I’ve had a very interesting couple of days!

Thursday I had classes until 12:05, which is a normal occurrence for me, however for my last class of the day (at 10:50AM) I had a high school student sit in with me. Her name is Dani and she’s from Connecticut. At any rate she is auditioning for the theatre program here at SUNY NP tomorrow morning. Break a leg Dani! So she sat in my Major Authors: Sylvia Plath class, where she got a feel for “real college life.” Haha…then we went to Hasbrouck dining hall, where we met up with some of my friends Adam and Trevor. We had some laughs and ate some good food (they had a lovey lunch assortment Thursday.) Afterward, Dani and I walked into town and chatted about upcoming auditions (ooo nerve racking), about what to do on the weekends, what clubs and organizations they have and living arrangements. We were about to approach The Groovy Blueberry, one of my favorite shops in town, when we approached her mom. So all three of us meandered around inside the store, oohing and ahhing at everything and anything with tye dye and peace signs. I didn’t mind staying in there as long as we did, because I don’t normally get a chance to just roam around town. I was really glad I volunteered for Spend the Day. It was a great opportunity to show someone around and make them feel comfortable! I hope we can see each other more next year! -)

After I dropped Dani off at the Haggerty Administration Building (her mom wanted to pay her deposit right on the spot)  I headed back to my hall. The sun was shining, the rain passed a while back, and now it was time to work out and get some work done before the show I was going to see. I had a ticket for “Size Ate,” this one woman show performing about her personal experience with body image. The program says: “Margaux Laskey’s one-woman show Size Ate chronicles this futile quest for measured perfection in a theatrical, sometimes musical and often hysterical retelling of her journey through obsession and addiction to something like self-acceptance. A non-linear tale of her adventures in body, food, and culture. This show is one woman’s honest commentary on the labels, images, and assumptions we all live with.”

So that’s how they summed it up, and I think it’s a good a summary. I did like her through out her journey on stage. She had a very open personality, that made it easy to be able to relate to some of her feelings and situations. However, I felt there were some things that could have been improved. For example, throughout the entire play she used these torso mannequins that were labeled 0, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, and 16. And they did their best to be the actual size of Imagine if you were in that audience to be aware of body image and to relate to this woman, and your weight, your size, your number, surpassed what was being represented as “fat.” What happens if you are a size 18, or 20, or 22? Imagine how that person in the audience must feel, that their size isn’t even being represented on stage. I just thought of that after the performance. Also, while I was discussing the performance with some of my friends, some interesting points were spoken about.  Ms. Margaux did fluctuate back and forth between being heavier and “full-filled” as she put it to rather skinny and anorexic. When asked the question an audience member, “Are you comfortable with your body now?” she answered, that she was indeed content with her body. But how did she become content with her body? I wish she showed the process of how she finally became healthy. I wish they promoted the idea of exercise and eating right into her performance. Also, is she finally content with her body because she is thin, because to be quite honest, she was on the thin side. Although you definitely looked past her body during the performance, would people respond better if she had more “meat” on her? Or do you respect her more because she completed the task…she became thin. Hmmm…curious.

**Just so you know***

If you need to talk you can contact the SUNY New Paltz Counseling Center, at 845-257-2920, where they are opened from 8:30-5 Monday-Friday or you can check out http://www.newpaltz.edu/counseling/

Also, If you need some BODY-POSITIVE INSPIRATION, here are some websites:

www.sizeate.com and www.sizeate.blogspot.com

www.adiosbarbie.com, www.bodypositive.com, everwomanhasaneatingdisorder.blogspot.com, www.evolvedeating.com, www.jessicaweiner.com, www.loveyourbody.nowfoundation.org, www.mamavision.typepad.com, wwwnationaleatingdisorders.org, www.overcomingovereating.com, www.something-fishy.org, www.webiteback.com

At any rate, it was a good performance all in all. That night I had Sexy Pitch rehearsal….go a cappella! We actually have a performance in Scudder Hall on March 5th, which is this upcoming Thursday! You don’t wanna miss it! Then I went to bedy-bye and woke up for my Friday classes…oh joy! This blog is already particularly long…(how does that always happen to me?) So…I’ll have to write another one about today!

