So today I got to work with Andy again.  I find him super easy to work with – really “go with the flow” and easy going.  I’m not always that way so it’s cool that I can get that energy from him and I TRY to give it back.

So yeah, we started with the mirror exercise again at the beginning of class.  I kind of felt like “WHY?” because, well, we did that yesterday!!!  But the second time around it was a little easier, like we were able to jump into it a little quicker because we kind of knew what to expect.

But this time it felt like we were mirroring each other’s emotions!  I had had a bit of a hard day – my classes are a tiny bit harder than AMA’s, and I think they expect waaaaaaay more of us than my other teacher’s expected – so I may have been in a little bit of a funk when we walked into the room.  But Andy and I started the exercise and it was like he picked up on this during the exercise!  And while it looked like his face reflected commiseration back on me, it also looked like he was trying to tell me he had a hard day as well.

I REALLY wanted to hug him at the end but I didn’t.  I wish I hadn’t held back.

Then we did some weird “clay molding” exercise.  I didn’t like that one as much.  You stand up there and your partner “moves you” into different positions.  Then they finish, like you’re a “sculpture of art,” and you have to hold that position as other “artists” walk around and look at you.  It makes you really self conscious!

When I was the “artist” I put Andy into a position to make him look like a pitcher on a baseball mound, about to win the game!  When I walked around the room, other kids were made to look like they were picking their noses or doing other gross things.  One even looked like he was on the toilet!  Everyone was laughing at that, but I’m not sure I got the point of the exercise.

Tomorrow we have dance.  I’m really excited!  I haven’t danced in a few years.  But we don’t have to have ballet shoes and jazz shoes and tap shoes like the dance department students do.  I think we might be dancing barefoot.  I don’t know, we’ll see.

Off to sleep to have a good tomorrow!

Love,
Aubrey

I LOVE THIS SCHOOL!

First of all, there’s no way I could have expected THIS, it’s so much better than I could imagine.

Second, I LOVE MY THEATER CLASS!  It was only the first day and it already feels like I’ve known everyone for years!

Our teacher, “Mr. Smith,” a tall, raggedy man with dreamy blue eyes, is, like, the nicest guy I’ve ever met.  He’s kind of unpredictable – at one point he jumped up onto a desk like a pirate on a ship – and he’s pretty obviously not from here, as he has some accent from some other country and I’m not really sure which one.  But he was really patient and gentle and kind and he KNOWS SO MUCH about theater!

We did a couple exercises that he called “getting to know you” exercises.  It wasn’t exactly like the audition, where I guess we worked with the old theater teacher, but we stood in a “semi-circle” instead of a circle so we could still see all of the group but also “invite the audience in.”  He said that the job of an actor is to always “invite the audience in,” so he believes that, even when we’re doing exercises, we should always leave room to remember their future presence.

Anyhow.  So we’re standing in a semi-circle and we played “The Name Game.”  First, the girl over on Stage Right said her name and added some personalized pose to tell us a little about herself and also for us to remember her name.  So our first person was “Julie” and she curtsied.  I guess that means she was telling us she’s polite.  Anyway, so we all had to curtsy and say her name, “Julie.”  EVEN THE BOYS!  It was pretty funny.  Next to her was a boy named Ian and he did some kind of martial arts kick, so after he said his name we all had to martial arts kick “Ian” and then curtsy “Julie” again.  Next to him was another boy named Michael and he did, like, this sly winking smile thing.  It seemed super flirty.  But then the entire group had to wink and smile “Michael,” then martial arts kick “Ian,” and curtsy “Julie” yet again.

I may always curtsy to Julie when I see her in the hall from now on.

So yeah.  When it was my turn I had planned on doing a dance move, even though we were told to try and not plan what we were going to do.  I still did a dance move, but it wasn’t the one I thought I was going to do.  Instead of doing a turn, I did a leap.  LIVING  ON THE EDGE.

