Getting On My Soapbox

Well, hi everyone. I haven't blogged in forever. I'm sort of ticked at myself, because I really wanted to stick with it. I'll try to get back on top of it. Still need to finish my trip updating, college babble, and health stuff. I guess I've sort of had a lot on my mind lately.

College has been great. Really great. Scholar's is tough. I mean they really go hard. No playing around. But I absolutely love it.  I have made friendships that I know will be lifelong. I had another kidney stone issue a couple of weeks ago that resulted in some ER visits, but all is well now. I'll have to tell the story of that later, because my pain-induced antics were pretty hilarious. I went today for a CT scan of my kidneys and have an appointment tomorrow to talk with my doctor. They told me when I was at the hospital that my swelling on my right kidney has gone down some. Yay! Now we just have to figure out why there is still some swelling I guess. It's weird. I used to be terrified of needles and whatnot. Now I'm like "hit me!". Ha, that's probably not a good thing!


So my soapbox:
I have been witnessing so much turmoil. I know that it's everywhere. It's not new or anything. I just hate it. I hate being involved with it, and I hate seeing people in the middle of it. But this is my call to my friends, strangers, and people of the world: Be upfront. Don't waste time listening to what others say. If you have a question for someone, or a problem... Talk to THEM. Talking to your friends and everyone else solves nothing. It only makes you just as guilty. And hey, I will be the first to admit that I have done that a whole lot. I have heard "something that someone said" and blabbered and babbled about it with all of my friends, and it was never even true to begin with. And what good did that do for me? Nothing. I believe there is a difference between discussing a problem you have with someone with a close friend or confidante and having a bashing session with your friends.  Don't assume and don't accuse. I'm not only saying this to everyone, but I am also telling myself this. I have to constantly tell myself to watch my tongue.
Also, we should learn to forgive. Is it not true that the people we care for and love the most will hurt us the most? It happens. Friends are going to screw up royally sometimes. You know who else will screw up royally? Me and you. We are going to need forgiveness, too. That's not to say you have to be bestestest friends with someone who has wronged you. Things take time, and they may never be the same again. But why sit around re-hashing all the bad things? Be upfront! And then try your absolute best to work it out and forgive. I have some friends that have troubles with certain things. I know without fail, they are going to make the same mistake twice, and maybe even again. Sometimes they might even hurt me.  But it is going to take a lot for me to truly relinquish the friendship. I can think of maybe two or three people I have had to do that with. Even still though, those people are forgiven and they have forgiven me. We are peaceful.
Always remember there is a side to every story. I have learned to look beyond the "bad" thing that someone has done and consider WHY they are doing it. You can learn a lot about your friends and other people that way. You may never know the deeper underlying problems someone struggles with, no matter how close you are. You can even help them through it, or try at least. And you know what, it may not work. But before you just denounce a friend, think: "Have I really given it my all? Have I done more bashing behind their back than talking to them about it face to face?" Be honest with yourself, even if they can't.
Like I said, I'm not trying to be a saint. I'm not. I am guilty of it. Bad. Bad guilty. I'm trying to be so much more conscientious about it. I see it between friends at home, friends at school in Natchitoches, between strangers. It's everywhere. It's going to be inevitable sometimes. But rise above it. There are two sides to every story. The one who commits the wrong-doing and the wronged both have something to say. It's not about picking sides. It's about being true friends. You are no better than they are. And they are no better than you. We are all sinners here in one way or another. Don't condemn. It's not us that should.
I just love you all. I love all of my friends and it hurts to see them fight. Everyone just take a step back and look at it.

Soapbox over.
Love to all.
I'll try to update this more.

"Wake Up"

You know, I'm pretty much a bandwagon fan on this. I jumped on when "The Suburbs" came out. (Thanks, Steve Barton!) And honestly, I don't care if this is the bandwagon song, most popular, and makes the hipsters hate me, but I love it. I heard it for the first time two years ago. It was actually used as our curtain call song for Robin Hood (neat, huh?). You know those songs? or movies, books, poems, just phrases, people, anything... that give you a feeling. This song gives me a feeling. A feeling of sunsets, strength, and freedom. Every now and then I need to be reminded to wake up. To remember that mistakes are going to be made. Mistakes are also forgiven, and shouldn't weigh you down. Learn from them, don't let them become chains. Let your mistakes define you in a positive light, show what you learned... not what you haven't. Don't ever drag around a big 'ole ball and chain of mistakes. Be free. Forgive yourself, and also forgive others. Life is too short. "Children, wake up. Hold your mistakes up. Before they turn the summer into dust." Carpe diem everyone.



