Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more!

I just witnessed something quite extraordinary.  Really, I had to rub my weary eyes and stare in wonder before it occurred to me what was actually taking place.  

As I slowly approached my dorm today, the sun beautifully beating down, the birds a-twittering, the various tanned (and not-so-tanned) bodies sprawling themselves out across the quad, I realized that something was a little different about the building I currently call home.  *I say "home" in the outside-entrance motel, "I'll only be here for a short time" kind of tone.*  Nevertheless, I see in front of me the good 'ole campus police Segway parked outside with a chatty group of girls.  Intrigued?  I certainly was.  However, I must admit I was not quite prepared for what I was about to see.  

I'm thinking flooding (which happened last week), maybe even an unwanted male aka stalker (has also taken place), my mind was bubbling with possibilities.  However, when I finally arrived, the girls simply smiled and pointed upwards.  As I looked up at the middle of our semi-circular dorm, I couldn't believe my eyes.  There, standing on the quasi-balcony, meant more for decoration than anything else, especially that now this building (according to Mr. Police man on the Segway) is about 80 years old, stood a boy.  So, had it not been for the gargantuan sign draped over the railing, the immediate question that surfaced in my mind was, what is a boy doing on the balcony/not balcony, which could at any moment collapse, of a girl's dormitory in the middle of the day?  Well, the sign served it's purpose and explained it all it read, "__(person's name), will you go out with me?"  

*pause for quizzical looks and subsequent awwww's*

I stood there in wonder for a moment, as I see this boy start warming up on a guitar (as if the sweltering heat was not warming him up enough).  The girls turn to me and say, he's going to play a song for her, but she's taking too long getting ready.  At which point, another girl (apparently the source inside) yells from a window that she was coming but still straightening her hair...My ladies, another reason why one should not spend too much time getting ready.  You never know what could be awaiting you outside, so put that straightener down for crying out loud!  

I stayed for a few minutes chatting, realizing this girl had no intention of finishing her hair soon, I went up to my room.  Thankfully my room's window is on the inside, the same side of the balcony, so I opened my windows and kept on with my business.  A few minutes later I hear this chorus of "AWWWW's" a "WHAT?!" and the first few keys of Lifehouse...it had begun.  So I poked the better part of my upper body out of the window, gawking with the best of them.  

When I withdrew from my obvious position of gaping, I realized that, apart from the group of girls gathered outside, there were others hanging out of their windows as well.  Then I asked myself, what just happened?  Why, in the midst of a very busy day, does all of a sudden one boy draw so much attention?  I have one word for you.  Chivalry.

As much as the modern woman may decry the old ways and traditions of romanticism, girls are suckers for chivalry.  Every little girl dreams of her knight in shining armor, slaying the dragon, and rescuing her from her tower of despair.  And even though today the boy was on the balcony instead of the girl, it reached back and touched something that we all long to experience.    

Oddly enough, I had just moments ago finished a conversation with a girl who was calling a boy by some choice words because he had been leading various girls to believe things that were not true (blah, blah, blah).  Yet, days before this I have been in the throws of making "I Hate Boys" mixes on my iTunes and sending out various Shakespearean insults.  So, though it may be momentarily, my hope is restored.  I am the last person who will say that I believe that there is a prince charming out there for everyone galloping around on his great white steed.  It is not that I don't believe that true, fairy tale love exists, I do, I have seen it, but I'm not predisposed to think that as a girl that is my entitlement.  But as Ionesco would say, "Let's not go into that, miss, that would take us much too far..."  

So, congratulations little balcony boy, you successfully, momentarily restored the hope of pessimistic girls, that good men who want to pursue a woman in creative ways, still exist!  Chivalry is not dead!  It yet exists in the heart, though they may be few, they prevail!

An Experiment In the Absurd

As my first semester back at University comes to a close, I'm beginning to believe more and more that the title of this blog embodies the past 3 months.  As I have been told on many occasions, I retain a distinct inability to "break back in" to anything.  If I am going to do something (especially something that I have done before), I will jump back in headfirst, often with a few casualties, generally sleep and sanity, but in the end it works out.  

I have always functioned that way and I have been relatively successful in doing so, although there are those moments of extreme high stress, complete with excessive hyper-ventilation, ringing in the ears, seeing spots...but it always ends at some point.  I have never been exceptionally graceful, and this is just yet one more proof, that I generally always come crashing to the finish line in everything, barely intact, bloodied and bruised, with some areas of spotty memory, yet there I am, with a wink and a smile...successful in my task, though it took nothing short of an act of G-d to get me there.  

I used to sometimes like to think that I approach things in such a manner, because I knew that I work well under pressure and I liked to prove it.  However, on the contrary, the great irony of life is that though we like to think that we do things out of the sheer brilliance of our own understanding...I realize now, something quite the opposite.  Although my method is not necessarily the most effective, and resulted in a severe diminishment of my mother's health and sanity throughout my high school years, it shows me one thing.  I can do nothing in my own power, and most everything that I have accomplished has the evidence of G-d's mercy and grace all over it, because there is no way that I should have been able to accomplish it in any way, shape, or form.  

And so...all that to say, I have yet another testament to G-d's overwhelming mercy.  This past week has been quite the experiment in gauging how well I really have recovered from the fiasco that has been the past 2 years, and thus far I have emerged, more successful than I ever thought possible.  One wonderful thing that I am involved with here on campus is the theatre department.  I have loved being active in something creative again, and it has been a perfect environment for me to do so.  I have always gravitated to backstage when it comes to theatre, and stage managing is something I just love to do.  So, we had a performance back in March, an original play by our director, Scot Lahaie, Gloria Dei.  Then, we began preparations to do 2-short one-act plays by Romanian-French playwright, Eugene Ionesco, the master of absurdity.  "The Bald Soprano" and "The Lesson" are comedic works of brilliance, I'm still not sure how a mind could create such absurdity in such an intelligible (almost) way.  Needless to say, due to unforeseen circumstances, the night before "The Bald Soprano" opened (last monday) we realized that one of our cast members was unable to perform...one of our male cast members.  Thus, in fashion of a stage manager needing to make sure everything runs smoothly, I was nominated, to play a man, in an absurdist play, in 24 hours (which fyi, I've never acted, minor detail).  Can you see the inevitable act of G-d looming on the horizon?  Well, G-d was truly merciful, our director was merciful, my fellow actors were merciful and wonderful and it turned out brilliantly.  

 NOW, if that was not enough (some might say that I push my luck or test the edges, pulling on the reservoirs of grace as often as I do, I simply reply that I like to keep G-D on His toes, and I have to believe that He enjoys rescuing me from my pit)...We had another set of unforeseen circumstances, leading to me being in the play that takes place this week (i.e. tomorrow).  However, I do get to be a woman in this one, of which I am extremely excited (not to mention thankful, as my face still has not quite recovered it's first layer of skin from the perpetual application and removal of facial hair adhesive).  We are still in the polishing stage, so I'm sure I'm going to be swiping my mercy card like a teenage girl with her daddy's credit card, but thus is the love of my Heavenly Father for me.  

Thus, concludes my musings on my journey through the absurd, only to find myself back where I began, with grace.  

The couples :)

My lovely, Traci aka Mrs. Smith

The men, 'er something....