Cause you're a sky full of stars...

Hi guys!

Man it's been a while since I've done a personal post.

The past few weeks have been very stressful and exhausting for me. Trying to recreate something you have no basis for is not fun. Essentially the person who had my job before me did much of her work on her personal computer and then never transferred it to the marketing laptop. So I've been trying to recreate things we did last for with nothing to reference. It's led to a lot of mistakes and things going wrong.

Thankfully, I think I'm finally past all that. I'm really looking forward to doing this again without everything going wrong this time. I feel much more prepared for next year already.

This past week alone I got up at 5 and 6 am and worked a 16 hour and 15 hour day. But, we're about to go into opening all shows, and (I think) that once that happens things should go a lot more smoothly.

Of course there are always frustrations and those have come up multiple times. Overall, though, I think things are going very well everywhere. I'm constantly overwhelmed by how friendly and talented this company is. Definitely a huge improvement from last year. Honestly, I think everything is better than last year. I sold more ads; Amy is kicking ass on our Silent Auction; the talent is better; the drama is less; and we spent less money on important things.

I can't believe it's already July. This year is flying past. I have so many things to look forward to in the next year. All I need is to stop living paycheck to paycheck, and I may finally feel like I'm getting things under control.

A quiet week, events, and looking forward

Hi guys!

It has been a crazy couple of weeks for me. Last week Dawn was on vacation with her family, my homestay parents were gone for vacation, and Ryan was out of the office for tour rehearsal, so I spent most of my week alone!

I got two graphic design projects started as well as various ad selling/building and research for some things. Mostly, though, I worked on the website because I hit a point where I needed direction! It was a good week, though.

Thursday night I went out to dinner with Ryan, Max, and Eric at Margaritas. It was nice to have some time with people my own age.

Dawn got back Friday, and I went in Saturday around 2 to finish preparing for our Shakespeare's 450th Birthday Bash event. Basically that involved nothing but free food and watching people recite Shakespeare or sing Shakespeare inspired songs. It was fun, but my introvert side was kind of over it after a while. Afterwards I went to the Knights with Ryan, Max, and Eric and played Hearts until way too late.

Sunday I slept WAY longer than I planned to and basically had enough time to grab breakfast and take a shower before I headed to the church to help set up for the Community Supper. After setting up, all I had to do was count people, so that was fine.

Now, after working all weekend, I'm pretty wiped out. I'm taking a half day tomorrow, though, and I get to go see one of our regular company members' show in Lewiston tomorrow night. I'm excited about having a real weekend, though. I'm thinking I'm gonna go to Portland on Saturday to use my Body Shop Groupon, go to Lush, and shop for my Color Swap Buddy!

I know that this weekend was nothing compared to what summer's going to be like. I'm really excited about it, but I'm feeling a little overwhelmed right now. Hopefully once my ad deadline hits on Friday, I can relax a little before jumping into crazy summer mode. And I get to go home to Baltimore for Memorial Day.

I think May is going to be a very good month.

There's a fine, fine line..

Hi guys!

It has been a crazy week so far!

This weekend, I went down to Plymouth to visit my alma mater and see Avenue Q. It was a crazy whirlwind of a weekend. I drove down Saturday morning, met up with Alex, her friends, Tyler, and Bob for lunch at Burrito Me, saw the show, grabbed ice cream with the gang and Kizer, wandered around campus, had dinner at Foster's, and finally crashed for the night.

On Sunday, I had breakfast at my favorite diner, grabbed vanilla chai from Cafe Monte Alto, popped into Burrito Me to catch up with Sarah for 5 minutes, and then got on the road. Stopped briefly in Conway to ride the Conway Scenic Railroad, and then set off back to Maine.

It was fun, but it was a lot of driving. Needless to say, I was already tired when I started this week. Then on Tuesday I had to get up two hours earlier than normal to volunteer at the Kennebec Valley Chamber of Commerce Member Appreciation Day.

Today was the start of everyone abandoning me. My homestay parents left for Hawaii for two weeks today; Dawn won't be in Friday because her family is leaving to go to Disney, and Ryan won't be in the office most of next week because of spring tour rehearsals.

It's kind of nice, though, because it means that everything is starting to gear up. I only hope I'm ready for this summer!

