Sitting in a cafe in Chicago

Just sitting here - reflecting on my past week or so.
Ahhhh vacation - i will miss it terribly when i am back in the everyday grind of my life in MN.

I do like it in MN i enjoy where i'm living, i like the family that i'm living close to now and have been able to develop some quality relationships with, I am enjoying the people i have gotten to know in my time there, and i feel lucky to have had all the acting opportunities i have had since last February. Really the move has been a brilliant decision if i do say so myself and more than i ever could have expected has come from it.

I have been analyzing where i am lately though. In life, in acting, in teaching....
MN is my third place to call home. The second time i have just picked up and moved - to challenge myself - to attempt something new - to further the career i want for myself in some way. I just can't help wondering where do i go from here? People ask me if i think i might go back to NY someday others encourage me to move to LA - I say to them that each of these cities will have their time - their moment in my life. I don't think i am completely done with NY but i don't see it in the relatively near future. Same with LA really. So my question is still where do i go from here? Could i live in MN the rest of my life? i don't know about that - i mean definitely in the area i'm in right now - i get it. I get the appeal. I get why people come to the twin cities and just don't leave.
But i don't know about me.

other questions on my mind...
Teaching - is this really what i want to be doing right now - yes maybe in the long run or when all is said and done that's where i'll be - but damn teaching takes a lot of energy. I mean would i rather i was less involved no - at least i don't think that would be as fulfilling. But maybe i don't need fulfilling right now - i do want to focus on acting and my career - does teaching everyday allow for all the opportunities i could be taking part in? does teaching leave my energies and focus available for the rest of my life, which is supposed to be my priority right now? I don't really know/lean towards not, but maybe the grass is just greener on the other side.

i guess a new year coming leads to reflection and pause and taking in where you have been in the past year and suggests thinking about where you want to be going in the next year. Is this where seriouse resolutions come in? I've already come up with resolution number one - nothing too exciteing or original - i want to go back to yoga. Although maybe thats why i am in such a mood of reflection becuase it has all built up since the summer when i stopped going becuase life got busy. SO maybe yoga will help me get back in to a state of ease and a restful mind. Who knows really.

Being home was wonderful - getting to see my friends and family really involved in life - i think we are all still going through a period of "what is it i really want out of this world?" but either way we all seem to be out there making our way towards our goals or at least making our way towards figureing out what we want our goals to be. Seeing everyone and their homes and their lives for a split second really made me think just how grown up we've all become. Maybe this feeling is a little surprising becuase the majority of people i spent time with this trip were all freinds from way back when. Family freinds, 1st grade, middle school freinds. So maybe knowing all these poeple for so long has something to do with this feeling but none the less its impressive how quickly time flys and how fast we all grow up and join the real world. I mean in a matter of months we all seemed to have become adults. I'm impressed. I'm surprised by this feeling, but i am impressed.

Sitting in this cafe waiting for Elie to pop in and out of work - i am left to my own devices. So sitting and thinking is really all i got. And i've been so analytical and in my head over the past couple weeks - my brain is exauhsted. Maybe i just need to get back into the hussle and bussle of life - be distracted a little again. I think this is my problem - in my own head - i just go around in circles - around and around and around in circles. I never land anywhere. I think i just keep thinking about the same things but can never come to conclusion about it all. No wonder i am exauhsted. Also maybe i got to take a break from the caffeen - i can't imagine that helps when i have a lot of time bymyself on my hands. I just feel so restless. Maybe this is also becuase i spent a month of not really doing anything (i.e. no show to be rehearsing or performing) so i just feel restless cuase i am happy when i am a busy bee. So maybe its not the yoga i need (i need to go back to yoga but maybe not for my mental rest) or the distractions or even the change of life right now. Maybe i just need to go back to what my busy life was pre December. Hmmmmmm interesting thought. I thought maybe typing this out my help but i'm still not coming to any conclusions. I described it as having lots of strings - fraying the ends - and then walking away without tying any bows, let a lone big beautiful ones.

So as 2010 rapidly aproaches i leave my frayed ends of twisted rope for another day.
I'm going to go get something sweet from the front of this tea house i'm sitting in. And dream of getting rid of those calories as soon as i get to MN.
Bikram i am on way. 2010 i guess i have nothing to say to you but .....Bring it!

I believe its time....

Wow - its been so long i don't really no where to start.
Things are going well - hows that?
I'm really enojoying life here in the twin cities at this point. I have really developed some great friendships in the past few months. Teaching the kids is just more fun everyday, as they grow and learn more and are able to retain the things we teach them (that is the most amazing part about it). Auditoning and performing is continuing to go well. I am looking into getting some agent representation to start doing more on camera work soon. Right now though, i am home for a visit and will then be in Chicago for new years with the one and only EB.

i finished up my fall shows and am ending 2009 with some real positive work. I was really happy with the past couple of shows - proud to be working so consistently and having a lot of fun with the work and groups of people i have gotten know. Here's to it continuing.

As this year starts to come to an end. I realize how quickly 2009 went by. Pretty wild. i can't believe i have already been in the cities for 10 months. so much happened in the past year and i am eger to see whats in store for 2010.

I already have a couple of shows lined up. And what with teaching as well, it should be pretty busy right out of the gate.
I have a show starting rehearsals when i get back from vacation - this one is with the same company and some of the same people i worked with over the summer with my Fringe Festival show. This one will perform in February - not a large role but i do like the show. I think it will be a good one. Also i just heard about a show i auditioned for this past week - this one will be in April/May - really looking forward to this one (interested to read the script). It is with the Minnesota Jewish Theater Comapny. I havn't read the whole script - just bits and peices at auditions and call backs - so im not sure the whole story or what my character is really about but i gathered that the show is a pretty controversal one dealing with Orthodox jews in Meah Shearim in Israel and Homosexuality. (Like i said interested in reading the script)

I decided to not do the tour i did when i first got to minnesota again this coming spring. I was planning on it but once i got my teaching job and realised how much time i'd have to step away from the class room for it, i realised i didn't really want to do that to the kids. I think it was a good choice - its opened up some options for me - other shows i am now available to do (like the one i just described above) so i am happy with that decision.

Hannukkah was fun this year. i was worried a little bit about yet another holiday kind of on my own but one of my new good friends (the other assistant teacher for Pre K at school) is super fun, we get along famousley, and we had a hanukkah party with latkes and home made jelly donuts and everything. I think we were the only jews at the party but thats part of the fun. We told the story and tought peopel about dreidles and traditional foods and ate a lot! I think this hannukah i ate more latkes than i have in all my years of latkes . I owe that to Rachel- thanks.
Also celebrated with the Elhais that live in MN, we had a very enjoyable family hanukkah celebration together. I also got to decorate the tree - that was fun and pretty. Oh! and i got lots of hanukkah gifts from my students - a plate of cookies, gift certificates, a bottle of wine - really no one told me how good a gig this teaching thing is.

Now i am home - so far a good relaxing trip. Landed Saturday night - daniels bday. Totally surprised him - he had no idea i was coming home and it was a perfect birthday present. Its weird to be home with neither of the boys around. I do hope to get around to both apartments this trip to see how my brothers are getting along on their own. I hope to see lots of friends enjoy some good catch up and then head to Chicago for some new years fun. Thats basically it over here for now.
Hope everyone else is well
Happy new years to all of you, may 2010 bring success happiness and health to all.
-Roneet

P.S.

Changed my pictures check them out. Production pics from the shows i've been in since i got here. Plus a pic from the new one opening Nov 7.

Also to see something i worked on this summer go here (check all 5 out they are great) :
http://www.vimeo.com/videos/search:zipnosis

Thought i would write a little.....

It is quite gloomy here in MN. Rainy for the past couple days. I woke up this morning thinking i had missed day lights savings switch because it was so damn dark. I kept expecting the radio to say it was an hour earlier than it really was and then i would be able to go back to sleep.

Things are going pretty well. I have a show opening in a week and half, so we are starting to get down to the all consuming week of rehearsals right before opening. It's been a fun light short rehearsal process. I have to say i am looking forward to the break from shows for a while. I do have a good few projects i should get to work on completing that were started at the beginning of summer!

