Jesus brought me to Bethlehem

I woke up to sunlight in my room today and the smell of clean air drifting in through my window. My first thought was "well I'm definitely not in New York anymore." Yes kids I'm in Pennsylvania. Bethlehem, Penn to be exact and yes they have an enormous star of Bethlehem that sits atop an enormous hill and is lit at night. Just in case you were wondering. Today will be my first day of rehearsals. I met the cast and some of the crew last night and everyone seems awesome thus far. the director especially seems really cool so that is good news. There are nine of us in total and we are split into three houses. Somehow I managed to get the awesome house which is four floors shared by five people at the moment and eventually only three. It is pretty nice so I can't complain. The best part is the moosehead bar that was just right in the middle of the living room amidst about five or six couches. No joke. Also I am still finding little presents from the professor all over my clothing...just try to get cat hair completely off your clothes...JUST TRY!

confessions of a procrastinator

Alright friends. I leave on wednesday. So far I still haven't packed. But mostly because I have no idea what I'm going to bring with me! Ack. This is me being really organized. I'm super excited and nervous and also having some panic attacks at the thought of leaving nyc for a while. It'll be great I think. hope. ugh.

I had my last weekend at Bikram this past weekend and was a bit sad to leave my lovely Bikram family. I will miss you guys mucho! Thanks for being such a wonderful support system to my life in more ways than one! I can't wait to get back into the hot room.

I'm hoping to put aside enough money to go to the Bikram seminar in Philly in October. It will kick my behind but will be totally worth it.

In a way I'm kind of looking forward to leaving a bunch of my "things" behind and just living out of a suitcase. I really resent the importance we all place on objects and things in our lives and can't wait to reduce that dependence in number. woo!

On a bit of a sadder note, my grandad is in the hospital again as of this weekend. Any good prayers or thoughts would be wonderful.

so as of today i have less than two weeks before I leave for pennsylvania....eeeek! i'm super nervous and mostly so because I will be leaving and going away from some much loved faces for too long. this was mostly noticed today around 1pm when I sat down to a lovely raw lunch of sprouts and some sunflower seed pate that I had concocted and all I could see in my head were all these new people who will quite possibly think I'm absolutely nutso. Yay for nutso! Yay for sprouts!

Also the prospect of not having bikram yoga for three months makes my toes tingle with fear. Dear Jesus, please let erica not go crazy by the end of these three months because she is not able to sweat out all the anger and frustration in her life. love, erica.

And I believe that I have decided to stay as long as possible in europe in january through february. this is really scary because of the whole "omg what am I doing with my life if I'm not auditioning and pursuing my acting career???" and because of the "holy shit I am so flat broke it's not even funny..."But scary or no, I believe this opportunity has presented itself as a source of living and creativity in my life and who knows, maybe I'll even start to paint again when I'm there. The professor will be very angry with me for leaving him with strangers for the next six months, but I do think he may get over it.

Tonight I go to bikram. I've been going everyday since I got back mostly because I think I'm terrified of not having it. home practice is poopy...