In beauty news: I have a lot of exciting things coming up! I'm looking forward to sharing them with you guys!

I hope everyone has a great rest of the week!

The most wonderful time of the year

Hi guys!

I know this is really late, but honestly, my life hasn't been that exciting lately. I felt the need to update you all on what's been happening in my life this week, though, so here goes:

Our Box Office Manager came for a few days to set up next season in our system so we can sell tickets. It was really great to see him and spend some time with him. We didn't know each other well over the summer, but I always enjoyed spending time with him when he was around. Plus, it was nice to talk to someone who's in the same boat as me with stuff and to have someone else in the office.

On Wednesday night Ryan and I drove to Portland to see a TAM alumni in The Santaland Diaries which is based on a David Sedaris story, and it was hilarious. Dusty is ridiculously talented, and he knows who I am, so that was pretty cool.

I spent Thursday and Friday working on my Marketing plan, ad renewals, and our End of the Year video. I'm actually hoping for a snow day on Monday so I can just work on it from home instead of going into the office. Everyone says it's not going to happen though. Oh well. Only one more week!

Today I slept WAY in and then went to Ulta and Target to almost completely finish up my Christmas shopping. I still have to buy something for my dad's girlfriend, but that requires me getting to The Body Shop, and the closest one is half an hour away. I'll do that once I get back to Baltimore since we're not doing Christmas with them until my sister and I get to Florida after New Years anyway.

At Ulta I picked up Nail Envy for my mom and some replacement foundation and powder for me. I also caved at the last minute and bought myself a mini The Body Shop Satsuma body butter. Seriously, the scent is amazing. Then at Target I bought gift supplies (tissue paper, bags, cards), a frame for my aunt's picture, and some gloves and a headband because it is COLD here.

I'm looking forward to going home and getting some time to relax. Hope everyone's holiday season is going well!

There's a fine, fine line

Sorry that I was MIA on Friday. I meant to post, but the end of this week and into the weekend has been really busy and emotionally insane, so I never got around to it.

I spent the first three days of last week working on a mailing, and then Thursday everything exploded with the website, so I had to work really hard to get us to a point where we could launch on Monday. We also started our second weekend of shows on Thursday, so I was dealing with that at the same time.

Dawn gave me Friday night off, but I ended up staying up way too late and then everything in my life exploded. I did not get a lot of sleep.

Saturday I worked all day which was probably a blessing in disguise because sitting around would've made me feel worse. We did two shows, and I finished up my website stuff in between. Once again, I ended up staying up way too late, but I got to sleep in a bit. On Sunday, I picked up our box office manager from the airport in Portland, took a short nap, and tried to distract myself from my life for the rest of the day.

These next couple of weeks before my contract ends are going to be busy and probably rough, so I'll try to keep up with this as much as I can. Right now, I have very little energy for anything I don't have to do.

My soul is tired, you guys.

This Wonderful Life

Hi guys!

I hope everyone has had a good couple of days. I'm sorry this is a little late, but I forgot how crazy show weekends can be.

On Thanksgiving night, we had 150 people join us as we opened our holiday show This Wonderful Life.

It's a one-man adaptation of Frank Capra's holiday classic, It's a Wonderful Life, and our audience seemed to enjoy it so much, we brought it back this year.

I had actually never seen the movie, so on Wednesday night, I hunkered down with the cats I was house sitting, and watched it. It wasn't exactly what I anticipated, but I definitely understand why it's become such a classic. 

I watched the show on Thanksgiving, and it's a lovely adaptation. It pokes fun at all the right places while keeping the characters and themes alive. Plus, Mike Anthony, the actor, is just a joy to watch onstage. 

It's definitely an interesting concept, though. What if you could see what your life would be like if you were never born or, better yet, if you had made different choices. I know that I've made a ton of choices in the past five years or so that completely changed the path I was on. What if I had made the other choice?

Perhaps it's better that I never know. I don't regret any of the choices I made. They all brought me to where I am today. And, to be totally cliche, I have a pretty wonderful life. 

The first weekend went really well, and Dawn gave me today off to recover. Being that "on" really takes a toll on me. I'm exhausted, and really looking forward to a quiet-ish week before the show's second weekend. 

