It’s been too long since I blogged last. Far too long. So, I guess I better explain myself. And while I’m at it, I think I’ll go through my entire first semester at college; it makes sense to do this all at once.Okay, so some of you (the Twitter folk who are online when I am) might have seen that I have my own room now. Well, this action resulted in the modem being disconnected from the room I am currently in. Now, this would have been a very simple process of reconnecting it in the other room if the cable was long enough, but it wasn’t. No, instead my brother said he’d replace it. He didn’t. Our neighbour did, eventually, at which point my NaNoWriMo novel was in distress of not being finished. I had to verify my word count in college!Anyway, I digress. See, even when we got our Internet connection back up, I couldn’t get on my laptop. The reason? Drama. Lots of drama. Starting on Monday, November 30th, here were my plans, which also included college Monday to Friday:- Monday: Drama at 7 until late.
- Tuesday: Drama at 7 until late.
- Wednesday: Drama at 7 until late.
- Thursday: Choir at 8 until late.
- Friday: Setting up flats at college for the Drama, and Christmas shopping until late.
- Saturday: Work and a mass until late.
- Sunday: Dress rehearsals all day, until late.
- Monday: Plays on stage; at college at half five until late.
- Tuesday: In DIT for competition until late.
- Wednesday: College choir service until late.
- Thursday: Plays on stage; at college at six, then to college Christmas party until the early hours of the morning.
- Friday: Recovery (though I still attended college)
- Saturday: Work, then work Christmas party until early hours of the morning.
- Sunday: Work... then I collapsed in front of the TV.
- Monday (i.e. yesterday): Ice-skating.
It’s been hectic for two weeks, as you can see. Fun, but hectic. The plays we put on were Donalbain and Bang Bang You’re Dead; the first a parody of Macbeth, in which the title character leaves for Ireland (as scripted) and ends up in Playboy of the Western World shortly after its ending (every character was aware they were in plays – great craic!) and the second play was a serious piece of work written after the shooting in Columbine High School in April 1999.
I had roles in both plays; I was Witch 2 and Attendant 3 in Donalbain, which meant I had to be high pitched and hilarious (could have been worse... Witch 3 was gay!) and I was Actor 3, the Witness and the Principle in Bang Bang You’re Dead. So what did I get out of the Drama? Well... (list time!):
- A greater understanding of Drama (a big help considering it was one of my modules for the semester... and the whole “I’m a writer” thing)
- Confidence in front of a large crowd (for the audiences were quite large!)
- The ability to speak loudly without shouting (thanks to Emma O for that!)
- A huge group of friends (*ahem* Laura, Ronan, Eileen, Siobhan, Colin, Emma O, Emma B, Anne, Megan, Rónán, Niamh, Bobby, Cabrina, Mark, Fian, and the all-important directors Deezie and Nigel)
So take that? Seriously though, Drama is highly recommended at third level. We had so much fun, especially when Nigel made fun of my inability to be loud in his play (Bang Bang) despite the volume of my Gingerbread Man impressions from Shrek and my acting as the Witch in Donalbain. Then the lead (Colin) copied me with that little trick of not speaking louder when Nigel says, “Louder!” Good times...
Aside from Drama, I made lots of friends in class. I’m part of a big group of ten people, three of whom were in the plays, and it’s made the transgression from Second Level to Third Level so much easier! We “fooze it up” daily, have great laughs at lunch and constantly point out that Kevin’s dad is a lecturer. (seriously, Kevin’s dad lectures us!)
Readjust yourself in your seat, I’m not done yet!
In choir, we were approached by a woman trying to organise a Liturgy Committee for the choir, so that the priests know what we’re singing in mass, and so that we actually can sing it all. Fantastic news, really, since I had to organise a mass liturgy for college and spent the entire first semester learning about it.
In work, I have lots of extra hours for the holidays. And I had that super fun Christmas party! It was my first time out with the job, so it was a new experience... but very fun! We had pizza, then they all got drunk. Some more so than others... Fun... (seriously though, it was fun).
Writing... oh yeah, there is the small matter that I finished NaNoWriMo! Take that new room, with your eating up eight days in the month on me! The book isn’t finished, and with Drama I haven’t even touched it in a fortnight, but I won! I got fifty thousand words in 30 days (less, really, considering the unholy distractions). And I’m sure there’s more...
Yes! I got a poem published in the college magazine. It’s on YouTube. See my little bar at the top of the post to see the video (or go to my channel http://www.youtube.com/writeranonymous and look for Little Bo-Peep, the Revised Edition).
And I have my plans for a couple of plays. And more notes on The Jump. And a plan for a straight to blog book. And and and... that was bad grammar. I’m not sorry, though.
Now to abandon you just when you thought I might have more to say. I have books to read, things to write... ah, more lists I suppose!
To read:
- Columbine
- Tales of Mystery and Imagination
- Metamorphoses
- Let the Great World Spin
- Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
- Playboy of the Western World
(and that’s just for now...)
To write:
- More nursery rhymes
- More poetry
- A play called Down
- The Jump
- The Wedding Singer
Okay, now I’m done. I’ll try blog more as stuff comes up. But yeah, an interesting semester at college. Lots of friends, lots of writing, a new hobby, new literature (to read and to write) and a whole future ahead of me. This is my greatest adventure to date.