I really must go to bed. It’s 2:30 in the morning, I can’t turn off the movie Titanic, and I have to be on a bus at 8:30 to go ice climbing tomorrow. I know…WHAT? ICE CLIMBING! I’m really excited….I hope all goes well! Alright, well I guess I”ll have to let go Jack, and jump into my comfy sheets. Ah. Happy Zz’s!

So it was a while back that I finished my R.A.D. Women’s Self Defense class, but I really really wanted to post about it, because it was such a wonderful, empowering experience!

R.A.D stands for Rape, Aggression, Defense. The classes took place Tuesday and Thursday nights, Jan 29th, Feb 3rd, 5th and 10th from 6-9 in the Student Union Building’s Multi Purpose Room. So that’s 12 hours of personal protection, information, and hands-on basic self-defense techniques! This class is for women only (sorry dudes.) For all SUNY New Paltz students, staff and faculty, it was $10, and $15 for the general public!That’s just a little backtground information, but it was truly a great experience.

It’s a class that’s  trained to get you through basic physical defense mechanisms for women. On the first day we went through this large yellow packet that informed us of all sorts of things: the R.A.D. objective, general definitions, basic principles, self defense and the law, abduction, risk reduction, the date rape mentality, pattern of the date rape encounter, using the hand as a weapon, lifetime practice policy, vulnerable locations, and being familiar with the defensive mind-set.  PHEW that was a mouth-full. It may sound like jibber-jabber now, but don’t worry, you go through it with the officers who run the program. You can also ask a ton of questions to make sure you’re truly comprehending the information. All in all, this session was very desciptive.

For example,  did you know that if a guy and girl are drunk and the girl seems to want to have sex, but passes out and doesn’t give verbal consent, it is considered rape? I didn’t. In fact, what was actually considered rape was always a foggy line with me and now I’m glad to know that line sharpened in my mind. The quoted definition is, “An act of intercourse is rape if it occurs through the use of the victim’s mental incapacity or physical helplessness. Physical helplessness is defined as unconsciousness or any other condition which renders the victim physically unable to communicate an unwillingness to act and about which the accused knew or should have known. Thus, if alcohol or drug use causes a person to be unable to consent to sexual intercourse, having sex with that person is rape.” Also, the definition of rape in the packet is: “sexual intercourse with a person against her or his will, through force, threat and/or intimidation.”

Since us classmates had so many questions, we mainly started using pad-work on Thursday. For the remaining 3 sessions, we learned so many new maneuvers. I’m just going to put up some pictures, because I feel that’s the best way to describe it!

Funny right? I had to put this up.

We learned that what’s really the most essential form of defense is using your verbals. Most girls who say no, say it timidly, so it can be misinterpreted as her not really meaning it. You want to make sure that the guy really understands that you mean business:  by using your verbals full force there’s no misinterpreting.

The last day of class, we went through something called simulation, where the two male officers wore heavy-duty padding ALL OVER THEIR BODIES. Then we go through several situations where we might be attacked or double teamed, and we have to use what we learned to defend ourselves. We’re wearing padding and equipment too. Don’t worry. I was sooo scared for this class. “What if I don’t remember anything? What if I freeze?” But you know what? Not one of us quit and said we couldn’t do it. We treated it like a real situation and we all succeed through it. I actually wish we had more simulation trials throughout the class, after I realized first hand that my instincts would kick in…of course. Here are some pictures during simulation. Don’t be intimidated by all the padding! NO ONE was hurt during this, I promise! It was actually pretty darn cooooool!

Right in the groin.

And…he’s down.

There should be another R.A.D class coming in March, and I’d love to attend! I’m hoping my schedule will grant me that! I mean, how else am I going to practice? Oh, and bonus! For all those who already took R.A.D can come to classes for free!!

I highly highly recommend doing these classes if you can. It’s extremely worth while, and only 10 bucks!To be honest with you, I signed up for these classes because I initially thought it would be a rewarding work out, not because I was nervous some guy might attack me.  However, I was informed about things I never would have thought of before, like check the back seat of your car before driving away. I mean, you never know what crazy person you may encounter, right? It’s not good to be paranoid, nonetheless it IS good to be safe.

