The trip to Ocean City was lovely. Sunday evening after the show Christy and I drove to Baltimore, arriving around 11pm, to Christy's mom's house to take a load of her stuff home. We spent the night there and left around 10am the next morning to drive the 3 hours to Ocean City. On the way we stopped at a farmer's produce stand and bought fruit: I bought peaches and cherry tomatoes; Christy bought peaches and strawberries. They were delicious and served as our breakfasts throughout our trip. We got to Ocean City around 1pm and went to Christy's great-aunt's house where we were staying. Her great-aunt's daughter and granddaughter were also staying there but they had kindly agreed to let us spend a couple days there too. We dropped our stuff off and headed straight to the beach, just a short walk across the street. The water was glorious; it was fabulous to be in the ocean again. We swam for a bit and then sat in beach chairs under our umbrella and read books. It was in the 80's temperature-wise, so nice that I even felt a little cold after getting out of the water. After our swim we went out on the town for dinner, to a seafood buffet called Phillips. It was very much like Captain Georges' in Williamsburg; very good. I enjoyed it very much but eventually got a bit sick of seafood taste. I had to end my meal with a bit of ribs and mashed potatoes to ensure that I didn't feel sick. After dinner we got on the bus that runs up and down the main drag and went down towards the boardwalk. We stopped at a bar called Seacrets that is apparently THE place to go in OC which Christy had never gone in because she'd never been 21 before. We just walked in to see it and then decided we might go back later. We went down and walked the boardwalk; Christy pointed out all the best places to go and OC traditions. We got ice cream at Dumser's, I got mint chocolate chip dipped in chocolate, it was delicious. We listened to a street violinist playing Phantom of the Opera music and watched an artist creating pieces of art with spray paint which was really cool. We wandered into different stores and then eventually took the bus back towards our house (it took about an hour to get back) and went to sleep.

Tuesday we slept in until about 10 and headed to the beach first thing. We read for a bit, went in the water, read more, chatted; I fell asleep on my chair for a while. It was very nice and relaxing. At about 3 we were hungry so we went back to the house and got dressed. We drove down the strip to the boardwalk, found a parking spot and went to a pizza place that Christy loves. We split a house-special pizza: chicken and broccoli and ham toppings. It was different; I don't think I'll do broccoli on a pizza again, though I'm glad I tried it. We walked around the boardwalk again; Christy bought taffy and popcorn for her family. At around 7 we decided to get a drink somewhere, so we went back to Seacrets to see what it was like. The place is crazy: it's an island-themed, mostly-outdoor bar right on the bay. There are palm trees everywhere strung with Christmas-lights; they have multiple bars, lots of tables, and bands playing. There's a pier that goes out into the water. But the crazy part is that they have tables IN the water. And beyond the tables they have inflatable pool-floats that you can sit on. We went out to an inflatable and climbed on, accidentally bringing a bunch of water on with us so that our previously-dry clothes got pretty wet. We each ended up sitting in a puddle, but it was cool. We waited for a while for a waitress (they came out to the tables and floats in swimsuits) and eventually ordered drinks. I got a pina colada and Christy got a strawberry daiquiri; they were delicious. We eventually left the float and went out on the pier to watch the sun set over the bay. Another funny thing about Seacrets is its reputation: apparently it gets swamped, especially on weekends, and lots of people get very drunk; it is the biggest party spot of the town. So they keep an army of bouncers that they call the "peace police" who check id's and wander around in orange t-shirts keeping order. While we were there a woman in the water with us was either really drunk or just really clumsy and kept falling over in the water. A couple peace policers immediately swooped down, helped her up, and escorted her away. Anyway, after our drinks and the sunset Christy wanted to go back to the house to change her wet pants. So we drove back, changed, and then went out for our dinner around 1030pm. We hit up a Mexican joint across the street called Tequila Mockingbird (clever, right? :-P) and got crab quesadillas, guacamole, and queso. They were delicious but huge and neither of us finished more than half of ours. We went back to the house afterwards, quite tired, and I took a shower and then went straight to bed.

I had discovered a couple days before our trip that Matt and his wife Beth were also going to be vacationing in OC at the same time as us. Christy and I both found that very funny and disturbing; we kept expecting to turn around and find them there or to get seated next to them at a restaurant. But fortunately Ocean City is a very big place and we did not run into them and they were allowed to enjoy their vacation in peace.

