You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown, A new theatre, and the Cast of a Storm

I went to see a musical on Friday night at the newly renovated Monroe Theatre Guild-You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.
The theatre? Beautiful. Nothing like the crappy, scrappy old department store we used to use all of the time. Even the workspace, which was once nothing short of treacherous to walk on barefoot or in sandals is now a beautiful SHINY hardwood floor. So everything, absolutely everything is different and new.
But honestly, I don't know how I feel about that...
You see, I'm kind of a creature of habit, and only things that are truly traumatic or a very very long period of time can change my way of doing things. I don't know why this is, but it could be because my constant stream of bad luck has lead me to believe that any tip of the scale will have my hanging onto anything left for dear life...
ANYWAY...the reason for my hesitation about the gorgeous new Theatre Guild set-up is probably because about three years ago, this is where I met Riley.
Also, it really pisses me off that he didn't get to see it now. He would have loved it...
The new set-up itself is completely different, except for the costume shop, which they haven't gotten to yet, but wasn't even that bad to begin with. We have that whole hard-wood rehearsal space, a new make-up room (YES! we've NEVER had a WHOLE ROOM for putting on make-up!), multiple new bathrooms with one including a shower, a kitchen for food prep, and a brilliant and cunning little Black Box theatre.
The show itself was the first show that has been performed in the theatre, and it was cute.
The whole cast did brilliantly, and I especially loved the character of Snoopy.
My favorite part actually had to be during the song: Glee Club Rehearsal, where everyone was fighting about something:
Linas took Lucy's pencil, because she took his crayons; Lucy said that if Linas didn't give back her pencil, then she was going to tell Sally what Linas had said about her, which provoked Linas to withhold the pencil until Lucy promised not to say anything. Well, Sally overheard and wanted to know what Linas had said so she took the pencil from Linas and told Lucy she'd give it back if she told Sally what Linas had said about her.
and Lucy told her:
"He said, he said: You're an Enigma!"
at this, in the audience, I burst out laughing.
I have a history with being called an Enigma, and this was just one of those moments where I have to wonder why my life is set up with both shocking coincidences and tragic irony.
I wonder if this is all coined the way that it is so that one day, I don't have a choice in being a writer anymore.
In fact, the way I see it, I could probably write a book right now, and it wouldn't be half bad. I mean, it might not be half good either, but if you're one of the very few who reads this blog, you'd know better than I would anyway.


It's raining right now, outside my windows.
I haven't been able to sleep in my own bed very well at times, so sometimes I sleep on the couch in the rec room. It's particularly nice tonight because of the storm.
I love storms, but they always make me somewhat morose, and right now they have me thinking about all the things I miss.
I'll try to dismiss that, though, and focus on what the rain is:
The rain is cool, as smooth as silk.
It's quiet, like a whisper. Like rain, when you hear a whisper, it's often soft enough that you don't even realize you're hearing it until everything else fades away and it's just you and the whisper; you and the rain.
The thunder could never sound threatening to me, even when it echoes like a canon. It just makes me feel warmer, and safer where ever I am.
Except now, but that doesn't matter.
When thunder rolls, it almost seems to me like it's upset that it has to make sound. Thunder doesn't want to scare children and wake the sleeping. It doesn't relish having a reputation for sounding angry, but Thunder is peeved, therefor even though it doesn't really want to sound annoyed and loud and disgruntled, it will anyway.
Lightening is another story...Lightening is aloof. It comes and goes when it's called, but only stays long enough to make the appropriate entrance and then leave. You can see it as it goes: a few veins of white and blue light that spirit across the sky faster than your eyes can change focal points.
Some say that Thunder and Lightening go hand in hand, but I disagree. I think that Rain is the real star of the show, the one that's always loved and worshiped and the one that people kiss each other standing in. Then Thunder is the side-kick, the one that people hear and either like or dislike, but based on the reputation adapted from the opinions of nearly every dog, child, and light sleeper in the world, isn't very happy with his lot in life. Lightening comes last, but that's because Lightening chose to do it that way. He doesn't mind or care. He has other things to think about, and illuminating the dark world for a few milliseconds isn't the biggest worry he has; hence the reason he's always late to work: lack of care.


The rain still hasn't stopped, but I might now just sit and listen to it.

A post long overdue...Riley V. Whitehead in my memory

I know that just about...nobody...reads this blog.

I'm okay with that.

Still, I feel like I owe it to myself now to at least attempt to start writing again. Otherwise I might explode.