Besides, I couldn’t believe when Officer Kelsey told me that these classes never fill up. In fact, this is the largest class they’ve had in a while! PSH, who knew? Well below is a picture of the entire class after similation with Officers Jenelle Kelsey, Johnny Coxum and John Ritayik.

To register/find out information please call UPD Officers Johnny Coxum or Jenelle Kelsey @ 845-257-3340 or e-mail them at coxumj@newpaltz.edu or kelseyj@newpaltz.edu.  If you want to check out more information of R.A.D in general, the website is www.rad-systems.com

Truly, all women should take R.A.D. It’s always good to be knowledgeable and ready to defend yourself if need be.

Hope to see you gals there!

Oh happy day, it’s the weekend!

Hope everyone had a splendid Friday and such. Last night I was at the Winter Formal with all the Sexy Pitches. At 7:30, we sang 3 of our most up-beat, fun lovin’ songs. I was sportin’ this green get-up from forever 21 and some jade colored eye-make up to close the deal. It was fun to get all spiffed up and attempting at the stylish route while singing my heart out. After a little a cappella, I danced it up with my roommate from freshman year in the Student Union Building’s Multi Purpose Room. I love Liz and I miss her greatly! At any rate, it was so nicely decorated, with snowflakes and white lights in the formation of icicles.  Christine Sweeney and I had some shirley temples, which were scrumptious and then we went out on the dance floor! You know, it was a really nice idea…and I wish the whole school attended as if it were prom in high school. Because it was such a sweet notion, with everyone dressed up to kill and dancing….UH, lovely! I had such a nice time shakin’ my booty off! I get into it, tis true. They even had a backdrop set up where you could take pictures of you and your group. They printed them out within 20 minutes! CUUTE! You know, NPBlogger Jesse was one of the people running this entire event, so I bet she has more information on the winter formal. I just thought I’d touch upon it, since I really thought it was cute and a grand ole’ time!

On Thurs. night the Sexy Pitches and Absolut A Cappella performed a dorm performance in Deyo Hall. So many people showed up, and I just want to thank all those lovelies for coming and supporting the love of music! Thanks again! It was a fun night. Absolut had a bunch of dance-able, crazy tunes like Mambo Number Five, which made me laugh and laugh! Oh I love how they have fun with whatever they’re singing! Us Sexy Pitches debuted a new song as well. Maybe I shouldn’t give it away, because we are performing tonight at The College Terrace on campus (behind the Sojourner Truth Library.) Maybe I should just say to come tonight, and find out! That will start at 10pm tonight to hear more a cappella sing-sations! Get there early if you want a good seat. Ya know.

Obviously I over-estimated my arm-length here. Everyone else looks sexy, while I look like I’m trying to catch my balloon which I mistakenly released into the atmosphere.

It doesn’t even look like my mouth is open, but I swear to you I’m singing.

I love Christine Sweeny’s smile in this. She’s the one in the black shirt singing the solo, “Killing Me Softly!” In the picture, she’s a little to the left of my flailing arms.

All these pictures are courtesy of Christopher Thurston. Thanks!!

Before the concert, today is going to be my reading/homework/laundry/cleaning/working-out day. That won’t be the most joyous thing in the world- I won’t sugar coat it. However, tomorrow is going to be great! Although I was on the waiting list, I’m going to Hunter Mountain to go skiing again! BOOYAH! I hope the weather is nice (with some sun, less wind preferably) and easy does-it on the amount of ice. That would be great. To be honest, I’m not going with ANYONE I know…I just signed up on my own. It was a nice deal! Twenty-five smackaroos for lift ticket, equiptment and lessons if need be. If I wanted to try snowboarding I could take the instructor, but to be honest, I just don’t think I’d have fun. I want to speed down the mountain in tight turns– seeing how many runs I can do. It will be nice to just have a hard ski day and then on the bus ride home, just read or listen to some music. I love being around people, but sometimes it’s nice to rejoice in solitude.

