Ahh it feels nice to be finished with finals!   A semester of hard work and preparation has finally payed off.   One down and one more to go!   But I’m not thinking about next semester quite yet.   Right now I am just living in the moment, and am with my entire family in Houston, Texas … not quite a “white” Christmas, but I must admit the weather feels great.  I just love my parents, brother, aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents … and dog.   Too bad my three cats at home couldn’t come with us.

Free time feels like a stranger to me — not a common word in my dictionary.   But I am not complaining!   I actually get to finish the book I started reading last summer, work more on my current novel I’m writing, I even have time to work out and do yoga every day rather than just weekends, and when I get home from the trip, I am going to start a new paining — which will actually be a series of two.   I am so excited.   They’ll both be life sized (and my goal is for them look so real that you could actually go and sit with the two people on the bay windows).   I definitely won’t be able to finish it in just two weeks, but at least I’ll be able to start it! It feels so nice, just like my new and very short haircut (It was jetting way too long for my liking — I had to be able to curl it in White Christmas).

I hope everyone had a successful and enjoyable semester and did well on all his or her finals, too!   Have a wonderful winter break!

Tannaz

Time just flies by    I feel like I’ve been saying that a lot lately. “I’ve been hearing that all day,” as Ezekiel in Irving Berlin’s White Christmas would say.   The performances were a great success.   It snowed not only onstage but also on the audience — it was magical! We opened December 7th and closed last night — the 11th.   And now we have finals!   Oh boy!   I’m crossing my fingers that those go well (not only for me, but for everyone), seeing that today is the first day I can actually start studying for them (since we had rehearsals every night after classes).   But once this week is finished, it’ll be Christmas Break and I will get to see all of my family.   I am so excited to see them!   I will definitely miss the talented group of people I got to work with in the show as well as the fun dances in the production.   Congrats to the entire crew and a very Happy Holidays to everyone!!!

Tannaz ♪

I love my teachers — they deserve to be respected and have their hard work valued.   I have been helping with the picketing between my classes in support of the faculty, the other unions, and my father, who is a professor with tenure.   No one can take their place.   They are qualified, experienced, professional, and caring towards their students — and I want to learn from them.   I hope we can make a fair contract and negotiation.   I am crossing my fingers that everything will turn out well.   So please, everyone help out whenever you can.   Even if you’re just driving by, please honk, smile, and wave.   It makes us feel so good to have that support and encouragement.   It really gives us a boost of motivation to stay out in the cold and stand up for what’s right.    Thank you.

Tannaz

I am so glad I am a Musical Theatre major!   The first dance we are learning for this production is ♪ “Let Yourself Go,” ♪ and you really do let yourself go — it is so much fun!!!   It really takes your mind off of everything else that’s going on in you life.   When you walk into that room for rehearsal, you can’t help but smile and think  . . .   Ohhh, It Must Be Christmas Time!   All you think about is the now.   Dance and Music takes over you  . . .   literally.   I absolutely love the Swing choreography for this particular number!   And the fast tempo and jazzy feel makes it even more exhilarating.   I thoroughly enjoy working with such a talented and wonderful cast and crew.   The directors are so brilliant and I am having the time of my life!

Just let everything GO!
Tannaz

Rise and Shine!    Well it’s actually not Wednesday morning yet, but I know I probably won’t have time to write a blog tomorrow, so I am writing one now.   I hope everyone had a wonderful Fall Break!   I unfortunately had a lot of homework to do, but I still got to watch some movies with my family which was a very relaxing part.   I practiced piano and vocalized each day, and finally got to do some yoga and working out — Yesss!  School just doesn’t allow it … at least not with my schedule, and it’s been driving me crazy!   But I somehow fit in a little weightlifting each day between all of my reading assignments, and I was so relieved when I finally finished my paper.   Today, my parents and I also took a walk — and the weather was amazing!   I inhaled deep breaths of fresh air.   It smelled of leaves, flowers, and fresh-mowed grass.   The slight breeze was warm, but cool at the same time.   I named all of the types of trees as I walked by … Maple, Pine, Acorn, etc.    Oh, it is so nice to stay in touch with nature!

