2012!

This has to be one of the best New Year'ses (is that the plural of New Year's?) ever. Granted, a lot of my New Year'ses have really sucked so, much like my birthdays, this didn't even have to be THAT great to win. But it was.

I'm working on another show so I've been in rehearsal from 10-4 all week and then running to my day job immediately after to work until 8:30. It's been a LONG week. In addition to the long hours, the actors and other people in the rehearsals all speak Spanish to each other and I do not understand much more than "donde es...chalk?" and "hola". Also at the day job we went from super busy and stressed to painfully slow and ohmygod I still have 3 more hours alone in this office?! Anyway, that's the mindset I was in at the end of this week.

My friend Angela was in town with her students on a trip. Friday, she texted and said they had an extra ticket to War Horse (the play, NOT the film) and did I want it. Uh...do penguins wish they could fly? Yes. So stoked.

IT WAS STUNNING.

Visually, it is probably the most beautiful show I've ever seen. The story is great and it's presented really well, but OH MY GOD it was gorgeous. Really fantastic lighting. The projections were done well. Transitions were good. Loved. It.

After we went to a pub with two of the students (I know, I know...I took high school kids to a pub) for dinner and beer (for us) and they eagerly asked me questions about stage managing and theatre and college and professional theatre. I'd kind of forgotten what it was like to have a dream like that. I didn't know any stage managers or even what they were before I went to college.

Then last night, New Year's Eve, after a particularly frustrating rehearsal, I went to the Lower East Side to watch my friend Bambi (a nickname, of course) in class. She's at the Paul Taylor intensive and I haven't seen her since July 2010 and REALLY missed her. It was really fun to watch dancers just...dance. Not rehearsing a show, not auditioning. Just dancing.

Afterwards, she, her sister, and I went to La Follia to see ML and eat dinner and have wine. Then we felt like going to a pub to drink. I took them to Barrow St. Ale House, where I always end up. We decided to skip all other NYE options I had and just rang in the New Year together. Afterwards, a group of awkward guys started buying us drinks and of course, that's always nice. I got to talk to Rusty on the phone, got some random mass texts, and stumbled home at 3:30 remembering why I don't like tequila. Today we slept in super late, had brunch at Cafe Orlin at 3:30, I showed them Times Square and Rock Center, and we had sushi at Mikado. Great. Weekend.


I've got some goals for the year: join a gym, learn Spanish, etc. So we'll see. Also...blog more.

30 Days of Thankful 2011 edition

Last month (via my Facebook statuses) I did the 30 days of thankful thing where each day you say one thing you're thankful for.

Rachel's 30 Days of Thankful:

Nov 1: Thankful for having a job to be stressed about.
Nov 2: Thankful for leftover Halloween candy - the breakfast, lunch, and dinner of champions.
Nov 3: Thankful for Amy Davis for her inspiring yet "ha! glad it's not me!" advice.
Nov 4: Thankful for a very cozy bed.
Nov 5: Thankful for an extra hour of sleep tonight!
Nov 6: Thankful for the number of performances allowed under NYC Showcase code.
Nov 7: Thankful for her bed.
Nov 8: Thankful for laughter and long running inside jokes with good friends.
Nov 9: Thankful for the amazing weather today. Also for Baskin Robbins.
Nov 10: Thankful for Emergen-C.
Nov 11: Thankful for veterans. And future veterans.
Nov 12: Thankful that Kristen Evensen introduced her to Food Should Taste Good multi-grain chips.
Nov 13: Thankful for AraBella, scotch, and new skirts.
Nov 14: Thankful for having time alone to wander the city.
Nov 15: Thankful for Jack Daniels and that is all.
Nov 16: Thankful for April Leonhard and post show shots. Also her hard working cast and crew.
Nov 17: Thankful for 3 am cabs and Jack Daniels (again) on the rocks or straight up.
Nov 18: Thankful for Swedish Fish.
Nov 19: Thankful for Sarah Corey and this cupcake. Both are divine.
Nov 20: Thankful her show had a great closing performance.
Nov 21: Thankful for clever friends in so many different cities and Facebook for keeping them laughing at the same things.
Nov 22: Thankful for knitting.
Nov 23: Thankful she didn't have to set an alarm this morning.
Nov 24: Thankful for Nolan, Brit, Raisa, and Daniel for the food prep, amazing all day feast, and wine.
Nov 25: Thankful for 11 hours of hanging out with Kira and reflecting on other 20-ish year friendships.
Nov 26: Thankful to be sitting on this balcony drinking Lager with Paul Bratcher and Kevin Gift...wait. KG is drinking Miller Lite. Less thankful for that.
Nov 27: Thankful for her ability to instantly sleep on buses.
Nov 28: Thankful for Trader Joes.
Nov 29: Thankful to have found the cake baked in a pumpkin link.
Nov 30: Thankful for the highs and lows of the month, Racheliffic shenanigans, Maoz dates with Andy, and the Muppets.

