Christmas in New York

I know, I know, I'm a horrible person.  I know.  It's been over three weeks since my last post.  I'm sorry!

I've had this post half-done for weeks, but I was too lazy to get around to posting it.  So before Christmas is too far gone, I thought I'd get this together and get it out there.  

Without further ado, Christmas!

Christmas in New York means lights!  Columbus Avenue is lit up from head to toe in Christmas lights, strung painstakingly from every single tree visible to the naked eye!  Take a look around the Lincoln Center area, and you'll be dazzled.  I had to walk down that street every week all month to get to my voice lesson, and I still couldn't get over the absolute beauty of it all.  

And let's not forget the Christmas Trees!  We now live in a society where most families have invested in a fake tree which can be easily set up and put away with no mess, and used over and over again for years to come.  

That being said, it warmed my heart to see real Christmas Tree stands on every block all over New York City.  Even in the hustle-bustle of the city, it looks like New Yorkers haven't forgotten about this age-old tradition quite yet.  All through December, people walk through the streets with a Christmas Tree on their shoulder.

One of the many festive Christmas Tree stands in New York.  Trees range in price from $30 - $50 ish, depending on the size you're looking for.

And that would be Christmas in New York!  My New Year's Resolution for 2015 is to update my blog more regularly!  I'm so sorry for the long hiatus.  Look out for January, because I've got posts just begging to be written.

For now, I bid you adieu!  Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa ...

And a Happy New Year!

AMDA Stratford Arms Tree

Columbus Avenue Tree

AMDA 61st Street Tree

 Love,

Little Me

Midterms Are Upon Us

Midterms are the bane of every college student's existence.  Set right in the middle of the semester, you're two months in and you know you have over two months left, classes just decided to start piling on the work, and then they throw a heavily weighted exam at you.  How can anyone survive?

If you go to any normal college and study ... well, anything, your Midterm preparations probably look a little like this:

Regular School Midterm Prep

However, I go to Theatre School.  So, instead of textbooks, notes, and every colored highlighter in the rainbow, my Midterm preparations look a little like this:

Theatre School Midterm Prep

Hairspray, makeup, and dance shoes.  All have to be in perfect condition if you want to stand a chance of surviving midterms in Theatre School.

Here at AMDA, students are highly encouraged to wear makeup to class every day.  They want their students to appear performance-ready at any time, because after all, our teachers now could be our future employers.  Every day is basically an audition.  And when midterms roll around, it's time to break out the bright red lipstick.  Nothing says "actress" more than dramatic vampire-after-feeding-time lips.

With four dance classes, an acting class, a vocal production class, and a musical theatre class, there's a lot of performance involved in midterms.  That means, if you get sick, you're doomed.  So keep up on the vitamins.

And, of course, on top of two weeks of midterms, every teacher wanted to schedule a makeup class for what we missed during Thanksgiving.  So, no weekend to relax, either.

Just two weeks until Christmas Break.  I can do this ...

Love,
Little Me

Midway Revelations

Today officially marks the halfway point through the semester.  By February, the first quarter of my college experience will be over, and time is passing far too quickly.

Today, we turned in our Practicum, which is a “class” consisting of logging every hour you spend doing anything that could be remotely related to musical theatre.  Doing homework and watching Broadway shows is included in this.  There is only a minimum of seven hours that must be logged, but my average is somewhere around eighteen hours a week, and that’s without even trying!

With every week of hours, we have to write a 100 word minimum reflection to go with it, and there was one reflection that I wrote in a fit of inspiration that I felt should be shared with the world.  In a few words, it’s a summary of everything acting class is.

Everyone should take an acting class.  

Because this is not an acting class.  It is a class in knowing yourself, in understanding how you would react under any circumstance.  It is a class in vulnerability.  It is a class in focus.

It is a class in being human.

We don’t learn to act here at AMDA.  We learn how to be human, and then to apply those skills to scenes and etudes.

For Acting 1: Foundations, the first semester acting course, the entirety of the first seven weeks were spent working on four etudes, each of which focused on a different sense.  We were instructed to play ourselves, at our own ages, under circumstances that we would realistically find ourselves in.  This way, we could understand that “acting” is really just living under imaginary circumstances.

For example, if you have to drink coffee from a cup in your scene, you don’t pretend you’re drinking coffee.  You actually drink coffee in your rehearsal time, and you analyze your reaction to everything that happens to you when you drink the coffee, and then when you get on stage, even if there’s not actually coffee in the cup, you are still actually drinking the coffee, and you can realistically react to it.

