Holiday Adventures

Well hello!  There certainly is a lot to for me to tell you so I'll get right to it.  So much has happened!!  First of all, let me just say that after the events in the last month I feel like my guardian angel has put in some serious over-time.  I'm so thankful for that fact.  Also, thanks to everyone for your thoughts and prayers as well.  They were definitely appreciated.

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Thanksgiving

This year I was fortunate enough to go to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade IN PERSON!!  It was such a magical experience.  Also, it was a freezing experience.  But magical.  Let's focus on the magical part.

My two friends and I got up early and had breakfast and then went uptown to get our place on the street.  It was absolutely jam-packed with people, but we somehow found our way almost to the front and had the Radio City Music Hall in the background of all our photos.  You can click on this LINK to see my Facebook album of all the photos I took.  Here are a few pics for those who don't want to click (or can't figure out how to make it work):

A throwback to Charles Schultz and to World's of Fun.

This was my favorite balloon and my favorite picture from the day.  He looks like he's really flying in between the buildings of New York.

Santa and Mrs. Claus at the end of the parade.  Sadly, there was no Christmas fox.

Post-Thanksgiving

I ended up coming down with a terrible sinus infection and was out for a week.  But thanks to my visit to the ENT (thanks Aunt Pam!!), I got healthy and was able to fit in a few auditions before heading home for Christmas. 

Christmas

First Incident

I want to start this off by thanking two very amazing aunts of mine.  My Aunt Pam and my Aunt Heather.  Without the two of you, my trip would have been a disaster from the very beginning.

Aunt Pam woke up at 6am to get me to the airport.  She dropped me off and I went in, checked my luggage and headed to my gate.  Suddenly it struck me: I left my phone in my room!

I no longer have phone numbers memorized due in a large part to technology's vice-like grip on our lives.  I ran to a pay phone and realized that my parents had just gotten rid of our home phone number - the ONLY phone number I've had memorized since I was a child.  Thank the Lord I had packed my address book with me.  I called my grandparents and didn't get an answer.  (For an address book it really stuck to its name.  There were mainly addresses and only two phone numbers.)  Luckily, my Aunt Heather picked up the phone when I called their house and she was able to call my parents. 

I sat by the payphone after I hung up the phone and realized I had no way of knowing if my phone would be coming to the airport.  At that moment I remembered I packed my iPod and so I opened it up, half hoping that somehow my phone contacts had automatically synced from my iPhone to my iPod.  That did not happen, however, on a gut feeling, I opened up my email.  Because I had no wifi connection I only had the emails that I had opened the last time my iPod was turned on.  To my surprise, the first email that was already opened up was the email that my parents sent out to family members (a month earlier), letting everyone know that they were cancelling their home phone number.  At the bottom of the email were my mother and father's cell phone numbers. 

I quickly called my dad and we set a plan into motion.  My Aunt Pam made it back to the airport with my phone and I had enough time to run to my gate, run through security, and board my plane. 

I like to look at the negatives and turn them into a positive.  In this situation, sure, I had all the panic of being without a phone.  But I was able to call home on the payphone, I have amazing aunts who are willing to go above and beyond to help, and I ended up making my flight.  So it turned out alright.

Second Incident

Okay, so BIG thanks to my Aunt Sheila, Uncle Mark, and my cousins for picking me up at the airport in Kansas City and letting me spend the night at their house.  I'm so grateful for them.  Thanks guys!

My friend Jocelyn (Joce) had planned on picking me up and we would drive back to Great Bend together.  Things were working out and we were on the road.  We got to Lawrence and her car started vibrating and making weird noises.  We ended up having to stop and get a rental, however, the rental car company said we had to drive back to Manhattan where she lives and we couldn't drive it to Great Bend.  So . . . another delay in getting back home for Christmas.

This delay provided us with some quality hangout time and so it ended up not being all that bad.  I also got some Spangles so I was a happy camper.

Third Incident

Christmas was so bittersweet.  My brother had to head back to Texas on Christmas Eve Day to beat a snowstorm.  I was still happy to see my aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents, but it wasn't the same without him.  The day after Christmas was spent lounging with family and continuing a movie marathon.  However, (dun, dun, dun), around 11:30pm I started feeling a little weird.  I decided to ignore it and go lay down for a little.  I worked on a few things on my computer and an hour later the dull pain in my abdomen hadn't gone away.  I had felt these exact symptoms before.  I knew what was about to happen.  I had gone to the Emergency Room almost 9 months earlier (right before Spring Break of that year) from the pain that only grew stronger in my abdomen.  So, I decided to try to just go to sleep and maybe I would miraculously wake up without any problems.

That was not the case.  I woke up in terrible pain.  It felt like a balloon was inflating in my abdomen and I alternated between being in pain in the bathroom to being in pain in bed from 3am to 5am.  I finally had enough and decided to wake up my parents.  I knew I needed to go to the hospital. 

Once there, they gave me some pain meds and decided to start the tests.  My white blood cell count was elevated enough that they wanted to run a scan of my abdomen.  I ended up spending the night with an IV of pain medicine and woke up with the news that I was going to have an appendectomy that afternoon.  So, around 2pm on Friday, December 28th, I lost my appendix.  (I have pictures of the surgery - but I won't post those.  Sorry).

The next week was very uncomfortable.  I hate being inactive.  I finally started walking and could lay on my side to rest at night so I was happy.  Once I was able to walk without wincing, we decided to get my plane ticket to come back to NYC.  I flew back to New York only 8 days after having surgery and felt really great.  I cannot believe how speedy my recovery was.  I also cannot believe that this whole situation happened only two days before I was supposed to fly home.  The timing couldn't have been better.  This would have been awful had it happened on the plane or in New York.  I am very, very blessed to say the least.

And though I had to delay my flight back to New York because I had to have Emergency surgery to remove my appendix, I was able to spend a few extra days at home with my family and that is a priceless gift.  Plus, now I have some extra scars and, therefore, extra street cred.

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So, here I am.  I'm back in the city and I'm doing great.  I moved out of my aunt and uncle's on Staten Island and am living in Washington Heights - subletting my first apartment in Manhattan.  I love my room and my roommates and can't wait to get auditions started again.  Like I said, I know that none of this would have turned out well without your thoughts and prayers and without the help of my amazing, ever-watching guardian angel.  These next few months are going to be FILLED with opportunities and I will keep you updated along the way!