Some things I've learned...

So I just finished my first full week of classes here in le desert and I think it's probably a good idea to take stock of the things I've learned, not just in the past week, but in the (exactly) two weeks since I left the Twin Cities.

In no particular order. Well, maybe chronologically, but not really.

First, driving across the country is a mostly horrifying experience. I'm sure most of the states we drove through have redeeming qualities, they just didn't reveal themselves to us at that particular time. Upside, it never felt so good to just be able to get up and walk after TWENTY-SIX HOURS.

Second, the act of moving to a new place may be one of the most traumatic things I've ever experienced. That might give you a clue to the fact that I haven't had very many devastating things happen in my life, but in all seriousness, moving is quite frightening. For a long time, the whole AZ seemed like a far-off plan, and then suddenly I was in a car with my sister and all my things and I was driving through the panhandle of Oklahoma. Needless to say, I was not mentally prepared to make this transition. The last year of my life has been blissful and I had no intention of halting that experience, but alas, I promised myself that I would follow through this time, so here we go.

Third, the act of moving is EXPENSIVE. Good God. Have you seen the gas prices? It's also not to my advantage that when I finished college, I discovered that many of the fancy decor that I had invested in over the last 4 years was either neon, stained with something (thankfully) unrecognizable, or advertising Budweiser. Needless to say, I'm not currently living in a frat house, so all that stuff needed to go. I mean, I could have easily survived with just the amenities of a table, bed, chair, etc……but what can I say? I need my place of residence to feel like it is mine. So that means curtains, lamps, dressers, wall art, candles. I can now recognize almost all the employees at the local Target by department. Someone should take away my credit cards. Seriously. Don't even get me started on how much internet costs. Ugh. Woof.

Fourth, I miss my support system. I'm not one to really take things for granted that often, but it's shocking to be in a huge metropolitan area, at one of the biggest universities in the country, to be surrounded by people, and still feel so incredibly alone. I liken it to anytime I'm in New York. So much hustle and bustle, but the amount of anonymity is overwhelming. I miss being able to come home and talk with my parents or harass my sister. I miss working every day with the colleagues that I have built relationships with over the past 15 months. I miss meeting up with my college friends around town to catch up on things and grab dinner and drinks. I miss ramming around the city, or even just hanging out with the boy person. To be honest, I miss people in general. This isn't like my undergrad experience where there were forced personal interactions for the freshmen. You know, the ones where they make you take a random number of sheets of toilet paper and then you have to say that many things about yourself to the group? Awful, I know. But alas, I could certainly use one of those activities right about now. The people here are certainly friendly, but it's definitely a challenge to be one of the only new students entering the program. Stay tuned on this one; I'm hoping it will remedy itself sooner rather than later.

Fifth, the thing where they say that small-college professors are so much more personable than big-university professors is completely untrue, at least from what I've experienced so far. The professors here at ASU are wonderful. Each one of them has shown an unsolicited personal investment in my well being, and that reminds me so much of why I had such a great undergrad experience. I'm so excited to learn from these new people, and so far, this program seems to be exactly what I need in order to take the next step, both personally and professionally.

Sixth, I am not outdoorsy. I can certainly do my fair share of playing when it's Minnesota or Iowa style outdoors, but Arizona outdoors is a whole other thang. There's literally a cactus in my front yard. I really want to touch it to see if it hurts as much as they say it does. Is that bad to do do do do do…..? YES. YES, IT IS. I had my second failed attempt at commuting out here earlier this week when I decided to purchase a bike. I figured that while the 3-mile trip to school is not suitable for walking, it would definitely be doable on a bike. Right? Right.

WRONG.

Well, it would have been fine, had both foot pedals fallen off about halfway to campus. The first one fell off, and I couldn't screw it back on, so I continued to pedal with just one foot, which is awkward enough without being in the middle of a busy road with mostly college students judging the crap out of you. (This is where the anonymity is to my benefit.) Then, without warning, the other pedal fell off. Awesome. Exasperated, I took shelter from the 114 degree heat (wish I was exaggerating) in the shade of a Taco Bell. No, I did not get a chicken gordita supreme, even though I could hear it taunting me through the drive-in window. I tried to fix the other pedal, but to no avail. Thus, I spent the next mile of my journey sitting on my bike and propelling it forward with my feet. I did this until I saw myself in the reflection of a store-front window and decided that if I was planning on making any friends during my time in Phoenix, I had better stop tooling around town on my broke-down bicycle and just walk it the rest of the way. And this incident was the second time that I was convinced I was going to die from heat exhaustion. True story. Wish it wasn't.

Seventh, I'm in the right career path. Every time I go to class to learn about acting or dancing or singing or history or acoustics or whatever it may be, I can't stop smiling like a giddy child. I'm so excited to be able to wake up every day and go learn about the things that I'm passionate about. This week, I've had the opportunity to perform and watch my colleagues do the same and I'm so grateful to be surrounded by individuals who care so deeply about their craft. One of my professors pulled me aside after class on Wednesday and told me that he could tell that I was a total musical theater nerd and how excited he was to work with me. Heartwarming. Because it's true.

I thought that I had grown up a lot in the year since graduating from Luther. Here, I'm finding that I have a whole different set of challenges to deal with. It's daunting, but it's comforting to know that there is already a light at the end of the tunnel. It's very small, but it's there.

"It may feel like quite a ride, but it's turning out to be life going just perfectly." Or something like that.

Best,

A

So I accidentally moved to the desert....oops.

