So last Sunday my Mom and her boyfriend Bill arrived in town. We hung out for a while but I had been exhausted from the previous week of finals and hanging out with friends and generally not getting any sleep. My final paper I turned in for college however, I received back with beyond excellent reviews. I am so proud and honored to have recieved such comments from someone I admire so highly. So after trying to take a quick nap/clean up/clear my head (to no avail), I met my Dad at his hotel. He was two hours late cause of traffic and we had tickets to.... FUERZA BRUTA! So we rushed over there in time for the show.
FUERZA BRUTA. I have been trying to see that show for a good two years now and I was so excited to finally get the chance. My family and I went in with high expectations and left with our minds blown. I love going to the theatre and seeing something I have never seen before, and this was it. The whole idea, the power, the aw factors, the dancing the smashing the water. This is what I want to do for the rest of my life. Any job, where you can run around and flip through the air and scream and dance, is the best job in the world. How do I get into this? I need to find an aerialist school :-). I LOVED THIS EXPERIENCE. And I saw Blake and his mommy there :-). After the show we went across the park to The Heartland Brewery for hamburgers and Grateful Red Lager!!!
I bought my Dad and I matching Grateful Red Glass sets :-)Monday was the Steinhardt Baccalaureate Ceremony at Radio City Music Hall. Of course the L train wasn't working so I scrambled around frantically for a cab for a good 30 minutes before getting uptown.
Right out from was Annaleigh and Dean, and then we were joined by Lauren Lydiard, Marissa Schwartz and Ashleigh Hill, then Kyla McCracken, and Caroline and LPB and Jessica and Erin and Ali and the entire Senior Class of Educational Theatre - minus of course the most loved Kyle and Rachel. We missed you guys a lot a lot. We were always thinking about you. The ceremony was nice, we all got to gather and hang out in the "lobby" with the other MPAP kids. It was so great to see everyone like Darrell and Richard and Andy and Chelsea. It was just us having a good time, taking pictures, eating tassels...you know. 
The ceremony was nice and we were sitting in the second row! The student speaker was amazing, along with the jokes about the "outfits." But the best part was having Nan front and center making the lion face while a speech was going on. Its about our time to go on when I realize I have dropped my name card, what you give them so they say your name and you can walk! I feel around the floor for a good 2 minutes, trying to be discreet, not hitting people with my cap or gown, getting into the tight quarters behind the seat in front of me! My precariously attached cap comes off, and its a mad scramble to find my name. Thanks to Richard and Dean who helped me eventually find it. So, now we're ready. You can imagine our surprise and excitement when we were getting ready for MPAP's walk across the stage and Nan gets to be the professor to come up and give us all a handshake! So we line up and our names are called and we walk across the stage. Of course, I trip on an electrical cord and my hat comes flying off just as I am about to shake hands with the Dean. :-) Oh well, it made me smile. 
Gotta Love em.Afterwards was a plethora of hugging and seeing people and organizing. Oh! Bob Saget was there. Yup.
That night, after a quick 16 Handles trip with Greg, we all met up again at Mariss'a apartment for a nice Champagne toast. It was cool to see everyone's parents and figure out why they are the way they are, why they look the way they look :-P. My dad got me a BEAUTIFUL brand spankin' new Canon Digital Rebel T1i. It's gorgeous and the reason why I have so many pictures of graduation. He commandeered it though and took pictures non-stop :-P 
Joe and Nan and Christina were there. I thought that was so nice that that happened. That everyone came and it was such a supportive, fun community party. I'm certain our class has trailblazed a lot of new traditions and sense of community.
Bye Ashleigh!! I miss you! Till June!Tuesday's main event was GRAD ALLEY! But before I went I ran into a couple freshmen in the park.
I am going to take this moment to talk about the Freshmen class of Ed. Theatre. I love them. They are so great. They have so much compassion and friendship and they are so creative. You know who I'm talking about. Joyce is cool, Lianne is a sweetheart (with a crazy side :-)), Cait has been so much fun to hang out with and we have big eating plans, Pablo is just Pablo, Robert Keith no one could ever replace you, and Tyler, well, you're the boss. I am seriously looking forward to seeing what ya'll make of the program and I hope we can be friends and keep in touch.
I was lucky enough to go to Grad Alley last year with my besties Erin and Julia (Erin and I pictured left, last year). It was the best time ever, so I had high expectations :-). This year was a good time but not as extravagant. Annaleigh and I were on the same pace so we did a lot together and would meet back up with Dean and Lauren and Erin and Emily.
