Into the Woods

Today is yet another rainy day that I am spending at school. January and February are just rainy months for Texas. I kinda hate it right now though. Its super cold and wet (although it hasn't flooded, thank God) and I have to stay indoors, especially since I'm finally getting over this stupid cold.

My day started at 7:00 this morning, when I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep when my parents left the house. And then, thirty minutes later, my alarm went off. Just a little while back, my phone charger died, so my mom bought me a new one. Sadly, it doesn't reach to my bunk, like the last one did. So, to turn off my alarm, I have to actually get out of bed now. It sucks. But I suppose that its good, since I'll be getting out of bed faster than I normally would. I did spend an excess amount of time on my phone today though, which meant that I had showered and gotten dressed, but not packed or done my hair or makeup with 30 minutes until I needed to leave the house. And, in all of this rush, I remembered my water bottle and my cup of tea, but forgot half of my lunch. I made it to school and then to class though.

Class today consisted of rehearsing a scene a few times with a classmate, Gigi, who is this gorgeous dancer, about a year younger than me at the most. I swear, she makes me feel like an ogre who was dressed by a colorblind grandma. She's fabulous and her clothes make her look like she belongs in a magazine or something. She's not a bad actress either. After rehearsing, we performed along with a bunch of other groups in front of the class and received a bit of a critique for the scene. We perform again on Thursday, but for a grade.

After class, I retreated to my car and enjoyed a solitary lunch of crackers and salami slices and water and a granola bar. I spent at least two hours in the car, reading and playing ukulele and texting Andrew. At that point, it was getting too cold to stay in the car and I didn't feel like starting the car to warm it up, so I walked across campus to the cafe above the library, where I am now. I spent an hour or so writing. I've gotten almost 7 pages handwritten of the newest novel idea that I have. I'm kinda wandering around in the story idea, blindly trying to figure out what happens next and what has already happened.

Think of when you were an unborn infant. You couldn't see anything, but at some point, you became aware that you existed. Your brain had formed to the point that you could respond to external stimulus like your parents' voices and whatnot. But you're still kind of in the dark, so you're feeling around with your unborn hands and feet, trying to figure out what your existence is. And suddenly one day you get born and you have this whole new universe to explore and figure out, but you kind of have people to guide you along the way. I'm still at that point of unborn curiosity with my story. I don't understand much of anything, I just know that the story is there and that something is happening with it. I'm trying to get to the point where the writing will really start and the ideas will really start forming a definite outline of a story. Did that make any sense?

I think I might have to get some kind of snack from the snack machine some time soon. Stupid self. Why did I have to leave half of my lunch at home?

In other news, I went to see Into The Woods this weekend with Sarah and spent some time afterwards at the mall. I have fallen in love with the musical again. I watched a video of the onstage version when I was in high school in theatre class. I loved it, but everyone else in my class hated it, or at least acted like it. People in college don't hate it though. We go around singing and listening to the songs during rehearsals. I'VE FOUND MY PEOPLE. I've got the soundtrack and have been listening to it in my car as I go back and forth from school. I get to listen to it basically one and a half times each day, approximately. My favorite song has to be Agony. Or maybe just the part of Into the Woods with little red riding hood. Or the part on the stairs of the palace. There are lots of little parts that I like more than the whole.

OMG. There's a janitor/custodian lady who is cleaning up right where I am. Apparently, sweeping right by/under people's feet is okay now. Or maybe I'm rude for not being somewhere else. Idk. Its an awkward thing. Sorry.

Oh well. I'm probably going to go to the theatre building in a little bit and watch a movie on my laptop or memorize lines or write or read or listen to music or something.

-EW

Highlights and A Book Review

Good morning ladies and gents who read this here blog. Gah, I have some strange ways of starting a blog. This morning, I am coming to you from my kitchen table. I've got a cold and my youngest brother has a stomach bug, so he and I and my mother are all at home today, which is why I'm at the kitchen table, getting highlights put into my hair. I figured that this would be the perfect time to sit down and write my review of "I Am Malala" by Malala Yousafzai.

Malala Yousafzai is the girl who was shot in the head by islamic terrorists a while back and ended up surviving. This book is her retelling of the events and those before and after in her life.

Let me start off by correcting myself to some extent. Something that Malala states in her book is that she doesn't want to be known as the girl who was shot by terrorists. The whole reason that she was targeted was that Malala was an activist who spoke out for girls education. You see, Malala's father ran a school in Pakistan, where they lived. This school was special because it allowed for girls who lived nearby to get an education in a world where most girls stayed at home until they were married off. Malala loved school and, as the book tells, was quite good at it.

