DECEMBER
Books I Read
4/5
This was a really well-written play! The dialogue and family dynamics are so natural, it's like the author just eavesdropped on somebody's Thanksgiving. The way he overlapped the dialogue too so characters would talk over each other like you would in natural conversation was remarkable. It felt a little slow and confusing to start, but once I got into it, it was great. It's the kind of play that should've been really boring, but it wasn't.
2/5
Confusing, long, hard to follow, abrupt ending, and overall just a crappier version of King Lear and Hamlet packaged as a comedy. It was easily my least favorite of the Shakespeare plays I read this semester.
4/5
Gorgeous writing! Beautiful and heartbreaking. Even though this was written as a letter, I wish it had been broken up into more obvious sections with chapters or at least something to signify that he was talking about a new topic. There were times I wanted to go back and reference something, but couldn't find where he'd spoken about it. But it was an amazing book otherwise.
4/5
This was really sweet, simple, and heartwarming. I loved the illustrations too; it captured the feeling of fall perfectly. I did find the story overall to be predictable, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the journey. Super cute and an easy 1-hour read.
3.5/5
I wanted to love this a lot more than I did since I've really enjoyed Adam Silvera's other works, but I had the hardest time getting into it. It was a slow start and didn't pick up until about halfway through the book when the major plot twist came in. I didn't understand the protagonist's personality or motives until then when the plot twist made it apparent, but at that point, it was hard to get me to be completely invested after all of the confusion and boredom leading up to then. It wasn't bad, I just had higher expectations and it didn't live up to those expectations. I think the beginning could have been much shorter. The second half was excellent though.
Movies I Watched
4/5
Excellent adaptation! I thought everyone was very well cast, even though I was skeptical about Emma Watson as Meg instead of Jo, but it actually worked great. Saoirse Ronan was the perfect Jo. And I appreciated the way this version handled the ending in regards to Jo's publishing pursuits and her love life. It was perfect and much more realistic than some other takes on it. It was a little long, but I'm not sure what could have been cut to make it shorter since everything was done well.
Quotes I Wrote
None good enough to post, unfortunately, but I am rewriting!
Obsessions I Acquired
"Jessica Jones" - Somehow I thought this wasn't on Netflix anymore, but it is??? I'm almost done with the first season now and it's excellent! Very creepy and gripping.
Pictures of the Month
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| Making Christmas ornaments for the tree |
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| I was so happy to be home for our 6-month anniversary! |
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| Directing "Peter/Wendy" at Ursinus was an amazing experience! The cast was fantastic and all of the designers used their talents to help it be visually stunning. |
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| It was so much fun doing an Instagram takeover for the college to promote the show! |
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| Lunch with friends |
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| Cast photo + Colleen (stage manager) and me! |
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| The night my family and Josh came to see the show, the show almost didn't happen! Peter was extremely ill about forty minutes before we were scheduled to start; luckily our costumer and stage combat coordinator volunteered to fill-in since she knew how to do the fight scene safely. She went on with a script in hand and did an amazing job! |
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| Post-show milkshake celebration |
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| Late night pancakes! |
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| My parents made me a sweet themed gift bag |
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| I came home to study for finals since I had mostly papers to write and a whole week before my Spanish final was scheduled. Besides getting to spend extra time with them, there were also nice perks like my mom making me study snacks. 💓 |
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| Ushering for "The Homecoming" at the Hershey Area Playhouse |
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| I stole Max's girlfriend and he stole my boyfriend 😜 |
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| Game night with friends from "Beauty and the Beast!" Castmates who weren't able to come were represented in this photo by the silverware they played in "Be Our Guest." |
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| A sweet post-finals note/gift from Josh |
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| Ushering for "Miracle on 34th St." at Lebanon Community Theatre! |
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| Max did great at his Christmas choir concert! |
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| Teaching Josh how to make street tacos |
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| Christmas shopping excursion! |
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| I made Facebook and Instagram pages for my summer musical theatre workshops (give them a like and follow to help boost my social media presence)! |
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| Josh surprised me with a day trip to the Moravian Book Shop and lunch. It was so much fun! |
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| Lunch with our vocal teacher! |
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| Christmas Cabaret! |
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| Josh and I went to New York City to see "Lion King" on Broadway (since we met in a production of "Lion King Jr.") and go ice skating at Rockefeller Center. It was a magical trip/Christmas present! |
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| Christmas dance show! |
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| Making toffee |
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| And drinking coquito |
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| We love our "triple dates" |
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| I think I need to find a new way to display my Playbills . . . 😬 |
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| Gingerbread house triple date/competition (ours won) |
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| For Christmas, I wrote Josh a "fan-fiction" of us as if we'd met at college (like a college AU) |
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| Christmas dinner! |
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| It's always so nice to catch up with Sam and Dana |
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| Our moods going into the next semester of college |
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| Had a fun Mom and daughter date seeing "Little Women!" |
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| We decided to attempt building a "gingerbread mansion" after our success with the house, but it quickly turned into an icing war |
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| Homeschool trip to the Drunken Smithy |
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| I managed to get an axe to stick during axe throwing! |
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| Messing around with Snapchat filters |
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| "Les Mis" cosplay |
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| Our vocal teacher throws awesome costume parties |
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| New Year's Eve sushi lunch, as per tradition |
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| And of course our New Year's party had to be a 20s theme |
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| Happy New Year! |
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| Time for Scout pictures! Here she is stealing tissues. |
How was your December?