So those are the plans for the weekend! I hope everyone is relaxing!

Kristen

HEY ya’all!

So I don’t know when everyone else has winter break, but SUNY New Paltz doesn’t have ours till mid March. Well my brother at UAlbany has theirs this week, along with my parents (who are teachers on Long Island.) At any rate, since they all have off, they’re going to Canada to go skiing…without me. We use to go every February break when my bro and I were in high school!

Although I’d really like to go with them, their trip made me think about how I went skiing not too long ago and how much fun I had. I took some pictures from that trip and I thought I’d share them with you. It was so nice that the sun was shining and the wind held off (until at least noon.) And in case any of you were wondering from a couple of posts ago if I made it to my class, indeed I DID! I had to book it at 1:15 PM from Windham Mountain to get back to New Paltz by 3PM for my Live Theatre Experience Class….but I did it. Phew! Here are some pictures of that glorious day!

The bra tree….

Diamonds are a girl’s best friend…

With the Windham pig!

Although I wish I was spending time with my family on vacation, I have to remember that I did have my own skiing fun not too long ago. So I have no right to be disappointed, right? Haha…well….

At any rate, if anyone wants to check out Windham, here’s the website: http://www.windhammountain.com/

I might be skiing next weekend! I signed up for the ski trip to Hunter, but I’m on the waiting list. Fingers crossed! I just wanna hit the slopes some more! <3

Enjoy!

Kristen

Alright, so it’s 10 past 6 in the morning and I’m getting ready to go skiing! It’s my first time skiing this ski season! I’m so excited! I’m going to Windham, which I haven’t gone to since I was younger. (Probably in elementary school?) At any rate, it’s been flurrying nicely for the last couple of days and I think the conditions are gonna be SAH-WEET! I actually just checked the website and they have 46 trails open, 30 trails groomed, and 6 to 7 inches of new snow!

I normally wouldn’t have a chance to do this, since I give tours of the campus Wednesdays, but a really kind-hearted girl named Rita switched with me! So I’ll be giving mine this Friday instead! Perfect!

Ever since I came back from London (which I know, I know, I still have to blog/put up pictures/put up videos for!) I’ve been at New Paltz working my butt off trying to get in shape! I went to a couple of cycling classes, and I spoke to a girl next to me who said she goes a lot so she can get ready for skiing. So that’s a good sign! I’ve also been taking R.A.D Woman’s Self Defense classes (had my 2nd class last night) and I absolutely LOVE IT! I can’t wait to blog about that as well! So anyway, hopefully I’m in shape enough to hit the slopes hard until I have to get back here for my 3:05 class! Fingers crossed that all goes spendidly! 

OHH and tonight ladies and gents, I’m going to the Gala of Freshdance. Gala is where all the theatre students get a free ticket to see a mainstage production here at SUNY New Paltz. So I’ll be seeing that tonight! Tomorrow they are half price for students so get those tickets while they’re hot! Freshdance is a student choreographed  recital featuring students moving to all different kinds of dances. It’s always an exceptional experience to attend, and I’m really pumped to check it out tonight!

At any rate, I probably should be eating some oatmeal and getting dressed outta these owl PJ’s I have on. Everyone enjoy your Wednesday!

P.S. This is a reminder to myself…I would like to post about last weekend! I even have videos so when I catch a chance I’ll try and do it justice. Homework has been brutal!

Ok have a Whacky Wednesday!

So, from what I’ve heard, the Spring Semester is right around the corner, and it is a doozy!  Supposedly, the Spring Semester is a little more intense than the first, but I say bring it on.  It’s going to be here by tomorrow and that’s final -we can take it.  That being said I hope all of you had a splendid vacation and are ready to be back.  The winter break is a good chance to get away from schoolwork, roommates and various other New Paltz related things, to realize how good you had it, and that you can’t wait to come back.  Truth be told, that seems to be the way it works every time.

