As Zombified As Always

Merry Christmas! Wait a minute... Yep! I'm still too early, darn it. I wore a Santa hat to class last week and everyone was so confused, but I am so excited for Christmas that it's not even funny. Only two more holidays to get through then I'm home free!

Speaking of which, who can guess what I was doing two hours ago? Anyone, anyone? Need to phone a friend? How about I give you a hint: there are pictures on my Facebook!

Ooh! I see the light bulbs! That's right folks, this girl right here was working a haunted house. Now, for all of you who were concerned about my mental health since I may have had a panic attack in a hay maze once, I am happy to report that I am totally sane... or as sane as I was beforehand... meaning not sane at all!

I am a little sore though because I was on the floor the entire time in a contorted position. I hope it looked super creepy because it felt super creepy and people seemed to be scared poop-less. Honestly though, I had to try to keep myself from laughing because these big guys would come through and scream like middle school girls. It was a lot of fun and the zombie makeup was epic!

I did the makeup myself, and yes! That is fake blood!

Moving on, this week is HOMECOMING WEEK!!!!!! Whoot whoot!

Now, as a freshman, I am not even really sure what all homecoming entails. I know that the sororities and fraternities (and any other student organization that wants to) compete in a bunch of different events for... something. I have no idea what the winner gets.

Well, since we decided not to actually compete, (my sorority) is participating in two of the events and then just going to the other events to support the organizations that are competing.

That being said, we are doing Lip Sync. Sorry, but I can't tell you anything about it until next Friday after it's over, but I promise the video will go up on my Facebook!

I can however tell you that we have rehearsed for Lip Sync every night this week from 10-12. Now, don't get me wrong, I am NOT complaining. In fact, the rehearsals are so much fun and I am loving the opportunity to bond with my sisters. All I'm saying is, man is my sleep schedule messed up! I love Lip Sync, but it will be nice to sleep again!

This past Friday, which feels both like yesterday and a month ago, was my first official day of work! I am working at Rehearsals Grill; it's a new restaurant that is right on the corner of campus. It's brand spankin new, like we-open-on-Monday new! I am really excited to get started.

Anyway, so Friday I was running food.

That was the end of that story.

I'm just jumping around in my story telling today, sorry! Ooh! I remember what I was going to tell you!

So in my Play Analysis class, my teacher made us watch this movie which is based on a play. At first I was like, "Oh cool, I like movies!" Then I looked up the movie on IMDB. The movie is called "Bug" and was made in 2006; the link is below if you so choose to look it up.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0470705/

Now, for those of you who don't know me as well, I'm just going to go ahead and let you know that I have an overactive imagination. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. It's great for acting! It's not so great when you teacher makes you watch a Rated-R horror movie!

I fully understand why she wanted us to watch it and I took some valuable information out of it, but I couldn't do it. I could not watch the movie. I hid my head in my knees and tried to ignore the fear generating noises.

I probably cried at one point... but there is a reason why I choose not to watch movies like that, and even just listening to it was not fun since my mind was having a lot of fun filling in what my eyes were missing. It is not a bad movie, and there are a lot of people who like it, I am just not one of them.

Speaking of movies, guess who bought her ticket for the Ender's Game premiere? THIS GIRL!!! Do you see me pointing to myself? Yeah, that's cause it's me who bought tickets! I am so super excited! But I can't rant all about it right now because I'm tired and really should sleep while I have time. Good night all!

As Zombified As Always,

Ali 

As Back-From-The-Dead As Always

So... yeah! I'm not dead!

It's been a while hasn't it? Um... Buonasera! Come stai? Ali è abbastanza bene, grazie. Non parlo italiano, ma capisco un po italiano.

Yup! That would be (bad) Italian. Why am I speaking Italian you may ask? For absolutely no reason other than I can! And it is far more fun to return from awkwardly long breaks in a different language.

What have I been up to since August 1st? A whole heck of a lot! So, since there is quite a lot to say I'm just going to jump into it and start from the beginning (it's a very good place to start) which will most likely make this a rather lengthy post... sorry! Oh, and please excuse my lack of pictures, I'm too lazy to find them right now!

Well! So after Mind the Gap ended, I had a wonderful friend of mine drive me to the airport at 5:30 in the beautiful (far too early) morning. I will admit that I was pretty much scared out of my wits to go through security and board a plane and whatnot by myself, but I did it! Balloons and confetti for Ali! Thus, I made my way to Florida!

The reason we went to Florida (we being my family and I) was to visit some awesome friends of ours who we have not seen in far too long. I will not bore you all with the details of the fabulous time I had with some of the greatest people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing and will instead skip to what I know everyone is curious about: college!

As I've said, I am attending Oklahoma City University in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma as a BFA: Acting major. I initially auditioned to be a Music Theatre major, but I am so happy that God has led me to this particular program because it is everything I could ask for and more. I love it so much!

