Grad School

Someday, someday, someday....it's the song I sing myself to sleep with when I go to bed thinking on Grad school. Someday I shall get there. Who knows when?

Until I do get there, I really need help figuring out where "there" is. I need some guidance and there doesn't seem to be any Americans that can help me. I need a UK drama school pro...maybe somebody who knows specific things like how drama school and getting a visa afterwards for an American can go hand-in-hand.

I've found some great programs that I'm really interested in. Some that are on the CDS and NCDT lists and some that aren't. What I'm concerned with is will I be able to get funding for a program that is not certified? Or will it prove to be more difficult? Also, if I get accepted to a non-certified program does that make it doubly hard to get a work visa after graduation? It's already hard enough to do that, I'm not sure I want to make it even harder on myself.

I really like this one program that is specially geared towards international students and even helps Americans/Canadians/Australians improve their accent/dialect and RP. I want to work in the UK and want to get hired despite having an American accent, so I want to be able to work in other accents/dialects. But this program is not certified. So am I just wasting my time?

Questions abound....

PMS looks good on me...

Ahhhh PMS, isn't it just lovely? I used to hate PMS but now I have fully come to appreciate it's benefits.

For example. I'm not sure if you knew, but my apartment is nicknamed "The Igloo" for a reason. It's a basement apartment and stays chill like an icebox year round. Good for summer, real bad for winter. It costs a fortune to heat ($200 last month cause I thought maybe I'd try...boy did The Igloo sure teach me...), so we just don't bother. I'm currently wearing a delightfully, sexy ensemble that consists of sweat pants, LL Bean knit socks with kickass leather bottoms, long sleeve tee with a sweatshirt and a nice fluffy scarf that I have wrapped around my head. Which of course I can't wear to bed, cause that'd just look silly, so I shall replace it with a ski cap before I go to sleep. Elegant and refined, I know.

Exhibit A: Too Hot to Handle Right Now, or Screw You Pepco, I Can Generate My Own Heat

But this is where the benefits of PMS come in handy.

I eat like food is going out of style when PMS hits and at the rate I'm going this week, I will have amassed enough body fat to help me survive a winter, naked, in Russia. Currently, I think my food consumption today alone could feed a third world country....wait, that is not where I wanted to veer this thought process....happythoughts, happythoughts, cute puppies and babies.....mmm, beer.

So yes, today...I won't list my entire food diary here, cause who cares, but my dinner should impress--Coke, double patty burger from 5ive Guys (ketchup only of course, I try to watch my figure...expand....), easy mac on the side, and 2 peanut butter rice krispie bars for dessert(I made a batch yesterday and ate half of it in one sitting, proving.....I AM THE VICTOR). I was slightly satisfied. Then I worked for about 3 hours at the Theatre and was raging hungry afterwards. Late seating the jerks who show up to a play late always works up an appetite, don'tcha know. My hunger was to the point that I had thoughts of robbing a Domino's or begging on the corner for some Chinese food and a bottle of red wine. Although, I'm not really supposed to be eating out at all in order to save money...but the 5ive Guys burger does not count cause I needed meat and that's just not something that is safe for me to cook without adult supervision.

Now that I'm home, I've given myself full approval to chow down, bulk up, go for the gold. Bikini season is way off...and I never liked those anyways, so who cares? Eat! Eat your heart out and love it!

Except I got nothing here. Haven't gone shopping. Can't until I can hopefully beg $30 from the gentle souls who bore me and call me their own. So instead of consuming wholesome, delicious food, like Ben & Jerry's or roasted chicken and mashed potatoes, like I wanted, I had instead 2 bowls of Rice Krispies with vanilla almond milk (no need to add sugar, yum!), and have now moved on to popcorn, my brother's homemade beer and, apparently, run-on sentences. (Glad to see my English degree is being put to good use. Use me as a model kids, plagiarize away, I dare ya.)

And guess who's going to England during the next PMS storm front? Oh that'd be me. Hello fish 'n chips, Yorkshire puddings, Strongbows by the multiple pint, Cadbury chocolate made in the mother land, bangers 'n mash, blood pudding, Chicken Kiev's made at Sainsbury's (don't ask, I just loooooove them), cream custard, high tea, PG tips with...wait for it....WHOLE MILK. Heaven save me. Please allow Virgin Atlantic to board me home again once I've gained 500lbs.