However, there came a time when girls were now banned from attending school. This was because of the terrorists that were in control of the country. It became dangerous for a female to even go out in the streets without her whole body covered and a man by her side. Many were beaten to death and even shot because of this. Still, Malala and her father worked to let girls be able to get an education.

Malala ended up doing interviews and a blog and other things speaking out for girls rights to education. This, of course, did not please the Taliban, which is why she and her father became targets and Malala was shot on the school bus on the way home from school on October 9th, 2012.

Her story didn't end there, though. Malala spent quite some time in the hospital, going through surgeries and getting better. And none of this hindered her from wanting to work for children everywhere to get an education. She speaks about it and has written books about her story. She was even awarded a nobel peace prize in 2014!

This book tells her story, and it is a really inspiring and eye opening story. She was just a normal kid, but she's made a huge impact. I ended up reading the "young readers version", which is put into language that can be understood by a fourth or fifth grader. There is more than one version of the book. My version had pictures in it also. I'd give this book a 4.5 out of 5 stars. It would probably be appropriate for someone in fifth grade or older. It was really interesting to read her story and know more about it than was told in the news. I'd recommend this book to a younger reader. I would say to be warned that some of this book deals with very serious, scary issues though.

I enjoyed it and I hope you do to, if you choose to read it. My next review will probably be of the book "Painted Girls".

-EW

WRITING AND STUFF

Howdy. Sorry about the fact that I haven't been blogging so much. It sucks for me too. But I'm back for now.

While I haven't been blogging much, I have been writing. I'm editing my novel bit by bit. I'm also kinda looking into getting an agent. My mom thinks that she can act as my agent or I can act as my own agent, but I'm not sure that I'll be taken as seriously that way. I really want to be published by random house or penguin or scholastic. Like, those are the publishers that you see in book stores most often. I want my book to be one that actually ends up in stores, not one that you have to order online, which means I need one of those. And agents only take 15% of what you make, which isn't too bad. Finding one is going to be the issue, particularly since I'm a new author and I'm so young and that this is kind of a new concept for a book. Ransom Riggs is the only author that I know of that has used old pictures in his books before now. I'm kinda so freaked out about thinking that I'll never be published that I'm constantly putting off editing the book. Plus, editing is not fun at all.

But back to the writing. I'm starting on another novel right now. I had this idea a couple of days ago (won't spoil it for you yet!) and just kinda wrote down a short paragraph about it in a notebook that I have dedicated to such things. Shortly afterward, I watched a lifetime dramatization of J.K. Rowling's life story and how she wrote the books kind of out of order and was living off of welfare at the time. She ended up buying a typewriter and typing it up at the request of her friend for her to finish the first book. And within three years, she was a published author and one of the richest women of our time. I thought it was an incredibly inspiring story, since I want so badly to be an author and to improve my standing. I don't want to live with my family forever. And writing and acting are my two passions, honestly. At least, at this point they are. So, I took the idea from the movie of writing the story by hand first. The woman had already written the last chapter of the last book before she had finished the first one! I figured that if Rowling could write out of order, so could I. So, I grabbed a couple of blank spiral notebooks and got started. I swear, each page is about a different thing. Some of them are notes and some are actual parts of the story. But its not that hard for me to keep going when I can write whatever part I want to. I can work on making them fit together correctly later on when I'm typing it up. There's a certain freedom to it. I don't have to worry about losing an idea because it belongs later on in the story.



I love writing by hand, too. I have this fantastic pen that I've been using. I don't get favourite pens often, but I love this one. Its green, of all colors, but I love writing with it. Its a "Frixion clicker" made by pilot. Its an erasable pen, so heat makes the ink fade, but I don't plan on getting the notebook warm. I keep it with me pretty much all the time. Plus, if it does fade, I can stick it in the freezer and bring it back to being at least partially visible. I need more of these pens. I could even use them in my theatre stuff since they're erasable. Pencil is safer though, for theatre. I plan to keep writing on this book this semester. I'm still stuck for the plot points, but plots have always been my downfall, endings especially. I get a beginning and then I get stuck. I do have a general idea of this one though, I just need to make sure that it doesn't go too fast, and I would love to make some smaller plots to go in and twist around the bigger one. I swear, I am full of words!

