Tech Week: Day 1

I've been part of a tech week before, but only once, and I don't remember any of it -- I was really little. I certainly don't remember my feet swelling up and turning pink, probably because I wasn't wearing character shoes. But I was last night!

Last night was the first day of tech week with my amazing JOY drama group, which I've posted about before. And it was unbelievable. Of course I had a great time (at JOY, I always do) but I wasn't prepared for how hard it was going to be.

Now, according to my veteran JOY buddies, there have been harder first nights. In fact, everything ran pretty smoothly. We even got done on time. But I've never had a harder one. In fact, I don't even think I was there for opening night of tech week on "Aladdin". So this took me a bit by surprise.

We ran the whole play all the way through (on our stage, which was awesome) and the first thing that started to get to me was the light. Oh. My. Gosh. My immediate reaction when the curtains opened up was "I'M BLIND!!!!". Of course I couldn't say that out loud, but it took quite a bit of concentration to get back in character. In fact, Anna got comments in the tech booth about how "her sister squinted when she smiled". Anna, who of course knows me and figured out what was wrong, shook her head and said, "She's not smiling." Yay for failing to fully stay in character!!! :D

So then there were the scene changes. Actually, that went pretty well. Everyone did their jobs and always managed to switch sets on time. But my goodness! Once the curtains close, it's so dark back there you can't see your own hand in front of your face. We're supposed to be quiet, but we relied quite a bit on each other's whispers to figure out where to put everything.

But probably the worst part (for me at least) were those SHOES!!! Shoes, shoes, shoes! I really hate high-heels, did you know that? By the end of the night, I didn't care how much my feet stank, I was taking off those shoes! My feet were huge and pink and sweaty and I felt like a hobbit -- not that that's too terrible a thing. But wow! Those might just be the most uncomfortable pair of shoes I've ever worn!

So yeah, last night was tough. And I know it sounds like I've just been complaining, complaining, complaining. But you know what? Even though last night was hard, I LOVED every minute of it! I loved joking around with my friends, and being a stubborn "Iowanian" and suffering right alongside my JOY buddies. The fact is, my friends there are amazing, and I'd do pretty much anything for them, including wear high heels. And the fact that my friends are there actually makes the high-heel-wearing fun. So I can't wait for tonight. It'll take longer, and this time we'll be in FULL costume, but that just gives me more time and more reasons to have fun. I can't wait to blog all about it! :D

5 Happy Things :D

So one of my JOY buddies, Rebecca Jane, who is totally and completely awesome, does this thing on her blog where she posts five happy things... Because she's awesome like that...

So she gave me permission to steal her idea for my blog. Here are Five Happy Things I've found on the World Wide Web that will hopefully brighten your evening!

How sweet is this? I used to be scared of getting old, but then I think of falling in love while I'm young, getting married, having children, and getting old with my husband, and still being totally happy and romantic, and I'm actually looking forward to it. Of course I'm happy to still be young, but when I see pictures like this I just get happy. You know what I mean?

Venice!!! Italy, of course. I've always wanted to go here. This shot is absolutely gorgeous -- you can almost hear the water and feel the gondola bobbing up and down. I love this sooo much!

AHHHH!!! This has got to be my favorite picture ever! The two best friends laughing so hard that they're crying -- and added to that the gorgeous lighting and the perfect spacing. It's so wonderful, and made even more so by the fact that we've all done this at one time or another. *Sigh* So amazing!

LIONS!!! I love lions. I think they're the coolest animals ever, and how can they not be, with characters like Aslan and Simba representing them? And aren't they just magnificent? So powerful. And aren't these two so sweet? Nose rub!

What can I say except "Aawwww"? And "Give her a biiig kiss!" Of course :)

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed!

Yard Work and A Performance: Part 2

So, if you know me, you know that currently one of the coolest parts of my life is my drama class that I attend with a homeschool co-op called JOY Christian Academy (JOY stands for "Jesus; Others; Yourself").

