So How's Your Week Been?

A week has passed since the show closed.

A WEEK.

Weird, huh? One of the busiest weeks of the year and then after... nothing.

But I have to admit, for the showing being over, my week was still pretty awesome and "Journey-filled" :)


The court scene in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

At this time last week, I had just closed the show, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. With ten shows under my belt, it's hard to just pick one but... I think this might be my favorite show I've done :) Everything about it was great; rehearsals were a blast, the show turned out amazing, and I became much better friends with my cast mates than I was before.


 Then last Thursday was the end of term showcase for our Journey classes. The drama and musical theater classes were really good, Improv class was hilarious, and dance (my class) rocked it!

Friday was the pirate themed Director's Event. About 18 kids from cast, plus almost our whole Artistic Team got together to eat a BBQ dinner, play a hilarious round of Mad Libs, and watch the show. I can't stop thinking about how fun that night was :D

Saturday, the TREK (Teens Reaching out to Expand the Kingdom) leadership team went bowling to celebrate the end of a sucessful term of serving the community. We had led a diaper/underwear/sock drive to help out Northwest Children's Outreach, a local organization that provides clothes and toiletries to the needy.


And now, I am getting ready to leave for Disneyland on Thanksgiving. It seems crazy that I'll be out of state just two weeks after I closed my latest show... sounds like a packed out schedule! But I guess it's not as crazy sounding as leaving the country after just a week (like someone I know... :P)

Well, enough blogging. Time to get back to... packing? Nah... burning DVDs of showcase for people that bought them last Thursday.

I've always got Journey on the brain.

And I like it that way :)

It's Go Time!

If you were to see me right now -- listening to Taylor Swift, writing for NaNoWriMo, and waiting for Agents of SHIELD to come on -- you'd never think that the next week will be the busiest week of the year for me and my family.

Well... it is. :)

Tomorrow starts 13 days of Journey in a row. Journey being Journey Theater Arts Group.

Every day for the next 13 days, I will be doing something relating to Journey; whether it be going to a show, visiting a school for a docent speech, performing my own show, and working with my fellow TREK members to donate items to Northwest Children's Outreach.

Here's an overview of what I'll be doing over the next 13 days.

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Day 1: Wednesday, November 6th. Mom, Emma, and I will be going to see the 11:45am showing of The Phantom Tollbooth performed by Journey Vancouver in Fort Vancouver High School. I read the book a while ago and enjoyed it and it's also  one of Emma's favorite books. I can't wait to see it performed on stage! After that, we're coming back down here to Hillsboro and we're going to go around to fast food restaurants and nail down what the artistic team of our show will be eating for their dinners every day of show week. I love behind the scene work like that!!

Day 2: Thursday, November 7th. Emma and I will be taking an early step into character by donning our costumes and makeup and going to Life Christian School with our mom to tell the 3rd grade class about The Adventures of Tom Sawyer! Whenever we visit schools in costume, we show the class(es) that we visit a little sneak peak of a song or dance from the show. This time, we've decided to sing the very opening of the show... 20 seconds of "Ain't Life Fine" in harmony! We've had this job for seven shows, including this one. Oh, also Thursday night we have our Journey classes... Emma's in Improv and I'm in Dancing Through the Decades!

Day 3: Friday, November 8th. Before rehearsal, I have a TREK meeting with Rachel and Andee to put together our schedule for the next day's meeting with everyone. After that... Full Show Run Through! The show is coming along GREAT!

Day 4: Saturday, November 9th. Our last rehearsal! Exciting, yet... sad. That means that we only have one week left, then Journey will practically be over and we won't get to see each other again until the new year.

Day 5: Sunday, November 10th. MOVE IN!!!! The day we finally get to see everything put together! Sets, props, costumes, lighting, and of course the actors all come together on one stage at the same time. This is when we start noticing the little things that we didn't know were a problem until we get in the theater. Long skirts and lots of stairs... hope no one trips this week!

Day 6: Monday, November 11th. Our first official dress rehearsal, even though we should have gotten through most of the show yesterday. Should be a clean-ish run with minimal stopping to fix anything.

Day 7: Tuesday, November 12th. Running the show again; trying to get all the light changes and music cues perfect. There's a ton of background music in this show!

