Thoughts and Adventures of a Theatre Kid

I have to say, it's been quite the week since the last time I made a blog post a week ago.  I worked the first three days of the week which was kind of fun, as we did more Christmas-type things and had a holiday party, and the Kindergartners had a mini birthday party for me and sang happy birthday. 😊 On Wednesday after work I packed up my apartment and Thursday morning I had some help moving my boxes and things into the house where I'll be staying for the next few months.  Those of you who I met this summer will know it- it's the DUS house!  So that's pretty cool.  I got to visit someone Thursday afternoon which was fun and it helped with some of my nerves for flying back the next day.  I also did a fair amount of cleaning. Friday morning I took the train to the airport and hung out there until my flight left, slightly delayed, at about 3pm.  It reached the Des Moines airport around 6pm central time and I was picked up from there by one of my college friends.  From t

I've had some revelations in the last week about myself.  First I want to say that I was wrong- I don't actually have depression- it's actually a case of the lonelies.  Living by myself is hard because even though I do my best to meet new people, make new friends, and be involved, I still feel incredibly lonely at times.  I think it's because I don't have, to my current knowledge, a solid support group (how does one find these?) or the necessary intimate friendship(s) most people have.  I have friends and acquaintances and not really anyone who is truly close to me (in distance for instance) that I can talk to if and when I need it, though there are those (and awesome) few whom have said they'd be available if need be (you know who you are).  Which makes it really hard having moved to a new place all by myself.  Thankfully God's got my back and I can talk to him whenever I want, though it isn't quite the same thing. Another revelation I had has to do w

Tonight I had the honor and privilege of performing with my church's improv group!  It was for the gala which was also a fundraiser for the church.  I had a blast!  The improv games we played were the dating game and the photo slide one, for any of you familiar with improv.  For those of you who don't know the dating game is where there are 2-3 contestants and one bachelor(ette).  Each contestant is asked roughly around three questions and has to answer them while in-character.  Eventually the bachelor(ette) picks who they want, at the same time guessing who each contestant is.  For the photo slide game there's the person who's narrating and in charge of the slide show "clicker" and the other 3-4 people are characters doing their thing in regards to the audience suggestion and freezing in place when the narrator says "click".  It can get pretty hilarious for both!  In the dating game one we did tonight I was a stoner snowboarder and the other guy was

I've been doing a fair amount of deep-ish thinking this last week or so, much of it having to do with my emotions, because they're so tangled up and confusing.  If there was such a thing as being afraid of one's emotions, that would be me.  Over the last several months I've come to realize just how much of a wall I've built up around myself, and so thus begins the long and arduous process of breaking it down.  At first it was to protect myself but now it just seems like a hindrance in my quest for honesty, authenticity, and vulnerability.  And so down it must go.  I don't know why I got it into my head that I have to act so tough in the first place!  Emotions aren't shameful.  They are part of life, and what you and I feel is valid. Recently I admitted to you all about my having depression again.  I'm not sure there's really a specific reason to my falling back into it- it just sort of happened from all of the time spent alone during the week of Th