Welp, after over a year of hemming and hawing and playing the piano, I finally bit the bullet and moved to the desert. Not that moving to the desert was the actual goal, but starting grad school was. Before I continue, I must apologize for not having posted anything in MONTHS. Sorry. I was busy living my life so I could have things to write about on here. It's cyclical, you see? Ta da.

Anywho. A lot has happened since we (myself and whoever you are) have corresponded. A whole entire summer has happened, in fact. I'll give you the sparknotes version to catch you up. I music directed the musical "Footloose" for a theater company in the Twin Cities and it was a total blast. The cast was obscenely talented and the rest of the production team was a dream to work with. My favorite of pretty much any show I'm involved with is watching the transformation from auditions to performance. To see the full arc of building a show is truly inspiring, especially when one appreciates the scope of putting up a theatrical event. SO MUCH has to happen to make everything work. Truly a collaborative experience. I'm also excited because I've been asked back to music direct "Cabaret" for the same company next summer! Its nice to know that I did my job well enough that they wanted me back again and its also a huge relief to know that I don't have to be looking for work as soon as I'm done with spring semester. When I wasn't in rehearsal or performances for Footloose, I was teaching. I logged about 450 hours of classroom and studio time and I found that it was a decent activity to fill up time. HA. Kidding. I don't think I often realize just how lucky I am, but I tried to take stock of that as often as I could this summer. It isn't often that a theater artist can make a living entirely from their art, but through a ton of luck and some help from my colleagues, I lined up enough gigs to both fill my time and earn enough dough to live on (which is saying a lot because I love to eat at nice restaurants and I can never have just one rum and coke).

Well, before I knew it, August rolled around and then it was suddenly time to go off to college. Again. I hadn't truly realized the severity of my decision until I got in my car and started driving across the country with my sister. Up until then, it was just a fancy plan in my head where I would bounce around in Phoenix for a while and maybe sing some stuff before promptly coming back to the life I know and love in the Twin Cities. You may be asking yourself whether or not I'm as ignorant of reality as it may seem, and I am here to tell you that yes, at times, I can successfully feign ignorance until it whirls around and whaps me in the face.

Thats what it did today. If you haven't come to this conclusion, I live in Arizona now and I just finished my second day in the Masters of Musical Theater program at Arizona State University. In about 21 months, I will be a master of musical theater. Whatever that may be….Anyway. If you have ever watched Sven Sundgaard on KARE11, or any other weather broadcast for that matter, you may have the common sense knowledge that Arizona is a desert. And deserts are mostly hot. So hot, in fact, that for the past week, the average high temperature has been 107 degrees. I know that people say "Oh, its a dry heat in Arizona, so it doesn't feel that bad" but I'm here to tell you that when you are sitting completely still but are still soaked with your own sweat, it doesn't feel like a pleasant dry heat.

Back to my point. There was a storm last night with wind and lightning and the whole bit, and this storm dropped the temperature to a chilly (note the sarcasm in my voice) 80 degrees. I was so delighted with my situation that I ventured out from my newly organized and cleaned studio apartment to the convenience store around the corner to purchase a Diet Coke. Perfect, right? I was so enamored with the low temperature that I decided that today (Friday) would be a lovely day to walk to campus for my classes and then walk home, thus being able to fully appreciate my new surroundings. So here I was, looking spiffy in a navy (never again) t-shirt, some cute white shorts and some canvas slip-ons. I was ready. My first event of the day was a hearing for the choral faculty at ASU. They wanted to hear me sing some shtuff and practice my solfege, which they now (I assume), regret. This hearing was at 9:50, so I decided I would have enough time to warm up when I got there if I started walking at about 8:20. The campus is about 2 miles from my house, and the music building is on the far side, so I would have to walk about 3 miles to get there. Totally doable. I figured if I walked at a brisk pace, it would take me about 40 minutes or so to get there. Welp, I quickly found out that it was back to the normal Arizona heat, so brisk wasn't an option unless I was in a car or wanted to pass out within minutes of departure. But that wasn't the killer. About a mile into this adventure, my feet started to really hurt. I looked down and quickly came to the conclusion that these canvas slip-ons might not have been the best choice for a 3 mile jaunt. (Keep in mind that I have to repeat this journey in order to get home.)

So about a mile and a half away from the School of Music, I stopped at a gas station to get some Band-Aids because I literally was hobbling along this main street like a baby deer who had just been born and then shot in one knee. It was awful. I put about four bandages on my right foot and five on my left. And that was BEFORE my dance class, but that's a whole different story. So I go through my day with my choral hearing, a really cool class on acting for musical theater singers that I think I'll love, and then a voice seminar for my voice teacher's studio. HOLY COW, the people here can SING. Its nice though, because at ASU, they don't crucify you for enjoying musical theater as opposed to opera, in fact, they encourage you to pursue your interests and areas of talent. Other unmentioned institutions of higher learning, take note.

Then, at about 1:30 it was time to walk home. UNTHINKABLE. I don't think I've ever felt nearer to death in my life. During the walk, I kept splashing myself in the face with my water bottle, but unfortunately I might as well have boiled the water before doing so because my trusty Nalgene could do nothing to keep out the scorching desert sun. It took me about an hour and 15 minutes to get home and the only thing I could do upon arrival was sprawl myself out on the cool tile and hope for a speedy death. Well, that didn't happen, so I made myself a turkey sandwich instead, which sufficed. I know now that I'm not allowed to spend extended periods of time ramming around outside in the desert during the summer. Common sense isn't really that common, ya know?

Tenderly (because my feet still really hurt),

Andy