We slept in on Wednesday, got up, packed up our stuff and left OC around noon. I got an iced coffee at Dunkin Donuts on our way out of town and then we drove straight back to Williamsburg because we had to get Christy back for the show at 630. The drive wasn't back, only about 4-5 hours, and we got to drive through a few bridge-tunnels. We hit bad traffic coming through VA Beach, but made it back in plenty of time.

Back at the Mills they had a girl from WM name Maryn over for dinner. We had fun chatting with her and ate a delicious meal of 4-cheese pasta and peach and blueberry cobbler. At 11pm I headed over to PBK for the Man for All Seasons photo call. Several members of the production staff were there, including Matt, and we all took pictures of several key moments of the show. I talked with Matt and we arranged to meet the next day for my last day of work: cleaning up the mess we'd made over the summer. Back at the Mill's I watched Jerry Maguire, which I'd been intending to watch for a while. It was fun; different than I expected, but funny.

So Thursday I headed over to PBK around 10am. The design room where my desk is (formerly known as the Fundies room) has a ton of drawers in it. Several of them held my stuff from the past 4 years and then rest of them we slowly filled with Matt's stuff and show-specific design materials. Now that the academic year is about to start again we needed to clear out space for the students to use. So I spent the day making piles of similar things, clearing out my drawers, organizing all Matt's stuff into other drawers, and generally cleaning up. I filled the huge bulletin board in the room with a "what we did this summer" display of lots of the drafting, paint elevations, and sketches from the 3 shows we did for the Fundies students to look at and hopefully get inspired from. The room looked so much better when I was done and I think Matt will know where all of his stuff is after I'm gone (hopefully).

Christy, Moody, and I are on a campaign to eat our way through Williamsburg. We have compiled a list of all the places we absolutely must eat at before we leave town. So Thursday we went to Pierce's Barbeque for lunch, which was delicious, and to Emerald Thai for dinner, also wonderful. Today was Nawab's buffet for lunch and tomorrow I believe is Tequila Rose for margaritas. It's proving to be quite expensive but fun and worth it.

Thursday night I spent organizing my files on my external hard drive. All my theatre photos and files were completely disorganized so I created a folder for each show I've done and moved everything into them and deleted all my duplicates. It took a long time but was totally worth it. I feel so much more organized now. I also spent time writing a letter for Matt: he's asked Christy and me to write letters of recommendation for him for when he applies for tenure. I figured since I'm about to leave I'd better write mine. Around 11pm I received a drunken phone call from my family members who are up in NY at the family reunion. They all sounded like they were having a great time together and were calling members of the family who couldn't make it. It was a bit hard to hear because so many of them were on the phone at once and I had to be quiet in order not to wake the Mills up, but it was fun to say hi to everybody.

Today I spent the morning finishing Matt's letter of recommendation, then headed to Nawab for lunch with peoples. We came back to PBK to meet a group who were heading to Rita's to get ice cream with Drew because he's moving to FL very soon. It was hot out but the ice cream was good. Meg was back in town, back from the beach early, so I got to see her again before I leave which was unexpected but awesome.

After Ritas I went to talk to Matt. He looked through my portfolio one last time and gave suggestions and pointers and we chatted about jobs and my future and all that sort of thing. It was really weird and sad to think that I'm done working for him and won't be seeing him every day and able to wander into his office whenever I want any more. After our talk I loaded up my car with everything that I had in the design room; almost a full trunk of stuff. Drew and Dave teased me that I couldn't leave and that they should unload my car and move my stuff back in. Matt had to leave, so I said goodbye to him, then ran to Kinkos to print off copies of his rec letter for the appropriate people. I put them in the right mailboxes back at PBK and then went to say goodbye to Dave and Drew. They gave me lots of encouraging advice and comments about keeping a good attitude, working hard, working lots of jobs, not getting discouraged, making sure I go to grad school, etc. I hugged them both and then walked out of PBK: graduated, unemployed, and full of great memories. I may wander back in on Sunday before I leave, but that may be the last time I'm in that building, my home, for a long time. It was sad to leave, but I was encouraged and excited too.