"Wake Up" by Arcade Fire

Somethin' filled up
my heart with nothin',
someone told me not to cry.

But now that I'm older,
my heart's colder,
and I can see that it's a lie.

Children wake up,
hold your mistake up,
before they turn the summer into dust.

If the children don't grow up,
our bodies get bigger but our hearts get torn up.
We're just a million little gods causin' rain storms turnin' every good thing to
rust.

I guess we'll just have to adjust.

With my lightnin' bolts a glowin'
I can see where I am goin' to be
when the reaper he reaches and touches my hand.

With my lightnin' bolts a glowin'
I can see where I am goin’
With my lightnin' bolts a glowin'
I can see where I am, go-go, where I am

You'd better look out below

"The Ladder Song"

Well, I move out on Wednesday. Time for college. Time to grow up. It's strange how ties cut when you're about to move away. Some people, they're just faces in a yearbook. Some, the ones you had great times with years ago. And there are the few who you know the chapter isn't ending with. It's so strange... looking back on all of it. I can feel life moving on around me as it always will. The world never stops for you. Cars still move, people live on, even as you leave a place. Friends will miss you, and you will miss them. But you don't stop for each other. I hope you all know I am not saying any of this in a bitter, hateful way. More-so, an understanding. It's life. And I will always love the people here, all of the friends I've made. I know we will always be friends, but things are changing. And hey, this is just a reflective post. Not an "ooo-I-hate-my-life-whine-whiney-whine" post.

I heard this song on Gossip Girl of all things, but hey... they always pick the best songs. No lie. It's kind of depressing, but I try not to look at it that way. It's got a bit of an eerie feel, but I love it.

Day two after surgery and I'm feeling nearly 100% better. A little bit tired, but besides that I'm doing pretty good! I move to Natchitoches a week from today. I guess that means it's time to start packing up. That should be interesting...

Well, back to the trip update:

Day three: A day trip to Florence! We had the option of going and touring a leather shop and whatnot, but my mom and I broke off from the group and did our own thing. We walked around, browsed shops, enjoyed a nice lunch, saw the Jersey Shore cast filming, and bought some pretty sweet jewelry. I got a cameo ring that I love. If you look under my facebook mobile uploads, you'll see it. I only have a few pictures from my camera from Florence and they are all of the same thing: a beautiful cathedral.

I think this is the most beautiful church I have ever seen. More beautiful than the Notre Dame. (the outside that is). Below is a zoomed in picture of some of the detail.

Beautiful, huh?


Day four: Packed our bags to leave Rome. First, we took a ferry to the Island of Capri, which was gorgeous! One of my favorite places we visited! We deboarded from the ferry, and took the funicular (the little pulley thing) up the side of the island to the top. From there we all split up and went to have lunch. My mom, Mrs. Nelly, Gabby, and I found a nice little restaurant. It was so funny.. we were such a bunch of tourists. We walk in this nice restaurant, Mrs. Nelly and Gabby in brightly colored ponchos and me right behind snapping pictures of the place. It was pretty humorous. So many laughs happened around that meal. We told the waiter we didn't have much time to eat. We all ordered various things (calamari among them) and the following conversation ensued:

Us: "We would like *insert various food*"
Waiter: "No no no, not enough time. You all eat ravioli."
Mrs. Nelly and Gabby "And some calamari too?"
Waiter: "No no no calamari! Ravioli!"
My mom: "Can we please get four caprese salads, please?"
Waiter: "No no, two caprese salad, two goat cheese salad!"

Later...
Waiter: "Where are you all from?"
Us: "Louisiana."
Waiter: "I was in America once. I was in Atlanta for business."
My mom: *excitedly* "Oh! What line of business are you in?!"
Waiter: *giving an incredulous look*: "THE RESTAURANT BUSINESS!"...
Waiter: *thinking to himself*: "You idiot Americans!"

(What's funny is that he was totally serious. He wasn't joking throughout any of this.)

After lunch we walked around the island, looking down at the water below. It was the only day it rained and we had plans to cruise around the island on a boat before we left and we thought they would be rained out. Luckily, right before we left, the clouds cleared a bit and we got to take our cruise. After the cruise, we took the ferry back, and boarded the bus. We traveled to Sorrento and stayed there the night.

The restaurant.

Tourist picture. Notice the bright yellow poncho.