Late last week, my right eye started swellinf up for no apparent reason. I've gotten styes before (kinda like an eye pimple), but its been a long time since I had one. As it turns out, that's what it was. I've been taking anti-inflammatory meds (advil, naproxen sodium, whatever you want to call it) and using special eye drops and warm compress and all that. I think the thing that bothers me the most is not being able to wear contacts. I never realized how much I don't like wearing glasses. I feel like my clothes and hair and makeup don't look as good when I'm wearing them and that people are judging me harshly for it. Most of this is just my imagination being horrible, but I hate it nonetheless. I feel like that second grader that just got glasses and thinks people will make fun of them for it. In reality, it doesn't really matter, as long as I can see. But I've been so needlessly self conscious this week, which is ridiculous, since I've gotten more complements this week than I have in a while. A complement on my Elsa shirt yesterday. And on my combat boots the day before. And on my ukulele today (well, I think it was a complement, It was shouted from a car while I was in the parking lot, so I didn't hear it well). Self image is so weird. And today I went out of my way to make sure that I wore something that I felt pretty in, and that I made my hair and makeup look good. Today has been a good day as far as looks are concerned. I also just realized a few minutes ago that the skirt I'm wearing today would work really well for a 10th doctor genderbend cosplay. I just need a red tie, a blue collared shirt, red converse, and a trenchcoat. Rocking the pinstripes. *insert flirty wink and finger guns here*

Did that even make any sense?

I woke up yesterday with a sore throat and even though I've overwhelmed my body with vitamin C and other healthy things, its worse today. And the fact that I talk a lot because of theatre and sing a lot since I'm, well, me hasn't helped. THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING. I have a play to be performing in less than a month! Speaking of which, if you live in the area, you should totally come see it. I'll be performing it quite a few times. And if you're a blog reader that I don't know personally, you could totally come up and say hi afterward. Like a mini, not-at-all-even-slightly-famous-person meet and greet. I'll give more details about it a little later. Its during the last couple of weeks in February.

God, I've written a lot. And I've only been sitting here like 30 minutes. It took me that long to get blogger to load on my computer before that. I guess I just have all these words clogged up in me from not really talking to anyone all day. And with the caffeine on top of that. Andrew was away, so I haven't talked to him. Sarah's busy with whatever. Mom has been at work. I don't talk much to people at college. I just needed to talk. Thank you, blog reader, for being here so I can pour my soul out to you.

I swear, I will eventually be doing book reviews. I have one book read already, waiting for me to review it. And I'm in the process of reading two others.

Almost time for play rehearsal. TTYL!

-EW

The one where it rained

Hey ladies and gents! I'm finally back to the blog. I think I'm going to blog on Tuesdays and Thursdays when I stay at school all day. I get here at 11, and after an hour of class, I'm free until like  6:30/7-ish.

Today is a very cold, rainy day. It didn't seem like it, but it started raining on the way to college. The cold followed. I got to use the gigantic umbrella that my Pawpaw put in my car a little while back. The thing is, it makes me look incredibly tiny, like the Morton's salt girl and her umbrella or something.

I'm currently sitting in the cafe above the library, trying to be warm. My lunch was mostly warm, and I have a hoodie. But I didn't think and ended up wearing flats instead of my boots, so my feet and the bottom of my pants legs are soaked. Oh well. Maybe I'll have a cup of coffee a little later to help me warm up.

I'm sitting on the floor, since all the tables are taken, which sucks. I've got my laptop and kindle and a couple of dvds and a book to keep me busy today. If the rain lets up a little, I may go fetch my uke from the car and sit outside and play and sing. Maybe I'll find a place under an awning or cover of some sort. I'm listening to "Good Morning Sunshine" by Alex Day in hopes of driving the clouds away with happy, warm thoughts.

I was actually planning on writing a review for the book that I read the other day, but I really don't feel like it. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow or Tuesday. I should also probably work on memorizing lines or editing my book. Eeeew. Oh well.

I'll talk to you all later, I guess. Stay warm! :)

-EW

Happy Friday

I come to you this morning from a glass of chocolate milk, a couch, and an episode of Friends. I was going to be lazy this morning and sleep in. But I didn't really get to sleep, since the dogs kept barking. I got out of bed specifically to get them to stop, but they kept barking at NOTHING. So instead I was lazy by laying in bed and tumblring.

I started watching Friends as soon as I found out that it was on Netflix. I'm on like season 4 or 5. I binge watch this show, and its fantastic.

