One Hour of Hell

This weekend Darin and I went to Georgia to go rafting for Father's day weekend. We left Friday afternoon, and we almost didn't make our flight even though we left Iowa City to get to Moline in plenty of time. Darin's '80 BMW has some problems. There is something wrong in the wiring that won't allow his battery to hold much of a charge, but this is usually fixed by plugging in the battery or getting the engine up over 55mph for over an hour. Well something happened when we went to Hannibal, MO 2 weekends ago, and it just won't hold a charge at all. So now when we want to get the bike started, we have to find a hill and roll start the bike. It's a pain in the ass, so for the past week the bike has just sat in the parking lot.

So on Friday we managed to get the bike started and took off towards the airport. We took the motorcycle with us because we were going to get it looked at and get some work done to it before we left. (The dealer is in Rock Island) About 2 miles from the Mississippi on the Iowa side, Darin pulled over (I was driving the Jeep) and he had me switch his bike off of reserve which would give him about 30 more miles. Plenty of time for us to get the bike to the BMW dealer. We hit the road again and not 2 minutes later he pulls off on the side of the road and the bike has died because it ran out of gas. Darin pushed the bike back up to the nearest on ramp and parked the bike while I turned around and went to go find a gas station. I pulled off on the same exit that he was and went looking. Ten minutes later I found one. I spent 10 dollars buying a gas tank and then spent another 10 minutes trying to figure out how to put it together. While all this is going on, I'm on the phone with my dad, his parents, and the dealership to see if they have a trailer to come get us, and of course this is the one day a week that there is no trailer. Go figure. I get it filled and go find Darin. As I pull up to him, there's a guy in a truck who has pulled over to help us roll start it on the flat ramp (the guy is a BMW owner as well). We get the bike filled and roll started, and finally all is looking well. I get in the Jeep and follow Darin on the ramp. He pulls off again on the side of the road, and waves me own, or so I thought. I drive another 50 feet or so and look back and he's still on the side of the road. I stop the car, get out, and run towards him. He starts running away from the bike back down the on ramp. The man is keeping the bike reved so it won't die on us. Darin has lost his glasses. He wasn't wearing his normal glasses for the bike, and apparently when he turned back to see if there was anyone merging, his glasses flew off his face. So Darin and I are on the side of the road looking for his glasses. He's no use without his glasses, so it's up to me. Darin tells the guy to just leave the bike because we have to get to the airport in 20 minutes. Oh and now it's starting to sprinkle. We keep looking for another 5 minutes or so, and finally decide to call it off. As we cross the road, I run across his glasses! Darin gets back on the bike and we decide to give it one last try. I push the bike down the shoulder and it starts! Great we still have to time to get to the airport! Darin takes off on the bike and I make my way back to the car. Now I wished the story ended here, but it doesn't. Not one minutes after I was back on the road, it starts pouring. A few miles later, I pull off on the exit and start to make my way towards the airport. While I'm driving, I get a call from Darin. He's lost, and I think that he took a wrong turn. I can't really understand him but I tell him to head back to the exit and try again. After I hang up with him, I see him driving past me in the wrong direction. Finally I get to the airport after calling him multiple times to turn around. I go inside and check our bags. The next thing I know, Darin shows up next to me soaking wet. He changes and then I lose him for another 10 minutes because I didn't know what bathroom he went to. We go through security and then ,of course, my purse gets pulled for inspection. We have 10 minutes to catch our flight. I'm in full out tears and frustration right now, and I think "What the hell is in my purse?" Then I remember that I have a pocket knife that I carry on my keys. I go over and fish the keys out of the purse. The guy asks if I just want to mail the whole thing back to me. Fine, whatever. We head to our get with 5 minutes to spare. I then remember that I have my multi tool in my purse as well. Oops. Then when we get to the gate, it starts raining sheets. You can't see five feet out of the windows. There was a rolling cart just past the window and it was gaining a lot of speed and crashed into something. There was an announcement saying that all passengers and personnel should step back from the windows, and the the power goes out. Luckily our plan was only late 30 minutes.

So the rest of my weekend went well, great rafting! I still took all of Monday off.

~Until Then

If you write a typo is that a writo?