   

Simple. (sarcasm)

                                                                                                      

This is what I’ve always loved about acting.  It’s literally living someone else’s life.  You can put yourself into a world you’ve never seen before, and you can actually live in it, not just pretend to.  And in the process of learning this skill, you become so incredibly in tune with yourself and with others around you, that you really begin to understand what being a human is like, and all of the intricacies and complications that come with it.

Actors aren’t the only ones who should be taking acting classes.  I think everyone should take an acting class, to better understand what it really means to be a human.

Because being human is not as easy as you’d think.

An Assignment for Acting: Go to Strawberry Fields (just around the corner from home) and stand there for twenty minutes, taking note of everything your body does as you just simply see.  It was supposed to be partly a study on how the body reacts in the cold ... but it was about seventy degrees that day ...

Love,
Little Me

AMDA is like Hogwarts because ...

• Much like performing spells and brewing potions, doing your homework is actually fun.

• At Hogwarts, they have 1^st Year, 2^nd Year, 3^rd Year, etc, and each year is assigned special classes and privileges.  At AMDA, we have 1^st Semester, 2^nd Semester, 3^rd Semester, etc, and each semester is assigned special classes and privileges.

• The teachers are insane.

• Kids complain about going to class and doing homework every day, even though they are perfectly aware that studying theatre (or magic) is literally playing around all day long.

• At Hogwarts, you have to give the password to the people in the portraits.  At AMDA, you have to show your I.D. card to the people at the security desk.  Either way, if you forget it, you’re doomed.

• Hogwarts has four houses, and AMDA has three programs.  The students within the sections are biased, separated, and rarely interact, but at the heart, they’re all learning the same thing.

• The ghosts that haunt the corridors of Hogwarts and the non-student residents that roam the hallways of the Stratford Arms dorms are essentially the same thing.

• After your school days end, you are kicked out into the wilderness to fend for yourself.  Don’t worry, though.  You are always welcome to come back and teach.

If only we had a cafeteria and a meal plan where food could magically appeared in front of us via kitchen (elf) worker …

Love,

Little Me

Grocery Shopping = Narnia

Grocery shopping has quickly become one of my favorite activities here. Trader Joe’s is a magical place filled with reasonably priced food (by NY standards) that absolutely delicious, and bound to be good for you.  I could spend hours inside that store.  

It's a like going to Narnia.  

My shopping trip yesterday caused me to come to a realization, though: for some reason, it is physically impossible for me to spend any more than $35 each week at Trader Joe’s on groceries. 

Other kids talk about their expensive $70 grocery trips, and I just have to wonder what it is they’re buying.  First of all, how does one even carry $70 worth of groceries home?  This is New York, after all, and anything you buy has to be small enough that you can carry it home by hand.  

Second of all, if I can buy everything my heart desires and eat a balanced diet on $35 a week, what is everyone else buying that I’m missing?  I must be doing it wrong ...

Here’s my brain when grocery shopping.

1: Necessities – bread, cereal, milk, bananas, vegetables

2: Replenish My Supplies – chips, apples, peanut butter, jelly, salad dressing, granola bars

3: Dessert of the Week – ice cream or cookies, usually themed for the upcoming holiday
4: Meat – every once in a while, I’ll buy chicken or beef, depending on whether I think I’ll actually have time to get down to the kitchen and cook it.

5: If I See It – anything that I see and will probably eat before the expiration date.

It’s so much fun to only buy the things that I like to eat, and since the grocery store is only two blocks away, I can buy food whenever I need it!

I still say that college in no way will ever defeat the glory days of high school, but I have to say doing independent things like grocery shopping and doing laundry is actually a lot more fun than people told me it would be.

It’ll probably lose it’s appeal soon enough.

Love,

Little Me.

Dorm Room Transformation

The rooms at the Stratford Arms are small, to say the least.  There's a twin size bed, mini refrigerator, closet, sink and mirror, desk, and two sets of drawers cramped into a very small space in each room.  The small size, linoleum floors, and hastily painted white walls can be somewhat depressing, but I was determined to transform my asylum-esque dorm room into a fairy wonderland.

Before  

After

The bathroom may be down the hall, the shower may be just big enough to step into and step out of, the sink may not actually be able to drain all of the water that comes out of it, but at least I can go to sleep in the dorm room of my dreams.

After all, sleep is the only reason I actually ever go in there.  I'm too busy running around between campuses to spend much time in my personal fairytale wonderland aside from grabbing granola bars on the go and switching out my dance shoes.

Love,

Little Me.

Showcase Saturday

There is never a dull moment in NYC.  Even on the weekends.

