Randomosity

I have very little to report, but BEDA (Blog Every Day in April, for those of you who have forgotten) demands that I write. So here I am.

Another low-key day today, spent doing things like packing for my trip on Friday (Oxford, Cotswolds, Bath, Lacock, and Stonehenge) and pre-packing for my trip to Lille on Sunday. I'm taking my laptop with me this weekend, but I may have to just type up my entries and post them when I get back on Saturday, as I'm not sure what internet is going to be like wherever we're staying. As for France, I'm not sure if I'll be able to report 'til I get back- I'm not taking my laptop with me, since Megan's residence's internet connection is notoriously bad (to her and I, anyway) and I don't feel like pointlessly lugging my computer around with me again.

As I was packing, I caught up on some things I've wanted to watch, including Fringe and Castle and I also watched Tangled. The first and third made me cry, and Tangled is AMAZING. If you haven't seen it, SEE IT. It may be an animated kids' movie, but it's seriously funny and touching and the music is pretty awesome too. I am definitely getting it as soon as I can (which is June, since I can't buy DVDs here. Sad.)

Besides watching things, packing, and cleaning up my room a bit, I've been doing some writing. I'm super frustrated with my NaNo '10 novel because, after my last reader's comments, I have to make some extreme changes, things like changing a character's entire personality, even though I love her the way she is. This alteration will seriously change everything about the end, which is already undergoing changes as I need to possibly slow down the final scene, which is already dangerously slow for a conclusion. I am experiencing much frustration, but I won't make you read about it anymore.

Tomorrow I'm going to see one of my classmates in a series of one-acts at the Almeida Theatre and then possibly going to another write-in. I don't really feel like going to the latter, but I probably should raise my page count if I'm going to be computer-less in France for four days.

Off to combat the novel again...

Script Frenzy update: 59 pages

I Am My Own Pet Peeve

I have many pet peeves. Lateness, people using chatspeak to relay important messages or create actual ads that will be seen by the public, slow walkers... the list goes on and on. And on that list are those people- usually girls- who get a new phone about every five weeks because they can't seem to take care of their expensive belongings.

Today, I became one of those people. How? No, not by getting a new phone. I hate my British phone so much that I could try to blow it up and, just to spite me, it would be perfectly fine (though it probably still wouldn't make any calls.)

I broke my camera.

Technically, the breakage happened last week, when I dropped it in a Portobello Road store (trying to take a picture by holding the camera with my already-full hands. Oh, how symbolic of my life.) I picked it up, it seemed fine, both of our lives went on. But as the week continued, it started to have some complications. Photos were constantly out of focus, but this happens when it's low on battery, so I didn't think anything of it and just changed the batteries. Sometimes it wouldn't want to change the picture taking method. I just thought that that must happen sometimes. But when the screen went staticy today and I noticed that some of the camera's body was a little out of joint, I started to get worried. I got back to school from my travels and took it to Currys PC World (the London equivalent of a Best Buy.) The guy who helped me pronounced my camera dead.

Anyone who has spent more than a few hours with me knows what this news did to me. I almost broke down in tears in the store. My camera is basically an extension of me, and every time any of my past cameras has had a problem, it's always been fixable. And now my beautiful, good quality camera that was more expensive than any of my other ones was broken. Not only was it broken, but it was broken two days before I left for a place I'll probably never go to again.

I was really upset. I'm still really upset, and while a good amount of that is because my camera is dead, even more of it comes from the guilt I feel over breaking it. Because it is my fault. I've been so good about keeping the camera in its case when I'm not using it, but I slipped up once and now I literally have to pay the price. My parents have given me permission to purchase a cheap camera over here, but I need to pay for it when I get home (yay... exchange rate...) as well as figure out how much it's going to cost to fix and/or replace my beautiful broken one.

Before anyone suggests it, I did consider just borrowing a friend's camera for my trips, but this was before I knew that my camera was broken beyond repair. Also, no friend would tolerate me using their camera for three weeks (I don't just take photos on trips. I take them as I walk through campus.) Bottom line, if I want to take pictures for the next two months, I need my own camera, even if it's not as high quality as my (now broken) one. A bigger consideration was that I have heard about a lot of stuff being stolen on travels, and in Italy especially. I've mostly heard of this in movies and books, and while I'm sure they were put in there for dramatic effect, I'm just as sure that they're also in there because it happens. Having my own camera stolen would be awful. Having a friend's camera stolen would cause me to feel guilt that I could not banish for the rest of my life (and possibly even more money to be given to them to replace it. It's a viscious circle.) So I will not be taking that route.

(Also, my guilt was felt even deeper because my mom sent me this Easter "basket" full of awesome:)


Script Frenzy update: 49/100 pages. Yeah, I'm slowing down. Arguments take up sooo many pages, but now my stupid characters have worked out their problems :p Anyway, I'm still ahead of the game, but not by much.

