Added functionality

Hello everyone! I've added a little functionality to this site, so that you can receive an email each time that I add an entry to my blog. This way, you won't have to keep checking--I mean, who knows how often I'm actually going to be adding entries to this? It's an email list that I maintain, and I will send out a brief message letting you know that an entry has been made and what the topic is. You can simply delete the email, or you can click on a link to come to my blog :) If you would like to be added to this list, simply go to the bottom of this page and enter your name and email address. The list is maintained and only viewable to me, so you won't be getting spam... except the messages from me :) If at some point you decide you would rather not be on the list, you just enter your name and email address and click the unsubscribe button. So sign up if you wish! I hope everyone is well in the world :)

My Complex

I have discovered a complex that I have: wearing glasses. This really bothers me, because I don’t have anything against glasses. I see people wearing glasses, and I think they look great (especially those thick frames, some people just look great in those). I even like the glasses that I wear and think they look pretty good on me.

So why is it that when I put on my glasses I’m transported to being the awkward 13 year old that I used to be? I can’t help it. As soon as I put on my glasses, I start to feel 13 again. Here’s something I’m sure most everyone will understand—we go through an ugly stage, do we not? We’re growing at weird rates and we don’t really know who we are yet. This was hell for me. And it didn’t help that I was this mega- skinny, big- glasses- wearing, trying- to- get- over- the- last- horrible- perm- in- my- hair girl. If I was a braver person, I would now share a photo from that time… but I’m not—do you see how big a complex this is?

Anyway, like everyone else, I began to come out of that ugly, awful state at some point…and it seems like it was, coincidentally, around the same time that I got contacts. So you see, I equated glasses with ugly, awkward girl. How unfair is that? And what’s strange is that it’s not primarily about how I look, it’s a feeling inside… it’s so strange…

The reason all of this has come up is because I’m getting ready to get LASIK surgery on my eyes in late November. I have to wear my glasses between now and then so that my eyes adjust to their normal shape. So far I’ve been wearing my glasses for a little over two weeks.

I am happy to say that a lot of the time I don’t even notice. I mean, they are a pain in the normal ways that glasses are (getting finger prints on them, fogging up when entering buildings), but most of the time I’m perfectly fine. In fact, my eyes are not blood-shot, like they normally were with contacts. Every once in a while, that awkward, ugly girl sneaks in. But I’m starting to face this part of me. I see more and more kids that I can equate to how I was at that time, and I can look objectively at them and see how wonderful they are… maybe just a little awkward, but is that so bad? So, all in all, I’m seeing these two months with glasses as therapy. I’m hoping that by the end I will have embraced that awkward girl in me and seen the beauty that she had.

Can anyone else relate?

My future plans

Well, several people as of late have been asking me what my future plans are. Future plans can be a lot of pressure! But fortunately I have some plans at the moment... and I'm looking forward to when they become reality :)

As you may or may not have heard, I did not get into graduate school, as I had hoped. So at that point I had to decide what to do. I am a firm believer that even when things don't turn out how we want, something else comes along that ends up being even more beneficial for us. So I tried to keep open to possibilities. At some point a few months back, I was in a Baha'i study course with a few other people, including my Aunt Tim. She mentioned that her sister, my Aunt Shelly, was planning on moving to Minneapolis. You see, Shelly is an amazing actor who had been living in Atlanta. Tim mentioning this to me opened up the thought... "I wonder if Shelly would mind if I moved in with her and tried this whole acting thing?" So, I asked :)

Thankfully, Shelly was more than okay with having someone to share the rent with (and hopefully happy to have me around)! So, I am planning on moving down to Minneapolis in January! Apparently Alaska was not cold enough for me. I'm very excited about it. I'm also terrified, but excited about being terrified too, if that makes any sense :)

Right now in Anchorage, Alaska, I'm working for an oil company here as a technical writer, creating training materials for some new programs that they have developed. The project should finish before I leave in January. I'm also currently in rehearsals for a play called "Kafka Dances". I'm playing the part of Kafka's sister, and I think it's going to be a great production. For those of you in the Anchorage area, it opens October 22 down at Cyrano's Playhouse--come see it! For the rest of you, I'm sure I'll be posting pictures at some point.

Well, that's enough for now :)

Valdez Theater Conference

Back in June, I was able to go to the Valdez Theater Conference, held in... well Valdez, Alaska! This was the thirteenth year of the conference, and it has been amazing the three times I've gone. The conference's main focus is developing the work of new playwrights; therefore, people who have written plays from around the country (even from around the world) submit a play of theirs, hoping that it will be selected to be at the conference. Those that are accepted are then scheduled to have a reading with assigned actors in front of an audience and are able to get feedback. Each play has a few people in attendance who have been invited to be responders who give advice on what is really working and what isn't, with reasons behind all of it. Comments are then opened to the rest of the audience and there is a small discussion about the piece. The benefit of this is that a playwright has an opportunity to hear his play read outloud and gets feedback on what types of reactions he is getting from an audience. Many playwrights take the opportunity to tweak what they've written based on some of the good advice that they've gotten.

So! I'm not a playwright, but I am an actor. I've gone to this conference in the past to read in plays. It's a lot of fun. Additionally, in the evenings the conference has plays performed. This year I had the honor of performing in two different evening performances. The first performance I was in was called "Alaska Tales", and it is a show compiled by the cast that tells stories and sings songs that focus on Alaska's history. It's a very fun show, and since the nature of the show is storytelling, the atmosphere is very intimate. The audience sings along with songs when they know them, and we all just laugh and have a good time.

The actors that are up there with me are some of my best friends in Alaska. In the photo to the left you can see (from l to r): Shane Mitchell, Erin Dagon Mitchell, Leif Sawyer, Elle Janicek Delaney, Petra Banks, Kristen Fernandez, Dennis Cleary and myself.




But there is one more! Don't worry Wayne! I didn't forget you! Wayne Mitchell (a certain twin to someone else on the stage) is the final cast member. I can't stress how much fun this show was, and the audience had a great time as well.





Here are some other photos from the show:









The second evening performance that I was a part of was a series of four short plays that were submitted to the theater conference in the past, and the evening was called "Beyond the Veil". I was in the first play of the night called "Exit Cute Ed" by Luke Krueger. Elle Janicek Delaney played my sister-in-law, and she is trying to get me out of the house to go somewhere... and the play reveals where that somewhere is--I'm not going to spoil it for you! This is a photo of Elle and me with the playwright, Luke Krueger, who was also able to attend this year. The photo at the top of this blog entry was from the play, and here are some other shots as well.














If you would like to see more pictures, particularly of the other shows that were performed in that same night of plays from past playwrights, you can click on this Shutterfly Album to see a bunch of photos.

There is so much more that I could share, but I fear that this is getting just incredibly too long. Needless to say, the conference was amazing. For anyone who is connected to theater, I highly recommened going to this conference.

Why hello there!

Okay, so I've succumbed to the world of blogs. In principle I think blogs are a great thing. I enjoy reading other people's blogs. So why haven't I started one sooner? Well... frankly, my life isn't that interesting! So why have I started one now? The truth? I wanted to add a comment to a friend's blog and so I signed up so that I could do that. But maybe this blog thing isn't so bad... I guess time will tell whether I keep it up or not.

Now I'm off to add the comment to my friend's page...

Lindsay, over and out