recent musings.

ive been a bad bad blogger. lets catch up.

-Zorro ended

-i got a job at barnes and noble for the holidays.

-i moved to NYC today!

Zorro ended and while it was a wonderful experience Im not sad it ended. You can only do a childrens show so many times before you either wanna die from boredom or you start goofing around to prevent death by boredom. Our cast totally chose the latter. You can only ride the tour van or the penske truck or sleep in a new hotel room so many times or load in and load out before tour starts eating away at your " body and soul" ( that quote is from Payne who is also touring but with Theatre IV where I will be in March-May.) As an actor the kids are a rewarding and loving audience but you just miss having adult content. LIKE BAD. The best thing that happened on tour was becoming so close with Christina. Christina was the only other girl on tour and she played my daughter on tour. We became really close living together for those months. We always ( while we of course love the boys on tour ) were always happy to escape talks of their anatomies and farts. Goofy lovely zorro boys. So thank God for Christina is all I have to say about the end of Zorro.

Next I worked at BArnes and Noble. Holy Moly. I've never worked in sales/retail before. I learned a lot of life lessons. I would love to share them with you.

3. PEOPLE ARE GROSS. Example: with their payment of choice. The people who throw their cards at you, or sneeze and then hand you cash, or the WORST is when people have their credit cards in their mouths then hand it to you. I KID YOU NOT. PEOPLE ARE GROSS.

2. PEOPLE ARE MEAN. this is really hard for me to accept. I like to pretend that people are truly good. NO PEOPLE DURING THE HOLIDAYS ARE MEAN! they come into B&N and want to fight with you just because you cannot fight back and seriously. Im not making enough money to play that with rich mountain brook jewish women. BE SWEET. I WANT TO BELIEVE IN HUMANITY.

1. I LOVE TO READ. ive always known this. In third grade I went to the library 3 times a day. I read all the time. I got in trouble for reading too much. ( i know NERD. ) During college though I didnt get to read a whole lot for pleasure. being in Barnes and Noble allowed me to keep up with some new literature and i JUST LOVE TO READ. GEEK OUT.

I MOVED TO NYC TODAY!

-its so beautiful

-taxis are still insane.

-i ate at Pastis and got to see Kristi with my parents and Payne. awesome to be reunited with the cookie monster.

-snow is not pretty here because its now brown.

-my apartment unfortunately has some neighbors who like the combo of indian food and pot. haha we light a lot of candles.

-ikea was so wonderful and awful at the same time. there should be 3 rules. 1. no children under the age of ten. 2. no old people walking all pokey. 3. if you are out of beds tell people. grrrrr. thats a rant and rave for another day.

-also gavin creel lives down the street from me. AHHHHHHHHHH

pics coming next blog.

Thankful!

Things I am thankful for this season! brought to you by the abc's. (this idea/format is being totally stolen from the great sarah beth guthrie.)

Z

Zorro.

Even though we have done this show more times than I can count and I'm not crazy about load ins/outs, I am still thankful to be employed with a great theatre company with people who treat us well and the opportunity to act every single day, and for kids who have never been exposed to live theatre.

Y

youth.

I am thankful to be young and having so many adventures! I am in the grownup world now but I am still young enough to run around and have some fun in between work and sleep!

X

eXits.

This is two fold. I am 1. thankful for my hardly justified but super appreciated exit out of scene 5 in Zorro. It is my least favorite scene and is only in the play so Zorro can have a costume change. The scene revolves around rice pudding if that helps anyone reading this understand how horribly boring this scene is. Thank you exit stage left. 2. I am also super thankful for an exit when we are on the road. This means stretching our legs, diet coke, potty break for myself and the rest of the cast. Our minivan we travel in is not nap shaped.

W

winter coat.

I got a new winter coat. but not like a " I live in alabama so I got this pea coat cause its cute coat. I got a long warm I'm moving to NYC coat. For this and the warmth it will provide in a month, I am THANKFUL!

V

Van./Voldemort

1.even though the minivan for zorro is not nap shaped, at least its more comfortable than a 15 passenger van that could also include the set. So woop woop for our minivan with electric doors and some rockin neon lights. 2. Voldemort is the greatest bad guy ever. Thanks for giving us HP fans some major conflict Voldy.

