand that wasn’t holding a bat or a ball), played cards (I totally kicked ass at poker), watched movies, played drinking games, lounged on the beach, and talked and talked and talked.

The boys playing "cricket"

Everyone hanging out our first night at the house

Hanging out with Sarah’s friends added so much to my trip. I wasn’t just a tourist in Australia. I got to talk to all these people my own age about their lives, their views, their jobs, and about things of absolutely no importance. I loved seeing how they saw America and vice versa. They were also unbelievably accommodating  and friendly and so much fun. I wish I could be friends with them all the time! New Year’s Eve was especially entertaining as everyone got mildly ridiculous and I got an excellent Australian New Year’s kiss (or pash as Sarah would say.) I was more than a little sad to say good-bye to everyone come Thursday.

Luckily, Friday was filled with the excitement of Sharon and my tour to Phillip’s Island. Basically, we got on a bus in the morning, and headed to an Australian winery, then to a wildlife park where we got to feed Kangaroos and pet a baby Koala. (Sadly in the state of Victoria, you can’t hold the koalas. Fail.)

Sharon and the Kangaroos!

The day ended on Phillip’s Island with the world famous Penguin Parade, which is this huge tourist attraction where you go watch the tiny penguins come up the shore and into the dunes on the beaches every night. It was amazing – all these little penguins waddling together in giant packs up the beach and into the hills, all like they knew exactly where they were going, totally unbothered by the mass of spectators there. I recommend it if you think you can resist grabbing a tiny penguin and running home with it.

Saturday, we had another outing with Sarah’s parents, who by this point were officially our Australian parents. They took us to a place called Soverign Hill, which is an old west type town from Australia’s gold rush. They had horse drawn carriage rides, gold panning, and amazingly cheesy street performers, including a little old man who played the accordion and told us he had a niece who was a gynocologist in Kentucky. “Maybe you know her!”

Us with some (we assume) struggling Australian actors

This man was AMAZING

Sarah’s dad entertained us by buying a large walking stick and showing off his color guard moves. All in all, a lovely day.

Sunday was mildly depressing, as Sarah had to leave us. During the course of the trip, Sarah and I realized we are truly soul mates. I didn’t think I could feel much closer to her, but I can definitely say she is and will probably always be one of my best friends, despite the fact that a 20 hour plane ride separates us. She completely understands me (my love of staying in and watching television, my love of Nikon digital cameras, my love of adorable Australian boys…the list goes on and on) and provided me with a once in a life-time trip. Saying good-bye to her was definitely the only downside to the whole experience.

Sharon and I attempted to cheer ourselves up with last minute shopping, and later that night, Sarah’s friend Nick (who may or may not have been my New Year’s kiss…) surprised us by renting Pineapple Express and taking us out for our final dinner. (I told you Sarah’s friends were freakishly nice!)

Monday Sharon and I, somehow miraculously, packed up all our stuff and headed to the airport to fly back to the good old U.S. of A.

Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean

I ended up staying in LA for the next week, catching up with my best friends from the LA program, Grace and Patrick, hanging out with my sister, shopping with some sorority friends, and showing my future LA roommate Josh around the area I hope we end up living in. I, of course, hit up Joan’s on Third and had a major celebrity sighting (Jennifer Anniston, Courtney Cox, and David Arquette had dinner where we were getting drinks then walked RIGHT BY US out the back door and into a swarm of paparazzi. Total LA moment.) The whole time, though, all I could talk about was Australia.

I sincerely hope I get to go back one day.

"Victoria - THE place to be" - I couldn't agree more.

