Sister speed dating

Last night all the pledge sisters went over to the house for "big-little speed dating," which is where you talk to each of the active members for about two minutes (speed dating style) in order to get to know everyone. At the end, you pick the three you thought you connected best with, write their names down, and hope that one of them becomes your Big Sister in a few short days!

Ideally, this was supposed to take about an hour and twenty minutes... it took two hours. By the end, I was so tired (it was like recruitment all over again - not good) that all I wanted to do was go home and sleep! Of course, you never get to do what you actually ever want to do; my friend Ginger's parents are visiting this weekend for parents' weekend so they took us out to dinner with her brother and his friend. Her parents are so nice!! They are very relaxed and easy to talk to (like Ginger herself) so we had a yummy meal (because after speed dating we were STARVING!) and then went home. I think we are supposed to meet up with them later today, too.

Updates coming later about my Big...
xxo, S

Fall weather's come around

October has arrived here at DU! The unseasonal warmth I had grown accustomed to while my friends in New York were bundling up has given way to windy, grey and drizzly weather.

On Sunday, a few of us DZ/HRTM girls went to the Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield to volunteer with their Pumpkin Festival. (I used a cash register for the first time!) At the end of the day, we each got to take home a big, bright pumpkin for our hard work.

I think we might carve them later in the month (closer to Halloween, naturally), but until then, mine is sitting in my room, giving off some fun fall flair :)

Gonna go cozy up in blankets now!

xxo, S

Dracula

:[` (<-- vampire)

Happy Early Halloween!

To celebrate the first day of the greatest supernatural month of the year, my FSEM went to see Dracula at the Denver Center last night, opening night. Preceding the performance, we went to a "talk" with a panel of people from the production team: props master, director, vocal coach, lighting designer, and set designer. They told us all about their hard work in putting together this version of the famous novel and gave us a lot of insight about what we were seeing so that when it came time to see the performance, we (at least I did) noticed a lot that we might not otherwise have noticed.

For example, the set was very simple, yet very genius. There were no set drapes to speak of, but the lighting projected scenes of the castle walls, daytime skies, and a blood-red moon. The rest of the set was intricate moving parts (the floor opened and small tables, chairs, and desks would rise up) that helped provide a more tangible sense of the world. Also, the costumes were beautiful and (from my knowledge) accurate to the time period (1892). Of course I would notice the costumes ;)

Having never read the novel or seen the original movie version, I cannot say how well this play followed the storyline. But I can say that the story I saw was very in-depth. The actors did a great job at being vampires, or doing vampires' biddings; playing a "mentally ill" patient (I put this in quotes because this character has more insight into the events than the sane characters); being hypnotised or possessed by vampire thoughts; and even just staking the undead. There were a fair number of humorous scenes and even some scenes that I'm sure were intended to be serious and spooky, but at which we all laughed at. I hope the company wasn't offended by this!

If I could give one criticism to an overall splendid play, I would say that several scenes in the second act (and even the first) could be shortened or simply cut out because they slowed down the mounting plot line to the point that the climax scene is nearly anti-climactic. Also, being a lover of crimson corn syrup (or stage blood), I was disappointed in the frank lack of blood in a vampire play.

Afterwards, my friends and I all came home (via light rail of course; I am beginning to know the RTD system very well) and settled in early.

More blood next time please!

xxo, S