I hope everyone is having a great holiday season. Thanks to the show I missed all the Black Friday craziness, and I'm not really complaining. I'm actually doing pretty well on my gift buying this year. I'm about 2/3 of the way through my list, but the last group is my hardest to shop for.

What do you guys do about hard to buy for people? Any go-to presents?

[Guest Post] Lessons I Learned from Being in a Production

As you guys know, I signed up to be part of a Guest Post Swap a while back. Today, I bring you my partner: Cody from Catching Cody Doll. She's here to talk a little bit about her theater experience in a local production of Pocahontas.

Take it away, Cody!

---

I can’t remember how or why I was involved with my local theater, Titusville Playhouse, but one summer I was taken every day for a month to try out and learn a production. The play was Pocahontas. I thought it would be neat to share some lessons I learned.

You make friends

Granted it wasn’t forever friends, but we all liked each other. We all were together in this show no matter what.

If you forget your lines it’s okay

We had about 4 to 6 shows. I did fine for all of them but one. The last one I forgot one or two of my lines. And you know what? Nothing happened. My cast figured I forgot and said it for me. It didn’t come out bad or weird and worked great. So really forgetting isn’t that bad.

If you don’t get a main part it’s okay

You bet I went out for Pocahontas and a few other major roles. I didn’t get them. I was pretty sad about it, but as I learned my lines I realized that being cast in a main part meant two things. The first was that being a main character means many many more lines to remember. Whew. Second I would be on stage more, meaning I would be seen constantly and therefore it would be harder to goof. This kinda contradicts the last statement but oh well.

If you don’t get casted there are still things for you to do

Yup, I learned all about stage hands and costume and makeup. My school plays were all put on by the drama teacher, and she already had everything she need done. When I signed up for this Pot I learned a lot about building sets and changing sense.

You might sing

Some roles might have singing, especially main ones. Luckily, I was too shy in the audition to sing and therefore didn’t make any part, but it was still scary, and I am glad I didn’t sing out.

Disney Lies

Yup. You didn’t know that? Well when I was in Pocahontas, they told us the real story. I wasn’t that upset because I don’t really like that Disney story, but it did make me wonder about the rest of the Disney stories…So now you have been warned.

---

You can check out Cody's blog here and follow her on Twitter here.

Bigfoot, and Nessie, and the Mothman, oh my!

Happy Monday everyone!

I've had so many things to talk about lately, that this kind of got lost, but I definitely want to share it!

A while back, I noticed Groupon had a two-for-one deal on tickets to the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland. I a) thought that was awesome and b) didn't even know that existed, much less so close to me! I bought it, figuring I'd deal with the whole "who was going to go with me" issue later.

Well, not this past weekend, but the weekend before that I got to go!

Honestly, I was a little disappointed.

The museum was not big, two rooms about the size of your average hotel room, and the things in it just weren't that interesting. I've watched documentaries on Netflix that had more information than this museum had. It was kind of disappointing because it had the potential to be so cool! Oh well. The pictures I got were the coolest part. I just wish the information had been more interesting.

On a different note, I've realized that I've kind of quit talking about work lately. It's still going well, but I feel like I'm always reporting the same thing: website, next show, random etc. projects. Though this happened a few weeks back while I was going through the production history stuff:

 See the third name from the bottom? Yes, that's THE Patrick Dempsey. This one:

He was here! At my little theater. Sometimes my job is just too cool. Theater brings people together, y'all. Have a good weekend. =)

And are we there yet?

Happy Saturday! I hope everyone had a good week. I know I technically shouldn't be posting because it hasn't been two days since my last post, but it's an even numbered day, so you get a bonus post today! I'm looking forward to relaxing some this weekend because last weekend I traveled back to my alma mater to see the theater department's production of Les Miserables!

I had so much fun getting to catch up with my old Technical Director, my former roommate Sarah, and see all my friends! Plus, I got to spend time cuddling with this guy:

Linky - AKA the best cat ever

And, as New England is this time of year, it was ridiculously beautiful. So beautiful I risked life and limb on the drive back to take some pictures.

There's just nothing like New England fall, you guys. Maine has been just as beautiful. The cemetery next to work has looked spookily gorgeous for a couple weeks now.

