Goodbye Denver

Everything just seems so sweet.
I would say euphoric, but you see, I've cried too already, and this afternoon I actually became rather angry. It's just that everything seems so real; so pure; I feel like I'm finally getting the hang of just living in each moment and simply experiencing it with the most oomph I can muster.
Tonight was the first show of the tour, and tomorrow is, unbelievably, our last day in Denver. The show was absolutely splendid, and it was wonderful to realize that we can actually do this.
Before the show, we had our very first "green room", which is a Shakespearean concept, in which all of the "actors" meet together prior to a performance in a room adjoining the stage. We did some fun and silly things of course, such as the now-trademark dance party, but we also had a few very emotional moments in which Kristen helped us to reminisce about all the steps in our life that brought us to that very moment, and Andrew read more of his ever-exceptionally-beautiful writing in the form of the first letter in a book we'll be passing around (this one was to Faith, which I quickly realized because she had been very inspirational to me in ways similar to those that Andrew described). Needless to say, I cried during several of those moments, which is a very big thing for me since very rarely do I cry in front of people (even John and Kayla). I think this says a lot about what a wonderful program Up With People really is, and even more about what a spectacular group of people this is that I'll be spending such an important part of my life with. I truly adore these people, and already I feel that some of these friendships just might end up being some of the most important in the course of my life.
Even some of the people that I haven't gotten to know particularly well yet have already inspired me. For instance, today at lunch , one of the students in Cast B was making some very homophobic comments, which started out with "Here comes gay Grant". Now, I presume that Grant is not gay, but either way, it was very obvious that this individual was using the word in a very derogative way (I also witnessed a conversation yesterday when he said that his solution to the war in Iraq would be to go over there and shoot every person who wasn't white, or black, which he added simply as an afterthought just because Justin was there - how this individual ended up in Up With People is beyond me, but I sincerely hope that it will do him some good). Anyways, the thing that inspired me was that in response to this comment, Dave spoke up and said (in an impressively polite yet assertive way) something along the lines of "I would prefer if you didn't use that word like that". I was deeply impressed with his ability to speak up against homophobia in such a rational way (especially since Dave if one of the most masculine guys on the cast), and I really appreciated this gesture. Unfortunately, the homophobic individual proceeded to make an extremely uncalled-for direct personal attack against one of the [more obviously gay] staff members who wasn't present at the moment. At least I was happy to see that this statement was greeted with an exceptionally cold silence from all of those who were present. Needless to say, this was the aforementioned incident that made me angry.
Anyway, once again there have been too many notable things going on for me to write about in detail, but here are some of them in brief:
It was very strange and delightful to have several of my family members here with my host family for the evening of my dress rehearsal.
I had [another] very insightful conversation about cultural differences in regards to the word "love".
I finished the final installment of the Harry Potter series!
Sherlock told me I look sexy with a beard. I'm not sure how much to read into that.
Raine and I noticed that above his bed there were several plain old B's on the unfinished ceiling, whereas there were several C's above mine. Some might call it destiny.
Justin referred to me as a 'very wise person'.
I'm laying in the basement next to an empty bed because Raine left today. I didn't realize just how fond I'd grown of him, cynicism and all, but I assure you that it's a strictly platonic fondness.
I've become even more knowledged about the unreliability of first impressions.
And once again, I've probably forgotten a lot of significant things, but I think I'm getting more accustomed to the inevitability of my poor memory, so I just try to make the actual present events as worthwhile as possible.
I also wanted to write about the future (even though this experience is really helping me to just live in the present), but I'm having one last brunch with my host family tomorrow, and should therefore get a little bit of shut-eye.