Second Leg of My Vacation: Michigan, or My Friends Are Talented

After the wonder and beauty of Adam and Kara's wedding, I departed Chicago on Monday, but not before grabbing a handful of cinnamon rolls from Anne Sather's--best cinnamon rolls EVER. I had had brunch with my friend Katie here on Sunday and had been told I would fall madly in love with the cinnamon rolls; oh, how well the wedding party knew me in such a short time... It saddened me slightly to leave Chicago because I've come to really appreciate the simplicity and beauty of the midwest's best and only true "big city". Chicago is what NYC could be if people cared a little bit. Honestly, I look around Chicago and I can see how much care its residents take care of the city. New Yorkers seem to not give two shits because all you see is trash everywhere, not to mention the constant chip on their shoulders (and not the good "chip on your shoulder" in LEGALLY BLONDE the MUSICAL). If New York didn't have such an unbelievable theatre scene and the family I've surrounded myself with, I could very easily see myself moving to Chicago. But that is neither here nor there, at this point.

From Chicago, I drove the lovely route into southwest Michigan to visit some of my favorite people: Barnies! If you're not up to snuff on the lingo, Barnies are members of the company of actors at The Barn Theatre in Augusuta, MI. This is the summer stock I've spent two summers at performing and NOT serving tourists;) There's a certain pride I feel in the Barn; almost an innate and very acute connection. The two summers I spent there saw some of the best and worst memories of my life unfold. I won't delve into all that now because, well, I'm sure you're all aware.

So, my first stop was in Marshall, which I called home for a couple days. This is a beautiful little town where my friend Shawn is now residing while he's performing at Cornwell's Turkeyville Dinner Theatre through December (CONGRATS ON THE EXTENDED CONTRACT). Currently he's performing a musical revue titled "Boogy Woogie Swing Time" in which he plays injured soldier Pt. Ryan Davies in World War II that awakes in a hospital under the care of three sisters that sing--a lot. A couple dozen classic jazz/swing tunes later (SPOILER ALERT), Pt. Davies seems to be off to live happily ever after with the shy sister. It's a really cute show and Shawn is having a blast, so I couldn't be happier for him.

That night Shawn and I drove into Augusta to see The Great Big Bar Show at the Barn and got to see some of our best friends Bethany, Kevin, Eric, Jillian, Sam, Patrick, Melissa, Parker, and the ever lovely Meg, just to name a few. This year's GBBS is themed "Rock on Broadway" and the new apprentice company can definitely ROCK! What an incredibly talented group. If you're in the area, be sure to check out a show or two or three or the whole season at the Barn. The GBBS runs through this Sunday, June 8. Check out their season and tickets here: www.barntheatre.com

Next up: family's in different states...

Wedding #1: Adam and Kara, or My Love Letter to the Best People I Know

Good Sunday, all!

I hope you're all well and enjoying a relaxing weekend. I'm on cloud 9 here in Chicago as I look out my window over Lake Shore Drive and the harbor with the lake stretched out behind the tree line. Yesterday was the wedding of two of my favorite people in the world. It's been an honor to know them and call them my friends. Their day was nothing short of glorious, from the weather to the huge gathering of friends and family to celebrate, from the flowers to the trolleys, from the music to the OUTSTANDING second reading (that may or may not have been me...); the entire day was perfect.

I met Adam in high school. He and I were both in Mrs. Williams' Honors English 10 class. We weren't the guys that always sat in the back, nor did we become so close that we if made a point of sitting in close proximity through the year. We simply relished making each other laugh by oh-so-subtley poking fun at our often kooky teacher. Smart she was, but the British would probably call her daft. The two of us never really took on to being friends until the following summer when I joined marching band. Adam and I were always similar in how we treated those around us and interacted with younger students. We were both pretty well-liked and somehow, I couldn't tell you exactly how it came about for the life of me, we just became good friends. Maybe it was rides on the bus to/from games or competitions, perhaps a shared love of inside jokes that may have bordered on mean if they got too far outside the "inner circle". Regardless, somehow we just clicked and the rest is history.

After high school, we both spent out undergraduate years at Miami University. Our first year, we lived pretty far from each other, which was intensified by the fact that I had TWO knee surgeries throughout that year--one in late June, just seven weeks before first semester started, and the other over Christmas break with just two weeks to heal before returning to the frozen tundra of southwest Ohio. However, we had lunch together most days with Adam's roommates Jon and Josh, also friends from high school. We all had Friday afternoons free somehow and had Friday Nap Time after lunch. The part that makes this tradition a little out of the ordinary for a group of guys is that we would always pop in a movie. And not just ANY movie, it was nine times out of ten a movie MUSICAL. The Music Man is one of Adam's all-time favorites, so we had that on quite a few times throughout that first semester.

