Ladies and Gentlemen, we’re experiencing a slight delay…

That’s what I have been hearing, in some way shape or form, all day long. How quickly a relaxing trip to Hawaii can turn into Airport Hell. It’s kind of like the Butterfly Effect…the theory, not the movie. After a tough morning (and an even tougher night’s sleep), a morning filled with “Don’t worry about packing fast, we’re delayed again,” and stupid TSA Agents, I am finally sitting here at LAX in the American Terminal….waiting.

The original flight was at 9:45. We were then told that the flight would be at 7:10, a nice change. We now wouldn’t be landing in Hawaii at midnight! We are waking up in the morning and the flight had moved, again, this time to 5:30!!! All very happy about the newest change, we packed. 10 minutes later we get a call. Back to 7:10. And another call. Back to 9:45. Then, a third. 10:45.

Now, the point I am trying to stress is how much I dislike air travel. 100 years again, you didn’t hear, “Sorry Bill. The horses got caught up in some bad weather in Miami. They won’t be in LA for another 7 hours.” Granted, people of yester-year would have killed for air travel. Being able to get from LA to New York, New York to Paris, Paris to Tokyo, Tokyo to the Big Island, and the Big Island back to LA in a matter of hours, not months. But after the new technology is released, they will quickly become familiar with the sentence, “Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to San Francisco International Airport. Currently, all flights out are delayed due to a dark cloud over AT&T Park and a slight haze around Golden Gate Park and Height/Ashbury.” 

Then, to top everything off, the woman next to Katie and I had a huge stick up her ass; pissed off that there were people sitting next to her on a plane (“Where YOU going?” I’m sitting next to you. “*Sigh*”). The girl behind us talked in her “outdoor voice” at 2 am PST (“Im soaking wet! What did you spill!!!???”). And a rude flight attendant (“Thats why you pressed the button?”). Flying is fun! =\

(Tough 2 days)

14 hours left…

Well how about that. Where did the time go?

It is the eve of my last day in high school. How did this happen. It seems like everything was just a few days ago.

I walked into school only to see everything splattered with ketchup and tomato sauce. The seniors had tried to intimidate us freshman, declaring that they were kings of the school. In the meantime, we were left unintimidated. I continued to Theater 1, where I came to meet someone who eventually became one of my best friends. I didn’t know it at the time, but that class and classroom would have one of the biggest impacts on my life.

I never knew I could truly fall in love with something that wasn’t baseball or movies. My whole life up until that moment was Dodgers Dodgers Dodgers, movies movies movies. But high school added an element into my life. I fell in love with the CHS Theater program.  I had never guessed that that would have happened. But it did, and it changed my life. I would be a completely different person than I am today without it. 

But enough about that, I wrote an entire essay about that.

 I’m ready, but I’m not. I want to go to Oregon. I want to graduate. I’m excited for my next chapter. But I don’t want to leave. I want to stay. I want to continue my time at CHS, especially in Theater and Music. Talk about bittersweet. I want to do another show. I want more DTASC. Just one more ComedySportz game. But I can’t. And I have to move on.  

As I left that classroom that started everything for me on Monday, it finally hit me. My journey is complete. Although I want more, I have done all I could do. I have loved CHS, but it’s over now. Vonnegut said it best…

 

So It Goes… 

Well…That’s No Fun!

As I sat at Nutrition today, I had a realization. I am the last to leave. Everyone leaves for school the end of August or beginning of September. But I don’t leave for Oregon till the very end of September. So, all my friends go off to their schools and on with the rest of their lives, and I’m stuck in Calabasas, making my final goodbyes weeks after everyone else made theirs. So what do I do in the time being? What do I do between the time Dusty and Stephanie and Ben et al leave and I leave with my fellow Ducks? 
       1. Fill up on Dodger Games- there is no baseball in Oregon!!!! UO has no team and no pro team for hundreds of miles. There’s a single A team for the Padres in Eugene, but their season ends the beginning of August. So I go to as many Dodger Games as I can.