This morning, I woke up naturally at 8:00 a.m. because my biological clock hates me.  It doesn't matter that I went to bed at two in the morning.  I am cursed to rise early.  

It has it's advantages, though.

I love that my homework is singing a song, but unfortunately belting in my room like I used to would probably cause my entire floor and the ones above and below me to hate me.  So, when I woke up so early this morning, I made the walk to campus and took advantage of on of the dozens of practice rooms located on several floors of the building, all completely empty due to the weekend.

Note for the future: most sane college students don't go to school when they don't have to.  This is the perfect time to get things done!

My Personal Favorite Practice Room

 When I left the building and walked into the crisp November air, I noticed that the leaves on the trees had finally turned a different color.  The entire reason that Fall is my favorite season is that the leaves turn all different shades of orange, red, and brown, so I thought I'd capture the moment.

When I returned to the Strat, some girls I knew were getting ready to go to one of the Fourth Semester Musical Showcases, which happen very frequently throughout the semester, and since it was free, I decided to tag along.

It's amazing how much talent and skill can be cultivated in only four short semesters at AMDA.  The showcases are basically a mishmash of about twenty songs, all from different musicals, that are fitted together in such a way that they actually tell a new story.  The show we saw was called "The Right to Remain Silent," and it was basically a prison theme.  The Fourth Semesters were fantastic, and the whole experience got me so excited for my own showcase in a couple of years.

After that, I went home to work on our current etude with my scene partner for a bit, and I hope this time we came up with a situation that will satisfy our overly picky instructor who never really seems to know what she wants from us.

Finally, I went to work.  It was four hours of listening to both musical showcases over the intercom backstage while we sorted through every piece of clothing imaginable and tried to find a spot for them to live.  Not nearly as easy as it sounds.

The job included a lot of climbing up and down a ladder into the loft area, where all of the costumes  and props are kept.  As with everything in New York, storage includes stacking.  This loft is located in the backstage area of the theatre.

A Glimpse Backstage at the Ansonia Theatre

If you look behind the chairs that are stacked on the walls, you can see the dresses hanging behind them.  That is only a small portion of the loft in which the costumes and props are kept.

And now I'm here, sitting in the hallway by the elevators on my floor in the Strat as people walk past me, sending me odd looks.

It's the only place I can connect to the WiFi, stop judging me!

Love,
Little Me

Friday Night Fun!

Times Square

After class today, as I was walking home with one of my friends, we made the spontaneous decision to go to see Les Miserables on Broadway tonight.

It's these kind of decisions you can only make when you live in New York.

It was the first Broadway musical I'd seen since moving here, and it was definitely super exciting.  It was beautiful and breathtaking, but honestly?  I didn't feel a whole lot.  Everyone goes on and on about how amazing Les Mis is, so my expectations were high.  And it was a good show, definitely worth seeing for the $57 we paid sitting in the front rows of the mezzanine.  Just ... not the most amazing thing in the whole world.

That being said, it was afterward that the real excitement happened.  We were about to walk home when we walked past the If/Then theatre and saw a huge mob of people.  When we realized they were waiting for the cast, it was only natural that we join them.

Anthony Rapp came out first, and though I only saw what I think was the top of his head, I was filled with satisfaction that I was within mere feet of him.

And, of course, when Idina Menzel came out, the whole crowd pushed forward to see her, and I even wove my way in far enough to catch a couple actual glimpses of her face with my own eyes, knowing that she was literally three feet away from me.

I called my best friend while I was trying to get a good glimpse of her and we squealed together at the amazingness of the moment.  We've been Idina fans since the very beginning, after all.  

This was my first celebrity sighting in NY.  It's been a good night.  

How could I possibly go to sleep now?

Wishing everyone a good night,

Little Me

10 Things to Accept When Moving to AMDA (and NY in General)

#1: Your living area will be small.  Just remember, there’s always someone living in a smaller space than you.  Like the rooms meant for one person that have been stuffed with furniture for two.  It can always be worse …

#2:  Everything is done by alphabetical order.  If you’re at the beginning, like me, get used to being called first … always.

#3:  You will question your decision.  It’s going to happen over and over again, especially at the beginning when orientation, placements, college classes, and starting your own independent life can be very overwhelming.  Stand strong and remember the reason you came, because tomorrow will be better.

#4:  You will meet a lot of different people.  Some you will not befriend, and some you will.  There are people like you.  It’s okay if you don’t find them after the first day.  It’s fine if you still feel lonely after a few days.  Even if you haven’t made any friendships within the first two weeks and have completely regretted your decision to move here, don’t worry!  You will find your people, and you will make great friendships.  Just relax and let them come.  No one is alone in New York City.

