Day Fifty-Three: Character Study

In The Toys Take Over Christmas, I'm the Cowgirl. The whole time we've been in rehearsal, I've just thought of myself as the Cowgirl, no name, just feeling out situations as I went. I knew the basics of my character, that I was upbeat and very excited about new things (ie. Sunny), but I hadn't spent enough time in my own skin. Tonight after rehearsal, I sat down and did a character study. My name is Jessie C. Buckley (the C. stands for Catherine) and I'm three years old and I have a horse named Midnight. I figured out my favorite color, food and pass time. I also thought seriously about my relation to each character. This has helped me figure out the finer details in my reactions to people.  Why do I react the way I do to Colette? What makes me believe the Toy Maker so fully-heartedly at first? Why do I want to be sold so badly? I feel like now, after my reflection, I can truly be Jessie C. Buckley, the Cowgirl.
-Libby Morehouse

Day Fifty-Two: Proof

Tonight I saw Proof at St. Michael's College. It is a play about two daughters who lost their father. He was a mathematical genius, and one of his protégés, when looking through his journals of work, came across a new proof. The story unfolds as they try to explain the proof, and figure out who solved it. I wasn't sure what to expect of the show; after all, it is a show about math, but I really liked it. The acting was good; the actors clearly knew their characters, and their backgrounds. The writing also was well done, putting focus of relationships, going back to memories, instead of focusing just on the math and the problem (quite literally) at hand. It was a surprisingly good show, but one I probably won't see again, at least not any time soon. I'm glad I went to see it, and I got back in time to still go to some of rehearsal!
-Libby Morehouse

Day Fifty-One: A Break

I've been so busy lately, and not getting back to my dorm until late at night. Most of the time after swimming or rehearsal, all I want to do is fall right into bed. I don't think I can keep writing every night. It has become almost like a chore at times. I will continue to write, and often, but not every day/night. I love having this outlet, but I do need to just write when I'm inspired, not as a requirement.
-Libby Morehouse

Day Fifty: Stress

Lately things have been stressful. I've been trying to juggle classwork, working, rehearsal and swim. I've never been that great at juggling and it feels like I keep dropping the balls.  I'm trying so hard; I love everything I'm doing, I just don't have as much time as I wish I did. I'm starting to get stressed. To deal with that, I've been working out. When I'm running I can clear my head and stop worrying about everything I have to do. The endorphins rush through my body and it's all peaceful. Today to de-stress, I also did yoga. It was relaxing yoga; I could just focus on my breathing and center myself for the week. I stopped worrying about getting up early to open tomorrow, I stopped stressing about losing my phone this weekend, and I stopped overthinking my quiz tomorrow. My brain was cleared, which is a great way to start a new week.
-Libby Morehouse

Day Forty-Nine: Sorry

I have no excuse. I should have blogged last night. I guess it completely slipped my mind. There was no reason for me not to write.  I let myself down by not writing, but also, I didn't clear my head before bed. I went to bed worrying. I still haven't found my phone, so I've been worrying all day. I hope it will turn up soon. I don't want to have to pay to replace it, but I will if I have to. My phone was my only alarm, so I'm not sure how I'll be getting up on time for classes this week.
-Libby Morehouse

Day Forty-Eight: Cold Friday

Today I got caught outside in the snow in my Birks. I had left my room to talk to someone in my building before class in those shoes, and I didn't have time before geography to put real shoes on. I thought I'd be okay; it was only raining a little. By the time class got out, however, the temperature had dropped. On my way to French it started to snow. I was outside, in a sweatshirt and Birkenstocks. In that moments, I was so happy to be a Vermonter, because I was used to the cold. Finally I got to my class, and I knew that it would be a short walk from class to my dorm.
In the evening, I had rehearsal over on Trinity campus.  I wore boots there, but it was still a long walk. The wind was biting at me with every step. I made it there in one piece, and rehearsal went well. Unfortunately, I seemed to have left my phone there. I didn't realize this until I got back to my suite. I still can't find my phone anywhere, and my only thought is that I accidentally put it down somewhere during a break. Thankfully we have rehearsal there tomorrow. Hopefully I'll find my phone then.
-Libby Morehouse

Day Forty-Seven: Our Town

I know it's technically Friday, but I still haven't gone to bed, so I"m counting this as still Thursday. Tonight was the opening for "Our Town" at the Royall Tyler Theatre at UVM.  As part of the cast of Toys Take Over Christmas, I ushered for the show tonight, so I got to see it for free. Our Town isn't the typical type of show I'd choose to see, but I really enjoyed it. It was so well done, and the actors are just amazing.  The emotion they portrayed was so real; they believed the story they were telling, and they became the characters.  Throughout the show, many actions were pantomimed, letting the audience use their imaginations, seeing the glass milk bottles being put on the table.
It is a tradition after opening night of each show to go to Vermont Pub and Brewery (VPB) as a theatre department and celebrate. Everyone goes, people who were in the show or worked on it, anyone currently in other shows or in shows that season, majors, minors and even the professors. It's a great time to get to know the department and the people you'll be working with in the future. It's so laid back and a lot of fun. It was a nice way, as a first year, to get to know the department outside of working in a production. We didn't leave VPB until after midnight, which meant a lot of talking and a lot of laughs with new friends. This also means I will be very tired if I don't go to bed now.
-Libby Morehouse