Script Frenzy!

Today was awesome.

I woke up a little later than I had anticipated, which was bad, so as soon as I ate, got dressed, and did my hair, I left. For what, you ask? For a day of NERDY ADVENTURE!

Nerdiness Part One was visiting some locations in my favorite book series, The Gemma Doyle Trilogy. While I do this on a smaller scale all the time (usually if I just happen to be in the correct area), today was much more planned out because a lot of the London parts of the books take place in the Hyde Park/Piccadilly area of London. I actually thought I had gotten there obscenely early- Nerdiness Part Two was due to start until 2 pm and I had a full two hours and fifteen minutes. Well, as it happens, I was late to Nerdines Part Two because it took me so long to walk to all of the locations (and I didn't even find one of them.) But I got to see Hyde Park and lots of other cool places, including a bunch that weren't in the books. And as I walked around the beautiful, sunny, nearly-sixty-degree streets, one thought kept rolling around in my head:

"I don't think I can ever, ever, ever leave London."

Seriously. I love it that much.

Anyway, if you want to see my pictures, I am posting them on Facebook. Perhaps I might post them here when I'm finished with the project, which I hope to be this month.

Nerdiness Part Two was a Script Frenzy write-in! For those of you who don't NaNo or Screnzy, a write-in is where a bunch of crazy writer-types get together, form a laptop/notepad huddle around some tables, and write. It might seem silly- I myself didn't know what to expect, as I've never been to one- but it's actually really awesome.

Our organiser had made a sort of schedule that allowed fifteen minute "chat times" bracketed by forty-five minute writing sprees. While we didn't stick to these very strictly, it kind of worked out like that anyway. When chat time started, we would have a conversation if we wanted to, and they were always interesting. One focused solely on Harry Potter. Another was about the movie ratings in different countries (I was the only American there, and I believe our organiser is French.) A third was about writing programs and the differences between NaNo and Screnzy. And the cool thing was, no one ever said, "Okay, time to write again." The conversation would just slowly fall into us writing again, in a very natural way. It was great.

The group today was very small- just five of us, with a strange sixth guy who sat down, scribbled one scene in a planner, asked one girl if she wanted to read it and when she said sure, handed it over and walked away, never to return. We were all very confused. I got a ton of work done on the script today. We were working in a cafe, which is my favorite atmosphere to work in- I always get so much done. The energy of being in that location with a few people who were doing the same thing as me was very motivating, and I'd say I got about ten pages of script done (you need 3.3 a day.)

I write scripts a little differently than I write novels. Novel writing for me happens almost all in one document, even though I don't write in a linear fashion. Stand-alone lines for scenes will be separated only by a large space from the next scene, and eventually I finish them all and link them together. With plays, though, I might have a document full of random lines, but I always keep each scene in its own document. I also developed a breakdown system this year when I was finishing my other play. Here's what the breakdown for my Screnzy play looks like:

Of course, that's not all the scenes in the play, but it is all of the ones I've at least begun. I never do this for my novels, generally just preferring to fly by the seat of my pants with a few points to hit along the way.

I have no set plan for tomorrow... I guess we'll just see what happens!

The Girl on the Tube With Roses

These are the lovely roses I found waiting on my chair today when I got to the theatre. They were given to me by Tracy, the stage manager/light and sound op for the show. It was pretty fun riding home on the tube and seeing people glance at the roses, wondering where I got them.

I was also given a really nice card from the other actress in the show. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I can't believe how welcoming they've all been to a girl who popped up the day before they opened.

The reason I got these things was because tonight was closing night of the show. Sad :( But we ended with a bang- it was a great crowd tonight! Afterwards, I went with everyone to the pub next door, where the director insisted that he "owed me a drink." However, since I don't drink alcohol and I've given up soda for Lent he ended up getting me orange juice. That's how we non-drinkin' girls do it! :p I didn't stay for long- everyone was spread out talking to family and friends who had come to see the show and I didn't know any of them. But I'm truly grateful for this experience.

Earlier today, I went to the Evolving Language exhibit at the British Library, which was mostly awesome. the drawback was that there were so many people. The drawback that stems from that one is that they were all super-slow readers, which meant that it took forever to get through the displsays and I got so frustrated that I ended up skipping around. I did see most of it though, and it was really interesting. Because of my linguistics class, I actually knew a lot of the history already, but it was a tad different because it was told in the British point of view. They were casting a lot of words high on the wall all around the room, and some of these words were the foreign equivalent of British words... but since I don't know all of them, it wasn't always a translation for me.

