Rent... the 3rd and 4th time

Ok.... So my goal to update this more through college... epic fail. hahaha

So, I am a slight freak, and have been checking Broadway Across America at least weakly if not daily to see when the Rent tickets for Columbus, in January, were going to go on sale... On Friday three weeks ago, October 23, Rent dissappeared off of Broadway Across America! needless to say I FREAKED out. It was still listed on Siteforrent and everywhere else but I still started panicing and sending emails to everyone that could possibly help me or tell me that there was a mistake. I got a response from Broadway Across America Columbus that it had been canceled... Again with the freaking out... I then informed other people and sent a last frantic post on Rent's facebook wall. Initially they informed me that tickets hadn't gone on sale, but to keep watch on Siteforrent, and then within 5 min they changed their reply to say that it was indeed canceled and sorry for their mistake. I was online when they replied initially, so for those 5 min I was just about the happiest girl in the world, and then pretty much FREAKED out again... I then had a 2 hour conversation about it with my other RENThead friend. It's listed in my notes on Facebook, if you want to read it. It's pretty funny, now that I look back on it, we were really upset. The only thing that was good about finding out on the 23rd, was that Rent was going to be in Cinci the following week, as in it was opening in Cinci the day after I found out Columbus was officially canceled. I planned on driving down on Sunday at all costs to see it, and told my sister, well, she asked my parents and they said no... I was worried something would happen so I spur of the moment drove down Wed night after my classes were over. I got there at 5 for an 8:00 show so I entered the lottery to win the front row seats... MY NUMBER WAS CALLED!!!!! I was one of the last ones, but my number was called! I only needed 1 ticket and pretty much skipped over to pay my $20. I was shaking so bad I couldn't even use my phone to call my friends and tell them the good news. So now for my story about sitting in the front row in the 18th seat to the right...

AMAZING... I was sitting in the orchestra pitt... I can't even explain the experience... Being only a few feet away from the stage, was one of the most exciting things I've ever experienced... It was awesome to get to see their facial expressions up close! I love all of the faces Adam makes! And I could still see people when the stage went dark, so I had fun watching what people did when they weren't in the spot light. I also noticed the cast talking to each other and laughing together when they weren't being focused on and their mikes were off. ahh! It was such a good experience. There were a few parts that I couldn't see because I was so close, but I've seen most of this cast twice already, so I still imagined it. Anthony fell off of the chair when he turned around to look at benny... haha Omg it was so awesome! Caren Tackett was Maureen again! I love her so much! She is my favorite Maureen! My parents don't understand why I like seeing shows so many times, but each time is unique and different and while they're all amazing I value each individual time, each seat in the auditorium, each understudy I get the privilage of seeing preform. Broadway cares was going on and once again I got to talk to Gwen Stewart! She is so lovely! I told her I was sorry I didn't know that it was going on and that I would have brought more money if I'd known. She said it was ok and gave me another hug and told me thank you for donating in Pittsburgh. After I'd talked to her I went to the stage door, and I guess I missed Adam, but Anthony signed his book for me and I froze up... I mean it's like the 3rd time I've seen him at the stage door and I'm still slightly star struck... haha He started "What You Own" right in front of me... feet in front of me... I could almost touch him... Ahh! I can't even begin to describe. And then when he came down the line to me I froze... haha oh well. I talked to some other RENTheads at the stage door and one girl told Anthony she had a dream about him when she was 10. I guess he responded that no one had ever told him that before... hahahaha ahh so funny!

Anyways on Sat I went back to Westerville to see my old high school's play "Acts of God" which my sister was doing tech for. We managed to convince my mom to convince my dad that we should go see it. And we got an extra hour of sleep, which was good because my friends were in town from their schools and my sister was out late for the cast party.

