Last week was an utter whirlwind, and I'm just now breathing again.

Another tech week has come and gone. It's the most bittersweet feeling on the planet. It was an exhausting week. But oh, it was worth it. 

This show was a special one. It had a really big place in my heart. I can't say that I'm glad it's gone. The music plays on repeat in my head, as the memories whirl through.

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Loading in. Coffee. So much foam. So many toppers. The screaming of drills. Running back and forth. Wiping counters. Labeling bins. Running for lunch. Old hardware stores. The calm before the storm. Waiting. Feet pounding on the concrete. Laughter. So many kids. Bright lights. Ladders moving back and forth. Sunset. What will this week bring?

Valentine's Day. Makeup. Wing that liner. Silver silver silver. Hairspray hanging in the air. Finishing early. How did that happen? Didn't last long. Running the scene. Run it run it run it. Behind again. Keep going. Keep working. Forgot lunch. No time. Exhausted. Finally going home. Glitter pouring out of a card. Happy.

Dress rehearsal. Craziness downstairs. Life is a blur. Run it run it run it. Keep going. Keep pushing. Move the flats. Splinters piercing our skin. Matching shirts. Coordinating dance moves. Inside jokes. What even is going on? No one knows. Keep going. 

Chaos. Fevers. People dropping like flies. Stress. Paint dripping. Oh, the irony. Praying praying praying. Run it again. Laughter fixes everything. The ripping of tape. Give up and keep going. Push through, love. It'll be alright. 

Show day show day show day. Adrenaline courses through our veins. We made it. Joy. Jesus. Chick-fil-a. Laughing in booths. Ugly snapchats. Have to find makeup glue. Walmart runs. Crazy laughter. This family. Adventures. Sketchy makeup shops. Blaring soundtracks. Screaming at the top of our lungs. Sonic. Milkshakes. Stretchhhhhhh. Pouring glitter on each other. {We're fairies now.}  Dancing through the dressing room. Uncontainable joy. Another show. Keep going. Keep pushing. People we love. Relief. Waiting in the parking lot, sitting on the curb and laughing into the night. Staring up at the stars. This is the life. 

Last show. Can't cry yet. Sleeping in. Picking up more glitter. We'd used it all. Missing people. One last prelude. Hiding the whale. Blink. It's over. Applause. Cheers. Losing my voice. Warmth. The smell of roses. Surging people. Glitter bombing. Load out. Hurry hurry. Scraping of wood. Running through the night. Crisp air. Ihop again? Tired. How is it over already? Time to go home. But my heart's still at the theater.

I miss these memories already, but oh, am I thankful for this week. ♥

EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

Is it normal to scream over an email in the middle of your kitchen? Because I did.

Let me set the scene for you. It was an ordinary day. I had been at rehearsal for nine and a half hours. Yes, you read that right. Nine and a half hours. Why do I do this to myself? No clue. I hadn't had wifi all day, so upon walking inside, I started to check all of the notifications on my phone that had piled up throughout the day. I aimlessly hit my email, not really paying much attention, as my mind was focused on more important things, like food. But as the emails popped up, one in particular caught my attention.

It was from my good friend, Kate Emmons. Y'all, I love this girl. She is the absolute coolest. She blows my mind. Anyways, I was excited to see her name pop up, and clicked on the email. 

Long story short, she invited me to join Burning Youth. 

For those of you who don't know, Burning Youth is a blog collaborative run by some of the most incredible girls that I know. They are creative and brilliant and full of so much inspiration, it's crazy. I've been obsessed with Burning Youth ever since Kate and Abbie created it, and when they invited me to become a contributor, I nearly died. Thus, I started screaming over an email in the middle of my kitchen. My family was slightly concerned.

My first post went up today, and it's one that I like a lot. It's about perfection and "failure", and about taking on the crazy chaos that is life. I'd really love if you would read it- you can find it here. 

While you're over there, I'd really appreciate it if you'd follow along. I'm so honored to be joining these amazing girls, and I hope you'll stick around to read!

Love

Love. 

Seeing as it's Valentine's Day, we're surrounded by the word. We're thrown candy and flowers and cards and pink, and told that it's the proper way to celebrate Valentine's Day. That if we don't have a boyfriend, then there's no point in celebrating Valentine's Day.

That could not be more wrong. 

Valentine's Day is a day full of love. That's it. Love, plain and simple. When you're little, it's a day to wear lots of pink and eat lots of sugar and give your friends cards. When you get older, it becomes a day to eat chocolate, watch chick flicks, and wish you'd thought three weeks ago to make cards. When you get even older, it's a day to pick out a special card for your spouse. No matter which phase you're in, it's a day of love. It can be romantic love. But it sure as heck doesn't have to be.

