Bloggiversary

It's November already my sneaky loves. And upon sitting down to write this post I realized that it has been over a year now since I started this blog!

I started it for a few reasons. For something to do, to keep my family and friends updated on my life, and to start something positive in my life which wasn't so peachy for me a year ago. A lot has changed in the last year. I've moved on from the end of college, the end of a relationship (which had a lot to do with why I started the blog), I've met so many new and amazing people, traveled to new places, made an amazing amount of new friends, worked like 12 different jobs, learned to act (still working on that one), became a runner, and in general have expanded my horizons. It's been quite a learning year. But I can honestly say I am in a much better place now then I was a year ago. Progress- positive progress- thats really all that matters.

This is week 7 of Conservatory. We are now rehearsing As You Like It and working on our scenes. I'm feeling really great about my part in the show now. Behold my inspiration:


O yes... Amiens the singing minstrel man has become Amiens the singing pregnant hippie. You are welcome theatre goers. I'm so pumped about this- you have no idea.

And what else have I been up to lately?

Some Halloween


Some fun times with this pretty lady

Some Mr. Potato Head... unfortunately

And as of Sunday I have reached 14 miles in a day for my Marathon training. I was supposed to be running my first Half Marathon this weekend but they changed the dates to next weekend and I can't do it then because of a workshop we have for Conservatory. Boo. But I already know I can do that distance so I guess I don't need a medal to tell me how awesome I am. And I'll be skipping right to training for a Marathon in the spring. Probably the Cleveland Marathon but it may depend on where I'm living.

The weather is getting not so nice which is putting a slight damper on my outdoor running. This morning it rained and I had to do 5 miles on the treadmill... I wanted to die. It's so boring running inside. I can deal with the cold (although I probably need to invest in some more cold weather running gear)but the rain just makes it impossible unfortunately. It's gonna be a long frigid winter training for a Marathon outside- but I just don't think I can hack more than one hour of running on a treadmill. It's torture.

Speaking of which- now that I'm halfway through Conservatory its time to start considering what the heck I'm gonna do next. Directly after my last show with Conservatory I'll be flying off to Orlando to do the Disney thing with my family!!! And by time thats done I will be flat broke and at this point have no job lined up. So... I should work on that. I am seriously considering moving to Boston with the lovely and talented Emily Karelitz. But a job. I need a job. Preferably a job that does not include sitting at a desk all day long. I'm talking survival job here of course since the real plan is to get an acting job and I'll have a much better chance of getting one in Boston than in Cleveland... plus its close to NYC. Much to figure out in the next 6 weeks.

But I'm having a grand old time these days. I think I'm doing good work here and learning a lot. It's nice to spend this time focusing on myself and what I need to work on. I really miss my family and my friends from home, but the holidays are on there way and I'll be with them for that!

Endless love sneaky readers.

Send in the Clowns/ Baba Louies Half Marathon.

Good evening my sneaky loves.

Here it is- half-way through October and all of the sudden I'm 4 weeks into Conservatory. It's going by so fast! But I'm really learning a lot and I'm excited about all the things we are working on.

Last weekend I didn't post because I was in class all weekend. Specifically the Clown workshop! Clown is (for me) especially challenging and interesting to work on. I was happy that over the course of the weekend I did manage to find "my clown" but it was not easy my friends. The idea of clown is to essentially boil down the essence of who you are as a person and sort of set that free in your Clown work. Clowning requires an incredible amount of energy and pretty much shutting off my brain. A difficult task indeed. It's really hard to explain though... I'm not doing a very good job.

But my clown's name was Miss Henry. She is a very worried and socially awkward clown who just wants to be like all the nice pretty and happy clowns. My teacher said this "its princess... but like princess who has been sitting up in her tower waiting for a loooooooong time eating her toenails..." And after I thought about it I realized my clown was pretty much me at age five. Awkward, cried a lot, liked to wear princess dresses but it never quite meshed right with my bowl chop haircut and giant pink glasses. I WISH now that I had thought of that at the time and added giant glasses to my clown costume but alas...

