Oh...Uh...Hi?

*cough* Uh...hello?  Is anybody there?  I wouldn't be surprised if everybody left me for more consistent bloggers.  I mean, it has been over a month since I last posted.  But I swear that I have a good excuse for my absence!  Life has kind of exploded lately.

First, 39 Steps, a show that I assistant stage managed at Baton Rouge Little Theater, opened.  

Me and my good friend Ronald, who played Richard Hannay.

That same weekend, I had the final rehearsals for and the performance of Singo de Mayo, as a part of my musical theatre class at school!  I had such a blast this year.  Look for a blog post about it in the near future.

Singo de Mayo was on a Sunday.  The following Monday, finals week began with a double final day.  Yikes!  Luckily, all of my finals were done by Wednesday, so I got a little break during the day Thursday before 39 Steps started again that night.  We had a show Thursday night, Friday night, TWO shows Saturday, and a matinee on Sunday.

Our stage manager, Mel, and the light board operator, Ms. Ellen.  Saturday was Ms. Ellen's birthday, so we went out for dinner between shows to celebrate!

I wasn't feeling so great after the show on Sunday.  I was nauseous, shaky, and exhausted.  By Sunday night, it had developed into a full blown Summer Flu that was making it's way through Baton Rouge.  I tried to just wait it out to see if it would go away on it's own, but when Tuesday came and I still felt like crap, I gave in and made a doctors appointment.  And it's a good thing I did!  Even though my flu symptoms were on their way out by the time I had my appointment Wednesday morning, the doctor heard rattling in my lungs and ordered me to get a chest x-ray, which showed that I had developed pneumonia!  The pneumonia actually wasn't nearly as bad as the flu.  It just made me really tired.  The timing sucked though, because my brother and grandmother came were in town that same weekend.  I barely had enough energy to even go out to dinner with them!  But I trucked through.  I was still able ASM the final weekend of 39 Steps.

I was still at risk for being contagious until 24 hours after I had taken my first anti-biotic, so I wore a mask my first night back at 39 Steps just to be safe.  I didn't want to risk getting anyone sick!  We needed everyone as healthy as possible for this show!

I also had just enough energy to go the LSU School of Music and Dramatic Arts Commencement Ceremony on Friday.  Why?  Because Chris graduated college (again)!  This was actually Chris's second degree.  He graduated with his music education degree a couple of years ago.  This year, he finished up his music performance degree.  Yep, I got me a smart one. :) Congratulations, Chris!

So proud of him :)

By Sunday night, I could feel the pneumonia fog lifting, just in time for me to start two weeks of babysitting during the day, which I absolutely loved.   After babysitting wrapped up, Summer school began!  But not before a busy Saturday.  Saturday the 2nd began with a rehearsal for an LSU Musical Theatre Troupe performance.  Eight of us had to revamp, edit, and, in some cases, learn completely new parts for musical numbers we did in Singo de Mayo so that we could perform them in Vidalia, La. As soon as I was done with the rehearsal, I drove to Lafayette to volunteer at the Louisiana Speech and Hearing Association Conference, which was such an awesome opportunity.  I served as a session monitor for a class on Vestibular Assessment and Management (which means assessment and treatment of balance and dizziness issues as they relate to the ear).  The target audience for the class was audiologists.  Even though I'm on a speech pathology path in school, I still found this class really interesting (probably because it's so different from what I'm focusing on)!  The speaker was great and I learned so much.  I wish I could have stayed for more of the conference, but I couldn't because I had to go home and get ready for...

...Beaux Arts Ball!  Every year, Baton Rouge Little Theater has a ball to honor and recognize all of the volunteers from the past season!  It's always so much fun.  There's mingling, food (really good food!), dancing, and an awards ceremony. The awards ceremony is kind of like a mini-Tony's awards. They give awards for Best Actor and Supporting Actor in a Comedy/Drama and a Musical and Best Actress and Supporting Actress in a Comedy/Drama and Musical.  The nominees and winners for those awards are chosen by a completely anonymous group of people.  I actually won Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy/Drama a couple years back for my role as Sybil Chase in Private Lives.  This year, 2 cast members from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum won awards, as did 2 cast members from 39 Steps! They also give awards for best Backstage and Front of House Volunteers, of which the winners of both were incredibly deserving. 

A fun addition to Beaux Arts this year was a photo booth.  Photos by Staci set up a fun photo booth and provided lots of props for us to use in the photos.  Thanks to Dow Louisiana Federal Credit Union for sponsoring this (as well as our entire season)!

This was my 5th Beaux Arts Awards!  And my first one with Chris!

We brought our friends Mike and Elyse to the ball this year to add to the fun!

