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The Remnants of Uncertainty...

An Epic Week

05/19/08 at 01:55 AM by cassusriff

What an EPIC week.

I live for weeks like this. Honestly. I may be exhausted and I may get sick from my lack of sleep and doing something at every moment of the day, but these weeks are SO worth it.

Let's Review:

Sunday 5/11 - Put on the last performance of Reckless at FLC. Great cast, good show, fun times. Brought some stuff back to the college. Afterward hung out with the guys (which was incredibly awesome and made me miss the old times when the guys would always kick it), then bought my mom some gifts for mother's day and went to my parent's house for a bit. Went home and passed out.

Monday 5/12 - Went to work, had a few meetings and just an awful day. Nothing about what we were doing for our new campaign was really making sense and I had a looming day of class waiting for me after. Also I had a terrible case of nostalgia in light of it being my last day of being a teenager.

Tuesday 5/13 - Best day I can remember in a long time. It helps that this day happened to be my 20th b-day. But I was expecting a really disappointing day because let's face it, turning 20 isn't that great. Instead I got to hear from all kinds of awesome people that I don't see often and of course my friends I see regularly. My desk was decorated at work, I got free coffee, itunes giftcards, and a very nice card signed by the office. The only thing that could've been better is if I actually got the day off, but all that nice stuff really brought me up.

Then that night me, phil, colin, jacque, nick, emily, lauryn, spencer, kyle, and amy went to my favorite restaurant Benihana! I got a few more awesome gifts (Madden videogame, Juno ..ay, more itunes giftcards), had a great dinner, got an awesome picture of everyone, and just had a great time. Then afterward we all went to my place and chilled and had fun playing rock band, smoking hookah and cigars, talking, and relaxing. The night ended at 4am.

What made my b-day even better was that Jason Mraz and Death Cab's new albums came out that day. So thank you both for providing the soundtrack to such an awesome day.

Wednesday 5/14 - I definitely was a bit bummed my b-day was over. But I still was feeling good from such a fun day. Unfortunately work wasn't getting any less busy and I had a presentation that night in class that I had only a few hours to put together while I was at work. The day was definitely very stressful and long, but at the end of it all I got home proud of my presentation and ready to get to bed. I would have definitely gone crazy if I didn't take the first half of the day off from work.

Thursday 5/15 - Thursday was maybe one of the craziest days of my life. The stress from over a year was weighing down on me while I was also about to experience a very big moment in my life. So I got to work as usual and had another busy day of calls and applications. That night I had to present my scholarship and then go straight to class for our last meeting.

So in the last hour of work I started to write out what I was going to say at the presentation. I also pulled together a little faux certificate just so the girl who won my scholarship would have something... I worked from 9am - 5:30, went straight to Kyle's house after to rehearse our song for Sunday (more on that later), did that until 6:45pm (we ended up rehearsing at EDMT's place with Tristan and Lauryn), then me and Tristan went straight to Oak Ridge for the scholarship presentation that started at 7:00pm. Tristan was nice enough to park my car for me as I ran to the theatre to ask if I could present first because I had to be at class by 7:30pm and my class was at least 15-20 minutes away if I was driving fast.

I got inside and they said I could present first but I'd have to wait for the Military scholarships to go first. So I talked to some people and noticed interested glances from people I knew in the full house (a lot of my friends didn't know I was giving a scholarship). After talking with some people, the show started and I watched the first few scholarships get handed out. Then I was introduced and I walked up to the podium.

It had been a while since I had spoken to a crowd that big, and the last time I spoke this candidly and emotionally in front of a crowd was when I said my senior goodbye speech at the OREE (theatre) awards two years ago. I was noticeably nervous and I realized my speech was a bit long so I just followed it as an outline and decided to wing most of it. I made some great points, and I honestly can't remember a lot of what I said. But my words were true and my words were honest. I presented my award to the girl and mentioned that I was giving this $1000 scholarship from my own personal funds. The girl came up on stage and her face was so honestly grateful. She shook my hand and gave me a hug. It all happened in a whirl and I sat down right away and started to collect my stuff. I made a funny exit as the host told the scholarship presenters that they could leave if they had other arrangements to take care of... which is exactly what I had. So I begrundingly left the ceremony, knowing I probably wouldn't get a chance to talk to people about what I had done. I was upset because I wanted to know what people thought.

I walked to my car which was parked far away and decided to call my mom. I was filled with pride and righteousness and just wanted to talk about it with someone.

And that's where everything went wrong.

