Vaccinations

I am terrified of needles. I'm not even sure if that is true of me mentally but certainly my body is. I passed out about 4 times while getting my vaccinations for Africa recently. One time for ever shot. They put you in this tiny closet of a room where you can't lay down. They did give me a warm washcloth. Great, really helpful. I TOTALLY won't pass out now.... right.

The worst part about passing out so easy is that I am always mad at my body for doing it. No matter how calm I think I'm being or how focused I am on something else like, breathing say, I still go down every time. This mostly hurts my pride. I like to think that I'm a big girl and can totally do everything on my own. But really, I am coming to the fast conclusion that if I am going to get more than one shot I need to bring someone with me to drive me home afterwards. That fuzzy feeling that comes into my head when needles are in the picture is just a factor of my life. Being a doctor or nurse is not a career that would suit me well. I'm not even sure how I would ever get through a pregnancy.

PS- Fertile Ground, a new works festival in its second year in Portland is going on right now and I have gotten to see a few fun plays. One of them was at Northwest Children's Theatre where I work and got a stellar review. You can check that out here.

I also got to see a pretty amazing shadow puppet show called Bugged. This show has made me think a lot. It contained a lot of the magic I feel most all theatre should contain. Had some astounding transitions and I can't believe it was all done with paper puppets and your regular old school slide projector. Very cool.

Lots to be excited about...

Being an actor in Portland has been going well for me so far. I've been in a total of 3 plays since I have been here in the last 6 months. I think that's pretty dang good. I've also gotten paid for all of them which really makes me feel like a real professional.

Most recently I went to the general Portland Area Theatre Alliance auditions. It's really just a cattle call audition where tons of actors show up to give monologues, sing, and dance for a bunch of different representatives from different theatre companies. I guess we're all hoping to be "discovered" or get tons of calls and such. Really, I think it just helps you to get seen more by people. It's a chance to say, "Hey! My name is Meredith Ott and I am an actor here". Either way I've been using this headshot to represent myself at these auditions and it hasn't done me too bad so far. I've got an audition this weekend and got to do an on-camera audition for Lana Veenker Casting Agency (yeah, they cast for Twilight and Leverage). So who knows. I really know nothing about this crazy film industry but it is not like me not to try anything at least once so here goes.

ALSO, I am super excited to be going to Africa soon! The town I am going to is called Bungoma, Kenya. It even has a pretty swanky little town website if you click on the town name. My friend Dave is going there to help out with Construction for Change there as a project foreman so I will be visiting him. He updates his blog with cool pictures and stories about his time in Bungoma here. Bungoma is located several hours away from Nairobi close to the border of Uganda.

Kenya is in East Africa right under Ethiopia and Somalia which are on the horn
(don't worry, I won't be going anywhere up there).

Kenya also happens to be 11 hours ahead of Portland so I'm sure that will be a big adjustment. I've downloaded Skype to my computer and tested it out and everything so hopefully if I get on that later at night I can talk to people back here in the states as they get up in the morning.

I will only be in Africa for just over 2 weeks but before I go to Africa.... I go to NEW YORK CITY!
This is exciting for a few reasons too.

Reason #1: I get to see a Behanding in Spokane starring this guy!!!!!
Reason #2: I get to hang out with friends like...

Katey Nelson, everyone.

Reason #3: I get to spend time with my dear brother Tim and Wendy. And I'm not really supposed to tell so if you read this you might have to keep your mouth shut but I am also visiting my soon to be nephew or niece. (They are going to be so spoiled) I already think that they are beautiful and this is what they look like.

Pressure's off me to extend the family name now, thanks Tim! Beautiful baby Ott. I can't wait.

So much to be excited about. So much.