Boy oh boy life happens fast. (This is gonna be long and full of life updates so if you only want the highlights I’m sure there’ll be a series of shorter things in the next couple of days.)
I moved to Chicago over five and a half years ago. I had approximately $0 and I knew less than 10 people but I knew that I was making the right call because I was both terrified and excited, and those have always been the requirements for me to do something.
Over the last month, a lot of things have come full circle that I haven’t had a chance to share beyond a somewhat small circle of family and friends. So! Consider this a mega update with two big pieces of news before the photos and status changes happen and before I probably become more active on social media than I have been for years.
Big piece of news #1: Mitch and I got married! He’s wonderful and the most supportive partner and we finally got to have a whole lot of our favorite people in one place and I could gush for a long time about how perfect it was but I’ll save that for the pictures. We went to Norway for our honeymoon and it didn’t rain or snow and we got to see some goats from afar and it was great.
Big piece of news #2: Tomorrow will be my first day as the Associate Artistic Director at Constellation Stage and Screen in Bloomington, Indiana! I have always said that I would never move immediately after getting married but it turns out life does what it wants. (It also turns out I was right — moving immediately after your wedding is hard!!)
Chicago has been a wonderful home for the past five and a half years, and leaving is so, so bittersweet. The friends I have made in Chicago are people I could not imagine my life without, and a piece of my heart will always be there with them. It’s hard to describe how excited I am to start this next chapter in Bloomington beyond saying this: I may still only have approximately $0 and only know about 10 people in Bloomington, but one of those people is Mitch and I am terrified and excited and that’s more than enough for me.
💃🐐🇳🇴
I hurt my foot last weekend, but Mitch and I also got married so life all balanced out. More sappy posts to come, but for now we’re off exploring Norway 🇳🇴
📸: @ashlee.mednick
Good night, sweet boy. Thank you for 12 ½ years of love and little howls and sharing blueberries. Thank you for letting me hug you even if you didn’t always like it and for tolerating all of the songs that we sang at you substituting your name for literally any other word. Thank you for loving through my interpretive dances that always included you and for laying under the piano with me while we listened to mama play. I’ll miss your little forehead wrinkle and smelly kisses 💖🌻🐶
If you had told me when I was starting my theatrical career that one day I would get to work on multiple shows about Filipino identity, I never would have believed you. I cannot wait for the day that audiences get to see this magic on stage. For now, tune in tonight at 7pm PST/9pm CST to hear this phenomenal cast read the words of @theamandalandrei . This world of magical realism and bamboo sticks means so much to me, and I can’t wait to share it ✨🇵🇭
Today, Mitch and I woke up early, put on three layers of clothes, drove to the lake, and watched the sunrise. We talked about the lives we have built in Chicago together and watched people walk their dogs in the cold early morning hours while drinking way too hot green tea with honey from the community garden right next to our apartment. Then, as the sun began to peek through the haze on the horizon, we started the next chapter of our love.
Mitch, I love you with everything I am. You make me a better human being. I love the way that we have grown together and I’m so excited to continue growing with you for the rest of my life. Mahal kita 💖
#engagementgifts #WEAREENGAGEDANDIMSOEXCITED
Happy Filipinx American History Month! I made sinigang with salmon instead of my typical baboy to celebrate voting early and the whole vat of it disappeared in a day and a half. Vote! Especially ang pilipinx pamilya ko. Vote and make some masarap na sinigang na isda #filipinoamericanhistorymonth #sinigang #masarap #VOTE
My mama (@ajwheelock ) made me some super cute masks with superheroes and cats on them that have made my days bright regardless of what’s going on. Tomorrow is my last day at my current job because my cardiologist told me not to go on public transit anymore until we a) get a vaccine, b) get a viable treatment option, or c) control community spread WAAAYYYY more than we are. He thinks that will be sometime in the summer of 2021 at the very soonest.
Please find some super cute masks and wear them everywhere when you leave your social distancing bubble! I’d love to be able to go beyond a 2 mile radius of my house sometime in the next year without having to ask for a ride from my extremely patient roommates. My world is now limited to how far I can walk (or hopefully bike on some sanitized divvy bikes! Motorized ones are coming soon and they might be a game changer). But! I’m healthy, my family is healthy, and my friends (and my cardiologists) are amazing. I’ll keep fighting the good fight from my desk at home 💖 #wearamask #masksarecute #mamasarethebest
This is a picture of me from today.
I am not in the hospital for COVID. I am in the hospital for a routine test that will be followed by two appointments with two different cardiologists who both specialize in different facets of Congenital Heart Disease. Next month, I’m coming back for a different test for my vascular surgeon. These four visits are part of my annual visits to my specialized doctors that do not include any care other than for my heart.
If you are a person who doesn’t take COVID seriously, please listen to me.
Last year, I had a test or an appointment nearly every single month, often multiple times a month, all for investigative work on my body to see how I’m holding up after a lifetime of chronic illness. My appointment with my vascular surgeon led with her unironically telling me that I do not need to get my leg amputated at this time.
I am so terrified right now. There is an increasing amount of evidence pointing to COVID being a vascular disease rather than a respiratory disease. I am at a very much increased likelihood of having aneurisms and getting clots without this disease, and I don’t even want to begin to imagine what it would be with it.
I am a freelancer, which means that I have had to pick up a minimum wage job to try to make rent while COVID eliminates my career. I cannot afford to lose my job, but every day I go downtown I see more and more people not wearing masks, eating inside at restaurants, and trains becoming more and more crowded with less and less face coverings.
Please.
If you think that this isn’t going to impact you, that wearing a mask is too uncomfortable, think of me. Think of this picture of me gross and sweaty about to get an ultrasound of my heart and then run on a treadmill connected to a dozen wires and a blood pressure cuff with my mask still on and the two techs attending me in full PPE. This is already my reality. My life is already full of doctors and grim prognoses. COVID will end me.
My parents did not fight this fight to lose me at 25. I have not fought through years of not being heard and test after test after test to get clarity on my chronic pain and then die of COVID.
Wear a mask. Please.
I realized today I haven’t been posting on all social media. Links for education, places to donate, and local Chicago black-owned businesses are on my Facebook. I’ll be adding more to my story as I find them here. Link to Chicago chapter of Black Lives Matter is in my bio.
Art by @kalamendoza
This beautiful show is closing tomorrow. Words cannot express my love for these women and for the team that created the Roommate. I wish with all my heart that I could be there tomorrow. Grab tickets if you can!
The past month has been filled with laughter and lots of coffee as we worked our way through this script, and I am so grateful for every second of it. Constance and Adrianne play incredibly together, and I can’t wait for Bloomington to go on this journey of weird vegetables and little clay dolls. More pictures to come, but until then: happy opening! @cardinalstage