I can't believe it's going to be Thanksgiving soon! I've almost been here for two months, and it still feels like I just started. Though I know a lot more now. I hope fall is as beautiful where you are as it is here.

Baby, I'm about to have me some fun!

Happy Saturday everyone! It's been a good, productive week!

I spent Monday through Wednesday hard at work on our new website. It's coming along, and I'm really proud of the things I've learned to do, and the ease with which I can make some of the changes I'm asked to make. Not that it hasn't come with some huge frustrations, but hey, for someone who's never really done this before, I think I'm doing pretty well.

Yesterday I got to take a break from the website to work on This Wonderful Life stuff. We finalized the press release, some group sales stuff, and I sent out some feelers about ad space. I also created the poster which I sent off to the printer around noon only to have them tell us it would be ready after two! Speedy Gonzalez, Albison's Printing, Speedy Gonzalez! Dawn went out to lunch, so I didn't really get a break, so she sent me to pick up the posters and leave early.

After picking them up, I stopped by Walmart and Target to pick up some things. New beauty products and clothing (no matter how necessary it is) make me happy!

This weekend I'm in New Hampshire visiting my school and seeing their production of Les Miserables. That'll be tonight, and I'm super excited! I'm staying with my friend Sarah who I lived with my last semester, so I get to spend time with my favorite kitties, and enjoy Plymouth for a minute. I'll hopefully get to see my TD and some of my other friends. I didn't tell anyone in the show I was coming - surprise!

And, for a little bit of fangirling, this happened today:

Melissa runs Lulu and Sweet Pea which I've mentioned before and it's one of my favorite blogs! I read her every day! So this was definitely a highlight of my day! Maybe people actually do read my blog...

Enjoy the rest of your weekends!

We'll be counting stars

Happy Tuesday everyone! I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend. I sure did, even if I didn't get that much sleep!

I know I said I was going to lay off talking about it, but I've now gone on four dates with this guy, so I may be past the "counting my chickens" phase at this point.

We hung out again Tuesday night and saw Insidious 2 which I didn't hate as much as the first one, but it still wasn't great. Then on Friday I met up with him and we went to his house, watched Child's Play 2 (also bad) and played drinking games with his roommates. On Saturday night I met up with him again to get dinner and then I got major points by finding a live stream of the Boston-Detroit game, so we watched that.

I spent most of Sunday reading, and I finished my 46th book last night! I forgot how ridiculously accomplished it makes me feel to finish a book.

Yesterday I spent all day working on the website. I had one major breakthrough and one really frustrating issue (that I still don't know if I can fix) and I fixed a bunch of small things. I still have serious work to do on the production history, but at least there are other, less tedious things on my plate now. We also have two sets of postcards to label and send out, a poster that needs creating, and various other projects I have to work on. I like being busy, but I have a feeling it's about to get crazy.

The thing I'm most pumped about this week? Pretty Little Liars comes back tonight!

I can't get over this show. Nor do I want to!

What are you guys excited about this week?

The calm before the storm

It's actually been a pretty quiet week at the office.

I had Monday off, and I spent it trying to catch up on things. I actually ended up at the theater to do laundry (my hosts don't have an electric dryer - not a fan) but other than that I relaxed most of the day. Slept in, watched some of my shows, and just generally lounged around. I also went on a date to Gritty's in Auburn, and that was loads of fun.

Dawn was still out on Tuesday because she was taking her son on a college visit this weekend, so I was alone for the whole day. I decided to jump into the new production history for the new website. I've been working on it for four days now, and I'm almost done with the past decade. It's tedious and mind numbing, and I think I've spent far too long staring at the computer.

I also started to do some other stuff yesterday, including donation requests, donation thank you letters, and 2014 Page to Stage stuff. I also got another longer term project that I have to finish before we furlough. That's going to come up sooner than I know!

I've been lusting after a bunch of new beauty products lately. I may have to do some shopping soon!

Hope you guys have had a good week! Happy Friday!

O, had I but followed the arts!

I feel like I'm always saying this, but it was a crazy week!

Beyond all the normal crazy that happens during the week, on Wednesday, I was asked to run sound for the public performances of Twelfth Night this weekend. That meant that starting Wednesday night, I was in the office during the day and running shows at night. Needless to say, I did not see a lot of my house this week.