The next day we left bright and early to try to get there to enter the lottery again... Sadly, the time change threw me off and instead of giving myself just an extra hour, I used two. But luckily We still got half price rush tickets in the loge, and as we were waiting outside the theatre, I ran in to one of the girls I'd met Wed night. We were standing talking and all of the sudden we see Adam walking towards the stage door.... haha so we casually power walk the opposite side of the street and cut him off. He had his guitar and starbucks and we were like, Adam, could we get a picture? He said he was already late, and couldn't do pictures, but that he would sign things! So there was a mad rush while everyone got everything out and he signed things and was still really nice. Then, as we walked back towards the theatre entrance, we ran into Andy Senor and talked to him breifly about how he liked Cinci and his dislike of Skyline Chili... haha As we were talking to him, Anthony walked past! He kinda gave us this look like "I'm in a hurry, don't even think of stopping me right now" and it made me smile, and one of the girls I was with went and shook his hand. Ahh it was pretty awesome. The show was brilliant as always! It pretty much went as it's supposed to. I didn't really see any flukes this time that I feel need to be mentioned. Though I am pretty sure that Anthony changes his dance in Tango Maureen every week or so. I think I've seen 3 different dances before Joanne responds "Wow" haha I wonder if he mixes it up just to see her reaction. Anyways I'm in love with him, and I'm sad that I'll probably never get to get a picture with him. Oh well. Maybe someday. haha I got a lot more of the rock feeling since I wasn't right on stage this time. The sound was awesome in the theatre in Cinci. I'm excited to see Spring Awakening there in Jan.

Well it's late, and I have to type a paper about the lecture I went to tonight... but anyways I'm going to try and update more... haha like that'll happen. I want to document my life more, so I can look back on it. I don't really care if other people read it or not. It's really just for me.

<3 Laura

Summer and OWU

So... It's been about 2 months since I updated... what a busy two months! I had a wonderful time in DC and got to see Spring Awakening three more times. I saw three different people as Thea and it was amazing to see the differences! Going to the stage door after every show was also a blast. The day Sarah and Lindsay showed up, we were walking around China Town and discovered the Jonas Brothers tour bus... haha We signed the bus and met a boy band named WOW and then went to dinner... We had no intentions of actually going to the concert, but then I got talked into buying three tickets for $50. It was pretty amazing. The lighting was awesome and the concert was actually better than I thought it was going to be so that was nice. We also went to see Harry Potter 6 at midnight and that was a lot of fun, though I got angry about once every three min of the movie... haha I always read the books before going to see the movie even though I know that it's not a good idea. Sarah met someone else who was going to Miami... Small world. We also went to 42nd Street and on the way home we were blaring "Bitch of Living" and I almost hit a mouse or something running across the road and I screamed which caused everyone else in the car to scream. It was funny. We had fun visiting all the museums and doing the average sight seeing. The last day was slightly awkward but other than that it was a really good time.

A week after I got back from DC, I left for Drummond with my family and we went up a week ahead of Max and Lacey. I spent time hiking with my grandpa, sleeping, reading, eating wonderful home cooked meals, and painting with my grandma. I also found out that we had fox so I got to watch SYTYCD! After my cousins came up, things kinda sped up and I didn't get quite as much accomplished. We watched movies almost every night and I stayed up later on my computer because Lacey had her computer. This meant that I was waking up later and didn't have as much time to just chill and relax. We went shopping and through a home tour and to Scotts Camp a few times because the first time PJ was there and then the weather wasn't good. We had a scavenger hunt that we created for other people. My sister included MJ and Anthony Rapp in mine, which made me laugh. We also replaced the space heater in the cabin and Max scarred my dad pretty good by sticking his hand through the hole in the wall. We had a nice last dinner at my grandparents and then got in the car and headed towards the Ferry. When we got out of the car in lower Michigan it was suddenly 90 degrees when the last time I had been out it was 60...

