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. :)

Awesome Week: Part II

Wednesday

Today I tackled on of the things on my BIG To Do List: decide on a major. Well okay, I actually didn't get as far as actually declaring it, but I narrowed it down to three. It's going to be Micro/Molecular Biology, Environmental Science (w/ Micro/Molec emphasis), or Genetics. And the nice thing is they have very similar required Chem and Bio classes, and some even have interships abroad! I can travel for my major! :D We'll see how this plays out. I do know I'm officially a Ballroom Minor, so at least I have that covered.

Work was actually really enjoyable today too! I finished all the data entry, and then did some manual setting changes on a virus-eaten laptop, and then played with a couple of disastrous Macs. And my boss and I decided to take a break and bought the domains for me and each of my sisters. We're kinda weird. To top it off, he gave me an early birthday present: a freakin' Wacom Bamboo Pen & Touch graphics tablet. I kinda freaked out a little bit. It's been on my wishlist for six years, and I've been trying to save up money for one. Gleeeee! To my father if he reads this: I promise I won't let it distract me from my studies. It just sits under my desk, pleading for me to finish my homework quickly.

Thursday

One of my friends gave me a pleasant surprise this morning. He whisked me away at 7 am to Kneaders for breakfast. They have THE BEST bread I've ever had. I had a breakfast sammich on a croissant and we shared a humongous cinnamon roll. Pretty much the perfect way to start the day.

Then after working hard and braining good all day, I went to Blue Tango, where we are learning the Thriller dance! We're having an hour rehearsal every Thursday until the week of Halloween, where we will perform it. We're using a really good tutorial on YouTube. I'm also watching the original music video over and over to get down the awesome Michael Jackson-esque styling and moves. It's been one of my life goals to learn the Thriller dance, so it's a dream come true! I'm totally going to be a zombie flapper for our Halloween Blues night.

Spotlight! Mike Tompkins singing Dynamite and Fireflies. He sings all the acapella parts himself, and then fuses them together. Super fine.

Awesome Week: Part I

Monday

Today, I went serious clothes shopping for the first time in a year. I really don't like shopping. Being stuck in the mall and trying on piles of clothes makes me really anxious and growly. I like to go in knowing what I want, buy it, and leave.

Somewhat reluctantly, I let my roommates steal me after school and take me to the University Mall. I was pleasantly surprised! They are incredibly efficient - they knew what would look good on me and what's in style, and so we went to three different stores and got fancy stuff for me. Two pairs of dark jeans and a black cardigan at Wet Seal. Two dresses, a sweater, a fancy top, black leggings, and fingerless gloves from Forever 21. And some black flats. And they taught me how to curl my hair! I feel so girly. And I think it might be a good thing.

Tuesday

One of my friends from blues invited me to see a movie called Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. He thought that out of his friends, I would appreciate it most. And boy did I ever. It's about a boy who lives in Canada and falls for the American delivery girl. But in order to date her, he must first defeat her seven evil exes. And it's in video game format. I was geeking out, because it pokes fun at practically every video game ever. DDR, Guitar Hero, Rockband, skating games, Mario, Zelda, Portal, you name it. It was so fantastic, and the humor was spot on. And Scott Pilgrim was played by the adorably gawky Michael Cera. ♥

The movie is based on the graphic novel series Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O'Malley. I did a little research, and I'm in love with his art style. Guess what I'm doodling in lecture tomorrow...

Blessings

Church on Sunday was one of those really amazing, uplifting meetings that helps you float through the rest of the week. It was Fast Sunday (since we had General Conference last week) and therefore testimony meeting instead of talks. A lot of people talked about the blessings they have received from keeping commandments. Which makes sense, given the Prophet's talk last week about gratitude. But some of their stories were really amazing. One guy had a very interesting story. Last month, he shared in sacrament that he had been praying for a challenge. About a week later, his knee got completely busted playing basketball - his patella detached from his knee. He has a brace that he has to wear for three months. But he told us that since then, he's noticed nothing but blessings and the kindness people show him. He's noticed people who take the time to stop and talk to him, ask him how he is, help him out. Friends who stop by just because, or strangers who see him and ask if there's anything they can do. He also said something I really liked:

"If we're doing the right thing, the wrong thing never happens; good and bad things might happen, but never the wrong thing."

Personally, I'm trying a few things myself as an experiment on faith, if you will. My Chemistry 106 teacher gave us a challenge to not do homework on Sunday. He said that when he was in college, he took the same challenge and saw many blessings in his life, both spiritual and secular. Sometimes, a homework assignment he didn't have time to do on Saturday would be cancelled or postponed. And he felt his Sundays were more spiritual and he had more time to devote to his church duties. I've been doing this for a few weeks now, and I'm beginning to see the results. Sundays are certainly better. I'm using the time I would have been studying to talk to my family in Boston, talking to friends that had a rough week or were sick, reading scriptures, and reviewing my conference notes. Having such a peaceful Sunday seems to make the rest of my week go so much better.

PS This is a picture of me and Kaylee the night we found her. I miss her dearly, but I was told she was adopted into a wonderful home :3

BYU Homecoming!

After a couple weeks of exams and pain, we had Homecoming week at BYU.