During band camp the summer between our freshman and sophomore years, Adam met Kara, who was also in the saxophone section in the marching band. He had corrected her style in playing one of the bands staple bandstand songs and Kara must have thought he was sweet or something because word had kind of gotten around in the fall that she had a crush on him, or something to that effect. Now, throughout this weekend of the wedding, I've heard many different stories as to how Adam and Kara got together. Some say it was because of that one time Adam corrected her, but he was really sweet about it. Someone else said it was all because Adam was left-handed. (If being left-handed is all it takes, I should have been married by now...) The way I see it, Adam and Kara are a product of my meddling--and I AM DAMN PROUD OF THAT!

Here's the story: for the first time in Adam's life, he had a girl-predicament on his hands. This is not to say Adam didn't have girls fawning over him before, I mean, dear Lord he was the SAXOPHONE SECTION LEADER IN MARCHING BAND--he had a following, kids. But now he had two girls that he saw great attributes in both, which was very true. They were both beautiful girls that are very smart, funny, talented, etc.; all the things you label as good qualities before you start really getting to know someone to the point where those qualities don't even scratch the surface of what makes this person amazing. I had met both girls and thought highly of both. But what it came down to for me was Kara was funny, fun-loving, gentle, and good-hearted. More importantly, she thought Adam was almost as funny as he thought he was. So when he approached me with this girl-predicament one beautiful fall day in Oxford, OH, as we walked to Uptown, the choice was clear. Now, nine and a half years later, they are married and, as I told Adam last night, I couldn't be happier for anyone else.

Now I get to love on Kara for a bit. It's hard for me to pinpoint specific moments with Kara where I just thought, "This girls rocks!", simply because that's how every moment with her is. I think it was a marching band cook out or something like that where I first met Kara. Immediately, I gravitated towards her warmth and welcoming personality. There was never an awkward moment with her because, at least for my part, I felt I had known Kara already. It's not like we were soul mates or anything like that, but she has always been the kind of person who can make you feel like you've known each other for years. From then on, I was excited to hang out with Kara because I never felt like I had to be anything other than just me--that's a very uncommon trait to come by in college-age people because everyone's trying to impress everyone. Even now, after all these years, and all this time spent making something of myself in New York, I still get excited to see Kara because I know that I can just be me and I'm going to be loved by the best woman I could ever want for my buddy Adam.

It amazes me how fast time can just fly. It's been nearly 14 years since Adam and I first met in that English class and almost 10 years since I first met Kara. My only wish is that somewhere in that time, they've come to know just how much I love them and could not be more blessed and honored to be their friend and have the privilege of spending this weekend celebrating them as we sent them off into their "Happily Ever After"...

Until next time...

My first vacation in I-can't-tell-you-how-long...

Hello again, everyone!

As the title reads, YES, I am on vacation. Don't get the wrong idea here, I'm not sipping tropical drinks being served by scantily clad, poolside servants. It's not to some exotic locale, or even a quiet, remote cabin in the woods. I'm taking three weeks away from NYC for two very special occasions: the weddings of my friends Adam & Kara in Chicago and Cody & Brittany in Cincinnati.

Over the last years since I moved to New York, I've found myself beginning to miss out on some milestones in the lives' of the people I love most: the birth of Charlie and Stacey's children, Charles and Rachel's first baby girl, David & Ali's wedding (now expecting their first child!), Mark & Elyse's wedding, Kristina & Luke's wedding, etc. These are events I never thought I wouldn't be able to pull to mind any number of fond--perhaps, slightly disjunct--memories for the rest of my life. Yet, I was not there for any of them. Now, of course, I know everyone misses out on things throughout their life, but the amount that I've missed out on has been weighing on me the last year or so. As the old saying goes, "Nothing is guaranteed except death and taxes," but I'd like to think there's more to life than that.  At least, I'd like to make more of life than that. So when Adam called me last fall to ask me to do a reading at their wedding, there was no way I was going to miss it. Furthermore, when Cody and Brittany asked me to officiate their wedding, I'm pretty sure I was saying "YES!" before they could finish the question. I wanted to make it a point to not miss out on special moments. Otherwise, I'd just be waiting on pissy tourists in Times Square that aren't going to tip me because "they don't know how" or some other bullshit reason any and all will come up with (more on this at a later date).