Now normally, I would talk about something and then place a song choice at the bottom, but I say no -I am going to talk about the song I will recommend to all you readers (Thanks, again):  “Who Put The Bomp” by Barry Mann.  This is a classic little Doo-op ditty that is juts chock-a-block full of fun.  Just today, I was in Rite Aid (I know, good times!) and I heard this wonderfullicious track playing over the generic, plain, normal celing speakers and I wrote down a line for later.  Later, I entered that line into Google to find out what it was, and then played it on YouTube!

Simple, right?

Ever since then, I have been busting out all sorts of whistling and dancing (with my room door shut) to this track.

If you don’t believe me, well then see  for yourself!

Barry Mann, “Who Put The Bomp”

Happy Semester,

Matt

: D

Hi-ya gang! How was break? Was it dandy?

So after the Goldie Locks Adventure at the Preschool, soooo much has happened! So so SOO much! I wanted to make a little video about the events. I DID make a video in fact before Thanksgiving break, but somehow it didn’t get downloaded. Such a darn bummer. Therefore, I guess I’ll just have to write about what I did. However, I have some videos for your visual stimuli satisfaction. SAH-WEET!

So let’s go back to 2 Wednesday’s ago. That’s right…come back with me to Wednesday, November 19^th. So later that day, I went to a lecture on Internships! I’m so up in the air about internships. I want to do one this summer, because they really REALLY give you connections in the theatre world. Nonetheless, I have a couple jobs at home during the summer, and I want to travel, and I want to see my home friends, and GOLLY GEE so much.

Ready….set….watch!

Then Thursday I was interested in attending something called Interfaith Dinner. I’m not a very religious person. It was just the way I was raised. However, I am a spiritual person and so I wanted to experience this dinner where all different religious groups on campus came together and to share their faiths with some good food. I was thankfully invited to sit at the Hillel table to eat with my friend Renee. I’m just happy something like this exists on campus; a celebration of accepting all different religions. It was a free, loving Thanksgiving dinner, a week early.

VIDEOS and PHOTOS.

Look what a little kid drew!

Meg DiMaggio pointing out the lovely center piece of gords.

Chowin’ down at the Hillel table!

Renee Levine has knife and fork in hand.

Delicious!

Director of Hillel: Ellen, in the pink.

Ginormous Turkey!

Some of the prayers.

Some music even!

Here are videos of 4 different religious groups on campus in action at the Interfaith Dinner.

OH and plus, I went to see the midnight showing of Twilight in Poughkeepsie that night, which is about 25 minutes away. I never read the Twilight books, and I was afraid I wasn’t going to be able to follow along. Uh…it’s a human and a vampire falling in love. How difficult did I think it was going to be? But ya know what? I LOVED the movie. I heard mixed feelings about the movie from Twilight fans, but I just fell in love with the story…and oh…Robert Pattinson! UH… DREAMY! I thought they did a great job of taking a fantastical concept and converting it into believable, beautifully awkward moments. I asked my mom and dad for all of the Twilight books for Christmas, probably like every other thirteen-year-old girl, but I DON’T CARE!! I will be having a lovely time this winter break reading up on Edward Cullen and Bella Swan’s love story…and juuust being a romantic mush.

Here’s a bunch of us seeing Twilight at the midnight showing!

Friday was loads of fun. I have a lot of classes that day, which ISN’T fun, however, I had a group project due in my English Lit 1 class. We had to summarize a canto from Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, point out and research the allegories represented in the canto, and do a close reading of a couple of stanzas. My group and I had to teach the class what happened in Canto 10. To help the class comprehend this difficult canto, my group and I had the idea to make a skit incorporated with modernized language. That way, the class could laugh, have fun, AND understand it for that tricky final coming up. We asked for volunteers from our classmates to read parts and they really had a blast with it! They loved our references to things such as Twilight, Charlie the Unicorn, and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Fellow pupils (that’s right, I actually used that out-of-date word for students) came up to us and said how good our presentation was and…WOW…it was such a wonderful, rewarding feeling!

Here’s a picture of my group and I, after the class was over!

Liz, me and Joanna!