College? It's overrated. Too much money, too much work, way too much bullshit, but yet I signed up to do it again next year, and even this summer as well as working 40 hours a week. So much has happened in a month. I feel like my life has really transitioned. I'm paying rent, working 40 hours a week, just finished up the first of my two classes this summer, and still trying to fit in a little bit of a social life. What happened? I've only been out of high school for a year now.

This past semester sucked. I didn't enjoy any of my classes, and it took a beating on my GPA. All I can say is that I am glad Valley offered all of those easy college credit classes to counter balance my grades from this semester. This college shit it hard, especially if you know what you want to do, but don't know how to get there.

My first summer class was called "Drama in the Classroom." Sadly it was focused on using drama techniques in the elementary classroom. Over the course of three weeks, we had to teach two demo lessons. The first of the two lessons was a lesson that was already written for an elementary level classroom, and the second lesson we had to create for what ever context we wanted to teach in and it had to relate to a science, math, or social studies subject matter. My lesson that I did to day was about character development. I rocked the lesson! It was the first thing in a long time that really gave me a confidence booster and motivation to continue on with this whole teaching degree thing. Sadly I ended with a god damn B+ because I didn't do review in my first lesson and that brought me down a few points. I hate it when a class is only based off of about 100 or so points.

Next semester I'm applying to the college of education. There's about a 70% chance that I'll get in, and hopefully I'll be able to do my 10 hours of volunteering at Valley. The college of education is like an abyss or a black hole. I don't really know what happens in the college of ed. I'm pretty sure it's full of spys, because they don't like talking to you if you aren't actually in the college.

In May I did my first lessons for scuba diving. That was very challenging, rewarding, and frustrating all at the same time. It's a whole other world underwater, even just in a twelve foot deep pool. It's actually fairly easy to get used to breathing underwater and maneuvering around in the gear. The most dramatic moment was when I left the pool momentarily to go switch out my tank and I came back in and headed underwater. We were given some free time to practice our skills for our open water diver. A lot of the divers were working on hovering in the pool and fine tuning their buoyancy. I look out at the deep end and there are all these strange people in scuba gear just floating in the water. It was very creepy, they all looked dead. Darin and I do our certification dive later this month. I'm so excited.

So I've left Des Moines behind, I've moved to a new city have all new friends. I'm one year older, one year closer to doing what I want to. Is it worth it?

~Until Then

Red Without Blue

If you have about 80 minutes to kill, I suggest you check out this link. It's an interesting documentary about twins when one decides to change his gender.

"I don't think of them as my children, I think of them as young people I know."

~Until Then

A quick update

Today I woke up late and didn't have time to go eat breakfast, so Darin picked me up on the bike and we stopped at a gas station. I ran in and got a couple of donuts and drinks. As I was headed to class I thought to myself, "That bastard never gave me any change." Then I thought, "I never paid for any of this." I told Darin that we needed to turn around and go back. I felt terrible, and I can't believe that I actually forgot to pay for something. I went inside and told the guy what happened. Luckily he was laughing about it. He thought I had left the store with some napkins and didn't see that I had drinks in my hand. He told me that it happens more often than not, and that I was nice to actually come back and pay for them.

Also, for the past week I've secretly become a surrogate mother to two baby ducks. Purdy (the yellow one) and Percy (the brown one.) They've secretly been living in a bin in Darin's bathroom for the past week. Darin's mother's side of the family is huge (70+ people) and they have a Easter get together every year. Darin's family is in charge of providing entertainment for the great grand kids and they usually go to a farming store and get a handful of baby ducks and chicks for the day. The ducks and chicks then grow up on the farm that his family has. They're pretty much the most adorable things I've ever seen. It's almost like having children, except you can keep them in a box and you give them up after a week (we're taking them down to Fairfield later today.) They swim around in this 5 gallon bucket we have, and last night we let them swim in the bathtub.


Oh this summer, I will be in Iowa City. I think the Des Moines chapter of my life is pretty much done, so it's kind of weird to think about. I've grown up there my whole life, but now most of my friends are gone and my dad doesn't live there anymore. I'm getting an apartment next year, so if you're ever in town and need a place to stay let me know!

Also, plans are in the works of a motorcycle trip in August! Darin and I are going up to Canada and then making our way back down into Michigan to see my neices and then back down to Iowa City.

