Hooray! My journal entries are back and safe and sound. You know, living in New England for the summer has been quite an experience. I have discovered many new things and spotted many new creatures, and fortunately I’ve had my digital camera handy.
Sooo, today I thought I’d take you on a safari of sorts, and show you the many creatures I have encountered on my stay.
My family has always been a super-planning one. We always get our tickets to amusement parks in advance, and I’ve never been to one on a weekend. You know, that sort of thing. So on Saturday when it was spontaneously decided that we would go to Six Flags on Sunday, I felt like it was some grave sin that we would plan it last minute.
I got over that quickly enough, and we had an AWESOME time at the park. It’s been much too long since I’ve ridden a roller coaster, and I must say the Superman ride is by far the most awesome coaster I’ve ever been on (although, due to the high speeds of the ride, I would salivate uncontrollably, and end up drooling all over myself. A small price to pay for good fun). It was also nice, because until now, I’ve only been to two amusement parks over and over again. Riding unfamiliar coasters was quite refreshing. It was a good way to spend our last day off for the next two weeks
I would write more, but tonight is American Chopper night, and I have to get back to the laundromat to pick up my freshly cleaned clothes. In the meantime, you guys should all go say hello to D Flo (
(as a side note, thanks to everyone who’s been sending me letters! I love getting mail, and you should be expecting letters from me on the way!)
Woohoo! Here I am in the Stockbridge Library, alive and well. Things are going great. I really love my job so far, and the people I work with are all really cool, I’m so busy that I hardly even notice my lack of internet…
Well, that’s not exactly true. Yesterday, we managed to get dial-up in the prop shop for research, and I was able to check my email for the first time in a few days. After I was finished, I walked outside. My boss noticed me, made a strange face, and said “You look like you just had sex! You’re SICK!”
Okay okay, so maybe I am a bit addicted to the internet, but I’m sure I’ll get over it. Some highlights from the past week.
– I drove up here with Jeff, and for the whole 900 miles of the drive, his cat, Pollock, rode on my lap. My first impression at Berkshire was me covered in cat fur, but I didn’t mind so much.
– It was cold here the first couple of days. The other day, I spilled a bowl of hot soup on my leg, and my first reaction was “Mmm, that feels really good…”
– While prop hunting yesterday, I came across a shop called “Needful Things.” Is that not a little creepy? In New England no less! I was almost sure that if I went in, I would be able to locate the more difficult props (like a 1930’s payphone), but that I’d have to sell my soul in return. I passed the shop quietly.
– There’s a glass gallery here! Right here in little ‘ole Stockbridge! I peeked in the window today, and they have Lino Tagliapietra stuff and Chihuly stuff and Billy Morris stuff! I’m going to have to go in there on Sunday and gawk and drool.
– So far, this is like summer camp for grown ups. However, you should take that with a grain of salt, as I’ve never been to summer camp before. Maybe, if I’m lucky, I’ll get to update this journal every week or so (though, I’m afraid chances of getting my website updated look grim).
I hope everyone is doing well! Keep me informed of adventures on your end!
I always forget about Carnival until it is right upon me, even this year when little ooze-shaped paper advertisements showed up everywhere from dorm doors to the back pockets of unexpecting launderers returning to fold their clothes from the dryer.
Carnival is awesome. It’s a big festival with live music, endless supplies of free cotton candy, snocones, and popcorn, and large inflatable play devices. You know, the kind of big bouncy things you played in as a kid, only they’re more awesome because they’re college-student-sized (and even MORE awesome for little kids, since they’re twice as gigantic).
Anyway, I thought this year’s Carnival was getting off to a bad start, as my stomach was upset all day. However, I decided to have fun in spite of this. I challenged Strother to a race in the Safari Challenge (a large, inflatable obstacle course with a plastic palm tree for setting). In my frantic scramble to win the race, my back bent in a way it was not supposed to. It was one of those injuries that didn’t hurt right away, but you FELT it, and you knew it would hurt like nothing else in a matter of time.
As all people are entitled to make ridiculously poor decisions every now and again, I thought to myself “Well, my back’s going to stop working here in a bit, I’d better use it as much as I can before that happens,” and proceeded to play on the inflato-bungee course (on which I promptly injured my head and neck).
In spite of the fact that today I can barely hobble without some sort of pain, I had a fun time at Carnival. Chalk Circle was also awesome. David Flora is a musical genius. That is all.