So.

A little over a week ago, a dear, dear friend of mine commited suicide.
Riley Vernon Whitehead took all of his dear friends by surprise and jumped of the 9-floor balcony of his Madison apartment. Riley passed away at the hospital.
That's a brief overveiw. I'm not going to explain why he did this, and I'm not going into any more detail about this event.
Really, what I think I will write about, even if it's only for a little while, is what an enigma Riley was to me.

This is one of my absolute favorite pictures of Riley.
Can you guess that book?
I did: Fahrenheit 451

That kid...you could never tell if his stories were real, or if they were stolen, or just made up. I swear, sometimes, I wanted them to be real just because that made him into a super-hero. A flawed super-hero, yes...but a hero none-the-less.

One of the best things about Riley was that he knew when he'd really screwed something up. and he knew his faults. He made fun of his faults, turned them into faults I wanted to have, even though it wouldn't be the same, and I'd just be a huge mess.
I think that God graces every (or at least most) humans with a certain amount of charm. A teaspoon of wit and magic mixed into the rest of our genetics. Well, God must have been distracted, and put in about 4 times as much charm into that kid as he did for the rest of us. Now that chemical imbalance had to be fixed, and I think the only way to set it off was to give him the most creative and inventive brain since that of Da Vinci.
Well, actually...he'd laugh at me if I said that, so maybe not Da Vinci. Still, you get the point. He was an amazing liar, but I miss the lies.
I also really miss him.

Project for Awesome, Shakespeare On the Edge, and chinese food!

Today has been, simply put, Awesome.
There are few other words to decribe it for me.
First of all, today, December 17th, is Project for Awesome day.
This is the day when oodles and boodles of Nerdfighters make videos supporting and informing on their favorite charities, and then people know about them, and can do the awesome duty of sending them money to help support and fund them!
I wasn't going to make a video innitially, because for some reason, I felt incredibly lazy and uncreative. But then, I got to thinking...Shakespeare On the Edge!
Shakespeare On the Edge has been a big part of my life for years now. I made friends there that are special and different from my friends at school, and at other places. SOTE is an organization that addresses abuse and violence in youth and teens.
I thought this was a pretty good idea for a video to make, because it's not like everyone is going to be doing a video on this little local project, right?
Anyway, so I upload the video at midnight, go to bed, and then commence the lame day of a junior in high school. Then I come home, eat chinese happiness, and check my youtube. A very pretty collection of comments and likes clutters my newborn video.
After messing around replying to the comments, sharing my video with friends, and just being lazy, It occurs to me that I'm suddenly getting a LOT of comments on my video.
This is because Project4awesome on youtube LIKED MY VIDEO!
.......AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is awesome. The most awesome day in a long, long time!

2-hour delays, math tests, and Arrested Development

I slept right through my 2 hour delay. This is upsetting not only because I wasn't concious long enough to appreciate the fact that I had another hour to sleep, but also because I have a take-home math test that I still haven't finished, and might have used that time to take it.
Oh, bollocks.
And thanks to my beautiful Netflix account, I've started watching Arrested Developement. It's highly addicting. Last night, I couldn't sleep, so I watched 9 episodes on my new laptop :) I really love this thing. It's so useful.

New Laptop! (does her happy dance!)

WOOO! I'm typing this from my new laptop! Finally! I've been waiting for like a month!
Anyway, I have some exploring to do!

Christmas time!

Christmas time is here, and I have some major shopping to do. And decorating. And reading. And working to make some money to buy the presents I need.
One of my favorite parts of the holidays, however, are the ever present Christmas songs blaring in and from every store, car, commercial, and radio station you come across. Honestly, although I love the old stuff like Oh, Holy Night, The Christmas Song, White Christmas, Silent Night, and whatnot, my favorite Christmas song has got to be Baby, it's Cold Outside. It's just so fun to sing!
I also really love cooking. Well, holiday cooking. Like green bean cassorole, and turkey, and things.
I think I'm going to go make myself some christmas cookies.

My Birtday...

Today, I am 17. I'm 17 today. This is awesome.
I'm officially allowed to:

• Perform magic outside of school (at LAST!)
• Watch and/or buy R-rated movies
• and I'm kinda an adult Sim now.

My friend Morgan threw me a birthday party at her house. Guess what we did? We felt like reading Midsummer's Nights Dream, so we did. The whole thing. In parts.
It also snowed like 10 inches.