Marisol was an amazing experiance - i don't remember if i said something about it here yet or not. It truly goes on the list of best theater experinces in my life. Just a peice of work i am so proud of. I loved performing it (as much as i complained before hand - it was taxing - i loved being on stage and going through her journey each show) I wokred so hard to make it happen and the result was something i can not really put into words how i feel about. I said more than a few times that i was jelous of the audience becuase i would never get the chance to see the show unfold from an objective point of view. The rehearsal process was so challengeing, frusterating, overwhelming, fun, feirce, and empowering. I really went through so much during that experiance from feeling to green and inadiquite to really feeling like i had found the charecter and her world. I will miss it terribly. And this next show? has been like some bad watered down coolade in compareison.

Teaching at the preschool is going well. I am enjoying the children more and more each day. They are so fun, high energy, sweet little people. When i'm having a rough day - regardless of whether they are the cause or not - they will just go ahead and do something real cute and i am powerless.
Recently the wonderfulness that is childhood that they decided to share with me was lice! Yay! SO i have lice once again after 12 years of critter free hair ::a little shudder:: The best part was when i was washing my itchy head with some extra strength dandruff somthing or other (thinking that would do the trick) i discovered a little bug on my finger. Having had two kids pulled from school becuase of lice at this point, i quickly google imaged lice and found a direct relative of my little friend staring back at me. FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN!
Yesterday was a day off from school filled with laundry, vacumeing, intense smelling shampoo, and lots of hair in my face. Also some creepy crawly feelings on my skin. again i repeat FUN!
The funniest part was when i looked around my apartment and realized i was worse than these kids: 4 stuffed animals, 2 pillows and a body pillow, 3 blankets - and thats just whats on my bed.
At some point you just got to laugh. Laughing is better than crying. so thats where i am.

The gloomy season and my cold apartment makes me think. i still miss home a lot, family and friends. I have made some friends here, but its still the beginging of those relationships, my freinds at home can be called fora trip to target(or insert any errand here) or to help me lug garbage bags of laundry up to my apartment, while i could probably call on my mn friends for that i feel like its just too soon. A friendship has to blossom before you can request manuel labor.....
I did plan a trip for my winter break from teaching, which i am so excited about. I will be at home for a good 10 days and then New Years is going to be with the one and only EB. Nothing could serve as better incentive to get through this gray season.
I didn't mention it here but i feel as if it might be time to let my blog followers in on things. Granted some of you already know, but the famous boy this blog was started in association with and i are no longer together. We broke up for several reasons, i will not go into, at the end of the summer, when Guy went back to Hungary. While this is a decision i am glad i made, feel relived about, and notice the differance in my life because of, needless to say, things arn't perfectly hunky dory. Break ups never are. They leave a lot of retrospective analysis and complicated feelings in their wakes. A rainy day is perfect for visiting that aspect of my life.
While not spending so much energy on that relationship has given me time to focus on my life here in MN, making freinds, working, school and shows, i still feel like i have a lot of time on my hands i didn't used to have. Yes i could use that time for the dishes in the sink, the memorizing or the many crochette projects i have lying around but somehow those don't get done. I guess i'm just chewing on everything a bit and finding it hard to be motivated to do stuff.

I am excited for this weekend. Going to hang out with 3 of my 7 mn friends (i'm counting) for halloween. Should be fun, i don't remember the last time i had a truly fun halloween. Maybe i just don't remember past halloweens now that i think about it......We are going to a show sat night that one of the freinds is opening and then who knows what the night will bring. i will also be doing my young cousins make up for his (truly yucky) girl costume (too much pink for me) which i know will be a blast. and of course lots of rehearsal. SO it will be a busy weekend which will be good. This past week i spent a lot of time at the family's house lots of birthdays in october. A different birthday dinner and present opening each night almost. It was fun to be able to be apart of all that. So aside form the lice thing its goingto be a pretty fun week in the end.

i guess all in all things here are good, just a little funk to go with the day. I could use a little sunshine soon.

Well Hello There

Hey everybody!

So so sorry about the disappearing act. So much has happened including moving into a new apartment without internet - thus the blogger lameness.  

The new apartment has gotten better and better with all the shiputzim (fixer ups) that have happened to it. The last of which will be heat. Once that starts happening i will be a happy camper. So far since i moved in - the place has been painted, the wood floors have been redone, new linoleum has been put in for the kitchen and bathroom. This does not include the total bathroom and walls make over that was done before i moved in. I also have to finish emptying all the storage unit boxes from NY. Then the place will really feel like home. Its a little lonely to live on my own but really only at night. Coming home from a show and not really having anyone to share with is sort of a bummer but i am so tired by the end of the day i am not bummed for long cause the second my head hits the pillow (and my body has warmed up the layers) I'm asleep. 

After heat - internet is my next project!

Also I've started teaching at a jewish preschool at the local synagogue. Its a blast teaching little ones about Judaism and hebrew and all that junk. I have 9 wonderful 4 and 5 year olds. The are cute and excited about everything and sticky and of control and beautiful 4 and 5 year olds. I am having fun. It's a busy tiring day, I'm with kids from 9 - 1:30 and it is a 4.5 hour whirlwind. 

On the theater side of things. I just opened my first show this fall. It is going great so far. I'm real proud of it. And its an awesome show regardless of me and what this theater company has done with it (i mean, don't get me wrong, that also makes it awesome).  My dad took a special trip out before another one of his big business trips to see a final rehearsal because he last minute had to go out of the country for the entire run. It was wonderful to have him here - show him around my life (the school, the theater, the apartment) and having him as my first audience. The show is such high energy and fast passed that it takes a while to come down from the actor high, hence the sitting at a computer in the coffee shop/ice cream place a couple blocks down on the way home. 

Yesterday i started rehearsals for my second show of the fall season. This one is still in the process of being written as we rehearse which is also a pretty interesting experience, i arrive at rehearsal am handed what we will be working on for the first time and add it to the rest of my script. And thats how it works. Should also be a fun show - i play a sort cleopatra type character in an adaptation of an old brittish adventure book. 

Other then that - ive been trying to go out more and see more shows or meet more people. I was able to do a little of both right before tech happened. it was nice to be out with other people for a change. 

These were my first holidays without anybody really - not my fam and not Elie. The past almost 5 years i'd say i spent almost every holiday with Elie and this was a change. I got through it fine though. Spent some time with the family that lives here which was nice and then went to services for the most part by myself. My coworkers from the preschool were very kind and generous in taking care of me and making sure i got into services somewhere. 

And now its work work work until the end of November - thanksgiving really. December should be low key and then i'll have winter break. I hope to be some where warmer than here for the majority of that. havn't figured it out yet though. And then when i get back in Jan i'll start rehearsals for a show going up in February. That's abut as far as i have planned out right now. The auditions have sort of taken a pause with the no internet and no time thing. That's ok though - I'm ok with that for a little bit. 

Well on that note - it looks like they are closing up here. I should probably go. 

Hope all are well - would be more than happy to get an update back from you all. 

Yours (no matter how negligent),

Roneet

blogitty blog blog blog

So ive been busy how bout you?

Sorry for the long time no blog - i know there are perhaps many of you who are very upset by this - let's all try and move past it and make the best of this blog post

ok so - whats going on now?
I just moved into a new apt - signed a lease until next July - its really coming along thanks to all of Guy's help. He has been a real trooper with all the domestic activities that come with moving to a new place - all the silly shopping that needs to be done and all. My goal was to really try and make it a real home not just an obviously temporary dwelling - when it is done i will post a video or something clever like that.

Guy is here! Besides being stuck doing apartment projects and shopping and him being stuck at home by himself when i am off at auditions or rehearsals we have been having a nice time
We spent a lovely week in cali visiting so cal and no cal. Guy got to experience a little of what i do - he came and helped out the fiddler on the roof jr camp that i taught for two weeks. he helped us with costumes and sets - the 5 girls (my entire camp) loved him and called him dude. He also came to a rehearsal of mine. This was pretty funny becuase it was a rather abstract day at rehearsal - non of your traditional block bits and run kind of rehearsals - we walked around the space trying to fine our characters and inner fat woman. He had a lot of questions afterwards. It was quite actor shmactory if you ask me and i was impressed he was so into it the whole time. Even though we don't have tons of time together with me working and my aunt was able to find an israeli doctor she works with who took Guy under his wing - we are still finding some time for day trips here and there. And we have a week planned in NY for later in august to visit family and friends.