The weekend went really well, though. We had small but appreciate houses for the public performances and two school matinees on Thursday. On Sunday, Dawn was gone taking her eldest son on a college visit, so I got to pull triple duty as box office manager, house manager, and sound board op. I also had to do the curtain speech.

Thankfully, I have today off, so I'm trying to get caught up on all my internet things and my life in general. I'm currently at the theater doing laundry and watching all my TV from this week. My hosts don't have an electric dryer, so even on my day off I end up here!

I also have a date tonight, but I've decided not to elaborate too much on the boy situation for a little while. It changes too frequently for it to not be the most confusing ever.

I hope you guys had a good weekend and are having a good start to your week. I'm looking forward to having a short week and some more time to relax. I need to get some serious reading done if I'm going to finish my 50 book challenge!

The situation is bleeding me..

I'm exhausted.

Yesterday was pretty emotional. I got a lot of things put on my plate and was dealing with some personal stuff. I agreed to run sound for the public performances of Twelfth Night on top of working the box office before the show and putting in a full day with marketing stuff. Dawn and I also sat down and looked at the website, so I now have a bunch of work to do on that before we launch it next week. Basically, I'm insane and want to die. If ever there was a week when I needed a weekend, it's this one. But alas, I don't get one. Instead I get to sell tickets and sit in the booth for 90 minutes. 

I feel like I'm spreading myself too thin, and I'm definitely not getting paid enough for this. Also, for the amount of work I'm doing, I should definitely be considered more than an intern. We'll see what Dawn would like to do contract-wise in the spring. I need to be making more money for sure. 

I'm not in the best place right now. I need more time, sleep, money, relaxation. Something. I don't feel like I have time for my life anymore. I'm glad that once this weekend is over, I'll have a good amount of time where I'm not working a show. It just is too much for one person. I don't know how Dawn does it. 

I am really thankful for Dawn, though. She's very perceptive, and I think she knows when I'm having a hard time. She can't always do anything about it, but she does what she can, and I really appreciate that. 

Hope you guys are having a better week than I am!

I'm still into you

Another crazy week at the theater!

Honestly, I only worked four days, but it felt like I had worked for seven by the time I got home on Friday!

I've been working hard on end of the year stuff. Mostly this week consisted of stuffing donation letters and sealing the envelopes. I spent two full days doing that along with Bob, a volunteer. It was mindless and it felt really good to get it all done by the end of the week. Bob is a one-man envelope stuffing machine!

All 3,500 envelopes. Stuffed, sealed, and ready to go!

I also worked on finishing the Twelfth Night press release and drafts of the This Wonderful Life post card and the Twelfth Night program. I'm also trying to figure out some stuff for the new website and starting to get group sales letters ready for This Wonderful Life. Thankfully, Dawn and I finally got some time to sit down and look at my expectations and talk about what I'm learning and doing. I've officially been at TAM a month last Thursday, and that's a good feeling. I feel like I've got my feet under me now, and I'm looking forward to getting some of these things checked off of my list!

In even more personal news, boy world is going fantastically. To make a long story short, when I was in New Hampshire, I started talking to this guy who I really liked. Unfortunately, he had some personal things going on, and it didn't work out between us. I won't lie, I spent a lot of time thinking about him, though. Well, probably about a week and a half ago, I saw that he had viewed my profile on OKCupid, so I sent him a message. We've been reconnecting ever since, and he's coming to visit tonight! He'll be here until Tuesday morning, and I'm really excited. I really liked him, and he really liked me. Just a case of bad timing and life getting in the way.

Next week will be a long one. We open the show on Friday, so I'll be working all week. Hopefully it's not too stressful!

Be not afraid of greatness..

Hi friends!

Patience has officially closed and with it, my time in Toad. I moved out Monday night, and am now in my home stay in Winthrop with the Knights. The house is nice (and heated!), my room is small but cozy, and the Knights and Teddy (one the actors for the tour who also lives in the house) is pretty cool. I'm feeling a little watched, though. It's hard for me to be in someone else's house. I liked being able to do my own thing at Toad and not feel like I was intruding. Also, apparently I have to move Thanksgiving week. I'm really ready to not be picking up my entire life every two or three months. It's starting to get really old.