My mom and I talked for a bit and she offerred a gunshot congrats and then turned the conversation to me asking for help with my education. She attacked me for giving out $1000 and then turning to her to help me with my living situation and loans (if anyone doesn't know, I pay for all my school, living, and misc expenses on my own practically). As I got in the car and rushed to a class I was already late for, I slowly started to unravel. Our arguing became more and more intense and it finally got to the point where I exploded and yelled at the top of my lungs. I almost lost control of my car a few times on the freeway trying to control my anger. I finally hung up on her and tried to calm myself down before I got to class.

Lucky for me, this class was just a potluck and there was no final. So when I arrived I couldn't hold in my emotion and I asked my teacher if she thought what I had just done was good... to which the class responded with great appreciation. Then I talked with my teacher for a bit and she gave me hope in the world again. We talked about everything I had said in my speech and she encouraged me to keep going. My mom and I made up and decided to talk tomorrow, and a very good friend of mine listened to me rant when I really really needed it.

When the potluck ended, I had a crazy idea to see if I could get to the scholarship presentation in time to see some of the people after the show. When I got there, I was fortunate to find the girl I awarded the scholarship to along with her family. The words they spoke to me, especially her dad, were among the most gracious and purely complimenting words I have ever heard spoken about me. I was humbled beyond belief but took the opportunity to talk about how much she deserved the money. I ran into a few others who found what I had done very encouraging and amazing. All their words and their reactions literally changed my life. Giving felt so amazing, and inspiring others was more than I ever could've hoped for. The world did have good people.

After that I hung out with Tristan and Phil and Breanna and unwound for a bit.

Friday 5/16 -After an emotional day like Thursday, I was hoping Friday would be a bit calmer. But it wasn't. I spent most of the day e-mailing my parents and coming to a compromise about how they could help me out a bit. It took nearly the entire work day, but we finally got there. Work was still very busy and it was hard to stay focused with everything else going on.

Later that night I picked up my friend Amy and went to Lauryn's senior recital. The show was very nice but also made me sad as I was brought back to my theatre days.

After that we all hung out at Ihop pretty late. I took Tristan home and fell asleep after another full day.

Saturday 5/17 - I finally got to sleep in a bit on Saturday. When I finally woke up I was greeted by Tristan and Phil. We all decided to go swimming at Tristan's place. First I went to Old Navy to buy some swim shorts and other stuff, then me and Tristan went and got some awesome coffees at Sbux. We got to Tristan's house and made some more coffee drinks and then went swimming. BAD IDEA. I don't know how I managed to not throw up after 2 large iced coffee drinks and about 2 hours of pool basketball and wrestling.

After that Phil, Tristan and I got some icees, ran a few errands and then they dropped me off at Kyle's house so we could rehearse our song. Kyle and I did that for about 45 minutes and then my parents came to pick me up for dinner.

Dinner was interesting, it was mostly cordial and awkward and it turned bad at the end when my parents began to fight about my older brother. They dropped me home after and I wasn't feeling too great. When I got home I realized I had left my sunglasses at the restaurant so I went to go get them and then I went and bought a DVD stand at Best Buy.

When I got home from all that, I left right away to meet Tristan and Phil at the basketball courts, where we played for about an hour or so. Then we got some drinks, went back to my place and played Rock Band for a few hours. When they went to sleep, I stayed up pretty late watching some movies.

Sunday 5/18 - Another crazy day. I woke up and got some food and went straight to the Oak Ridge Theatre for the benefit show for the late Mr. Healy. When I got there, the organization was terrible and I found out there was no one to run sound. I decided that I would step up and run sound. So then I spent the next two hours scrambling trying to figure out how we would disperse 5 mics among over 10 performers. I had to figure out sound cues, when to play music for performers and when to turn on the ambient mics to make the piano loud enough.

The show went off without a hitch, the performers were fantastic and I made very few sound errors. The hardest part was when I turned on the mics for me and Kyle and then ran up on stage to perform my song. Then I ran right back down after my song to run sound for the rest of the show.

My song was awesome by the way. I had a blast performing for the first time in 2 years and I definitely missed it. It felt good to sing again. I got a positive reaction to it as well, everyone told me I had a good voice and that me and Kyle blended really well. Video to come soon...

So the show finished and we all went to Chilli's for a bit to hang out. By this time I was sore and tired and beaten down, so I stayed for a bit and then met up with Phil and Tristan to hang out for a bit and chill. Around midnight we all headed home. And now I've spent the last two hours doing laundry, cleaning up my place, and studying for my final tomorrow night after another full day of work when I need to catch up on a lot of things.

And writing this blog of course.

Tags: epic, week, b-day, death cab for cutie, jason mraz, theatre, rent

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