My show is going well - its a great show, a good group of gals. I am looking forward to Fringe and lots of theater - it is rather expensive so we'll see how much theater i actually get to see. But it should be an exciteing week. That starts as well as my show opening in a week.

Coming up ive got shows scheduled for fall already and in the process of applying to jobs. So things are going pretty well. Thats all i got really. Maybe more detail soon but i just wanted to up date everyone - let you all know i'm still here.

Hope all is well - feel free to shoot me an email i would love to hear how things are going by you.

Yours always,
Roneet

Some pictures from the tour!

This was in the living room area at the amazing, adorable, high character, and a little haunted bed&breakfast we stayed at in New York Mills, MN. This was such a fun and nice change from the motels.
In Pelican Rapids, MN this pelican has been repainted and reads "Minnesota State Bird The Loon"
A picture of the Minneapolis skyline as we return home at sunset.
We went to the original first ever Super 8 Motel located in Aberdeen, SD.
One of the well equipped high schools left signs and water in dressing rooms for us. Some of these HS theaters were really something to write home about. Spangenberg had nothing on some of these theaters.
This was the first restaurant we stopped at on our first out of town gig. Also the last restaurant we stopped at on our last out of town gig. We actually went back to the same city and same motel. This place was not only a bizarre experience in itself, but had great fries and fabulous 2$ drink specials!

PS. remember how i promised pictures of MN? Well unfortunately all those pics i kept boasting about having got erased, serves me right for never getting around to posting them. Sorry about that. I've learned my lesson. Hope you enjoyed these!

oh blog, how have you missed me?

It does take two to blog. I hear the words of my mother in my head, "Roneet, what are you doing? Don't just sit there with your teeth in your mouth! That blog isn't going to wright itself you know?"
Ok so ive taken some artisitc liberty with my motherisims. But if she were to comment, in this tone, on my blogging skills, it would probably sound something like that....except in reality she would probably add something about the spelling too.
moving on.....

SO what. is. up?!

Hijab Tube is coming to an end. We actually extended one more show day (this monday) in the end. We had the possability of extending a week but there just wasn't enough interest to make it worth it. I guess this one school is paying a lot for two shows to make this happen. A-ok with me, its not like i got anything else giving me money, so what am i going to say? no? pah!
So monday will be our final shows. Bitter sweet i'd say. It was a great experiance, fun, intense, challenging, tiering, exciteing etc...i would like to seperate exauhsting out from the rest of those adjectives and underline it. maybe more than once. Not only was the show a high energy show lots of costumes and quick changes you wouldn't believe, but early morning, lots of waking up to sit in a van, a different bed each night when on the road, not much down time, loading and unloading the set twice, sometimes 4 or even 6 times in a day (and we are not taking feathers and foam here, try metal bars soddered together). Not only was the show physically tiering, but also mentally and emotionally, this coming from the Jew who the majority of the questions were not personally directed at. In hindsight it makes a lot of sense that the more religiouse and immegrant populations we performed for would have strong reactions to the more libral american and feminist view of Islam that the play portrayed, but i don't think the show or the poeple involved were prepared for it. I think the responcibility lies with the teachers and schools for not preparing those specific groups for western ideas of performance, for one thing, in some cases, as well as our side not insisting that this show is not for just popping in and haveing some good ol' educational theater experiance for students, its a lot of info all at once and audiances are asked to pay attention and be engaged. I mean this is all good, and what theater is about, don't get me wrong, i just think that we as actors had to endure some back lash that was not expected and it would have been nice to have been prepared. In short, we had audiances that called out at the characters, completely walked out within the first scene, and directed personal comments about being a bad muslim to one of our actors.......this was hard. But i would like to add that we also had students come up and tell us how much this meant to them, to see someone like themself on stage, to share that as they walk down the halls of their highschool people will ask if they are hiding bombs under their Hijabs and other hardships they have had to endure, and to thank us for coming and performing this at their school. The interesting thing is that i think across the board the people who came to talk to us after the shows were all muslims, rarely did we get a white bread american to come up and say wow i learned alot thanks for cleraning stuff up for me, which i think that was what this play was really meant for. I think second season of this show might go a lot smoother so i guess this can all be chalked up to first run of a new play with a lot of contraversal material.

Up next?
The Trial of Mother Teresa. also a play that hits high on the scale from 1-contraversal.
We are starting run throughs which have been a little lack luster really. This play has been hard to peice together for all of us it seems. Putting the scenes together has been interesting becuase of the nature of the play. rehearsal time was spent rehearsing scenes that don't come together chronologically in the run of the show. (sounds familiar huh? Table For Six anyone?) I have been working hard on being a youthful 87 year old global icon in death - peice a cake i tell you!
I am excited for the show, next week we start tech rehearsals, i guess that means we meet in the theater?? i will love being able to just walk to rehearsal instead of driving out to no mans land.....probably isn't but it feels that way to me without having explored or any knawledge of the surrounding area, we rehearse in a sort of wearhouse that has some offices and a karate place in it. An underground cement box has been our reherasal hall. Excited for my family to come and see this one. Too bad i'm not getting paid.

I've got a couple of auditions in the wings. Someone is doing a production of Most Massive Woman Wins (a play i saw performed i think my first year of college during DP's maybe?) for the fringe fest. That audition is next week. And i have a call back for After Juliet, another play i am slightly familiar with. These would both perform end of summer.

In the mean time i am looking for sublets for Guy and I for the summer. It seemed like a good idea for everyone and this way i will get a little feel for living here on my own, which i feel isn't a bad idea at this point. Craigslist is a frusterating world, but rent is far, far, far did i say far? cheeper than NY which is beautiful, we're just dealing with entirely different numbers here.
Also i have been given the job as a camp director for two weeks at the JCC here. I am super excited. Its not that big a deal really, I will be directing/teaching/hanging out with 5 young girls (at this point. it was supposed to be like a full size camp but due to JCC camp conflicts and bad schedualing, ultimatly, it will probably be about 5-8 kids) age range 3rd grade to 6th grade. The original plan for the camp was to put on Fiddler On The Roof Jr. Clearly that is not possible with 5 girls so probably i will take advantage of having such an intimate group and allow the kids the luxury of haveing a say in what they do for the two weeks. Be it wright, be it rehearse with a performance goal in mind, be it play lots of fun theater games, whatever. So i am excited about that. I love working with kids (and, of course, i love Fiddler) so how could this be bad. I also i get paid, so no complaints.

This weekend there is lots going on and not being so tired and around has been fun to be apart of whats been going on for my cousins and family here. Tonight the boys and i went out to a movie while aunt and uncle took a night out. (We saw Star Trek, loved it!) Zander has started Baseball so ive been going to his games and taking him to practice on the way to rehearsal. There are end of the year concerts and play to see and tomorrow is the elemntry school's yearly fund rasing carnival which should be fun provided weather is good.
Right now it seems as if Dorothy and toto might show up any minute. It rained several days this week, was warm and sunny in between, and right now we are having a "cold blast". This place is crazy!

Well i guess thats it for now.
Hope all is well out there.
Missing you,
Roneet

Hello Hello

Hey all,
It's been a while, i know. When it has been this long i usually go back and read the last post to update whatever i left hanging as a teaser for you all. I am not going to do this this time. I think i will just go ahead and update what ever is going on right now. ok?
ok.

SO we started performances this week for Hijab Tube - the show with Mixed Blood Theater - the one where i play 5 different muslims, make that 4 different muslims and a lutheran feminist valley girl. We have had 2 performances so far in and around teh twin cities, one for a college and one for a higschool. The college was a good trun out a rather quiet audiance i would say but a good first show. Very different from our highschool performance. This was rather large highschool crowd in a very big auditorium theater space (they have a balcony!) . Did i mention the audiance was also lagely mulim immegrants? and may i add quite fundamentalistic.....nothing got out of hand or disrespectuful in anyway but our very liberal point of view being portrayed by our play was chalanged. I have one charachter that says outright " i am muslim, i don't wear the hijab, does that make me a fake muslim?" I had a mini heart attack when an overwhleming amount of the students called "YES!" and that was just the tip. Afterwards we had lots of questions and some students who wanted to find out more about the playwright and had a lot to say about whether what we portrayed was true islam or not. again it was very interesting, and the most important part is that it started questions and conversations, that was the most important part of the day. I do hope the conversations continue in the classrooms, i mean this is what theater is about right?
a good response to experaince second show in i think too.
Tomorrow a middle school performance and then our first real on the road performance is on friday so we are leaving tomrorow night to drive to a hotel so that we can start the morning at a decent time. instead if driving a good few hours early friday morning.
should be fun, its really is a good group of poeple, fun easy going. we get our own rooms at the super 8 motel in St. Cloud Minneapolis. woohoo!!