Day Forty-Six: An Ordinary Day

Nothing really happened today.  It was a typical Wednesday, which involved the same geography and french classes, although my theatre class in the afternoon was cancelled. That allowed me to go to the photo lab and develop my first role of film for the portrait project.  From the looks of the negative, the pictures came out well. I'm very excited about that, and I can't wait for tomorrow to start working on printing them in class. I think it will be interesting to work with these photos, because it's the first project in this class where I've had a person in the picture. I wonder how that will (or if it will) change my approach to or thought process of the printing.  Today I also went to the gym with a friend to get some cardio in before rehearsal.  Sadly, our director got sick in the middle of rehearsal, so that was cut short, but that just means I can go to swim practice (just after I finish my french homework).
-Libby Morehouse

Day Forty-Five: Dance

For rehearsal tonight, we were in the racquetball courts. We had no other place on campus to rehearse.  It's a strange place for a play rehearsal, but it ended up working out.  In The Toys Take Over Christmas, there is a dance number. Today, we learned the choreography to 90% of it. It was a long three hours of dancing in a small, hot room, but it was fun. We got to do some fun partner dancing, as well as some individual moves with fast footwork. I always forget how much I love dancing. I'm not the best, but when I'm learning a dance for a show, I always have so much fun. Theatre is so expressive, and I love how dancing works perfectly as another form of expressing your character. Tonight was a struggle, but it was a fun struggle.

-Libby Morehouse

Day Forty-Four: Dinner

Too often when I get hungry I just go to the dining halls. I don't ask people to go with me; I don't wait for a large group to form; I just go. Most of the time I find people to sit with, but sometimes I don't. I've gotten okay with the fact that some meals will just be eaten alone. However, as I have started to meet people, I find more and more people to sit with. Sometimes though, I like going with a group, even if I only know a few people there at the beginning of the meal.
Tonight was one of those nights. I trekked over to Red Stone to eat at Simpson. It was a nice change of pace, and it was great to see people I haven't seen in weeks, even if I did get there when they were almost done. The thing about being in a group, is that people will stay around until you finish.  One of my friends had to go, but I had just met five awesome new people, so it was okay.  After a fun, but long, weekend, it was really nice to sit down at a table and just laugh about how soft the carpets are and tell awkward stories from years past.  That meal, as simple as it was, was exactly what I needed to start this busy week.
-Libby Morehouse

Day Forty-Three: Body Image

Working in a gym, I see all types of people working out. I see the self-declared gym rats lifting with their "bros" and I see people stepping into the gym for the first time, and people everywhere else on the spectrum.  As someone who enjoys her time at the gym, likes working out and staying in shape, seeing everyone who comes in is motivating.  When I'm tired or feeling lazy, I think about the person I saw at work, who was recovering from a serious injury, and it reminds me that I can do my workout too, no matter what's mentally crippling me.  I also like to watch what people do.  Going to the gym is fairly new to me, so I still haven't found the perfect routine for myself, especially with my upper body. I like to take a look around and see what others are doing; I make a mental note to try it later, and see if it's something I want to add into my routine.
At the gym, no matter where people are in the fitness journey, people have the same underlying goal: they want to get in (or stay in) shape.  For me personally, working out in any form isn't about how slim I'll look after so many miles or so many reps, it's about how good I will feel.  For me, working out is a stress reliever and a way to declutter my brain.  I like feeling in shape, knowing that today, because of the work I put in, I'm stronger than I was a week ago. I also like to prove people wrong, including myself. A few years back I never would have guessed I'd be working at a gym, much less loving going there to work out, and do more than just cardio.  I also like to prove others wrong, in a light-hearted way.  It gives me satisfaction to go over to the weights and lift or know how to use certain exercise machines, because I hear way too often that girls can't lift.  So yes, I work out, but I do it for myself. And the positive body image I get from working out doesn't come from how I look in the mirror, but looking back on what I accomplished and feeling good about what my body allows me to do.
-Libby Morehouse

Day Forty-Two: November

With the changing of the season comes the changing of weather.  Today was a cold, gloomy day. If it wasn't rainy, the sky was threatening to open back up again in a matter of seconds.  The rain never came down hard today; it always was a fine mist. It was cold, however. Not cold for Vermont or even for November, but cold like it gets in the final two months of the year. I'm used to it and frankly I like it, I just wasn't as prepared as I should have been. When I went to work I wore a t-shirt with a sweater over it. On my walk home the wind cut through the knit holes, chilling my arms. I just need to remember that it's now November, and that means I need to grab a jacket.
-Libby Morehouse