It's September!

Orientation has officially begun and if it's possible, I'm even more excited for classes and production work to begin. Please remind me of this in about two weeks when I may not be quite as thrilled. But orientation has been wonderful so far. I've met people, both inside my department and outside. Our first event was really fun, though I was nervous to meet people (we were meeting in small groups before heading to the graduate school bar). Prior to coming to Yale, I talked for a long time with my best friend about how I would present myself. Going to a new place means you can tweak parts of your character that you may not exactly love but I didn't change anything about myself...I've changed enough in the past four years that being put in social situations is actually not as bad as it used to be. I'm much more confident and fun (well..ish...I can hold a conversation) and generally more mature person than I used to be. So I had no problem in the small groups. They had two actors, a sound designer, a set designer, a dramaturg, a theatre manager, a technical design and production person, and me. It was a really good group and the leader was one of the 2nd year SMs that I met on Monday. And then we went to the graduate school bar/club. Got carded for the first time since I've never been to a bar. And met some more people, got to talk to the other SMs in my class. It was actually fun! And realllllly loud. Overall that first night taught me that I have matured in ways that I hadn't even noticed. And that I will also probably always be the little one running around with ribbons and flowers in her hair.Some things just never change. And I'm really okay with that. The two full orientation days so far have been very informative rather than overwhelming. Answered a lot of my questions. Met some more people. I really do love the people here--they manage to make everything fun, challenging, engaging, and informative. Only at a theatre school can an informational video be one of the best things you see all day. The boys are cute. and charming. and i can already tell that they are sneaky. end of story. but i like them. I'm also now re-certified in CPR and AED training as well. This is my final weekend off so I'm spending it preparing for the weeks ahead. I went shopping with my little grocery cart today and despite some nasty bruises (note to self: careful when going over the bumps. Or you will run into your cart) and ridiculous humidity, my kitchen is now stocked and I made a real dinner for the first time. I also plan on exploring a bit of the Yale campus since I've really only seen the 4 block radius around the drama school, which includes some magnificent buildings but I would love to see the rest. My first production (run crew) goes into tech in a couple weeks. I've only been away from the theatre for a little under 3 weeks (really? Has it only been that long since I left the Willows?) but I'm already aching to get back into that rhythm. But for now I'm going to enjoy this peaceful alone time because pretty soon it won't exist!