Hope all is well, and it was great seeing those of you last Thursday. Maybe I'll see you all again for "Grapes of Wrath" next month?

~Until Then

I Got Stuck

Yesterday I got stuck in an elevator, I was only stuck for a few minutes, but I was the only one in the elevator. I'm not claustrophobic, but it definitely startled me for a bit.

I'm moving off campus next year, I'm really excited about it. It's only 2 blocks away from where I live now, and it's super cheap and also super awesome! I'm moving in with Darin, and I couldn't be happier or more excited for it.

I hate my classes this semester, they're killing me. They're no fun, not even my theatre classes. I feel like they all talk about the same thing. Why can't I just graduate and do the teaching myself. Can you home school college yourself? I don't know.

I'm not sure if I'm going to stick with my improv troupe. I've got a riff with one of the current captains. He's running it poorly but is being a jerk about it. He basically wants people to quit if they don't like how it's run. He want's the best quality show (which is understandable) but not if it drives a division between the group. First semester, there were 7 new people and we were told that all of us would be performing by the end of the semester, and that happened, but it was really shitty. The captains told us that we would be introduced over the course of three shows, because some of us were more stage ready than others. Well the first two people were introduced into a show right before Thanksgiving break, fine and dandy. Well now it's time to get more people in, but oh wait- the captains fucked up and one of the shows that they were going to bring people in was actually a special show where my group only got 30 minutes of stage time, so they didn't bring any new people in. So they ended up throwing the other five of us into the last show before winter break, and it was terrible.

Now we've come to this semester, and rehearsals are really shitty, but our one captain won't get his act together and unify the group. Our troupe is already exclusive because we hold auditions, but now with this whole "quality" issue, we're being divided into two other groups. I no longer have fun doing improv, and I hate going to rehearsals. I've become completely self conscious again, and I hate that. I feel like I'm being judged constantly, and that I (and a few other members) are secretly trying to be persuaded to quit. Fuck this.

So yea, All State is this weekend, and I'll see you all there if you're going.

~Until Then

Three words- Counter weight system!

First off, happy New Years and a belated happy holiday season. I didn't really have anything worth writing about, beyond a sentence or two on Facebook. Before break, I was offered a job through the Division of Performing Arts at U of I. I work on the electrics crew doing generally the same stuff I was caught doing in the auditorium at VHS; but now I get paid (by the book) to do it. The only downside was that I had to cut my break two weeks short to come back to Iowa City and work 40 hours a week before classes started, but if I enjoyed doing it at Valley, then I didn't think I would mind doing it here. Also, there really isn't much left for me in Des Moines. My life has shifted to Iowa City, and I think that this is where I'm going to be this summer as well.

It's now been a week since I started the job, and I absolutely love it. My boss is like a way younger (but nearly as sarcastic) Mr. Borstad who swears just as much. I'm the youngest one on the crew, but that doesn't bother me. Everyone just seems to click and works well, as well as goofing around once and a while. Everyone just looks like a techie, acts like a techie, talks like a techie, etc, it's awesome! I don't work nights or weekends, unless I'm doing board op for one of the shows. Not only do I work in the theatre department, but I also work in the dance studio, and the occasional operas. Unfortuneatley, due to a large amount of water this summer, Voxman and Hancher are still inoperable, so the operas have been moved about througout the rest of campus or downtown Iowa City.

I still can't believe that I have this job, and probably won't believe it until I get my first pay check. I've got a job doing something that I love and am good at. I get paid to be techie and show up in grungy jeans and a sweatshirt. No one cares what you look like, there is no dress code, or formalities; just show up and do the work, and don't be a jerk about it. I can pick when I work and for how long I work as well.