The Mother Teresa gig is also going well, we started blocking and getting stuff up on its feel this week which is awesome. also a rather contraversal play i think we will find, interesting all this religion challenging going on everwhere i look. And whats super exciting is its looking like i will get to have many poeple i know and love and havn't seen in a long time see this one. My last perforance is June 21st and as it looks now my parents and bros might come out, my grandparenats as well, and.....Guy! It will be the first time he will get to see me really perform. I hope it all works out so that all these poeple i love in my life will all get to see me do something i'm proud of.

I finished my camera class this week, i feel like it was a good refresher course. unfortunatly i was pretty stressed with all these shows and rehearsals going on so i don't know if i was really able to take advantage of it as much as i would have liked too but it was great to get infront of a camera again. The teacher was real great and i think she will be a nice contact to have if i need help with anything out here. she knows the area well as well as the bigger markets so it was nice to have met her.

I also finished my voice over coaching, so tomorrow i am recording my demos!! Very exciteing, i can't wait to here what they sound like when they are all done.

lots of things are finishing up, some things are continuing and something havn't even started yet, i have one audition i'm waiting to hear from, a few coming up this weekend and in the enxt couple of weeks. I look forward to finding a project for july and august.

On another note my other half and i will be reunited this coming weekend!!!!! The one and only Berko man for me will be here on Friday. I look forward to exploring yet another city with this kid, chatting and laughing, and getting to watch tv in bed off a laptop. These are the basics of our relationship and we love and cherish these moements. Can't wait! Unfortunatly it will be rainging all weekend so MN won't be showing its true colors off but maybe we can plant seeds to try and convince him that Minneapolis is better than New York, what do you think guys? (i want you to know you all are next....)

ok off to bed for a 6:00 am rude awakening.
love to you all out there
Yours,
me

First Rehearsal!

Rehearsal was great today. We talked a lot about logistics and set and design and aim and goals and all that lovely stuff.

I met my fellow acting mates. Eliza (pronouned with en A instead of the E) who was so surprised to meet another like her. She is our resident muslim so that's great, cause i wasn't quite sure how i was going to really pull that off. And then Ansa who is a large black man from Gahana (we are quite diverse let me tell you) who is just a wild actor with so much energy its great! And then also the stage manager and the sound guy will be on the road with us. I am excited it seems like it will be a nice little family.

The director seems like he's really got everything under control which is great for a two week reherasal period for a 45 min show. But he still seems like he's real into the colaberative imput stuff which i think will be great to work with.

I was given an extra charachter so thats five meaty roles to memorize in 2 weeks, with at least 2 differant dialects, soccer ball juggleing, valley girl perfecting, and of course learning how to put several different hijabs on a bald manquin. whew i'm tired just thinking about it.

Our little set is also just so clever and simple all at the same time, just perfect for the flexability that is necessary for the show.

I wish you alls could be here to see it, i think i'm gonna be real proud of it when it's all ready to go.

Also just wanted to share that i had my camera acting class tonight and the scene i got for next week is from Coupling!! I asked the teacher if i could be steve instead of susan she said no though.

Night night everybody, got to get up early tomorrow so i can figure out how to get to rehearsal without getting lost for ten minutes. (classic)

Look Ma I'm a Nun!

So this should be a good post.....
let's make an agenda (this is more for me and less for you but might be fun anyway)
1) Last blogs updates
a) auditions
b) student films
c) whether
2) 24 hour film race
3) Hijab Tube
4) Classes

ooo looks lie we got a long one. well ill try and keep things concise. At least you have this nice outline to help you through.

1a) So as you could read in the title - the nice little Jewish girl has been cast as the saintly nun known as Mother Theresa, this goes to say that i did not get into The Tempest. I was bummed for a bit considering Tempest was the paying more fun sounding, and did i mention paying? job. Trial (The Trial of Mother Theresa, to be exact) will be a good experience also but i just would have liked to play Miranda more i think, that's all. Trial begins rehearsals this month (April 13th) and rehearses in the evenings until May. Shows are (for those interested in knowing specific dates, mom) May29th to June 21st and are Thursday Friday Saturday at 8pm and Sundays at 3pm. It will be a great experience to work on a new piece and i look forward to being apart of that aspect. So that is very exciting and now i am signing up for some auditions for projects after that. Let's see if i can keep this going. It feels good to be a working actor, i have to say.

1b) Students films!! Interesting- the first one i thought was pretty cute and this is the girl that stopped me after i left the auditions to tell me that she had to have me as her lead actress. This has been a fine experience i like the director and aside from shooting in the cold its been a nice script to work on. We haven't done too much a few scenes here and there but tomorrow we have a full day of filming so i see a lot getting done in the next week. The film is called "Looking For Love At All The Wrong Bus Stops" which i just thought was an adorable title for a shot film. The only thing is that this story is basically the directors story so even though she says she's over the asshole boyfriend character i can't help feeling its all a little raw still. She's just kind of a funny director. She uses shakily to discribe lines of mine through out the entire script and at each tunring point of the charachters. I once asked her what "cries while smiling" meant exactly and her responce was "well she's sad cuase she knows he's bad for her but she's glad he came and invited her out but she knows he's never going to show up and nothings changed but she still loves him even though she wishes he would just disappear" yes, nice and clear.

The second film is a little more challenging experiance. The director doesn't exactly know what he's doing and i guess that's what you get with a student film maker he is learning how to do this, and i just need to keep reminding myself of this. It's just that at some point early on i thought you learned that jumping back and forth during a conversation happens becuase od editting not moving the camera a hundred times for one scene. maybe its' just me.
But what is great is that this charachter is almost my dream come truw. She's a hardass private detective who's really good at what she does. This means my trentchcoat and buisness casual and a gun holster. I am enjoying being a kind of version of my favorite literal (from liturature???) heroen, Anita Blake. The differences? No vampires, no quite as amazingly sarcastic, and completly based off of someone else entitely. That's ok she's Anita to me no matter what. I can't wait to see this one.

Also two other gals from the class contacted me about being in their film but when i realised starting the 13th i will have morning rehearsals and evening rehearsals plus 2 student films to be shooting and a monday night class all at the same time i realised there wasn't going to be much time for.....well basically anything, let a lone 2 more student films. So i had to turn them down as much as i would have liked to do at least one of them. And that ones director is basiclly the saving grace of the other troubled director. She's been helping him out and boy has he been needing it.

1c) The whether, if you recall, was described as getting better and better last blog.....this was a lie. I spoke too soon. I have filmed in freezing cold, no toes, no fingers, type of cold, snow fluries and have walked in the pouring rain to auditions since then. So really i have no idea what's going on. The sun has come out a bit but its still way too cold to go sit in it so i sit by the window in hopes to get some rays until the whether stop teasing me. Meanwhile i think my face is going to flake off before then. We shall see but this is really the narliest dry skin ive dealt with.