Yes, in the last week and a half, I’ve plowed through all four of Stephenie Meyer’s novels, and yes, even went to see the movie a second time. (I mean, I had to see it now that I really understand the story. I have to say, it was definitely better when I understood why Edward looks like he’s in pain for most of the film…)

I know I’m way behind the curve on this one. Twilight talk was EVERYWHERE in November, but I was kind of wrapped up in my last semester of college, and now that I have nothing but free time, I no longer had an excuse. I really didn’t want to give in, but my love of all things pop culture forced me to understand what all the fuss was about. Now I finally get to have an opinion! It’s a complicated one, but here goes:

I can’t say I think the books are good, but I also definitely can’t say they’re bad either. I mean, I couldn’t put them down. Even with my ridiculous love of getting completely wrapped up in a book, that fact says a lot about the story. And there is the distinction I have to draw: the books present an amazingly engrossing story.I couldn’t wait to see what happened next. Stephenie Meyer says herself she considers herself more a story-teller than a writer, and I think that’s an apt description, because as wrapped up in the story as I was, I still found myself cringing at points, especially in Twilight, at the repetitive language and overly fluffy writing. I know everyone has said this, but if she had described Edward’s heart-stopping beauty one more time, I thought I was going to throw the book out the window. That said, I wouldn’t have because I HAD TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED! It was mildly frustrating. Especially because I wanted to find myself above the books: I wanted to hate them. And I didn’t. I enjoyed them. A lot. Damn you, Stephenie. 

(EDIT: I was told by my mother I should pause here for a brief SPOILER ALERT in case I’m not the last person to read these books.)

There were more things I found frustrating: the feeling all through New Moon that nothing happened (and when it did, it had nothing to do with anything that had happened thus-far in the book), Edward’s ridiculous perfection but also his mild creepiness (I mean, he’s wonderful and all, but if a real guy acted like him, I would probably be telling him to take a giant step back…), the fact that Bella and Jacob kept having the same good-bye scene over and over and over again, the slight creepiness of the Jacob-Renesmee situation in Breaking Dawn…

While on the subject of Breaking Dawn, I was told by all my friends who had read the book that they hated it, that it took so many weird turns, so maybe I was prepared, but I didn’t hate it. I mean, I found problems with all the books, so Breaking Dawn pretty much fell in line with my expectations. Yeah, the whole pregancy, having to drink blood, baby-breaking Bella’s ribs thing was weird and a little scary, but I thought it was kind of cool. I mean, in a vampire book, it had to get creepy eventually. It’s amazing it took this long to get bloody, when you actually think about it. Plus, I loved that in the end, Bella really did have to become a vampire to live, and I was happy to get to see that transformation. It felt gratifying. The thing that bugged me the most was that the timeline felt really compressed (did anyone else think they talked about the events in New Moon like they had happened years rather than months beforehand?), but it all made sense, I suppose. I also think, like with Harry Potter, this was definitely not a young adult novel…at all. Despite all these frustrations, though, I have to say again, I liked the books. It’s weird. I don’t think I’ve ever been this torn about enjoying a book before.  

There is SO much more I can say, but I really need to break away from this world. It’s been totally engrossing to me, and I’m glad I finally feel caught up on pop culture after putting it off for a while, but I need to get some other things done that Edward Cullen has kept me from. Up next, I promise, I’ll finish my trip recap!

I do have other things to report in my current life, though. It’s looking like, for now, I’ll be staying at home for a little while. The thought of packing and “moving” back to Boston for the few months before graduation, right now, is nauseating after my month of travel and suitcase living, not to mention my numerous moves over the past four years. To combat the boredom I know is coming, however, I’ve undertaken some projects.

The first is weight loss. Inspired by some real-life friends and stealing ideas from Jen, I signed up for Weight Watchers Online. I always say I want to lose weight, but something else always take precedence, like school and friends, you know, little things. Now, however, the only job I’ll have will be stress-free, I assume, and I have access to free food and a free gym, so why shouldn’t I take advantage? Plus, I don’t really try hard to eat super well, yet I’m not really overweight, so if I put in some effort, I think I can knock off a few pounds. I’ve been on it for two days, and it’s been tough. I snack ALL THE TIME. Anyone who knows me knows Goldfish Crackers are my life, so that’s been the toughest thing to cut out. All those little fish add up to points I can’t part with. Also tough: working out yesterday for the first time in a month. I almost passed out in a kickboxing class, and today I could barely get out of bed I was so sore. I’m trying a different class tomorrow, but now I’m determined to get through a kickboxing class, just because it so kicked my ass. I’ll definitely keep you updated. 