I loved what I did at Valley, even though I would bitch about it a lot, I really enjoyed it. The concerts, plays, meetings, or whatever else needed technical assistance really fascinated me. The auditorium at Valley will always have a place in my heart, I know every knook and cranny of the place and didn't mind spending hour after hour there doing stuff. Now I'm here and I've got a whole new place to fall in love with. I've gone from one theatre to four theatres, Space Place- dance theatre in North Hall, Mabie theatre, Thayer theatre, and Theatre "B"- all in the Theatre Building. Each theatre is completely different in set up, and each has it's own system of complex cats and grid systems. I now have four booths to call home and chill out in. Also, these performing arts divisions have money. That means no more "A" frame ladders, we now have Genies for each space. No more "just grab what lights we do have", now it's "put the 50 extra lights up in the gallery", or "get 15 36 degree Source 4's and 23 26 degree Strands". We've got lights that cost 10 grand and gobos and gels like you wouldn't believe. Every show has a lighting designer, which means every show has a lighting plot which has to be put together in a specific order. We've got Master Electricians and a crew of 10+ people, not 3. I've got a black box theatre, 2 thrust stages- with one of them being a beautiful main stage with a huge show (4x the size of Valley's), and a proscenium stage with a beautiful dancer's floor. There's prop storage like you wouldn't believe, and it's all organized! The two things that I like most about this job, is A) we don't have to scramble for lights, headsets, boxes, or cabels and B) the counter weight system in Mabie with a 52' fly space. I've never worked with a fly space or a counter weight system. No more having to spend twenty minutes cranking down the electrics and 40 to crank it back up. No more having to get the entire BD and BDT together just to hoist the scrim back up to the batons. It takes one person, just one person. No more fraying ropes and impossibly heavy curtains. It's incredible!

I really do love my job and I'm so fortunate that I found it so soon. No more kitchens for me or depressing off campus jobs. I do what I love and what I'm good at. It's incredible.

~Until Then

PS- Who's going to be at Parent's Night on Friday?

Announcing the Engagement of Bruce Pichler and Robyn Hans

October 17, 2009 will be the date of Bruce and Robyn's wedding in northern Georgia. The two of them have been together since October of 2007 and are happily in love with one another. Between them they have 7 children, but none of them will be living at home come next fall.

I can't believe that my dad is getting married! It's weird for me. Your parents are supposed to get married before you're born (in most cases.) I'm going to have a step mom whom I absolutely adore with two incredible step sisters to hang out with when I'm in Georgia. He told me last night, and was really nervous about my reaction. I flipped out! I told him I was wondering if it was going to happen and that I was really excited for him. He proposed to her up in Canada last month, after a few glasses of wine and a beautiful sunset. He just has to tell Alicia, but he's not sure how she's going to take, she'll probably be told when the two of us come back down here for Christmas.

Robyn is the best thing that has ever happened to him. He loves her with all of his heart, and I've never seen him happier. She's kicked his butt into shape and they enjoy going hiking, scuba diving, kayaking, rafting, and biking together all throughout the southern United States. I couldn't be happier for the two of them, I can't wait!

~Until Then

It takes me back

So this past Saturday I went and watched a dress rehearsal of my sister's mime show at Indian Hills. As I was sitting there for about 20 min before it all started, I was thinking (something that I try to do on occasion) and realized that this is where it all started for me 5 years ago. Sure I did some theatre stuff in 7th grade, but it wasn't until 8th grade when it really took off. I met Joanna, Thomas, Jordan, Mary, and Brittany during mimes. These people I still consider to be some of my close friends. I felt awesome hanging out with all of you and just creating a show. You guys were the basis to my theatre foundation for the rest of my secondary education. I felt like I fit in with you all, and that's something that I never really found any where else before. I was excited to see my sister up on the same stage where I was only a few years prior wearing mime white, a leotard and pants, with the same boxes from way back when. I was exited, this is where the rest of her life starts. That moment for me, defined everything. I really hope she gets everything that she can out of what she does.

The skits were cute, not thought provoking at all. There were some skits that were similar to the show that I did for Silent Majority. Chaotic Classroom, Tug oh' War, and a few others that I can't really recall off the top of my head. It was weird being back at Indian Hills at 9 am on a Saturday morning. I miss those days, what a blast. I was so proud of her when she was done, I really hope that she sticks with theatre and finds her own place.

~Until Then

Back in WDM, but it no longer feels like home.

I'm going to post on my SISTER's mime show later. I'm so proud of her.

~Until Then

I am not an Actress.

I enjoy acting, but I am not an actress. I enjoy costume and makeup, but I am not an actress. I enjoy speaking with other characters on stage, but I am not an actress. I enjoy becoming part of a bigger picture, but I am not an actress. I enjoy taking a bow, but I am not an actress. I am not an actress, I am a mime. I am not an actress, I am an improver.