#5  If you’re late, you’re fired.  No excuses.  Get used to it.

#6  There is a grocery store on every block.  Do a little exploring.  In general, Trader Joe’s is your grocery store.  Duane Reade is your stop for milk, eggs, sandwich necessities, other snacks, and also your general store for notebooks, bathroom products, etc.  Price Discount on 84^th and Broadway is where you buy your yoga mat and, if you don’t mind the walk, it is also your cheaper general store.

#7  If you don’t do your homework, it will not be accepted.  This is not high school anymore.  The work isn’t hard, just tedious.  If you love theatre with a passion, trust me, it doesn’t feel like homework.  It feels like you’re getting a grade for having fun.

#8  If you have free time, you are failing.  Go to Dance Review once a week.  Go to morning warm-ups as often as possible.  Go to American Standard once a week.  Take the free extra classes.  Get a job.  Go to the library.

#9  Practice makes perfect.  Get a free ten-minute session with an accompanist when you can and practice your music.  Practice your dances at dance review.  Go over your etudes and monologues often.  Research Broadway shows.  Who else gets to say that their only homework is memorizing a tap sequence and watching Kristin Chenoweth perform on YouTube?

#10  People are judging you.  Whether it’s your teachers or your fellow students, they are judging you.  Don’t show up with a bad attitude or get an idea into your head that you already know about theatre.  There is always something to learn, no matter who you are, or what your past experiences are.

Lots of Love,

Little Me

AMDA Week 1: Orientation

I told you I wouldn't leave you in the dark.  Let's play a little catch-up, shall we?

Welcome to AMDA.  Week 1: Orientation.

Wednesday:

We arrived at the Stratford Arms at nine o'clock in the morning after a full day of recovery from the trying twenty-two hour journey from Nebraska to New York City.  We then promptly unloaded a giant pile of boxes onto the sidewalk and my parents drove away less than ten minutes later to allow the next kid to repeat the process.

A team of current AMDA students helped pile my stuff into what was basically a giant rolling bucket.  We dragged this up the elevator to floor seven twice to accommodate all of my things in my room.  After the boxes took over my bed, desk, and most of the floor, I left it to be tackled later and took the walk to 61st street for the beginning of orientation.

First, I stood in a long line for two hours for someone at the end to tell me my paperwork was done and check a little box on my paper.  I did get a free AMDA tote bag and water bottle out of it, however.  Hooray.

Then, we were directed to a room to buys the remainder of my textbooks and, of course, to be bombarded by discounted AMDA merchandise.  I tried to remain strong, but in the end, I did need black tights, and the jacket I bought has proven to be very useful.

Finally, I had a break for a few hours to settle in and tackle the monster of unpacking, a process that took several days and truthfully is still not totally finished.  It's difficult maneuvering my entire life into a room the size of a closet.

The "Before" Picture

"Placement Prep" began at 5:30, and from what I had heard, I had thought there would be a nice session with an accompanies in a little room for ten minutes to go over my placement song.

Wrong.  Instead, it ended up that it was yet another paperwork session including, but not limited to: a dorm room survey, a music theory test, contracts, allowed visitors, and other paperwork.  As this was happening, we were called up one by one to perform our placement songs in the same room with forty kids with an accompanist so he knew what to play.  It was sheer chaos.

The moment we were set free, I went home and fell asleep.

The End.

Thursday:

Upon waking up to the morning light of New York City, I ate oatmeal out of my one bowl and proceeded to get ready for placements for the next three hours.  This was difficult, because my mirror is plastered to the wall at a height that was obviously meant for someone who is much taller than little ol’ me.  My solution: a command hook stuck to the actual mirror that I strung my own hand mirror from.

The Cierra Solution to The Mirror That is Too High to See In

Placements were a very laid back version of the AMDA auditions.  We had to prepare a 1 minute monologue and sixteen-bar cut of a song.  They told us over and over, “No pressure.  We already have your tuition money, we can’t kick you out.”

It stopped being funny the sixteenth time they said it.

Anyway, we had a good long warm-up that prepared us nicely to perform for a panel of 3 judges.  It was very relaxed, and I had a lot of fun in the process.  And it was a time for me to bond with my group, which was important for poor, socially awkward little me.

And … the end.  I was free after that, and I went out with my family for their last day in New York. 

