I'm Back?

My goodness, I used to be really good at keeping a blog. So many things have changed since my last post.
For starters, I'm engaged!! To the most wonderful man that could possibly have been made for me. Our wedding is April 27th of this year. We got engaged in June of last year, so it's been a while. Mormon engagements are a little different. We don't shack up together and go ho-hum until we feel like getting married. So, the tension and stress is a little more heightened. But we couldn't avoid it, family comes first, so we moved the date from December to April. But I would recommend keeping it to four months from engagement to wedding.

Even though we've had more than enough time to plan, it's still incredibly stressful! I'm taking the minimum of 12 credits at BYU, only two ballroom classes and several science classes, and I'm still flopping around like a beached whale. Quite literally. Because I've cut back on dance, I think I've gained at least 20 pounds since the summer. I've never felt my sides touch when I bent over, or felt my thighs, butt, arms or back jiggle when I ran. It's infuriating and a blow to my self-esteem.

And here I will list the many wonderful qualities of one Kent Pimentel (skip to spare yourself the sap):
Kent is kind and patient. There have been countless times when I have broke down crying from stress, from sadness, or for no good reason at all, and he's been there for me with the perfect response. He's helped me prioritize, comforted me with hugs and little kisses on the cheek and forehead. He dances with me in the kitchen when no one is around. He dances with me at the supermarket. He dances with me in the street. He tells me all the time that I am the most beautiful girl in the world, and it's funny because he's the only one I believe. He makes me feel beautiful, with compliments and smiles and so many little things. "I would still love you," he says, "even if you looked like a truck. But you don't look like a truck. You're more of a Ferrari."  He doesn't get upset when I'm sulky, he just tries to love me back to happiness. Anyone else I know would be exasperated and say "oh come on enough already." Not him. He is a total nerd, in a good way. We both love Sci-Fi shows. I introduced him to Doctor Who, he introduced me to Stargate. He appreciates art, politics, music, dance, geeky computer stuff, philosophy, history, everything! His passion for life is amazing. He makes friends so easily and is so outgoing.

tl;dr Kent is awesome and I'm terribly lucky to be marrying his face.

I suppose I should sleep maybe. But I could get so many things done in these early hours... Perhaps next time I'll list details about the wedding and receptions!

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The Trouble With Nice People & One of My Greatest Fears

The trouble with nice people is they are nice to everyone and you can't really tell when they are being sincere or if you are special to them. I've been on both sides of this. I try to be a nice person, and I try to treat everyone I meet with kindness and respect. Some people, when I am kind to them and listen to them and take the time to get to know them, mistake my friendship and reaching out for flirting. Then they feel hurt when they realize that I was only trying to befriend them and I had no intention of attracting them romantically. On the flip side, I have also been hurt in this way. It hurts to know that the little niceties and affections you receive do not make you special to someone, but are merely a result of the other person's good nature and desire to be liked. I know how good it feels to make someone feel loved and included, but I also know how much it hurts to know that you're nothing special. That is why one of my goals is to be more sincere with others. I still want to reach out to other people, but I want my actions and motives to be clear so I don't hurt anyone.

One of my greatest fears is disappointing people by not meeting their expectations of me. Today I let my ballroom partner down. I honestly thought he said we were practicing at 9, but he actually said that we were practicing at 8 and we could practice at 9 if we needed to. He waited 40 minutes for me to show up, but I was taking a nap and didn't hear him calling until 8:45. I feel awful, especially because we only practiced for half an hour (due to lack of space, sleep, and patience), and we were going to go through all our routines today. To make up for it, I'm going to get there half an hour early, practice spinning, and go over our routines by myself until he arrives. He deserves better. I also talked to another ballroom friend, who did basically the same thing I did. I think it's because we're all trying to adjust to our new schedules, and we're finding we need more sleep than we could get by on a few weeks ago. We're tired, frustrated, and napping through our commitments. Solution: earlier bedtime and making time to practice more and warm up.

The Power of Six, Jekyll & Hyde

The long weekend was a nice breather after a hectic week of back-to-school insanity. On Monday night, I got to go to the Payson Community Theater's production of "Jekyll and Hyde: The Musical". It was incredible!! There was so much talent. Jekyll/Hyde was a one-man marvel. His voice was flexible and perfectly controlled, whether in the pure tones of Jekyll or the rough growls of Mr. Hyde. And his ability to warm the heart with the character's courage and virtue in one moment and make you feel sick with horror and fear the next was admirable. I had never even heard of this musical before, and I loved it. Even though it was a smaller community production, the talented cast members made it spectacular. The music was beautiful as well. But what made it most powerful was how it really made you think about human nature and the forces of good and evil. I'd love to read the book sometime.