Saturday was a nonstop day! Didn’t even get to sleep in! But hey- I made some dough, so why should I be complaining? I went in at 10am to work in the Admissions building to help with all the mail we’ve been getting this year! WHOA so many applying to New Paltz, it’s insane in the membrane!

All the Student Ambassadors who came in that day had a lot of laughs, eating bagels in the morning, pizza for lunch, and just opening mail or working at the computers (like I did.) I worked until 3pm and then at 4pm I met up with a friend who graduated last year. Her name is Lizz Guzzman and she has a heart of gold with a brain of gold to match (I think I just made up a new expression?) At any rate, we sat at the Plaza Diner, which is right in the Stop N Shop shopping center in New Paltz, for 2 ½ hours because we just had so much to share. She’s so inspiring and bright, and just one of those people that is so relatable. She double majored in Theatre Arts and English last year, and last year she won the “Outstanding Undergraduate Award.” Here, check it out… http://www.newpaltz.edu/english/workscitedvol1issue5.pdf

After having such a lovely time with her, I had to race over to get ready for Our Sexy Pitch performance at 60 Main. The Sexy Pitches is an all girls a cappella group. We opened for fellow New Paltz student Sophia Wortzel, who was my suitemate freshman year! This is her myspace: http://www.myspace.com/sophiawortzel Here check out some of these videos I took.

Sorry, it was kinda dark in there!

Oh and hey, the Sexy Pitches debuted our new song that we arranged: Killin Me Softly with His Song. Check it out! I got it on Viiiiiiideo! Boo ya!

So thanks for playin a little catch-me-up with me! I hope you enjoyed the aplethora of videos and such! Have a not-too hectic Tuesday!

SUNY New Paltz has changed its class scheduling since I’ve been a freshman here. When I was a freshman (and sophomore I might add), the earliest class time was 8:30AM, everyone had a common break period from 11:15AM until 12:30, and not having ANY Friday classes was still attainable. (My roommate doesn’t have any Tuesday OR Friday classes. She’s the only one in existence whom I know that got away with a schedule like that. Lucky dawwwg.)

At any rate, that free day that was usually seen as a Friday is now a Wednesday- smack dab in the middle of the week to give you a nice, ole’ rest. As a result, a lot of groups, organizations and clubs meet on Wednesdays (since they have time to.) I have my Alpha Psi Omega or APO meetings at 11AM every Wednesday. Alpha Psi Omega is the National Theatre Honor Society that I was inducted to last semester. We like to be active within our community by supporting the arts, especially theatrical opportunities. Here’s the link about APO if you are interested or would like to know their history… http://www.alphapsiomega.org/history

Today, instead of having our normal meeting, we went out and did volunteer work. Well I don’t really look at it as volunteer work because it was so much fun…AND CUTE! Today we went to a Preschool in New Paltz, located adjacent to the elementary school. Two cars carpooled the bunch of us on over, but it was quite a dilemma actually getting there. The reason being, it was early in the morning, people were late, and oh, we didn’t know where we were going! People had to keep calling for directions, yada yada. Ya know, it sounds frustrating, but actually, I haven’t laughed that hard in weeks. The driver of the car I was in, Lauren Kennedy, was driving along 32 North while we were all searching for a blue house. We found one on the right side of the road, and pulled into the driveway. We found out it DEFINITELY wasn’t a school. There were rotting pumpkins out back and a turned over goalie net and two blue dumbbells that matched the color of the house …. Yeah it wasn’t our destination in the slightest. Everyone was just being silly since we were already late. Sometimes, those unexpected times can be the best of times.

Finally, we found the school and it was uber close! I don’t know why we all got so off course. Ah well…once we all arrived, we all had SO MUCH FUN! And you know what was hiiiiiiiiiiiigh on the Awww-scale!? While we were waiting outside the door of the classroom, we noticed their agenda written on the dry erase board, which had “Alpha Psi Omega @ 10AM.” AW! We were on their board! They were expecting us and anticipating our arrival! YAY! (I feel like I’ve been saying “Yay,” a lot, since this morning anyway. I even say it sometimes in the videos!) Speaking of videos…

Here they are! YAY! :-p

Here’s us performing Goldie Locks and the Three Bears for the 1st time with the kiddies, with some APO students acting it out!

