My Fourth Of July and How Rebecca Needs Insurance

     I've never been a very fearless child. I can't swim, ride a bike, or pop fireworks. That third one is sometimes a problem around this time of year. Now that I'm a teenager and not looked at as such a little kid, I can avoid fireworks with more ease. Fireworks just make me jumpy and give me heart attacks. To me they are just little red bad ideas. Most of the time parents teach their children not to play with fire, but on this particular summer night, they hand them the fire. But this isn't even normal fire. This fire is loud and pops everywhere and at everything.
   My family always has an annual Fourth of July party and this year my friend Rebecca tagged along with us. Besides multiple bug bites, everything was going well and we were having fun. Then my niece, Maria, pulls out packs of 100 count Black Cats. Black Cats are little firecrackers that you light in your hand then throw before they explode. I was a good sport and threw two but then decided to just sit down and hand them the fireworks instead. Maria has been doing them for years. I remember being much younger and her having all kinds of explosives in one pocket and a lighter in the other. She would always drag me along with her to set them off so I trusted her. Rebecca on the other hand has always lived in Corpus Christi, a city an hour away that has too much concrete and too many bans against this sort of thing. Needless to say, I was weary.
     As the night grew on Rebecca gained more and more confidence and eventually was competing with Maria. It was a game I used to play (and always lost at). It's like a game of chicken. The Black Cats have a long enough fuse so that when they are thrown they don't explode in the air and they do on the ground. What the players do is hold the lit firework in their hand then throw it at the last second so that it does explode in the air. Maria was in the lead and Rebecca kept gaining confidence and making me more and more nervous.
     Then Rebecca did what Maria and I kept warning her not to do. She held on too long. The firecracker went off in her hand. Becca stared in shock. Maria jumped. I screamed, flipped and freaked the hell out. I thought my friend had just blown her hand off!
     As I was trying to catch my breath and return my heart rate to a normal beat Rebecca came towards me.
     "Can I have another one?"


To check out Rebecca's blog,  ***click here***

My West Side Story Story

     Here lately I've developed this fixation with the musical West Side Story. It has become my dream to play Anita and I swear to you one day I will. To do all those dances and wear those fun dresses would just about make my life...well, perfect. My theatre career would never (EVER!) get a high higher than Anita. I WAS BORN TO BE ANITA! I'm Hispanic, not Puerto Rican but Mexican is close enough right? I speak Spanish! It's fate!
   So as I started telling my friends about this, they revealed that they loved this musical too. Rebecca, Cris, Belle and Quentin all gushed with me. Rebecca and I discussed her playing the Maria to my Anita. Cris confessed that his favorite musical was West Side Story so of course he got a hundred times cooler than he already was. Belle told me all about when she teched for a production of it and I got so incredibly jealous! I knew Belle had done everything but West Side Story? Really?! That's my show!
     Perhaps the most memorable reaction was Quentin's. When I told him I was actually crying because I had just finished the movie and Tony had died. At first he thought something was wrong and was genuinely concerned. Once he found out that I was bawling because of a movie he made his black face that speaks for itself. It says, "Wow you're so dumb." and it's not very nice, as you can see.
     So yeah...you know I try to have a point to these postings...this one kinda didn't turn out so well. I guess the point of it is that I really like West Side Story and I will play Anita before I die. So yeah.

I'm so sorry for this utterly pointless post.

No, really I am.

My Chicken Friends and How I Have the Curse of Confidence

     I love my friends. I really do. But sometimes I just want to hit them. My friends are all chickens. When they see a cute boy they squeal and talk about him but they don't dare tell the boy or even give him a hint. It's like they expect the boy to just magically know that you like him. Hey ladies, guess what. Boys are idiots. They know nothing! You have to be very clear with these fragile creatures.
     Take for example Sound of Music callbacks. I was there with my friends Rebbecca and Madison, as we waited in the lobby we saw a boy sitting by the wall all alone. He was cute, very cute. For blogger privacy reasons lets call him "Adam". So obviously Madison, Rebbecca and I all thought he was adorable. They however refused to talk to the boy. They shot him looks sure but did they even say hello? Of course not. They expected him to read their minds and just assume that he knew. He didn't. So when I tried to go talk to him I was grabbed by my jugular vein, bound to a chair in a dark room, and then gagged by my friends...okay maybe not exactly like that. But it came close trust me.
     So when we went to go sit down I dragged my chicken friends over to him and plopped them down in his row. "Do you mind if we sit here?" I asked in my sweetest voice. He gave me a shy nod(ADORABLE!) and I sat next to him. Unlike my friends I made small talk and asked about his past shows, what high school he goes to, stuff like that. My friends watched in awe. Madison even took pictures.
     The lesson in this? Ladies, you are beautiful in your own way no matter what. Don't let someone bring you down, especially a boy. That's all he is, a boy. Go and talk to him so he can at least know who you are. Guys, stop being so dumb. Seriously!