This is all to say, I'm ready to actually LIVE my life. Am I getting fed up with waiting tables? That happened long ago. Does it still pay the bills? Thankfully, yes. Am I ready to give up on NYC and start another chapter somewhere else? Definitely not. What I'm saying is that I'm not compromising.

Of course, as I actually type out this mission statement of sorts, I am realizing how tall an order this is. Suffice to say, I completely understand this and respond like Barney Stinson with a resounding "CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!"

I'm gonna try to post more throughout my vacation. I've been thinking a lot over the last several months and just want to get it all out of my head. Hopefully, it'll be some at the very least slightly entertaining.

Hope you're all well and enjoying some beautiful weather.

Until next time...

How I Met Your Mother and Divided the Audience

So, umm, yeah...

It's been a while since I've last written here, well over two years actually, so there would have to be a HUGE event to bring me back again. And last night, March 31, 2014, such an event has occurred: the series finale of HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER.

I thought I'd do a whole recap, but I figure if you're reading this, you've already seen it. So let's consider this your SPOILER ALERT!

So, here's the deal: I respect the fact that Carter Thomas and Craig bays stuck to their story and didn't compromise. Their plan all along was for Robin and Ted to end up together. However, my issue with this is these two characters have changed so much over the years that they don't make sense together anymore. Ted is still the romantic and Robin is still the cynical, non-commitment oriented, run-when-it-gets-tough girl she's always been. At least with Barney, Robin found a match that struggles the same way she does. When Robin would struggle with Ted, he'd say everything perfect, but not challenge her to be better than she thinks she can be. Barney and Robin bring out the best in each other. In order for Ted and Robin to end up together, I would have preferred to see a change in Robin.

Here's how I would have ended it:
First, I would have had flash forwards throughout the season with Robin over a tombstone in 2030 saying things like, "I hope you know how much your friendship meant to me" and "I don't want to do something that would upset you", etc. But in the end of the finale...

TED

And that, kids, is how I met your mother.

PENNY

Wow, Dad. Sounds like you and Aunt Robin meant a lot to each other...

TED

You're right, Penny, but we were always a bit wrong for each other from the beginning.

LUKE

Dad...you know Mom would want you to be happy, right?

TED

Kids, your Mom was the greatest love of my life, she can't be replaced with someone like your Aunt Robin that doesn't get me the way your Mom did...

CUT TO:

Some time later. ROBIN home with her dogs, feeling lonely, realizing it's time for her to make a change and make the grand romantic gesture.

MONTAGE

ROBIN, at the cemetery.

ROBIN

I hope you understand how much Ted means to me and I plan on making him as happy as possible.

We see the tombstone is Tracy's.

Then, ROBIN runs into the restaurant she and Ted had their first date in and steals the blue french horn, then catches a train out to the suburbs, arriving in front of Ted's house.

ROBIN

MOSBY! TED. MOSBY!

TED opens up his window and looks down at ROBIN.

TED

What are you doing?

ROBIN

Making a grand romantic gesture.

(Reveals the blue french horn from behind her back)

Title card runs "HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER".

THE END

Now, it's not perfect, I know. But what I'm trying to say is Ted and Robin became different people and the only way they could end up together is by showing that there has been some kind of drastic adjustment to show their compatibility or at very least an unexpected gesture to show such an adjustment, thus Robin making the romantic gesture. Ted making the gesture in light of just finishing telling his kids the story of how he met their mother, paints him as kind of a douche. Robin's gesture seems more final and not douchey.

Other things that kind of bugged me:

--Barney's "let me be me" monologue. This works against all the character development he made throughout the course of this story. It seems the only thing that kept him from being "me" was Robin. But they gave up on their relationship when it got difficult... I'm surprised Lily and Marshall didn't beat them senseless. Think of all the issues they went through over the years...

--Why spend a whole season on introducing your audience to a title character only to kill her off without even giving her a proper goodbye scene? The least they could have done was present her death more clearly (there were signs throughout the season) earlier in the season to give your audience the chance to not gain so much hope in the happily ever after she is expected to have. This just made all the build up to meeting her (which was the point of the show) seem superfluous, especially if you just meant to have your leading man end up with the girl that started the story off in the first place.

--Barney never knowing the name of his daughter's mother. Disrespectful, even for Barney.
--WHAT ABOUT THE FREAKING PINEAPPLE?!?!

