Confessions of a Peanut

Dear Readers,

It doesn't matter what you are trying out for, the soccer team, basketball team, cheerleading squad, a play (hint hint), there is always that one group where all the kids know each other already because they have been on the team before and are pretty sure they are going to be on the team again. It's that group that when they are not trying out, get together and talk and laugh while others are trying to try out and the coach/leader/person in charge has to keep saying,

"Quiet in the peanut gallery!"


Now I know that when someone says "quiet in the peanut gallery!" they are not calling those people peanuts. I'm aware that it refers to the olden days when peanuts where sold to people in the cheap seats at performances, and the owners of these seats usually caused a bit of ruckus during the show.

But for the sake of the title of this blog, which I am quite fond of, I'm going to call the individuals that comprise this group, peanuts.

Yesterday night, I tried out for a play at my local community center. This is my third time working with this particular theatre troupe and every year you see pretty much the same people trying out over and over. A lot of these people also go to my school, so I also work with them in school performances. These people are also some of my best friend outside of plays as well. We hang out, have musical parties, talk to each other on facebook, treat the Tony Awards like it's the MTV awards, etc. We're friends.


And yesterday, if you haven't figured it out already, we were the peanuts.


First off, we were not heckling people or making fun of them. That is not how we "roll", as you youngins say. We were catching up, because two of them are in college now, so this is the first time I've seen them in months. The fact that we are dramatic people, and therefore loud and always joking around, didn't help. I was in stitches every five seconds from laughing so hard, and was quite unable to stop.


But we had a strict rule that once someone started to actually read for a part, we shut up and listen. We might whisper here and there when we saw someone we liked a lot but other than that we were angels.

However as soon as no one was on the stage we started back up again, resulting in us being "SSSSSHUUSSSHHHH"ed quite frequently.


Now it was not a complete confidence that we were going to get a role no matter what that had us so relaxed, and because the fact is everyone usually gets cast with this particular troupe, so we were actually more worried about what part we would get than getting a part period. No, the reason we were peanuts yesterday was because we tend to be like that any time we're together. Because we're friends.

Loud, causing a ruckus, unable to breathe for laughing, friends.


Which isn't ideal for a very serious audition, but for this one I don't think it did a lot of harm.

The best actress there was in our little group, and even though she is amazing and therefore could probably get away with being stuck up, this girl is fun and hilarious, not to mention incredibly nice. So every time someone finished reading, she started clapping and hooting and hollering like we were at a football game. It was a confidence booster I think, to those doing this for the first time. One of the better guy actors, another peanut in our gallery, is just as dramatic as this girl, so of course they went back and forth on who would clap the longest and hoot the loudest. Overall, I think it made what can be a very nerve-racking experience, fun.

There are some places where the peanut gallery probably should tone it down, but I think there are also some places where a bit of ruckus is okay.

And peanuts should be welcome to hang in the gallery.

Sincerely,

Elle

Hi!....Okay, Bye

Dear Readers,

Okay, so does anyone else feel weird when you see people you vaguely know from school or work or (fill in blank here) outside of school, work or (blank) and its like

You: "Hi!"
Vague Acquaintance: "Hey!"
You:"......Okay....bye!"

And then both you and the Vague Acquaintance think:

Awkward.

It's like when you're a little kid and you believe that when school is over the teachers vanish into thin air because they cannot and do not exist out of school.

And then you see them...in a grocery store!

It's like someone just told you that the Easter Bunny isn't real. You don't want to believe it, but the proof is undeniable.

Now you could always just not say "HI!". Problem solved, right?

Well, it would be, if there wasn't that automatic pull, when you see someone you know, to acknowledge them. It's like how on facebook if someone requests you and you vaguely remember their face and you see that you have a few friends in common, so you just accept.

And then you throw them in the "other" section of your chat options and find ways to make sure their statuses don't keep popping up on your news feed.

You don't know them really y en ninguna manera do you really want to talk to them or learn about their life.

But you recognized them, so you accepted their friend request.

Now with real friends it's different. You want to know what their statuses are and you hope they are on chat because you want to talk with them.

When you see a real friend outside of school or work or whatever (lets say school) and you say "Hi!" you mean "I'm so happy to see you! We haven't seen each other in forever!" and when they say "Hey!" they mean "I KNOW! The thirty minutes between now and school were sooooooooo long! Never leave me again!" And then you talk until your parents drag you away from each other.

I'm fine with acknowledging vague acquaintances with short conversations. The less I know the person, the less I talk to them, because when I don't know someone very well and I try a longer conversation than:

Me: Hi!
Vague Acquaintance: Hey!

It ends up like:

Me: Sooooo....did you hear the new Trock song?
Vague Acquaintance: What's Trock?
Me: It's music about the interstellar traveler Dr. Who...you know what. Never mind.

Awkward.

Sincerely,

Elle

Dn't 4get 2 Vote :)

Dear Readers,

I think its really interesting how campaigns nowadays are starting to take up the social media approach to getting votes. That's not to say that I'm surprised.  Word of mouth, newspapers, radios, television, these were the "new" social media of the world at some point and people quickly started using them to spread their agenda. Youtube and Facebook are the social media of the now and it makes sense that they would be what politicians (and others) are using to gather followers. I'm not saying radio, television, etc. are outdated. It will be a long time before that happens, if it ever happens. But I think that Youtube and Facebook and Twitter are great ways to keep your constituents up to date with what you are doing, what they need to be doing, and what you hope EVERYONE will be doing in the near future. Plus, its an amazing way to connect with a younger group of possible voters. A lot of young adults are a people of instant gratification: It's our information, and we want it now! We don't want to have to search for you every time we want to know what you are doing. We want your info instantly pumping into our phones/ipads/ipod touches. We're lazy. I admit it. Some may say that it is a sad state of affairs when you have to resort to making sure your political agenda can sync up with a cell phone to garner attention but I say its reality. If you ask a lot of people (not me *cough cough*) if they wanted to recieve information about a political canidate, they are going to ask you "Is there an App for that?". I'm glad to see that candidates realize there is indeed an App for that, and its name is Twitter and Facebook. Make it possible to become a fan or follow you, and suddenly you've opened a door to a bunch of potential voters.

Now obviously I'm a proponent of the social media craze in regard to politics, so I was really excited when I got involved with a women running for District Representative in my state who needed someone to be in charge of her campaign's facebook page. Awesome! I get to be the person who makes sure that everyone knows whats going on, getting the couch potatoes out there involved in the political process! I'm going to be doing other stuff as well, walking around streets and passing out info, but I have to say this is the thing I'm excited about, using cool technology to better the world in some way by getting this really intelligent, qualified, awesome lady elected to office. Its going to be a really amazing process, I can already tell.

Sincerely,

Elle