Another bandwagon I’m a little ashamed to have jumped on: Twilight. I got a gift card to Barnes and Noble from my cousin for Christmas, and I saw the massive display of Twilight stuff  yesterday, and outwardly reasoning that if I’m going to be teaching middle schoolers English soon, I should see what they’re interested in (this was achieved by buying a book recommended by TFA called The Art of Teaching Reading as well), but really just wanting to be able to know what all those posts about Edward Cullen were gushing about, I picked up the first book. I’m already 100 pages in, and all I’ll say at this point is that it’s much better than the movie, which did not impress me. I get sucked pretty easily into books, so I’m not expecting to be above the craziness. Again, I’ll keep you updated. 

So that’s all in my normal life for now. I’m currently looking for a job, but nothing’s happened so far. I’m definitely not complaining. So far, I’m enjoying the rest. I mean, today, I get to sit home all day and watch inauguration coverage, which, by the way, is INSANE. Has there ever been an inauguration people were this genuinely excited about? It’s amazing and inspiring and exciting that people are this hopeful and happy about one of our leaders. Even if you don’t like Obama, you have to acknowledge that what he’s done for so many people in the country and for the general feeling in the country is fantastic. That being said, I’ve never disliked Bush as a person, and right now, I’m kind of happy for him. I feel like he is probably so relieved to be done. Now he can go hang out on his ranch, clear his brush, and no one can say anything to him about it. In that way, I feel like we share a nice little connection. We’re both taking a break after a lot of hard work. Mine  may have not have been as serious, but you know what I mean….

Friday I slept in til noon, because I’m lazy and because it’s my only sleep-in day. I made mself some french toast, so obviously, the weekend was off to a winning start. I hung around in my apartment, working on my plays and watching Food Network. (Who’s excited for Thanksgiving week?!) Friday Night, Jillian and I headed to a Senior’s only Hard Hat party at the new dorm/apartment building they’re building next to ours. It’s times like those when I realize how big my school is, because I hadn’t ever seen most of the people there, and supposedly, we’ve been going to school together for four years. Oops. After that, we headed next door to the arena for a basketball game, brining the total number of sporting events I’ve been to at this school to two! (The first being a hockey game freshman year.) I blame this sad situation on the fact that I love the one sport we don’t have here (football) and our teams are generally not great (well, except the hockey team…but I don’t really like hockey so that falls under reason number one.) The game was super fun, though! It didnt take me long to become a rabid fan, so when we tied the game at the last mintes, I was freaking out with everyone else. Sadly, we didn’t win, but I did get to relive my middle school dance team days while watching the dance team out on the b-ball court. Good times. 

Saturday, I dragged myself out of bed to go to work, but afterwards, I headed to Josh’s, where I awkwardly woke  him up (it was 2:30PM, so I didn’t feel that bad), because we’d made plans to see High School Musical 3 again. (Before you judge, the first time, I missed A LOT because of the rabid crowd AND we now know all the songs and could sing along, making the movie infinitely more enjoyable.) Anyhoo, I didn’t want to walk all the way home then back over to his apartment before the movie, so I figured Josh and I could get lunch at the new Chipotle (YUMM!!!) that opened by the theater. I tried calling him, but he didn’t answer, which, I learned when I knocked on his door, was because he was alseep with his phone on silent. Oh well. He got up, and we headed to lunch and then to the movie. I didn’t feel too bad about us seeing the movie again, until I looked at the crowd which consisted of a couple making out in the back, a girl sitting alone eating a large popcorn, and a row of five-year-old girls. Whatevs. The movie was awesome. Again. 

Last night, Jillian and I headed out for sushi at Fugakyu in Coolidge Corner, which was amazingly delicious. I got a roll with eel and tempura sweet potato. It was insane. In a good way. Afterwards, we headed to a bar for my friends 21st birthday. Here, my weekend hit a low point. I had to act as Jillian’s wing woman, but I was too good at it, because about halfway through the night, she started dancing with some guy, leaving me to sit alone in the back of the bar texting my sister, during which, I broke my quasi-new necklace, sending black beads scattering all around me. Coolness Fail. I finally almost left with another friend, but when I went to see if the guy could walk Jillian home later, she decided to leave with me. 