2) Alright, sit back my freinds! So Minneapolis held a 24 hour film race which they do every year i guess. This is when different groups (i heard about 30 signed up this year) get a theme and key element and these things must be used to create a short film (4 min) in 24 hours. When i first got hear i saw something about it and sent an excited little email out to the interweb saying that i was a new actor in town looking for a group to join. A week ago i got this email from a Mr. Fat Cat, now granted that's not his real name, but surprisingly enough this tall skinny man goes by this name for whatever reason. Him and his interesting band of mates were a group doing this race thing and would love to have an actress on board. Little did i know what i was getting into. I wanted to be apart of the expeiance, ive always wanted to do one of these but i probably just should have made up some story and said i couldn't do it anymore after meeting Grizzley the bull ring sporting big guy , the young mom with tattos and pink hair(Paula, looks exactly like T from JMZ except pink hair), the two melvins, and Karna with 6 kids from Now Then (no joke this town is called Now Then, Minnesota). Actaully i have to say that Grizzley and the tattooed chick(Sarah) ended up being my favorite people. Others who came to join the group for the event were micelaniouse roller durbie chicks.
Our Theme: A second chance
Our element: blowing a bubble
Our story (as created by FatCat the head hancho)
A woman walks into a terot reading. as she gets her cards read the reader sees flash backs of her and her lover hatching a plan to steal the terot readers money box. Seeing that this woman has a bad history pulls a gun on her before she can pull her's and suggests she start over. It ends with the woman racing out a changed lady and her boy coming in a blowing the readers head off.
Where are the bubbles you might ask? At the begining, when the terot reader enters. PS. This terot reader, Ms. Zelda, is played by Grizzly, the real Ms. Zelda was his Aunt and he took over the buisness but didn't feel it necessary to change the name.
How it all went down?
at 10pm Friday the 3rd we got notified of the element and theme. Then waited an hour to hear from FatCat with the story and costume/prop assignements. Everyone was there about midnight or so and we began to dress the terot reading room. This took til about 5am (why i have no idea). Then i slept for about an hour and a half and it was up and adam to start filming.
We didn't do much filming due to FatCats inability to articulate himself really. I'm sure he is a visionary genius but that is hard to work with when you havn't had much sleep. and i am not a writer, i take other peoples words and memories them not put into words the moods and feelings of someone else vision. and i am going to stand by that.
filming took us almost the whole rest of the day with a few breaks here and there. a break for an hour to sleep, a break for food, and cogarette breaks. This was the most frusterating, as soon as we would get some momentum or shoot a really good take, it was time for a cigarette.
this brings me to how much this group of poeple smoke. I think i smelled like smoke down to my soul by the time i left this place. ew gross. this man smokes a cigarette like every ten minuted i swear! Also the house was proabbly the grossest house i have ever seen. just thinking about the house makes me want to take a shower again. this is a proabbly in his 50's year old man who lives by himself with his cat, why should he clean? Whatever i am done, and out of the house for good. i even forgot something as i was finally leaving at 8pm tonight and truned around and went back for it becuase i didn't want to have to ever go back again. at some point we stopped filming and mr. visionary genius went to start editing, but decided i couldn't leave becuase he may need to shoot something else, so i went to sleep for a while, i think like maybe 2 hours. I was the only one there who didn't leave the house at all. Everyone else went home for a second to feed animals or children or to take a shower i was there the whole time. yes i got to sleep like 6 hours over the corse of my time wating for things to happen but really? shoot everything you need and move on. so all in all a good story, a good adventure, and hopfully a good copy of some reel worthy work after 20 hours of hanging out with these interesting individuals.
please don't judge me for judgeing, if you had been there you would have judged too (and probably would have ripped me out of there by the ear with a wagging finger)

3) Hijab Tube is my other show, my first audition here and my first paid job. We start rehearsals on Monday. The calendar of shows is filling up and the script has been worked on a little bit and i think i was given another charachter i'm not sure.
We only have 2 weeks of rehearsal and the stage manager called the other day to tell me that i should get started with the memorising...pah! Unfortunatly this happens to be a busy weekend so let's just say i am going to be doing a lot of work next week. I am quite excited about the show and starting up, i look forward to meeting my cast mates and finally understanding all the logisitcs of this stuff. Also elie is coming to visit towards the end of the month and so he may get to see a performance too which would be fun.

4) My classes are going well. My lesson with the voice over guy tomorrow will be my last coaching session and then we schedule studio time to make my demos. He also said that he is going to hook me up with an agent here which is super exciteing. I am excited about exploring this new part of my skill set. and who knows where it may lead. hopfully ------>$$$
My camera actng class is also filled of some great charachters, the mexican chef from texas, the 4th grade school teacher and mom of 3, the mom from wisconsin who left acting to be a fire fighter and is now returning to her roots, the young bohimian who left home at 16 to study in ny and acts on the side because mom and dad wouldn't approve, along with the other young driven individuals with stories similar to mine, or similar enough anyway. We tape our work each week and then watch it back at home and then talk about it in class a little bit but mostly we get one on one working time with Michelle (the teacher, really knows what shes doing, is straight forward and blunt but also nurturing and a good coach so far) so i am deffiently having fun with it all.

upcoming stuff:
i have some fringe auditions that i am trying to get worked out with shcedules between student films Hijab and Trial and then the Guthrie announced their general auditions and 2009-2010 season as well as some other theaters in the area. so i will be looking into that stuff.

You might be asking yourself why am i still auditioning for fringe stuff? Becuase that guy i mentioned last time i blogged was kind of a jerk. I didn't hear from him all week and finally emailed him to be like "hey havn't heard from you just checking in" and replyed with " oh we went with someone else" anoying. lame. unfortunate. and a big bummer. whatever it was probably going to be stupid anyway ;)

alright i'm done now.
real tired and ready for bed.
All i want to do is cuddle up with my big love monkey that came to me all the way from a special someone in budapest and dream of spring sunshine.

love to all
hope you're well, what ever parts of the world you may be in.

OK short and sweet.....

or at least i'll try. It's late, late for having to get up at 7am in order to get to cousin's school to help kids get into costumes which most of them have never put on in order to perform their play which they have never performed in said costumes. WOOHOO

OK so whats been going on since last i blogged.
more auditions, tonight were for a Shakespeare in the park type gig (The Tempest) and another new play called The Trial of Mother Theresa. Got called back for the second one so thats pretty exciting, i have no idea for which role though. I thought i was going in for Joan of Arc (not sure how she mixes with the good ol' nun but sure, whatevs) but after reading my the Joan monologue they handed me another one for Theresa.......i'm pretty sure the character break down said ages 30-70 for her. And i'm pretty sure i don't qualify but again, whatevs.

Yes the show at the school, rehearsals last week and this weekend. costuming the musical 100 Years of Kenwood Elementry means period costumes and several costume changes for the 52 youngsters, here's the catch there are no scene changes, tell me how would you get kids to change period costumes while standing on risers on stage the whole time??????
Tomorrow morning should be fun.....i feel coffee will be in order.

I start my camera acting class tomorrow night, real excited for that. Not sure what to expect except the camera classes ive taken before so we'll see. I miss Ann already.

My voice over coaching has been going great so far. I love it. It's fun and the skype thing really does make a lot of sense when you think about. I've done two hours of my four hours of coaching thursday will be the third so soon i will have a demo made and everything.

Whether here is getting better and better, today was rather gloomy but still on the warmer side. Rain is starting to be frequent so i guess that means spring right? april showers bring may flowers? I think i promissed pictures at some point before well i'm just going to continue to promis pictures. Just you wait, they'll be awesome when they get here ;)

The student films (did i tell you there were two? well there is) happen next weekend, nice these kids could work themselves out. One is in the morning, the other is in the aftenoon and evenings, should be a busy weekend but hopefully fun and maybe i'll get mto make new freinds.

Also talked to a director about a fringe project! Finally!! He is also a local film maker which is cool. We talked about the script a little and getting together with the woman who would be playing my mother to see chemistry and how i read the role and stuff. but this guy goodled me after getting my headshot and resume submission, saw my youtube video, and loved it. That's how the meeting came to be and now he just wants to make sure it all works out. I hope so too. I guess at this point i don't care what i get into i just want to be fringing this summer!

Umm i think that's it. Last weekend i went to a progressive neigborhood wine tasting event, this week we had a 13th birthday party, who knows what's next! This house is a busy bee hive, and we all thought these cats lived a relaxed life out here.

excited for the warmth, excited for the new acticities coming up, excited for the prospective events to come.....i'll keep you posted on those.

thanks for reading.
missin you,
Roneet

ps. not so short and sweet eh? will you take quick and dirty? sorry, better update next time around, and those photos!!

Look Ma I'm Muslim!

Hey everybody, I just thought i would update you on what's been going on.
Remember audition #1, for the tour at Mixed Blood Theater, the one that was pending??
Well i finally got official word that i am cast. I met with the director before his flight back to Arizona (where he come's from, where he also teaches acting at the University there). I thought we were just going to meet and talk but it was basically another audition in this lobby of a theater. He had me read a scene and two monologues. I think it was basically to see if he could work with me and if i took direction but it was kind of a shocker at first. So very excited about that, rehearsals start in early April and we rehearse for two weeks (at 9 in the morning) and then 3-4 weeks of performances. I am still trying to get a schedule to find out what exactly is going on with the performances to know if i can maybe find some other project to be working on at the same time. so we'll see.

you know when i started writing this today i thought Mixed Blood was really going to be my big news for the blog but i am glad i waited till later to write it cause today was really busy.