U

clean undies.

hey. i live out of a suitcase for a living. this is something to for sure be thankful for.

T

turkey. /Taleeda besties

duh. x2. I have turkey once a year but I am lucky enough to have 1.nat 2.suz 3. jess 4.molly 5.krisp 6.laura every minute of every day as best friends.

S

subways./ scrabble

I am so excited to move to a city soon that has public transpo. I know I'm not God's gift to driving so it will be bliss to relinquish that responsibility in NYC.

I am so obsessed with scrabble! I am like an old woman. I asked for it for christmas. If you are reading this and have an iphone you better be playing me in words with friends.

R

rest.

The Zorro cast has gotten a chunk of time off for thanksgiving and I cannot explain how needed and appreciated this has been. We work between 55-70 hours a week. I have gotten to sleep past 8:00am everyday this week and I feel like I am in heaven. I have gotten to watch most of my tv shows which is the ultimate form of resting and relaxing for me. House

Q

quarterback love.

Cam Newton. need I say more about the man I love so dearly?

P

Potter./paychecks

I have grown up with Harry. I have read his story and watched his movies as I was experiencing the same life events ( minus the magic and epic battle with a Dark Lord). I adore the Harry Potter series and I am thankful for the joy it brings !!! ( yes this shout out shows my geek really hard.) I also appreciate bringing home a paycheck that allows me to be ( barely) financially independent.

O

o line./orange toms

thanks Lee Zimba and others for protecting cam newton and his beautiful self from getting sacked and allowing our team to ROCK!

I wear my orange toms every saturday to cheer on my auburn tigers!

N

Natalie!

she is going to travel the whole world in a few months and I am so proud and thankful for her!

M

mason.

the best and tallest brother ever.

L

L.Dubbs.

I am always thankful for laura williams.

K

Kat/Kara/ KrispiLizzard

3/4 girls I shared 2 years of BFA with, the other a taleeda roommie. these 4 girls i have shared trillions of heart to hearts, and highs and lows with. I have so much love in my heart for these 4 ladies and I am proud of their successes, hard work and sacrifices they have made since we graduated. I respect and love these 4 more than I could possibly say!

J

january 4.

The day of the epic move to NEW YORK CITY!!!!!!

I

iphone

I know there are so many other more important things to be thankful for but the I was begging me to acknowledge my intense love for my iphone. It rules. sorry this was a cheap materialistic shallow thing to be thankful for but it really does rule.

H

home cooked meals./hotels (clean ones)

1.on the road we eat out every stinkin meal. a break from fast food is alwayssssssss a good thing! 2. as soon as christina and I get our hotel room for tour we always have a little celebration if it is a clean one! ( you have to understand we arent high maintenance, we just got a face rash/pink eye from a grosser hotel)

G

good load in/out venues.

I love it when we can load in/out in a space w a regulation sized loading dock that leads straight to the stage which is level to the loading dock. we have been very fortunate in some places and others we have had to buck up some early morning good attitudes and get really creative.

F

family.

me mom dad and mas. we make a good team.

E

edgars strawberry cupcakes.

need I say more?

D

diploma.

I am thankful that despite how much class I skipped my senior year of college that I still got my diploma!

C

christina johnson.

i think i would die on tour without the only other girl. i love the boys but I am so glad I have my kindred spirit/sister/daughter/friend on tour with me.

B

Briarwood.

I am so thankful for my church home. I have always loved briarwood since my first day as the intern but now, not even being employed there, and unable to come as consistently as I would like because of traveling for Zorro I have never loved and appreciated Briarwood like I do now. So grateful to belong to the body of Christ.

A

Auburn.

I have been so thankful to get to go back and visit all my roommates over this semester while they are still students. I think I love and appreciate Auburn and how wonderful my college experience was, now as an alumni more than ever.

goals for the days off.

i have been on tour for the last month but we just did an over night leg for two weeks. this is a different hotel room every night, new venue everyday, new audiences, new regions, new contacts, ha sometimes it feels like a new show. I am loving almost every minute of touring. and though I really adore my cast, Im going to soak up a few things on my days off in bham.

