The new fallen snow dims the outside color to a black and white world that somehow looks blue. The Christmas lights don�t turn on until dark. I take a sip of coffee coolly holding the mug up by the rim with only two fingers. �Sigh,� I say, breathing warmly, and unfolding a much-folded piece of paper. �List of things to do before I die� is underlined. �Participate in a parade� has an empty box next to it. Check.
Haha, no. I don�t have a list like that. That wouldn�t have been on the list if I did. It isn�t snowing. My family doesn�t have our Christmas lights up yet. And I haven�t had a cup of coffee since 7th Grade Camp. But I was in a parade. A parade of Christmas lights, no matter what religion you were born into.
Look at your agenda, or make up an agenda in your mind. Now, at the top of the agenda write (or imagine) the heading as �Things to do before I die...tomorrow.� Suddenly the agenda looks awful and depressing. Here�s my agenda, written as a list: School tomorrow, performance Friday.
Gotta love Sundays.
I couldn�t find a highlighter, and I don�t believe I even have one. So, for those of you who need to borrow one, I could lend you my green Crayola marker. It�s a color that�s festive for what I�m highlighting, but it�s also just a coincidence. Green. Green is more Christmassy than red. But we put them together for some reason. The real paper I have before me heads �Santa�s Spectacles� and has too many characters. The star of this play is either Zak or Zach, but I�m in it...with 6 lines. I showed up one day for �Shakespeare� Club, heard I got a part. So I showed up again after missing plenty of practices, and was guaranteed a part. And then another part. And then another part.
In one scene I play two elves that have lines right next to each other. How does an actor pull that one off? Well, you become schizophrenic. A schizophrenic elf. And the next part I got is #1 of the 8 children. And the last part I got is another elf, although I�m not sure if I actually am that part or if it is someone else�s. Well, I highlighted it with my green Crayola marker. Okay, so this is only a 15 minute skit, practically, but it�ll be performed on a �stage� with no backstage. That�s what I heard. And...this is all next Friday.
I�ve been in a little denial. First of all, I�m not complaining. I mean, I�m in this play with a whole bunch of great friends and we have quite a lot of fun acting around in this play. It�ll be fun...somehow. But I have the worst memory, and have to work hard to memorize my lines. This isn�t really a play we should be working hard on, but a lot of people, like Rachel and Mary and Justin have all their lines memorized. Zach has done quite well, too. He may be the best. But they have a lot of lines (minus Rachel, who has as many as I do).
Why do I find performing in plays so hard? For �Robin Hood,� I went over and over my lines for the scenes with Tyler, who played the Sheriff when I was the monologue-spewing Bishop. I don�t know how I knew all of those lines, but I did, and I performed them on stage with no problem. The next year was �Bye Bye Birdie,� and all I had was one-liners. And a song. Which I sung horribly and without timing and...not only quietly, but I didn�t have a microphone. I remember feeling quite the failure just because of that. And the guy who �helped� most with my singing (he did help), gave me a sarcastic �Oh did I?� when I thanked him for helping me.
This year, I have a big song which I can�t help but memorize, I already have and I don�t know how. Well, I�m listening to it right now...
But �The Sound of Music� stresses me out because I feel behind on the memorization. So I typed out all of my lines and put some humor into them...at least on paper. Then there�s �Santa�s Spectacles.� I play a schizophrenic elf and a Christmas caroler. The thought of it is funny, and it could be really good...but we have had just a little preparation. I�m still not complaining.
~~
After I saw the end of the light parade, I went to Zach�s house and the first thing I told him was about how I literally saw the end of the light parade. The crowd of Williamston was spreading how, children were cold and yet they still wanted my stinkin� candy canes that I was passing out with a piece of paper taped to them giving information about �The Sound of Music.� I looked ahead right after speaking to a group of ladies who wanted my papers (with candy canes) and told me they �wouldn�t miss it.� The play, they wouldn�t miss the play.
And looking ahead at that moment, the parade float that I was supposed to be right behind, and with Mary and Emily, looked like it was a quarter-mile up the road. I looked behind me, and there was nothing, there were no people or parade floats or nice-looking cars with signs on them advertising stuff. I was the end of the parade. I picked up my fallen numbs and raced myself back to Mary and Emily.
They wanted to come to Zach�s, but couldn�t ditch Casey�s party. It was probably a lot of fun, but I experienced another great movie-watching...um, experience. Alright, there�s this movie called �True Lies.� It invented the clich�s of action movies and isn�t only the biggest action movie I�ve ever seen, but it one of the best-made movies ever. It has a plot with something for everybody. Made by the director of �Titanic� and also the man behind the �Terminator� movies, �True Lies� is truly one of the greats. But I have always just watched that one with my dad. It�s a romantic/comedy/action movie. Rom-com-action.
But watching that movie with Zach was the ultimate experience. He caught all the jokes/gags, absorbed all the action (each punch, shot, and explosion), and was still shocked by the climatic final act. He would even have predictions of what would happen. An unhealthy viewer would predict the coolest stuff and then would be disappointed when it didn�t happen. With Zach, he�d predict, lets say, someone hanging upside-down from a helicopter...he got it. Then he wanted the badguy to get blown away by the machine-guns from a Harrier-jet...he got a whole building floor full of badguys blown away. �True Lies� is one of the greatest...see it. It�s got romance for all you women who are bored with your lives as a working girl. This�ll just spice things right up.
Much like �Mr. and Mrs. Smith.� I watched that one after getting home from Zach�s, and just had fun watching it. I�ll admit there are some slow scenes in the beginning and some parts where Brad and Angelina think they�re being funny, but it�s got fun action and it�s another one of those movies with super-secret agents (secret from their spouses), like �True Lies,� with good action and funny moments.
While watching �True Lies,� in the middle of it, I wanted to go back to the beginning and watch it again with Zach. Some movies you just want to be over with...but few do you want to start over in the middle. With �Mr. and Mrs. Smith,� it was about 2:30 when it ended, and I went upstairs to watch another �new� episode from my latest �Everybody Loves Raymond� DVDs...and then I started �Mr. and Mrs. Smith� again. It�s better the second time...and I even dozed off in the middle of that one.
Also see "Shaun of the Dead." It was a brilliant zom-rom-com. Hilarious and well made. If you like British humor, you'll love this. I didn't like British humor before "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," and then hated British humor after "Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy." Now I love it again. "Shaun of the Dead" is on my Christmas list.
~~
Zach fast-forwarded through �Stir of Echoes,� since he missed the end of it...when he was watching it with his girlfriend, Kelly. I guess he didn�t know that movies automatically rewind when they get to the end of the tape. He and Kelly must have really been interested in the end credits. �Oh, look at who the grips are, they are cool guys...good grips.�
�Stir of Echoes� is a great movie. Featuring one of the greatest/hottest sex scenes in a movie. It�s just the atmosphere of the movie, and the group of friends in the movie, and the life of the movie. It�s �ordinary,� as they say in the film, but if I chose an �ordinary� life, that�s the kind of �ordinary� I�d want. And you are able to relate to the characters, and that makes it scary...even if the actual badguy(s) are(is an) awful actor(s).
Also, Zach doesn�t know how to make popcorn. Haha. I have to put my popcorn in the microwave for about 4 minutes or less...he put it in for 3 and a half, and there were a lot of kernels left. I�m not making fun of him or anything, but you should have seen him afraid to touch the bag right out of the microwave. Haha, oh that Zach. I guess he and Kelly didn�t make any popcorn the night before.
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