I do not care to think about the subtext, I am an improver. I don't enjoy searching for hidden motivation, I am a mime. I don't like having a secret objective, I am an improver. I don't enjoy being organic on stage, I am a mime. I am not an actress. I am out of the ordinary, I am physically expressive, not mentally expressive. I do not search for a deeper meaning, or think of the "what if's", I just do. I don't think about it. I act and speak without thinking. Thinking gives time for reaction for the audience. I don't want that. I am an improver and a mime. I am a physical presence, I am here to be seen and heard. I am not an actress. I never wanted or want to be an actress. I am a performer. I live in the now, not the past, not thinking about the future. Now. I am not an actress.

I perform. I am an improver. I am a mime. I am not an actress.

~Until Then

It's 6 months till I turn 19!

This past week has been a whirlwind of fun and excitement. I don't even know how to untangle everything that's happened to me this week. I guess that I don't really want to. My mind is preoccupied with positive things, that I can't really focus on much else. Every minute, I find myself distracted from what I should really be doing. I need to be busy, this is really bad.

For the first time in a long time, I'm genuinely happy. No, I wasn't depressed or anything like that; I just didn't realize how happy I could be until this past week happened. I'm positive that this is where I'm supposed to be, and this what I should be doing. I can't really write anything, I don't know how to explain it anymore.

See you all Saturday, I'm so excited to meet up with everyone. :)

~Until Then

I should really invest in a helmet

So I had yet another wonderful head injury while at practice for something in the theatre department. Something about my head and theatre just don't mix. I've hit my head during all three of my solo mime skits at some level of competition because I get really physical, I've run into stuff doing tech stuff while up on the cat walks and failing to notice where they put the new water pipes in, then there's the famous golf club incident, and there are probably a few others that I'm forgetting at the moment. Well, I can now ad an improv head injury to the list.

Sunday night I was at PBR practice and we were playing 185, but they call it 186 for some weird reason (Sorry Joe and Darin, I've always done it as 185) and I was jumping out to say something. The place in which we practice has tile floor, and before PBR got to practice, there was another group down there and somehow they had gotten parts of the floor wet. Well, so I jumped out onto the balls of my feet and the next thing I knew I was on my back and had smashed my head into the ground. I think this was worst head smash by far. It all happened in a split second, and when I sat up I saw blue stars. I also recently dyed my hair blue, I wonder if there was a correlation between my hair color and the color of the stars. Luckily, it was nearing the end of practice, so I just sat down at watched the last few minutes of 185 and worlds worst after everyone was doing asking if I was okay.

After practice, I noticed that my vision was going in and out of focus, so my friends walked me to the hospital and had my checked out by a doctor just in case. After about an hour of sitting, my vision became clear again and I was examined by the doctor. He told me that I was just going to have a very large goose egg, and some nasty headaches to deal with the next day, and to come back only if things got worse.

So two of the members from PBR take me home and stay with me until I fall asleep. The next day is filled with splitting agonizing headaches, but overall I'm fine. I stayed home Monday and Tuesday except for my last class today. My friend Darin stayed with me most of Monday to make sure I didn't injure myself further. Which needless to say, I managed to bang my head at least 2 or 3 more times. I'm still sore, and my neck is tense, but I think I'll pull through. I really think that I should get a helmet, or switch to a business major....NO! See you all in 2 weeks!

~Until Then

I officially feel like a college kid

That's right. I do feel like I belong here now. Last night, and I guess early this morning, I finally did the last thing on my list t (not that I actually had a list) that now allows me to feel at home here. Last night I went to The Mill (it's the bar/restaurant where all the theatre kids go to hang out and also has a really cruddy dance floor in front of a raised stage) to listen to a band that two members of PBR are in. Kevin, is the leader of the band doing vocal and guitar, and Mike plays the wash board. That's right, the fucking washboard with a couple of spoons. The Mill hosts this music fest every Tuesday night and three bands play and it takes about 3 hours, somehow, I don't know how though but it did. The bathrooms in The Mill are a step above a porta potty. One of them didn't even exist, it was just a hole in the ground. Also the only working faucet out of three sinks was the cold faucet. About half of PBR was there to support Kevin and his band Broken Spokes which consists of 2 other guitarists (one does back up vocals), Kevin, Mike, a girl who plays the fiddle, and a guy who plays this. It rocked. My friends Paul, Darin, David, and myself got up to dance in the "mosh pit." They played a few covers including "Drunken Lullabies" by Flogging Molly and some others that I didn't recognize. They also had some of their own songs, with a notable favorite "Drinkin' Whiskey and Pissin' Beer." I walked home hoarse and on such an energy high.

