happy hallowed eve

my classmate adel and i in our enigmatic halloween costumes. don't ask what we were- wearing orange jumpsuits and mustaches is costume enough without affixing a label to it.

duuuuh...

All my life, from childhood to now, I've been taught to keep my mouth closed. I would mentally make fun of people who walked around with their mouth open. I even played a character in college who always had his jaw dropped because the guy was supposed to be a little 'slow.'

As it turns out, holding your jaw all the time creates tension that radiates to other parts of your body. Especially when you're performing a phsyical activity such as sports, exercise, household chores, or acting, it will only benefit you to loosen your jaw and let your lips part, even just a little bit. You even listen better with your jaw hanging.

It's why Michael Jordan always had his tongue out when he made a spectacular dunk. It's one of the things that made Muhammad Ali great- go back and watch the video. (Although it did contribute to his getting his jaw broken by an opponent once.)

Next time you see somebody on the bus or in a movie theater with his jaw hanging slack- don't hate. He may just be a trained actor.

... keep on truckin' ...

Pictured is my classmate Kristen, after she took me up on a challenge: I said she couldn't bridge-walk all the way from a friend's apartment to the theatre- almost three quarters of a mile. She didn't make it all the way, but she did go for almost two hours before she finally collapsed in a dirty, sweaty heap of jelly. She went nearly half a mile, and immediately became a mascot for the optimism, perserverance, and sheer bull-headedness of my class.

It's been awfully long since I last updated my blog, and I have no excuse beyond the old classic "I've been soooooo busy..." In truth, I've been putting it off- for the same reason that I've started about 17 diaries and journals in my lifetime, only to stop within a couple of months. I get the notion that I have to faithfully catalogue my entire life, and if I get behind, then I feel like I'll have a huge amount to write in order to catch up.

But, it's occurred to me that none of us needs a complete record of my daily life. This blog can be just like my long-distance friendships: patchwork, piecemeal, and totally fine.

I'm fully in the thick wilderness of my first year at A.R.T. It is such an overwhelming and thorough process that it's easy to forget that there are wars and national/natural tragedies going on and become obsessed with what's truly important, like how I form my vowels.

I'm in class morning, noon, and night, six days a week, with Mondays off. I have three different acting classes, four voice classes, movement, yoga, Alexander technique, singing, drama literature, and Russian class, and most of these meet multiple times a week. When I'm not injured, pissed off about getting up early every day, or down on myself for feeling like I don't know ANYthing, I remember that this is a pretty amazing way to spend all my time for two years.

There's no time to spend analyzing how I feel about everything anyway, because I wake up and there's a whole new day of classes ahead. Like my classmate Kristen, you just grit your teeth (my voice teacher would say, "No you don't! You loosen your jaw!"), and take another step. And, if she can do it upside-down on all fours, I should have no problem upright.

Thanks to my family and friends for your continued interest in my life and for your words of love and support!

More soon!