Update and thoughts on being sick

Well, Christmas is past, the New Year has come, and school is back in session. So I'm going to get back into blogging. No, really.

I had a nice long break over the Christmas holiday that even stretched a few weeks into January. Scott and I went to Texas for Christmas and Virginia to ski for New Year's. We had a lot of fun. When we got back we spent our time getting ready for the next semester and doing all the boring stuff (insurance, car repairs, etc.) that we'd put off for the holidays but wanted to get done before the hustle and bustle of the school semester started. I started working in my new role of assistant stake director for Girls' Camp this coming summer, which gave me a decent amount to do. The day before school started I found out that 2 of my 4 classes had been canceled because not enough people had signed up for them, so I did some juggling and worked out a new schedule. I actually think it will work out much better than my old one.

And now for the sob story. In the midst of my recent activities, my health has been failing me somewhat. A month ago tomorrow, I came down with some sort of flu (on top of some really painful menstrual cramps). My throat burned and my body ached. 5 days later I was feeling mostly better, and then my nose stuffed up. On came the symptoms of a head cold. It also lasted for 4 or 5 days, and hard on its heels was a sinus infection - the kind that hurts right behind your cheekbone, and makes your ears, eyes, and upper teeth sore as well. 24 hours after I thought I was better my throat started killing me - it may have been strep - and it felt like I had a golf ball stuck halfway down my esophagus. Oh the agony. I finally consented to go to the doctor last Friday, because my next chance to go after that would have been on Tuesday (I have 7 hours of classes on Mondays that I can't miss). I took the prescribed antibiotics and started feeling better over the weekend. By Wednesday I was feeling 100% again, and rejoicing in my final recovery. But alas, Scott got the stomach flu Wednesday evening and out of the blue (I'd been feeling fine up until that point) I started throwing up Friday night. Today I've been successfully keeping food down but feeling pretty crummy.

I'm so sick of being sick.

Mrs. Claus

We went to our ward's Christmas Party last night, and it was a lot of fun. The food was great, and the desserts were even better. :) The best part of the evening, though, was Scott came in walking in with a loud, "Ho ho ho! Mehhhh-rry Christmas!" Yep, he was Santa Claus. It was awesome. He was really nervous - he didn't know what he was supposed to say - but I helped him practice by sitting on his lap and telling him what I wanted for Christmas. :)

I guess it worked - he did great. He's probably going to kill me for posting these pictures, but I have to.

This kid looked rather frightened.
(it's funnier if you click on the picture and view it full-size)


But most everyone loved him...


Even the teenagers. :)

And Here It Is!

I'm done! After 6 scheduled hours of final exams yesterday, I finally finished. The semester is over and I'm so excited. It still hasn't sunk in that I have no more school until January 24th. I love school, don't get me wrong, but I'm ready for a break. And here it is!

The first thing I did with my break from school was go to see the Festival of Lights at the DC temple with Scott. It was gorgeous! And the musical performance was a group from Annandale High School, and they were AMAZING. I was very impressed. We took a friend of mine, Jasmine, because I knew she would enjoy the lights and the international nativities. She seemed to have a good time, except when too many sister missionaries tried to convert her. I was a little frustrated with that. I know that's what the missionaries are there for, and as a member of the church I appreciate the importance of the gospel message, but I felt that they were too pushy. And my intentions for inviting her along were simply for her to see the lights, because they're so beautiful. I didn't bring her to be converted.

But for anyone who's thinking about going to see the lights this year, I recommend it. They're beautiful. But I still don't understand why the live nativity only includes a live Mary and Joseph and not live wise men or shepherds. It looks a little strange.

The First Snow

There aren't a whole lot of things that I miss about Utah, but snow is one of those that I do wish we had (along with mountains). Mostly Maryland gets ice and slush. When it snows, it often melts before it even hits the ground, or immediately upon contact. But the other day we got the first snow of the season, and it actually stuck! It was only a couple of inches, but hey, I'll take what I can get.

It makes me more excited than ever to go skiing for the New Year.

Brian Regan

My new Brian Regan DVD came in on Thursday! It was all I could do to wait for my husband to come home from school that night; he has class until 9:20 on Thursday nights. I put the DVD in the other room so that I didn't have to look at it! It's not as good as the old DVD, but the new movie is still awesome. I recommend it to everyone. Brian Regan is simply hysterical.

A cute call

This post is on my new blog, here, but I thought I'd post it on this one too.