Actually, it was kind of cool.  As we were getting nearer and nearer to it being my turn, I felt my heart pounding harder and harder in my chest.  I was actually getting nervous.  But somehow, focusing  on the names of the other students made me the tiniest bit less nervous.  So by the time it was my turn to add to the routine, I had already forgotten what I planned to do (a pirouette type thing) and had to JUST ACT in the moment.  And, instead of my original plan, I did a leap and sang out “Aubrey!”  It sort of surprised me but it was kind of freeing, really.  And I think it actually captured my upbeat, life-loving nature better than my original plan!  But the BEST PART came afterward, as I watched the other students leap out “Aubrey!,” and some of them looked really natural and others looked kind of klutzy, but all of them “committed” to it – “owning” the action as if it was their own.  I immediately felt as if I belonged.

After everybody added their name and movement to the pattern, we reversed it – we STARTED with “Julie”-curtsy, “Ian”-kick, “Michael”-wink and on and on over to the last person “Kenny”-frog-jump.  It was a little hard but we managed it.

Then we paired off (I went with “Andy”-yawn) and did something called a “Mirror Exercise.”  We had to stand and stare into each others eyes (it was super uncomfortable at first but it got easier) and follow the movements of our partner while still looking ONLY at their eyes.

Some of the other couples got corrections to move slower – that the point of the exercise wasn’t to “leave your partner behind,” but make sure that they stayed with you.

Andy and I did pretty well at this, although I personally found it much easier to follow than to lead.  When I was leading I was so worried about making sure that Andy was ready and able to follow me, but it seemed like everyone else preferred leading to following.  I wonder if that says anything about our personalities…

Soon Mr. Smith had us switching leaders in the middle of the exercise.  So, I might be leading Andy to a place with our arms up above our head and then he became the leader and changed the motion.  I really liked working on this exercise with him – at one point Mr. Smith told us to “both lead and follow at the same time,” which sounded like the most ambiguous and ridiculous instructions on the surface, but somehow, I think we figured it out.  We were moving our arms and I felt like I was following, but then I bent my right arm and Andy’s arm bent as if he was initiating the movement.  Then I wasn’t really sure if I initiated the shoulder raise or if I was following it.  Honestly, it felt like he and I were thinking the same thing at the same time.  It was really neat!

So yeah.  I think Mr. Smith had one more exercise for us to do today but we ran out of time.  He apologized for taking so much time to talk at the beginning of class (Mr. Smith, if you read this, THERE IS NO REASON TO APOLOGIZE!).  I feel really good about what is expected of us this year and what we’re going to do.

I can’t wait for tomorrow!

Love,
Aubrey.

We went to the pool today – last day of summer and all!

I ended up finding out that this super hot lifeguard at the pool, the one I’ve been lusting after ALL SUMMER LONG, GOES TO RIDGEWOOD ACADEMY!!!!  He’s in theater and my mom told him I’M going to be in theater and so he talked to me a little bit about it.  I got a chance to ask him some questions and I found these things out:

Academics are at the beginning of the day.  We have all our school classes and lunch before 1pm.

Our art comes after that.  Depending on the day, the classes change, but I’ll be with my theater class for all of it.

Theater usually has LOTS of rehearsals after school.  He said LOTS.  Apparently a lot of the actors do their academic homework during rehearsals.

He also said the teacher that was at my audition has apparently left this year and no one knows why.  Nobody knows who his replacement will be yet.  That makes me sad.  He was nice at the audition.

Anyhow, now I know an UPPERCLASSMAN going into school!!!!!  So I definitely feel less alone going here now!  I just realized, all my friends are going to Atlantic Meadows Upper, so everyone I know will still be together but I’ll be someplace else.  I really like the someplace else that I’m going to be, but I’m going to miss my friends.  BUT NOW I’m already starting to make NEW FRIENDS.  (HOT new friends!)

Ahhh!  I’ve already picked out my first day outfit.  My backpack is packed with 6 folders, paper and sharpened pencils.  We’re not allowed to bring phones but my mom wants me to have mine – JUST IN CASE – so I’m supposed to keep it off and in my “pencil pouch” all day, unless I need to call home.

Sooooooooooooooooo excited!

Love you!
Aubrey!

