Home for the Holidays

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all! I've been back in Abingdon since Friday night. I started home on the Greyhound bus at 10 a.m. that day and didn't get in until 10 p.m. that night! The bus system was so awfully slow and frustrating. But thanks to a friend, I got a ride from Roanoke to Abingdon and got home three hours earlier than it would have been! But it was still such a long and tiring ride...

But anyway, Christmas was great and I have seen many of my old friends so far. So much catching up and rekindling! I had a late night Perkins run with my friends Karen Hartshorn and Ryan Cury on Friday night once I got in. It was so great to see them both! Then today I saw my friends Meghan Kennedy and Olivia Gibbian. I had coffee with Meghan earlier today at Java J's downtown where we sat and discussed our college experiences thus far. She goes to NYU where she's in the Playwright's Horizon studio studying theatre. She's such a gorgeous actress and a wonderful person. I'm so fortunate to know her. Later on I went to see It's A Wonderful Life at the Barter Theatre with Olivia. It was a good show and it was nice to see the Barter again. Such a feeling of homecoming when I step into that lobby with the sweetened money-esque scent. the production value on the whole was very good - as they always are at Barter. A lot of talented people in that company, so it's always a joy to see them perform. The show was also very connectable, not the usual holiday fluff that theatre's resort to during the Christmas season. So, as you can tell, the friends and show made for a very enjoyable and well needed evening.

Other than this I've been spending time with family and eating food. LOTS AND LOTS OF FOOD. I think I will have to fast upon my return to D.C. because of the weight I've gained while being at home. But when your grandmother is as good as a cook as mine it, how can one say no? Pumpkin pie, sugar cured ham, fudge, all the wonderful, festive holiday foods! Not to mention the fact that food is soooooooo much better when someone else cooks! But this has to stop or I'll die of cardiac arrest! Southern cooking is so good, but so unhealthy. So when I head back this Saturday morning, it will be nice. I will have spent a good amount of time in Appalachia, but it isn't where I belong anymore. My need lies in other places further North where I still have things to discover and accomplish. But until my car pulls out, MORE FOOD!

Finals are over...

...and the fall 2006 semester has come to an end. I, myself finished with my exams on Monday, but the university's examination period ended today and all of the on campus residents must vacate the dormitories by tomorrow for our month long winter break. I'm still in D.C. trying to work as much at my new clerking job with Bookholders.com as I can. I do leave for Abingdon on Friday though. I take a 10 a.m. Greyhound bus from D.C. to Bristol, TN. I anticipate going home and eating good food with family and seeing old friends again. It should be a great time. I don't plan on staying very long there though, because returning to Abingdon seems to depress me. After I returned to Abingdon from my stint in Orlando I was pretty depressed for a good amount of time. The total nothingness of that place could sadden anyone though, anyone who is lucky enough to escape and experience life outside of the Mountains. So going home will be bittersweet: the happiness and love with friends and family and old memories mixed with the sadness and longing to leave once again. It's interesting how some people get "stuck" in Appalachain Virginia, by choice of course, and a few others happily fly the coup. I suppose we all have that place where we're supposed to be and Southwest Virginia is not it for me.

So in other news: finals went well. Our class summations were all very interesting - especially the theatre class projects I did. I've worked with some very talented people up here, mixed in with the defacto theatre queens, so it's been a very beneficial and exciting experiece thus far. I recieved my script yesterday afternoon for a screenplay reading I'm doing in downtown D.C. in early January with Herald Square Productions. I can't say much about it yet, but I'm very excited about it. I'll be working with some prominent actors on it as well as be seen by a couple of casting directors. A great way to get my name out there and a wonderful addition to my resume! To work on a new, original movie will be a great experience, but more on that later...

I've also recenlty been studying le Theatre du Grand Guignol and the Grand Guignol genre. Next semester a couple of grad students whom I adore, Lindsey Snyder and Kris Messer, will be doing an off center entitled: The Lab: An Experiment in Grand Guignol. I sooooooooooo want to be a part of this off center production!!!! I am prepared to do whatever it takes too. So starting now and continuing over break I will be studying everything I can about this art form. I've been reading Mel Gordon's "The Grand Guignol: Theatre of Fear and Terror" as well as anything I can find online about the subject and I am slowly but surely falling in love with this avant garde, macabre art form. For those of you out there who aren't farmiliar with Grand Guignol I'll explain. Grand Guignol is a genre that originated in turn-of-the-century France around the naturalism wave of theatre. It highlights life through extremely gory and frightening situations. And I mean EXTREMELY gory. So after having read about all of their plotlines and devices and making mental productions of the shows, I was hardly phased when I saw Mel Gibson's Apocalypto tonight with my friend Kathryn Shebleski.(I felt Apocalypto was very good, by the way) I mean, in movies you never really see the gore, it's almost always implied. For instance: you'll see an axe being raised to chop off someone's head, the camera follows it up, you see the axe fall, but the camera stays on a slightly higher plane and the scene quickly cuts to another shot. On stage one is forces to look at the greusome acts being committed and that can be a very disturbing thing. VERY disturbing. Especially with the plots that the Guignol has to offer. So anyway, I highly anticipate the upcoming experiment with Lindsey and Kris. Such great people and such a great peice. A lot of potential lies there.
But for now: sleep, to re-energize before work tomorrow!