Santa Brought Me An Amazing Gift. He Calls It "Time." Go Figure.

Holy cow and holy night! It's been much too long since I spewed my thoughts! I could go on for ages about how busy school made me and how much of a lazy bum I am and how stressed I've been, but I've long since decided to focus on the positives. It's just plain healthier.

So I hope the good hearted souls had wonderful whichever holiday makes them smile. I did. I went to my grandmother's new house (farther than her old place so we stayed in hotel suites Christmas Eve and night) and saw some family and talked to some friends. No tree, and that was fine. I'm not out to make life complicated for anyone, and it's true I wouldn't be able to help take it down with the new distance. And I heard the Celtic Women perform on TV. Absolutely stunning. O Holy Night is my new Christmas favorite. :-) It's fun to celebrate a holiday you don't believe in when all it means is more time with good company and good food.

It was simple and perfect. Oh night divine!

I've been getting some writing done too. Since school let out, I rediscovered what time was and used it to edit my novel U:RS in earnest and get that word count down. I'm very happy with the progress. I'm in the home stretch now (again), but the best part of this is that my really great friend read chapter three (after previously reading chapters one and two) and enjoyed it. She had her critiques, which I'm always thankful for, and really seemed to like the characters and where it was heading.

Also, through passing comments on Facebook, I may manage to form a mini critique partner circle with friends at school this semester. Two fellow writers thought the idea sounded good, so I'd really like to make time to make this happen. I love the idea of getting more feedback, and in return, practicing giving feedback. I've also thought about throwing caution to the wind and uploading U:RS on Fictionpress. I'm a little scared about the copyright laxity, but so far I haven't had any problems. I'm still deciding.

There's also the matter of my play for Playwriting class. It's made some great strides as well, and I can't wait to hear it read on January 28th! I'm so excited I can't stand it! I really want to finish writing Act II. Too bad my brain likes to jump all over the place before I get anything truly productive on the screen.

Alright, this is officially writer's babbling. Didn't even catch up on what exactly I did for two months. Work. End of story. No, but seriously. School involved:

1) many makeup  projects:

2) building two in-scale set models for plays:

Oedipus Rex by Sophocles

The Tempest by William Shakespeare

3) writing the first act of a play and having it read by equity actors

4) performing I think two or three more scenes from select periods of history

5) and helping build actual sets for plays that went up on campus. Only one more theatre lab and then I'm DONE!

Oh, and auditioning for my favorite play ever, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and getting cast in it and auditioning for voice lessons and getting chosen! And being as social as my major allows, which was good enough for me considering what I used to be like. There were some downers to the end of the semester too, mostly the stress, the hormonal adolescent issues, and seeing some people's true colors, but like I said, I'm focusing on the positives. I've spent all the stress from the semester in one 16 hour overnight on campus working on my set models, which I'm very proud of. :-)

And that's what I've been inspired to say at about two in the morning. More productive posts to follow. *knocks on wood*

To the MSWord futon! Happy holidays!

*collapses on the way*