       2. Visit local friends in college. Dusty and David take me to some USC games, all will be good.

       3. Pay my final respects to CHS. Maybe go to a rehearsal for the play. Make sure a cappella doesn’t go belly up.
       4. Enjoy it. I may be alone, but it will be the last time that I will ever call my house, my room, my bed, my permanent home, home. The last time I will wake up everyday and see my parents and my dog. I will be excited to leave and join my fellow members of the Class of 2012 on our road to the rest of our lives and great successes. But in the end, I will miss Calabasas and the things I do everyday that I take for granted.

 

What if my roommate doesn’t like LOST or The Office!!!!?????

So I Haven’t Written In A While…

I haven’t checked in with you in about a month now. We are in the midst of Fiddler rehearsals. I think they are going ok. There is still an obvious amount that needs work, but thats what rehearsals are for. The Election is about 1/2 over and Obama is taking the lead (finally). LOST is just as confusing as ever, but it kicks to much ass!!!! The strike is finally over, and The Office is set to return April 10! I’m doubting myself again. Am I doing the right thing. Saturday and change my life, for better or worse. There’s no way of knowing how it will change my life until I am 80-something years old and looking at my grandchildren and saying “Back when I was 18, I did something that changed my life.” I continually say that I am not going to pursue theater in the “real world.” But I don’t even know anymore! I don’t want to STOP acting, because I enjoy it; but I also don’t really see it as my profession. That’s Katie’s thing. I’ve been really getting into editing recently, but if I were to be a professional editor, movie would NEVER be released because I would re-edit them constantly (I’M RE-EDITING RIGHT NOW…..FOR NO REASON WHAT-SO-EVER!!!!). It’s like a conversation I was having with Paige over the summer. I quoted Michael Cerveris in saying “I don’t see myself as an actor. I always said I was doing this ‘for right now.’ I always wanted to be a rock star, but I’m just kinda doing this in the mean time. And I happened to win a Tony and continue to get work, so I guess it’s working out…..for a temp job.” Am I just waiting to become something else as my “temp job” helps me get into USC? Or, am I an actor who doesn’t realize it right now, but is about to go through his “temp job” at Oregon? I’ll let you know no later than May 1…

A letter

Dear Jazzy-

   We got you when I was 3. We were “the little ones.” We “grew up” together. You were the puppy and I was the baby. I remember my mom being on the phone talking to the people, and saying that she was going to pick you up from LAX in a few days. Katie named you Princess Jasmine Horwitch, after Jasmine from Aladdin. But we called you Jazzy for short. You came with us from the Encino house to Calabasas. You were scared to walk up and down the stairs, so we had to carry you. You wouldn’t go to the bathroom in the sideyard, so my mom told my dad to show you how to do it. My mom wouldn’t let me take you on walks when I was little because she thought you would drag me when you started running. Then one day you did and I skinned my knee. I was walking you when we found the baby bunnies in the box down the street. I though it was a snake and quickly ran you back up to the house. I remember when Maddy, the Great Dane from across the street, bit you in the neck. We were all so scared, but you were fine. You kept on running around like nothing happened. You had you’re “spaz-attacks” and would run like a mad man around the house until you couldn’t run anymore. I would be playing soccer or baseball in the backyard and you’d run and try and chase the ball….but never fetch. We had so many nicknames for you: Jazz, Boosie, Mrs. Fitelberg, Spaz. At Christmas you had your own stocking, and there was always a bone under the tree for you. When I was really little I would take a picture of you on vacation with me- wherever we traveled. I guess I saw people in movies bring pictures of family with them on trips. Since my family was with me, I brought you. We always though of you as the 3rd kid, and I think you thought of yourself like that too. It was always Katie, Alex, and Jazzy. Mom calls the kids into the room. In run Katie, Alex, and Jazzy. Always. You would wait with me and mom for carpools to Castlemont, or the bus/van to Camp Kinneret. You were in the car when we got a flat tire a block away from the Encino house. You were in the car when we got into an accident outside of the Commons after one of your joint birthday parties with Amber Mainstain. 