Summer school started up this week.  I'm taking my last general education Spanish course (finally)!  I'm really lucky this summer in that I've got a really awesome teacher who actually makes the language interesting and easier to learn.  Spanish really is a beautiful language.  It's just easy to forget that when your being tested on it.

Finally, this past Thursday, I took a trip up "north" with my mom and Chris to perform with 7 other musical theatre students for the fine citizens of Vidalia, Louisiana... in a bank!  We did fourteen musical numbers, including "Anything Goes" from Anything Goes, "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair" from South Pacific, "Seasons of Love," from Rent, and a medley from Jersey Boys (which is such a huge crowd pleaser!).  We had such a great turn out and everyone really seemed to love the show.  Chris played the drums for us and my mom got to fim it.  I'm so glad she got to come :)

Rehearsing "Seasons of Love"

Jersey Silly Boys

All of us with our teacher, the fantastic Terry Patrick-Harris!

"To drum or not to drum?"

I'm gonna wash that man right out of my hair!

"Seasons of Love"

So yes, life has been very busy for me lately.  But it's also been very good to me lately.  Sure, there may have been a few inconveniences.  But there has been so much love in my life and I've had so many wonderful opportunities lately!  I'm happy.

I'm not complaining :)

May the 4th Be With You!

Happy Star Wars Day!   I know I'm such a dork!

It's Friday, which means it's time to fill in some blanks!  But before we get to that, let me fill you in on what I've been up to lately.

First of all, it's dead week here at LSU, but I personally believe it should be called "Death Week."  School life is super busy with classes wrapping up.  I've been using every free second I have to study.  Well except for the seconds I'm using to write this blog post.  But this is for my own personal health!   There's so much in my brain right now that I'm having trouble thinking through the simplest things (What's my name again?).  I need a brain dump!

One of the big parts of dead week for me this year is preparing for Singo De Mayo. What is that, you ask?  Well, this semester, I am taking LSU's only (undergrad) Musical Theatre class (C'mon, LSU, get with the times!).  For our final exam, we are performing a showcase of songs from musical theatre this Sunday, May 6, at 7:30 PM in the Shaver Theatre in LSU's MDA Building.  This showcase is called "Singo de Mayo."  It really is a ton of fun and we always have a huge crowd, but it's a lot of hard work! It really is amazing all that we can do and get accomplished in one semester.  If you're in the Baton Rouge Area, you should definitely check it out!  Go to http://www.music.lsu.edu/ for tickets!  OR, if you're not in the Baton Rouge area, you can watch the whole thing streamed live at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/lsu-school-of-music.

As if that didn't keep me busy enough, I am also also assistant stage managing The 39 Steps at Baton Rouge Little Theater.  We've been in tech rehearsal all week and the show opens tonight.  And you definitely don't want to miss it! This show is absolutely hilarious!  It's pretty tech heavy too.  Luckily, the crew is absolutely fantastic.  They are so on top of everything and make my job so much easier.  I am having such a blast working with them and the cast!  It opens tonight and runs through May 20th.  For ticket info, go to www.brlt.org.

And, to top it all off, the boyfriend has started making me run (something that my body just wasn't meant to do).  Guys, I totally suck at running.  After about a quarter of a mile, I'm ready to crawl into a hole and die.  Right now, we're running the "small" lake at LSU and every time we pass ducks, I always beg them to let me stay with them.  Did y'all know that ducks have a stink eye?  I've been using the Nike +GPS iPhone app, which, in theory, is pretty cool because it tracks your route and pace and how many calories you've burned.  But then when you check your pace and it looks like this, it doesn't seem as cool anymore...

Look at all that red....just sitting there being so.....red.  Stop taunting me, red!

So, yes, life is crazy busy at the moment.  But it's a good kind of busy.  I'm busy with things that I truly love doing (well, except the running.....but supposedly I will eventually get good enough at it that I'll actually be able to tolerate it.  And then (hopefully) I'll eventually enjoy it.  Supposedly...).  Still, I'll be very relieved once I make it to Wednesday and I'll be able to take school out of the equation for a while.

Oh, and on a slightly unrelated note, my allergies have been a beast this week!  Has anyone else been having major allergy problems like I have? 

Fill in the blanks on your own blog and link up here.

1.  My bedtime routine includes taking a shower, brushing my teeth, and washing my face.  I hate going to bed feeling gross and dirty.  Once I'm in bed, I usually spend about 30 minutes or so on my laptop or watching tv.  I know sleep experts say you're not supposed to do that, but I do it anyway.  It works for me!  Of course, that's on a normal day.  Lately, my night time routine has consisted of just falling and hoping I hit the bed. Because once I'm down, I'm not getting back up.

2. I am super busy this weekend, but also super excited about this weekend.  I'll spend tomorrow afternoon studying, but other than that, I'll be doing theater stuff all weekend!  I'm super excited for Singo on Sunday night!