So I've...
Slowly become a night owl, and hating myself for having an 8:30 class five days a week
Stayed up talking with another person for three hours about absolutely nothing
Found a drama family
Gone on a road trip with nothing but my toothbrush
Had cold pizza for breakfast for more than 3 days
Questioned the milk, then drank it anyways
Walked to my dorm barefoot
Taken a nap on Pentacrest
Skipped class to sleep in
Hung out and people watched
Gone to a bar concert
Hit up 4 or more coffee houses in one day
Taken multiple naps per day
Crammed onto the bus system with about 100 other people
Gotten lost on the West side of campus
Cursed under my breath while walking into the wind because it's so f'ing cold


~Until Then

I feel all grungy, I love it!

This weekend my improv troupe went to the great world of Chicago for a night. We managed to see some free long form at the I.O last night. That's right, we've got the insider connections. It was a lot of fun to really see the base of long form improv and watch people who do what a lot of us want to do, perform improv for a living. There are 13 of us in the troupe, and we also met up with 3 former PBR members. I had forgotten how beautiful Chicago was, and I only wish that I was able to spend more time. We didn't get into Chicago until maybe 4 on Saturday and then left around 12ish. So a short trip, but full of bonding. To save expenses we stayed at one of the former member's apartment... a one bedroom one bathroom apartment. The current 13 members all stayed on the floor in the living room, lets just say we bonded in more ways that one can think. We got up the next morning, ate left over chicago style pizza, cupcakes, and beer for some of us. No one showered, a few of us (inclucding myself) didn't even change clothes while we were there. We left cramed into 3 cars and drove back.

It's hard to believe that I found a home here at Iowa City. I'm going to be working with these awesome people for the next 4 years. Just hanging out with them and playing I've never, truth and dare, and just talking was a blast. As much as I love these guys, I love showering and my own bed with no one else in a 5 foot diameter of me a little more.

~Until Then

Look out

Indianola: 2 near death experiences in 3 hours

#1 I went down to Indianola to see my grandparents. My mother asked if I would drive since her car was full of equipment. On my way down, I was driving on 65/69 and I was about 40 or so feet behind a truck hauling farm materials. We go to drive up a hill when the something flies out of the back of the truck. It's a giant metal bin and lands in front of my about 20 feet away. There's a car behind me and a motorcycle to the left of me. I have no choice to swerve. Luckily I managed to keep control of my jeep and not hit anyone, but not even on ice have I ever swerved that badly before.

#2 We were pulling out of gas station in Indianola, and I stopped my car at the drive entrance and got out of my car because I saw that I had left my gas cap off. I get back in my car and proceed to pull out. Out of nowhere comes this girl on a bike and I hit her with the front bumper of my car. Not hard enough to knock her over, but strong enough to maker her stop and restart her bike ride. I freaked out and got out of my car and yelled if she was okay, but she kept on biking away. It was a good thing I was only just starting to move, it could have been so much worse. But what can I do if she didn't stop?

I don't want to go back to Iowa City.

~Until Then

Video Post??

Wow, I look away alot. Hmmm. Sweet. Maybe next time I'll do something creative.

~Until Then

An experiment

I decided that I would try to become a vegetarian for at least 30 days. I've always heard that the first month of vegetarianism is the most difficult. With all of the options that they serve at our dining halls, I figured that it would be fairly easy. It was. As the month progressed, I slowly became more and more sick of the food. My original thought that I would be able to maintain it because there were options, but those options really turned our to be pasta with marina sauce and grilled cheese. I began to miss real food, but I was determined to make it. I did, but I don't think I could be a vegetarian here because I can't make my own food because I'm bound to meal plans. I can't go out everyday and have a wide variety of food choices. I'm proud of myself for doing it, and I think that I'm going to only eat very limited meat choices here. Because some of the things that they have out are really gross looking and I've observed that 90 percent of our food here is frozen before they cook it. It was a fun experiment.