END OF THE YEAR
Goodbye 2019, and hello 2020! Before we move on to next year (and a new decade!), I always like to look back on the past year.
Top 10 books
New obsessions
1. "Human" album by Dodie
2. Jessica Jones
3. "Lover" album by Taylor Swift
4. "Hadestown"
I didn't have a lot of new obsessions this year, but I feel like I spent a lot of time rediscovering old obsessions, like with catching up on "Stranger Things," "Atypical," and "Orange is the New Black."
Most played songs
| Here's my 2019 Spotify Wrapped, to give you some idea. |
And my decade wrapped!
5 favorite blog posts
1. "In Which I Share My Favorite Onstage (and Offstage) Moments and Mishaps from 6 Theatrical Productions"
2. "Do You Like Your Story Endings Open for Interpretation or Tied Up With a Bow?"
3. "Miscast (The Musical Theatre Roles I'd Love to Play if I Weren't Who I Am) "
4. "12 Fictional Romances Designed to Make You Go 'Awww'"
5. "'FEATURING Kate I. Foley' - an Interview from Sasha at 'Midnight Book Girl'"
Big things that happened in 2019
-Traveled to Europe
-Had a first kiss and fell in love
-Went camping
-Finished my first semester at college (with a 4.0 GPA!)
-Performed in multiple shows/cabarets: Hershey Area Playhouse's 20th anniversary cabaret, "Mary Poppins," "Broadway at the Barn," a vocal recital, "Beauty and the Beast," "The Complete History of Ursinus College (Abridged)," a Christmas cabaret, and an a capella performance.
-Performed in a musical with my whole family
-Joined an a capella group at college
-Finished rewrites for my YA contemporary romance and sent it out to beta readers
-Music directed a children's musical for the first time
-Directed a play for the first time
-Traveled to Jamaica
-Went to Universal Studios
-Taught a musical theatre summer workshop for kids with a group of theatre friends
-Became an Abele Scholar at Ursinus College
-Became a fiction reader for the literary journal on campus
-Turned 19
-Saw "Be More Chill" and "Lion King" on Broadway
-Saw "Les Mis" on the West End
-Went to NYC with Josh for Christmas
So much happened this year, I'm sure I'm missing something . . .
Image from this year
The quintessential Europe trip picture: the Eiffel Tower! I could've chosen hundreds of pictures for this, it was really hard to just pick one and go with it, but this picture is pretty awesome.
Book stats
| Not a bad year of ratings! I definitely had my fair share of "meh" reads with school assignments especially, but others were really enjoyable. |
Lots of short texts this year due to reading tons of plays for school.
This is a much worse ratio than last year, but I did have to read a lot of old books by straight, white people for school.
| Surprise, surprise, school was a huge reason why I read the books I did; I hardly had time for anything else for the last five months of this year. But I did have lots of books by favorite authors I was excited to read! |
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| Once again, school affected my reading stats quite a bit. I had to learn how to read texts in a day or two to keep up with homework. |
Transformative.