Best park of the show: Barney holding his daughter for the first time. Precious.

Final remarks: How I Met Your Mother has always stood to show how life can change, sometimes unexpectedly. The finale stayed true to that statement. However, the rest of the series had the benefit of having a continued storyline to show how these changes became part of who the characters are over time. These new changes and developments simply must be accepted by the audience. This whole season showed how Barney and Robin loved each other and would work, then the audience was shown how this whole season was for naught, because Robin and Barney didn't end up together and, ultimately, Ted would go back to Robin. If this were always the end game, fine. The execution was a bit misleading...

As Lily once said, "Life is full of changes--one day you have an apartment, the next it's a house of dumplings--but the important stuff never changes." Unfortunately, I feel as if this is true, but not for a lack of trying.

If you're angry or hungry for a different ending, perhaps you should take a page out of the HIMYM gang's notebook and go have a "sandwich".

I don't know why I'm frightened. I know my way around this blog... Part 1

Hello everyone!

It's been quite a while, hasn't it? My sincerest apologies for being a bad blogger. April 4, 2011, was the last date I wrote here and it's not that nothing has happened in my life since then (LOTS HAS HAPPENED), the truth is, I haven't figured how to come to terms with the last 9 months of my life. I've always been a person that has not been afraid of my emotions. I've never had difficulty talking. I've prided myself on knowing who I am, what I want, and making anything possible with the power of kindness and hard work. But, over that time period, something changed; I changed. I got scared and angry; my life was going well--very well--and falling apart all at the same time. For the first time in my life, I didn't know which way was up or who I was. Oddly, in that last sentence, where I wrote "up", I mistakenly wrote "hope". Even that says something about what has changed in me. Ever the eternal optimist, my mind wrote the phrase "I didn't know which way was hope". Have I lost hope?

As I've prepared to sit down and write, I had to find some inspiration; something comforting, yet eye-opening; something that would light the fire under my ass, but let me sink in this steel and whicker chair I'm currently sitting. Music has always been that for me. But this called for more than just music. I needed a music-filled movie--and not just any movie. A movie that is beautiful in story, scope, cinematography, AND music. You all know it and you all loved it, even though you probably don't want to admit it: TITANIC. That score gets me every time.

So, here I sit, at a familiar table by candlelight with a cup of iced mocha and a beautiful film playing behind me, reminding me of times when I believed in so much...

Let's go back. April was a fairly hectic, but truly exciting month. I had just accepted the offer to work as a first-year apprentice at the Barn Theatre in Augusta, MI. My focus was set purely on those four months I'd be spending away from the city I so dearly love and the friends that make it feel like home. The only thing standing in the way was a series of payments for which I needed to back up a bank account. Thankfully, I had the good sense to plan ahead and start saving around this time last year. Long story short, I worked as much as humanly possible and saved an extra $1200 every month. I said a fond farewell on Sunday, May 15 at Red Sky on the east side with some very dear friends after my Level 2 Improv graduation show. Good times, good times. The next day I flew home to Ohio, spent the day with my mom, dad, sister, brother, and my brother's girlfriend. We had dinner together and enjoyed each other's company. I will always remember that dinner...

On the afternoon of May 17, I arrived at the Barn. Immediately, I heard the murmurs about my arrival. Being a group of theatre people, there were many conversations going on--my favorite of which being "The lumberjack is here!" (That was you, K Ross!) Anyway, before I knew it, the Barn felt like home. I got up every morning and for the first time in my life, I was excited to go to work...every day. My pay was nothing to write home about, unless I was writing home to ask for money. But that didn't matter. I've never had a job that I truly loved--this is what every person dreams: doing what you love and loving what you do. I make in a single shift at my restaurant what I made in two to four weeks at the Barn. However, I would take that job over waiting tables in Times Square any day. In more recent news, I just received my application for my 2nd summer at the Barn and have already filled it out. Can't wait to go back!

The summer was going perfectly. I was performing every day and night, being an actor, learning how to make quick decisions on stage, training myself to learn parts in less than two weeks and have them performance-ready. On top of the world, that's where you would have found me. Then my world starting fall apart one morning...

As usual, I woke up at 8:30 on the morning of July 16 to the sound of my alarm. When I reached over to dismiss the alarm and get my day started, I saw I had several missed calls from my mom, brother, and sister. They were going to be making the drive up to Augusta that day to see me in CHICAGO. My assumption was they were having car troubles and weren't going to be making it up that night. If only... I tried to call my mom, but it wouldn't connect. So, I called my brother; he picked up.