When I got home I started getting ready for OWU. I found out that Tues there was supposed to be a meteor shower and I really wanted to go, but it was already around midnight and I didn't really want to wake anyone up but then Lauren changed her facebook status to say that she was going to look at stars and I called her and was like "I wanna come" and then I went and let my dad know where I was going. It was me, Steph, Lauren, Danielle, and Katie S. Danielle and I sat out on a doc on Alum Creek off of Africa Rd for a long time and enjoyed the stars but everyone else was creeped out so they stayed by the car. After a while everyone went back to Lauren's house and then we stayed out and watched from her house until 4 in the morning. We saw a lot of shooting stars even with the cloud cover. I ended up staying at Lauren's until the next morning. That night I went back out again and took Katie B with me to watch from the house on Africa. It was a lot clearer and we had a lovely view.

Thursday night, I went to see the Time Traveler's wife with my friends at midnight and then spent the night at Danielle's. It was such a good movie. Everyone was sobbing by the end of the movie.

The next night I went to Megan's house and watched 17 Again and cooked s'mores and hung out. I had to go home early because I moved in the next day and I wasn't completely packed. I moved in the next day.

I was greeted by the FreshX team and they called my group of friends that had come to help me move in my "entourage" it was pretty funny. The joke was kept up throughout the entire time at FreshX. lol

FreshX was an amazing experience! Everyone in my group was so nice and we all became close really fast. Our van was known as "The Chosen Sperm" and the van in front of us was "Greg's Mom" it was great. We all got into extremely deep conversations and it was easy to learn to trust everyone. We all shared extremely personal facts and it was a wonderful time. We got to play a whole bunch of games. My favorite was the wizard and gelflings. The hardest game was Left, Right, You, Me. We went hiking and canoeing and on the last day we went white water rafting and then to cracker barrel. Group C also won the fashion show on the last night, so we got to make s'mores first. :-) White Water Rafting was amazing! We had Cory as our guide and he was so funny! No one fell out of our boat (Group C stuck together). we all got to jump off of a rock into the New River which was a lot of fun, and I faced my fear of heights and falling off of rocks.

After we got back to Campus I crashed right away. The next morning I got up and went back home to get a few more clothes and stuff that I hadn't brought the weekend before. I kept in contact with my Fresh X group and felt kind of bad cuz I was invited to a frat party at Chi Phi and wasn't allowed to bring my roommates, but they seemed cool about it. The party was fun, there wasn't any pressure to drink, so that was really nice. Everyone was really nice and funny, even when drunk. Orientation has seemed really boring and kinda lame, but we're tye-dying our shirts, so that should be fun.

I'm gonna try to keep this updated as my freshmen year goes on, but we'll she how that works out... lol :-)

Life...

So... I'm officially done with high school! It's really weird, I'm not sure that I'm ready for it to be completely over... I'm the only one from my school going to OWU and that's gonna be a strange change. Some of my closest friends have been my closest friends since elementary school, and it's gonna be weird without them next year. A lot of people got really emotional during graduation, but it deff hit me a lot more a few weeks ago after my final dance recital when I went out on stage with my dozen roses, in my prom dress, while mrs. straub read my bio. I think that's when it hit me. Graduation just didn't really have that effect. Afterwards, I talked to a whole lot of people and took pictures with everyone in my family who came. My friends are also an awesome group of people and we felt the need to take a hsm pic in our caps and gowns... haha

so here it is. I'm the one on the far right. I had my grad party yesterday. It was with my best friends, sarah and stephanie. We had it at the everal barn and it was a lot of fun. A ton of people came, and I gave so many hugs that I couldn't even guess the general number. Hopefully I'll update this more often now. I'm gonna be at Camp Akita starting on Wed, so it won't be updated until at least the 20th and then I'm going to DC sometime around the 1st so I'll update at some point from my aunts house. I'm also going to see a chorus line tomorrow! yey! I love that show! :-)

