I'm aware that I haven't updated since spring break.  So here ya go.

Basically, it's been a pretty uneventful three weeks...for the most part.  Unfortunately, there have been spurts of activity, and in these spurts there's a LOT of activity and then I go a little insane.  But for the most part it's been okay.

I like all my classes so far.  I'm taking Communication Theory (with Chris North), Small Group Comm (with Jenny Walton), Playwriting (with Robbins), and Advanced Creative Writing (with Lietz).  Communication Theory is pretty interesting.  Group Comm is nothing short of a circus (our class is freaking hilarious...you have NO idea).  Playwriting is okay...it's not my favorite right now.  Adv. Creative Writing is a lot better than I thought it was going to be...tons better than Poetry Writing last quarter.

Then there's a bunch of group work for one of my classes (Group Comm, actually)...we're coming to the end of the new member period for the spring class of AXD and so that's been taking up a bunch of time lately...and then there's been a bunch of stuff for the other clubs and groups I'm in (mostly NCASC...we're trying to get some more new faces).

On the bright side, I found out today that I got into Sigma Tau Delta--the national English honorary!  I'm super excited!

Now I'm home for the long Easter weekend.  I have no idea what all my plans are for this weekend, but we'll see.  :)

WONDERFUL WICKED WEEKEND!!!

I know Kathleen made a post about this as well...but I really want to tell the story too.  So I am.  :)

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So in case any of you have been living under a rock since October...Morgan, Britt, Kathleen, and I went and saw Wicked in Cleveland this weekend.  On Friday, after Brittany finally made it to our apartment (Morgan got there WAY before Britt), we ordered some Padrone's pizza, made some sugar cookies, and watched Wizard of Oz (which was pretty hilarious with this group).  Then we put on the Wicked soundtrack and played Scatagories (or however you spell it) and then we did some facial masks.  I stayed up until about 3:30am before calling it a night, and Kathleen went to bed not too long after that as well.  Morgan and Britt, however, apparently stayed up until 6am before finally going to sleep.

We woke up on Saturday morning and made scrambled eggs and cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  Then we watched a bit of Rent, blared some Wicked again, and started getting ready to go to Cleveland.  We finally got the car packed, decorated it a bit, and then started to get on the road.  We stopped by Brookhart and NOM on our way out of town, and then we were finally on the highway.  We sang along to the entire Wicked soundtrack, then we listened to Rent, then Avenue Q, and finally Drew Carey (because it has "Cleveland Rocks" on it).  We got to Cleveland without a hitch, found a decently priced parking garage right across the street from our theatre, and we were still two hours early for the show starting (one hour early for when we wanted to be at the doors).  We found a Starbucks to use the bathroom and eat the sandwiches we'd packed for dinner, then we went to the Playhouse Square gift shop, and decided to start standing in line to get into the theatre fifteen minutes earlier than we had planned.  Once we finally got in, we went to the Ozdust Boutique stand and bought some stuff (Britt got a poster, I got a green "Defy Gravity" tshirt, and Kathleen got the regular black Wicked tshirt).  We finally got into the main seating area...our seats were DEAD CENTER in the mezzanine area...and they were AMAZING seats.  I didn't have to use the opera glasses once.  We had all the main people--Carmen Cusack as Elphaba, Katie Rose Clarke as Galinda, Cliffton Hall as Fiyero, DeeDee Hall as Nessarose (yes, she's married to Cliffton), Alma Cuervo as Morrible, Lee Wilkof as the Wizard, etc.  They were all FANTASTIC!

Then the show let out and the four of us headed to the back of the building where the State Theatre stage door is.  There was one other group of four there, but that was all. And so the four of us just kind of found a little spot to hang out and wait (we got there pretty fast after the show let out). After a few minutes this SUV-type car pulled up into the parking lot we were next to and this girl (she was probably about 13...we later found out her name was Kirsten) got out and asked us if anyone had come out yet and we said no, not yet and she got back into the car with her dad and they just kind of hung out there. A little bit later, the other group of four came over and started chatting with us and let us know that they had found out from some theatre workers that the cast was at a coktail party for patrons of the theatre or something and it may be a while before anyone came out. Brittany went over and told the girl and her dad what was going on. A bit later, the other group gave up and left and Kirsten got out of her car and said that they had four seats if we wanted to sit in their warm car and wait (and, as a bonus, they were listening to the soundtrack). So we joined her and her dad in their car and talked to them for, like, an hour.