1/1/11

If only it were also 11:11. Alas...I am so not staying awake that long.

New Year's Eve was FANTASTIC! Though, bear in mind, this is coming from a girl who's had some pretty un-fantastic NYEs in the past.
-09-did absolutely nothing by myself in Des Moines...went to bed early.
-08-fought through my last day at ADP, which was also a day of great stress and unhappiness, though that was a fantastic goodbye party. Thanks, Lerners!
-07-went to a party in DSM at the home of a friend of a friend where my friends left right after midnight and I was volunteered to be the drunk bus to some people I didn't know.

Really. Anything would be better. I could have been in Jersey even and we all know how I feel about Jersey. Ha. Really though-NYE in NYC? Not a bad idea!

I went to dinner with Joe in Koreatown. I introduced him to pho. Next time we'll try bulgogi. One step at a time. Jill and her friend AJ were in town so we met up with them at Rockefeller Center. After a brief trip to the Village to buy some wine, we traipsed up to the Heights to go to my friend/ex-cast member Jake's party. It was great. Joe knew a couple people, Jill and AJ fit right in, and I drank to my little heart's content while meeting lots of new people. We rang in the new year, sang Auld Lang Syne, and continued to celebrate.


We even stopped to see the aftermath of Times Square and to get a very important hot dog. SO glad we weren't there for the ball drop. We would have been so sardined in!


Any night you get home at 4 am smiling is a good night. I am VERY glad I got to ring in the new year with friends both old and new and much happier than I've been in a while. Here's to a brand new day. Cheers.

It's the End of the World!

Nah, just the end of December. I had a really fantastic Christmas this year and, I'm almost ashamed to say, it's because I didn't go home this year. I know, I know...give me your awww's and your pity and judgment and whatever else. Just get it out of the way. It's hard for a lot of my friends to understand that my family and I just aren't that close. For a myriad of reasons, we are not the ideal family. We don't talk on the phone, we don't know much about each other's personal lives, and it's been that way for a long time. Wah, wah, wah.

SO when it came time to figure out what I was doing for Christmas this year-the answer was really simple. My fantastic friend Steven - along with several other friends - was in Hershey for Christmas because of the Christmas contract. So I made arrangements to bus it to PA for my holiday. Mostly because I knew I'd get even MORE judgment for just staying in NYC.

We did everything that makes us happy and since he didn't want to be with his family either-we felt totally justified. We had delicious food, saw a lot of movies, talked, played games, and had general merriment. I got to spend good quality time with other friends in town and managed to miss the Snowpocalypse in NYC. Go me.

Really though-it's totally cliche, but Christmas is more of a feeling and I was totally Christmas-ified in PA. This is, however, probably the start of a trend in which I invent reasons to not go home for the holidays for many years to come. I know. I'm horrible. But at least I'm happy!

Solstice!