3. I can't stand fruit because of the smell and texture. Yuck!!

4.  My idea of relaxation would be a week at the beach with a book, Pinterest, and people I love.  Luckily, I get that every year. :)

5.  If I had an extra $50, I would use it for gas or put it toward my credit card bill.  I know, that's not a very interesting answer, but that's life, you know?

6.  A recipe I've been dying to try is anything on any of my food Pinterest boards!  For example...

Source: kalynskitchen.com via Emily on Pinterest

Pesto and Mozzerella Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Source: closetcooking.com via Emily on Pinterest

Artichoke Bread

Source: crockpotladies.com via Emily on Pinterest

Crock Pot Cheesecake

Have a wonderful weekend!

Hump Day

I absolutely adore being in shows at the Baton Rouge Little Theater, but my goodness—After tech week and opening weekend, you definitely learn to appreciate your nights off even more.

Speaking of theater, did any of you Baton Rougeans see the awesome review for A Funny Thing Happened to the Forum in this morning's Advocate?  If you didn't happen to see it or you don't live in Baton Rouge, no worries!  You can read the review here.

Now, let's get to the main reason we have gathered here today.  It's time for.....

Post your favorite Pins and link up at The Vintage Apple!

Source: tatertotsandjello.com via Emily on Pinterest

This is on my to-do list for tonight!

Source: Uploaded by user via Jennifer-Jen on Pinterest

The scary thing about rock bottom is that life tricks you into thinking you've hit it, but then you fall even further.  So you never quite know where you are.

Source: donttouchmymoleskine.com via Juliana on Pinterest

Ha.  Ha ha.

Source: fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net via Tammy on Pinterest

:)

Source: images.search.yahoo.com via Jessari on Pinterest

This is so adorable!

Source: shrimpandglitz.blogspot.com via Madeline on Pinterest

I'm so excited that it's getting warm enough to wear cute outfits like this again!  Now, if only I had cute outfits like this...

Source: d-o-l-c-e.tumblr.com via Haley on Pinterest

Looove this.

Source: crockpotladies.com via Emily on Pinterest

This is on my list of things to try in my crock pot.

Source: theaprongal.com via Emily on Pinterest

And I might have to try to make these for the cast and crew of Forum.

Source: graphjam.memebase.com via Shelby on Pinterest

That's an interesting way of thinking about it.

Source: ilovephoto.info via Joon Shern on Pinterest

I kind of feel like this elephant right now. 

Where I've Been

Hello all! Long time, no blog. But, in my defense, I've barely even had time to eat during the last two weeks.  This blog isn't the only thing that's been neglected.  Just look at my laundry hamper!:

Every surface in my room is covered in dust because I haven't had time to go to the store and get dusting cloths (On a similar note, I also don't have any milk for breakfast tomorrow.  Sad, sad situation.)

My dishwasher sat full all weekend after I ran a load of dishes on Friday.

And my desk is a cluttered, useless mess.

And (possibly worst of all), my Pinterest account hasn't seen any action in days!

What has everything fallen into disarray?  Well, I've been a bit busy.  First of all, last week was midterms week at school.  And then on top of midterms, I was off at Baton Rouge Little Theater playing dress-up and having fun.

Jingle, jingle, jingle...

This past Friday, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum opened at Baton Rouge Little Theater.  I am playing Tintinabula, the loud, jingly, air-headed courtesan.

We've had a great weekend of shows, but before we could open, we had a busy weekend of tech rehearsal. So last week, if I was either in class, at the theater, at work, or studying.

If you were smart, you wouldn't miss this show!  It's pretty hilarious, if I do say so myself :) If you like comedy, dancing women, men in short dresses, or any combination of the three, this show is for you!  You can read an article about it that was published in the local newspaper, The Advocate, here.

This picture of me appeared alongside the article.  Photo credit to Arthur D. Lauck.

Tickets for the show are available online at www.brlt.org or by calling 225-926-6496.  Tickets are $27 and worth every penny!  The shows are selling well, so you definitely want to get your tickets ahead of time to make sure you can get good seats!

Now that the show's open and midterms are over, the hard part for me is done.  I will (hopefully) have more down time, which means more blogging. And dusting.  I desperately need to dust. Whee!

Oh, and if any of you with a smart phone play Scramble with Friends, FIND ME AND PLAY WITH ME!  This game is my newest addiction and I need new opponents.  My username is EmCaroline1.  If you're friends with me on Facebook, you can find me through that as well.

But in the meantime, this busy week has left me exhausted, which means it's time for me to crawl into bed with a box of Thin Mints and finish watching Despicable Me.  I hope that all of you have a great Monday!