So i ended up going with Mary (The Nannie) to my younger cousins school (Zander's) becuase she's been helping out with the play the school puts on every year. We just sorted and pulled costume we think could be used for the time traveling play (20's - 60's and present day) . It was fun and they need all the help they can get with only a few more reherasals til the perfomrance. Should be fun and something to do for bit until rehearsals start.

I also got an email from audition #2 (the film student projects) The same girl who stopped me after my audition emailed me some more info they are going to be shooting next weekend and ill be getting the script this week. I am very excited about it and i hope we can work it out. The story really does sound so cute and i would love to get in front of a camera again.

I also talked to one of the poeple from audition #3 he was calling to find out about what my goals were, which at first seemed strange but after our talk i sort of got it. We both sort of ended up agreeing it wouldn't be such a productive use of my summer considering i'm really trying to build career up and not just looking for experience. He said by looking at my resume he could tell that ive paid my dues and am really looking for work not just experiance. But we did have a great conversation about what im doing here and the fact that i don't really know many people out here and he said that he would get in contact with me about their theater group that gets together to read stuff and that they are supposed to be having a party before they leave off to maine so he said he'd let me know when that would be so i could meet some people around the area and in the theater community.

Speaking of meeting poeple i met some great young individuals over the weekend. Since i got here all the adults/parents of my cousin's freinds that my aunt and uncle have introduced me too have said to me that i just have to meet with Beth (another mom) who is a big involved actress here. They said she could probably help me with all the ins and outs of the area and community and is also just a nice sweet lady and so funny. So saturday night i went to the closing night of the show she was in. Speech and Debate (which is by the way i really great show, they just did a really great production of it i thought) which is basically about high school secorship and the issues that are really going on in highschool but athority doesn't let highschoolers talk about it publicaly. So needless to say the cast was made up of highschool age playing actors. One was two years out of college and an equity member who moved from texas to here another was a girls who had taken a year off after highschool to be in highschool musical and is now a sophmore at The U (ive come to learn this is what everyone who's anyone call the University of Minnesota) and the third is a highschooler soon to graduate who also happens to be looking at MMC as one of his prospective schools (I gave him a pretty honest opinion of how i felt about good ol' MMC i hope i didn't scare him off). Anyhoo we are all facebook friends now so really we're all besties and now i have friends. Just kidding, but we are now fB freinds and so i'm hopeing we can get together sometime, i'd love to ask them questions about what goes on here as well as just hang out with poeple who didn't live through the 60's, no offence.

See its been a week and my blog is almost as long as the last one (Sorry Alice and Guy, I tried).
So thats basically whats been going on. I start voice over coaching this week which i am excited and interested to see how it all works out (one on one coaching over skype) and i also got an email today saying that my deposit came in for my on camera acting class (no one will ever take the place in my hear that belongs to Ann, we'll see how this lady does) It will be a good way to meet people and get some more infront of the camera time and training.

So lots of stuff going on needless to say.

There you go you are all updated and everything.

Miss you all tons in this cold state here.

Dear spring,
Come soon.
Thanks,
Roneet

oh me oh my...

my dearest blog friends, i am so sorry to have neglected you, i hope you can find it in your hearts to forgive me and catch up on what i have been doing.

Let's see where to begin, how bout where i left you last. In a plane, just about to land in london, in the cold and heavy snow.

Ps. Heavy snow in london = nothing close to snow in minnesota

My weekend in Engand was super fun. I had a great time with Shai and Anja and little Alex who is growing so fast i can't keep up. Spending the time with my dad was also nice just before going off to my new adventures in MN.
We enjoyed dinners and coupling and watching Alex swim and home videos and just general time spent together. It was wonderful as always to see them and i will continue to miss them until the next little visit we can work out.

After england - New York. Gosh what a good trip it was. Seeing the freinds, taking care of buisness at the storage unit, it was like pep week to get me psyched to head off to MN. Seeing all my wonerful freinds was not only a jolt of support and confidance building but oh so much fun and inspiring. Watching all my freinds be out there working hard for what they love and surviving just made me feel again that feeling that this is what i went to school for, this is what i've dedicated myself to, and this is where i want to be. That i could never thank them all enough for.
-Shane and I put to the test our meetball recipee making skills as has come to be a tradition
-I got to crash what is one of my top classes taken at MMC (the added perk i didn't have to go anywhere near school to do it woot)
-palled around with my gals which is always great, girl time, laughs, actor therapy, heart to hearts, you name it, it was great
-got to see good ol' Berk always a pleasure
- spent some quality time with Anna and the dog, my favorite dog-owner couple
-got a hair cut by the fabulouse ninja curly hair styalist Jeffery from Malasia (so happy, so much better then the lame one i had when i left cali)
-got locked in my storage unit building, which was dandy, but 2 trips to queens later had everything i came to ny to get.
really a very productive wonderful trip to nyc, a first since i left the place

And now ladies and gentlemen what we have all been waiting for.........MINNESOTA!

So its cold. I was not built for this state. this is my first conclusion.

Being here has been really great so far. My research really helped me hit the ground running once i got here. I landed on a monday and that wednesday i had an audition. I met the artistic director of a theater here called Mixed Blood Theater to audition for an educational tour touring for a month in this general area and performing what i guess you might call a "muslim tollerance" play (there has got to be a more pc way to say that or at least some better phrasing). Anyway its a play about a muslim girl learning about islam in order to know how to counter steryotypes and racist remarks made against muslims via you tube land. It will go to colleges and highschools i believe. Its a pretty good deal and paid. I read the script while i was in NY and called to set up a meeting once i arrived. The audition went well. As far as i know i landed the gig. Rehearsals start early April and i am meeting the director this weekend. i'll keep you posted on the official word, i have my best people working on it.

In my first few days here i set up about 5 auditions today was numbers 2 and 3.
#2 was for the film students at University of Minnesota. These guys couldn't have asked for more from an actor. I handed them a headshot and resume, filled out a talent info sheet (contact info, availability, list of experiance), performed 2 contrasting monologues, did a cold read with a scene from the movie Rushmore (it was that or The Big Labowski), and performed a little improvisation (your in the woods and a bear is about to attack you). REALLY??!! I guess the good thing about all that was as i was leaving a girl came out to tell me that i was perfect for her project and she wanted to tell me about it and let me know that she wants me. the turth is that whether i do this project or not depends on my pending situation with Mixed Blood, the schedule might conflict, so we will have to wait and see about that one.
#3 was for a summer stock internship. The deal: Live in paid-for housing on Mount Desert Island in Maine for the summer june 28th - sept 6th, act in their children's program twice a week and play supporting roles to their 3 or 4 main stages for the summer, do some backstage tech crew work, and get paid $130 a week. Not bad. Actually seems really great. The audition was a little weird though. They had us ten or so applicants sit in a circle and read from the scripts for the season for 2 hours. We read from british farce to agitha christy to 3pigs/3bears/3billy goats gruff meets urban culture. It was really fun, got a ticket for being parked over time in the parking lot (everyone was nice enough ro infrom me about the free street parking after the audition was over) and learned that they are taking 2 females and not just one. Honestly i don't really know if its something i really want to do this summer but it does sound pretty cool and from the 2 hours i think i can honestly say that i was one of few who really had some real classical training (gold star for MMC). I don't think most of them really got british farce. Anyway I look forward to hearing from them this saturday.
tomorrow is number 4. number 5 i am not sure if i am going to go to it even, it might obviousley conflict with #1 so once that is for sure i will decide whether i will be going to #5 but its on the 15th so i have some time.
#4 this is what i know: a play, with roles not really my age range, but it seems they are willing to cast younger. So i'm going. That's about it.

So as you can see things are pretty busy and at the same time i still have kind of all day beucase most of these have been in the evenings. Once i have a schedule from something set i will work on the rest of my day.

I also went on a lovely ski trip with my uncle and cousins. It was a great bonding experaince with all three boys i think. My cousins and i spent a lot of time bonding over the snow and my uncle and i had some nice chat time in the car. It was great to hit the slopes it had been 2 years since i had been on a snow sport item. My body is brusied and soar and happy. There was also reconfirmation of my first conclusion about MN. I do have a cold to show for it.

well i guess everyone is all cought up.
I do hope this post finds everyone well and happy don't hesitate to drop me a line, let me know how you all are doing.