I made it to school and back without any problems yesterday. Of course, I suck at parking, so I looked like a fool. I pulled in the space crooked and when I tried to fix it it got worse, so I just stopped trying. I was technically in the space, which is really all that matters.

I actually did film a youtube video yesterday, I just didn't get to edit and upload it. I plan on doing that today. I also have to write a bio about myself to go in the playbill for the show and send it to the director. I should also start working on the first couple of assignments for my two classes that I'm taking this semester.

I feel like I am being the most boring person in all of bloggerdom right now. Oh well. Check on my youtube channel in a little while for a new video.

-EW

On My Own

Today is the first day that I will be driving to school on my own. I'm kinda scared. Every other time I have been driving with my mom in the car. But now I actually have my license (WHOO! I CAN DRIVE!) and I have school so I have to drive. I don't enjoy driving so much as you'd think I would.

I got up at 7:30 this morning. I showered and got dressed and organized some stuff and rented the one textbook that I need for government class this semester (Biology class got cancelled, but its whatever).

I am absolutely starving and there's nothing to eat for breakfast unless I want to make scrambled eggs or muffins, which I'm too lazy to actually do. Or I could eat trix cereal without milk. Or club crackers. Maybe I'll just buy a candy bar or something when I get to the college. And when I get home at like 1:30, I can scrounge around for actual food to eat.

Sorry I haven't been blogging. This week has been super busy and I've been so tired. I have had play rehearsal every night this week so far. I don't have practice again until Tuesday, thank goodness. Its from 7 to 10 each night that we have it, and I have to leave at 6 or earlier to get there in time and I get back at like 11. I scarf down food and go to bed immediately. I suppose it will be better when I manage to get into a routine.

I have to have something to eat. Maybe I'll vlog or something today when I get home. I missed tuesday's vlog for keeyss, but I should have one for next week.

-EW

HAPPY NEW YEAR! I'M BACK!

I know that my hiatus was kind of longer than expected. I missed the blog though. I'm glad to be back. And I love writing, so I'm not giving up the blog any time soon. I sincerely hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.

As far as what has been happening since the beginning of November, I guess I owe you an update. First of all, I finished the first draft of my novel. I still need to finish editing it, but I hate editing. The clothing month of Seven ended a little early, but it went pretty well. No real spiritual revelations from it though. This month is the month of Seven in which we give away 7 items each day. I'm kinda ahead, but I'm getting rid of a bunch of books and clothes, so that's why. In other news, I failed my driving test because of parallel parking. I know exactly how I went wrong, its just that the lady at the dps was a total jerkbag and freaked me out before the test started by telling me that my insurance went out that day. I cried as soon as I hit the little rubber post thing in front of the car and cried until I was half way home. My next test is next week on Tuesday, so be praying that I get it right this time.

I really need my licence because I won't have another way to get to and from school. Sarah is taking a semester off, so she won't be driving me. Plus, I've got play rehearsal every weekday from 6 to 9. YES, I AUDITIONED FOR A PLAY AND GOT THE LEAD ROLE. And I kinda need to get a job of some sort to help pay for college stuff. I'm looking at this semester and at least one more, probably two at lonestar, then going off to SHSU. And spending money would be nice too.

I think my first real job should be either around books, coffee, or craft supplies. Because my college is close to a few stores like this, it shoudn't be too horribly difficult. There's Hobby Lobby, which would be great because they pay great, or at least so I've heard. And working at Barnes and Noble or Half Price Books would be awesome because I would get to be around books. I love books. Like, I just re-organized my bookshelf a couple days ago and it looks awesome. I'm not sure if I would be able to work at a coffee shop though. I'm afraid that I can't remember enough or understand people taking well enough to take orders, which would put me cleaning tables and sweeping floors, which would suck. Idk. We'll see how that goes.

I started watching Friends on Netflix a couple of days ago. I'm already like 6 episodes into season 2. I love this show. And it makes me want coffee. So I've had a cup of coffee each day that I watch it. And it makes me miss the 90s. And I also relate to the characters a lot right now. Three of them have almost no income. Like, the jobs that they do aren't significant enough to make a decent amount of money. And I'm a lot like Rachel in that I'm all about making sure that I get what I want and working hard for it. I'm a lot like Pheobe sometimes because I can be really silly and ditsy. And I'm quite a bit like Monica in that I can freak out about things really easily.

Anyway, I've got to do some cleaning. See you probably tomorrow or something.

-EW