I've always personally loved Valentine's Day. A day full of pink and sugar- what could be better? The past couple of years, I haven't celebrated quite as much as I did when I was younger, which is natural. This January, however, I decided that I was going to up my Valentine's Day celebration a bit. I'm going to be spending my Valentine's Day at a theater, preparing for our middle school show. I'll be at the theater from 9-6, which doesn't exactly leave a ton of time for anything, but I decided that I was going to go a bit crazy this year nonetheless.

Over the past several weeks, I've been working on making roughly 50 valentines- for all of the kids in our cast, for crew members, for friends both local and faraway, and for family members. It's been crazy, but it's been a lot of fun.

Because honestly? I think that Valentine's Day rocks. 

Valentine's Day is a day to celebrate love. To show people in your life how much you love and appreciate them. What could be better than that? I've had so much fun working to put together gifts and cards for people. See, Valentine's Day isn't a holiday like Christmas, where everyone feels like they have to have presents ready. A lot of people just forget about it. So you have such a fun opportunity to surprise them and make their day. I've been having so much fun making things to give to people that I know they aren't going to expect.

It's also made me think- why don't we do this more often? Why don't we make an effort to randomly make someone's day? That's so silly. Cards, small gifts, candy- they're not super large or expensive things to do. So why don't we do it more often?

I know that life is crazy. I feel you. But why not take a couple of minutes to do something that will make someone else happy? 

Love people. Love them hard. Show the people around you just how much you care about them. Even if you haven't planned anything for today, leave a couple of pieces of chocolate lying around. Write a friend a quick note. Pick up an extra coffee on your way to work to give to somebody. Call up a friend and see if they want to meet up for dinner. Spread a little bit of love. And don't let it end once today is over. My challenge to you is to work on showing the people around you how much you love them 365 days a year. It will make you all happier, I promise. 

Happy Valentine's Day, sweet friends. I love you all. ♥

How an Introvert Survives the Craziness of Life

Life is crazy, y'all. 

That's nothing new. Almost every time that I talk to someone, the conversation goes something like this-

"Hey! How are you?"

"TIRED. And I have to go take three tests and write four essays and pack for my trip to Timbuktu and read War and Peace and clean out my entire house and memorize the dictionary."

*cue me slowly backing away awkwardly*

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I can't say that I blame them, though. I can relate. I sound the exact same way, tbh. The fact that I haven't posted here in ten days is enough to tell you that life is starting to swallow me a bit. This weekend is being spent cramming as much as possible in, because I'm going to be spending around fifty hours next week at the theater, and it's basically going to consume my life. 

In fact, I'm not even sure if this post is going to be coherent, but I'm determined to get something out so that you guys don't think that I'm dead or something. So we're just going to go with it and hope that this most makes some inkling of sense. 

I am an introvert. Apparently in public situations, I can come off as an extrovert, but trust me- I'm not. As my best friend put it when someone was shocked that I was an introvert, "If it were up to her, Grace Anne would probably never leave her house again." That, my friends, is a very accurate statement. 

So when life gets to the crazy point where my to-do list is growing a mile a minute and I feel like my house is just somewhere that I get to visit every night, it can be kind of extremely overwhelming. My introverted self just wants to curl up in my room and close the door and not come out for three days. It gets to the point where I physically feel so anxious at the thought of something else to do. It's bad. 

But lately, I've been thinking about something. With all of the craziness that we experience- we only get these experiences once. This moment that you're in right now- all of the stress, all of the anxiety, all of the millions of things that you have to do- you're only going to experience this once. You can't go back. And even in all of the things that you might not love, there are always great things. You just have to look a little harder to find them sometimes. 

I'll be honest with you. I was not looking forward to yesterday. I had a three hour rehearsal first thing in the morning, and then I had another two hour rehearsal a few hours later. My mind was swimming with all of the things that I had to do to get ready for this upcoming week, and all I really wanted to do was stay home and get things done. 

But yesterday was a good day. And I was so, so happy. On the drive home, the sky was painted with every color imaginable. It was streaked with pinks and purples and oranges, and they faded into the deepest blue, surrounding a gorgeous, clear moon. We went to Krispy Kreme and picked up Valentine's Day doughnuts, and the workers were nice and smiled and gave us doughnuts with tons of sprinkles. And then these girls came in the shop and gave the employees Valentines, and the employees were really happy and gave them doughnuts, and we just watched one act of kindness after another. I was happy because even though those five hours of rehearsing were exhausting, I loved them. Those hours spent breathing in the smell of old wood, spent dancing and flying through the air and trusting the fact that I'm not going to fall. Hours spent watching a show finally start to come together, and letting the epic music pulse through my veins and make my heart feel like it's about to burst. Coming home and deciding that I was just going to breathe, and spending the evening curled up with flatbreads and a movie. Sitting alone in my room at midnight, the room illuminate by my fairy lights, and reading 2 Corinthians. And just being happy. 