Back at the Mills we grabbed a quick dinner and then Chris and Eileen and I drove to Richmond to the mall so that Chris could go to the Apple store and Eileen and I could find her a dress for a wedding they're going to next week. We found a lovely one fairly quickly, bought jewelry and stockings to go with it, met up with Chris and got coffee and then drove back Williamsburg. It was fun to spend time with them; I will miss them a lot after I leave.

So now I have two days left here. I have a list of things to do:
-pack
-return library books
-pay parking ticket
-copy favorite recipes from Eileen
-meet Margaret for coffee
-get Tequila Rose and maybe dinner with Moody and Christy
-say goodbye to people
-load car
-drive home

The summer is coming to an end. I'm sad to leave it behind but more hopeful and excited about moving on that I thought I would be. I'm not really saying goodbye to anyone for good; I know I'll be back in Williamsburg at some point and the theatre world is very small so I fully expect to see and/or work with my people again. It's been a great summer and now I get to move on to the next adventure, whatever that may be.

Turns out Man for All Seasons was scheduled to open on Thursday, not Wednesday. This was a very good thing, because we needed every second that we had to get it ready. As You Like It closed on Sunday and we had strike all evening. I helped with props and then went to Dillard with Matt, Moody, Christy, and Rachel. Dillard is the off-campus dorm complex that was closed when they built the Jamestown dorms. It has since fallen into extreme disrepair (we could stage an awesome haunted house there at Halloween). The Theatre department has a huge room in the basement that is chock full of all our larger props--tables, chairs, beds, mattresses, and tons of other random things. Matt has been itching to clean it out and organize forever, so we decided to spend the last part of strike making a dent at it. We pulled out tons of broken or unusable props and carted them to the dumpster, cleared out hallways, swept parts of the floor and generally tried to make the space more usable. We filled one dumpster and carried more stuff to 2 large dumpsters that were down by a construction site. All this happened in the middle of a lightning storm. It was a lot of fun; we were sweating like crazy, very tired, covered in dirt and who-knows-how-old dust. By the end all we could talk about was how much we wanted to go jump in the ocean or a pool. Instead we went to Wawa and bought cold drinks before heading back to PBK for the end of strike.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were a scramble install and paint the set. I spent time helping with props, painting furniture, and painting set pieces. The painters painted all night for three nights in a row. Matt and I stayed as late as we could each night, but we had to be conscious for the tech and dress rehearsals on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons and evenings and Thursday afternoon. Tuesday night Beth, Matt's wife, brought us coffee to help us get through the rehearsal. Wednesday night we were exhausted but there were tons of notes to fix. Matt was talking about just giving up and letting the show open the way it was. But by the time the run was done he had got a second wind and we both stayed late helping the painters and trying to fix notes and keep morale up. Matt left at 2am, I left at 3; we both came in early Thursday morning and kept going. By the time the final dress started Thursday afternoon we had gotten almost all the notes done. The set looked so much better and it actually felt like the show could open. Everyone's crazy work had paid off.

After fixing a couple more notes after the dress I hung out and chatted with Matt a bit and then went back to the house to get ready for opening night. I wore black, including my espadrilles. It was tough seeing the show again (it's 3 hours long) for the second time that day and the 5th time in the last 3 days, but it was good. I sat in front of Matt and Beth and we chatted during intermission. I had a hard time staying awake the second half and when I wasn't yawning I could hear Matt yawning. But the rest of the audience really enjoyed the show; they gave a standing ovation at the end. After the show the company had champagne and toasted each other and then we all went home to much-deserved sleep.

I woke up Friday morning to a text from my friend Meg who is now back from Alabama and was in town for the day. She and Christy and Moody and I went to lunch at the Cheese Shop in CW, then the girls went to see Inception (which was awesome, btw; see it if you haven't already!!) , then we went to Rita's for ice cream and to Goodwill for fun (I bought a really cool lantern for $5!). Dinner was Pierce's for some wonderful barbeque and then we went to PBK to wander around and because Moody and Christy had to run the show. Meg and I eventually left and went to Bloom and then came back to the house and talked while I made a peach pie for the Mills. We talked and talked and talked; it was great to catch up finally. She told me all about the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and what she thought of it (which was helpful since I've applied there) and we talked about our plans and futures and all the fun we had in college. At midnight Meg had to drive back home to pack and sleep before heading to the beach for the week. I went over to Christy's apartment to play Carcassonne (similar to Settler's and Alhambra) with her and Rachel, Will, and Cameron. I almost won but at the last second Will snatched the victory away.