The drama is fun, the teachers are awesome, and the kids are fabulous -- I have so many real, genuine friends that it's almost a shock. We are currently working on a production entitled "The Music Man, Jr.", a play that's almost exactly the same as the original "The Music Man", but with some of the more complicated parts taken out. I'm playing a fussy, gossipy old lady named Alma Hicks, and believe me, I'm having the time of my life.

Today was an incredibly hectic one, and even though it was great (even better than usual, and that's saying a lot), I'm really kind of glad it's over, just because I can sit at home in my recently cleaned room, read, watch a movie, blog, do some laundry. But still, today has been one of my best.

So I got up this morning pretty early and did some math, then got ready to leave as quickly as I could. We managed to leave the house on time, even though I still left my script sitting on the counter (it's alright, don't panic; I'm off-book). First, we had to stop at the orthodontist so that Anna and I could get our braces tightened. But as soon as we were done, we headed off for the Decatur branch of the Lions Club to show off some of the musical highlights from our play. They gave us some wonderful food, and I ate a truly delicious brownie twice the size of my fist; YUM!!!

I have to admit, I had a pretty embarassing moment while I was there. The president of the club stood at the podium and welcomed everyone, and while the members of JOY replied "hello" back, the members of the club responded with "ROAR!". Taken by surprise and wondering if we'd responded wrong, I blurted out "What?!" just as the echoes of the roar died away, and the whole room heard it. Hardly polite, and I don't think it helped to better the image of homeschoolers in the club's eyes. Oops! :/

Well, then we got up and performed. We did the songs "Iowa Stubborn", "Trouble!", and "Shipoopi". The last one is a dance, the only real dance number of the whole play. And, for the first time ever, I got it exactly right, and didn't mess up once! (Thanks to Jameson Taylor for helping me out on that one!) I was super proud of myself. Actually I still am, but the performer's high has pretty much worn off.

Then we ran around the square of the town we were in and taped our musical's posters in store windows -- that was really fun. I got to go into some really cool stores that sold antiques and vintage stuff, and my friend Morgan and I (see her blog HERE) went into the cutest little bakery with gorgeous cakes and little Easter-bunny-style decorations.

And then we all piled into Mrs Roberts car and prayed that we hadn't left anyone behind (we hadn't) and headed off to rehearsal.

It was awesome. We ran through the entire play. We were all kind of hyper and had a hard time focusing, but we managed to get all the way through, and I even had time to pick an enormous be-feathered hat for my costume. And of course I had a fantastic time with my JOY buddies Maddie, Morgan, Rebecca (her blog HERE), Brooke, Julie, Wil, Jameson, Matthew, Tony, and a bunch of others (I think it would be fairly boring to read through the entire list of all the people I love at JOY -- it would take forever). We laughed, we talked, we giggled, we got off-topic, we got way into character, and we had a great time. It was amazing. And when it was all over, I was sad to leave, but glad to go home.

Next week is gonna be pretty insane -- imagine today, only longer without as many breaks, every day, for an entire week. That is called TECH week, my friends, and it is coming next week starting on Monday, our last week before we really start to perform. If you're interested in attending our play, go check out this link. You can get ticket information, as well as the dates for the different performances.

I'm pretty tired, but in a good way. It's like the kind of tired you get after you spend a day at Six Flags, only better; because while Six Flags gets your adrenaline pumping (and I love things like that -- I'm a bit of a daredevil), it isn't anything like spending a day getting exhausted with a whole bunch of amazing friends. That's probably the biggest reason why I love JOY.

Yard Work and A Performance: Part 1

So, today is Wednesday and I'm gonna be super-awesome and post two blogs in one day. The first blog is gonna be about yesterday, and the second is going to be about today, because today is about to get cah-ray-zee.

So yesterday was a pretty lazy day. We hung around the house, doing schoolwork and watching specials on the Royal Wedding on TLC. So as my sister and I are hanging out upstairs, my dad yells for us to put on our grubbies and some sneakers and come down. And we both think, Uh-oh.