Every day isn't going to be perfect, or even filled with quite as many beautiful little things as yesterday was. But good things are there, even when you have to look a little harder for them. A funny conversation. A smile. A Pinterest quote. A random text that brightens your mood. A piece of chocolate. A flower. A sunset. 

Find them. 

Because they're the best way for an introvert to survive the craziness of life. 

Happy February!

Hello there, February. Long time no see. How on earth did you get here so quickly? One minute everyone is hanging up Christmas lights, the next we're crying as we take them down and try to organize our lives for the new year, and now we're being assaulted with high-priced chocolate and greeting cards the second we enter a store?? How rude of you to rush all of this on us. Could you please slow down a bit?

In case you can't tell, as usual, I'm having my monthly "time is passing so quickly that I'm going to lose my mind" freakout. It's fine, it's fine, ignore the ranting blonde. Nothing to see here.

January was a strange month in the fact that it passed so slowly, yet so quickly at the same time. You know what I mean? Like, Christmas seems like it was years ago, but it also doesn't seem like it should be February yet. I don't know, I should stop rambling.

Life in January was unbelievably crazy, but good. We had snow, which was beyond beautiful. I started my second semester of college classes, and they've been going well, aside from the fact that I got horrifically lost on the first day. Rehearsals have been piling up like nobody's business- I've spent about 50 hours rehearsing this month. It's overwhelming, but I honestly do love it. At the end of the day, the exhaustion is worth it, even though some days I really wish that I could just sleep, haha!

I'm both excited and terrified for February. Currently, it's stressing me out because we have a show in a few weeks, and the anxiety is SO real, but I'm also excited for Valentine's Day! I'm making cards like crazy, and it's fun- I can't wait to send them out.

I'm glad that February has some things to look forward to, because overall it's one of my least favorite months. It can be so cold and gray and monotonous. Thank goodness for theatre and half priced chocolate!

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D I S C O V E R I E S

-My friend Abi is releasing her NOVEL!! It's coming out on February 4th, and I could not be more excited!

-I've become obsessed with the song You Matter To Me from Waitress. It's so simple and so beautiful.

-My incredible friend and fairy squad mother Abbie has released another song, and you need to go listen to it NOW. She'll give you waffles. Or just eat them I mean who knows.

-The Legally Blonde soundtrack has truly become my life anthem. I want to be Elle Woods when I grow up.

-I've been hardcore obsessed with Mary Higgens Clark novels this month. They are SO good- they keep you on the edge of your seat. The plot twists are insane!

-Elissa's vlog was absolutely amazing and I loved it to pieces.

-Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that Ed Sheeran released two new songs this month, and I was basically crying tears of joy. Castle on the Hill is basically the most beautiful thing and if you haven't listened to it yet, please leave this post and go listen to it right now.

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R E S O L U T I O N S

-Survive our show. Enough said.

-Keep up with my reading challenge. I'm trying to read sixty books this year. I'm currently one behind, but I really want to catch up! If you want to keep up with my reading attempts, you can follow along on my Goodreads. 

-Take part in InCoWriMo. InCoWriMo stands for International Correspondence Writing Month, and to take part, all you have to do is write a letter a day. I might not mail all of them, but I definitely want to write lotsssssss of letters.

-Finally put together a blogging journal. I've been so stressed over getting it perfect that I never actually started. I need to change that for sure.

-Make it a priority to write more often, regardless of whether or not I feel like it's good. I just need to get the words out.

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B L O G G I N G

-We welcomed the month by talking about resolutions, and how to attempt to stick with them.

-Recapped life lately, and rambled about how beautiful snow is.

-I talked about 100 things I'd rather be holding than my phone.

-Obviously we had to flail over Abi's novel!

-Snail mail is the best ever, and we listed all of the reasons.

Also, Totally Graced hit 110 followers, and I was so excited, I almost screamed. You guys are the absolute best, and I cannot thank you enough for sticking around to listen to all of my crazy rambles. ♥

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A bit of a short recap this month, but honestly my brain is so frazzled that this is the most that I can get out while still remaining coherent. So now, instead of talking, I want to listen instead. Tell me about YOUR lives!!! What have you been up to? How was January? Excited for February and that half-priced chocolate? Any goals? Do you like Ed Sheeran's new music? What have you been reading? TELL ME ALL THE THINGS!!!