Inception made me ponder something which I will now expand upon: a lot of movies are about people who are the best in the world at what they do-- the best forger, the best shot, the best architect, the best secret agent, the best code-breaker, the best chemist, the best explosives technician, etc. Wouldn't it be awesome to be the best in the world at something? It even just really really good? But then the question is how do you pick what to spend tons of time getting good at? Caitlin read a book recently that said that it takes about 10,000 hours to become an expert at something. That's about 5 years of 40-hours a week every week working at the same thing. And what if it means you have to give up portions of your personal life to do it? Is it worth it to be an expert at something?

Saturday I slept in, then cleaned the house in preparation for the Mills coming home. I ran some errands and worked on job applications. Looks like I may be having interviews next week or the following week; we'll see what happens. I called home and talked for a bit which was nice cuz it had been a while. The Mills got home around 6; I helped them unpacked and we ate pizza and pie for dinner. I got to hear all about their trip and see the pictures and then I read for a bit. I watched Wimbledon before going to sleep; it was ok, fairly standard chick-flick; not terrible, not great.

Today was church in the morning; I got to see Margaret for the first time since her wedding. We're gonna try to do dinner or coffee sometime this week before I move home. This evening Christy and I are driving up to Maryland to take a load of her stuff home and then spend a few days in Ocean City. I'm really excited; I think we'll have a great time. We'll be back Wednesday before the show in the evening.

Let me just say for starters that I love my espadrilles. I've worn them like 4 times this past week. They are so comfortable and quiet and they look really cool. I'm just concerned that I'm going to wear them out too fast.

I watched A Beautiful Mind last night, finally. It has been sitting on my shelf for literally a year on-loan from Remus, and I only finally got around to it. I really enjoyed it; very well made, very interesting.

The drafting for Man for All Seasons is finally complete as of today, thank goodness, especially since we open on Wednesday. I worked today and I'm working tomorrow both in the afternoon doing paint elevations with Matt and in the evening helping with Strike for As You Like It. Matt has been very good about offering me time off this weekend, but the Mills are in NC for the week and my friends are all working so I don't really have anything else to do outside of PBK. I mean I'm sure I could come up with something, but I feel bad knowing everyone else is working and I'm lazing around.

I bought a bottle of wine today at Trader Joes. I don't keep alcohol in the house when the Mills are here, but the second they leave I stock the bar. :-P A nice glass of red wine after work is the perfect way to relax (thank you John, Laura's old housemate, for the idea!). I also made sweet tea and banana bread tonight. It will be delicious.

I broke into my Spanish chocolate from Remus tonight to accompany my wine. I was stupid and let it melt in the car on the way back from home last weekend. It was once 2 bars of dark chocolate separated by a plastic/paper liner. It is now 1 bar of chocolate with a plastic/paper liner in the middle of it. :-P So I have to eat it carefully. But it is excellent; top quality.

I've started getting some responses to recent job applications, which is good. It looks like I may have another round of phone interviews sometime next week or the following one. That will be good, because I would like a job. :-)

I really need to get running/walking again. It's been like 2 weeks since I've gone. I've just been dealing with bouts of tiredness after work. And it's been really hot on the days that I have had a dim motivation. Clearly I need to read Born to Run again to get reinspired.

I may get to post again before Wednesday, but I rather doubt it. So I will see you all again after Man for All Seasons opens!

At the risk of infuriating Remus for getting too philosophical on here (I swore to her I would not) I have to post part of the Pale Fire poem (lines 835-872):

Now I shall spy on beauty as none has
Spied on it yet. Now I shall cry out as
None has cried out. Now I shall try what none
Has tried. Now I shall do what none has done.
And speaking of this wonderful machine:
I'm puzzled by the difference between
Two methods of composing: A, the kind
Which goes on solely in the poet's mind,
A testing of performing words, while he
Is soaping a third time one leg, and B,
The other kind, much more decorous, when
He's in his study writing with a pen.

