RANDOM THOUGHTS PART TROIS

- I'm enjoying being in my apartment, listening to show tunes and just catching up with the world.

- I just ate a box of Captain Crunch cereal in less than 24 hours.

- I'm currently choreographing my 8th or 9th production at St. Joe's Prep here in Philadelphia. The show is Urinetown and the students of Cape and Sword Drama continue to live up to the theatre dept's legacy. They work hard, they play hard and they do it for the joy of the stage. Not many high schools can say the same.

- My next gig starts in April when I'll be in the ensemble of Media Theatre's Thoroughly Modern Millie. I've wanted to do this show for awhile now so I'm looking forward to the run. Show starts in May and ends in early June.

- I just had a good audition for a 42nd Street Production that would tour 3 cities in two months. I need to audition for any and every tap-related project that comes across the audition notices. Because, although there are tons of male dancers who go to these auditions, many of them just aren't that good. Sure they have that typical chorus boy all-american metrosexual look, but when it comes to actually hitting the boards, they suck. Just sayin'.

- If the rest of the year goes as planned concerning my career, I may just be making some major decisions by 2010.

- I need to start reading some good comics again.

- I really want Spring to get here. And I want Spring. Not two weeks of good weather and then suddenly it's Summer. I want that change of season where everyone starts to thaw from the winter, clothing gets shorter and tighter, the city gets kinda crazy and I can feel the sun on my face every day.

RANDOM THOUGHTS PART DEUX

- In the past 24 hours, I've been in Philly, Delaware, New Jersey and New York.

- I ate 18 individual Now and Later candies on the bus home from NY tonite.

- On Monday the 15th I start my next theatre gig: choreographing a show called Give My Regards to Broadway, which will become a tap dance revue built around popular standards as well as a general overview on the history of the tap. It's a new production - wow, a world premiere! - and is more or less my first fully professional choreography work even though I've been choreographing for community theatre, high schools, summer programs and corporate events since I was sixteen. It'll be up at the Kimmel Center in Phila starting Jan.8. http://www.kimmelcenter.org/news/item.php?item=2008-12-08

- Will I make any New Year's resolutions this year? Have I ever really kept my old ones?

- Elizabeth Banks is my new 'It Girl'.

- After GMRTB, I'll be doing my 7th corporate event with Commerce Bank - now called TD Bank - and Zakarak Productions. I'll be teaching again up in Manhattan and I'm looking forward to it since this year the style seems like it'll be a mix of swing and jazz. Very awesome. And it might be even bigger for me this year than in previous years. More to come.

- I'm harboring a crush on someone. Haha.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

- Thanksgiving is coming up. And at my parents' home, it's a mix of traditional (turkey, stuffing), Puerto Rican (rice) and Pennsylvania Dutch (oyster filling, copes corn). Last year, I gained about 15 pounds during the time between Thanksgiving and New Year's, which prompted me to go on the Master Cleanse Lemon Diet to lose it all. Let's not make a repeat of that shall we?

- In December and January I'll be choreographing a mostly tap dance revue show at the Kimmel Center.

- I saw an adolescent cat roaming around the underground Subway tracks while waiting for my ride. He was poking around looking for the vermin that run around between trains. It was the first time I saw a cat on the subway lines. I fully expected him to get zapped by that mythical "third rail". Kitty was cute though.

- In 4 years I'll be 40 (but hopefully still act like I'm 20)

- Saw closing night of the play "Scapin" put on by the high school drama club that I've worked with on and off for the last eight years. They are a great group of students led by a talented and committed adult staff. One of the students was an intern in North Philly for the Obama campaign and her energy and spirit talking about the experience was wonderful and infectious.

- I need to get back on the dating train.

- My youngest sister's dance concert at West Chester was this past weekend and she did wonderful. I'm probably most proud of her when I hear others talk about her and tell me how fun she is to work with and how her spirit keeps everyone jumping. She's my kind of performer.

- Although my birthday was uneventful, not to mention I was a bit sick, I love all the messages I've received on Myspace and Facebook. It was a good day. And my roommate made me cake. Yum.

- I'm gonna miss my Uncle this holiday season.

- I keep seeing and thinking about people I haven't seen in years. It's like the ripple effect of my life is going back to the center again.

- I get happy when I buy candy.

DOOR 1 OR DOOR 2?

So the current corporate event gig I'm doing starts at the end of August and runs through mid-October. The highlights include going to Manhattan every week, seeing my friends again who always do the same gig with me and, of course, choreographing a tap number for 15 professional female tap dancers. Rawr. Can't wait until that starts. Heh.

Anyway, here's the deal. By the end of the gig, I'll finally have the means to move out of Reading. But I'm a little torn. Do I:

Option 1: Move back to Philly either by myself or with a roommate.

Option 2: Throw my junk into storage and during the next two months find a gig in Bumblefuck, USA that starts in October and just disappear for awhile. Now that I'm Equity my options are greater and I'd be happy dancing in the ensemble of a tap show or something.

I have very little ties at the moment so the idea of going away for awhile sounds wonderful.

What to do?

PRIORITIZE!

It's my only New Year's resolution.

Whatever it means to any given situation, it's what I can do to get the best results.

We'll see how it works.

HAPPINESS IS...

...traveling on a beautiful sunny day.

...walking through New York's non-touristy sections and stumbling on a great, cheap restaurant.

...spending two days at a comic book convention that focuses on actual comics and not booth babes and variant covers.

...meeting people who you sorta know beforehand and becoming good friends in just a few sentences.

...crashing at someone's apartment and remembering why Queens is such a great area to live in.

...spending more money than you intend and yet not caring.

Happiness is being true to yourself during the best years of your life.

TEN YEARS AGO...

...I was 23.

...I was finishing up my last year at University of the Arts.

...I was getting ready to perform in 42nd Street.

...I was dating the love of my life.

...I bounced between Philadelphia, Reading and Allentown.

...I performed in my third production of Godspell.

...I bought my comics at Pagoda Comics.

...I performed on the Genesius stage.

...I could easily get in touch with all my college friends.

...I was the happiest I had been in a long time.


Ten Years Later... and two of those things are still true today.