Capri is famous for their lemons. They were gigantic! I still miss the lemon slushies from Italy and Greece. They were so good!

SORRENTO PICTURES:

This was below ground. I'm not sure what exactly it was, but I thought it was interesting and beautiful.

Okay, had to take a picture of the awesome tile in our hotel room.

Room with a view.



'Tis all for now!

The surgery went great! It usually takes 4,000 shocks of waves to break up a stone, but it only took 2,000 for mine. Yippee! After surgery I slept for a little while at the hospital. No complications except throwing up from the medicine wearing off. But I was released around 12. I got home and slept for about 5 hours. I felt pretty nauseous and it wasn't until a couple of hours ago that I was able to eat and drink a bit. I'm very sore from where they administered the shocks, but besides that I'm alright. A bit weak, but should wear off in a day or so!

EUROPE TRIP TIME!

This summer I spent two weeks in Italy and Greece. Two summers ago my mom and I went on a tour of France and Germany with a group from St. Fred's. We had a blast and this time many of the same people went on this educational tour with us. I loved our group. We had such a great time together! We visited Rome, Florence, Capri, Sorrento, Pompei, Athens, Delphi, and the Greek Islands of Mykonos, Patmos, Santorini, and Ephesus.

DAY ONE: Flying to Rome. After long flights we finally arrived to the airport in Rome (where I narrowly avoided being puked on by a fellow group member). We met our tour guide, Gloria, who proved for lots of education, stories, and laughs. We arrived at our first hotel in Rome. It was pretty neat, with individual towers instead of being one large building. Leading to all the towers were pathways that were tunnel-like, completely covered with greenery. It was beautiful. After we got checked in, we headed into the city for dinner where we enjoyed some... well pasta of course!

DAY TWO: First day of ROME-ing around (so punny). It was a marathon long day. No joke. I don't think I have ever walked so much. The day started early with a 7 am trip to the Vatican for Mass. Because I was with the St. Fred's group, the majority of them being Catholic, we had Mass at the Vatican. It was special because their priest, Father Long came along on the trip with us. We had the privalege to enter the Vatican, and go below it in the corridors containing small chapels. There, Father Long assisted by a friend studying in Rome, lead our Mass. What a way to kick off our trip! Below is a picture of one of the chapels (not the one we were in) and in this chapel, you are the closest you can get to the bones of St. Peter.

After leaving the Vatican, we traveled to the Coliseum and the Forum. I had to have my knees and shoulders covered to enter the Vatican so I opted for jeans and a light sweater. BIG MISTAKE. BIG BIG MISTAKE. I nearly died of heat that day. Trekking around Rome in the hot sun with limited shade... Whew. Miserable. Note to self: don't wear jeans and sweaters in the summertime in Rome.


I just can't get over the beauty of the man-made structures in Rome. The Vatican, the Coliseum, the Forum. It was truly amazing. It is hard for me to fathom that this was made at the hands of working men.
I couldn't get over the natural beauty of Greece, but that is later to come :D

So while walking around in Rome, Italy I bumped into a friend of mine from school, Mary Dean! Crazy, huh?

Melting in the blistering hot sun



After spending time at the Coliseum and the Forum, we returned back to the Vatican City and toured for a few hours. Here are a few pictures:

After touring the Vatican City a smaller group of us had plans to go see the opera Madame Butterfly with dinner after. Well, on the way we got a bit lost... and by a bit, I actually mean a lot. We walked in circles for at least an hour or so. We had a map, but that proved to be no help. We asked various Italians who could offer no more advice than "Go 1-2-3 blocks down and take a right." I don't know how many times we went "1-2-3 blocks and took a right" but it felt like about twenty times. We miraculously arrived at the opera house, about ten minutes late. The show itself was in Italian with no translation. Good thing I had wikipedia at the tip of my fingers. It was a very small theatre and the opera was by no means of any grand scale. (I hate to admit it, but many of us snoozed a bit through it). It was enjoyable all the same though. After the show we had dinner at a small restaurant. I wish I could remember the meal, but all of it can remember was the lentils (which were very good I might add). We finally arrived back at the hotel sometime after midnight. What a day! I don't know if I've ever been more exhausted. There were times when I wanted to cry of exhaustion and heat. But there were also times when I couldn't help but laugh uncontrollably at the delirium of being lost in such a grand city on the way to an opera. There's even magic in that.

Wandering lost in Rome!

Enjoying a late night dinner after a VERY long day!

Well, I will continue my traveling tales tomorrow. I have had quite a long day! Thanks to all who wished me well on my little surgery this morning!