There were some pretty cool things on display there- there's a letter from Jane Austen to her sister, as well as part of her hand-written manuscript of Persuasion, which held an alternate ending! There was also an original (printed) copy of Pygmalion with George Bernard Shaw's personal dialect notes in it! I geeked out over that a little bit.

The library's store was also a dangerous place for me to go- besides having souvenirs from the exhibit (I got a mini-poster and a few postcards), they also had a permanent book shop. I saw a ton of books I wanted to get, but held myself off and only bought some more postcards (only one of which I plan to send. All of the others are already on my wall.)

Speaking of books, on the tube ride home tonight, I finished The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox. What a stunning, wonderful book. It's the best book I've read in awhile, one of those that you devour fast but wish you didn't because that means it has to end. I was so into it that I missed a lot of my history lecture yesterday because I was thinking about it and I seriously considered taking it out while waiting for the snail readers to finish up at the exhibit. It's just an amazing book and I am definitely buying it as soon as I can.

(Side note: I picked up the book because the cover looked interesting. Guess what it's about? A girl in the 40s who gets put into an asylum [and how it affects her family, immediately and generations later.] The author used the same source material I used for my essay, as well as other studies I've done in my history class. Either I was oblivious to how present this issue was or it's suddenly getting more popular, because now it's EVERYWHERE. And I'm glad- I've now been studying the subject, both independently and at school, for over a year now, and it's nice to see something I'm passionate about in other sources. It also made me smile because when the main character, Esme, finds out where her parents are sending her, she says the exact same thing that the main character in my play does when she gets the same news.)

Script Frenzy update: I'm a teensy bit ahead, though a lot of those pages were just edited today and not written. Tomorrow I start the real writing, as I've edited everything I had before. I'm really scared of this project and I don't know why. It's probably best that I'm going to a write-in tomorrow; no excuses!

Dans Chaque Fin, Il y a Debut

Indeed. Today is (or was- it's technically Saturday here. But really early on Saturday, so shhh...) a day of exciting beginnings and endings, which I will share with you: 1) CLASSES ARE OVER! Many people have exclaimed their jealousy/excitement/disbelief over this fact, and I am definitely not ashamed of gloating that my classes are finished for the term because, blog readers, it has been a hard month. A really, really hard academic month. My history paper nearly killed me (was I on crack when I decided to take a MEDICAL HISTORY course?!), my RT paper was just annoying (six sources for a 2000-word paper? That's called plagiarism), and I had rehearsals out the wazoo for Adaptations.

(Side note: We were really worried about the performance- our tech/dress was appalling, but you know what they say- bad dress equals good show, and it couldn't have been truer for us. Like I said, it went well and I think it really shows that our group worked well together in our presentation, and the audience really loved our piece, pronouncing it "fantastic" and "really clever"- oh, how I love that word! And my group. Feminist power forever :) )

My group: Me, Emily, Heidi, Jasmine, and Katherine

2) With the conclusion of classes, so ends my junior year. Sort of. I do have to take the stupid online Global Reflections class for Arcadia and I have my history exam in May, but still... classes are done. More disbelief was expressed over my advanced age- my favorite was my friend Danielle's (who is two years older than me), exclamation: "I'm pretty sure you were a freshman about five minutes ago. What is happening?!" It's really scary to think that this time next year (plus a few months), I will be expected to turn into a real person and live without a meal plan and with rent. 3) I plan to participate in BEDA (a.k.a Blog Every Day in April.) This is an event invented by one of my favorite authors, Maureen Johnson, and I've done it for the past two years. Don't worry- I won't write a novel every day. But I think it will be easy to at least post an observation/photo or two because... 4) Now that classes are over, exploration begins! For the next two weeks, I will be examining every corner of London, all the places I haven't gone yet. I made up a list of some destinations and it was added to by a few of my friends who are more experienced in London. I already tackled one of them today- the Peter Pan statue!

I was so excited to see it. I was told about a month ago that they recently erected a gate around it and no one over fifteen could actually go up to the statue. This killed my soul a little bit. But when my friend Jackie and I went to see it today, we found that this was just a rumor- you could go right up to it. FUN FACT: Jackie told me that J.M. Barrie had the statue almost literally "appear" where it still stands overnight. He had it made without telling anyone, then put a notice in the paper saying that there was a surprise for the children in Kensington Gardens. In the middle of the night, the statue was put in its place so that it seemed Peter really had simply landed there that day. The statue is also in the place where Peter is written to have first touched down in the beginning of the novel. My love of J.M. Barrie knows no bounds.

5) Today is also the start of Script Frenzy! I'll keep you updated on my progress throughout the month.

6) I started a great new book today called The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox. It's so beautifully written and the story is so intriguing that I can't put it down. I started it this morning and I'm on page 155 right now. I definitely recommend it. Now I must go to bed- tomorrow's schedule includes meeting up with Jackie to visit the Evolving English exhibit at the British Library and closing night of the show!