This morning, I, of course, woke up nauseous, but sadly, had to get up early to go to my sorority’s Founder’s Day celebration. Now, I’ve decided in retrospect that my motto for this day was “Really?!” (in the vein of “Really?! With Seth and Amy” on SNL’s Weekend Update.) My little, her roommate who I love, and I headed out around 10:30 to overload on caffine and catch the buses that were supposed to drive us to the other campus around 10:45. Luckily, we got there on time, because when we arrived, we learned that “Buses” really meant “15-passenger vans.” Two of them. For our 80 person sorority. Awesome. We got to be in the first round of riders over, which proved to be almost as bad as going on the second round, as we had to sit for an hour and a half at this other campus waiting for the event to even start. At least it gave us time to eat the packed lunches we were advice to bring. (They couldn’t even feed us? Really?!) I ate my cold bagel from Starbucks, even though I’d just finished a Starbucks breakfast sandwich an hour earlier. It was at this point that I started getting pissed that I’d had to get up at 9AM. Luckily, the girls in my chapter are cool enough that we could entertain eachother. 

Then the event actually started – some woman from the international office came to do a “workshop” with us about living the values of our sorority. She bestowed information on us like, if a girl doesn’t share the same values as her sisters, the chapter may have no choice but to ask her to leave, that is, unless you can conform her to your ways. You should never wear your letters when you look bad, because people will judge you and your sorority, as evidenced by the time she saw some girl on the campus where she works from a rival sorority looking like “garbage poo” (Yes, friends, that’s a direct quote), and she thought it made them all look trashy. No, sweetie, I think that makes you look trashy when you trash talk girls 30 years younger than you. (And my fellow sisters and I were glad SHE wasn’t sporting letters along with her RED PLEATHER VEST. Ick.) We were all so disgrunted by the time we had to question eachother about our values and name adjectives that describe ourselves, that all my little, Lynn, and I could think of to describe ourselves was sarcastic, bitter, and judgemental. All true, but not somehting you want to bring up at a job interview. 

It was at this point that I thanked god for my sisters (the ones in MY chapter, not crazy alumni “sisters”) who all saw most of what this woman said as judgemental bullshit (like most of the things advisors tell us.) One of my sisters actually said, “Really. I thought what mattered was what’s on the inside.” Seriously. At least the girls I know can make me laugh through these ridiculous events. 

After what seemed liked forever, the event ended. As people on the first wave of buses coming up, my family (that is my little, grandlittle, and me) wanted to make sure we were on the first wave of buses out, because I was not spending another hour in suburban Massachuettes with crazy sorority women. Sadly, we headed out the wrong door and feared we’d been left behind. Luckily, after circling the building, we spotted the vans across the parking lot. We literally sprinted down a grassy knoll to push ourselves onto one of the vans, and by the time we were inside, we were laughing so hard at the ridiculousness of our desperation, I couldn’t breathe. We had a fun ride back, talking about so many random things (Vegan restaurants named TJ Piddleywinks, raccoons, The Office) that I was crying laughing at a few points. 

People ask me why I put up with all this sorority crap, which I seem to complain about all the time, and I think the van ride back is reason why I put up with it. Because at the heart of my sorority are girls I really do like and enjoy spending time with. I mean, I hadn’t even met my grandlittle until September, since she pledged while I was in LA, but I clicked with her instantly, because I love  my little and my little loves her. Things like that, you have to admit, are kind of cool  Yes, the bureaucracy and the mandatory events and crazy judgmental alumni make it obnoxious, but when you are stuffed in a 15-person van with 20 other girls and still find yourself laughing until it hurts, that’s not something you can leave easily.

And…it…was….AWESOME!

