Grab a cup, drink it up, make a battle plan...

Earlier this evening (well, yesterday evening technically) I had a wonderful cup of coffee with my good friend Trevor.
That was a terrible idea.
Not because of the concept, but because the caffeine in said coffee is now keeping me wide awake and sending my brain into overdrive.

I was able to drift off into sleep around 3:15, but then I received a call from my boyfriend at 3:45ish. Due to long distance/totally different and often conflicting schedules, this is a somewhat normal call schedule. So, here I am. Awake in that rotten time of night where there isn't even anything mindlessly entertaining to watch on tv. I love a good infomercial as much as the next gal, but even those aren't doing it at the moment - although I do want to try the Ninja Power mixer or whatever it was. Apparently it can do pretty much anything with the exception of cure the swine flu.

After a little while spent on the wonderful time eater facebook I stumbled across a countdown calendar application that I use from time to time. It informed me that it is exactly 200 days until I graduate.
Wow.
That is such an odd concept. It feels too far away and yet much too close.

I'm ready to move forward from the world of academic theatre. There is a reason that many of the theatrical textbooks I have used devote a separate chapter to academic theatre - it is a completely different world. It's been great, but in May I'll be ready to say thank you and goodnight to TheatreVCU - and that's what they want. They want to have prepared us well for the "real world" so that we can leave with confidence!

On the other hand... as my friends and I look into jobs and internships and cities for next year the reality that we will probably be splitting up is hitting.
I admit, I wasn't terribly close to many people in high school so going off to college wasn't all that difficult. My best friend is a year younger than I am and ended up coming to VCU, so even that wasn't too bad because for that year I saw her every time I went home. This is going to be a completely different ballgame though. The reality is setting in that I'm probably going to be in a different city than my good friends (and fellow stage managers) Kelsey and Trevor. We all have very different styles of stage managing and all tend to enjoy working on different types of theatre. This is usually a great thing because if we were all the same I think I'd go crazy after spending any length of time with them, but in this case it means we're developing very different goals that will take us in different directions.
The oddest part of it is to realize that even if we all made it to our parents' homes for... let's say Christmas (three theatres not having holiday shows? ha.) we'd still all be in three different cities. Richmond isn't "home" (well, it is for Trevor, but that's not the point) it's where college is. We've lived here for the past three and a half years and it's been great, but ultimately it's just been a temporary living situation.

That all sounded much more down and depressing than I intended it too. Sorry.
I really am excited to go out and stage manage and make art happen and such! Woot!
I apologize if my enthusiasm doesn't come through this late/early in the day, but it's there.
I promise.

Okay. I am going to get some sleep so I don't pass out in the middle of the lecture in sound design class. Being one of six student I think the professor might notice if I'm unconscious.

~Marley