Friday:

We sat in hot rooms without air conditioning for hours while they drilled us on Nutrition, General Safety, Dorm Regulations, Library Rules, etc.  And none of the lunch we were supposed to be provided.  Why?  Because they finished with us by dinnertime.  We had been there for six hours, but we were out by dinnertime, so we obviously didn’t need food.  Never mind that none of us had eaten since breakfast.

I think AMDA was just making excuses for having run out of food …

The End.                                                                                         

Saturday:

Dance Placements.

This is the most trying part of orientation, because it is a nine hour process that will have you ready to pull all of your hair out, lay on the floor, and die.  We began with tap …

Dance tryouts work like this: they herd seventy students (less than a third of the entire class) around like cattle into a small room to stretch before handing out numbers. Then, they take the herd to a new room to learn a simple combination in jazz, tap, and ballet to be correctly placed in one of five levels of dance.  This takes nine hours.  AMDA provides unsatisfying granola bars.  

Let me just say that the last tap experience I had was when I was six.  I quit ballet after six years, when I was eleven, and jazz was off and on for a few years somewhere in between.

That being said, I made Level 3 Jazz, Level 3 Tap, and Level 4 Ballet.  I don’t know how I pulled that off, but needless to say I was very happy with my placements.  Guess those early years of dance lessons really paid off in the end.  And the thirteen years of figure skating didn’t hurt either …

After the longest nine hours of my entire life, the day still hadn’t ended, because one hour later, just enough time to stuff dinner down my throat and get back to campus, there was another seminar thing where some successful AMDA alumni came in to tell us their life stories and answer questions.  And I’ll admit, it was actually very inspiring, so I won't complain.  

And ... famous people.

Then they passed out cheap lukewarm pizza and sodas and set us free to attend the social.  Which I attended, because I’m that dorky kid who likes school functions.  And I met other dorky kids who also like school functions while I was there, and made a few friends, which was kind of a big deal for me.  

Can I just say that watching theatre kids participate in karaoke is the most amazing experience anyone could ever have ... ever.

So it was a good night.  And there was free ice cream.

The End.

Sunday:

At 9:45 a.m. we had the very last part of orientation.  It was a long and inspiring speech given by this really awesome staff member about remembering why you are here and working hard to achieve your goals. 

We are starting our professional careers now.  Our behavior at AMDA reflects us in the future, and our teachers could one day be our employers.  Yes, enjoy New York City while you’re here.  But never lose your focus. 

That was the basic outline of the two hour speech.

And thus, orientation had come to a close.

And … then it was time for school to begin.

No rest for the Wicked … (that was intended as a pun.)

The End (of the end,)

Little Me

Remicade at Mt. Sinai

Waking up at 6:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning is always fun.

This morning, after a brief internal battle with my cold about whether or not to get up, I dragged myself out of bed and into some comfortable clothes, and simultaneously applied makeup and ate oatmeal, all the while worrying about my two-and-a-half mile trip to the hospital.

I was out of the dorms by 7:05 and headed straight for the nearby subway station to purchase my first Metro Card.  

It was relatively easy using the subway for the first time, alone.  There weren't very many people, which was both a relaxing and unsettling feeling.  Apparently, even in New York, nobody is willing to wake up at seven on Saturday morning.

About thirty seconds after I reached the platform, the 3 Train showed up which, according to my handy-dandy Google Maps app, was just the train I was looking for.  I took a seat and waited and soon enough, I was at 110th street.  I got off and had a very relaxing walk next to Central Park all the way to 102nd, where the hospital is located.  New York can really be beautiful in the quiet morning hours.

Once I got to the hospital, I wandered around a bit, trying to figure out where to go.  When I got to the fourth floor, there were signs everywhere talking about the cancer center, which got me confused and turned around a bit.  I had to take several turns into side hallways to find the Remicade infusion center, but once I found it, it was very relaxing and spacious.  I have a nice room with a sliding door, outlets to charge my phone and laptop, and WiFi (for the first time since arriving!)

After a couple of hours, there was a big commotion.  People were yelling, they were calling the emergency teams, someone was turning blue, it wasn't good.  Luckily, the problem was solved quickly and by the time the medical team and 911 got here, everything was fine and they had to be turned away.  

Never a dull moment in NYC.

I had finished the infusion, set up my next appointment, and was out of there by 11:30 a.m.  This time on the way home, I took a stroll through central park, which was even more beautiful than next to it.

When I got home, I made some spaghetti, laid down in bed, and found myself utterly relaxed, comforted by the thought that I had no obligations for the rest of the weekend.

Except homework.  And grocery shopping.  And laundry.

It never ends.

