28 and feeling.... LOST.

This is a super belated "Birthday Weekend" recap post. I have to say, it went surprisingly well, which is a relief from past years. I had a well-deserved four-day weekend. Thursday the 17th was my actual birthday. I got a haircut (basically chopping all of my hair off aka 3 inches) and went to Panera for lunch. Later in the day, my family and I went out to dinner at a new restaurant in our town. I got a lot of awesome gifts (see pic below). 

But the BEST GIFT OF ALL, was a Cameo from none other than my BFF & favorite actor, ANTHONY RAPP! I was almost crying and squeezed my mom's hand while watching it. I kind of "asked" for the Cameo, but I didn't think I would actually get one. And I actually know him from Twitter and we've met three times, so it didn't feel like a forced message.

Friday was Rosh Hashanah and my aunt and cousin came over. Saturday was the Lawn Chair Cabaret Concert with Tina Scariano at Holmdel Theatre Company. It was cold as HELL but it was so nice to see a live show after such a long time! I was surrounded by so many awesome people in the theatre industry right in NJ. Colleen, photographer Michael Kushner, Tina (of course), and even Alice Ripley was in the audience! Tina is so talented and sang so many great songs. I even got to meet her after the show in her dressing room (with masks on). It wasn't the ideal way to meet someone I had interviewed, but it was better than nothing. Interview link HERE! On Sunday, my sisters and I went to a winery with some of my sister's friends. It's amazing how this whole pandemic has allowed me to enjoy doing simple things, even sitting in a circle with a bunch of lawn chairs drinking wine and eating food for hours, or even events like the Lawn Chair Cabaret. I'll do anything at this point just to get out and have fun! It feels good to see people.

What goes up must come down, because after an amazing four day weekend I had one of the worst weeks ever at work. The week after got slightly better, but I'm going to have to live with the fact that I'll have to be a hustler for a little while before I can get to where I want to be in my career. One thing I am grateful for is Colleen and Holmdel Theatre Company. I did another interview with Fredi Walker-Browne who was Joanne in the original cast of RENT. She is directing a virtual play that is premiering on YouTube tomorrow and it will be produced by Holmdel Theatre Company, so I wrote the article to help her promote that. She was VERY NICE and extremely passionate, but a little intimidating at the same time. The article got a lot of views, which boosted my confidence a lot. Everything Fredi said in the interview made me even more passionate about theater and being a writer and allowed me to look at this industry in a different way. (If you read the article, you'll get what I mean!) Colleen said it was one of the best interviews I've ever done, which was so nice and meant a lot to me. I still think Jenn Damiano's interview was my favorite, but I'll take the compliment!

I really owe Colleen a lot. It sucks that I don't get paid to write articles, but the opportunities she has given me have been incredible. I always say that if I ever end up at the Tony Awards one day, I owe it all to her. She just told me that Alice Ripley is doing a solo show like Tina's this month and asked me to go, which means I will probably interview her too. I am so excited! She seems really nice and I love that I can continue to challenge myself and be given these opportunities. Hopefully one day it will amount to something, even if it's not right now.