I am going to:

sleep in my own bed.

be the only person in my room.

ride in a car alone. ( not the minivan )

sleep in.

eat not a continental breakfast.

do laundry.

watch movies.

catch up on tv shows

play with my dog and cat.

try to find job leads in NYC ( bc i move there in 8 weeks friendos.)

shop for winter clothes.

listen to an abundance of Christmas music ( which is not always well received this early in the van)

go to church.

eat a meal that I make at home.

not speak in a spanish dialect.

ps tour really has been a blast. this is sort of a GREAT job. photos and updates on tour coming soon!

tour week 2: DROCK/big bob gibson

this week the Zorro tour hollered at Decatur Alabama (d'rock its called by its natives) and the Princess Theatre. This was a cool space. Load in was a breeze ( THANK YOU JESUS ) and we were there for a couple of days so all we had to do was show up perform eat and go home. The venue was sweet and the people who ran it were super accommodating. I've been told this is one of our nicer stops so yay for a couple of nice days at the Princess.

Nikki, our in house stage manager, is a Drock native and so she graced us with her presence for this leg of the tour! She was eager to introduce us to one of her favorite restaurants called Big Bob Gibson World's Best Barbecue.

By the pic you can tell shes pretty proud of her home town.

We ate one of our many many meals together after a very speedy run of Zorro ( we purposely did an almost italian run of the show to shave off a few minutes and it was a blast. just what we needed for having done the show 30ish times by now. ) then we found out that our second show was cancelled because of the tornado warnings so we took our time eating.

Alex(tour manager/hero) and Christina(rosa ) showin some love.

touring week 1.

tour has begun. its fun/physically taxing/ a good thing im extraverted or id die from the amount of quality time you get with the cast.

but so far its only been to Tuscaloosa. Don't worry we travel in a sweet white minivan. It has space doors and a space trunk that open and shut themselves. and glows neon blue at night on the inside. its like a little tiny rave on wheels.

i have my first tour wound. i kinda had a piece of the set fall on me. its epic. and i'm positive there are more to come.

good news is this weekend we are back in bham which means no load out until sunday! woot!

latest going ons

there has been so much going on lately.

1. I finished my internship at Briarwood and then stayed for another month and a half to be the admin assistant which is hilarious.

2. I started rehearsal, then tech and now the in house run performances of Zorro! The cast and crew are fun pleasant people which is wonderful bc i am going to be living with most of them in a van and hotel rooms for weeks on end coming soon.

3. I have been doing more temp work than I know what to do with. The list goes as follows: character at a birthday party, over night babysitting, and most IRONICALLY a housekeeper. Which if any of you ever saw my car or closet in college ( or lets be real ever in my life ) you will appreciate that some sap hired me as a housekeeper. Surprisingly I am getting pretty good at it. ( but i absolutely do not enjoy it. though it does pay for my gas for the month. )

4. kristi moved out. depressing for me but so wonderful for her! Kristi and Liz are both moved in their gorgeous apartment in NYC and are both just being fabulous.

5. Payne visited which was wonderful to play with my old friend and chat about the good ole days ( midsummer and deadwood ) and encourage each other in whats going on now! He was so supportive and encouraging about Zorro and I know he's doing so well in his rep of shows right now! I cant wait til we live in Richmond at the same time. What a treat to be in the same town and be working for the same company as one of my BFA classmates.

6. Kara also visited and that was wonderfullllllllllllllllll! She got to come see Zorro which was cool because she is the only person I know who has come to see it! We had lunch ( funny how everyone including me craves mexican food after Zorro) walked around the mall and ate ice cream at yogurt mountain! It was a wonderful and much needed afternoon of great company. I love Kara very much!

7. I am buying an obscene amount of auburn looking fall wear. this is stupid because i do not go to school there anymore but i cant stop myself. blue and white striped sweater, orange toms, orange scarf that matches virtually nothing in my closet. i have a disease. i love auburn too much. and i have a crush on cam newton. for real. o and Laura hooked me up with a tour of the stadium. so jazzed.