When we got Bella we thought it would change you, and you would realize you were a dog. But Bella just brought out a more playful side. You never had another dog to play with, and suddenly there was one that wouldn’t leave you alone. Although you may not be as active as you once were, you are still my Jazzy. My Boosie. My dog. My first pet. For 15 years you have been a constant in my life. From Temple Judea, to Castlemont, to AE Wright and AC Stelle, and all the way to Senior year of Calabasas High, you have been the thing that never changed. Yes, you may have gotten older and slower, but it has still always been you; my Jazzy. I don’t want to say goodbye, but I have to. It’s something that has to be done. But nothing can take away pictures, videos, and memories. Like how mom talks about Pixie, or Alfie, or Terry, or Casey Jones, or how dad talks about “The Friz’s,” I will talk about you. I will always have you in my mind, and through pictures. Whenever I watch or see something about Aladdin, I will think of you, Princess Jasmine Horwitch. Bella will miss you. Mom and Dad and Katie will miss you. But I will miss you more than anything. I love you, and goodbye

   -Alex 

RIP

Princess Jasmine “Jazzy” Horwitch

July 3, 1993-January 22, 2008

That’s Our Way! HEY HEY!

Some of you may be wondering what that picture is at the top of my page. 

I spent 7 years of my life at Castlemont School. 7 years. That’s the most I will ever spend at 1 school in my entire life. And in one moment, it was gone. The school where I learned the basics for everything. The school where I won a football championship. The school where I ended my baseball career. The school where I first acted (as Macduff in Macbeth). The school where I first sang. Gone.

I had seen alumni come back to visit, and walk the campus and see old teachers. But in one moment, I would never experience that.  All I can do is stand at the gates, or sit in the parking lot and gaze into the school I grew up in. The lawn is over-grown and weeded over. The “Castle” playground has been removed. The “Field Of Dreams” sign on the field still attached to a fence, still with the dents of 100 baseballs hitting it. If you look closely, you can still see the imprint of “Castlemont School” on the bricks outside the Auditorium where there was once a metal sign.

 

About a week after my graduation, due to foolish errors and careless spending, the director declared bankruptcy and Castlemont was closed forever. Teachers, TA’s, and other faculty and staff put out of work. Hundreds of students were left to find new schools. And the Class of 2002? We were left with a memory.

 

I plan on getting onto the school’s playground before I go to college. I plan on doing whatever it takes, even if it means jumping the fences that we once thought to be 1000 feet tall.

 

Its been 6 years since I graduated from Castlemont. 6 years since I played handball and four-square on the “black-top.” 6 years since I ran the track, hiked a football, and turned a double play on the “Field of Dreams.” I just want to one more time. 

_____

I don’t want it to happen, but it’s inevitable. Kinda depressed. I have nothing to say

D.O.B

I am sitting here holding a pack of cigarettes. I don’t smoke. I don’t intend to smoke. I don’t want to smoke. As I said to the man at the Shell station, “It’s my 18th birthday. It’s just for the novelty of it.” 

I just did some Lottery Scratchers. I won $4 and a free ticket. What are the odds of having the same magic number 2 times in a row?

I also am holding a Super Lotto Ticket. $33 Million at stake. 2 quick picks.

6. 7. 31. 42. 44. Mega 9

11. 22.32.39. 40 Mega 12

     It was a good birthday. Thanks to everyone.

In other news, Fiddler auditions were today. I feel good. Thats about all I can say. I feel good and we’ll see how things go.  

Golden Globes officially cancelled due to Writers Strike. Fucking producers.

In The Dark Abyss…

I do my best thinking at night. It is when I am most profound and have the most time to stop, reflect, and write. Like now for instance. Why am I up at 4:10am on the last day of winter vacation. Something is on my mind, but I’m just not sure what. I am wide awake and typing, and like Vladimir and Estragon in “Waiting For Godot,” I’m not sure why…..

This is my personal blog. I was about to edit the Off The Deep End blog (offthedeepend.wordpress.com) when I click the link on the blogroll to Clayton’s blog. The idea then came to my mind, “Hey! You should start your own blog.” So here I am. At 4:13am. Sitting in my bed and listening to the rain come puring down outside.

I turn 18 in 19.5 hours…
I swear, my other posts will be more enlightening than this.