"Have you talked to anyone else?" he asked.

"No, what's up?"

"Dad had a massive heart attack this morning..." it felt as if my heart stopped, dropped, and rolled, "...he didn't make it."

Within the first 45 seconds of that day, my had already lost my father and my world was forever changed. My brother handed the phone off to my mom who simply said, "Nick, I don't know what to do. I'm too young to be a widow."

Shock is the word people use to label the feeling you get when you hear news such as this and your body reacts by releasing adrenaline and other hormones that cause so many chemical and emotional reactions you truly have no idea what to do. Me? After having the phone handed off to my mother, who was experiencing a completely different aspect of shock and grief, I assured her I'd be home soon. I walked out onto the porch of the house I was living in for the summer and told the man I was living with, "Paul, my dad died this morning." Soon, I was trying to call my boss and let him know, but as cell phone service can be spotty in those remote areas of the world, we ended up playing phone tag and I eventually just met him at the barn. Upon informing him of what happened, he spoke his condolences and told me to meet him in his office in 5 minutes. In that time I broke the news to exactly one other person, our director who inevitably would be replacing me onstage for a few nights. When I met my boss in his office, he had already gotten plans in motion to give me whatever I needed to get home; they had checked flights, bus schedules, rental cars, and had made calls to see who would be available to drive me to Columbus. In a matter of minutes, this company I had joined in Michigan became family, looking out for me as if we had known each other years. Shortly after that, I emerged out of his office and went down to the pit and met the rest of the company that had already had the news broken to them. Tears in their eyes, in my infinite abilities to make any moment awkward, I looked around and simply asked, "Who died?" I proceeded to say something, I'm not sure what it was, maybe something along the lines of "don't worry about me, concentrate on the show, I'll see you in a few days. I gotta go bury my dad." As we broke from pit meeting, I called out to my friend Katrina who already had her phone out. She was calling her mom to tell her I was taking the car. Then, her and Jenna took me out to breakfast, filled up the car with gas, bought me snacks for the road, and sent me on my way.

Looking back, it probably wasn't the safest of things for me to do, but I drove home alone that day. I had the first of many conversations with my dad while driving. Knowing what my role is in my family, I started writing a eulogy in my head and sang through what I knew my mom would ask me to sing at the funeral: "How Great Thou Art" and "You Raise Me Up". It's probably by the grace of God and my father, that I safely drove home, fighting through tears. (She did ask me to sing those two songs and I did--with the help of a couple anti-anxiety pills. I don't really remember how it all went, but I've been told it wasn't too bad.)

I arrived at home around 5 to my Aunt Connie in the driveway. She simply said, "Oh, Nick..." and hugged me for a few minutes. When I made it inside, I saw my mom and just about lost it when she pulled me into a strong hug and said to me, "He loved you kids so much." I tried to sit, but I had to do something. I knew my dad would want to be buried wearing the colors of the country he so dearly loved and for which he would have laid his life down. As I stood in my parents' closet, I looked at the two tiers of his clothes on the left-hand side of the closet and had one of those moments you think only exist in the movies: I just grabbed as many articles of his clothing I could and squeezed with all my might, tears streaming uncontrollably. Without much thought, I picked out a navy blue, double-breasted suit, white shirt, and a collection of ties. It escapes me now, but I'm sure we settled on a red tie.

The next few days were filled with accepting visitors arriving with what seemed like truck loads of food, making the proper arrangements, and ensuring we were all going to be OK. On Tuesday, July 19, we accepted visitors at Egan-Ryan Funeral Home. Between wakes, we had dinner at my Aunt Rita and Uncle Bill's house. I still don't know how I functioned that week, I still don't know how I function now, especially when I know there were so many things left to do with my dad in this life. Through this whole process, I had countless people approach me saying how proud my dad was of me and much he loved me. All these wonderful words coming from people I didn't really know all that well and felt they knew me because my dad always talked about his kids. We realized that week how much my dad kept his family together because all those hours he spent on the road he spent talking with friends and family.