We go downstairs, and my dad is in the backyard pulling up weeds. Even more uh-oh. I've been requesting a garden lately, and my dad hinted that we might have to do yard work to earn said garden. I was prepared to do it, but not yesterday -- I'd been experimenting with my make-up, like the girl I am, and it had turned out really well. Needless to say, I did not want to get it all covered in dirt.

But, a gardens a garden, and I want one, regardless of the state of my make-up. So we go outside and start pulling up weeds all over the yard by the roots. These things are nasty! They're huge, ugly, and covered in prickles. I stabbed myself about ten times within the first five minutes. (Okay, so maybe that's an exaggeration, but it's what it felt like!) But I kept on yanking at those weeds. It was actually kind of satisfying when I managed to pull them up by the root. For one of them I had to stick my hand really deep in the dirt so I could get a good grip on the root and pull -- that thing was the size of a raw carrot! It was HUGE! And let me tell you, I really enjoyed pulling that one up.

Actually, the whole thing was pretty enjoyable, for me at least. I know my dad hates yard work, and my sister did not want to be out there. But I actually had a fairly good time pulling up those weeds. I know I pricked my fingers up pretty good, and my nails were caked, but my nails are hardly ever really clean, anyway -- this gave me an excuse to clean them. And, like I said, it was really satisfying to pull up those weeds.

I'm going to post part 2 of this blog later, after today has happened. Let me tell you -- if yesterday was lazy, today's going to be the complete opposite. I have an orthodontist appointment, a rehearsal, and a mini-performance with my drama group for the Lion's Club. I'm a little nervous. It'll get really bad right before I go on-stage, but as soon as I'm on, it usually goes away. I can't ask you to wish me luck, so just pray for me and wish me happy leg-breaking! :D

Easter :D

Yesterday, 2000 years ago, Jesus rose from the dead. Yup. Dead guy. Came back to life, saved the world. Pretty stinkin' awesome, right?

Now, there are probably about a million blogs all over the internet about the principles of Easter and such. Also, you probably went to church. You know why we honor this holiday, so I thought I'd write a blog about how I honored it.

Firstly, in dress. :D

Love love love love love my hat and dress. We got most of our clothing at Kohls. My gorgeous yellow-and-white polka-dot dress was $15, the hat was $13, and the cardigan was $17 dollars -- I don't know how much Anna's dress cost. What I love about all this is that everything I'm wearing in this picture I can (and WILL) wear again. Especially that wonderful hat. (Will load picture ASAP; my mom has it (; )

Also, of course, we went to church, and our worship/production team put on this AMAZING drama. Our church is really good at stage productions (you should have seen our Christmas special) and this one was no different. They don't water down the scary parts of the spiritual realm, and believe me, there was a part of this drama that was scary. (Hint: Screaming demons.) But then, this incredibly bright light shines, and "Jesus" walks forward, the demons bow, the devil hands over the keys to the Gates of Heaven, Jesus opens the gate, and the saints rise and enter into the Kingdom. I cried, and believe me, Jesus had a standing ovation. Also, my dad played the "Voice of God". And I didn't recognize him, because he usually doesn't talk like Christopher Lee.

Then my whole family commuted to my grandmother's house -- My Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Molly, their little boys, Josiah and Judah, my Uncle David, his girlfriend Alycia, and her mother. Add to that me, my sister Anna, my brother Teddy, my mom and dad, The Easter Bunny, and a WHOLE lot of food, and it was a pretty full house. I think I ate half my weight in bree (it was delicious) and chocolate (it was even more delicious) and we of course had the customary Easter egg hunt, in which me and Anna helped "The Easter Bunny" to hide the eggs from the little boys. I felt terribly sick yesterday (in a good "I really enjoyed all the bree and chocolate" way) but today I felt amazing. Despite having to clean the house. :)

Then we came home and I spent the next few hours lying on my bed at home watching "The Mighty Ducks" on my iPod. I know it's not exactly worshipful to God, but hey, Jesus loves Emilio Estevez way more than I do, so I don't think He minded.