Yours,
me

On the road again....well I guess the wind really...

I am writing to you from the plane. On my way to England. Not too bad a flight when you have 3 beautifuly empty seats to yourself. I was sitting in my aisl seat with all my pillows and yarn, and other random things I decided must be out and about for me to get through the flight, just waiting for people to come by and make me menuver myself so they could get to their seats when I noticed that no one was walking up and down the asiles anymore. I felt pretty silly when I realized how much space I had for all shit in my lap and quickly made myself at home. I took a nap of luxsurie and then decided I wanted to watch a movie. Unfortunatly all of them were already significantly into themselves. This was a bummer becuase several of them were on my list. I watched vicky christina barcalona which conveniantly is narrated through out. An easy movie to come in the middle. I very much enjoyed it. I like scarlet. I think recently I've gotten into such a movie kick but it is so hard to keep up. There are so many all the time and so many actors I am interested in watching. I think after my little taste of film making movies and film is intreguing me more and more.

On a more relevant note the past few days have been nice. I slept and spent time with my dad and aunt. It was relaxing a little boring but mostly enjoyable. I saw a friend that I used to play with all the time when I was little and in israel. I hadn't seen her in like 8 years until the summer. Both in the summer and this time our time together was short and last minute due to extenuating circumstances but none the less wonderful. It's funny how with some people you can get together and it's as if time had never passed. Or more than that, it's as if you've been best friends all your life. I mean just how close could we have been at age 9 or whatever? our most intimate conversations couldn't have been anything so intense right? We spent a couple of hours at coffee together talking about boyfriends and school and careers and friends and music. It was really great. It's bizarr what bonds people. When your a kid it's about having the same shoes or wearing your hair the same or really your just friends becuase you happen to be the same age and your parents know eachother for some reason. I'm pretty sure I don't know how our fathers are connected.....hmmm.....

Anyway guy was so kind as to burn many movies on discs for me so I watched a lot of those and saw family friends. Today my dad took me back to the sabich place before heading to the airport. I tried to order by myself and it didn't go so well. I forgot to mention that the place is covered in photos of people in all kinds of places in the world holding up a sign that says "ovad's sabich is the best meal in the universe". You've got people eating food by the roman callisium holding this sign or some naked guys strateigicly holding a sign that says "even in the forests ovad's is the best meal in the universe" so I don't know if this guy started it or his fans did but at the end of my order as he handed me my sandwich he prompted me with the sentance. Now everyone comes there for the food but also the show. To watch him put it all together like a soccer game with all the puns and how he jokes around with everyone. So I'm not just standing here alone there's like a crowd and of course at this time my hebrew starts to fail me. Not only is universe a word I don't really know but I miss understood the sentance and when mr. Ovad asked me "the best meal in..." I said "uhh here". Ovad's eyes went wide and my dad yells "universe,universe" to me from the casheir. No worries the sabich was still just as yummy. I will miss you Israeli food but my scale won't and neither will my pants once they fit again.

Well we should be coming to land soon. Hopfuly. The captain just informed us there is heavy snow and we may need a jumper when we get outside (whatever that means, crazy Brits). Wish me warm thoughts it's been a while. I'm pretty sure I don't remember what cold feels like. Until next time folks.

blog shmog...

oh.... hello...i'm roneet. nice to meet you.
sorry i have been sort of MIA for a while. I guess this means you get a long post read. take it easy, feel free to take stretch breaks if you need them, and don't over do yourself ok? death by blog is the worst kind....

So here i am not at my aunts house with my dad enjoying my last few days in Israel, Guy is already safley away in Hungary getting ready for his upcoming semester of cell molecular bio and cutting up bodies in anatomy. yeesh. I am very excited for him though because he starts to learn real doctor stuff this semester.

Goodbye was hard as always and as expected but we had a really nice past week just enjoying each others company, taking walks, talking, and of course watching movies. I think we really out did ourselves this time, we watched so many movies, in theaters and out. But i think in general saying goodbye might be getting easier.

lets see where did i leave you.......oh yes sunday....
sunday was supposed to be my second anneversary surprise (it was actually moved to monday but no big deal) and it was exactly what i though it wouldn't be: a massage! My present for my birthday over the summer was couple massages so i figured he wasn't going to do that again. but he did. It was a wonderful private massage done by this very nice blind man. He did a wonderful job. really got in there and told me about all the tension i had and why i had it. it was so relaxing and exactly what i needed.

We went to Haifa as i said we were going to. We had a lovely time visiting some friends of my family up there. We saw the new apartment and caught up. It was very nice. On the way home Guy and i went to this rock climbing place. Guy happen to have a freind from the army there so we got a really good deal and spent the evening climbing walls. Guy did really well, he climbed like 5 or 6 walls, i climbed like 3 or 2 really (two halfs and one almost whole so we'll just round up). My hands hurt so bad from the ropes and holding Guys weight and then the rocks on the wall weren't exactly smooth and gentle on the skin. complain complain complain, no we really had a nice time, it was super fun and a unique experiance to share with each other.

we went to a tapeing of a tv show. Its one of those political satire shows that happens every week. kind of like a saturday night live or a daily show except with more people. Its a good thing tv and stuff like that interests me because i didn't get any of the jokes (they were all about the elections and the candadits) and the hebrew was super fast. But we had a good time anyway watching the cameras and equiptment and the actors doing there thing. i was so close to it all. lets hope one day i will be even closer.

We also went to go see a play. At Gesher Theater. I've come to learn that they are a Russian company. The play was about Russian Holocost survivors living in New York. Apparently it was based on a book written by an american author......i didn't recognize either the name of the writer or the play's title. Enemies: Love Story. Anyway it was a very interesting set, dark and dirty, they used video here and there, really interesting. I probably understood 70% it was all in hebrew with thick russian accents there were super titles but they were hebrew and russian so not amaxingly helpful for me. But i enjoyed it none the less. Guy was very sweet to take me to it even though he hates shows.

One of our nights that we ventured out to the movie theater we saw Valkyrie. Pretty good, interesting story and pretty good acting, star cast. Bill Nye looked nothing like himself but i saw those crazy hands and i was glad to see him in another movie. Anyway the reason i bring this particular movie night up is because we went as VIP. What does this mean? Well in israel for a lot more money you can pay to show up 40 minutes early for an all you can eat buffet. The buffet wasn't something huge, there was breads and spreads, pretsles, cheeses, dip and vegetables. But also you get all you want of the drinks from soda to beer and wine and the deserts were yummy. 4 different flavors of musses and cookies and ben and jerry's ice cream cones. And then when the movie is about to start you get as much popcorn as you want and you can take any of the food into the theater. In the theater they had like 30 lazyboy chairs in three rows and you are above the rest of the audiance (the less fortunate movie patrons) We had the best seats, smack dab in the middle of the second row. it was great. no heads to see around, private clean bathrooms. The only thing is that its pretty darn expensive. We had a 2for deal so we went 2 for the price of 1. We decided that if you have that discount its totally worth it, especially if you see a long movie where there is an intermission (for movies longer than 2 hours they do that here) all in all with out the discount it about 35$ we got in for 20$
pretty good if you ask me and you get to feel like royalty. Super fun, ate so much popcorn!