Other than that we've been doing a bit of work on our scenes, incorporating our critics, voice, movement, and next week we start As You Like It but we still haven't got our parts yet... Monday... eep.

And today the big news is that I completed my very first Half- Marathon distance run! I ran from my house in Lenox to Great Barrington. 13.1 miles took me 2 hours 19 minutes and 30 seconds. I celebrated my personal victory with a delicious dinner at Baba Louies and some chocolate from the candy store. I'm a little sad its getting colder because it's going to be harder for me to run outside. Today was a bit windy and cold- luckily it didn't rain while I was running- that would have sucked. So I'm pretty proud of myself :) I'll be running an official race in a few weeks and then... well I suppose a full marathon of course. I can't really imagine running that far twice at this point but maybe in a few months that will start looking more possible. I dread the winter months that I will have to spend in treadmill purgatory though :(

In other news I am beginning to realize how much I miss having money. I had so much extra money in college... now I am completely broke, and I can't work while I'm doing Conservatory. I long for the day when I won't have to meticulously budget my entire week so that I can have enough to get Starbucks once a week. I also miss shopping. I want to buy pretty things... sigh. Perhaps I have chosen the wrong profession....

Beware the Shakespearean Basketcase

Week two of Conservatory is over and it went by so fast! Let's recap.

This was our first full week and it was pretty exhausting for me. We worked on our jaws in voice class... always an interesting experience considering my jaw is all kinds of a mess. We did our Sonnets and I found some unexpected stuff there that turned me, once again, into a Shakespeare spouting mess of tears (fear not sneaky readers crying is pretty commonplace around here on any given day- nothing to be alarmed about). We got our scene assignments also and I'm really pumped about mine. I get to do the Balcony Scene from Romeo and Juliet with the wonderful Brendan Sokler as my Romeo. We'll sort of be working on these scenes on and off throughout the rest of Conservatory and interwoven with As You Like It once we start that. We still don't know when we are actually starting work on As You Like It or how the casting is going to work so stay tuned.

In general the Conservatory is going great. I really think I'm learning a lot and am confident I'll come out of it ready for whatever's next. So thats a good feeling.

I decided I will be running the 15th Annual Monson Memorial Classic Half Marathon on November 8th. I wanted to run one in another town on October 17th but realized yesterday that I missed the registration deadline so I had to pick another one. It sucks because I was prepping for the one on the 17th and I'll be ready to run it by then. I ran 11.6 miles yesterday and I think I could have done the whole 13.1 if I had wanted to. So what I'm thinking is I may just do my own personal half marathon on the 17th and then just make it a goal to beat my time on the November 8th race. I had such a lovely run yesterday- it was the perfect temperature, sunny, a nice breeze, and I ran a new route. I ran to the next town over (Lee) and came back a different way hoping that it would be about 11 miles and it pretty much was.

I think for my personal half marathon I may try running to Great Barrington. From my house to the Great Barrington Baba Louie's is almost exactly a half marathon, so what better way to celebrate my personal triumph than refueling with a fantastic pizza as soon as I finish?

So in summary of week two: living, baking (two apple crisps and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies I'll have you know) , running, crying, shakespeareing, jaw relaxing, raging, laughing, and keeping in mind that good or bad: this two shall pass.

Conservatory Madness- Week One

Well I survived week one of Conservatory and what a week it was!

So far we have mostly been doing the same sort of things we did the first week of the Month-Long Intensive. Some voice work, Basics, Actor/Audience, etc... For Basics I did a Juliet monologue and I just really loved acting again. It's been so wonderful to get back to it. Since the beginning of the week I've also been a complete chatter box. I literally cannot stop talking! Which is great because I don't think I did much of that this summer... the whole speaking thing. So its been nice to share.

Actor/Audience was, of course, full of emotional pyrotechnics for all (especially me... I was so hoping to not be "that crying girl" this time too- but alas). What can I say- I have a lot of feelings. But mostly how I have been feeling is happy. People that spent the whole summer with me have been commenting that they've never seen me smile so much. A good sign I think.