Rent: the 2nd time

So I went to Pittsburgh today to see the show again. I was sad because Telly wasn't going to be in it, but looking forward to it none the less. We went to Subway for dinner because we kept getting lost, and I wanted to get in the theatre about an hour ahead of time so that we could buy all of our t-shirts and stuff. After everyone got what they wanted, we went and waited in line to go into the auditorium (which was really small, and not as pretty as the Ohio, but still pretty, and the sound was amazing!). I ended up talking to an usher for about 15 min of the 30 we had to wait before we could go inside about Rent and dance and how we'd come from Columbus and such. Time flew, and soon she told us we could go in. Our seats were fantastic! We were in the 10th row on the right side and the seats were laid out so that I could see the entire stage perfectly! We got to see four understudies and that was really exciting. Caren Tackett was the most amazing Maureen ever! I loved her... seriously she was fantastic!!!! It was fun getting to see all the other actors go on too, and seeing how they made the role their own. I have to include this detail so that I never forget... lol Anthony Rapp did a dance that involved circling his hips and shimmying in the middle of Tango Maureen, and it pretty much made my life! He also did some dance move while Adam introduces him during La Vie Boheme that made me giggle. Adam threw his guitar pick out into the audience and I was like who ever gets that is the luckiest person ever! Adam seemed a lot more into the show this time, and he was smiling and seemed to be enjoying himself more (though that may come with getting to know people in the cast better and adjusting to tour life... idk) The amp didn't work right for the first "The power blows" before Rent, and after a little bit Adam gave Anthony this look that said "say your line anyways!" and Anthony went ahead, and for a while you could see Adam and the rest of the cast laughing in the background. Justin did his wings during Happy New Year which made me really happy. I'm about to fall asleep sitting here.... so hopefully I'll be able to remember more tomorrow and I'll edit this post.... lol

I have issues... lol

So anyways it's like 12:30am and I am up watching Rent and SA videos... like seriously I'm addicted and may need help. Like I don't know what I'm going to do next year when they aren't on tour anymore... I may cry. I've spent so much of this school year planning and looking forward to seeing Rent and SA... I'm such a loser... :-) Anyways I realized that Rent is a little more than a month away and I started freaking out today at lunch with Marissa whose coming with me. It's also sad that I think I may be more excited to see Rent again then I was when I went to Austria last Spring Break with my school's orchestra...

I also found out today that DMA is not going to be in NYC next summer! WTF???? I really was looking forward to tagging along with my fam and just going to see shows... I really wanna see Billy Eliot. Oh well, maybe it'll go on tour soon and come to Columbus!?!? that would be fantastic! Is it bad that that's one of the reasons I don't want to go to Miami, because its in the middle of nowhere and I wouldn't be able to drive home to see shows...? Like I said I have serious issues... On the plus side of not going to NY next summer, it means I can get a job and some money to spend on all of these excursions that I plan and not blow everything in NY... Plus I have to pay for college and OWU is not cheap... Even with getting a academic scholarship for about $21,000 every year, it's still expensive, but hey at least I already have a car! :-) Thanks grandpa! lol

I'm just throwing in this little bit of info about myself... My alarm goes off every morning playing Rent, and then before I leave I usually listen to the beginning of SA (I always make sure I get to My Junk because I just love it and don't know why...) I usually leave in the middle of Touch Me, and then that song is forever stuck in my head during IB Math HL... I can also see the steam from the furnace on the roof in the winter, from my math class, and I have really wanted to go out and sing One Song Glory on the roof on multiple occasions........ yep issues... lol



<3 Laura

Spring Awakening and then some... :-)

I've been slacking... I've been meaning to keep up with this blog and it hasn't worked quite as planned.... So anyways there's been so much going on in my life over the last few weeks. I got my senior pictures taken and they are amazing! I'll post some at some point. I guess I'll just go by major events over the last month.