My performances were this weekend, and it went well. I played a production manager for a film. It was the first time I really felt connected to my character, and because of that, I was able to really devote myself to my character. My family came up, it was nice to see them all. The weekend went by in a flurry, but I enjoyed it. Now I have all this down time. That's why I love theatre. You work and work to no end for a week, and then as soon as the production is done, you have all this awesome free time and don't know what to do with it. I audition next week for the castings of the spring shows. I won't have any other performances this semester unless I get cast in a community theatre show, so I can devote myself to my improv troupe.

On a more personal note, I am single for the first time in 2 1/2 years. Nick came up this weekend and we had a mutual agreement that it wasn't working out. My priorities have been reshuffled and he's not on top of the stack. He realized that maybe we were going to same destination, but how we each got there was very different. We're still friends, legitimately. I care about him, but I care more about him being happy.

I bought myself an iPod touch today. I'm very excited to have it. It's sort of a pick me up, congrats on doing a show, and doing well in college present type thing. It's all shiny. I'm coming back this weekend, so if you're in town, give me a buzz.

~Until then

I Eat Breakfast Twice a Day 5 Days Out of the Week.

I auditioned for a group called the Paperback Rhinos. They're the other improv group on campus besides 5th City Improv of which I am a member. I decided that I wanted to try to audition for the group to see if I would be accepted again for my talent after not really having auditioned for 3 years to get into an improv group. Let's face it. After freshman year, auditions were just a formality for the spring improv show. I auditioned with about 12 other people, and was unable to make the second night of auditions due to the fall nite o'mime. I was called back on Sunday to do more scene work and some long form stuff. There were 10 of us at call backs, from the 20 or so who auditioned I'm guessing. After call backs, they told us that we would know if we made it sometime between Sunday night and Monday night.

Cut to 1:30 in the morning. I've been asleep for a few hours now, and my roommate has just fallen asleep as well. All of the sudden loud banging occurs at our door. Both Emily and I bolt upright and stare at eachother, then the door, and the back to eachother. She asks if it's drunk people. We wait some more. The pounding gets louder. We wait again. Who's ever knocking is almost breaking down the door. I get out of my bed, trying not to hurt myself in the process. I creep over to the door and unlock it so I can peek out. I see 8 faces peeking back at me. "Fuck!" I yell. I shut the door and unlock it all the way and open it back up and stare at them. I'm half asleep and don't have my glasses. I'm a bit disorentated. "What the hell?" I ask.

"Hi Pichler." Joe Meyer says.

"Uhm, can I help you." I ask again.

"No, not really. But you can take this." Joe says. He hands me a piece of paper. I look at it. There is a picture of a baby in a rhino outfit.

"Really?" I say sort of excited.

"Really!" Joe says way too enthusiastically.

"You guys are psycho." My roommate yells from back inside my dorm.

"No, we're improvers" Joe yells back. "Okay, bye then." And then him and the rest of the improv troupe leave Currier. Katie (the girl across the hall pokes her head out of her room.) and gives me a look of 'WTF is going on at 1 in the fucking morning?' I jump up and down and say yay! Then I go back to bed.

*****
So I have a job on campus at the Hillcrest Market place doing various things depending on the day. Tuesdays I work in the salad room working and prepping fresh produce, Thursdays I'm in the bakery with Pat. She's like the grandma I never had and together we make cookies, cakes, pies, treat bars, etc except in mass amounts. Then Saturdays I work as cook's help in the morning then switch to whatever they need me to do in the afternoon. I really enjoy my job. Except lunch rush on game days. It's like the calm before a storm. It will be nice all morning, just a slow stream of people coming in to eat, then around 2 or so a flood of black and gold gushes into the Market Place. It's crazy! Constantly having to restock food and make sure that things stay clean. I can't tell you how many times I've been burned by reaching into the food warmer and having my arm touch the shelves. It's like playing operation in hell. It's all fun though.
*****
On a more serious note, in my acting class my teacher assigned us to do an action objective scene. It's hard to explain, but I'll do my best. Someone you care about is in a life or death situation. You have to save them, but there has to be a strong chance that you WILL fail. There is no acting or planned actions allowed. You have to come up with all the details to the back story of your scene, but cannot speak. It's all about being in the moment. Also, the scene has to take place in an environment that is familiar to you. All of us had to bring copious amounts of things from our dorm room and set up our space. Most of us set up a bed room space since that was the easiest.