The week has started, it will kill me, but more SETC stories first.
Part 2..
Job Contact, Auditions, and the Amazing David Flora
Well, I’m back from SETC *twitch*, it…was…awesome. I’ll have to write about it in manageable chunks, so look for updates and…eventually…pictures.
Tuesday night we gathered behind the Norton Center to begin our journey. My car (consisting of Will, Adam, and Dave Clark) jumped the gun and speeded ahead of the group, acting as scout, and calling the other cars to warn them of monsters, UFOs, a Big Otter, and other such dangers of West Virginia. We managed to grind out most of the trip and made it to Maryland to spend the first night. It was just a 2 hour jaunt to DC the next day ^_^. Anyway, we got to our hotels, got settled in, greeted Matthew and Jeff, registered, and…rested? Hardly. Part 1…
I’m normally not one to fill out internet surveys, but I read this one off mysticpenguin and liked it. For one, it doesn’t consist of 8 biztrillion one-word-answer sort of questions, because I never read those. Plus, even if no one else but me reads it, writing the answers will provide some introspection at the very least ^_^
2002, what a weird year. Well, I suppose I’ll do a little recap, for me more than anything, I suppose. I have a tendency to think in terms of ‘school years’ as opposed to real years, so it’s helpful to do little things like this.
– 2002 kicked off with my study-abroad trip to England, where I traveled from Manchester to London and many places in between, and saw 30 plays in 3 1/2 weeks. My birthday had its ups and downs, the down being I had to sit through a Pinter play, the up being that I got to go to Riki Tiki Tavi’s, the most awesome restaurant in Manchester, and have the best vanilla milkshake in the world.
– Spring term of 2002 was a rough one for me. I’d flown in from England late one night, and the next day had to move back to school. The lack of rest and busiest term I’d had so far wore me down quite a bit. I was really unprepared for the stresses of taking 2 studio art classes at once, but I managed through.
– On the up side, I had a lot of fun that spring term. I remember my Monday night 9-midnight glassblowing slot with Ian. Neither of us had class the next morning, so after our blowslot we’d drive over to Jen’s apartment, where I would make pancakes and Dr. Mario tournaments would take place.
– I got to be really good friends with Andrew that term. Seeing my beloved senior friends graduate was tough. Ian, Andrew, Liz, Nate, Sara…everyone, I really missed them, but had great times with them
– Summer 2002. Not quite as eventful as the summer before. I did manage some visits to see my friends, and it was the first summer I actually sold art. I did rather well, selling quite a bit of my glass, I was very excited!
– Fall 2002. Junior year started off rather strangely. I solidified and grew strong friendships with different people, namely D Flo, Brendan, Ken, and Squirt. This year has been eventful and fun-filled, if not DRIPPING with DRAMA. I remember being terrified of having an independent study in glass with Woody, Arijan, and Ken (who are all way way talented), but it turned out for the best for me.
– 2002 wrapped up with New Year’s with friends. I’m glad I got to see kenmoore before he goes off to Italy. My resolution this year is to expand on my other talents, especially getting over my fear of playing the piano.
Have a great year, everyone!
I whine a lot about how I’ve never been West, and how I’d like to go out there hiking and camping and seeing the sights and whatnot. However, I recently decided that I have no right to whine, because there are plenty of cool places in Kentucky that I’ve never visited.
Today, Jen and I drove out to Natural Bridge to do some hiking. It was a lovely day for it, cool and overcast, and the rain held off save a mild drizzle at the end of the day. The forest was gorgeous, there were many different ferns and mosses about, and I felt like a dinosaur, hehe. The bridge itself was very neat, and we listened to a lady give a schpeel about how it was weathered and wind eroded. Very interesting.
I took a few photos, but as I am impatient, I’ll provide a few I found on the net.
There were many other equally fascinating rock formations, with incredible slopes and patterns due to erosion. Jen commented how interesting it was the formations seemed the result of some violent action, when in fact it had taken a few bizillion years to create them.
We pondered going to Red River Gorge afterwards, but were pretty tired, so decided to save that for another day (the area is surprisingly close to my college). Next adventure we’ll probably go to Mammoth Cave. Seeing all those rock formations reminded me of how much I love caves, and how long it’s been since I’ve been in one.