Love,
Little Me

Dear World,

I am not dead.  I am back, and ready as ever.  I finally figured out how to turn my phone into a hotspot so I can get on a (really slow) internet connection and quickly update the blog!

Obviously, I am now living in New York City.  I am attending AMDA and studying Musical Theatre, and it has been the best decision I have ever made.

So far.  It has only been three weeks, after all.

Life here in NYC is everything I ever imagined it could be.  I finally have the independence I’ve always wanted, the experiences I’ve always desired, and the key to my future right at my fingertips.  All I have to do now is grasp it.

I will tell the stories of my time here up until this point all in due time, my lovelies.  I may have been on a long hiatus, but I have not forgotten about my faithful (currently nonexistence) readers.  I’ve been writing my blog posts, I just haven’t found a convenient way to transfer them to the internet until tonight.

Tomorrow morning, I will be making the journey to Mt. Sinai Hospital to begin my Remicade treatments here in the big city.  I may have to take my first subway journey in the morning, or I might just be wimpy and walk the couple of miles.  With my current horrible, everlasting cold, however, I’m not so sure that’s an awesome idea, so subway it is!

I promise, I’ll write more tomorrow during my first day off since … a very long time.  I’ve gotta catch everybody up!  Until then, here’s a brief overview:

·         I’m doing a lot of exercise:

o       I take four two-hour dance classes a week.

o       Yoga/Pilates is taught in two of my classes (that’s five times a week) and is also offered as an early-morning warm-up.

o       I walk to school and back every day, and twenty-four city blocks and back on Thursdays to my weekly voice lesson.

·         I got a job on the costumes crew with AMDA.  I help people try on clothes and sort costume pieces.  And I get a taste of what showcases will be like during fourth semester, because I’ll be the on-call costume girl for many of the performances.  And I get paid for this!  Life is good.

·         I have a cold that will never go away.  My voice feels like it will no longer be here tomorrow.  Sadness …

Goodnight!

Love,

Little Me.

To Breathe or Not to Breathe

Well, I have asthma now.

I do believe it is better for me to admit the cold hard truth now instead of constantly telling myself “I don’t have it, I don’t have it, I don’t have it.”

You see, no one in my family no matter how deeply we go has been diagnosed with asthma that we know of.  My mother and grandma have low lung capacity and breathe hard when hiking mountains, but no inhalers have ever been seen inside of my family.

Until now.  And I have two of them.

Two Puffs 3x Daily

Two Puffs 2x Daily

 It all started with a cough.  At first, it was just late at night.  Back when I was up until the wee hours of the morning, around 1:00 or 2:00 I started having little coughs.  I thought Oh, it’s caused by lack of sleep, better go to bed now … and I would wake up fine.

But the thing is, I kept coughing late at night before bed.  And then I started coughing during the day.  And then I was coughing every other breath when trying to hold a conversation or sing a song.  And don’t even get me started on laughing.

Two weeks into it, when I was hacking up mucus and hearing my chest rattle every time I drew a breath, we had to go to the doctor to check up on … something or other.  I’ve been to the doctor a lot recently.  Anyway, I happened to mention that I had this cough and the conversation went a little like this.

Doc: Do you cough when you sing or talk a lot?
Me:  Yes
Doc: Does mucus come up?
Me:  Yeah
Doc: Is it more of a wet cough?
Me:  Yup.
Doc: You have asthma.

Um … what?  That’s it?  No “well it could be this,” no two week wait before proper diagnoses, not even a breathing test, and you determine I have asthma?  You can image why I didn’t believe her.

Anyway, I took some kind of test and apparently, the results came back showing that I have asthma.  Something about percentages …

So now I take two inhalers three times a day on top of two vitamin supplements, a multivitamin, and my regular crohn’s medicine.  I’ll admit, the cough got better.  It didn’t go away, but it got better.

Then, the doctor recommended I go off of one of the inhalers and only use the other one.

The cough came back right away!  It was horrible and it just makes me feel tired all the time.  It takes a lot of energy to hack up your lungs, you know.  Add that to the stuffed up nose and *ahem* cramps *ahem* and I was just about ready to lay down and die.

And then I had to go to work …

So I am now taking both inhalers and I have accepted the asthma into my little disease family.  I should start naming my ailments …

Edna

Bob

A quote from me earlier today:

“I kind of like the asthma.  It adds to my coolness.”

Hoping you’re feeling better than I am,

Little Me
________________________________________________________

P.S. A Note About My Doctor

So, I finally start believing my doctor about the asthma, and then she ruins it all. 