Anyway... my first week here was actually rather depressing. Why you may ask? Because I didn't have a roommate. And see, I thought that was great at first, but then I realized how lonely it actually was. I hated it! Sure it was nice to have the peace and quiet, but I needed some human interaction!

Ergo, I ventured outside! I know, scary! During our orientation week, there were a lot of events that were open for students to go to, and when I wasn't rehearsing for my audition (which decides your roles for the entire semester) I was meeting new people. And man am I so happy I did!

I now have three great friends (and three other friends that I hang out with a little less often) who I treasure dearly and would not trade even for a really good cookie. NOTE: I have not in any way replaced any of my high school friends. I'm not naming any names, but you know who you are, and you have no reason to worry because I still love you! :)

As for the roommate situation, I now have a roommate! She is actually pretty cool, although we don't interact too terribly much. I don't think we're ever going to be best friends or anything, but I certainly don't loathe her. 

Moving on, I start rehearsals for It's a Wonderful Life: The Radio Show tomorrow and I'm super excited! I already have gotten to work on one show: 9 to 5: The Musical. I did props which was a new experience for me, and I actually ended up having a lot of fun. I'm not actually in the cast of Wonderful Life, I'm just a preshow entertainment thing, but it will still be cool to work on a main stage show... especially since one of my good (new) friends is one of the Assistant Stage Managers.

Now, I'm sure you are all curious about what exactly an acting major studies. I'm sure you want to know what my classes are like. I'm sure you want to know if I have written tests. I'm sure you want to know if my parent's money is being put toward a worthy education. Well calm down! I'm going to tell you! Jeez, you eager beavers!

First of all, I do not have class on Fridays! Yes, be jealous! My Monday/Wednesday schedule consists of Freshman Actor Workshop, Stagecraft, and LAS: Local Legends. My Tuesday/Thursday schedule consists of Play Analysis, Stagecraft Lab, and Acting 1. On Wednesday I also have a Voice Lesson, and scattered in there I also work in the MSA Office.

I will explain more about these classes at a later date when I have pictures and/or funny stories to accompany each.

Here is one picture just because I'm nice!

This is a picture of me interviewing the sculptor David Phelps for the Remembering Ralph Ellison Project which is being supported by the Oklahoma Humanities Council, the Oklahoma History  Center, and Oklahoma City University.

Random story that I have to share: So I was walking back from class last month, back from Acting 1 to be exact, when I heard a strange noise. This noise sounded like a male playing guitar and singing. Normally, that would not be strange; except on this particular occasion, I could not seem to find any sort of male holding a musical instrument of any sort. He was not on a bench, he was not sitting in the grass, he was not frolicking, there was no male to be found.

As the music persisted, I ventured a glace upward. And there, in a tree, was the male. Normally, this would not be strange either, except the first limb of this tree was almost 15 feet off the ground. After this occurrence, a friend of mine even tried to prove the tree could be climbed by attempting to climb it and he could not.

Now, one can only wonder a few things: first, what possessed this male to climb in a tree with his guitar? Second, how did this male climb into the tree? Third, how did this male climb into the tree with his guitar? And fourth, how does this male plan on safely climbing OUT of the tree?

So many questions.

I know, I know, I told you a story about a boy in a tree instead of telling you the one thing you've been waiting to hear about. Well, fine! If you're going to be pushy and impatient I guess I might as well just tell you!

I joined (my sorority)! Yup, you read correctly! Ali joined a sorority... actually it's technically a women's fraternity since it was founded before the word sorority came into existence. But that is so beside the point right now.

I want something to be completely understood before I move on: I did not pledge (my sorority) because I wanted to be in a sorority, I pledged (my sorority) because I wanted to be in (my sorority). I would not have even considered it if I had not fallen in love with (my sorority). That is the full and honest truth.

Did you understand that? Are we good? Good!

All I am going to tell you as of right now is that I get initiated Nov. 9 and I am super excited!

Other random things:

1. I went to the State Fair with my family and ate a lot of amazingly fried food.
2. Speaking of food, the food here sucks!
3. Speaking of sucking, I need to work out more. Luckily, there's a smoothie bar/fitness place down the street that does free metabolic exams and classes are free... if you buy a smoothie or shake.
4. I got a job! More on that later.
5. I love my church!
6. My friends and I do Friday Night Dinner every week since one of my friends has a full kitchen and I like to cook. We just watch movies, play games, and hangout and it's fun! :)

Um... I think that's about it for now. I promise to update more frequently, it was just hard to get back into the rhythm of it.

I love you all and I promise that next time my posts will be more amusing, I just had a lot to get out there this time!

As Back-From-The-Dead As Always,

Ali

Oh! And I almost forgot, I crocheted the cutest hat last night! Pictures will be up soon!