Tannaz

For anyone who has not seen The Glass Menagerie yet — or for those who have already seen it and would like to go again … like me — should definitely go see it.  I absolutely loved it — so fantastic!!!  There are two more performances at McLeod Theatre (which is in the Communications Building for those who may not know) and the tickets are not sold out yet … which I cannot believe!  You can buy them at the Box Office for tomorrow night (Saturday, Oct. 1st) and Sunday Matinee (Oct. 2nd).  They cost $5 for students and $15 for adults.

All of the actors, directing, and design (sound, lighting, set, and costume) were brilliant!  I just can’t say enough!  Hope everyone can make it.

“The feeling of inferiority is simply part of our own imagination.”

Tannaz

Wow, how long has it been since I wrote a blog?! I tried to find time to fit it in, but it was just impossible. This week especially has been too busy with the New Faces performance — which was tonight! We only had this one week to work on our scenes and to make a dramaturgy display! But we got through it and did really well ♪

There were several approximately five-minute scenes from various plays and two musical numbers — I was in “Easy Street” from Annie which is going to have a revival this year. The night closed with a big finale of back to back thirty-second scenes from the top plays list from last year and this year. It was a lot of fun, and now I finally get to relax … okay well, maybe not. What I mean is I will finally get a good night’s sleep before I dive into my homework tomorrow morning.

Enjoy the weekend!
Tannaz

I really miss my older brother! He just graduated from Southern Illinois University of Carbondale and is now going to Michigan State University. The other day after Concert Choir, I was walking down the steps of Altgeld to the circle drive. Since I live at home to save money and I don’t have my own car, my mom picks me up. I saw her patiently waiting in the car, reading her book … but I swear I saw my brother sitting in the passenger seat! He was there for one moment and then the next second he was gone. Just disappeared! It reminded me of the Two & a Half Men episode where Charlie Harper kept seeing Rose everywhere after she had moved to England. He thought maybe he was just imagining it, but the audience really knows he wasn’t, and that Rose was actually disguising herself as different people, traveling back and forth. Well unless my brother somehow got a hold of an invisibility cloak, my best bet is that he was still in Michigan. ☺

Skype your siblings to 1.) see where they are, 2.) see if the curly mustache they used as part of their disguise is still on without their awareness, and of course 3.) ask how they are doing and tell them that you love them!

Tannaz
Tannaz

Well I got my shot of adrenaline for the night! I just finished my Rough Draft for my English class that was due today by midnight. Anytime after and it wouldn’t count. I literally sent it to Black Board with only about five minutes remaining! Unfortunately, our router was in another room, and it wasn’t strong enough to keep my laptop connected to the Internet. So our internet was so incredibly slow and it felt like time was flying by like there was no tomorrow. I couldn’t get the site to work until my dad saved the night and hooked the router up right next to my computer, so it could be reconnected to the internet. It was like one of those movies where the bomb is about to go off with only ten seconds left and you don’t think they’re going to make it, but the hero of the story somehow disables it with one second to spare! The moral of the story is to make sure you leave plenty of time to turn in homework before deadlines, because you have no idea what kind of crazy things your computer might do just when you need it to cooperate with you the most.

Be nice to your computers and maybe they’ll be nice back,
Tannaz

Well, it’s after 1:00 in the morning and I just finished my math homework. I think one of the hardest challenges is to fit everything in a twenty-four hour day! How do you practice piano, voice, and dance and squeeze in English and theatre papers as well as math homework? Plus there is so much reading. I may think it’s difficult now, but in less than a month, I’ll add White Christmas rehearsals from 6:30 to 10:00 every week night on top of all that. Ah, the joys of college life! Who needs sleep anyways? I hear it is overrated.

Sweet dreams,
Tannaz