Little Miss Muffet sat on her tuffet (a shortie but a goodie!)

Goldie Locks & the 3 Bears with PRESCHOOLERS being Goldie Locks and the 3 Bears. One girl wasn’t too fond of being the blonde star…”I don’t want to do this anymore.”

The final Goldie Locks with Lauren Kennedy as Goldie Locks wearing her stylish new wig! There are 3 new bears of course!

After we finished performing we wanted to talk to the kids about costumes and how they can put something on and become an entirely different person. Since Halloween just past, we discussed how on Halloween everyone wore a costume and pretended they were someone else. For example one girl said she was a baby bear and her mom was a mama bear (how appropriate with our storytelling of Goldie Locks!) So Flannery asked her, something like, well you were a bear for Halloween, but you aren’t a real bear right? You don’t live in the forest, do you? And she shook her head no. So we used examples such as those to help get our point across. And for fun, we brought in easy costume pieces or props so the preschoolers could all take turns wearing them. I took a bunch of pictures of these smiley sillies (APO sillies included.)

Flannery Spring-Robinson, our president of APO, introducing the idea of costumes to the preschoolers. She’s trying on some baby-bear ears.

He’s eyeing the ears.

I don’t really think blonde is your color, Paul.

Laughter with the preschool teachers.

Shari Griswold, sporting the flapper hat! We went to HS together, Shari and I.

Lookin’ cool.

I’m discussing hard hats. I think that’s why I’m holding my head here.

The cool kids plus dorky Paul in the background…ruining their image.

Got your hand.

Future Vogue star.

A friend helping out a friend.

One girl is lost in the depths of the 20s hat while the other girl likes petting the fuzzy hat.

Boys can wear girl hats. Hey-boys used to play girls ALL THE TIME in Shakespearean days.

The girls love him, or maybe they just love his hard hat.

She was always giggling, this lil gal.

She’s jaded by all this popularity. Haha. The boy, on the otherhand, is just overwhelmed by all of us bombarding them with costumes.

Paul with the classy ladies once more.

AHHHHHH! The fury hat is eating my brains! Uh…just to clarify he didn’t say that. If he had a thought bubble above his head, that’s what I’d write.

APO and all the preschoolers, still sporting some costumes. YAY!

So all in all this was such a fun morning! I hope you enjoyed the videos. I know there are THREE Goldie Locks and the 3 Bears videos, but they were all a little different with the kids and stuff, so I just couldn’t cut one!

Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare opens tonight, November 13th @ 8pm and runs until the 23rd of November. The play is performed in Parker Theatre. I saw it tonight at the Gala performance and it was a wonderful performance! And the upstairs of Parker Theatre looks fabulous! They gutted it out to make a food service in the lobby, so they completely remodeled it! WHOA!

Here’s the information:

Tickets are $16. To get tickets call 845-257-3880 or go the McKenna Box Office from 11:30-4:30 (I believe those times are pretty accurate. If you’re unsure, you can just call them up.)

I know the price seems a little steep, but listen up students: tickets are $8 ON THURSDAYS! And $14 bucks any other day if you let em know you’re a student! So take advantage of that I say. You have 2 Thursday’s to see it for cheap! (General admission is $16).

Break a leg for ALL INVOLVED!

Alright, talk to ya later gator.

Saturday night was GIRL’S NIGHT! So it was just me and my best friend Renee Levine. We’ve both been “hella” busy, as Renee, the Californian native would say. Therefore, we wanted to hang out and get a chance to talk. We haven’t seen each other in a dog’s age. Since we were both finished with our obligations at 5pm, we planned to meet up and then decided we wanted to go to this event called Dance Evolution 2008, The Joker’s Revenge.