Spring Awakening- it was fantastic!!!!! I still think that my favorite musical is Rent, but Spring Awakening is only a tad behind. I saw the show Feb 5. I had dress rehearsal for competition dance from 5:15-7:15 and the show started at 8! I was like freaking out that I wasn't going to make it, but I got to the Palace at about 7:35 and managed to beat my friends to our seats. lol I was really excited for the show and after the first act went out and bought a t-shirt and key chain (I currently have SA, Rent, and Wicked key chains and a flashlight on my keys) and really wished that I had 40$ to spend on the SA: In the Flesh book. I kinda wanted a "there's a moment you know" t-shirt, but I didn't think that would go over well with my parents, and I prolly wouldn't be allowed to wear it to many places, although my hair would cover it. After the second act I was like, we should totally go to the stage door even though it's a school night, so we did. I'm really glad we did too, we got to talk to everyone and it was just us, two guys, and two girls who had driven up from Cincinnati because they were fans of Christy. We got to take pictures with a lot of cast members and didn't end up leaving until about 11. On that Sat and Sun I had a dance competition, but my friend Chelsea wanted to see the show again, so she got us tickets in the very last row for 28$. It was really exciting to see the show from two different areas. We thought that the lighting was awesome from the 10th row, but it was spectacular from the last row in the balcony. We also were able to see more of the entire picture from the last row, so that was cool. I ended up buying the In the Flesh book too, and then got some of the cast to sign it after the show. The stage door was a lot more crowded on Sun night, plus strike was going on so there wasn't as much room. We did get to talk to some people again, and everyone was really nice, but I'll never regret waiting for the cast on Thurs night, even if it was really cold and we waited for them to get done with notes. I don't have the pics from the first night (TC took them on his camera and he has yet to post them) but I do have the one of us with Andy Mientus on Sunday. Steffi D took this for us. Anyways I after the show I ended up spending hours watching all the Youtube vids on Totally Trucked, and became huge fans of all the cast members and trying to decide how I was going to get to see the show again.... lol I found out that the show was gonna be in DC from July 7 until the beginning of August, and it was gonna be at the Kennedy Center, where my aunt plays flute and piccolo in the National Symphony. I called her up and talked to her about coming down to see her play in "Capital Fourth" and then going to see the show with her. She got really excited and went and talked to the box office and found out she could buy tickets ahead of the public!!!! So anyways I get to see the show at least twice while I'm in DC. We have onstage tickets and I have one friend who's never seen the show coming with me for the first time, and two friends are driving to DC to see it the second time (they couldn't come at first because Abby is going to see Elton John and Billy Joel here in Columbus in July. Anyways I have like 4 months and I am still extremely excited! I haven't been to one of my aunt's concerts in a really long time too, so I can't wait for that.

Rent- We have 11th row tickets for the show in Pittsburgh over Spring Break!!!!! I might pee my pants! :-) I'm so excited to get to see the show with Adam and Anthony again!!! I felt so bad for Adam and the two herniated discs in his neck (it was weird, the same week that Adam was out, my physics teacher missed two days because of a herniated disc, and his daughter that weekend was doing Aida at her school...) Anyways I'm sure being home in LA has helped (hopefully) and I hope he's feeling better. Oh and get this... I took my senior pics 4 days after I saw Rent in Cleveland and I just happened to have my Rent shirt and some pics from the stage door with me, and my photographer was sooo nice she let me take some extra pics with my Rent shirt on and my tap shoes, and when we looked at the proofs it was pic number 96! wow that was ironic. Here it is, I ordered it, but this was the only one I think is cool with the proof numbers still there... :-) Also in this pic originally, I had a big ass bruise on my arm from giving blood two days before... but luckily it was easily removed by the talented people at Kent Smith in Pickerington where I had my senior pics taken. :-)

Anyways I'll post another blog as soon as I can, it should be about my senior retreat with my friends to the lovely Camp Akita, but I'm tired and ready for bed... I have to drive to Zanesville tomorrow to dance in one of the pageants that eventually leads to Miss Ohio... lol