From the first frighteningly close, close-up of a sweaty Zac Efron in his signature Wildcat basketball uniform, which was met with resounding yells and catcalls from all women and gay men in the audience (which was, save for about five sad boyfriends, everyone in the audience), to the gratuitous slow-motion, pink-covered entrance of Sharpay Evans (the inspiration for my Halloween costume: pictures coming soon), to the eight moments Troy and Gabriella almost kissed (including one where he is IN HER BED ROOM. AT NIGHT. WITH CHOCOLATE COVERED STRAWBERRIES! What are you DOING Disney?!), to the awkward forced sexual tension between an obviously gay Ryan and a pre-pubescent looking Kelsi, to…to…every last awkward, subltly sexual, over-the-top, ridiculous, dance-filled moment of the whole movie, I and everyone in the audience (made up almost entirely of 18-20 year old theater students, thanks to our chosen theater’s location in the heart of Emerson College) soaked up every minute: clapping, yelling, awwing, possibly crying, dancing, and swooning. (Zac Efron’s arms could star in their own movie…and don’t even get me STARTED on the gratuitous and immensely satisfying naked back shots in the locker room…)

I think it might be my favorite one yet, but that might also be because I got to enjoy it with a room full of college kids who also like to ironicly love and obsess over children’s programming (as further evidenced by the round of applause Miley Cyrus got during the previews) as opposed to watching in the living room with my dad, whose entire review of High School Musical 2 was “Well, that’s two hours of my life I’ll never get back.”

So, I implore you, if your life has sucked lately, if you are stressed, angry, sad, or at all just plain ticked off about the world (and let’s be honest, there’s a lot to be just plain ticked off about), get yourself into a theater full of theater-loving, Zac Efron-obsessed girls and gay men and escape for a while. After the cast members take their final bows and do one last freeze frame jump in front of that famous red curtain, go home and download the soundtrack to try to hold onto that feeling. My soundtrack is downloading from iTunes as we speak. Let’s hope this helps.

The things that have been taking up the bulk of my time can be divided into four categories: classes, work, Bay State and friends. Let’s take them one by one, so as not to knock me over with the sheer amount of things I have to split my focus between. 

Classes: Have been good. Really good. I got into an Advanced playwriting class I applied to early in the summer as a back-up to my ever changing schedule. It’s taught by a guy who, among other writerly things, runs an organization to lobby for the arts in Massachusetts, a subject very near and dear to my heart. (In fact, when asked to talk in my acting class for 1 to 3 minutes about a subject I am passionate about, I spoke about the arts in education.) I think it will be nice to go back to a subject that was so important to me in high school. (Background side note: I was in a Performing Arts magnet program my last two years of high school, causing me to take playwriting for two years with my amazingly amazing drama teacher.)

Speaking of high school, I am also returning to an acting class for the first time since senior year in Acting for Writers and Directors. It’s so cool to look at acting from a different viewpoint, while still being the actor yourself in class. I think it’s going to really  help with my playwriting class. 

My last class is photography, which I am BEYOND excited about. (Stupid sidenote: I had to pick up prints today from Ritz Camera for work. While I waited, I, of course, had to ask if I could look at the D90 I knew they had to have just gotten in. I think I impressed the camera sales boys.) We went into the darkroom at the end of class, and I got all tingly. I can’t wait to get started on my first assignment, which is a very good thing during your last semester of college. Most people are just trying to push their ways to the end. 

Next up…WORK: Could be going better. For one thing, after interviewing for the infamous job and being told they wanted to make a quick decision, I have heard absolutely NOTHING. At this point, I’m going on the assumption that I didn’t get it, but is it too much to want to know for sure? I just feel like I need to start gearing myself up for the reality that I have to look for a job in five months and having this possibility of getting out of it hanging over my head is wildly unhelpful. Plus, they seem to want me to act like I have the position (i.e.: working more) without actually hiring me, which is wildly unfair to me. I’m not going to give up my life to work unless I’m being paid salary, thankyouverymuch. 