Day 8: Wednesday, November 13th. Hopefully, this day will feel like just a formality because we'll have the show down perfectly! And when we leave rehearsal, it's straight to bed for....

Day 9: Thursday, November 14th. School shows!! We have two; one at 9:30 and the other at 11:45. Hopefully, since the show is only 90 minutes, we won't have to cut anything for school day shows. That's always stressful, trying to remember what we did and didn't cut. After that is group pictures and then home to rest.

Day 10: Friday, November 15th. It's Opening Night!! The day has finally come! All the hard work that we've put in for the past six weeks has all come down to this... our performance weekend! After the show at seven, we'll head to Burgerville for our opening night party. Always a blast!

Day 11: Saturday, November 16th. Two shows today. Two!! One at three o'clock then we have a dinner break until our next show at seven p.m. that night. Only one more to go!

Day 12: Sunday, November 17th. A happy, yet very depressing day. It's our last show. It's about time to say good bye to the people we almost call family. At least, good bye for now. There's always the next show... which I am definitely auditioning for! But it doesn't matter how many shows there are in the future... this is the last time you'll perform this show with these people. So even though it's almost time for the strike party, don't forget to be the best you can be in this last performance. You don't want to look back later and think, "if only I'd done a little better. Then I'd be happy with it." Our last event with cast and crew is the Strike Party, following the show and cleanup of the theater.

Day 13: Monday, November 18th. Usually the day after a show closes, I crash on the couch and sleep for 24 hours. This time though, I have the opportunity to serve alongside my fellow TREK members (or TREKkies, if you're that kind of awesome person). We will be taking the new packages of underwear, socks, and diapers that we collected last Thursday to Northwest Children's Outreach. I bet we'll have a lot to give them!!

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So that's what's happening to me in the next week.

And I gotta say... I'm pretty darn excited!

November is a Month without Weekends

Usually on the weekends you get to chill at home, go to church, maybe clean the house, and relax after a packed and stressful week.

But for me, November will be a month without relaxation on the weekends.

And (contrary to popular belief) I'm not complaining!

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This month I have two major things going on. And one awesome thing that leads into December :)


1. National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)

November is National Novel Writing Month (as well as no-shave-November and NaBloPoMo, but I won't go into those...)

Starting November 1st (today!!), people all over the world write as fast as they can and try to reach the 50k words goal before the end of the month.

I tried it last year... and failed miserably. Then this past July (for CampNaNoWriMo) I teamed up with my sister and friend and we acted as each other accountability partners. We checked in with and encouraged each other everyday. Whenever one of us got stuck in our story, the other two gave suggestions until we were back on our feet and writing again. By July 31st, we had all completed our novels!

There are some little prizes you can win for reaching 50k in November, but the real prize is setting a big goal for yourself and knowing that YOU finished it!

This November, I'll be writing a sequel (Stranger Tides) to the book I wrote in July (The Quest). I have a rough outline of the plot, a little head start on the story, and all the twists and dramatic changes mapped out. I'm good to go! :)


2. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

This is a big deal guys! Even though this is my tenth show with Journey, the commitment is still just as big. By November 10th, the day we move into the theater, we've had six week of preparation.

4 hours Friday nights, 4 hours Saturday mornings... that's only 48 hours of rehearsal before we get to the theater!

This may seem crazy, but we do it! Like everyone on cast, I spend a lot of time at home practicing songs, memorizing lines, and running dances. We all have to work as a team to make this show the best it can be.

Even though there are only kids on stage, parents put a LOT of work into this as well. Props, sets, costumes... all of these things have been in making (or finding) since the first rehearsal. Parents are assigned to committees and they find everything we need for the show! So when you come to see it (which you will! Buy tickets here.) remember that you're not only applauding for the cast and crew, but for all the parents that made this amazing show possible.


3. Disneyland - Trip Six!
Yep :)

Ok, maybe this isn't an after-school or extra-curricular activity, but it's spending time with family which is just as important.

Here's a recap of our first five trips to Disneyland, in case you were wondering :)

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So as you can see, in November I don't have a lot of time to relax.

But gosh, now that I look it... this IS how I relax! I write, I perform, I create, and I spend time with my awesome family :)


Have a great November!!