We also spent an afternoon with Guy's cousin who lives in Jerusalem, part of being as we may all be able to understand is missing out on the growing up of the younger ones. I was away from my younger bro for 4 years he's changed some since i left the house and think my older brother left when the younger one was just 10. Guy is leaving his younger sibling (15 and 12) for 6 years so he is going to miss alot of their growing up same with the children of all his older cousins, so we went to visit a 6 week old baby and a 3 1/2 year old little boy. The kids were adorable, i got to have lots of baby holding time, every time guy tried to hold her she started to cry and the little boy was such a little dude he was so cute. Guy had a nice time too :) Guy also mentioned the story of his cousin, a real beautiful story i think. She never really found someone to marry and make a family (a little sad becuase she is a wonderful women and quite a talented artist too) with and i guess she was feeling her clock tick, so she and a gay friend of hers decided to have children and raise them together, they live seperatly but both are very involved in the raising of their two children. I am just super impressed by it. I just think its beautiful. (Gives me hope if this whole hungarian med student thing dosen't work out.)

i think thats it, i think you are all cought up.
Today i spent the day with my aunt and my cousins wife. We all (plus my dad and my cousins mother in law) went to eat sushi (very interesting to read a japanese food menu in hebrew, a little more complicated than i would have expected it to be) and then we went shopping for my cousins kids (i guess my second cousins???) and to sit and have coffee. It was a very nice relaxing day really.

last night we went to eat Sabich, this i must tell you about. Sabich is a middle eastern food. you've got pitta with fried egplant, salad, pickles, hard boiled egg, hummus and tahina basically. But this guy Ovad turned it into this whole sports thing. When you order you talk in terms of a soccer game. So if you want all the salad things in side, onion, pickles, cucumbers, tomatoes, parsely, you say run the feild and the two spicy sauces that you can have are in the two colors of the bigges teams here in israel so you have to give him a score, for instance 2 to 1 maccabi means that you are going to get 2 spoon fulls of the yellow mango based hot sauce and one of the red pepper based hot sauce. Its really fun, there are more words that i don't even understand how they are all connected to soccer but there's a bunch of play on words and things like that. Either way, whether you like soccer, don't like soccer, understand what the hell is going on as your order, or not, its still yummy!!

Other then that i have been doing lots of research on theaters in the twin cities in order to be ready to land and hit the ground running in minnisota. I am excited to start being a working actress as apposed to just telling everyone i am and at the same time i am nervouse to be a strange person in a strange land, i don't really know what i am getting myself into, but i think the fact that i will have my family to lean on will be really great. I'm looking forward to it ultimatly so that's good.

until next time freinds!

!שלום לכם

hello everyone!
So verdict is in, I am a total loser to the jet lag powers that be. Well really i just never bothered to change my sleep schedual and Guy has been just fine with reinforcing it. We are basically on a sleep til 1 or 2 and go to bed around 5 kind of regiment. What can you do?

So in our slightly vimpireistic (is that a word? elie? randi? anyone?) life style we have actually been doing a lot. Over the past week we celebrated our one year of being.... in touch, i guess, technically ; ). I gave Guy my gift (a bday/anneversary combined gift) of an engraved stethescope an a pair of scrubs with his name embroidered on it. I told him either this means he really has to finish or now he has a very authentic costume for Purim (for those who don't know, that's a dressing-up jewish holiday, kind of like holloween, except jewish). He liked them very much, the scrubs fit, and he was even able to hear my low blood pressured heart beat. (This one time in 5th grade when we were doing a unit on god knows what (measurements maybe?) we had to check our pulse, i failed, reggie and i decided i was dead (remember reg?)) He even showed off the gifts at his bday celebration last night, everyone was impressed, enjoyed the stethescope and his school friends were jealouse (they didn't exactly say so, but i could tell).

Guy's present was taking me to what is a called a tzimmer (it was supposed to be a surprise but he eventually told me that we were going, bully for him i still had no idea what a tzimmer was till i got there) Its baiscally like a little romantic cabin. Some people go away to them as a family vacation but they are generally for romantic get aways. It was very nice, jacoozy in our cabin with a small kitchen area and nice big bed and tv. We slept, we enjoyed, we watched movies (pictures will be on facebook soon) and there was a beautiful view of the Kineret (The sea of galillee) and we were right across the water from the city of Tiberius (i think thats how its spelled in english) so at night all the lights were bright and shining. We had a lovely two night stay at the place. I do have to mention the part you won't get to experiance from the pictures is the lovely aroma from the cows on the kibbutz next door. It only smelled some of the time and once you lit the insense and closed all the doors and windows it was really no big deal (classic guy and roneet situation if i do say so myself).

We also spent some time visiting his friends and some tourist attractions. We went to Rosh Hanikra: one of those natural phenominon/historical/beautiful look-out points kind of places. It is the tip of the land that marks the boarder between israel and lebenon. The water there has carved out these beautiful grottos out of the mountain and when the british ruled they built a train that connected israel and lebenon (latter the haganah blew up the bridges over the grottoes to prevent weapons getting to lebanon as the country of israel was being born). So we're nerds, so sue us. It was very interesting, very beautiful, and if i ever get married in israel you are all invited to my rosh hanikra wedding. (pictures coming soon, to a facebook profile near you)

We also went to Hamat Gader, one of those hot medicinal spring water batheing places. There were crocodiles too but we came too late at night to see them. oops. we enjoyed the warm waters and then went to eat at the restaurant there, super yummy meal deal kind of things at this Thai reaturant serving chinese food with israeli music playing (misrachi music), a little strange but still enjoyable. We also ate at this other retaurant which i loved Guy didn't get enough to eat but i think that's becuase we hadn't eaten all day so i finished my food. That dinner was so good deffinetly worth sharing even though this post is getting long (getting?).
It was on a kibbuts Gesher (we went to the old kibbuts gesher last time i was here if you remember, we made fuccacia bread.....no? ok never mind). The waitress was really sweet and nice and made great suggestions. The place is kind of hard to describe. Small and quaint with dark wood furniture. Our meal was the following: Appetiser: Creamy potato and leak soup, calamari filled with goat cheese with salsa Main course: G: rice with beef stu kind of thing with muchrooms R: rice with white sea fish with a creamy lemon basil sauce (so good) Dessert: crem brulee with fresh berries (really really good) and i had a lovely glass of white wine. Did i meantion how good it was?

That's basically it since our trip. We have been watching movies, seeing friends, and other such activities. Guy had freinds over to celebrate his birthday last night. I was hear exactly a year ago almost to the day really becuase last year he had his party on the 24th and this year it happened on the 23rd. But this time i knew almost everyone........... and simon wasn't with us. And like i said Guy showed off hoe great a girlfriend i am, so we had a good night.

Next up: Something is going on on sunday, my other surprise (has anyone figured out this kid loves surprises yet?) so more on that later. We plan on visiting some freinds in Haifa, maybe going to Jerusalem, a couple of day trips here and there, I'm going to visit with my aunt (guy has been accupying all my time so far).........

So ill let you all know how that goes.
Thanks for reading.
Miss you all
Take care.
r

Shalom once again!

Hello all. I made it. Safe and sound. Here i am in Israel once more.
So far i have been doing a whole lot of nothing. Really. I got in about 5:30 am came home to guy's house and passed out. We slept til 5pm. He didn't sleep before picking me up. Woke up ate some dinner went for a walk and then i fell asleep again and he went to go see some friends from school.
Today, i slept till 2pm....so getting better. We sat at the beach with a couple of his guy freinds and now are back at the house and i am exauhsted. I just feel like sleeping so i thought to keep my self occupied online so i am not a totall loser to the jetlag powers that be.

Chicago was great. Elie Paula and i spent the whole week getting fat. What do i mean by this? We drank, we ate, we sat and watched things, and we slept. We also took cabs to every one of these events. IT WAS GREAT! We trully learned the meaning of freindship regardless of activity or location. We spent one night bar hopping and closing bars out, such a great time reminising and gettting pretty tipsey. We saw Grease and Wicked, Paula saw Dirty Dancing, i opted not to join her for a second round of the 3 hour classis story on stage. Paula and I also watched some movies here and there. We watched Knocked Up and Elf and of course (Paula just couldn't get enough) Dirty Dancing (the classis story on film). I got to see two good freinds from my birthright trip, which was super. And we took Paula to the bean! We also spent lots of time getting to know the backstage area and elie's lovely office (the nice wood shed, at least it was warm) at Dirty Dancing. We even helped out carrying merchandise up and down stairs. Basically we had a blast. It was so nice to just be together. A true vacation!!!

So that's that. Hope everyone is warm where ever they are, israel is a nice change from chicago ;)

Yours,
R

alright blog readers....

after quite the sleepless flight of 6 hours, i have made it to my first foreign destination. I am here in england. i will go and enjoy some time iwth my family here before returning to the airport tonight for my next flight which will take me to Israel. I feel like i am in the olden days where the fast transit of today didn't exist, its taking me two days almost to get from chicago to israel. what was it like before the technologies of the here and now? Ok i'm a spoiled 21st centuary raised person, i will admit traveling to israel by boat or camel or whatever would be worse but i am tired and cranky and the girl next to me slept far more comfortably than i did. I hate her. Hate is a strong word. i know.

Talk to you from the holy land.