My scene involved me trying to save Nick from putting a bullet through his head. He had been drinking at a party he through and had gotten drunk even though I made him promise me that he wouldn't. I call Nick and he flips shit. He thinks that I've found out that he's drunk and am going to break up with him or yell at him. He locks himself in his room with the gun that his brother bought him for safety since his apartment is in a rough neighborhood. His friends can't call the police because they're all underage and are drinking, and he is threatening to shoot himself they do. His friends call me and tell me to get back from Iowa City to Des Moines ASAP.

Now for the second half. My mother had bought me a small lock box to keep my personals in when they weren't in use. It has a 4 digit lock code, that I had never bothered to change from the factory setting (which was all randomized) because I forgot about it when I set it up. I wrote down the code on a small piece of paper and put it away safely amongst my personal items. Now I have to frantically search for it five weeks later. I don't remember where it is. It could be anywhere. I tear through my scene. In my space I have a box full of personal letters, a journal stuffed with pieces of paper and more letters, books upon books, and all of my school materials. I rip through everything. I'm getting more and more upset as time goes by. I have to get to Nick. I can't let him do this. But I can't find that paper with the code to the safe which has my car keys. I go through everything and fail to find it. I don't know what to do. In one last attempt I grab the lock box (which is attached my my chair by a cable which can only be undone by opening the box) and try to pry it open by messing with the combo. It's a less than great quailty box, and somehome I managed to pry it open. In shock I grab my keys and leave. That's how the scene went. It's hard to fully explain. But there were moments in my scene where I felt like I was going to be sick. I was crying and my hands were shaking. It was hard to concentrate on what I was doing. This excericse was incredible.

~Until Then

I may be a pirate

But for those of us who have so many questions about surviving on campus. Enjoy.

~Until Then

Pepper spray and Soviet Jackoven-urface.

I auditioned last week for all the fall shows and managed to land three callbacks- Hidden in this picture, Iron Hymen (the musical), and Sex with a Censor/Katie and Frank. Call backs we're nothing like those in Valley. I was only actually reading for 10 minutes or less and then I could leave. The director(s) didn't talk much to the call back-ers, and didn't say much after. I managed to to get cast as Ruby a production manager in Hidden in this picture. It's a one act, maybe shorter, directed by a graduate student. It's a 4 person cast about filming the last 11 minutes of a movie (similar sounding to Tropic Thunder) and there are cows standing in the field. I haven't read the script yet, but it sounds really great. I was really pleased that I got cast as a freshman.

I went to the Iron Hymen call back and that was about the most unusual experience in theatre I've ever had. There were five of us, and each person was given a character from the script to read, monologue style. The director picked out 5 or so lines from the script and the reader had to animate them. There was no actual dialogue in the call back. Also we had to sing happy birthday (however we wanted to interpret that) to a stick figure named Fred on a whiteboard. Fred wasn't having the best of birthdays, and we needed to cheer him up. Lets just say that there were some interesting renditions of Happy Birthday. Oh, before I forget, the parts to be cast in Iron Hymen include Skinny, Tubbers, Whorebot Lindsey, Queerbag McGee, and my favorite...Soviet Jackoven-urface. That's call backs at Iowa!

On a completely different note, last night at Dirty Burge (our dining hall on the East side) some douche bag decided that it would be awesome to spray pepper spray in the middle of the dining area. I was out to eat with 5 of my friends, and in about the last 5 minutes of my meal experience, I noticed that a lot of people behind me were coughing. I didn't really think much of it. Then my nose and throat felt irritated and I tried to suppress it, but I couldn't. I started to cough along with the entire dining hall. It wasn't a 'clearing your throat' cough, it was a "fuck shit I'm chocking' cough. I left the hall, and as soon as I cleared the barrier between the hall and the eating area I was fine. But I stayed for a few minutes talking with a few girls about what happened, and during so more and more people emerged from the exit with red eyes and they were coughing like mad. God, I love the people here.

~Until Then