So I’ve found out I’m not the only kid from Atlantic Meadows Elementary to be going to Ridgewood!!!

Today my mom went to a parents orientation and I have no idea how it came up but there will be the kids from Atlantic Meadows coming in with my class: me, some kid in art and a girl in music.

Since I was the only person I knew in the theater audition, I kind of just assumed I was going to be the only person I knew in the school. Maybe a dumb assumption but you know what they say when you assume… 😉

Anyhow, my mom said she went to talk to the other Atlantic parents and it was a Mrs. Wang and a Mr. and Mrs. Smith.  I think Mrs. Wang HAS to be Tommy’s mom. He played in band, so it pretty much makes sense.  I can’t think of anyone I knew named “Smith.”

Yup.  Time is moving soooooo slow.  Can’t wait!!

Oh, yeah, and my mom came home with a couple Ridgewood t-shirts and a pair of black stretchy “dance pants.” I’m supposed to wear them for my first class on Monday.

TTFN!!
Aubrey!!!

I received my list of classes today!!!

I’ll have two blocks: academic and MY ART!!!

I think everyone accepted into an art takes the same classes together, but they sent my academic class list:

English I
Algebra
Biology
Civics
and PROGRAMMING 1?????

I’m so super psyched.  I got a chance to talk to Jessika today – she’s the one I know from dance school.  She’s obviously attending for dance – she is so awesome!  She said she got a shopping list for dance shoes and a class dress code, but I haven’t gotten any kind of list yet.  I don’t know; at our audition they asked us to wear “something that moves” and sneakers, but then we took off our shoes, and ended up sitting down a lot, so who really knows???

Anyhow.  I’m getting anxious.  The countdown is T minus 3 days!

I’m trying to keep my mind on anything other how excited I am about starting school.

Puppies.  Kitties.  Butterflies.  Ice cream.  Rainbows.  Clouds.  Sunlight.  Beaches.  Swimming.  Dog paddle.  Puppies.

They had us do an exercise like this at the audition.  We stood in a circle and did what they called “Associate words” while the teacher said one word, then someone said something that the word reminded them of, then someone else said something else THAT reminded them of, then someone else said something else, and on and on and on.  We were somehow supposed to bring it back to the teacher’s original word but that didn’t always happen.

Plus there were these boys who kept trying to say “poop” and “fart” and “diarrhea” every turn.

HELLO!  I’m sorry, but there’s no way you can link the word “poop” from “unicorn.”

….

Unless they were thinking of unicorn poop?

HAHAHAHA, I bet that’s rainbow colored.  Like rainbow sprinkle turds.

.

I can’t believe I wrote that.

OMG.  I WONDER WHO ELSE GOT IN?  There HAS to be someone else from my audition that got in!!!!  Omg, I hope it’s not one of those boys.  They were sooooooooooooooo disruptive.  How can you take an acting class seriously with someone bringing it back to “poop” all the time?

Anyhow, more later!  TTFN!
Aubrey!

OMG.

So yesterday I was running errands with my mom and we ran into a girl I went to dance school with a few years ago.  SHE’S GOING TO RIDGEWOOD ACADEMY TOO!!!!!!!

So that means I won’t be alone on my first day!

This is good, because I’ve realized just how apprehensive (this is my word for the day, did I use it okay?) I’ve been starting to feel about starting at a new school.  I’d been at my elementary school since I started kindergarten a million years ago!

What’s it going to feel like meeting all new people?  Are they going to like me?  Are they going to hate me?  All my friends at my old school know everything about me – that I’m really great at reading, that I won our first spelling bee and that I am super afraid of spiders.  The teachers called me “Shane” – my last name – and EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM taught one of my brothers.  I hated that, but what’s it going to be like having a teacher who DOESN’T know an “older Shane?”

Am I going to love my teachers?  Am I going to hate my classes?  Are my classes going to be too hard?  Or maybe, even worse, TOO EASY?????

I can’t wait!  I can’t wait!  I CAN’T WAIT!!!!!!

These next five days are going to be the longest of my life!!!!!!!