Blogging

Blogging Take 2: In with the new, out with the old

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Hello! Thank you for following me here! I’m switching sites to wordpress for a few reasons:

1. I had to create a blogger account under my school email for one of my classes and to be honest, it’s a pain to switch between accounts. I accidentally published on the wrong account yesterday which led to some awkward student/teacher emails I needed to send to make up for it. I will keep my shakespeare blog over there since I don’t write there as frequently

2. I follow more blogs via wordpress anyway (sorry friends on other sites!)

3. I wasn’t loving the other site anyway and wordpress is just SO. MUCH. PRETTIER. And as I wind down with the theme of Beauty this month… what better time to make a decision to switch to a site that I find far more beautiful?! Though I remember why I didn’t choose this in the first place- there are so many options that it can be overwhelming and it will still take me a while to figure everything out… In the meantime, I will be transferring the rest of the old posts over here and hoping that those following via Facebook or email updates transfer over with me! I will update the old blog once the transfer is done pointing people here and then I will delete that one in a few weeks to halt any confusion.

Obligatory cute picture before I end the post.

Wish me luck and thanks for reading! More very soon.

What to REALLY Expect When You’re Expecting

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***Originally posted 1/23/15***

So this article from Scary Mommy popped up on a friend’s Facebook wall today and it made me really want to write this post about my own experience with pregnancy. I thought I knew “what to expect” when it came to pregnancy. Not just the societal ideals and pop culture memes, but on a more thought out level because not only had I read the entire What to Expect When You’re Expecting book before I was even thinking about having children, I read it in service of working on my graduate thesis

In case you can’t see, that’s a paper fetus from when I played pregnan Helena… Photo by Woods Pierce from All’s Well That Ends Well directed by Linden Kueck

which dealt with staging pregnancy and pregnant characters in Shakespeare and how that highlights some gender issues we have as a society. I knew a lot of facts, but really:

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On Being a Female Theatre Artist

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***Originally Published on 1/16/15***

If there are two pieces of advice I can’t stand to hear people give those pursuing theatre, it is “take every role” or the closely related “audition for everything”. This “guidance” is something I have heard several times throughout my journey as a theatre artist, and the more I hear it the more it makes my frustration level go from 0 to 60 in seconds. Now let me explain… I think there are silly, immature, and career damaging reasons not to take a role. I’d be happy to talk about them, but that’s not for this post. And since this post gets a little heated, let’s take a step back and start with a Ryan Gosling meme: Continue reading →

BLOGGING: On Blogging Past, Present, and Future

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****This was originally posted on 1/11/15***

So, I have to admit this is not my first blogging attempt. I think I’ve had 3 or 4 others that I abandoned at some point between graduating from Pepperdine and the present day. And I’m not even counting Newlywed Shakespeare and the long hiatus I took from that when I got pregnant and the first months after I had my baby.

I have, however, been very successful with journaling. I journaled faithfully from the last semester of high school through my first semester of grad school both in online journals and good old-fashioned physical journals. I love looking back at what I wrote and remembering things I might otherwise forget (or cringing at things I wish I could forget) and then marveling at the growth I have made or a piece of wisdom that I had no idea was so wise at the time (I’ll show my hand early, I tend to think that wisdom is NOT from me…)

A few of my journals from years past…

After I fell in love, the journaling kind of stopped. I think because I was focusing a little less on me for the first time in my life, but also because usually when I have something I want to work through or mull over, the things I’m not quite ready to share with friends that I would have put in personal journals… now I tell those things to my husband. And usually we work through them together. Or he suggests someone who might have better perspective than him to talk with on a given subject.

But blogging… is different. I mean, you CAN set blogs to private settings but that seems kind of antithetical to the whole blog thing. And the public aspect of the blog is part of why I’m making myself do this. I spent a lot of time a few years ago giving way too much care to what others thought about me. I am still vigilant about what goes on Facebook and am constantly re-evaluating how I use social media. On the one hand, I think it will be good to make myself a bit vulnerable. Whether I ever hear from them or not, I have no doubt that some people might disagree or judge me for what I write about. On the other, I kind of feel like this is the next step in realizing that I am responsible for my life and my decisions and I like it that way.  There’s an anonymous quote that is ALL OVER PINTEREST that says:

That’s what I think blogging is going to do for me: Make me realize which decisions I love, and which decisions I’m pretty lukewarm about and which I feel passionate about but still need some bravery to share. I have ideas for posts that are intimidating and I think those posts are going to be good for me when I finally work up the courage to publish them.

When thinking about what I wanted this year and this blogging project to be, I thought maybe I shouldn’t include the “baby” aspect and instead stay completely private about family life and save that for a private journal. But you know what? I LOVE the decision I’ve made to start a family and in a world that can be overwhelmingly cynical about marriage and parenthood, I think part of the brilliance I’m aiming for in 2015 is showing that family can still be a shining light. Even if they sometimes make you crazy and won’t let you sleep.

Yup, talking about this guy… he’s not always the cute bundle of smiles I usually post…

So there you go. A little bit of background on my blogging past and why it is now part of my present. I’m not sure where all this will go, but it feels good to be writing again.

Intro to this crazy blog and a very happy new year

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***This post was originally published on December 31, 2014***

Hello 2015!

So… this is going to be the year of Bs. My goal is to have 2015 center around the Bs listed in the blog title-

  1. Babies. I havea beautiful 7 mo. old and every day is a new adventure as he grows and changes and needs new things. I can’t imagine going a year without writing about the experiences involving him and the lessons motherhood is teaching me.
  1. Baking– I am hoping to try a lot of new recipes this year and I have always been more of a baker than a cook so that is where I will focus. Some weeks it might be cookies or cakes, others it will really be pushing outside my comfort zone with bread or croissants. Sometimes the recipes may not strictly be baking (i.e. on my ½ planned list there are recipes for tortillas and pasta. Not technically baking but a lot of flour and hoping things go right anyway!) My goal is to bake/cook 42 new things in the 52 weeks of this year.
snickerdoodle

Pumpkin Snickerdoodle I baked this fall… I have a soft spot for carbs, and a few soft spots from carbs…

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