What's not old is being out of that drama-filled house. Seriously, you guys, it was so negative ALL the time. I stopped even hanging out with them because all it was was one bitch fest after another, and it really drained me. Dawn even noticed. I ended up crying about it in her office on Friday because I was so emotionally exhausted from being around it. It's nice to be out of that living environment.

In better news, I had the day off yesterday, and I went on another date! We met up in Auburn to go apple picking and then got Thai food at one of his favorite restaurants. He's a really great guy, sweet with a good sense of humor. I'm not sure if I'm romantically interested in him or not (and there's other stuff going on - that's a complicated story) but he could absolutely be an awesome friend. I'm looking forward to seeing him again sometime.

In the office I've been working hard on the This Wonderful Life materials. I wrote a press release draft and made up some dummies of post card fronts for Dawn to look at. I also spent some time fighting with Dreamweaver to make sure the Twelfth Night resource guide was available to schools. I finished the day stuffing envelopes. Not the most glamorous of jobs, but at least it's not frustrating. Tedious and mind-numbing, yes, but not frustrating. And the most exciting news of all, I'm now on the TAM voicemail! It's like I officially work there and stuff!

So this isn't just a wall of text, I will leave you with one of two new phones cases I ordered recently.

I'm kind of obsessed with it. My phone never looked so good! What purchases are you guys super excited about lately?

Farewell, Patience! Farewell!

While I have a little bit of time to breathe, I figured I'd update you on my life!

So after my awful date last week, I have two pretty good prospects. One is a guy I'd actually talked to before, but things didn't work out. I'm giving him a second chance, though, so we'll see how it goes! The other is a guy who lives in Portland. We're supposed to meet up in Brunswick on Monday, and I'm looking forward to it! I've talked to this one long enough to know that he isn't a complete douche!

I'm trucking along on the marketing road. On Wednesday we received the first post card that I created, and it was really cool to see something I made come to life. Even if I didn't design the image, per se, I still put a lot of time and effort into setting it up, and now it's a tangible thing!

I'm working on things for the Twelfth Night tour currently. I'm close to finished with the press release, and I'm playing with a poster for the public performances. Meanwhile, I'm also updating the website with the 2014 education tour stuff and starting to get things ready for This Wonderful Life. Combine that with working in the box office, and I'm usually exhausted when I get home. By tomorrow, I will have worked 39 hours this week! I'm not getting paid enough for this!

My fall family will leave soon, and the tour people will arrive. I'll also be moving into a home stay shortly, and I won't lie, I'm not really looking forward to it. I like feeling like Toad is my home and not that I'm intruding on someone else's.

I guess that's it! It's been a crazy couple of weeks, so I'm looking forward to it calming down some. At least for a little bit!

The end of the end

I know I've been MIA for about a week now, but I was not at all prepared for the explosion that was the last week in Monmouth.

Let's start with my birthday: Thursday, August 15th

It was also Write On day, and I spent from 2 pm until around 7 pm running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Seriously, I spent the hour of Velveteen Rabbit working, then helped change over, then spent until 3 working furiously. From 3 to 5:30 we teched all the shows which meant that I was running back and forth between the booth and the stage, making notes, talking to directors, and performing. At 5:30 I ran to the dining hall to shove food down my throat before high tailing it back to Toad to work furiously from 6 until about 6:45 when I ran over to the theater to put the finishing touches on all the shows plus preshow and intermission music before the house opened at 7. From 7 until 7:30, Hannah did my hair and makeup.

Birthday selfie with Bethy!

Despite (or maybe because of) the crazy day, the show actually ended up great! There was one mishap sound-wise, but everyone was really great about what happened, and I was really impressed with myself. In previous similar situations, I would've been a raving bitch, and while I was frazzled as all get out, there was no bitch to be seen. I'm (finally) learning to handle stress!

Then we went back to Toad and celebrated my birthday for real. You guys. There was so much alcohol. We made what we lovingly called "theatre juice" (see around 4:33 for the inspiration) and it was ridiculous. I've never been so drunk.

Friday and Saturday were normal two-show days, and I spent any down time recovering and/or packing for my trip home. Sunday Amadi, Beth, and I went to Slates for the last time and had a lovely brunch before coming back to do our last Shrew ever.