The Musical Adventures of Flat Stnaley pt. 1

Adri (left) and Rebecca (right) backstage at boot camp

     At my local theater we are doing The Musical Adventures of Flat Stanley. The play, Flat Stanley is based on the book by Jeff Brown and Stanley Lambchop thinks his life is too boring. So one night Stanley wishes on a falling star and the next morning wakes up completely two dimensional. So Stanley gets mailed all over the world and has fantastic adventures. I play Mona Lisa and Stanley meets me in Paris and saves me from the Sneak Thief.
Saturday was Flat Stanley Boot Camp which lasted for almost eight hours. It involved dancing, running scenes, getting fitted for costumes, pizza and lots of laughs.
     Our morning consisted mostly of dancing and we ran the actual show a couple times. At around one we took a pizza break and when looking for a place to sit and eat in the lobby I saw my friend Adri siting in silence with our stage manager, Belle. Now, I only knew of Belle because she is so good at what she does and is awfully intimidating when she comes backstage to check on us. It's like some of these kids have no off switch but she comes over and they practically shut down. So I figured that she and Adri (who is a wild loose cannon and doesn't care what anyone thinks) might make lunch....entertaining.
     So as I sat down I noticed that there was absolutely no conversation. I looked at Adri, who I have known for a while and she said nothing. I looked at Belle but the silence didn't seem to bother her. So it was all up to little ol' me to strike up conversation.
     "What's it like being a stage manager, Belle?" I asked. Suddenly it was hard to believe that just a few minutes ago this girl was being quiet. Belle told us funny stories about all eleven shows she has teched for. She has the ability to listen in on your mic even when it's "off" ( WE DIDN'T KNOW  THIS!!!) and she has caught people singing, talking to themselves, flushing the toilet and even play "Never Have I Ever". Belle said one guy playing that game had licked the stage floor. Ummm what? This girl who was always serious, reserved, and quiet actually had a great sense of humor.
     Once the conversation came to a lull I could tell Belle had warmed up to us because she asked us "Are you guys excited for Tech Week?". For all you non thespians; Tech Week is the week before a show opens and it is when you either really shine or seriously fail. It's when the director is at his wits end and if you piss him off he will kick you out and recast in a second. Adri and I were both very excited and nervous, so we asked Belle what she thought.
     This is when I really got surprised. Belle said "Yeah I can't wait to yell at the actors." We both looked at her as if she had just said she lived on the moon and her hair was purple. Belle explained that Tech Week is when her stage manager abilities really kick in. The director cannot be backstage taking care of drama between actors, missing props, or anything that doesn't directly affect the show. That's Belle's job. So she asked us if any conflict between actors was going on. Of course Adri and I both just shook our heads.
     After lunch, costume fittings and some more run throughs, I was backstage waiting for my cue with Rebecca. That day people were working in the shop on set pieces for Flat Stanley. Rebecca and I both spotted this cute guy working on a set piece. As we were being fangirls our friend Brant came and asked what was up. We pointed out the boy and Brant said "You know he's probably here doing community service, right? Because he committed a crime..." Of course we ignored him.
     We went to go talk to to Shop-Guy, got his real name (that I won't put on here) and asked him if he was going to tech for Flat Stanley. His exact response was:
     "Actually I'm just here for community service."
     Rebecca and I froze.
     "Well, what happened?" I asked after a beat.
     "Oh you know. One thing lead to another..."
     After that incredibly vague response, Rebecca and I practically ran screaming back to Brant. Brant said that obviously Shop-Guy was a rapist. Rebecca concluded that maybe, just maybe, she has a thing for bad boys.




Brant and I continued to slap her.