The Epic Summer Of 2007

In the beginning of the summer of 2007, my younger siblings, Shannon, Christa, and Isaac all flew out to Vegas to stay with Dad for the entirety of the season.  Me, on the other hand, couldn't.  Why?  Because I wanted to stay home and perform in the musical Oklahoma!  Which was an amazing experience, and even though it seperated me from Dad, I wouldn't trade it for the trip to Vegas.  Namely, I met so many new people, made so many good friends, and learned a whole lot about acting and singing.  As hard as rehearsals was, I had so much fun with all of my new friends.

Those people are fast becoming some of the closest friends I've been able to make within the timespan of a month.  Interesting, eh?  Maybe I'm just becoming more mature and trusting, as it used to take over two months of knowing someone before I would offer my name.  Anyways, Kirsten, KK, and Mattie are some of the coolest individuals you will ever hope to meet.  Just make sure you're just as cool!  Each rehearsal went mainly like this: first, we would all get up and stretch; and I mean really stretch, like I was back in fourth grade gym.  You remember spinning your arms in tiny, tight circles?  Yeah.

Then we sing.  Practice every freakin' song in the entire musical.  Twice.  And then backwards.  And then in Spanish.

Then we split up, some of us working on one scene while the others work on another.  Choreography, notes, blocking, the whole shebang.  Breaktimes were the best, because it gave me a chance to talk to all the nine-to-thirteen-year-olds in the room.  Oh, right, YBAG isn't just for elder kids like myself.  YBAG stands for Youth of the Beaches Arts Guild.  Anyone between the ages of nine to nineteen can join up.  It's not bad.  As a matter of fact, I learned just as much from a couple of those kids as I did from the director.  At any rate, Christy Mull was my favorite eleven-year-old.  She's cool.  Then rehearsals would end at ten PM and I'd walk home.  Or at least, I used to until the director, Jen, found out and demanded I always get a ride home from that point on.  Christy's mom did so.  During every single one of those rides home, Christy would torment me.  But in the good way!  It was interesting, those rehearsals, and those rides home.  I learned about theatre, singing, and directing, and I also learned about... well, some certain things.

Oklahoma!, while it could never hope to be a great Broadway smash with us in it, was still as amazing as can be with a bunch of actors who are minors.  Me, I played Andrew Carnes, who's the overprotective father of the town slut.  Isn't that lovely?  The show went smoothly, we sang like angels, and the stage didn't burn down!  Yay!!  Oh, and another thing?  My cat, Cookie?  She was pregnant for two months, and I knew she had to give birth soon.  What I didn't expect was for her to give birth during the show, the one time I'm not there to witness it!  She had a litter of four, two black, two gray, one male and one female of each color.  I keep them in my room.  After consideration with Lauren, we named them Sirius (black male), Lupin (gray male), Lily (gray female), and Petunia (black female).

That time was absolutely incredible, if I should say so myself.  And I've got to say, it was pretty cool playing an overprotective dad who points a shotgun at anyone who so much looks at his daughter.  Why?  Because role reversal is fun.