Which leads me to the reason for not wanting to work more, which is BAY STATE: the campus TV show I am Co-Executive Producing this semester. I’ve worked on the show, which, by the way, is America’s longest running college soap opera, since freshman year, and it has always been my goal to Executive Produce. Actually doing the job is kind of surreal. I’m sharing Executive Producer responsibilities with my friend Josh, who you may remember from my numerous summer outings to his apartment, who is SUPER serious about the show, and thus, likes to have conversations and meetings about it basically every day. This is great for the show and for the quality, which we are always trying to ramp up, but it is a little hard on my sanity when I am dealing with lots of other things. 

And lastly FRIENDS: who I am SO HAPPY to have back in my life after my summer of two friends. I’ve basically been out with people every night, whether singing “Oops I did it Again” with Jillian at Karaoke Tuesdays at our favorite bar (after some drunk hoes sang “See you Again” by our best friend Miley Cyrus  before we got a chance!) or playing Mario Kart (and sucking majorly) with Jenn, Lauren and Alex. It is just nice to have somewhere to go every night and to have people to call when I’m bored. I feel like I need to soak all this up now before I possibly move somewhere with no friends and work so much I never want to leave my apartment. Boo to the future. 

So that is where I’ve been. There are so many stories I wish I could tell in full, like traveling out to Porter Square with Jillian and Alex to visit Megan (one of my two summer friends) and her boyfriend Paul to see their new grown-up apartment and realizing that I could live there after graduation (for SO MUCH CHEAPER than staying around campus) and be pretty happy. Or about my work day from hell, which I only survived with constant texting (including riddles from Alex) and a Quiznos sub. Or about my new wish to live in Europe for a year due to a combination of reading and loving My Life in France by Julia Child (who I now want to be) and seeing and loving Vicky Christina Barcelona (does Woody Allen EVER disappoint?). 

Luckily, every time I write here, I remember why I like writing here. Hopefully, I’ll catch up on the blog world once I’ve caught up on my life a little bit more. I’ve been neglecting commenting, and I don’t like it. So, is anyone else having trouble getting back into the swing of things?

Thus, about 45 minutes through this lovely 2 hour and 20 minute film, I was in so much pain my leg was shaking. I haven’t had to run to the bathroom this badly since the first time I saw Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and I obviously wasn’t going to leave that movie. Every five minutes or so I would analyze my watch then the progression of the plot, trying to use my vast film education to figure out when would be the best point to take a break. Unfortunately this movie NEVER FREAKING LET UP! 

Oh, I could totally leave right…oh, no, the Joker just busted into the cocktail party? Right, I’ll stay for this. Alright, twenty minutes have passed, I’m sure I could sneak out…oh, what’s that, HUGE ASS CAR CHASE! THEY’VE GOT THE JOKER!? What’s going to happen next? Must stay put. So…much…pain… *insert intense leg spasm* Ok, interrogation, I’m sure I could leave for this paaaa…OH MY GOD RACHEL!!!! NOOO!!!! Ok, now for an act break of sorts?…or you know, blowing up a hospital. That works too. 

So, that sure was fun. Also fun was me sprinting from the theater, taking out the eight year olds sitting behind me in the process (to which I ask, who is taking eight year olds to this film that basically scared the crap out of me?) and running to the bathroom only to find one stall was mysteriously locked with no one inside and another had no toilet paper. After waiting for ten minutes, finally running into a bathroom just vacated, and then being told it too had just run out of toilet paper, I cursed the The Dark Knight, and it’s lack of any five minute span of boring screen time. I did finally get into a stall, and let me tell you, it was almost better than the movie. 

Other than that I have only three thoughts about the film that no one else has brought up: 

1) Why does anyone live in Gotham? It seems like a terribly frightening place. I would be getting myself out of there at the first sign of ridiculous craziness. I would NOT be waiting in a bar, watching the city burn, waiting to be forced out by a crazed, clown-faced maniac, who only wants me to get on a boat to test my humanity. I’m out WAY before that. For realsies. What’s wrong with these people?  

2) Why couldn’t Katie Holmes have kept playing Rachel if they were going to kill her? Then I would have been much less sad. I love Maggie Gyllenhaall. 

3) I think I picked the best Batman movie to see first. (Please don’t throw rocks at me. I have watched the George Clooney one. In French. In high school French class. Ok, that probably didn’t help.)