There was cotton candy and cracker jacks, hot dog, tattoos, face painting, dunk the clown, redbull, and friends. I don't know if there ended up being a dance party and fireworks, we' didn't stay. But we DID go on the hay ride! When we saw Pablo walking by Pless and begged him to join us. He did. I gave him a wrist band and he disappeared. I found him an hour later drunk and full of free food, wandering around looking for a place to sleep in the park :-). We dined at BBar that evening, one of my favorite places to eat in the city. I love the outside patio and the lights and trees :-). It was cool to see the purple Empire State Building as well!FINALLY! GRADUATION!!!! Annaleigh and family met up with Dead and I at Astor and we all rode the train up together. We got to the stadium and there were just tons of people so we made our way onto the line, we were pretty close to the front. I ran up to see just how close and ran into Vera at the front gate!!! We all got a picture with her. As we filtered in we realized we were the first ones from Steinhardt and we got our pick of seats. So we picked the front row, closest to the center! From then our fate was sealed. Picture after picture after picture. We appeared, the four of us, Lauren, Dean, Annaleigh and I, on the Jumbotron 12 times! It would be a close up on us dancing or cheering or what have you, then a wide shot then back to us, over and over. We commandeered the entire opening ceremonies. It was a looooot of fun.
When it was finally time for us to receive our commencement, all the photographers lined up in front of us. I looked to Annaleigh and I said, hold me hand! and then told Dean to hold her hand too! They ATE IT UP. Because of that we are in every picture related to NYU Commencement 2009 ANYWHERE on the Internet, AND on the front page of AM NY!!! WOOT.
After was a nice lunch and then break and dinner at Les Halles. After some home made cake, I said goodbye and my Mom and Bill took the train back to Philadelphia. That night I hung out with a friend and we stayed up watching movies, like Waynes World. We stayed up all night, talking and painting our nails and giggling, like little girls. Just kidding. It was a good night, although a little dreary.
The next couple of days were filled with my Dad and his girlfriend Mary doing things like going to Central Park and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. That was nice. We got pizza at John's on Bleecker and gelato next door. AND we saw STAR TREK! It was awesome. Totally awesome. Except for the large group of people sitting behind me making really bad, unfunny, and inappropriate comments - loudly. I was so stressed and tired and just on edge that I started crying. It just reminded me too much of teaching and I just wonder why so many people feel they have the right to say whatever they want whenever they want. I did not pay 13 bucks to hear you say stupid shit. This is my time, shut up. Teaching was the same way. They felt they could say whatever they wanted whenever. With me looking right at them, they would see me and deliberately have a conversation about perfume or lunch or whatever. I just can't stand so much disrespect in life. Sigh. Anyway, I loved the movie. It reminded me of so many things. But yes, freshmen year living next to Garrett who taught me basically everything I know about it. Garrell and Darrett. I will always be your Dax. Thursday night after the movie I really lost it. All the sleepless nights and busy days and stress of entertaining among other things really got to me. I haven't cried that much of felt so.... empty in a long time. I had nothing left in me to give to anything. So I tried to regain composure slowly but surely each day. I'm still not there yet. Saturday I was supposed to go to my Dad's girlfriend's neice's graduation dinner. On the way to meet them I totally lost it again and bailed. I didn't realize that my dad having a girlfriend would entail a whole other family. I just met her 2 days before - not ready. My dad was SUPER understanding though, gotta love him. Oh and some time in there we went to Bohemia which is this HUGE outdoor beer garden in Queens. It had great Czech beers and food! De-liscious!
Erin and I went to a play reading in Brooklyn called "the Mermaid Parade at Coney Island or My View From the Gershwin Hotel." It was nice, small audience of just friends + us. About a playwright writing his first play and all these characters' experiences around Coney Island.... from what I can remember. Then Erin and I went out to BBQ for steak,chicken,ribs,margaritas and ended up in Harlem at Julia's re-enacting Les Miserables in her living room like I did when I was 10. I also went to the Botanical Garden with Greg and had Jamaican patties which were delicious then hung around and watched Ace of Cakes and really just did nothing. It was nice.
Also somewhere earlier in there Caldwell and I broke up for real. It's really complicated and I don't really want to talk about it but I'm doing ok. More than ok, and that's the sad part. These last couple days have been great cause I've had them to myself for the first time. Still not even close to getting my shit together or everything I need to get done, done. Just not enough hours in the day. I NEED TIME. My whole world is changing. School, the institution and the rules and the plan that has been in place for me for as long as I can remember is over. My whole concept of family is changing. The task of finding and having and keeping a job that pays rent lies in front of me. Friends are moving or are not around and those relationships are changing from now on. Everything is new and terrifying, and I'm trying to breathe and walk toward the stage and go Bogart on the world's ass but I need time to figure that out. To figure myself out. This is a really, really, unique time in a persons life. I hope I make it through. ....the Degrassi theme song seems appropriate right about now:
WHATEVER IT TAKES
I KNOW I CAN MAKE IT THROUGH
IF I HOLD OUT (IF I DO)
I KNOW I CAN MAKE IT THROUGH
BE THE BEST
THE BEST THAT I CAN BE
HEAR WHAT I SAY TO YOU
WHAT EVER IT TAKES
I CAN SEE YA
I KNOW
I KNOW
AHHHHH
I KNOW I CAN MAKE IT THROUGH
Ehn. Some people turn to God or to loved ones in times like this. I turn to Degrassi :-). FML. Anyway, thanks for listening!
Beam me up, Scotty
1 comment:
I didn't realize you guys were on the cover of AM New York. That's AWESOME! miss you!
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