8. mason came home for fall break and that was fun to have my 6'5'' buddy in town! He's a peach.

9. I have gotten to see some fun shows lately. I saw the Birthday Party in auburn and really enjoyed it. I also saw Hairy Gary Ard in Cabaret at Red Mountain. I will see Drowsy Chaperone featuring two of my Zorro cast mates tomorrow night and The Fantastiks in Auburn this weekend.

10. I am going to Auburn this weekend for several important things. 1. Suzanne's bday, 2. Claire's bday, 3. THE PARENTS TAILGATE! we have all ( we as in the taleeda court gang) invited our parents to come tailgate with us this weekend. Dave and Gi are pumped. Mom is fussing over food and DAd is fussing over tickets so they are clearly in their happy places. Im pumped to be on the plains this weekend. Lets just hope I have the maturity not to yell, stay away from smoke, and allergies so I keep my voice! War Eagle my friends!

discontentment.

so i am going to be real with you blogger world. the last four months i've had a parasite just living off of me. and thats parasite's name is discontentment.

during my senior year of college i would say i was pretty content. i was

-living with my 6 best friends,

-in a theatre department that while was imperfect was still comfortable and easily navigated.

- i was surrounded by a loving community and in a city that feels like a big hug when you enter the city limits.

-i was single and had never been more thrilled about it and the opportunities that were on my horizon inspired and excited me.

-i auditioned all over thrilled about getting to take such control in my career and i accepted two acting jobs that were projects that were exciting and challenging.

-throw in a plan to move to new york city

-an invaluable internship at Bwood

this is a pretty packed, exciting, and creative year. and all of these good things were brought about in the perfect timing and blessings of the Lord.

so why now as i am living in it why am i so constantly discontent? bc i am fallen,selfish, foolish and ungrateful for all the gifts the Lord's put in my path. and yet in his goodness he loves me still.

-im discontent living with my parents ( even though im not paying rent and they're great. )

-i'm discontent living in b'ham ( even thought there are cool parts that im just now discovering )

-i'm discontent being single (even though im about to tour for the next 6 months and actually don't want to settle down quite yet )

-i'm discontent to leave briarwood bc it makes me feel like ill matter less as a volunteer than as a staff member ( even though i know this is the season of my life i am supposed to be an actor )

this blog i promise is called counting my blessings for a reason. give me a second to explain.

on my last day at briarwood i was feeling the biggest rush of discontentment/anxiety i have ever felt. i was walking up the stairs back to the office just praying "why Lord do i feel this way when i know nothing bad is happening its just not beyond great.? why do i feel so selfish and ungrateful when i know what i want for my life is to follow where You take me and i KNOW you've directed my paths completely over the next year?"

and the minute i got upstairs my sweet friend Lindsay had put a book on my desk that she bought me as a gift. its called " calm my anxious heart: a woman's guide to finding contentment"

boom.

i open it up and the excerpt i read on pg 13 gave me chills of conviction.

the author is describing two of her friends. one is a suburban woman who has EVERYTHING and is constantly discontent ( this sounded a heck of a lot like me ) and another friend who was a missionary in africa who barely had the necessities and lived a life of intentional contentment. when the author asked the second woman her method to being content this was her answer ( which made me cry just reading it )

"Ella's prescription for contentment"

*never allow yourself to complain about anything- not even the weather

*never picture yourself in any other circumstances or someplace else.

*never compare your lot with another's

*never allow yourself to wish that this or that had been otherwise.

*never dwell on tomorrow- remember that tomorrow is God's not ours.

my quality of life would be so much greater if i lived like this. and it is my intention to try.

so i am counting my blessings.

"a soul sufficiency, a peace separate from my circumstances."

"contentment is a state of the heart not a state of affairs"

this author also quotes shakespeare and that kind of endeared her to me early in this book. i will leave you with what william shakespeare wrote about contentment. i hope this encourages you as it has me this week!

king henry iv

"my crown is in my heart, not on my head.

not decked with diamonds and indian stones.

nor to be seen; my crown call'd content

a crown it is that seldom kings enjoy"

amen.