When we went in for another checkup (for the new asthma,) I had a stuffed up nose and very mild cold symptoms.  I wasn’t worried, after all it happens every single month around the exact same time … I’ll let your imagination figure out why.

However, my doctor immediately said (and I quote)

“You have kind of a wet cough.  I think it’s Secondary Bronchitis.  I’m going to prescribe antibiotics –”

First of all, you said the wet cough was asthma, not bronchitis.  Second of all, antibiotics?  So I immediately cut her off and responded,

“Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, it’s just a cold!  It happens [every single month], it’ll go away on its own!  It always does.”

To which she said:

“I don’t prescribe antibiotics like water …”

 Um … yes.  Yes you do.  You prescribed Lyme Disease antibiotics without a second thought.  You prescribed asthma inhalers without a second thought.  A stuffed up nose does not require antibiotics.

Anyway, I refused the antibiotics, as politely as I could in my fear of having more medicine to take, and guess what?  The next day, the stuffy nose immediately was better.  Hmmmm …

You should listen to your doctor, you really should.  Just use your own common sense as well, because sometimes they just take your symptoms and give you a textbook diagnoses, and it’s not always correct.

10 Questions Normal People Should Stop Asking Me

1)    How does it feel to be eighteen?

a.       Like I’m a sixteen-year-old in the body of a fourteen-year-old.

Me at 13

Me at 17

Nothing has changed ...

2)      What kind of music do you listen do?

a.       Broadway and Disney.  Songs typically used for slow dances.

3)      What kind of movies do you watch?

a.       Cheap N' Cheezy Rom Coms that fill the void of real romance in my life.  And Disney.  Always Disney.

s4)      What do you want for your birthday?

a.       A tiara and princess gown.

My Dream Wedding Gown

5)      Oh, you went to a party this weekend?  What did you do?

a.       In-depth conversations about our nerdy tendencies including but not limited to: video games, anime, overcoming social awkwardness.

6)      Where are you going to college?

a.       The American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City.

7)      Oh, and what are you studying?

a.       Musical Theater (was that not obvious from the name of the college?)

8)      So what’s your dream, then?

a.       ... Broadway (was that not obvious from my chosen college and major?)

9)        Isn’t living in New York expensive?

a.       Is your two-story four-bedroom three-bathroom home with a double-wide garage to fit both of your cars expensive? I’m paying the same amount to live in a box with no car.  It’s just a different kind of lifestyle.

10)  You’re going to New York City alone?  Aren’t you scared?

a.       I’m going because I’ll be alone.  I need a little separation from my family (not that I don’t love them.)   I’ll make lots of friends and never go out alone at night.  Plus, New York’s crime rate is similar to that of Disneyland.  So no, I’m not scared. 

By this point in the conversation, the average normal person is wondering what planet I have descended from.  Oh well ...

Love,

Little Me

Introducing: AMDA Adventures

If you've glanced over the title of this site or read a post or two, you probably know that I am moving to New York City in a few short weeks to study musical theater at a nonprofit private conservatory-type college based in Manhattan called the American Musical and Dramatic Academy.

If you type AMDA into a google search engine, you are likely to come up with many opinions on the school, both good and bad.  Some people (mostly current students and people who know students) say that the school is great.  You get out of it what you put into it, the classes are rigorous and challenging, and the staff is excellent.

Other people (rarely consisting of students or past students) tend to say that the school takes everyone, it is not worth the money, and it has a bad reputation.

So why did I choose it?  I'm glad you asked!

I was looking for an intensive B.F.A program in a huge musical theater location with great instructors and rigorous courses. I applied to many schools, including the Tisch School of the Arts, UCLA, and Northwestern University. I think I dreamed just a little too big though, especially given the fact that (a) I've never had private vocal training, (b) my dance training ended six years ago, and (c) the only theater classes I've taken were summer programs at our local community theater.

However, I love musical theater. Now, we're not talking about loving cake or loving your first crush. This is a passionate, fiery, mind-blowing love that consumes a person’s body and mind all day every day. I love musical theater, and I am willing to do everything I need to do in order to make it my career. I research singing techniques on my own and practice nearly every day. Through my involvement in show choir and school productions, I have gained valuable experience.

I didn't have what it took to be competitive with hundreds of other students for 10 spots in some of those bigger programs, but I believe I have what it takes to succeed in theater as long as I have the opportunity to learn the techniques.  

AMDA accepted me into the 2-year Integrated Musical Theater program based in New York City, and I gratefully enrolled, finding the school to have all of those qualities I was looking for.