Rachel is Stupid (or maybe just socially awkward): Episode Three

Haven't had one of these in awhile have we? This is probably because Rachel has been busy learning things. But now that classes are OVER (seriously. This is not an April Fool's joke. They're done), she has plenty of time in which to be stupid. But today's episode showcases her being less stupid and more socially inept. Rachel is very socially inept. Let us see what happened last night...

Last night I had taken off from the show because, when I was asked about my schedule a few weeks ago, Adaptations had been scheduled to perform in the evening. Later, it was discovered that we couldn't because another class was performing, so we ended up going on at 11:30 a.m. It went really well, people liked ours a lot (they weren't so sure about the other group's. Neither were we) and Laura came, which was great. After the show, my group hung out for a little bit, but some still had essays to do or other classes to attend, so we weren't able to stay for as long as we usually do. It was very sad, saying good-bye to all of them. Anyway. So because I had called off, I had the night free. Today starts the next kick-in-the-pants writing project that I'm doing- Script Frenzy (1 month, 100 pages of script.) There was a kick-off party and I decided that I wanted to go. I've always wanted to do the ones for NaNoWriMo, but last November was full of night classes and rehearsals, so I missed all of them. This was perfect.

Before I went, Adrienne asked to use my computer- she had three essays due yesterday and right before she was finishing one of them, her computer crashed. She managed to save her documents but her computer is beyond help right now. The absence of my computer is important later in this story.

Problems started to arise from the moment I got to the tube station- the line I needed, which would take me directly to the stop, was having problems and was temporarily suspended. I took their advice and went to another stop to catch the same line a little further down, but there were still problems there. Eventually I did get the line I needed and decided to consult the map to find the exact location of the pub where the event was being held. I looked for the road for twenty minutes and it was not there. This, I discovered when I found the road- or rather, lane- in person was probably because the name of the lane would have taken up more room on the map than the lane itself. It was that small.

After asking directions from a few people, I found the pub and remembered that the Facebook event had said that they were going to be meeting upstairs. I was glad that they had told us this because the pub was so full of after-work patrons that they were flooding out onto the sidewalk. I'm also just not a pub fan. I like them more than bars (not that I really hang out in either, even here), but they're still pretty similar. While I have been to pubs that are very nice and allow you to talk without screaming, the ones I've been to lately are just loud. I sound like an old woman. I guess you should read "loud" as "full of people, which scares me because I am too shy to talk to any of them." Plus, after the pub experience with Megan, I was even more wary of entering by myself.

But I went in and went upstairs. That level was just a very small room, which was just as loud, but, I figured, it would make it easier to find my group. There were three distinct groups of people there, but I didn't know who I was looking for and none of them looked particularly writer-y. I stood awkwardly in the doorway for a long time, periodically taking out my phone and staring at it just to do something. When people started giving me weird looks, I moved to a corner and stood there awkwardly instead.

"You could have asked someone if they were there for Script Frenzy," I hear you sigh as you roll your eyes. No. No, I couldn't have. I knew I needed to- there was no other way for me to find out who I was supposed to be with. But it took me a good ten more minutes of awkward lurking time to work up the courage to talk to any of them. Besides my fear of being told that I had just spoken to the wrong person, I was obviously younger than all of them, and between my teenager-y way of dressing and my terrified demeanor, I probably looked like I was about fourteen. My age regressed further when I finally asked a person from each group if they were there for Screnzy and, upon being told no by each of them, felt like I was going to cry. I hurriedly exited the pub and went back to Mile End, wondering how no one from the event had come.

As it turns out, the reason no one had been upstairs is because they had changed their location to downstairs, which they sent around in a Facebook message a little bit before I left. Since I didn't have my computer, I didn't get this message :( However, I plan to try one of the write-ins this weekend.

When I got back to Mile End, I thought I might stop in at the local pub and meet my friends, who were going there after one of the school shows. A quick glance through the windows told me that they weren't there yet (it's pretty easy to identify the QM students from everyone else) and I wasn't going to go stand around pathetically in another pub, especially since I wouldn't order alcohol and couldn't order soda, as I've given it up for Lent. No one sits in a pub and drinks water. I went back to my room.

As it got later, I knew that if I were a normal person, I would go back to the pub and meet them... but I didn't go. Not because I didn't want to see them, but because I just didn't feel very social. It was a night when I was perfectly content to be alone and read three hundred pages of a book I've read a thousand times before. It reminds me of the episode of Gilmore Girls where Rory has the house to herself and tells her boyfriend and her best friend that she has plans that night just so she can stay home, do her laundry, and eat Indian food by herself. Maybe I'm weird, but I completely understand this.

Plus, the same friends are getting together on Thursday :)