The Comfy Corner

1) I eat a lot of Chic Fil A, Mexican Food and Barbecue.

2) I marvel at how cheap beer on draft is.

3) I get roped into taking out the trash or doing chores and I always ask, "What do you do when I'm NOT here?!"

4) I play with the dogs and wish I could have one of my own in my apartment.

5) My little sister wakes me up every morning.

6) I watch entire seasons of TV shows on Netflix

7) I read a lot of statuses and start preoccupying my thoughts with things like, "I'm so annoyed with all of these Black Swan statuses." or "When did it become a new thing to make your New Year's resolution your status?"

8) My grandmother tells me I am "very pretty" every ten minutes I'm with her (Alzheimer's)

9) My sister says, "That's so gay" all the time and always apologizes to me.

10) I breathe in the fresh air, I sleep a lot, I eat a lot, I marvel at the beauty of the mountains, I am thankful for my family and for the fact that I still have really great friends here.

Ya'll have a nice day!

Nathan

This is why coming home and digging through old stuff can be dangerous. I won the year book design competition in fifth grade and this is the portrait of a winner. At least I was doing well at something...



Not much longer after that photo was taken, I wrote my autobiography. I wish I could just upload the whole thing because it is all golden. On one page I talk about how I want to stop pollution five times. Apparently I was on a big environmental kick. And under "five important questions for the future" I asked "What will we eat? Where will we go? What will we do? What will we wear? Where will we have gone?" That's all I could come up with in the moment, apparently. But here are the current fads...



Apparently it was really cool to wear plaid button ups unbuttoned over a white shirt, listen to 98 degrees and watch DVD's. Oh my 6th grade self. Those were dark times. It's important for everyone to know that this is around the time I started running to lose weight and clean myself up.

It's Christmas Eve and I'm home enjoying my last winter break ever (a scary thought). This woman, Carole, from my boy scout troop (yes, I'm an Eagle scout. I loved boy scouts for all the wrong reasons...joking, sort of) messages me on FB telling me that Gavin Creel was going to be in town and was playing bells at the church. Apparently, the Creels live in Asheville. Who knew that the man with a voice like melted butter who has been nominated for two Tony awards spent every Christmas in my hometown?! Not me. So, of course I decided to go to church for the first time in a long time. Perhaps I'll be smited for going to church with ulterior motives. But, for the record, God, I enjoyed the service. That, however, is not the miracle.

The miracle is that I was able to hold myself together really well around a celebrity (an attractive, gay celebrity at that)! If you follow my blogs, my celebrity interactions are always very awkward and usually end with me asking for a picture. I did NOT ask for a picture (though I did have my camera) and I kept my cool. We calmly chatted about the A.R.T. in Boston and I asked him if he'd come visit Emerson for a Q & A to which he said he would love to. He's a super cool guy. It was weird and sort of inspiring to meet an openly gay musical theatre person in my home town. I felt my worlds melting together in an odd way. I hope one day I'll be able to come back to visit Asheville in a similar fashion (as an out, confident, musical theatre celeb).

It's times like this that I feel like fate is really nudging me and saying, "Duh, this is what you are supposed to do! Are you CRAZY!?!? Go to NYC immediately!" And that is a feeling I wouldn't trade for the world.

Sunday - I was working at CPK all day. During the lunch shift, I waited on these two gay men. They were cracking a lot of jokes and being very nice to me. I wouldn't necessarily say they were flirting with me, but they were definitely being more social with me than most. When they paid the bill, I realized that they overpaid by like twenty dollars, so I brought them change. When I did that, one of them looks at me and says, "Oh no, that's for you!" and then he grabs my hand pulls me in close and whispers into my year, "By the way, cutest butt in Boston." I blushed and just said, "Thanks so much!" Of course I handled the situation uber-awkwardly. But I was flattered. That was actually just what I needed to hear.

The other day, I had a party of three that came in and sat down at the largest table in my section (it can seat six or seven). This would have been fine if they were just dropping in for a quick bite, but they were "waiting for someone else" so I had to continually check in on them over the course of the next two and a half hours. They sat there at my largest table with their waters and their soup and just selfishly prevented me from making any money that evening. These are the lessons that all people need to learn from this story.

Earlier this afternoon, I found a comfy corner at Emerson College (pictured above, compliments of AJacks). As I stared wistfully out of the fourth floor window in the Tufte Center, absorbing the warmth of the heater and the view of Tremont Street, I pondered, "What are some other comfy corners at Emerson?" Feel free to add your own. I'd love to find more.

1. The stage left exit of the Greene theater. A dark, quiet corner to hide during tech rehearsals.

2. The quiet study room in Piano Row. I discovered this room on a cold, snowy day my sophomore year. The large windows overlook the courtyard. I fell asleep watching the snow fall, enjoying the warmth of the room, the coolness of the windows, and the cushy-ness of the sofa.

3. The sofas in the library right next to the set of "Will and Grace." I'll be the first to admit that I love sitting in those seats and pretending that I'm on the TV show. And there couldn't be a comfier show to be on the set of!

4. The rolley-couch square things in the lobby of the Paramount. After ballet class and before studio dance, I retreat to these comfy couches and curl up like a little pearl (strange simile but it makes sense in my brain)

5. The second balcony of the Majestic theater. I had studio in the Majestic one day; Just the 14 of us running around that gorgeous theater and singing songs on the stage. I discovered a spot on the top balcony where you can lie down and stare up at the ceiling and it's like you are drowning in a fabrege egg (more weird similes). So...COMFY!

:) This is the standard. This can turn a simple "Okay." into an "Okay, awesome! That sounds really great and I can't wait for it!" But, (and this is true for any emoticon) it can't be used in excess or else it loses its power and becomes insincere. Another rule: never ever try and make a smiley better by adding more parentheses :))))))) That is just stupid.

:D This is a fun one. I used to not be so keen on it, but now it's growing on me. It adds nuance to the standard smiley in a big way. It says "YAY! THAT MAKES ME SO HAPPY!" without actually saying that.

;) This one can be dangerous. It's kinda like adding "in bed" or "if you know what I mean" to the end of your sentence. This is definitely one that needs to be used sparingly and only if you know the person well enough.

:p The tongue out. A classic signal that you are being sarcastic. This is an important tool in the science of emoticons. Texts and emails fail to have a tone (unless you are a brilliant, careful writer like myself) so this one is vital to let your reader know that you are kidding, but not really kidding, but kidding. You're kidding on the square.

:* A kiss. Also to be used only for those you are very close with.

({}) This one is not very standard, but I think it's funny. It's used on the BlackBerry to represent a hug. But, let's be real. It looks like something else.

'_' I made this one up. It's the emoticon that just saw a ghost. Use sparingly.