Wow. It's been an amazingly long time since my last entry. SOOO much to be covered! So, as I promised, I shall talk a bit about Governor's School, which I went to WAY back in June. Governor's School was a great experience and I really enjoyed it. None of the drama people there were weird like I had thought they would be and everybody was SO nice. As a matter of fact, I miss them A LOT! haha. ANyway, the teachers were really nice and supportive too. My favorite was Mr. Murray, the head of the drama department at Gov. school, because I got to know him best of all the teachers. He was my monologue instructor, which means he and I had monologue "tutorials", which were one on one sessions where we worked on teh monologue we were given (or in my case, I already had it) to present at the showcase at the end of the two weeks. I did a monologue from Talking WIth... by Jane Martin and Mr. Murray helped me with it SO much. He also taught our swordfighting/stage combat class, which was AWESOME. his wife taught our movement class and she was really cool woman who is a retired ballerina from New Zealand. ANYWAY...so my teachers were great and so by the end of the two weeks, i came to really be comfortable and happy with my monologue. THen, one day, as I was walking out of my tutorial with Mr. Murray, he stopped me and said "Mary, I really want you to consider auditioning for the residential program next year, okay?" I WAS SO EXCITED! I just sort nodded my head and left, but my heart rate was going 120 miles per second, because this was such an awesome thing! I mean, the HEAD of the drama department asked ME to audition for residential! SO, then, i really considered going back for residential. I am not FOR SURE going to audition yet, because I need to really think about what sorts of things I will be missing here at home, but there is a pretty good chance I will be auditioning in February. There is so much more to say abot governor's school, but I really can't think that far back right now, so I will move ahead. About a week after governor's School, I went to the beach for a few days with Lucy and her friend Pier, who I had never met before. It was fun, but it was a different kind of fun than most beach trips with Lucy. See, since I had never met Pier before, Lucy and him ended up kind of talking to each other and not including me in conversations a lot, which made me feel really left out. I was pretty depressed about this for about half of the trip. On the other hand, I came to learn that Pier is actually a really interesting guy and he is also extremely hilarious, so I spent the second half of the trip almost wetting my pants because I was laughing so hard from Pier's jokes. Pier is also a really good driver, so I never had to feel worried when we went places, because I was positive he would get us there safely, which was a plus. I got into some new kinds of music at the beach. I really have started to like Rilo Kiley, Iron and Wine, The Postal Service, Jump Little Children, and some other bands that Lucy and Pier introduced me to in the car on the way home from the beach. We came home from the beach on July 4, and we got home around 6 that night. Of course, just my luck, my family's 4th of July party had just ended and all my friends were out of town for tennis camp, so I spent the night of the 4th alone in my room, listening to music. haha, it was pretty festive if you ask me! Hmm...nothing really happened the week after the beach, but then on July 13th, I WENT TO NEW YORK CITY! We drove. It was me, my dad, Meagan, and her dad. The drive there was a long one. My dad made us stop in Annapolis, where he went to the Naval Academy and he made us take the hour long tour of it. Of course, meagan and I were not appreciating any of it while we were there. All we wanted was to be in the city. haha. but, after long hours, we finally made it. It was georgeous. Every time i go it just gets better and better. We went to see Wicked and we got Shoshana Bean's, Megan Hilty's, and Michelle Federer's autographs. Then, we went to see Spamalot(my second time!) and we got Christian Borle's, Eric Idle's!!, David Hyde Pierce's, Michael Mcgrath's, Alan Tuddle's, and some chorus people's autographs. The woman next to me at the stage door almost fainted when she saw Eric Idle come out! haha. i was sad not to get Tim Curry's autograph but I already have his. The only one I still really want is Sara Ramirez, because she is AMAZING. My dad took me shopping a bit at the Billabong and Quicksilver stores and we also went to the Museum of Modern Art, which was really interesting. We walked through Central Park for a bit as well and ate A TON of food. One of our meals was at Ellen's Stardust Diner, which was fun as always and we ate like 3 times at Roxy and I went to Starbucks like EVERY hour. now that I think about it...I spent WAAAAY too much money on Starbucks. Okay, so my critiques on teh shows...WICKED WAS SO AMAZING. I couldn't believe it. I mean, I loved the music, but to see it all live and the whole show put together like that was just awesome. Shoshana Bean was great. The one thing I did get annoyed by was how weirdly she said the word GOOD..her's was more like a GUUUUUUUD. haha. Also, it was hilarious, because during "As Long As You're Mine" where Fiyero and Elphaba sing to each other, Fiyero's microphone blasted really loud for a second and both of them jumped and Shoshana bean started laughing during the song! I thought that was unprofessional, but really funny. Spamalot was hilarious and FANTASTIC. Sara Ramirez was even better than last time I saw it and i just loved the comedy all throughout the show. The one thing that made me nervous was when they take the letters that they use to spell "camelot" with and mix them around to spell "Camltoe" and my dad was sitting next to me laughing his head off at that. That just felt awkward! ohter highlights of New york: I bought some mascara from Sephora(I lost my old tube), My dad bargained for a coach purse for me on the street, we ate in Rockefeller Center, we ate in Little Italy, I bought a wallet in Chinatown, we saw a Bocci ball competition in the streets in Soho, which was fun, and we looked at apartments(not like LOOKED, but just stared at...lol) in Greenwhich Village. oh yea, and we got lost on the subway....like 200 times! i TOLD THEM we should just take a cab! but NO, they insisted that we get lost on the subway at midnight! ugh...you know, some things I just KNOW i am right about! Anyway, so we are home from New York. We got home Sunday morning at 4 a.m. Oh yea, on our way out of Manhattan, we were in a traffic jam and meagan and I rolled down our windows for fresh air and we heard "For Good" playing really loudly from a car nearby. We looked around and realized the song was benig played in a black man's car as he stuck his head out the window and sang the words really loudly. he was only two lanes away from our car, so meagan and I stuck our heads out the window and started singing to the words too! Then, he looked at us and started laughing really hard and it felt good to just be able to connect for a second with some random stranger by just laughing about something. but, we are home now. This week has been pretty slow. I started my third summer reading book. I started uta Hagen's book again, because I am taking notes on it this time. (shut up, i know im a dork!) I hung out with Lucy before she leaves for France and I had Meagan and Allison come over last night and we went to target. i went to Monday Masters on Monday, whcih was eventful. I also had a voice lesson yesterday which went pretty well and a piano lesson today which went NOT so well! Then, tonight, I worked backstage for Annie at Workshop, because Lori has to have surgery and I have to take her place working backstage for two days. It was exciting getting to see some people again. I forgot how much i miss workshop. I am glad Broadway Bound is with Workshop now, because I like Workshop SOOO mcuh better than Town. By the way, the opening number of beauty and the BEast SUCKS. ha. SUPRISE SUPRISE! well, I am pretty exhausted from today's events and writing about the past few month's events. I need to do some crunches before bed, so I better hurry before I completely DIE of tiredness. I hope this entry did not bore you too much. It was quite random in its layout and so it was probably dificult to follow! Lori, you look like garfield! haha. Goodnight everybody!