My sister-in-law, Leslie, called Scott on his phone yesterday afternoon - but he didn't answer because he had left it at home (we were on our way home from the library). My 2-year-old niece, Sarah Ann, said to her, "Now I talk Aunt Tith." (That's how she pronounces my name.) Leslie responded, "Well, why don't we call Daddy?" But Sarah Ann was adamant. "No. Aunt Tith."

So Leslie called me and told me that Sarah Ann really wanted to talk to me, and I laughed and agreed. I could hear Leslie prompting Sarah Ann's responses in the background. I also got her to sing the ABC song and "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", all by herself with no prompting from Leslie.

My niece is so cute.

"And we're going to Disneyland."

So "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: Abridged" is over. Finished. Kaput. I have mixed feelings, of course - I'm sad for it to be done, but glad to have my life back. Mostly, though, I'm glad. I'm exhausted and very sore - every muscle in my body aches from the final weekend of the run and Strike after the last show. I'm sure that in a few days I'll start going through withdrawals, but for now I'm very excited to have the Thanksgiving holiday to rest (as much as will be possible with my adorable nieces and nephews jumping all over the place, yelling, "Aunt Tarythe! Aunt Tarythe! Come play with me! Okay, you be It..."). And pumpkin pie...mmm...

The last show went very well. The size of our audiences increased as the show went on and word spread. During the last show we not only had the seating area onstage full (it was meant to be a small and audience-interactive show), but the balcony was holding quite a few more people. It was wonderful.

After the show we had Strike, where the whole set gets taken apart nail by nail, board by board. Costumes and props get put away too. It's quite the process, and usually requires a good amount of people. I stayed to help the stage crew and the Coordinator of Theatre Operations (the big big boss of the department) was so impressed by my hard work that he offered me a job at the theatre! Even though it usually takes a few months for the application and paperwork to go through, he said not to worry - that he would personally make sure the process was "expedited" for me.

In related good news, an adjudicator from the American College Theatre Festival came to judge our show last week and she nominated me for the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship.

Facebook

It's official. Under peer pressure, I caved in and...created a Facebook account. For so long I was proud to not have a blog, to not be on Facebook. And look at me now - 2 years with a blog, 36 hours of Facebookness.

But it's great to be in touch. I went through and found a bunch of people I used to hang out with - at school, work, church, whatever. I did this by going through my friends' friends lists. "Oh I know that person! Add friend? Why yes, please." Click. It's so good to know that now my friendships with these people are official, secure - well, we're friends on Facebook, so our relationship must be stable. Oh, good. Now I can sleep better at night.

It's amazing to me how much time can be spent on Facebook; I think it's going to be my undoing. I should have waited until the end of the semester! I'm also somewhat concerned with how excited I've been to watch my friends list grow, as people accept my request to be their friend on Facebook. It's a great way to realize the superiority you have over other people who don't have as many as you do. :)
"Scott, I have 7 friends!"
"Honey, I now have 21 friends! That's more than you."
"Hey, guess what - I have 56 friends - no, make that 58. It's great being so popular."

It's rather pathetic.

Opening Night

Opening night was on Friday. And it was awesome. We had a great crowd; most of the seats were filled, Scott came to support me, and the audience was very enthusiastic (the play relies very heavily on audience participation, so this is crucial). Towards the end of rehearsals, when you're running the same lines over and over again without an audience there to react to you, it gets frustrating. It's easy to lose motivation when you're reaping no immediate reward. But on Friday, I was loving it. "This is what I've worked so hard for these past couple of months!" I told Ruben during intermission. I love the adrenaline rush that comes from connecting with the audience and seeing your hard work pay off. It makes those long hours and late nights all worth it.

Tech

Yesterday was a long day. Saturday's play rehearsal was canceled due to some scheduling conflicts, so the entire tech weekend was set on Sunday instead. All 12 hours of it. Tech is that wonderful time where all the technical designers, actors, stage crew, director, etc. come together and we try to do the show exactly the way it will be on opening night - with lights, sound, set, costumes, and props. Coordinating all of that is harder than it might seem...even though the first time we ran through the show we went cue-to-cue (which means that we skipped all dialogue that didn't require a costume change, light cue, or sound cue, so we could get timing right) it took us 6 and a half hours to get through the 90-minute show once. And then we did it again. Faster this time, though. :)

It was certainly an entertaining day. We ran into many a problem - actors' pants falling down multiple times, both onstage and off (not mine though, thank goodness), props falling apart in the middle of a scene, a piece of scenery knocking someone (me) in the head, actors not being able to change costumes fast enough and missing their entrances (or coming out with only half of their costume). And we open in 3 days.

How I love the theatre.