After a while some ensemble members started coming out and we talked to a few of them. But at about 12:30 in the morning (an hour and a half after the show let out), this group of four or five ensemble members came out and Kirsten got out to ask them if Carmen and Katie were coming out any time soon. They said they didn't know, but one of the women took her souvenier program to run in and get them to sign. Britt, Morgan, Kathleen, and I got out of the car and decided we'd see if maybe someone would come out, but then we were going to leave once Kirsten got her program back (we had a 2.5 hour drive back to Ada, please recall). One of the ensemble women started talking on her phone and was asking Kirsten what her name was and then suddenly said, "Oh! They said they're on their way out!"

Less than a minute later, Carmen and Katie came RUNNING out of the stage door...no coats or anything...poor Carmen was in a t-shirt! They started giving us all hugs and saying things like, "We had no idea there were still people out here! You girls are so sweet! You're all so cold!" Kathleen and I had each made fan gifts (Kathleen had made a pink scarf for Katie and I had made a green scarf for Carmen) and they were over the moon about them!  They seemed to genuinely appreciate them and were amazed that we had hand-made the scarves ourselves. They kept hugging us and they personalized our programs and talked to us for a while. Then Carmen ran back inside (because she was really cold in just a tshirt), but Katie stood outside talking to us for a while longer and told us a funny story about how her shoes for the show have apparently been breaking a lot lately and falling off. Then DeeDee Hall and Cliffton Hall came out and talked to us for a while. And Deedee took my camera and took a picture of the four of us with Katie and Cliffton.

(picture above...Carmen and me)

After that, we said "bye" to them and walked back to the car.  We were all super jazzed and couldn't stop talking about the whole thing for, like, an hour and a half on the way home.  Britt and Morgan passed out in the backseat after that and Kathleen and I kept talking until we got back to Ada.  Basically, it was the BEST.  WEEKEND.  EVER!

(picture above...from left to right...Brittany, Me, Katie Clarke (Galinda), Kathleen, Morgan, Cliffton Hall (Fiyero))

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

Aaaaaand...because I don't HAVE a Valentine, I'm thoroughly enjoying the treats I'm getting from family and friends.  My parents sent me heart-shaped Peeps (because they know I LOVE Peeps of any size or shape...I'm not picky) and a whole bunch of those candy hearts.  My aunt and uncle sent me cookies and a card.  My Little Sam sent me a little bag of candy.  And I got a cute little Valentine and some candy from the wonderful AXD Sweetheart (and, suddenly, why Webber wanted the sister list is clear).

Anywho, Dead Week is winding down, thank GOD and I'm stressing out a little bit less.  This weekend will be spent studying for my two finals next week and writing my Lit Crit paper, which I'm so super excited about it's kind of ridiculous.  And since the whole concept of the paper is finally formatted in my head, I'm going to let you all know what it is...finally.  I apologize if I use Literary Criticism lingo that isn't easy to understand...

Basically, I'm taking Althusser's theories on antihumanism and (mostly) Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs) and applying them to the novel Wicked ('cause I'm a geek).  I'm going to look at what causes Elphaba to resist the socially accepted ideologies and what makes Galinda conform to them (even though she has mini rebellions throughout her time at Shiz).  I'm going to be focusing a lot on two particular events, in which both girls were present, but came away with very different attitudes--their confrontation with Morrible and their first visit to the Wizard.  And then I'm going to look at what all causes Elphaba to act the way she does throughout the rest of the novel (which, in case you're wondering, is a LOT of things all crammed into one), and leading up to her confrontation with Dorothy and what happens there in her final fight against Oz and the Wizard.

