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....

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.