"Dorothy moves to click her ruby shoes right in tune with the Darkside of the Moon"

Well, another show comes to it's close. We finished up the Wizard of Oz today with nine out of nine sold out performances. Wow! It was an honor to be in our representation of such an iconic show. I loved the Wizard of Oz when I was little, but as I grew older, I lost touch with it.. Doing this show renewed the story for me... It changed from a fairytale, to something more real-life than I had imagined. Of course I don't regularly go strolling with a scarecrow, a tinman, and a lion, but I do feel as though I am about to start on my very own journey down the yellow brick road. College life is about as foreign to me as Oz is to Dorothy. I'm going to be on my own for the first time in my life. Luckily, Dorothy meets the "best friends anybody ever had" along the way on her journey. It's funny though, because really the three friends from Oz are the representation of her friends in her real life. At the end, Dorothy says goodbye to them in Oz, but when she awakens from her dream she is back home in Kansas. Back home where her friends were all along. I feel as if this show was sort of symbolic in a way. My goodbye... but also an everlasting reminder that "there's no place like home" and I will miss you all very much. It's not goodbye really, because I know I always have to power to come back within me. Art imitates life sometimes.


Ah, and how about a health update? A few weeks ago, I was having some pretty painful backpain so I went to an outpatient clinic where they tested me for a kidney stone. After some tests, a week of waiting, a cat scan, another 4-5 days of waiting, we determined I did in fact have a kidney stone. It was strange though because the backpain was the only symptom, and it has gone away. A few days later, I go to the eurologist for an appointment, and... whaddaya know, he gets called into emergency surgery and we have to postpone my appointment. All of this in the midst of opening week of Oz! We rescheduled for the following Monday, and luckily I finally got in! So, kidney stone? Yes. A pretty big kidney stone? Yeah. I guess this is my punishment for not hydrating with enough water all these years. It was bound to happen. Silly me. However, there was one twist we weren't expecting. My kidney is abnormally swollen/enlarged.
This kind of has the doc worried a bit because we aren't sure what caused it. Here is what my kidneys look like:

See that really big organ-looking-thing on the left? That's the bad kidney. The smaller one on the right is what it should look like and what my undamaged one looks like.
First order of business: Get rid of the stone. How? A procedure called lithotripsy. Basically they put me to sleep, inject me with dye, locate the stone, and then blast me with sonic waves to break it up and dissolve the stone. No incisions, and pretty simple. Amazing I think. It's got a 90% success rate and should work. The only thing that could hinder the process of breaking it up is my bum, swollen kidney. But we'll look on the brightside for now :D I'm having that done the morning of August 8th... well, tomorrow morning!
Next order of business: Find out why my bum kidney is bum. The doc said it could be something I was born with or something that has developed over the last few years. The possibilities are numerous I suppose. We'll just have to find out! Don't worry though folks, this is no life-threatening thing. You can live without one kidney, ya know!


I really want to start the run-down of my Europe trip but I think I will wait until tomorrow. I've already made this long enough I think! Please, chat me up. Get a blog! Or just comment below. Or facebook me! Thanks Jordan Campell!

Gotta show a little love to my girl Gwen before I pop outta here.

Don't forget to text me while I'm all loopy tomorrow! ;)

Hello-goodbyes.

Wow! I have been very neglectful of my blogging. I will begin by putting on the excuse that my summer has been one crazy whirlwind. In some ways I have been majorly uninspired to write, but after a certain Lucas Roberts came to my creative/mental rescue tonight, I have become greatly inspired to give my blog another go. And not so much in the lazy-once-every-three-months kind of way. So much has happened in this one summer, that I feel neglectful not to have shared. I will try to recount as much of it as I can in (more than one) posts on my blog.


To give an idea of what my summer has been like....

First, I started the summer off with graduating.

Then, I played one of my favorite roles I think I have ever acted in: Ado Annie in Oklahoma.

Next I spent a couple of weeks trekking around Italy and Greece. This picture was taken in the mountains in Delphi, Greece.

After that, was my senior trip to the beach... Which I have zero pictures from!

Then I returned to play Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz!

Next? Finishing up Oz and then moving to Natchitoches for big 'ole college. I cannot believe it's already here. In these next few weeks, I'm really going to work on using my blog for a creative outlet. Time to let the artistic juices really flow. I really hope you enjoy what I write and share. Please, leave comments, facebook me, email, just let me know you are reading this.

-Taylor