I haven't blogged much since my xanga... this is exciting... hahaha

<3 Laura

My 18th Birthday

Well I've officially been 18 for a week now, though I haven't really taken advantage of anything (as in I haven't gotten a tattoo, or gotten cigarettes, or done something that I wasn't allowed to do before... haha) I'll start with my bday because it has probably been one of the most memorable days of my life thus far. The roads were horrible and my family and three of my friends had a 3-4 hr drive ahead of us to get to Cleveland. We were going to see Rent at 9:00 at the Palace and I was excited to the point beyond what I can express. We finally arrived at the Wyndham hotel at around 4 and got checked in with two rooms on the 11th floor. (I did make note that there wasn't a 13th floor, I always find it funny when hotels do that, I mean I'm pretty sure that they don't just leave a space there so really 14 is 13, but whatever... lol) When my friends an I got to our room we found it unmade so my parents called the desk and we got ready in their room, and then went to explore the hotel. We got to the lobby, but it didn't really entertain us so we went upstairs and looked in the ballrooms and tried to find the pool(which wasn't on the 2nd or 3rd floor). I suggested that we look in the basement, so we got back in the elevator and I pushed B and my lovely friends started flipping out about how we were gonna get shot or something (lol I love them) and then they all moved to one side and left me alone on the other (thanks guys... lol) Well the door opened and there was a vending machine! (haha not someone who wanted to kill us) and then on the other side a hallway that led to the pool. We got bored and headed back up to our room to decide what to do for dinner before the show. We decided to walk down to the House of Blues in the 2-4 inches of snow(we probably looked ridiculous). We found out that the cast had had a party there after the first show Tuesday night and that just got us even more excited for the show. As we were walking back to the hotel a car drove past that was blasting Seasons of Love and we yelled hi to them. We got back to the hotel at about 7:30 to drop off our t-shirts from HoB (our room was still not ready...) and then headed back out to walk to the theatre. My excitement was building as they finally let us go to our seats. I ended up being in the center seat, first row of the balcony(a 25$ ticket!!! I still can't believe it). When Adam walked onstage the audience went wild! I was screaming along with everyone else. Then when Anthony walked on I almost peed myself. haha Anyways after they finished singing Rent I had chills that stayed with me for the rest of the show. I mooed my head off at the end of Over the Moon and cheered with everyone else when Anthony got on the table to start La Vie Boheme. During intermission my friend Sarah and I saw this usher dancing in the aisle who was probably about our age and I was like "wanna come propose with me?" and instead of proposing we just looked straight at him to see if he would notice (I think he did eventually cuz Sarah said he pointed to us after I looked away... lol). Anyways the second act was just as amazing as the first and when Adam and Anthony sang What You Own I was blown away completely. I loved the entire cast (I was a little nervous about Mimi because I've seen a lot of videos on Youtube where I haven't liked her, but Lexi did a great job and I loved her voice (-:) When the show was over I stood up right away and screamed my lungs out. I watched Anthony send up his four claps and I sent a silent "Thank You" along to Jonathan. Then we walked out of the theatre and followed the small group of Rentheads to the stage door. It was really cold, but we stood and waited and when Anthony came out I almost peed myself again and started freaking out cuz we were in the back of the crowd and I am a whole 5'2'' lol A really tall guy passed my poster to Lexi (Thanks!!) and then I managed to get over the the side and push my way slightly forward so I could reach my poster towards Anthony. There were other people pushing their playbills towards him but he pointed towards my poster (yay!) and signed it. Anthony stayed out the longest in the cold to sign which I am forever thankful for! We stayed for about 15 min after Anthony went back in and then the security guard came and told everyone to leave so we headed back to the hotel. We spent the entire time walking back complaining about how Adam hadn't come out and then when we got to the hotel there was a very small crowd waiting. Adam was in the bar!!! He signed my poster and my Rent Bible and took pictures with us. Then we went up to our room to make sure it had been made. My parents came up shortly and told us they had ridden the elevator with Adam! (WTF!?! right?) Of course I was like "What floor did he get off on?" and my dad told us, but we didn't go stalk him cuz it was like 12:30 and they had two shows the next day. We celebrated for a while and then decided it was time to go to sleep. The next day after we had finally packed up, we were waiting for our car and we hear "Anthony Rapp! Anthony Rapp!" and he rushes through the lobby and out the door with a group of girls following. We assumed he was running late since it was 11:45 and the show started at 1, so we just watched and smiled and enjoyed seeing him again. Anyways I couldn't have asked for a better birthday and I'm certain I'll remember it for a long time... lol I'll post more about my first week as an adult later... haha I'm such a dork! :-)