Monday, November 2, 2015

Just Another Monday in the Park

Mondays are never easy, so it is important that I do everything within my power to ensure that my first day of the school week doesn’t result in tears and panic attacks. 

Coffee is an important part of this.

Fate was kind to me for this first semester of the year, as Monday classes don’t begin until 12:30 p.m.  This allows to not only sleep in, but once we wake up we can roll out of bed, leisurely get ready for school, and still have an hour or two to put the last-minute details on any homework assignments we didn’t finish over the weekend.

On this particular Monday morning, my two scene partners and I set out on adventure to Central Park as research for acting class.  The scene that we will be performing on Thursday takes place at Central Park Lake.  There are also mermaids and small plastic light-up pumpkins involved …

Acting is weird.


The spot we have chosen for our scene to take place.  The bright green algae-filled waters are at first disgusting to the eye, but in their own way have a sort of magic about them.  I could believe a merman might break through the algae layer to partake in a secret rendezvous with his human lover right at this secluded and beautiful spot of the park.
The geese were plentiful today, milling around all of the people in the hopes of a treat.  We did not give in to their adorable antics!
Musical Theatre is Musical Theatre.  What else can be said about class today?  It's moving along just as slowly as usual.  Class at AMDA has a tendency to move at a breakneck pace for very short periods of time, leaving you feeling useless and panicked when you finally have nothing to do.

Tap class was a success today, as compared to last week when I found myself drifting in and out of consciousness despite my best efforts to stay focused.  What can I say, it must have been the coffee!  We learned drawbacks, and shuffle patterns that we used successfully in a variety of different combinations.  I'm glad to have our teacher this semester.  Contrary to my previous Tap teachers, he sees the importance in throwing new things at us quickly and skillfully so that we can acquire as many skills as possible in this short period of time before we enter the professional world.

On the menu for this week: white rice seasoned with red wine vinegar and sauteed red onions, topped with a fried egg and avocado slices, seasoned to taste with seas salt.
After a quick stop at Lincoln Center to pick up the plays I had on hold there, I made my way back to the dorms to prepare my first serving of this week's dinner.  Luckily, it turned out to be delicious!  In an attempt to save as much money as humanly possible, I have decided to make all of my own meals instead of eating out, meaning that I make one big batch of dinner on Sunday afternoon and eat it all week long.  By the end of this month, I should be able to compare my calculations and see if I've actually saved any money in the end.

Composition class is always a wonderful way to end a Monday.  At the moment, I'm working on a song about my life as a figure skater, encompassing all of the things figure skating has gotten me through.  Of course, as is always the case with Composition, about three new song ideas popped into my head in the moment, and I'll have to force myself to stay with one idea at a time.

There you have it.  An average Monday in the life of an AMDA student.  Stay tuned, for who knows what adventures lie in wait for tomorrow!  Especially with an upcoming performance in Acting class and the ever-dreaded top level Jazz class.  

There should be some stories to tell.

Love,
Little Me

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Two Weeks Gone

Only fourteen days into it and I’m already well-acquainted with the shut-in syndrome that third semester is well-known for causing.  I can’t even go down to the kitchen to make my dinner for the week without bringing along Shakespeare and speculating about how much time eating takes away from homework.

Lincoln Center Fountain
Lincoln Center Main Building
Schoolwork aside, I’m continually excited to be home in the city where I belong, and the little things each day remind me why I’m working so hard for a future that's so uncertain.  Here’s a little taste of life in Manhattan!

It’s amazing how quickly and easily I fell back into routine here, almost like I had never left!  However, the little things like hundreds of new faces at AMDA and the completely different listing of Broadway shows point out how much time I've missed.  This new scaffolding around the projects next to my school, for instance, was put up sometime over the summer and has completely transformed my walk.  Even though I knew exactly where I was on that first walk back to school, I still found myself slowing down to make sure I hadn't accidentally passed my school!   

Boxes like these kept showing up for the entirety of week one.  Every day I would have a new box waiting for me, sometimes requiring several trips up and down the elevator to get everything!  Thankfully, they waited until week two to start piling on the homework, otherwise those boxes would probably still be sitting unopened in a forgotten corner of my tiny dorm room.


Last Saturday was my first Remicade treatment back at Mount Sinai. Thinking I could get to the treatment center purely by memory, I ended up getting lost, resulting in an extra mile I had to speed walk in order to make it to my appointment on time. Adventure! Though of course, I never could have done it without my handy dandy Google Maps App! Central park may be a vast labyrinth, but at least Google knows every inch of it!

Back Entrance into Lincoln Center right next to the Big Apple Circus currently taking place there.
By the time I walk home from school, New York is usually dark, and my favorite path back to the dorms is right through Lincoln Center.  Something about the beautiful grand structures, the tourists taking pictures in fancy outfits right before a show, and the gorgeous fountain right in the middle of the square is absolutely magical.  It is all too easy to lose yourself once you start staring into the choreographed dance of the water in the fountain.




I can't contain my excitement about my first musical theatre piece of the year.  I'm performing a duet from The Fantasticks, one of the classics of musical theatre, called Soon it's Gonna Rain.  I'm particularly excited to devote the next few weeks to inheriting the character of Luisa, who I find to be so similar to me it's actually terrifying.


I spent my Halloween night reading and studying, having celebrated the night before with friends watching the first six episodes of American Horror Story.  However, walking back from a rehearsal at school, I stumbled upon this amazing kid-friendly Halloween block party happening only one block away from the dorms.  I stayed long enough to snap a picture before scurrying back to my room to read a little more of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, our current reading assignment for Acting.

An attempt to make Microwaved Fudge in a used salad container from the school.  It turned out harder than fudge usually is.  No matter; chocolate is chocolate, and it shall be eaten.
Here's an exciting piece of news: I have decided to join the National Blog Post Month challenge this November.  The proof is over on the right side in the Archives how sporadic and widely spaced my posts have been throughout the last year.  I've filled up many a paragraph with empty promises to post more often, never following through.

But no longer!  For now I have created a reason to post every single day.  If I can actually convince myself to complete this challenge, you'll be excited to join in many a day in the life of Little Me as I actually recount all of my adventures on a schedule!

Stay tuned for tons of fun, soon to come.

Love always,
Little Me