In method B the hand supports the thought,
The abstract battle is concretely fought.
The pen stops in mid-air, then swoops to bar
A canceled sunset or restore a star,
And thus it physically guides the phrase
Toward faint daylight through the inky maze.

But method A is agony! The brain
Is soon enclosed in a steel cap of pain.
A muse in overalls directs the drill
Which grinds and which no effort of the will
Can interrupt, while the automaton
Is taking off what he has just put on
Or walking briskly to the corner story
To buy the paper he has read before.

Why is it so? Is it, perhaps, because
In penless work there is no pen-poised pause
And one must use three hands at the same time,
Having to choose the necessary rhyme,
Hold the completed line before one's eyes,
And keep in the mind all the preceding tries?
Or is the process deeper with no desk
To prop the false and hoist the poetesque?
For there are those mysterious moments when
Too weary to delete, I drop my pen;
I ambulate--and by some mute command
The right word flutes and perches on my hand.

(the definition of ambulate is the walk about or move from place to place...I had to look it up).

I know, I know, I'm not supposed to post poetry and then comment on it. It's weird for me too. But these stanzas are such a perfect description of the artistic process or whatever you want to call it. Method A, when you can't get away from your art, but keep thinking about it in the shower, while changing clothes, while running errands, while falling asleep. And how you try and try to express what you want to express and then give up in disgust and then suddenly the phrase or color or line that you've been looking for all along comes to you. And that's what makes truly great art (or sometimes it turns out to be truly horrible), but it's that moment of inspiration and then when it all comes together without you doing anything.

That's what I love about art/design/theatre/anything creative/whatever you want to call it. I love the moment before the answer comes to you but you can feel it coming. I masochistically love the time spent searching for the answer. But I especially love when the ideas just start flowing and you know that they're good and right and you can hardly get them down fast enough. Few things are more exciting than that feeling. A good cup of coffee and the wee hours of the morning tend to help. :-) But creativity is wonderful. And it doesn't happen on command.

Two more things: I LOVE Adobe Acrobat. I'm applying for another painting apprenticeship, this one in Hartford, CT. They wanted me to email them my portfolio, but the pdf I have is too big to attach to an email. So today I downloaded Acrobat and compressed the file and it went from an enormous 46000K to a quite-respectable 6000K. I love it.

Secondly, as we were walking out tonight Matt and I were confronted with the snack table which held a box of Munchkins (doughnut holes from Dunkin Donuts). We decided it needed to be cleaned off before the show tonight, and looking inside there were two Munchkins left. I took one and offered the other to Matt. But he declined, saying that he needed to "preserve his girlish figure". I cracked up. The history of that phrase in our family made his comment even funnier.

I have been so much more relaxed since Matt came back yesterday. Not that any of my work has changed (I'm actually doing more because he's decided he doesn't want to do the last couple plates of drafting he was supposed to work on so I get to do them--yay! :-P) I still attended the meeting that I otherwise would have today because he was out exercising. He did handle some of the carpentry/paint questions, but I still got a fair few. But just having him back around has taken the weight of the show off my shoulders. Maybe melodramatic, but true. I'm not responsible for the show, I'm just responsible for helping the person who's responsible for the show. I can take care of Matt and help him take care of the show. It's a weird difference, but it's much easier than having to liase between an out-of-town designer and an in-town shop.

I'm reading this book I borrowed from my friend Rachel. It's called Pale Fire, it's by the Russian author Vladimir Nabokov. The structure of the book fascinates me, I think it's brilliant. It's in 4 parts: a forward, a 999-line poem by a fictional author, commentary on that poem by another fictional author, and an index. Apparently through reading all of these a story comes out. I've read the forward, the poem, and started the commentary and the story is just starting to come out; it's much stranger than I thought--all about kings-in-disguise and a murder. But I'm really enjoying the word choice in the entire book. Very interesting, descriptive, beautiful-sounding, well-placed words. Tonight it was talking about a bird and "the revolting gusto it showed when consuming long, sad, passive worms!" I read that and cracked up. Every day Rachel asks me if I've read the book yet when she comes into work, so I'm working on it and will soon be able to proudly tell her that I have.

