The Happy Reprise

Yesterday I arrived back in not-so-sunny-yet-insanely-hot Florida from quite the adventure in New York. I knew upon arriving that the trip might be full of twists and turns because of our lack of plans. Well we had a lot of plans but the logistics of them were not so organized…

First plan: Taylor’s Graduation!

Second plan: Play with my friends!!

Third plan: Move Taylor from Manhattan to Queens….!…

1. Taylor’s Graduation
We, Alana, Mom, Dad, Grandma and I, arrived in New York City Thursday afternoon. We got all situated at a nice hotel and went to TKTS to get tickets for Next to Normal. We met Taylor at a little restaurant before the show and had some lovely appetizers. The show as incredible. Incredible sad, Incredibly moving, Incredibly unique, Incredibly creative, Incredibly impressive, Incredibly beautiful. I won’t take about what happens in the show because if you haven’t seen it you really should try and try to as little as possible going in. Watching the show gave me a whole new thing to look forward too. Watching the 30 or 40 year old lead (not Alice Ripley but her insanely talented understudy) literally kill it on that stage, I realized if everything I dream about for my life may not have to happen as quickly as I dream it will. If it happens at all, it could happen later in life and still be awesome. Because she really really was awesome. I played a little game with myself. Try to not to cry, Angela. This is gonna sound so weird and stupid but as I watching them pour their guts out I thought about how they kind of have to keep it together in order to put on the show, so that’s what I did. As my sister next to me and my father behind me actually sobbed, I thought, “if I were in this show right now, I’d have to really keep it together…” And I did! You know when I lost it? When I usually lose it lately…the curtain call. When actors genuinely look appreciative and humbled by an applause, I lose it. It’s beautiful.
The next day was Taylor’s graduation day. We went to the Baccalaureate Ceremony which was an hour and half and then we walked over to Lincoln Center for the commencement. Apparently Taylor and the other graduates were given order to not see their families which was really annoying because we just had to wait. We got to Lincoln center and we realized not only that the Graduation ceremony didn’t start for another hour and a half but we wouldn’t even be let in for another hour! There were little bars and restaurants in the lobby of the LIncoln Center, none of which would open until the Graduation started! HOW STUPID!? So we waited because a line was forming and we wanted decent seats. I was miserable and complaining. We finally got in and got pretty god seats….until the animals behind us sat down. There were 3 adults handling about 6 kids under the age of 7. Woah Jack! These kids were monkeys. The people next to me moved because of them. They were jumping and yelling. I was elbowed in the head, spit on, and consistently lost my hair to them pulling on it. I dealt with it. Taylor’s name was announced we cheered and yelled and took pictures! It was fun for that 10 seconds. Then not fun again when I realized we still had an hour to go…
The hour went, we had a great dinner and a great night. Congraduation Taylor!

2. Playing with Friends
Now that all of my friends essentially live it NY, it’s great! I have places to see and new people to meet! This trip especially was filled with friends. So Jen, Tyler, Gabby, and Cody live and go to school in the city, but this weekend Ambar, Cassie, and Sergi all visited!! I thought Manhattan would explode. After Taylor’s graduation dinner I convinced Mom to let me go out with Cody and Ambar. So I hailed a cab and headed out to Cody’s cool studio apartment in the upper east side (i think..still learning my way around that city.) The three of us had a really really really fun night! Cody’s friends were so much fun and even though within minutes of us being at his friend’s apartment, Ambar dropped and broke their new salt shaker, they loved us! We ended our night at some strange little dirty diner which was just what we wanted. The next morning I headed back to my parents and from there we headed to long Island for more graduation activities.
Later in the week I spent the night with Jen, Cassie, Ambar, Sergie, Tyler, Gabby, AND Cody. Woah! We tried getting into Nathan Tyson’s new show but alas we could not. After getting into bars, then not getting into bars, finding Cody on the other side of town, hanging on an awesome terrace talking about riffles and greenday, reconvening back at Jens place for rooftop fun and sleep. I love my friends.

3. Moving Taylor
Woof. This was a serious mess. This is already too long so I will not get into this. I will say that the whole experience was disgusting, eye opening, calm, stressful, difficult, and hilarious. It ended well, we completed the journey in one piece, and Taylor’s in a much cleaner place as of now. Time will tell.

