How to Perfect "Exhaustion"

Method Acting

This post was written after an attempt at method acting. Anyone know what that is? Anyone? Bueller??? Well, the answer is simple: in order to be the character, you must Be the character. If the character is an alcoholic turned alcoholic hobo with nothing but worn clothes and hole-y sneakers? Then you must go out on the street, drink heaps, and wear down your sneakers. If the character is a workaholic who ignores his family, gets divorced, estranges his son and also becomes an alcoholic? Sorry, you gotta do that too. Personally, my most feared method-acting situation would be if I had to play vegan. I hope you understand.

This week has been absolutely hectic. I continued to go to work at the IMF to help my mother with all the scanning, so it was early mornings, daily masses, gym sessions, and a helluva lot of office chocolates. Getting home late in the evenings and online job-hunting/applying also meant that I was sleeping late, so the tiredness was perpetuated. 

In other words: I was method-acting exhaustion (#MAE).

The First Gleams of Hope

Is it TRUE?!?!

On Tuesday, I received an email from the British Consulate, explicating my approved visa! Firstly, let's all take a moment to be thankful for this. The day finally came where I could return to Cardiff and start auditioning for things! Well, my plan was to fly out on Thursday night, so my time frame was really compact. Wednesday came, and I didn't have my visa in the mail, but guess what? Thursday was a winner!

#MAE: clearly neither eye has woken up for the day. I also am trying to take a selfie with my hand blatantly covering the Kennedy Center. Time: Approx 0945.

At the Kennedy Center, I attended a rehearsal for a bunch of Tchaikovsky repertoire. I was so enthralled with it all! Seeing the vibrating strings, all in unison but obviously all individuals.... I thought of it this way: imagine each musician and the story they have to tell - their undiluted, raw life stories. Now imagine all of those intense, beautiful, painful stories amalgamated into one sound. Yeah, #MAEby I was extremely exhausted when I thought of this allegory.

 I Was Literally Crying (from exhaustion?)
#sobeautiful
I also fell asleep.
#MAE

Last-Minute Friendliness

Ballet friend +Paula Novacki invited me to Zumba with her, so I went on Wednesday night. The class was so much fun, not to mention it highlighted the fact that I need to do more social dancing classes. Go awkward ballet-trained Sal! Go do your shimme shakes and your sporadic/graceful arm flings! Paula and I got to catch up on all things Haddad and then some, but unfortunately our time ran out before I gleaned enough info. Catch up again soon, Missy! FaceTime!

MD-based, Sydney-flatmate, and friend +Kayleigh OBrien met up with me after work one arvo, and I suggested we go visit the George Washington Uni campus as it's quite appealing. A few wrong turns, and we ended up at the White House! That's a #MAE if I ever saw one :) Well, we had an absolutely phenomenal time, got a professional photographer to take ours (there were camera crews for the State of the Union Address), and then we decided to try and take selfies in front of all the people taking selfies. It didn't work...

Photogenic Kayleigh + Photogenic Sally = True Wuv!

EVEN MORE Photogenic Kayleigh + Photogenic Sally = MORE THAN TRUE WUV

Ma's One for Photography

She wanted to document my final day working for this lovely man, Mr. Zhang. So she took a photograph.

Me and Le Boss Man.
Too #MAE-ny Necklaces!!

Sal's Not One for Photography

When I was in Sydney, my brother +Mark said, "You should've told me your phone was obsolete!" Of course, my iPhone4 does the trick, so I denied his claims. But look, just look at the photos on this page. I think it is very obvious which ones were taken with the iPhone4. Oh well... you don't read this for the photos, right?!

My flight landed in Heathrow, then I coached home to Cardiff. Guess who was waiting for me on the other side?! These two buggas, @Emma Hickey and @Coran Jones! Cor picked me up from the bus station and was so gentlemanly, he stuffed my suitcase in the back seat. When it was time to retrieve it, I think he pulled a muscle in his side! Go Cor!

In Very Good Company <3

The Last of the #MAEs

Tonight, I moved all of my things from the loft bedroom to the 1st floor bedroom. It was a very interesting process, as I didn't realise just how much stuff I had... or well... I knew I had a lot but was hoping for some sort of trick of the lighting. Carol came into the room and said, "Wow, did you add more things since last time? It looks like so much more stuff!"

The suitcase with my additional belongings was sitting patiently outside my room, waiting to be unpacked. #Fail. But I'm really liking the new location. It suits me very well, and I was able to put my keyboard amongst my clothes, and it's at the perfect height for singing/playing while standing. I took ages to clean, especially the rug, but altogether I anticipate being very comfortable here.

All is Well Back in Cardiff.

Let this be the last of the MAEs! Going to sleep at 0130 on Saturday morning (2030 EST) so I'm tackling the jet lag pretty well I guess. Going to get up for some dance classes tomorrow morning! Fingers crossed I wake up xx