The day before he died, he was going to arrive home earlier than normal, so he called my mom and they went to Longhorn (where my sister works) to have dinner. They went home that night, said I love you, and went to bed. At 5 am, he woke up having some pretty bad back pain and trouble breathing. He woke my mom and told her to call an ambulance. After the paramedics had arrived, they informed him they would need to get him into the stretcher downstairs and asked how he suggest they do that. In true "Kevin-fashion", he replied, "Well, if you let me get out of this f*cking bed, I'll walk myself down..." They got him on the stretcher, my mom told him she was going to change and grab him some clothes for him, and she would see him at the hospital. When she arrived, the doctor said, "I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but we've been working on him for the last 35 minutes." "What do mean 'working on him'?" she asked. "He went into cardiac arrest and we've been doing chest compressions." At 6:30 am, my dad passed away at the age of 57.

At his funeral on July 20, one of his cousins came up to me and said he had called the day before he died and mentioned that he may get to go to Michigan to see me perform and he was so excited. She said she believed he was filled with so much joy and pride that he was going to get to see me perform that his heart just couldn't take it.

My eulogy started with stating that it was no secret that my dad and I had a very difficult relationship my entire life. However, over the last couple of years, it seemed that things were getting much better; we were having the kind of father-son relationship I had always hoped to have with him. Now, looking back, I have so many regrets in how I treated him in ways that don't reflect how much I love him. He was hard on me, but I was hard on him, too. My mom has always insisted we didn't get along because we were too much alike. When I said that in my eulogy, the entire congregation lightly chuckled and nodded their heads in agreement. I think the jury's still out on that one... My brother, sister, and mom all spoke, as well as a few other family members, because everyone has a "Kevin Story". He really was a great man that would do anything for anyone. He may have been gruff, but that was just part of his charm. My brother's girlfriend May got up and said, "I don't have anything funny to say. But the one regret I have now that Kevin is gone is that I never told him how much I love his son. Because I do. Andy, I love you so much, and Nick, Laura, Rita..." We all realized at that moment that we all do love each other a great deal and now we take as many opportunities as possible to tell each other that. My dad was not a man of many emotions, but he did love his family fiercely. We all miss him each and every day and hope that with time we'll come to understand why God has dealt us this crappy hand and taken away man that had so much life left to live. We have so many memories and stories to tell for years to come, we just wish he were here to tell them with us.

I think that'll have to do for the time being. Titanic is about to hit an iceberg and I'm a little emotionally drained right now. I promise to post again very soon, because there's still so much to talk about.

Until next time...

Back from the Dead...Again: Part 1

Hello everyone!

Clocking in just under 6 months since my last post, I'M BACK!

First, my sincerest apologies for any of you that have lost sleep of the lack of postings here. I've sat down several times over the last 5 1/2 months to write here, but have come up short of inspired.

Second, a quick update and then some BIG NEWS! Alright, since October 21, 2010, I spent Thanksgiving in NYC with Ib, my cousin Audrey, and her friends Justin and Marco; went home for Christmas and surprised my enter family, except my dad (whose reaction to hearing I was coming home early was "WHY?!?"); rang in the new year while standing on West 43rd Street as the ball dropped on the corner; bought an LCD TV (gorgeous); made an impromptu trip to Chicago to surprise Glee Club on tour; caught up with a good friend from the past (glad you're doing so well, Brad); became an "uncle"; worked background for a Hollywood film (more on that to come); was taken out for Valentine's Day; returned to serve as Master of Ceremonies for the Lebanon Show Choir Classic for the third consecutive year; and BIG NEWS: GOT ACCEPTED AS AN APPRENTICE AT THE BARN THEATRE IN AUGUSTA, MICHIGAN FOR THIS SUMMER!!! WHEW! That's a lot.

Let's back up to Christmas. This year was looking rather bleak for my travel opportunities to be home for the holidays. I had managed to get scheduled for Christmas Day--which I had NO INTENTION of working, so I got it covered. Furthermore, our management had requested that we do our best to not even leave the city during the holidays so we were all pretty much on call for the holidays. As far as I'm concerned, that sounds pretty freaking heartless. Luckily, I

managed to book a flight for Christmas Eve, returning to NYC on the morning of the 26th--what a bah-hum-bug of a drag, am I right? Anywho, when our schedule came out for the week of Christmas, I was magically not scheduled for the 22nd or 23rd, so I was fortunate enough to change my flight to Columbus to Tuesday night, as opposed to Friday morning, got my Tuesday night shift covered and made it home just before my mom fell asleep on the couch and surprised her in an almost-asleep state. It took her a minute, but she realized she wasn't dreaming, I was actually there. The next night I took my parents out to dinner and had my mom invite my brother and his girlfriend to join them, but not to tell them I would be there. They were pleasantly surprised to see me, as well. However, the best of all was the next night when I showed up at Cousins Christmas 2010 and surprised my sister on HER BIRTHDAY! I was waiting in the back of the house and they led her back not knowing anything was up. When she got back there I shouted HAPPY BIRTHDAY and took a great picture of her reaction.