The end.

Now I must go and see how strawberry Popsicles taste dipped in peanut butter and rolled in oats......

....kidding......

kinda. Can't say the thought didn't cross my mind to actually try it.

xx.

Poor Me...Fun Me

Dear Friends in the DC/VA/MD area:

Hi. I like you. I think you're cool and fun and really enjoy hanging out with you on multiple occasions. I would like to continue to hang out with you on multiple occasions. Here's the sitch however....I am poor. I mean like super poor. I haven't blogged about it yet, but if you're friends with me on Facebook you already know, at the end of February I'm going to London for 9 days (I'MSOEXCITEDYOUHAVENOIDEA). I don't know if this will come as a surprise to those who know me but....I can't actually afford to go to London. But per usual, I toss all thoughts of what I can and can't do when poor out the window. I'm already in debt, but damnit, my soul needs some England, so c'est la vie.

What does this mean for you dear friends? Other than you having to put up with me gushing constantly about my trip, that is. Well, I can afford to do absolutely nothing with you. This is unacceptable in my book. So I propose a Poor Me plan. Starting Tuesday (after one of my good friends birthday dinner at Circa in Dupont on Monday night) I will not be spending any money on eating out. I will not even spend a dime on coffee at my favorite coffee shop or purchase a small, cheap snack at my favorite little French cafe on the Hill. My money will be saved for the immense amount of delicious, amazing, calorie saturated, British food I'll be consuming every hour I'm in London (definitely not joking here my friends).

So in order to not slip into my unavoidable destiny of spinsterhood before it's time, I propose dinner parties. On the nights when I'm not working a show...which starts this Tuesday night. I fully expect several of you to accept my dinner invites for the cheap, but I'm sure delicious, concoctions I shall cook up in my kitchen. Come, join me for a meal. And if you care to reciprocate, I make an excellent dinner guest.

For nights that I just can't avoid going to the bar man-hunting with my favorite dynamic duo, Callie & Mills (and why on earth would I want to avoid that? Not because I'm tired and want to go to bed early....oh no...never again, I swear ladies. Girl Scouts honor), I shall be purchasing only one of the poor man's favorite brew, PBR. Mmmm, delicious. I hear if you add a lime, it tastes just like Corona.

Other Poor Me ideas for frivolity and fun, long walks with one of my favorite bloggers and her pup, beer pong tournaments at my house (you provide the beer, I've got the table and a winning attitude), movie nights (10th Kingdom anyone? It'd be an adventure that spans over several nights!), tourist walks around DC, visits to many of our free museums, and I have half a bottle of Tequila sitting in front of me...so let's plan something around that shall we? ;) (Mom, I'm kidding....kind of...)

Any other free ideas you want to throw at, feel free. I'm good, cheap fun....errr....I mean I'm up for good, cheap fun.

Best regards,

Lindsay

I Take Pictures of Food

I was super excited about my breakfast this morning. I just had to take a picture and share. Then my roommate asked me if I knew what a "spinster" is...and that word is not in my vocabulary. The only thing I can relate is "fabulously single blogger who occasionally takes pictures of her food"...and in the blog world it's totally normal.

Breakfast: Steal cut oats cooked in unsweetened vanilla almond milk, with Pumpkin Pie and Cardammon spice. Raspberries and agave nectar on top. Healthy, delicious and with enough sugar to make me happy it's morning. I kind of rock...did you know?

Somebody's Gotta Do It

Just wanted to give you a little looky-loo into what I do for my day job:

Yup, this is official type business, people. And it wasn't even suggested by me, the Anglophile of the company. I had a higher-up suggest maybe we should be selling some fun British stuff, like a Shandy, ......and then the prawn cocktail flavored crisps were all my idea.

A shandy, for you none-Brit-obsessed Americans, is a drink that mixes beer with lemonade (or sprite/7up). I didn't actually know they sold it as a pre-made canned beverage, so it was quite a delight to find it at my British goods store in Arlington called Classic Cigars & British Goodies. Then, per usual for me, while there I got carried away with excitement over the chocolate products. I can't leave a shop like that without getting imported McVitie's Chocolate Digestives, Cadbury's Dairy Milk, Cadbury's Dairy Milk Caramel, Cadbury's Dairy Milk Fruit and Nut, and of course, Cadbury's Dairy Milk Whole Nut. DON'T get between me and my British chocolate.

