Day 63

Last night sleeping in the apartment in Minneapolis. Crazy. This has been one of the best summers of my life.

Yesterday:
We had 2 shows for HONK! And they both went very well. It was very fun working with these talented kids. Nothing bad went on during these shows. Yay! All was good. The parents provided a potluck for in between the shows and we had more food then all of us could eat. Before the evening show, we did warm ups and then Ed gave out compliments to the students. During the compliments, the stage manager came through and told them some things then wished them all good luck. Before he could leave a student called G... said, "Hey everyone let's give a round of applause to the best intern ever!" Everyone applauded, even myself...but I couldn't help but feel a little left out...but I'm an actor and I can hide those feelings. But about a second into the applause a whole bunch of students around me started yelling, "But what about Lydia! Don't forget Lydia." Which made G change it to, "The best duo of interns ever." He looked like he felt really bad about what he had done. Then when the stage manager left and we got back to the compliments, the three girls nearest me, who are some of my favorites...and some of the ones I have done favors for in the past, looked at me and said, "Seriously Lydia, don't let what he said bother you. You are seriously one of the best interns we have ever had." Awwww it was really nice that they said that. Made me feel loved again. :) Later I went into the girls' dressing room where some of the girls brought this issue up again. Some of them were mad about it saying that I was a really good intern and that it was awful of G to say that. One girl even said she preferred me over the stage manager. Awwwww, it was too nice. They really do know how to protect me. :)

After the show we had strike and then a little party where we ate some of the food from earlier and had some cake. This is when I said good bye to all the students and told them how awesome they all are. It was really horrible to have to say good bye to all of them, I really wish I could work with them all again. They were such a fun group to work with.

After the party, Sam, Sarah (costumes), Sean, Ed, and I stayed and continued cleaning up. I was sweeping up the room where we had cake. I saw that Ed was saying good bye to everyone else...and about to leave. I felt hurt that he hadn't come down to say good bye to me yet (yes, he knew exactly where I was). So I yelled to him, "Good bye Ed!" And he turned around and said a big OHhhhhhhhhhhhh. That fucking Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh is the definition our whole 3 weeks together. I do lots of shit for him, and what does he do for me? Forgets about me. Grrrrrr. So he said good bye and that he wished me good luck in the coming up school year. I said, "It's been great working with you." Even though at that point I was just super pissed at him. And he said "It's been great working with you too." Then he left. Wow he can be such a jerk sometimes. Oh well, it is over.

After I talked to Sean about it. Another "Ed Talk". He pretty much said that Ed is self-absorbed and that he just doesn't think about the people "beneath him". I really hate people like that. But Sean congratulated me on staying with HONK! and he said that it will help me later on with this career because there will always be "More Ed's and Debra's to work with." And now I know how to deal with them. :) So Sean really made me feel better after Ed left me on a sour note. Thank you Sean. :)


Today:
Today I started off in a depressed mood. I believe this is because I realized I was leaving...and it hit me hard. So I cancelled all my plans and decided I needed to be home by myself packing. But "packing" meant me throwing a few things in a bag and then laying on my bed thinking. When Karla, my roommate, got home she came into my room and asked why I was still home and if I was okay. I just started crying... I was pissed at myself for not doing anything today and that I had cancelled all my plans. But I really think it was all because I didn't want to make a big effort to do that much and that I was really quite sad about leaving. So Karla, being as awesome as she is, said that she would take me wherever I wanted...so I didn't have to ride the bus, which takes such an effort some days. But my friends that I "ditched" were already doing other things, so Karla asked if I wanted to go kayaking with her...I think she didn't think I would say yes. But the yes, really made her happy. So we went to Lake Calhoun and decided we would do a foot pedal boat instead of the kayak. It was really fun and this was my first time seeing some Minnesotan lakes. Karla and I had a blast.

After going on the lake, I went out to dinner with Melanie, an intern at CTC that I ditched earlier. We went out to "The Bad Waitress" and talked for a while. It was very nice and very relaxing. Thanks Melanie for hanging out with me! It's been great getting to know you.


Tomorrow:
I am going to Debra's Assassins rehearsal from about 10am to 1pm. Then I am coming home and doing laundry and packing the rest of my stuff. Then at about 5pm/6pm, my mom and Nana should be here. They are coming to pick me up to bring me back to Michigan. We are going out to dinner then we are packing up the car and going to stay at a hotel. Then bright and early on Tuesday morning we will be heading back to Michigan.


Crazy, fucking crazy.I cannot believe it is over. Seriously. Seriously it has been the best summer of my life. I have learned so much about theatre, children, this career path, Minneapolis, other people, and most importantly, myself. I am so happy with who I am and where I want to go with my life. I am now so sure about this career choice and it makes me so excited about the future and the journey I will have to make to get there. I am so excited for it. I will never regret my choice to come to Minneapolis for this internship. Even though I didn't get paid, paid a lot for rent and really didn't save money or whatever, I know what I have gotten from this internship is worth a lot more than the money I could have earned at a summer job or the money I have lost. I am so proud of myself for taking the risk to come to a new state, city, and theatre to try out something that I didn't know if I would really enjoy.

I want to take this moment to thank everyone to has made it possible for me to be here and to all the people who have made this experience the best ever. Thank you, you know who you are. :)

I plan on coming back here. So it doesn't feel like the end. If I don't come back here next summer, I know I will be back sometime in the future because this place really has a wonderful theatre scene. And it is not as "city like" as New York or somewhere like that. I can really see myself living here for more long term.

So I will probably do one more post tomorrow about the day and then maybe one when I get home saying more about reflection on the internship etc. But after that I will probably not be writing much here obviously because my internship will be over. But I am going to keep this blog, so that next year I can use it and continue writing about my experiences with Children's Theatre in the "big city". Thank you for reading all these posts and for keeping up with me. It's been great. See you back in the Mitten soon. If your not from Michigan, well, I will see you back in Minneapolis sometime in the future and please keep in touch.

Have a great night/day everyone!