Dance Evolution was an event of all sorts that took place at the New Paltz high school, which was a 3 minute drive to get there! So close! Even if you didn’t have a car, they had shuttles leaving from the Haggerty Administration Building circle on campus, so you could make it to the event on time and without paying a cent! However the event was 4 bucks if you lived on campus and 8 bucks if you lived off…so not ENTIRELY free. I drove Renee, my friend Akeem, who lives in the same suite as my brother at UAlbany, Angie, and Lisa, Angie’s roommate. Dance Evolution was SUPPOSED to start at 6pm “sharp,” but there were major technical difficulties and it almost started an hour later than anticipated! To be honest, that was a little frustrating. This is no fault to anyone, especially the performers. Heck, I’m sure it was frustrating for them too, but it was a while to sit in the audience and wait for the show to start. At any rate, everything turned out alright. The event had several entertaining acts, as well as an enthused audience. Let me show you!

Below are several videos! The first one is the National Anthem sung by Paula (I didn’t get her last name) and the black National Anthem.

Video of M’Powered! 9-17 year olds dancing hip hop and African dance! This dance group is A-MA-ZING!

Video of Culture Shock 1^st part

Video of Culture Shock 2nd part

This guy rapped a song called “Bubble Butt.” Obviously he could have sang, “Mary had a Little Lamb,” and the lady audience members would have still loved him.

Then after the concert, Renee and I were starving so we drove into town and decided to try this new sushi place. It was called Hokkaido. The restaurant was a cute little place and we were excited to get a nice meal, but uh, we couldn’t find the door. There were stairs on the side of the restaurant, but no doorway. So we actually walked around the building a couple of times until we finally found the entrance around the corner. AH. So we sat down, ordered some endamame, and some rolls. For those who don’t know endamame is a healthy appetizer. Here, I’ll copy and paste what Wikipedia says about them: “endamame is a preparation of baby soybeans in the pod commonly found in Japan, China and Korea. The pods are boiled in water together with condiments such as salt, and served whole.” I ordered the common California Roll and the Shitaki Avocado Roll: both hit the spot!

Then after we had some “us” time to talk and catch up on each other’s lives and thoughts, we went back to Renee’s apartment on Main Street, which she shares with three other people. I changed into my pj’s which I brought from my room and jumped on the couch with Renee to watch Thirteen going on Thirty. I bought that movie over the summer and haven’t really had a chance to watch it yet. It was an uplifting chick flick, but there were parts of it that were SO SAD! However, it ends nicely, thank the lord. It stars Jennifer Garner, Mark Ruffalo and Judy Greer. I really love Jennifer Garner. I find her acting to be so genuine. Anyway, it was a nice ending to a nice night. Our girl’s night, sleepover was a success!

Here’s the trailer for this movie!

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2209546521/

In the morn we got up at 8am since Renee had work at 10:00AM and the Bistro, right down the street, was calling our names for a hot meal. So we got all freshened up and ready for some breakfast. The Bistro is always SUPER CROWDED so we wanted to get there early. Never have I ever walked into Bistro and sat down right away. There is ALWAYS a wait, because it is just that well known. However, today, we made history, by being seated right away. We were right by the door, but we were sitting! We both ordered the Breakfast Special, which is 2 eggs any way you like, homefries and 2 pieces of wheat toast, all for a little under $2!! Isn’t that amazing? It’s handy for all us poor college students, that’s for sure. Anyway, as soon as we were delivered our meal, the power went out….I’m not kidding here. The power just went, Ka-poot. So I saw another historical moment: The Bistro had to actually TURN DOWN customers, because they wouldn’t seat people until the power went back on. Crazy! And it wasn’t just The Bistro that lost power- it was all along Main Street! Starbucks had a sign on the door saying it was closed due to the power outage, and I know my friend who lived on Main Street didn’t have power…insane! While we were eating Renee looked at me and asked, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” I wasn’t sure, but she said, “I’m thankful we got our food before the power went out!” Wow were we on the same wavelength with that one!

I took a picture of some of these robots that were on the wall of the Bistro. They were called Junk Bots and they were on display for purchase. Interesting. Renee’s favorite was the robot that had a body similar to the shape of a piece of bread. Do you see it?

So I went out to eat a lot, at least one meal each day of this weekend, but it was fun and worth it! Plus I got to spend it with good company.

Alright, mucho sleepy. Must go to bedy bye! Night all! <3