The rest of Summer 2010

So, yeah... Four weeks into actual summer, and I am kind of feeling like it's already over. It's typical middle of July syndrome, I think. (You know that May-and-June-Are-Over-And-I-Haven't-Accomplished-Even-A-Third-Of-What-I-Had-Planned-Feeling?) What did I want to do? I think my list went something like

1. Work out every day (..uh..)
2. Re-read all of Geri's books (about that...)
3. Work a lot (Check!)
4. Save the money I make (...um... have you seen my closet lately?)

...get the picture?

I think there was something else about direct a play and travel, read a ton, re-decorate the apartment and other things you write down desperately trying to procrastinate as you study in the last three weeks before finals. (Don't you love writing that list? Makes you feel so productive.)

However, I have a great job, fantastic friends and a boyfriend who I've been with for two and a half months, AND... an August that could choke a horse. :D

Here's the point of this entry, I guess. A chance to gloat a little bit, probably, AND... make another one of those lists that we all love, that I still have the naive blind hope that I'll actually be able to finished in my art-festival-and-malt-liquor-theatre-infused whirlwindy haze. But, I'm gunna do it. :) Here's the schedule for the rest of the summer.

July 23rd-24th: Trip to Washington, D.C. to see Alani Jane Kravitz in Unexpected Stage's "A Phoenix Too Frequent" by Christopher Fry. It's this company's first production, and it's outside!

July 25th: A Day with my best friend. Just us. Since we work opposite schedules and haven't seen eachother all summer.

Theennn!
July 30th: A Trip to New York! Off to the city to see A Little Night Music with Bernadette Peters, and Elaine Stritch. Hopefully Elaine will have settled into the part by then, but I'm sure she will. And hopefully I won't have standing room seats this time. That show is not a standing room show. (Come to think of it, Spring Awakening and Les Mis sucked from standing room as well. Hmm...) Also, The Grand Manner which looks lovely. I also want to check out Marin Mazzie in N2N.

There are also some shows playing at 59E59 that are going to The Fringe Festival as well in their Fringe Preview called "East to Edinburgh!" Most of them are in the range of $10-$20, and look really interesting! Unfortunately, I won't be in town to catch most of their preview runs, BUT, two that sound really interesting are called "Skinny Bitch Jesus Meeting" by Katie Hartman and Leah Rudick and "Considering Georgia O'Keefe" by Allisn Hetzel. I'd love to see them in New York and then see them AGIAN in Scotland (More on that in a bit) and see how they change from city to city and spacce to space.

I also want to check out some museums in New York that I've never really seen, as well as just spend time in my favorite place in the world and see some friends I haven't seen in a while.

And then... the most exciting part.

August 3rd, we depart from JFK Airport to Edinburgh, Scotland for a two week stay where we'll be performing "Shipwrecked! An Entertainment. The Adventures of Louis De Rougemont (As told by himself!)" at Venue 40, (The Quaker Meeting House at 7 Victoria Terrace) at 2:15 every day from July 9th-14th. With four-ish days of rehearsal, and about 12 hours of performance... that leaves me with 8 and a half days of free time to explore and take in the city of Edinburgh! I've already been researching, and finding the best pubs, restaurants and places to visit (see my previous post for some of those suggestions). PLUS, I've never left the Eastern Standard Time Zone... ...so... this will be pretty sweet. :)

Top 5 MUST sees for this trip:
5. Apparently pub crawls down Rose Street are serious fun. Or so says the nice British Man at Borders in the mall who used to play at The Fringe.
4. The Museums are kick ass. So, I'm going!
3. Apparently everyone wants you to try haggis. ...After a few beers, who knows what I'll do...
2. Touring Edinburgh Castle
1.5. ALL THE OTHER SHOWS AT THE FRINGE
1. Climbing to the top of Arthur's Seat with a few beers and watching a sunset or a sunrise with a bunch of friends.

I'm getting a new Camera this week, and will be chronicling the trips to D.C, New York, and Scotland THOROUGHLY, so expect MANY pictures in the forthcoming weeks.

Also, check out the new Edin-BLOGH! that I started that hopefully everyone else going on the trip with me will be adding pictures and stories from the trip to.

Now, if I can clean my apartment, stop my New York Times Subscription, pay my bills on time, pack, and see everyone before I leave, everything will be fine. :)

I'll get back to you on how that goes.

So, I guess my summer isn't going to suck. It was that kind of neccessary evil part at the beginning filled with work and not-much else (except a lot of wonderful time with Michael and my family and friends here) that I got to relax in before a whirlwind of traveling in August that made me feel like I didn't get anything else done. But, I'm young and silly and can have restful summers like that. PLUS, a lot is happening and changing in mah life right now (more on that to come at a later time) and sometimes a summer like this is needed.

The first e-mail with itinerary was exciting to get the other day. Eee!! This is really happening. I can still remember trudging down to the stage on Monday nights to go to Fringe Rehearsal back when it was just rehearsals. Now... 3000someodd dollars later... THERE IS AN ACTUAL PLANE LEAVING THAT I HAVE A TICKET ON TO SCOTLAND.

Crazy.

So much exciting business going on.

AND I'll keep you updated.

(My plan (but... as you can see this blog is entitled "never the expected" because that's just how my life goes... so we'll see how we stick to this plan) is for this blog to morph into a kind of commentary on things that I see, hear about in the world (news stories, movies, plays, books, happenings in my own life) that I want to put into words and sent out into the blogoshpere to share with people and start a dialogue about things in the world. I want to start conversations, and see what other people's views infom about these issues. So, hopefully, that will come soon enough.. Until then...)

I need to sleep.

List for tomorrow:
Gym in the morning (wish me luck)
Clean my desk area in my room
Start a check list for traveling
Pick out a camera
Go grocery Shopping
Print out the rest of the Night Music score (back to front is SUCH A BITCH)
Wash, fold, and dry all of my laundry.
And hopefully all before 4:30.
When I have to go bring rich people cheese. And watch MSNBC for five hours.
Maybe I can use this list as practice for getting things done in Scotland!
ooh! incentive. I LIKE IT.

See you tomorrow!
~Liam