WOAH NELLY! Can’t wait for everyone to get back. That’s when summer will start.

may 19, 2010

its raining
its so sticky
going to new york tomorrow!
hope i packed appropriately
brought all my rompers
VERY excited to see jen, gabby, tyler, cody, and my bro
thought dan could meet me in NY too but didnt work out
miss dan…
signed my lovewell contract! way ready for that to start
just recorded about 7 minutes of me talking like “a teenage girl” for my brother’s dialect class, used my sister and roommate as inspiration
realized, oh wait…I am a teenage girl…
had lunch with lauren and ambar, got really uneasy when the waiter called me babe, couldn’t really keep it together
didn’t run today
…plan on getting yogurtland and watching last night’s glee with ambar
need to shower
will shower
watched jared, luke, eric, dorie, kimmi, megan kuiper, ryan juda, abigail, sheridan, stef a, and other lovewellights that i’m forgetting be the best part of the cappies gala last night. very proud of them
need to go get taylor something for graduation and birthday
now
any ideas?

(i know thats gonna turn in to a real smiley emoticon and i dont want it too. i like it better when they stay a colon and closed parenthesis!)
: )
(maybe that one won’t)

I feel pathetic and frankly quite annoyed with how unsatisfied I am without the constant distraction I am used to. I have been home for not even two weeks and I thought I’d make it a little farther without complaining….alas I have not.

The time I’ve had home so far I have been pretty productive. I completely unpacked and donated about 30 pounds of clothes (30 pounds not including white skinny pants…can’t let go yet). I have been running/walking everyday (never run after the rain). I have been playing my ukulele a lot (the ugliest chord is G and the coolest chord is Gbm…for now). I have been a good help and good ears for my mom around the house (I slightly enjoy writing out bills…). I haven’t felt bored really until today. I had my first evening of complaining to my mom who didn’t really wanna hear it and Ambar who gave my some fun suggestions. Ambar’s home and I have been seeing her a lot which is always fun but she also has been slaving away for a hair nazi at the Salon she’s working at now. Anyway I decided, just now, that maybe I should try to blog everyday when I’m feeling most bored. If never been before, these next couple of entrees will definitely be a form of therapy and a needed exercise for me. I haven’t been writing really at all this semester and I think it’s suffering because of it. So I guess I’ll just write about my day? That’s boring but it’s a start to the solution to my boredom and my baby steps back to being a decent writer.

Well after staying up until about 2:30 last night watching Dumb and Dumber twice in a row, I woke up at 7:30 am to take my Grammy Jane to the doctor. Grammy has been suffering from heart problems on and off for parts of the year. On top of that she’s had a pretty exhausting flu since January and it’s definitely getting the better of her. Anyway I picked her up and could tell right away how sick she was. Her usual extremely chipper and positive tone was now tired and out of breath. We got in the car and we began to drive and catch our breaths, things were getting back to normal. Grammy gets charmed pretty easily and with that usually forgets to ask the doctors the questions she needs so we wrote down a list of the things she needed answers for and her symptoms. She has been extremely fatigued and wanted to know if it was harmful to rest for most of the day or stay up and active. “It might not be healthy for me to just be sleeping around……well I guess that’s never healthy huh?” We had a good long laugh.
The visit was great. Both my grandma’s are funny in the way that they kind of remove themselves from the “old woman” category. Like when an older woman (probably not much, if at all, older than Grammy) wobbled in a sat down across from us, Grammy greeted the woman with an “awe” smile, like “awe look at that cute old woman.”
We were called in. The nurse and doctor were two very warm and compassionate people. They wanted so badly for Grammy to feel better. The doctor greeted her with a kiss on the cheek and referred to as Janie about every other word. Anyway, he did some blood test and we’ll know more tomorrow about why she can’t get rid of this flu! Tomorrow I’m going back to pick her up and take her to different doctor so they can see if she is candidate for a pacemaker which she really needs. Anyone reading this, please keep Grammy in your thoughts. She’s such a positive woman and to see her feeling down is like seeing a coach give up in the middle of a game.

The rest of the day played out to be pretty uneventful. I came home and took some piano lessons from some guy on youtube. For 5 minutes he taught me to play the beginning of “Just haven’t Met You Yet” by Michael Buble. I dedicated about 30 minutes to practicing and then thought maybe playing it the ukulele would be easier. No siree. I’m still practicing and it is hard but I am pretty proud of myself, it doesn’t sound that bad! I moved on to the uke and finished learning “Something in the way she Moves.” Dan and I had a skype concert and he played it on his trumpet while I played it on the uke. We’re going on tour soon. With Just one song. Dangela: Coming to a Town Near You.

I made a sandwich then fell asleep for too long. When I woke up 3 hours later and I was extremely disoriented. I decided to go on a run. It was rough. Apparently during my siesta it rained quite a bit and all the mosquitos were out to play. But I trucked, and sweated, through it! Listening to Glee soundtrack is motivating…please…no judgement.

I showered, I ate, loaded the dishwasher, played more uke and now I am here. Mom’s watching Castle. I’ve never heard of this show but so far it seems like every other evening drama that’s ever on.

Ok. So that was long. I don’t expect anyone to read it or like it but I need to get writing again, so don’t be too harsh! That did feel good though