Chewing Gum & Graphite.

1. I got an apartment.  Spoke too soon. Damn it damn it damn it.

2. I’m one final away from being halfway finished with college.

3. Today was the last day of studio, and my last day of being in the New Studio until senior year. Trying not to be too emotional about it.

4. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I’m 20 years old.

5. What am I, an adult or something?

There was one awkward pause in the show on Friday but Adam and Ty came to see it and then on Saturday so many people came and it was overwhelming. Alexis got me flowers and my parents took the two of us out to lunch and I got a lot of hugs and sometimes I question why I want to be an actor because it’s difficult and uncertain and I get so nervous sometimes but then I do a performance like we did on Saturday and I remember why.

I promised myself that I wouldn’t pull any all-nighters this year, but I guess that was mostly pertaining to work. We can pretend that this doesn’t count.

I have to be down in the lobby in two and a half hours to go to New Orleans and I feel like if I went to sleep now, I would just be more irritable and tired than if I just stay up. Plus, we have an obscenely long drive ahead of us. I can sleep then. Maybe.

To pass the time until it’s light enough to finish packing, I’ll recap a bit of the week. It was full of work (mostly Writing the Essay) and little sleep, but also a lot of great things. On Tuesday night, Adam took me out to dinner for my birthday at Yaffa Cafe on St. Marks. The restaurant was super cool and even though we were there forever (there seemed to only be one waiter, though he was a pretty cool dude) it was lovely. On Wednesday, my actual birthday, I had a midterm at 11:00 and I woke up at 10:51. I had a moment of blind panic before slipping on shoes and a coat and running to the Tisch building to get there on time. In Writing the Essay, Ethan was playing The Decemberists in the beginning of class (as suggested by Jen) and we had celebratory end-of-progression bagels. Ethan stuck a candle in one of my bagel halves and everyone sang to me. I spent an awful three hours dealing with my cell phone, which stopped working even though I had only gotten it like, three weeks ago. So that was really, really frustrating, but at least I have a working phone now. Then later, Adam, Jack, her friend Grace, and I saw Bright Eyes at Radio City, which, as I mentioned previously, was so, so wonderful.

Thursday and today were blurs of studio and work and lethargy. On Thursday in Acting we got new scenes and mine is from On the Verge by Eric Overmeyer, which seems like a really cool play.

RIGHT. NEW ORLEANS TOMORROW. OR, LATER. I’M EXCITED. 

…YEAH.

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.