Life Here Lately...

Photo by Yoann Boyer on Unsplash

Hey y'all,

 It has been a seriously long time since I last posted- a little over 3 months, in fact. You would not believe the amount of times I've sat down to write a blog post, and then just had absolutely nothing come to me. I've shared writing on Instagram, and Facebook, and entered poetry contests, but for some reason the idea of writing a full blog post seemed so intimidating.
 Simultaneously everything and nothing has happened these past three months; it's honestly rather strange. My last post was February 10th, so I suppose I'll just try to go back and talk about what's been going on in chronological order.

 Hopping way back to January, I mentioned it briefly but never really talked about it- my siblings and I had the Musical Theatre Revue with our acting group. It was super stressful and the theater had a freaking ridiculous amount of stairs, but otherwise it was a lot of fun. My brother was apart of the stage crew for that show and my sister and I were on stage. We had a duet which turned out pretty rough (I Dreamed a Dream from Les Mis), but my sister did a great job on her solo (Home from Beetlejuice). All the group numbers went reallt

 Sometime in either January or February we also went back to Otherworld in Columbus, which was my brother's Christmas present, but it was a bit of a rough weekend trip due to various reasons, but we still had a pretty okay time regardless.

 Something I never posted about on here was that on February 8th, I got to go see my favorite band, The Lumineers, in concert. While it took forever for them to get on stage and I was not a fan of their two openers, the Lumineers themselves were mind-blowing. My Mom got me tickets for Christmas and I'm still so grateful. Lots of (happy) tears were shed that night. However, we were in Cleveland at night, with a concert that just got out, in the middle of Winter, and ended up having to walk back to our hotel...

 Which kick-started me feeling sick. I started feeling pretty gross and sniffly and stuff, but managed to pull through that week, looking forward to my birthday, and then the day of my birthday (and party arrived), and I was sick as a dog. I slept most of the day before, and then the day of my party, I helped set up for my party (invitations had all been sent out + non-refundable venue), and then spent the rest of the time alternating between sitting at a table with my head lying on it or throwing up in the bathroom... so shout-out to my bestie Sophia for chilling with me the whole time despite me being sick. She's a real one, y'all.
 I feel really bad because I barely talked to any of my friends at my party (the ones who showed up anyway, y'all are fantastic and I love you). I pretty much parked myself between Soph, my siblings, and my grandparents and spent my eighteenth birthday feeling like dirt. It was a very depressing way to spend the day, and as soon as we got home, I went to bed. I didn't get to eat any of the snacks we got or really enjoy my decorations or anything. I'm still super peeved, but it is what it is I suppose.

 Then I was pretty sick for the next week or two, and the Thursday after my party (about 5 days later) I thought I was going to die so my Mom took me to the ER (...I was supposed to be at dance class lol), and turns out I just had a God-awful case of bronchitis. They put me on meds and other than a lingering cough, I was good in about another week or two.
 February's a bit of a blur. January-February are almost always rough months for me, the past 2 or 3 years I've come down with really serious illnesses around/on my birthday that usually start at the end of January. I don''t know what the deal is, but it just happens every time without fail.

 At the end of February/beginning of March, we went to go see our friend Naomi in a show at the La Comedia dinner theatre, which is an awesome place. It was The King & I, which I'd never had much interest in before, but it was amazing! I had such a great time and Naomi did a lovely job.

 After this is where things start to get blurry- with the Covid-19 pandemic, everything is crazy. I pretty much am temporarily unemployed because no one needs a pet sitter because no one can actually travel right now. I've been going stir-crazy with not being able to go see my friends or at least take my siblings places or go to the movies with my family and stuff. Never did I ever think we'd be living through a world-wide pandemic. Just goes to show life never goes as planned.

 Unfortunately, we had to rehome our one pup, Buster, because he wasn't a good fit for our family. He is a great dog, just not great for our situation, but I do miss the little stinker. We've also lost a few of our other pets these past few months unfortunately, and it does hurt my heart a lot.
 The company I used to dance with, Fueled & Aflame, had a final concert so I went back to dance with them for that- it ended up being virtual which was a rough send-off for something that has had so many memories and time put into it and stuff. It was better than nothing, though. Shortly after, things started closing for us. Our acting group had to cancel our production of Godspell, which means (aside from like, Soph and I and maybe a few others) the seniors don't get a final bow, which is really quite sad.
 Dance class is on hold for in-person classes which is really depressing. I love my studio, and so it's been rough not being able to see everyone (especially being the 'new kid'). We've had classes over Zoom, but it's just not the same, plus I'm really struggling with picking up choreography, and I'm not sure exactly how recital will work this year, which makes me sad, because it was going to be my first recital with this studio.

 Overall, this pandemic has just been a hellish situation for everyone. I'm glad things are opening again, but I'm also concerned about a spike in cases. One day at a time, I suppose. I'm ready for things to be normal again but I know 'normal' is not really ever going to be on the horizon again. We live in such a digital age that I think this will change us forever.
 There are things to look forward to, though. I have two more college classes starting next month. I'm taking a humanities course and a history course. I declared (unofficially) my major as theatre but have switched to a general associate of art's because I honestly have no idea what the heck I want to do with my life.
 My siblings & I are taking our friend Syd to prom in July (delayed because of Covid), so that's going to be a blast. I've also been using this time for good, and Sophia and I are starting up our own dance company. Everything is lined up so now I'm using my anxious energy to expend on choreography and website building and such. I hope to find an official job soon and start planning for when I'm stable and able to move out. I also hope to start taking boxing lessons once things open back up. Good and bad, bad and good. Just doing my best to focus on the good.

 So this has been a brief- but not-so-brief- overview of what my life has been like lately. How are things in your neck of the woods? Let me know in the comments :)
 -Hannah