Anyway, yeah, that's pretty much what I'm doing...in a nutshell.  Last night I talked to Mom on the phone, and when we were saying our farewells, she was like, "Don't think about Wicked until your finals are over."  And I said, "Okay...but I have to think about Wicked a little, because that's what my paper's about."  It's nice being able to use that as an excuse.  :)

In other news...9 days until Wonderful Wicked Weekend.  My AIM is freaking out on me, which is why I haven't been online for the past couple days.  I think I may have to uninstall it and then install it again, which I really don't want to do because then I'll lose all my profile information and away messages, but I've tried almost everything else.  So we'll see.

So...here I am in Mac.  Again.  Thank GOD this 8am crap is almost over.

I hate Dead Week...with a passion.  I hate it even  more when it's so cold outside that the university has to run the courtesy vans again.  And OF COURSE I didn't take one of the vans this morning.  Oh, no, that would have made far too much sense.  Instead I walked from Klondike's Den to Dukes...and it was very cold.  And icy.  Because god forbid P-Plant actually put salt down.  I almost fell about five times.  And, in case you're wondering...it's STILL icy out.  That's right...two hours later and P-Plant STILL hasn't put salt down.  Tools.

I have so much crap due this week it's not even funny.  I have a paper due in Poetry Writing this afternoon (yes, it's only half done right now...no, I'm not concerned...I got to that half-way point in about fifteen minutes), I have a group project presentation in Intro to PR tomorrow (ew.  That'll be fun), I have both of my journal entries due by the end of this week for Conflict Management (gotta love procrastination), and on top of all that I have my huge final paper for Lit Crit due next Monday by 5 (oh, yes, we're talking about a good 20 pages here, people).  I'm not too terribly concerned about my Conflict Management final next week...but I'm going to be studying my ass off for Intro to PR.  I will do well on the final, damn it.

Really the only thing keeping me going right now is the thought that in a little under two weeks, I'll be having a Wonderful Wicked Weekend with Britt, Morgan, and Blonde (12 days now, actually!).  Blonde and I keep going over all the stuff we have to do or get before that weekend...we have to clean our apartment, go to Wal-Mart, I'm making scramble.  It doesn't sound like much, but we're literally cramming all that in the last couple days of finals week when we have nothing going on.  But it's going to be awesome and amazing and I can't wait!

Oh, and I got my finals week care package this morning from my parents.  It was very exciting!

It's been a crazy few weeks.  As soon as we got back from break, all my professors started piling on the homework and projects and quizzes.  I think I'm going insane!

I survived another registration period...and, really, the last time I'll be registering as a "junior" (since, next time, with registering for fall of next year, I'll kind of be considered a senior, in a way).  I'll be taking 16 credit hours next quarter, which is tons better than I originally thought I was going to have to take.  I'll be taking Group Communication, Communication Theory, Advanced Creative Writing (with Lietz, oh the joy), and Playwriting (which I'm kind of intrigued by).  It's hard to believe that we've just been worrying about next quarter's registration.  Seriously, this year is going by waaaaaay too fast.

In other news, I've been elected Public Relations VP for AXD.  It was really unexpected and I was really surprised to be nominated for the position a couple weeks ago, but I'm excited about it.  Monday was officer training and goal setting, so it was our first time in new councils...and I really like my council.  I think we'll work together well.  I'm kind of nervous, not going to lie, because this is my first time on Exec...but I'm excited too.  I think it'll be a good experience for me.

That's really all that's been consuming my life lately.  I went home this past weekend for the long weekend and enjoyed that.  We have a month left until Wicked Weekend, which is exciting.  (Or, rather...Wick-ed Weekend as Blonde and I have started calling it...oh, yes, yet another wonderful Wicked inside joke that came about from watching YouTube videos a couple weeks ago...)  I'm also really looking forward to next Tuesday, which is when Idina Menzel's new CD comes out (the music on it is amazing, by the way...or at least, the bits I've heard).  Granted, I ordered it offline, so I'll be getting it a couple days later...but it's exciting anyway.