I became an "uncle" on January 28 when Charlie and Stacey, two of my best friends from high school, became parents to a beautiful baby girl named Autumn. There were some complications that caused her to be born 7 weeks premature, but both mom and baby are doing very well and I got the chance to visit with them when I was home last month and I could not be happier for this family. CONGRATULATIONS!

Oh, yes, this Hollywood film I worked on. Well, it was background once again, but I think you'll actually see me for a substantial amount of time in this one. The film is New Year's Eve. it has the same premise as the film Valentine's Day with 90,000,000 people starring, including my scene partners Katherine Heigl and Sofia Vergara. When you all see the film when it opens December 9, look in the background as Sofia Vergara jumps up and down and you'll see a burly man unloading a truck of some sort. That burly man would be me.

Last month I made my third consecutive appearance as Master of Ceremonies at the Lebanon Show Choir Classic and once again was met with such intense familiarity that it didn't feel as if any time had past since I was last there. Honestly, this little town and the wonderful people that inhabit it have embraced me so kindly that I would go back week after week and do it all over again. Once again, I prepared a few songs to take care of any down time while Lebanon set up for their exhibition performance and while the judges' scores were tabulated. This year I performance "I Am Aldolpho" from The Drowsy Chaperone and "The Song That Goes Like This" from Spamalot. The audience seemed to enjoy both as they lept to their feet to cheer on this ham of a man on stage. Unfortunately, there was more down time than we anticipated once again and so I started into my "Story Time with Nick" section and this woman stood up in the front section and gave my the "Wrap-up" and "Cut" signals. I wanted to call her out and be like, "Ummm...what do you want me to do, lady, huh? You got any better ideas?" Maybe next year I'll put a box out in the lobby where people can deposit questions for me to answer, because that always seemed to keep my students interested for however long I needed. Suffice to say, the competition was a huge success and I can't wait to return on March 24, 2012!

And YES, the BIG NEWS: just before heading home last month, I recorded a video audition for The Barn Theatre as a Non-Equity Summer Apprentice. I was happy to receive a call a week later informing me they had received my application and had viewed my audition and would like to offer me a contract for the summer. So I'll be off to Michigan in mid-May to work for the duration of the summer on 7 shows at an Equity house!!! We'll be producing Escanaba in Love by Jeff Daniels, Man of La Mancha, Anything Goes or Chicago, A Streetcar Named Desire, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella, and Sunset Boulevard. This sounds like a great line-up, my friends. Go here to learn more: The Barn Theatre.

In other news, I'm 26 now. That's right, 26. When my parents were my age, they had my brother. I'm 26 and I have my TV--which I am pretty proud of. However, I think it's about time for me take the plunge, kids. Never would I have ever thought I'd say this, but I think I'm kind of lonely. I don't know any different, but I think there's something inside me that is ready for something new. I feel like Bobby from Company at the end of the show when he sings "Being Alive": he's given himself all these reasons not to be in a relationship, but he's never considered all the reason TO BE in one. My shower has heard me sing that song a lot the last few years and I think I've come to see it as two songs sung back to back that have virtually the same words, but the attitude towards the text is different from one to the next. In the beginning, Bobby's rattling off all the bad things about relationships and then in the middle (where I think Sondheim should have written some transitional music), Bobby then asks for "someone" to be all those things for him. He's ready to take that plunge. And I think I am, too. I guess I've just had enough of being everyone's friend and big brother, because that's not all I have to offer.

Make me alive.

Until next time...

So much on my mind...

Hey everyone!

Welcome back! It's been a few very hectic sort of weeks since my last post.