Yes, when I lived in London I did indeed gain forty pounds and went up TWO cup sizes....I guarantee that my boobs were most likely made up of entirely Cadbury's Chocolate.

Overshare? I think not. Knowledge can only bring us closer.

Hugs 'n Kisses.

L

Books to Keep the Blues Away

I haven't been feeling the greatest lately. Lots of internal, self-inflicted stress that I can't seem to shake. And let me tell you, my body will always physically react to any amount of stress, whether I'm aware I have any or not. Welcome to life with Crohn's.

I've been struggling a bit with the fact that I am a 'people-pleaser'. Yup, this is a bad thing. I've been told that word for word. "Lindsay you are a people-pleaser and that is a bad thing." See? Word for word. And as soon as that was spoken out loud I realized that's exactly what gives me a vast majority of my stress on a daily basis. I make a lot of decisions, even very important, life-changing decisions, based on the fact that it will make a lot of other people happy...totally disregarding my happiness. I get very upset when I think a decision I'm making will make someone unhappy.

I can't fully point the finger at others because this is something I created in myself and I'm not quite sure how I got here. But how I got here is really not what I need to focus on. I'm working towards being more positive and retraining myself to see whats best for me and how to get it with clear visualization.....

....and don't I just sound like a self-help book. Ummm, that's because I am totally reading a self-help book and it's AWESOME. Don't be a hater. Leave me to my happy place. I am a total closet-self-help junky. LOVE. Maybe it's because I'm very pessimistic a lot of the time, but it does go against my innate nature. I'm drawn to books with positive words that tell tales of having control over your own life and doing great things...this book has all that and it doesn't sound like a whole lot of crap you want to roll your eyes at. It's called The New Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz. I've been getting up early and reading bits of it before I start my day, finding that it helps put a spring in my step and makes me feel like I can handle just about anything. Of course, usually by the end of the day I curl up in a ball and cry "uncle" to the headlock Life has me in...but baby steps...

Other books that I currently have at my bedside that I'm working my way through in the odd hour.... Respect For Acting by Uta Hagen. This practically reads like a self-help book, but it's one for actors. I've underlined a lot of fantastic stuff and I just go straight to my happy place when I read about technique and finding better ways to convey a message through acting. No matter what my day job is, I'll always be an acting nerd.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanne Clarke is one I've owned since it first appeared over here in the US. Having seen it over the pond in England, I bought it and then just never got around to reading it...the very same thing that happened with almost all 250 books I currently own and have not read...oops...Book Buyers Anonymous anyone?

I've picked it up this second time around because a friend of mine is reading it...she happens to have a blog over here. (She's really kind of awesome, so get on that) I was jealous she was reading it, what with me owning it and all and having never read it, so I decided it was time. So far it's pretty decent. It's very, very thick with very, very small type and extremely detailed with a whole history created for it. An impressive piece of work to be sure. I'll let you know how it goes.

But moral of the story, and there sooooo is one....cause I'm all about the educatin' the masses....books make me happy. These ones are keeping the blues away. They provide that little period of calmness, where I enter through a door and have to leave my shit behind because it just can't carry into the story. A nice little respite from life. You should try it.

And if you have books that keep your blues away...well holla at yo' girl.

xx

Open Call

Dear Men:

HI! My name is Lindsay and I. AM. SINGLE. It's official. I am open to dating, so let's get it on. Okay, GO! I am ready for the flirting to commence. I have my stick ready to beat off the masses swarming around me for attention--I promise to be gentle.....

....okay....any time now.....feel free to ask me out....

...ummm, I'm waiting, did I not say GO?!

Seriously now. Do I honestly need to give you an incentive for this already hot package?

.........................................................

Damn. Okay....here ya go.

I am available-Single & ready to mingle.

How can you say no to footie pajamas?

Wait.....don't let this awkward silence come between us.

Ah well, at least my feet are warm and I am beyond awesome.

Nuf' said.

Love, Future Nun Candidate.