Shortest day of the year also happens to be rather long in the Rachel sector of life. For the last time, I was up at 5:30 am to catch the train to catch the ferry to catch the shuttle to stage manage the show. Staten Island is a lovely, far away place that I will not miss traveling to every day. I will miss my cast. Really. We were 7 people in a wacky situation and I actually believe we made the best of it. We had a show interrupted by a crazy Russian woman. We had more travel time than rehearsal and performance combined. We rehearsed at a rec center with children/teens literally walking in and out of scenes. It was actually pretty awesome and if I lived closer, I'd totally work with Sundog again.

HOWEVER now that it's done, I can focus on some other things. I've got the crazy 3 days before Christmas stuff to deal with (wrapping, mailing, shopping, swearing) and then I get to pack and head to Hershey! I have 2 days of work and a few friend dates between me and my first trip via Megabus. I'm so excited. Then, before you know it, I'll be sad and back on the bus and then back at work and then at a New Year's Eve party and then it'll be 20-fuckin'-11! Holy god. I better get ready!

Christmastime Approaches!

I just got back from an overnight in Maryland. I'm running performances of "A Christmas Carol" with the Sundog Theatre. It's an interesting thing. When I did FoodPlay, everything was very specifically laid out. I had very little set up and there weren't many outside factors to worry about. If we had a table and a chair and a power outlet, we were good to go. Not so with this show. I have wireless mics and a sound board I bring, but I need to use the venue's system and I have to try to put together some semblance of lights. That's new. I've got a pretty good group of people though. I think I might even stay friends with a few after this is all over next week.

It's funny how with just a small show and a simple day job with steady hours, I'm crazy busy and feel way behind. I guess that means my life is going well and I'm in a good place, right? Let's try to stay on the positive, for once. And...go!

I'm going to spend Christmas with friends in Hershey, PA. It's my first year not going to Iowa for Christmas. It's a tough thing...I don't want to go there, but it seems so taboo to not go home for the holidays. I keep getting pity and I don't want that. I made a choice. It is the right choice for me. I'm going to spend more time with people who will make me happier and I will only have spent $55 on bus tickets versus $400+ on airfare.

10 days til Christmas folks...are you ready?

Thanks and Such

So I've been at my day job only 26 days so far and I'm already moved to a new department. It's neat. I'm in a call center taking orders and customer service calls. It's much more suited to me so I like it. Also-no uniform. That's a plus.

I ordered the most awesome present for SMB today. I doubt he still checks this, but just in case, no spoilers here. Suffice to say it really does feel good to get someone something you KNOW will make them smile. That's right: I was just sentimental. Almost. I really do have emotions sometimes. Even though I fight it.

I was waiting for the train today and looked up and there was Emmeline. I like how the big city can also be a small city. I like randomly running into friends on the street (or in the station) and I like that people visit all the time. I also like that people move here all the time.

I still don't know if I want to stay though. I am really having a hard time accepting this as any kind of permanence. If I let myself think about it for too long, I can feel my heart rate accelerate and my breathing gets a little shallower. Then I have to plot out my escape plan and distract myself before real panic sets in.

Lately EVERYONE keeps asking if I'm dating anyone. Is that just something that happens when you're in your (gulp) mid-twenties? You should be coupled up by now? I guess. Well, I'm not. I don't even know how to do that anymore. My life has been dictated by contracts and schedules for so long, real life seems strange and unattainable. Dating? Pshaw. Guess I could work on that.

I had an awesome Thanksgiving, by the way. I spent the afternoon/evening/night with a few college friends and their family and close friends. 9 of us altogether. The one kid there who didn't have a Viterbo connection kept double checking: "You're ALL from the same place? You ALL know each other?" Anyway-it was great. Nolan made the most amazing food, Brit (and her cousin) coordinated a wonderful gathering, and we played one of the best games of Celebrity ever. Oh-and we had cherpumple. That's a cherry pie in a chocolate cake, a pumpkin pie in a spice cake, and an apple pie in a yellow cake-layered together in something sinful and strange.

(I promise: someday I will try to blog about one subject at a time. I mean...I promise I'll try.)