We've also been doing some new things- like Audition class which I think is going to be really helpful with the whole getting a job thing. I'm not sure when we'll start working on our show (As You Like It) or how that whole thing is going to work. But I actually REALLY love not knowing. I'm excited to work on my sonnet though and my audition material and really delving into the Voice work.

As far as my fitness nonsense goes I'm definitely back in it. I went to all 3 of my 6am spinning classes this week (which I haven't done in AGES) and I ran a bit during the week and did my long run yesterday for my half-marathon training. I'm up to 10 miles and it took me 1 hour 49 minutes 32 seconds. Not bad :)Only 3.1 away from half-marathon distance. It was a lovely run yesterday too- the leaves are all starting to change and the temperature was perfect with a bit of a breeze. It was beautiful out and I ran until about sunset which was stunning. I placated my post run hunger monster with a giant bowl of chili and tried to go to the bar for a while with my Conservatory compatriots but exhaustion came on pretty quickly and I was out like a light by 11pm. Lame... but truthfully its a whole different kind of tired. Especially since I only got 3 hours of sleep the night before... not the best plan... but trust me it was worth it.

And now its Sunday! Time to chill out, recover, eat pumpkin pancakes (which I did), read, write, and stretch out my angry angry muscles... I might also peruse the Apple Squeeze festival in Lenox today. Since Fall has struck I have been obsessed with pumpkin and apples... I guess there are worse things to be obsessed with but still... I have a pumpkin problem.

So in short- I'm having a lovely time already. I miss Andre and Michelle, but I'm loving getting to know all my Conservatory fellows. It's gonna be a good Fall.

Triumphant Return

Hello sneaky readers!

It's been a while- I'm afraid I've been a bit busy these days reorganizing my life. Since my last post lots has happened. For starters I've been on a bit of a pumpkin kick lately...

These are homemade pumpkin scones from Angela over at www.ohsheglows.com . They were amazing. I've also made pumpkin butterscotch chip cookies, pumpkin oatmeal, and had a pumpkin beer or two- I'm obsessed.

In other news I took a nice trip home to Ohio. I was reunited with the fam for a few days...

There's dad and marty looking super hip at the Cleveland Gallery Hop.

I also got to see the girls a bit and visited Laura in Columbus with Tammy.

We went to see Eclipse (and made fun of it the whole time), had some yummy food, and a Whole Foods adventure field trip!

I'm still keeping up with this whole running thing too- I've decided to run a half marathon in October somewhere TBD in Mass. So far I'm up to 9 miles at a time- only 4.1 to go and I'll be ready for my very first road race! I'm pretty jazzed about it.

And now I'm back in Lenox and starting Conservatory bright and early in the morning. I'm so excited to finally get to do what I've been waiting to do all summer. I'm so ready to START! So it'll be off to bed for me soon so I can get up for a run before our 9am meet and greet. Wish me luck!

A short post considering how much has been going on but you'll have to forgive me. More soon. Promise.

Amore Squirrel

Hello sneaky readers of mine- here is a recap of the last week for those of you who read this for some reason...

I went on for Amorous Quarrel for the last for performances and had an absolute blast. It was such a small part, but it was honestly the most fun I've had all summer and I was so grateful to get to do it. Check out my awesome costumes....

Channeling Amy Adams a bit perhaps?

Sassy servant goodness.

And then- just like that my 4 performances flew by and it was closing night. And what better way to celebrate than with brownies...

I made these from a recipe by Angela at www.ohsheglows.com they use avocado instead of butter (sadly my avocados were not super ripe and so you can see chunks of them in the brownie batter. I was assured, however, that they were still delicious.) they were awesome- super fudgy and still pretty healthy, for a brownie... I gave them out to the cast and crew of AQ and they seemed to go over quite well- definitely making them again (perhaps for Daddy when I head home since I was awful and forgot to call him on his birthday like the terrible daughter that I am)

I was on a bit of an ohsheglows kick after making the brownies and decided to also make her breakfast cobbler while the brownies cooled just because I had all the ingredients and way too much energy.


This was also lovely- go to her blog- make her food- you can thank me later.

And this week I also experimented with some eggplant because it was at the farmers market this week and looked yummy. I wasn't sure quite what to do with it and ended up making this...

