So What’d You Do With YOUR Weekend?

I’m back!! Sorry it’s been forever since I updated this thing… somehow, senior year just keeps finding ways to keep me over-busy (which is probably a good thing, now I think about it, since it keeps me distracted from the impending specter of graduation). But so much fun stuff happened over this weekend that I decided it was finally time to get my chronicler hat back on and update you all on how I’m passing my time. Your concerns are shared by my mother if you’re noticing that homework doesn’t seem to be mentioned here anywhere… but rest assured, I’m not about to trip at the finish line!

First off, Friday night was my maiden voyage into the brave new world of acting! With so many close friends raving about the Alternative College Theater’s (ACT) “Midnight Theater” event, I figured it was finally time to give the whole “all the world’s a stage” thing a try. After signing up, I was randomly assigned into a group with several other actors under the awesome direction of Heather Cannon ’16, and we we raced against the clock to learn, rehearse, and stage a fifteen minute play, all in under four hours. Since part of the framing concept meant that Heather had to include several random characters in a predetermined scenario, my acting debut character was Tommy Wiseau (director of “The Room,” agreed upon as the single worst movie ever made) as a celebrity contestant of Survivor 40: Zombie Mermaid Island. That was as bizarrely fun as it sounds, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. You haven’t really lived until you scream expletives at a cell phone in an indeterminate accent while wearing a flowing dreadlock wig, let me tell you.

The persuasive efforts of the SUPER talented Ms. Catherine Cote ’18 played a big part in my deciding to participate in the evening’s proceedings. She knocked it out of the park in ACT’s production of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” this semester, and is here fully immersed in her Midnight Theater role as yoga-in-a-morgue instructor Jane Doa (the -a is silent).

A post-show selfie with Tommy Wiseau, a surprisingly yoga-adept corpse, Jane Doa (the -a is silent, remember), James Franco from “The Interview,” and the radio announcer of the Hunger Games. First, and probably only, time that sentence has ever been uttered.

The next afternoon FINALLY brought us some nice spring weather around here, which meant it was time for a 10-mile jaunt around the Greater Worcester Area: the final “long run” and the end of the line for this year’s Boston Marathon training season. Yep, I’m back at it again – in just a week’s time, I’ll hopefully be notching my third marathon finish under my belt. Blog to follow — bet your life on it!

These puppies have brought me (mostly) intact through many miles, and their day of reckoning is at hand; as my high school track coach Phil Maia always used to say, “the hay’s in the barn” now.

Miles logged (and blogger showered), it was time to catch a Holy Cross shuttle into Boston for the night! The school offers free shuttle transportation on weekends to Boston, Providence, and other spots around the Worcester Area; campus remains as beautiful as ever, but it’s nice sometimes to get a change of scenery for a few hours, so I always try and take advantage of this awesome service at least once or twice a semester.

Since it’d be no fun going on my own, Catherine made the trip with me, and brought some of her friends along for a stroll through Boston Common…

… and right down Boylston Street, to a certain finish line that *fingers crossed* I’ll be seeing again in a few days.

An oddly conveniently-placed sign informed us just how many days, hours, minutes, and seconds, specifically! (Btw, since I have the chance here to say it, a MAJOR shout-out to the workers inside this Marathon Sports store for their unbelievable friendliness. People like you guys are why this is the greatest running community on Earth.)

Lastly, it was time for my cousin Ben Nicholson ’17 and I to participate in maybe our favorite on-campus event of the entire year: the Holy Cross Amazing Race. All you legions of faithful blog readers maybe remember our race adventures from last year’s event; it’s based on the hit CBS show, and was just about the most fun I’d had during an afternoon all throughout my college years. We had some unfinished business to settle after last year’s race, however, so we showed up at the starting line this time with our game faces on.

Tremble with fear. Are you trembling? WHY AREN’T YOU TREMBLING??

Nahh – beneath our rugged, manly exteriors, Ben and I have a longstanding connection with the Toy Story franchise; when team “To In-Fitton-y and Beyond” (“Fitton” being the name of the HC football stadium) showed up ready to go, all the other competitors knew exactly what they were up against.
The only downside to an event with the name “Race” in it on *this* campus: you’re in for a WHOPPER of a hill workout. With the events ricocheting us from the top of the hill, to the bottom, back to the top, back to the bottom, and so on, I’ll wager more than a few of the racers had a nice healthy sweat going by the end. Whether Ben and I were in that crowd, I feel it best not to say.

Shea Maunsell ’15 and her partner Ami Neeper ’15, displaying how best to unwind after such a race

As for us toys, we had yet another great afternoon, crossing the finish line with a good place and our heads held high. Like our shoes say, we did this one for Andy.

It’s not flying, it’s falling — with style

Enjoying the post-race meal of champions, Buzz chows down on some Pizza Planet fare.

As you can well imagine, I’m pretty worn out after all this adventuring, so I think I’ll call it a day for now — but stay tuned for some updates VERY shortly about all my Marathon shenanigans. In the meantime, I’ll probably be sleeping this all off (and homework, Mom… homework too!!).

This entry was posted on Monday, April 13th, 2015 at 2:33 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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