Afterwards was strike and cleaning for everyone. I stowed most of the sound equipment, restored the old board, took some stuff back to HMH, and then tidied the booth. Monday I helped electrics haul equipment and take apart instruments for parts. The best part was getting to throw old instruments off the fire escape into the parking lot. Destroying stuff is fun.

I had my exit interview at 4 and said goodbye to a lot of people. Then the rest of us sat on the porch and watched cars go by.

The Leftovers

This group (minus Luke because he'd already left) went out to dinner at Margaritas, and then came back and cleaned the hell out of Toad. Our kitchen was disgusting.

Yesterday morning I woke up, put up the fall index page for the website (after AD helped me break into the office because it was locked and Dawn had a meeting) and then got on my way. I'm back in Baltimore now.

I'm going to try to keep putting up personal posts, but those might be few and far between until I get back to Monmouth in early September. I'm not sure how much I'll have going on here. But never fear! There are a lot of beauty posts ready to be written. Next up is my birthday haul, so be ready for that! (I promise it'll actually happen this time.) I enjoyed this summer a lot, but I'm glad to be home and relaxing for a little while, and I'm excited to start doing the marketing thing when I get back!

The beginning of the end

What good is a schedule if I don't stick to it!?

It has been so crazy here. With the end of the season rapidly approaching, there's been a ton of drama and work, and I don't know where it all came from!

So, I'll give you the headlines since ain't nobody got time for everything I have to say.

• Write On - It's this Thursday (also my birthday) and I feel totally overwhelmed. Designing one show at a time is hard enough, but 9 different shows with sound effects and music has just been ridiculous.
• My mom and Doug - they visited this past weekend! They got to explore Portland some, and they came and saw Shrew on Saturday night. We went to Fast Eddies beforehand, and on Sunday morning they took me, Beka, Beth, and Amadi to brunch at Slates. 
• Sound - running the shows has been good except that the monitors have started to cut out during the shows. I think I've identified the problem, but I had to rig the cable and the monitor microphone today. Hopefully I did a good enough job to keep it the way it needs to be
• Marketing - I officially performed my first marketing duty! Dawn gave me the content, but I put together an eBlast and sent it out to the education list we have.
• My birthday! - As I said, it's coming up on Thursday - it doesn't feel like it's time for me to have another birthday yet. I just keep getting older and older!
• Alissa's wedding - My first roommate at PSU is getting married at the beginning of September, and now that I'm staying here, I can go! Now I just have to book a hotel room, buy a gift, and find a dress in three weeks. Whee!
• Date - I went on a date yesterday. Technically Beth, Beka, and I went on a date, but he was there for me. We walked around Brunswick and the Bowdoin campus and got ice cream. It was really fun, and he seems like a really cool, genuine guy. It might be nice to have someone I know once everyone leaves.

I think that's everything! It's been a hell of a couple of weeks. I keep waiting for things to settle down, and they never do! On Thursday I'll be posting the first half of my birthday haul if I don't get super bogged down in Write On stuff. The best birthday present is that it will be over!

Everybody here is feeling Write On!

I'm so punny.

My life is getting busy, y'all.

In addition to running shows, I'm designing 10 staged readings for a middle/high school competition called Write On! It's a lot to do in such a short time (did I mention it's a little over a week away?) especially when certain directors won't email me back.

Hopefully it doesn't become as frustrating and stressful as I have a feeling it will.

I'm also about to put on a marketing hat. Dawn and I had a really awesome meeting on Tuesday about my schedule and the types of things I'll be doing as I take over the digital content. Some of it starts before I'm technically the marketing intern, so I will be doing sound and marketing stuff at the same time.

It's going to be a busy last two weeks. I'm definitely ready for a change, though. I've enjoyed my time here and the people here, but I'm excited about it calming down. And having my own room (!!!)

I took some me time on Monday and wandered around TJMaxx, Target, and Walmart. It was nice to be alone, even if just for a little bit. I found out that the TJMaxx in Augusta sells Juicy Couture fragrance for SUPER cheap, and I'm really excited about that. I think they even have the new one that I liked in Ulta. I'll have to go back to be sure.

My birthday is next week and my mom and her boyfriend are coming to visit on Saturday, so there are a bunch of exciting things happening at once! The end of the summer is going to be busy!