Anyway, that was my Easter. Fun with the family, fun on my own, fun with delicious wheels of cheese, and fun worshipping my Jesus (who, by the way, is still alive and rockin', in case you didn't know). A really, really good day.

The Glamorous 1940's: Movies and Movie Stars

Movies from the 1930's to the 1960's are some of the best movies ever made. There's a sincerity to them, the kind that happens when the movie-maker concentrates on the story, rather than on epic special effects. Movies like "The Wizard of Oz" and the original "Ocean's 11" really manage to capture that. While the effects for that time were ground-breaking, they only knew how to do so much -- and they had no computers to take advantage of.

Being a future-film-maker, I am ashamed to say that I have seen only a few movies from the 1940's: A couple Hitchcock films, and, of course, "It's A Wonderful Life". But since "Wonderful Life" is my seventh favorite movie of all time, I think we can concentrate on that for a while.

If "It's A Wonderful Life" represents movies from the 1940's, all movies from that decade were fabulous. You have, of course, the soft black and white visuals, the eloquent way of speaking that I've tried to recapture but can never quite manage, and a story that has continued to touch people every Christmas (and for me, throughout the rest of the year) for decades and decades, generations and generations. Plus, you have the gorgeous Donna Reed and Jimmy Stewart (<3) in the same picture together. It's genius.

I mean, just look at this scene. 

Sigh! Aren't they just perfect together?

This movie is probably what really got me into the 1940's in the first place. Look at Donna's hair in the scene you just watched. Isn't it lovely? And her dress, here:

She's stunning! And her clothes in this movie are fabulous. I wanted to dress like her and talk like her and wear my hair like her. Nowadays celebrities dress either in saggy, ripped up clothing, too-tight everything, or dresses that show off... Well, everything that shouldn't be shown off. Well, that's fine. That's how they want to dress. But I want to dress like Mary from "It's A Wonderful Life".

That's just the surface stuff, though.

The story is wonderful. A man spends his life sacrificing himself to make others' lives better, believes that he is worthless, contemplates suicide, and then an angel shows him what the world would be like without him. It's beautiful. This past Christmas season I stayed up till three watching it and rewatching it,  because no matter how exhausted I was I didn't want it to end. It's amazing. I know it's technically considered a "Christmas Special", but I watch it in March. In my opinion, it's in the top 10 list of best movies ever made. That's saying a lot, because I LOVE movies.

Of course, I'm sure not all movies from the 1940's were all that great ("The Jungle Goddess"). But obviously some were. They've influenced today's movies, and without them, we wouldn't know a thing about story-telling.

I think we oughta make a pact. We all go watch as many movies from the 1940's that we haven't seen as we can, and then we (or at least I) blog about them. Pact made? Okay! :D

Apologies for Last Blog Cut-Off:

I'm taking a break from my 1940's blog series to apologize for the abrupt ending in my last blog. I don't know what happened. I actually wrote a whole section on putting together your own outfits out of the clothes you already had. For some reason, two whole paragraphs were cut out when I published it. If you're interested in reading the rest of the blog, see below:

Obviously, the ideal solution would be to find a good thrift store -- those places have everything. But you don't always have time to go to a thrift store, and not everyone has a good one nearby. I haven't had a chance to go shopping yet, but really, what you need are some knee-length skirts, some button-up blouses, some high-waist shorts/pants, and a cinch belt. Luckily, it's pretty easy to find at least some of these things in your own closet -- all you have to do is be creative. A sundress tucked into a pair of high-waist shorts becomes an old-fashioned, flowy blouse; your favorite polo and a knee-length shirt turns into the perfect war-time outfit. This way, when you do get a chance to visit a thrift stor, you can look at everything with a creative eye. You'll know what can become something else.

This style, like all styles, isn't for everyone, but it was certainly for me. I can dress like a girl, be proud of it, and be modest and different at the same time. No, clothes aren't the most important things in the world, but they do say a lot about the person wearing them. If you are having trouble finding your own style, ask yourself, "What do I want to say?" and it's pretty simple from there. Just don't forget -- always have a cinch belt handy. It makes EVERY outfit work. :)