Chewing Gum & Graphite.

Alexis won free tickets to see Peter Bjorn and John at the Bowery Ballroom last night and it was so much fun. There were two openers: we missed the first one, but the second was this all-girl band from Tokyo called The Suzan and they were precious and really enjoyable. When we got back from the show, we had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. PB&J city.

Yesterday evening and most of today was spent doing Tisch’s 40 in 24 festival (which actually turned out to be 20 in 24). It was awesome and the play I was in was funny and everyone in my group was lovely and by some stroke of luck my play and the one Adam wrote were performed in the same theatre, so I got to see his, which was nice.

Now it’s late and one of our windows is open (because it is getting colder and I’m so excited about that) and I feel strange and I can never be eloquent in times like these; I just want to like, break a few things and go wander through the city. I dunno. I should probably just go to sleep.

Being about ten feet away from Colin Meloy when he played “Red Right Ankle” solo last night was almost too much. “The Mariner’s Revenge Song” right after that was also particularly fun. The concert at the Borgata was so, so amazing; I hadn’t been that close to the stage at a Decemberists show since I saw them at the Electric Factory in 2008 (Damn seated venues!). The opening band, The Head and the Heart were really, really fantastic, too. After the show my dad and I went to this great noodle place in the hotel and then got Ben and Jerry’s. All in all, a pretty goddamn awesome night.

In other news, The Comedy of Errors opens on Tuesday and tomorrow is our last day of rehearsal before that and I am slightly concerned. I mean, it’s coming along really well, but if we only had like, one more week of rehearsal…

Well, anyway. I’m sure it will come together, as shows tend to do.

The past two days have been so glorious. It was strange to be back in studio, but a nice kind of strange. I loved seeing everyone and I am getting more excited to learn how to kick some serious ass in eskrima. After studio, I power walked to the 14th and 8th subway station to look at the sculptures there for Writing the Essay. Then Adam, Alexis, and I went up to The Beacon (which is so, so lovely and ornate) for the Decemberists show. It was wonderful. Beyond wonderful. They played “Red Right Ankle,” which is probably my favorite song of theirs and we got to pretend to be eaten by a whale during “The Mariner’s Revenge Song.” And I got a sweet poster.

Today was unusually packed with events; it feels like it’s been like, three days or something. It was snowing in the morning, which always makes things more cheerful. After class, Adam, Alexis, and I went to The Impossible Project Gallery because they were showing 50 of the polaroids that Autumn de Wilde took of The Decemberists while they were recording The King Is Dead. On the website, it said that members of the band may drop by, but THEY WERE ALL THERE. When we first walked in, we saw Colin and then gradually saw the rest of them and we were all freaking out internally. We had just about gotten up the courage to ask Colin for a photo (even though we felt like dorks) when he left abruptly, which was unfortunate. Though we did get a picture with Nate and Jenny and had a brief, slightly awkward but still pretty great conversation with them. Later, I had rehearsal with Tre, which went pleasantly well, and then Adam, Dylan, Thomas, Alyssa, and I went to the UCB Theatre to see a bunch of comedians, including Donald Glover. It was really, really funny and only five dollars! Then at like, 11:00, a bunch of us decided to brave the raging snowstorm go to Insomnia. It was such a good decision. It was beautiful outside and we all got hilariously covered in snow. On the way back, we went to the park where these kids were building a massive snowman in the middle of the fountain, which we helped with; snow seems to make everyone friendlier. 

Everything is great in this moment. I have to go to sleep because studio starts at 8:30 instead of 9:00 on Thursdays now, but that’s alright because I AM FEELING SO GOOD.

As much as I enjoy having 269 posts right now (hey there, class spirit!), I need to write (or, type, really) about the past few days.

Tuesday night, but really Wednesday morning, I got about 20 minutes of sleep because I was up forever finishing my GODAWFUL mosaic for Photography. It actually turned out kind of decent, but it was one of the most horrible projects I have ever done. So tedious. So awful. So happy it is finished. On Wednesday I was tired and delirious, but I had to get some energy so that I could rap in English class. When I left school that day, I couldn’t help but smile because it was the last official day of classes and all I felt was relief and joy. I’m sure I’ll be sad at graduation, but right now it is all positive feelings.

Thursday was prom, which I didn’t go to because I did not want to pay $85 to watch people be gross and listen to bad music. So instead, Caileigh and Tashara came to my house, where we played some intense games of Egyptian Rat Screw (I vote for re-naming that game, by the way) and Boggle. Tashara left after a while and Caileigh and I ventured downtown. I got a ring that looks like a rabbit’s head and reminds me of Donnie Darko. For dinner we went to Max Brenner, which was far beyond the world of delicious. So all in all, we ate better food, had more fun, and spent less money, than we would have if we had gone to prom. GOOD. DEAL. I have no qualms.

Friday we didn’t have to go to school, which was awesome. Russell had a birthday dinner thing at Buca di Beppo. I always love seeing Masterman friends and meeting new people who are nice. We got two huge brownie sundaes for dessert and the best part of the meal was probably when the two sides of the table had a contest to see who could finish theirs first. My side won, even though we had one fewer person. We were happy about it, but I’m not sure that that is something to be proud of. Haha.

Today it was like, four thousand degrees out and I went to this concert at the Troc with Zoey and Sarah Levin that was a bunch of high school bands. I only went because some Masterman seniors were performing. There were two bands before the one we were there to see. The first one was HORRIBLE, the second was better but the singer’s voice was super weird. The Masterman kids were better than the other two bands, partially because their band had violins, a cello, and a keyboard in addition to drums and guitars. The lead singer wasn’t very good though, and Nick should have sang more. Ah, well. There were a couple more bands after them, but we didn’t stay. Instead, we went to Reading Terminal, which was probably a better option that staying at the Troc. I came home and watched Into the Woods, because I wanted to see how many of the lines I knew (I know a lot of them). Also, I just never get tired of that musical.

I keep getting the days mixed up because I didn’t go to school on Friday. Though that’s not really a bad thing. Tomorrow I have a voice lesson, which I’m excited about. I’m no longer working on Into the Woods so I want to see what she has me sing. This week at school is all graduation business and practice. It feels so amazing to be virtually finished with high school. I’ve been in a perpetually good mood since Wednesday after school. Let’s hope it continues.