There's a party tonight thrown by the VSF production staff living in 406: it's pirate-themed. I kind of want to go, but doubt I will. It doesn't start until 11pm, after the show ends, and once I get back to the Mills' every night I get lazy and don't want to go out again. Last night I fell asleep reading at about 9pm; I woke up at 4:30am with the lights still on, still dressed in my clothes and everything. I crawled out of bed, turned out the lights, and then collapsed again for a few more hours of precious sleep (granted an old woman by two ferocious wild girls landing on her head!!) Sorry, just had to throw that in there. :-D

I just watched a car drive by on the street in the dark. The headlights were in the shape of a "t" or a cross. It was cool, there were just these giant t's of light coming down the street and then a car materialized behind them. Very pretty. I've noticed that streetlamps look the same way from far away, forming "x"s or "t"s. They're quite lovely.

I think blogging is good for me, it brings out my more cultural side and makes me think more about life. It pulls me away from the go to work then come home and sleep mentality, much as I love my work. Blogging I ponder things and comment on poem word choices and on car headlights. It's cool, I like it.

I am still alive, I promise. I took an unintentional leave of absence these past several days due to extreme busyness. We teched and opened As You Like It, worked frantically on Man for All Seasons, I went home for the weekend to see the returned Remus, and have been handling MFAS stuff this past week while Matt has been in PA teching Spelling Bee.

Going home was great. It was awesome to see everybody again and I really enjoyed both Mommy's b-day party and Remus' welcome home party.

The second I got back to Williamsburg on Sunday evening things got a bit crazy. I saw a run of the show and spent the next several days drafting set pieces, working with the paint and props departments, and answering myriads of questions. We had several mini-crises, and I spent long periods of time on the phone with Matt every day. Overall everything went fairly well, but everyone is tense because we open the show a week from today and have a ton to do between now and then.

Sadly my running and general life suffered over the week. I've been going in early to work, working all day, coming back to the Mills for dinner, and then working until I go to bed.

Matt was able to get away from Spelling Bee a day earlier than planned, so he drove through the night last night and was in his office when I arrived at 9am. I am very happy that he's back. It was fun to have all the power while he was gone; but since I am not the scene designer I still had to defer a lot of questions to him, which made things slower since I couldn't in good conscience decide the question myself and would have to ask him and then wait for his response. But it was a good learning experience.

I have been getting tons of pimples recently. I, the former lily-white perfect-skinned child who never had pimples and got compliments on her skin in Starbucks, currently have about 8. And they aren't going away and I keep picking at them. Disgusting I know, but such is my life.

I watched Good Will Hunting last night. Such a good movie. Deep and thought provoking and wonderful. Great performances all round.

I officially finish my summer job one week from today. So crazy. It's gone so fast. Although at the same time it feels like forever. I'm going to really miss everybody, Matt, the Mills, and Williamsburg. I'm sure I'll be back, but this is the closing of the chapter of my college years. Now I just have to figure out what I'm doing next... I am looking forward to being home for a little bit, though, very much. And vacation will be wonderful.

I am officially green with envy because of the adventures of two young women I know who may or may not have just seen Jersey Boys. Extremely jealous.

I spent today organizing stuff for Matt, updating storyboards, researching a couple things, and starting to draft some of the Man for All Seasons furniture. I researched tapestries (we're having More's house have a tapestry of a martyred (preferably beheaded) saint on his wall) and Tudor-era heraldry. Sooooo many crests and shields and coats of arms; I distilled it all down to a document that the director can look over and select from. Moody and I hit Chipotle for lunch and of course Dunkin Donuts.

After work Matt called me into his office to talk about pre-tech-rehearsals stuff and give me a heads up about a couple meetings we need to go to tomorrow. Then he gave me some exciting news: he will likely be doing a show in August/September in NYC; a very small show, but still, a show. It will tech after the semester has started so he won't be able to be there. If I'm available, he's interested in having me assist him and be the onsite person there for techs. I'd absolutely love to do it; it would be exciting and probably a great experience. We'll see what happens, it's still in the very early planning stages. More to come on that as we get more info.

At 715 I went to the church for a worship team rehearsal. Chris has asked me to sing on Sunday when he leads worship. We're doing like 5-6 songs; all of which I already knew. They're very good and it'll be a lot of fun. It was great to get to sing again. After the rehearsal I accidentally let a frog into the church; it ran and hid in a closet and we couldn't find it. Hopefully it doesn't decide to come out during Margaret's wedding on Saturday....