Shifts

Major shifts.  I have had so little time to write this semester that, upon returning to the Open Diary, I find that the entire layout of the homepage has changed…quite distressing.  But this is not, of course, one of the major shifts to which I refer.

Firstly, Elisabeth is getting married!  As of April 16th, this is official.  Hurray and congratulations to her and Warren!  Wow.  That’s a shift.  More of a shift than I anticipated.  After all, she’s been almost engaged for ages.  But almost engaged is not the same thing as actually engaged, and the idea of Elisabeth actually and truly getting married in two years’ time is quite splendid and also quite strange.  On the other hand, I’ve only been waiting for this since I was five, so it’s not really that new an idea.

In other news, Tyler.  Tyler is the wonderful, beautiful, neurotic, understanding, warm, deep, considerate, caring, and all-around exceptional person I spent so much time talking with over winter break — I know I wrote about him at the time.  He is also, as of March 29th, my boyfriend.  He came to stay with me for a week over his spring break, and after a few days it was glaringly obvious that he and I were extremely good for each other and this whole me-dating-someone-else thing was just stupid.  I went into the week viewing him as a temptation to be resisted and Gideon as the less-desirable option but the only morally acceptable one.  The idea of telling Gideon that I was not going to see him anymore and leaving myself free to see other people, ie Tyler, did not occur to me until the day before I left London for Prague for the weekend.  However, this having registered it was the only bearable option, so I did it and Tyler and I have been a couple for three weeks as of today.  It has been a challenge to adjust to it, because this is my first relationship in over four years (I was dating Gideon, but we were never a couple), and I’m trying to settle into a romance when the person I am settling into it with is on the other side of the Atlantic.  But it is only 20 more days until I can see him.  Yes, I am counting.  No, it is not sad.  It’s wonderful.

We had possibly the most fantastically romantic beginning imaginable.  The sort of thing that doesn’t happen in real life.  He’s a competative ballroom dancer, and he’d spent several evenings that week reviewing dances with me — I haven’t done any ballroom since I was 14.  One night we had gone to Hyde Park and danced at a meeting of paths there, which was thoroughly enjoyable but lacked the rather critical element of music to make it perfect.  And the day before I left I told him I would not go on seeing Gideon, so it was not until that night that anything could happen.  We went to the park again, with electronics to play music, but it was raining so the crossroads was out.  We found a gazebo, hopped the fence, and set up our music in there.  And danced, in Hyde Park, in the rain, from 11:20 to midnight.  I won’t go into details, because those are ours, but to be honest I’m still so excited about it all that if you ask me I would be completely happy to tell you all about it.  I’m just not going to post it online for the world.  Suffice it to say that it was one of the best nights of my life, and one which I will never forget.  And which has had lasting effects…it has been a significant change in my life.  Tyler, that is.  He has been a significant change.

He’s wonderful.

Last night we did our showcase at the Globe.  I performed on the Globe stage.  And was very well received.  Patrick, the head of the Globe education program and a man who knows his stuff, told me afterwards that I had done excellent work and managed to make a scene that he has watched a thousand times newly funny for him; he said that I’m going places and I must not be a stranger to the Globe.  And my father said, oh, she won’t be a stranger, but the next time you see her she’ll be… And then he trailed off, so I put in, "auditioning."  And Patrick gave what I interpret as a very approving look.  Glynn, my movement teacher, also said that our scene had been absolutely clear all through, and that while it had taken my scene partners a minute or so to drop into the space and the text, I was bang on from the moment I entered.  She said that I’d done great work that night and this semester, and that I must not give up.  I was very honoured and very proud and very, very pleased, because when do I ever get that kind of positive response from teachers at Syracuse?  Never.  On the other hand, I don’t know that I’ve ever deserved it at Syracuse.  I did good work this semester at the Globe.  The Globe and I mix very well, our energies are compatible.  And oh yes, that is a space with an energy.  I love it there, and while I am grateful for the extra time I shall have now, I am very sad that my training there is over.

My parents were here this weekend, but they’ve gone now.

We have seen a lot of theatre this semester.  Most recently, I saw The Royal Hunt of the Sun at the National in the Olivier, which was stunning and excellent.  I love the theatre here and I will miss it badly when I go.  In fact, I think I will miss all of it badly.  But I am so looking forward to seeing Tyler in just under three weeks…so very much looking forward to it…that I can’t wait for the semester to be over.

Hopefully I will be writing more often.  I always forget how nice it is to write here, how cleansing.  I’m sorry I’ve been so out of touch this semester.  I will try to do better in the future.  For anyone who cares, I’ll be back in the States and reachable at my old cell number as of May 7th.

I’ve been sick for the last six weeks, I’m on a two-week cycle of catching colds, recovering from them, and then catching a new one.  This is Cold #3 at present.  Yick.  I’m more than a little fed up with it.  But I’m exhausted, so I’m going to blunder my way through a paper and get some rest before seeing Merchant of Venice (which my scene last night was from, incidentally) at RADA this evening.

–Stephanie