Goals for 2020
Writing:
-Finish rewriting my untitled YA contemporary romance and query agents. Most of my beta readers have provided feedback, so with their notes, I can finish polishing and send my baby out into the world!
Reading:
-Read 52 books and finish one series. Should be pretty doable so long as I make sure I'm using my free time at college wisely. I want to do more pleasure reading while I'm in school so I can keep my sanity. :P If I pick up a book rather than my phone when I have a few minutes before class, I can do it.
Other:
-Exercise 3 times a week. Very reasonable and easily measurable, and I'm determined to do it this year! I just got a Fitbit for Christmas, which is making my workouts fun to track. I can block out 20-30 minutes each day to do something.
-Get 8 hours of sleep 5 nights a week. This might be trickier, but I'll give it a shot . . .
-Learn photography and make money off it. I have a nice camera that I'm learning how to use right now, and if I get good enough, maybe I could make some extra cash this summer doing headshots or family photos!
-Run more musical theatre camps. I already have a bunch in the works for this summer!
-Learn a tap routine. This is where YouTube tutorials will come in handy!
Goals for 2019 that I've accomplished
Writing:
-Finish rewriting All the World's Afraid. All done and sent off to beta readers! I'll be changing the title, but I don't know to what yet.
Reading:
-Focus on reading the diverse books on my TBR. The above graphic may not show it, but of the books I read for pleasure, the majority of them were diverse in some way.
Other:
-Start a dog sitting business. I didn't exactly start a formal business, but I did more dog/house sitting for people I know this summer and I loved it. It was tons of fun getting a different house to myself and being with the dogs!
Goals for 2019 that I didn't accomplish
Because it's good to recognize your shortcomings too.
Writing:
-Finish rewriting 'Til the Last Star Dies. I wrote a new outline and completely scrapped the last draft, but I only started the actual rewriting process.
Reading:
-Finish a series I'm in the middle of. Ha ha ha ha . . . I'm so incapable of finishing series, it's not even funny. 😂
Other:
-Make scrapbooks for each of the shows I've performed in. I didn't realize how time consuming scrapbooking was, so I only got to a couple of them, but what I did was really fun!
-Exercise at least 15 times a month. I did more than I have in the past, but nowhere even close to this.
Bye, 2019! Now for the next adventure.
What are your goals for 2020? Anything big happen in 2019? Leave a comment!
5 comments:
You know I love these posts. What a great winter break you're having! Those Peter Pan pictures are amazing, too. And you did such a great job directing that show, especially with the last-minute HUGE adjustments you had to make for the final show! Well done, sweetie!
@Boquinha
Thanks! It was such a fun experience, even with the stressful parts. It has been a good winter break!
I thought somewhere along the way I'd read that you deemed 2019 as "The Year of the Milkshake" because they seemed to be coupled with Josh and your shows. What a great year you had and great goals for 2020. If you'll allow me to sound like an expert even though I'm not--give yourself some slack when it comes to the exercise goals. My routine falls apart once it starts getting dark by 5:30 pm, but consistently gets back on track once the days start getting longer. My on-line trainer says it's the opposite for him. (He's terrible at sticking with his routine in the June/July time frame, but picks back up once it starts cooling off a little.) Anyway, what's worked for me is allowing myself some slack in December and January by adjusting my goals. For me it means a lot less time at the gym those months, but longer, more rigorous day time hikes on weekends. Something to consider. It's worked for me. I wish I could comment more on your reading list. My favorite read in 2019 was Devil in the Grove. Highly recommend it. My favorite music was the Into the Spider-Verse soundtrack, and my best new obsession was weekly 3.5 hour hikes in the Sandias, even on cold days. Here's a to an awesome 2020 to you!
@Jimmy
LOL, I don't think I did, but it definitely would have been apt! Yeah, I'm definitely not trying to do intense workouts each day since I don't always have the time to, but I'm trying to get at least 15 minutes of some kind of activity on the days that I do exercise. Being in a musical is really good for natural cardio too!
I haven't heard of Devil in the Grove either, so I guess we both have new titles to check out! I still need to watch "Into the Spider-Verse," it's almost embarrassing that I haven't seen it yet. xD
Happy new year!
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