The apartment is coming together nicely and we're gearing up for a painting party next week within the days of Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I couldn't be more excited to put some added color into this place. The colors I've been fiddling with--and getting some kind feedback from Ib, the eternal non-confrontationalist (seriously, if we were to cast Toy Story, he would totally be Rex...)--we've got quite the color scheme going on throughout our place. Here's the general idea. Our living area also houses our dining area, so I wanted to accent that somehow and I've decided on a red accent well along our table. Also on that wall is this gorgeous mirror we found at a discount store called La Plaza de las Americas. Virtually, Wal-Mart threw up in this store and that's what we got. Greatest place on Earth. Anyway, the curtains in the living are also red and I want that to be carried throughout the rest of the room, so we're going to paint an 8-12" stripe about 6-7 feet up the wall. Now, our living area leads into a foyer which opens into our kitchen. So all these walls will end up sharing that red stripe. However, the kitchen and foyer will be graced with a lovely warm yellow. The color I picked up today at Home Depot to sample is little brighter than I'd like, so I may go back and get a few others. It's just money... From there, the bathroom is going to be done up in a light brown that has a subtle grey undertone to it. Again, we're painting that glorious stripe but this time it will be purple. I sampled two purples and can't decide which I like more, so we've compromised by painting a 1" stripe within the 8-12" stripe of the opposing purples. COMPROMISE! My bedroom will be a "Rhino" grey--no joke--with a "Rain Storm" blue stripe. Additionally, I love this blue so much that I'm going to make my south wall an accent wall with this undeniable sexy blue. Now, I don't tend to use the term "sexy" too often because, let's face it, sexy is just not my word. However, this is one. sexy. blue. Come check it out;) As far as Ib's room, he's for indecisive and will come up with something after we've painted everything else and we have some leftover paint. That's fine with me, I guess.

And on the social front of my life, I had my first adventure in New York in quite a while. I saw my very first opera at The Metropolitan Opera House: RIGOLETTO! Everything was just so classy. I wore a pair of pants I haven't been able to fit in for quite a few years along with a shirt that has also been hanging up for far too long and a blazer I bought just this past spring that is feeling a bit big... Can we say "high stress=weight loss"? I know I can. (Don't worry. I actually feel great.) Anyways, I was invited to this lovely evening by my good friend John. He's been in NYC for over 40 years and has been a member of the opera guild for some 30-odd number of those years, so we naturally had prime seating and access to the Belmont Suite where we enjoyed dessert and champagne between acts. But before the opera we went out to dinner at the beautiful restaurant across the street from Lincoln Center called Josephina. Drinks, wine, appetizers, breads, pork loin, and a delectable apple crumb something dessert later, we made our way--in the rain, no less--to the opera.

In college I sang "O qual pensiero" (butchered in everyway right there) with Glee Club and knew what had happened surrounding that chorus, so I thought the opera was about a group of idiot servants that can't tell the difference between the relationship a man has with his daughter than the one he would have with his mistress. Luckily, I had just enough time to peruse the synopsis and came to realize the idiot servants only play a small part in the much larger grand scheme of things that make up the intricate plot of Rigoletto.

The performance was spectacular. The production quality was simply incomparable. The orchestra was sublime. The evening was everything I hoped a night at the opera could be. You're probably not reading this, but THANK YOU SO MUCH, JOHN!

On a serious note, I have to comment here on something occurring in our society that pulls far too many strings on my heart. As I'm sure you've heard in the news recently, there has been a surge in suicides among teenagers in the US. These suicides have been attributed to bullying in our school because these teens are either openly homosexual or are thought to be. Equal parts sad and frightening, this hits home pretty close for me. I was one of those kids in high school that was teased because I was in theatre, choir, and band, had a huge personality and huge build that most people thought should have been put to use on the football field. Since I didn't play football, many people thought I was a pansy, sissy, or whatever word they felt necessary to qualify my not being on the football team. Perhaps it was further intensified because my older brother was on the football team and so I was naturally expected to follow in his footsteps after he graduated. I remember what it felt like to be taunted by those guys and made to feel like something was wrong with me. I remember constantly questioning whether people that didn't know me actually knew me better than I knew myself. I also remember that over time the bullying stopped. I remember something clicking among my classmates that caused them to acknowledge my existence in a positive manner. I remember them complimenting me on a job well done in a show. I remember graduating with them and feeling like I was actually just another one of the guys. I remember moving on to college and finding out who I was outside of being teased--granted, teasing still continued in college, but not to the same degree or effect. I remember being told how I made college a more enjoyable experience for someone. I remember walking across campus and having the jocks of the school remember me from the dining hall or a class and say, "Dude, we should get a drink sometime!" I remember being the teacher a student came to after he told his dad he was gay and reassuring that student that "it gets better". I remember being tagged in a Facebook photo under the title "Someone Who Has Changed Your Life". I remember loving the fact that I'm different and unique and whether or not I'm something someone doesn't like not mattering at all. Because I remember that the most important lesson I have ever learned is that love is the strongest weapon. So, if you know someone that is going through a similar situation, please remind them, "IT GETS BETTER".

Happy Adventures!