I also made some eggplant bruschetta with it which was super good but I forgot to take a pic of that- I'll probably make it again sometime though. Good stuff.

Ok enough about cooking... for now. So besides Quarrel I've been resting, doing a bit of office work, running. Today was the day off and I decided to do something a bit different. I've barely ridden my bike at all this summer and thought this might be one of our last really beautiful days- so I decided to ride my bike to Club June. That's about a 16 mile ride- ambitious for someone who hasn't been riding (but I have been taking spin class which is kinda similar and we usually do at least 12 miles in that class.) So this morning I made myself a big ole brunch of tomato omelet and ohsheglows Healthy Spelt Pancakes for one (I know I'm totally boring you here, but they were sooooo good and super easy to make- 1/2 cup spelt flour, 1/2 cup almond milk, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp cinnamon- make them!) Belly full I set off- I was in no particular hurry so I just went slow and enjoyed the sun and my ipod- it took me about and hour and a half to get there. And when I did I went out in the kayak for about a half hour (don't know where all this energy has been coming from lately) then I swam and read my book (100 Years of Solitude) but no one else was really there so I decided to set off again for Great Barrington- that was about another 7 miles of biking so I decided to throw in the towel after that and not bike back home and called Andre and Michelle to come pick me up. But hey- 23 miles in one day... not too shabby for a day off. Then we got some groceries, made some dinner (I made parchment packet cooked salmon... I'll take a picture next time- it wasn't quite right this time I'm afraid, but a good experiment nonetheless).

And now I am officially exhausted and in need of sleep. Still it was a lovely way to spend a summer day- one more full week of work (only 4 more shows to wardrobe- yessssssss) and then it'll be time to pack up and head home! Plans must be made friends.

Goodnight all.

5 Minute Chocolate Mug Cake Recipes

I also sent this out as a facebook message but I thought I'd put it up here too.
The recipes are from http://newdressaday.wordpress.com/page/2/ and http://fitnessista.com/2010/08/i-had-to-do-it/ (I cannot figure out how to do links on this thing- blogger fail- but I want to credit them)

Here is the recipe for the 5 minute chocolate cake in a mug that everyone has been asking me for. When I did it I cut down on some of the calories (since the original way it adds up to about 1000) by using almond milk, half the sugar, 1/3 the oil and it still tasted awesome. I will also include another version of the recipe that is from one of my favorite health food blogs and is only about 275 calories. Not that anyone cares- but I think the substitutions are interesting. Either way... it's chocolate cake in 5 minutes... what could be better?

5 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE

4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
A small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug (Microwave Safe)

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly before pouring in the milk and oil in. Keep mixing. Add the optional chocolate chips next (who makes that an option!) and vanilla extract, and mix again…
Put your mug in the micro wave and cook for three minutes at 1000 watts. The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don’t be alarmed! Allow it to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.

Vegan Chocolate Mug Cake
Ingredients:

-2 T flour of choice (I used spelt, but whole wheat or gluten-free would be lovely)

-1 T protein powder (chocolate or Vanilla; I rolled with vanilla Nutribiotic brown rice protein)

-1 T raw cacao powder (1/2 T of cooked cacao powder, since the flavor is stronger)

-1/4 t baking soda

-pinch of sea salt

-1 flax egg (1 T milled flax seed mixed with 3 T water)

-2 T almond milk (or milk of choice)

-1 T chocolate chips

-1/2 T oil, yogurt or applesauce (optional: will make the cake more moist, but I made mine without)

-1/2 t vanilla extract

-cinnamon and Stevia, to taste

1. Spray the inside of a microwave-safe coffee mug with nonstick spray
2. Add the dry ingredients (flour, protein, cacao, baking soda and salt), and stir well to combine
3. Add the wet ingredients and mix with a spoon until mixture resembles a thin cake batter –make sure there are no flour chunks in there
4. Taste the mixture and add Stevia and cinnamon to your liking – I used about 6 drops of liquid Stevia and a hefty shake of cinnamon. Stir in chocolate chips.

5. Microwave on high for 2 1/2 – 3 minutes, until the cake is cooked on top and around the edges.