I like to think of myself as a bit of a field reporter.  I grew tired of the flip-flop back-and-fourth of the opinions on the college-finding boards.  I want to find out the truth about AMDA for myself and for other prospective students who see everything I see in its programs.  

Here on this page, I will post everything AMDA-related, from auditions to classes to homework to teachers.  I hope that others can learn from my experiences and use it to further their own dreams, whatever they may be.

Enjoy!

Love,

Little Me

Who Am I?

Who am I?
Can I conceal myself forever more?
Pretend I'm not the man I was before?
And must my name until I die
Be no more than an alibi?
Must I lie?

Jean Valjean

I've debated since starting this blog about posting things about me.  On one hand, I want to show my friends and family pictures of me doing all of the crazy things I'm about to do in New York, and to talk about my college experience without glossing anything over.  I'm sure other readers would like to connect with me on a more personal level as well, especially if they're interested in what I have to tell them.

On the other hand, I don't want to be stalked ...

So we'll compromise.  If you promise not to stalk me, I'll tell you some secrets.

Pinky swear.

Alrighty then, here we go!

My name is Cierra (gasp, she said her name.)  I am bright blonde and petite (that's a nice word for short n' bony.)  My friends call me "Sweet Little Innocent Fairy Cierra" because I live in a world of unicorns and rainbows where bad things and people don't exist and hopes and dreams are all you need to survive.

Basically, Disney World.

Oh, you want to see me?  You don't want a description.  Fine ...

This was one of my senior pictures that I attacked with a free downloadable photoshopping software called GIMP.  I'm not really a fairy (I know, you're all shocked,) I just act like one.

Yes, the picture over there next to my about me description is actually me ... post GIMP.  It was taken in Paris, but I cut Paris out and replaced it with ... whatever that is that I found of Google Images.

OMG my best friend just had her first kiss (distracted by phone ...)

Moving on ...

Wow, it feels really cool talking about myself now that you all know the truth!

From here on out, I will be talking about myself a little more freely.  Again, no stalking please.  I will post pictures either taken by me or of me, but beware, all I have is my phone camera and GIMP so ... no grand expectations or anything.

I am so excited to take you guys with me on this incredible journey!  As a reward for reading all the way through this long, rambling post, here is a real picture of me.  Not GIMPed out at all.

Lots of love,

Little Me (a.k.a. Cierra)

The Beginning of the End

I just finished my very last Remicade appointment in Nebraska.  My next injection will take place in November in New York City.  We hit the one-month mark until I leave a few days ago, and since then I have been swamped with the number of "ends" that have been neatly scheduled into my little calendar.

Every day that goes by is a day that brings me closer to a new life in NYC, and that in itself is something to celebrate, but also with every passing day, I must say goodbye to something.  Whether it is a part of my childhood, or a long-time friend, or my favorite worn-out clothes, the end is within sight, or perhaps has already passed.

Lately, I have found myself scheduling in "the last" of everything.  My last skating test.  My last outing.  My last shopping trip.  My last Remicade.  My last Homecoming.  My last messy bedroom.  My last haunted house.

My last time with my very best friends in the world.

It all ends October 13th.  

I'm going to stop talking about depressing things now.  It's a very happy time, really.  I can't wait to move to the big city and start living independently.  It's so amazing, becoming your own person.  You can't even begin to understand what this feeling is like when you're in high school, but the second you leave ... you're free.

Let me catch you up on what's been happening:

• I got a bad hacking cough that just hasn't let up for a couple of weeks now.  My primary doctor prescribed an inhaler, automatically assuming I have asthma.  I don't believe her, since I have never showed signs of it before and no one in my family has it, but the inhaler seems to be getting rid of the cough, so I'm just going to keep quiet about it.
• I was prescribed Vitamin D and Calcium Supplements, because Crohn's.
• I scheduled some singing lessons! (About time ...)
• I received the AMDA orientation guide and bought all of my textbooks cheap online.
• I've been working very hard and am getting more and more hours at Hy-Vee.  Money made so far: $677.03.  They still haven't fixed my wage to the correct $9.00/hour though ..
• I've been assigned housing and a roommate at AMDA!  I will be spending my days at the Stratford Arms.  Thank the lord, it's only a .5 mile walk to school.  *sigh of relief*

Things to do:

• Buy dance wear (ballet shoes, tap shoes, jazz shoes, character shoes ...)
• Buy college supplies
• Use clothing gift cards
• Turn in final AMDA verification papers (the paperwork never ends ...)
• Find G.I. doctor in NYC
• Find Primary Care doctor in NYC
• Find Remicade Facility in NYC
• Amass college packing list.
• Pack.

The End,

Little Me