I just finished The Power of Six, the second book in the Lorien Legacies Series by Pittacus Lore. I read it in two days (about 400 pages, mind you, with classes and hw). The series is about the last surviving individuals of a race of good aliens, whose planet was destroyed by a race of bad aliens. The good aliens are trying to survive until they can defend themselves and Earth and return to their planet Lorien to bring it back to life, but the bad aliens are trying to destroy them and Earth. That's a pretty watered down summary, but you get the picture. I read the first book, I Am Number Four during the roadtrip to and from the California ballroom competition this summer. Just for the record, it's a TON better than the movie. The movie makes it look like the kid had no idea what's going on, and his guardian comes across as a jerk. The book is a lot more comprehensive and dramatic, and there are powers and creatures and situations (that are kindof really important) that you never see in the movie. It's a pretty fun series. It makes it better that Number Seven's name is Marina. :)

Goals

+ to find a part-time job
+ to attack school with a tenacious fervor
+ to be sincere and reach out to those around me
+ to start a website for my art
+ to create 3 portfolio-quality works of art by the end of this year
+ to write a personal missions statement
+ to keep a journal-blog regularly starting August 29th
+ to learn and memorize names for ballroom steps
+ to no longer be a people-pleaser (be honest, keep promises, be realistic, keep priorities)

Today I had my first car accident. I was on University Parkway on the hill towards I-15, and the girl in front of me slammed on her brakes. It was all I could do to slam on my breaks, but I have an older car and the hill didn't help. She called the police and filed a police report. The only damage was an imprint next to her license plate of a screw from my license plate mount. My Shelly was unscathed (the tremendous dents in the front left are from my dear blind grandmother). I felt incredibly idiotic, fumbling around and apologizing. I just hope her husband doesn't ask $600 for the scratch.

But random visits from people I adore at eleven at night make everything better. :3

Also, Emmy Cicierega answered a question I asked her on Tumblr. My life is complete.

MirrorMask

I watched MirrorMask on Valentine's day - rather appropriate considering one of the main characters is named Valentine. :P A beautifully artistic, kindof trippy in an Alice In Wonderland kind of way. It's a collaboration between Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean and Jim Henson. The story is about a girl whose parents run a circus. She hates her life and spends her free time drawing and making up fanciful stories. She gets into a fight with her mom, who then falls ill. After visiting her one night, she falls asleep and seems to be transported to a world where everyone wears masks. The world is a compilation of all the drawings and creations she's ever dreamed up. Throughout her journey, she realizes that a darker, more vicious version of her has stolen her place in the real world. Throughout her adventures, she meets many of her creations, the good and the very very bad. The movie is filled with incredible creatures. My favorites were the creepy, slightly evil sphinxes.

they like to eat books

Awesome Week: Part III

Friday

My dad recently informed me that my beloved car Shelly is being shipped on Monday! I love my car, and have been wanting her with me in Utah since I started school at BYU. She is a green-blue 1998 Ford Escort. She's pretty old school, with her manual windows and cassette player. She still has a couple of dents from when my dear blind Gramma refused to give her up. But I love her ever so much. She's my freedom. And now with her in Utah, I can visit my Grammie anytime I want, or go get groceries for dinner super quick, or drive up into the mountains with some friends for some peace and quiet. I'm so flippin excited!! :D

My lovely Shelly (taken a few years ago)

In other dance-related news, Sam and I practiced Thriller for two hours today. We have it down solid. It's so fun to learn new choreography and master it. Later in the night, I went on a group date with Justin from my ballroom team and his roommates. We went to the Haunted Forest in American Fork. I'm really not one to like getting scared, but I had a great time! I did discover, however, that I simply cannot handle chainsaws or Freddy Krueger. I think I clawed Justin up a bit...oops. While we were waiting in line to enter the Mansion section of the hauntedness, they played the Thriller music video, so I got to show off some of my skills :) Also, Ghostbusters. 'Nuff said.

The Ghostbusters Mobile. There were three guys fully dressed as Ghostbusters, but I didn't get a chance to take pictures of them :'(

Saturday

After going to bed at 2 AM after a wonderful night of creepiness and hot chocolate, I woke up at 6 AM the next morning to stand (or sleep) in line for BYU's annual Lost and Found Sale. It's pretty amazing how many people are honest enough to turn things into the lost & found here. But it's also amazing some of the stuff people never pick up. So the Lost and Found sale has some awesome stuff for dirt cheap. This year, I got about 14 things for $20. I got some black dance warmup pants, a latin skirt, a shirt that I'll use for a painting smock, two necklaces, a pair of earrings, a bracelet, a pair of Skullcandy earbuds with great bass quality, a headset I'll use for Skype, a pair of fingerless gloves, a hat, a nice black umbrella, and some other fancy cheap stuff. I didn't participate in the auction, but they had iPods, iTouches, a Dell projector, digital cameras and more. And all the money goes back to the students.

Later in the evening, I went to the Haunted Forest again on a different date, this time with a group from the Tour Team. Oh my. Those kids are ca-ray-zee. You'd never tell from how focused and motivated they are in school. It was actually kindof interesting - my date was my silver latin TA last fall, and one of the girls was my teacher for the same class. Seeing them all be ridiculous was quite enlightening and refreshing. By the end of the night when we were at Coldstone, the boys were just slapping each other around and generally being ridiculous. I love dancers. They have the best personalities. :)