This is my third year at BYU, and this is the most involved I've been with campus events. Homecoming here always starts with an opening ceremony on Tuesday with tons of presentations and a keynote speaker. Homecoming is always themed after an important person in BYU history, and this year it was Harvey Fletcher, the father of stereophonic sound. So homecoming was very science-themed. Apparently, BYU has one of the biggest Homecoming celebrations in the country. I believe it; there is always something going on homecoming week! Free cookouts during lunchtime at the Student Center, alumni reunions, True Blue Football (everyone gets covered in blue foam), Light the Y (people go up to the big white Y on the mountain and screw in lightbulbs that light up at night), the BYU Spectacular (basically a huge variety show of all the choral, dance, and acting groups), and all sorts of fancy dances.

Practicing our routine before the parade started - Jordan and I are in the middle back

This year, I got to be in the parade on Saturday morning. The BYU Ballroom Dance Company always does a lindy routine down the entire route, and since I got on team this year I got to participate! Our Tour team went to Blackpool, England this year (and won again, of course) so they got to show off and be awesome while we shook our tail feathers. Iting. But we had such a blast. It was a two-minute Lindy Hop routine with charleston, lifts, jumps and dips. The video link is from last year, but we did the same routine. Which we repeated over and over again for three miles. But we were laughing so hard trying to run and catch up with the truck, and high-fiving the little kids on the sidelines. We were so pumped with adrenaline by the end that we were just bouncing off the walls at the social. People were still dancing to the party music and goofing around. I love being on the ballroom team :) I love the people, the energy, the chance to perform and share my love of dance.

((brief side note: after the parade, I ran and beasted by MMBio exam. Booyah))

I then went to my first homecoming dance :3 We went as a double date, and got in free because we helped with the BYU Swing Kids charleston demonstration. So much dancing, my legs were dead the next day. It was super fun though! It was Dancing Through the Ages themed, so it started with 20s music and dance, and then went through every decade until the present with hip hop. People were dressed from all the different decades too. I had an amazing time. It was definitely a good day.

And the football team finally won another game. Thank goodness.

Conference Weekend

This week has been surprisingly good. Hard work and prioritizing correctly really pays off and makes life a whole lot less stressful. If only I knew and employed that knowledge two years ago... So far, my exams have been going splendidly! I took Calculus II previously and didn't do too well (failed miserably), and my first exam I got a 100% on the multiple choice. I felt pretty good, not gonna lie. :) Still waiting to get the open response grade back. I also took my Old Testament exam this week on all of Genesis. My friend Katherine and I were freaking out about how much material we had to know, the genealogies and the covenants and the locations, but it turned out not to be so bad! I got a 98% on that multiple choice, but as with the calc exam, I'll have to wait and see what my open response grade will be. I have my Chem 106 and MMBio exams next week, so I'll have to study harder to even hope for grades like the ones I got this week.

It's been a week full of little blessings, though. Keeping focused and taking breaks when I need them have given me so many opportunities to learn and help other people. Finding Kaylee was definitely the highlight. By sharing her story, I met a bunch of guys in my apartment complex that are obsessed with the Firefly series, and we've agreed to have Firefly nights! The people in my ward are so amazing. I love walking out at night and joining in singing on the steps, with two guitarists and a uke.

Today was also the Saturday session of General Conference. It's a semiannual conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints where the First Presidency, members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and other authorities give messages of inspiration, and guidance. I woke up at 9:30 to watch the morning session, took a shower, and then watched the afternoon session. I love Conference weekend because it's like going to church in your PJ's! I always take lots of notes because otherwise I don't think I'd be able to stay awake. My favorites today were by Elder D. Todd Christofferson on consecrating our lives to God's purposes, and one by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf' on refocusing on the basics, simplifying our lives so we can make time to nurture our relationships with God, family, fellow men, and ourselves. It was a wonderful day and I'm so excited for tomorrow.

Cat Rescuers!

It's not every day that you get to save someone's life. Today I rescued an abandoned kitten.

Today was pretty great: went to all my classes, ballroom team is going splendidly, did freakishly well on my calculus II exam the previous night. After work, I hung out with my friend David. We went to the Rock Canyon Park at the foot of Squaw in Provo to run around and dance. While we were talking about being a cat or a dog person, this little cat comes running up to us. We played with her for a little while and then walked on. When we came back, she was still where we left her. On further notice, her pink bedazzled collar was lying in the dirt a few feet away. I guess only a few hours earlier, someone had dumped her off and taken her collar off to face the elements. We were so afraid she would get run over by a car or eaten by a cougar, we took her with us. She was the sweetest little thing! She was perfectly tame, remarkably calm, friendly and sweet. We fed her a few cheesy crackers and some clean water and took her for a ride to the police station to figure out what to do next. Turns out, the nearest animal shelter is in Spanish Fork, and is only open during daylight. So we took her to David's friend's house, where she can be safe until one of us finds a home for her.

We named her Kaylee, after the Firefly character. I wanted to keep her so badly. I miss having a pet.

Back at BYU

Well, it's only a few weeks into the semester, and a lot has happened, both good and bad. Due to the more recent events, I've been really upset and I realized I'm not nearly as happy as I was at the beginning of last school year. I'm on a mission to get that Me back. It was that Me that attracted friends and made other people happy, and that made me happy. I was funny, silly, always found with a smile and something to talk about. Always ready for some new adventure, whether that was late-night park games or splashing in puddles with equally ridiculous friends. Now I want to find the balance of happy-friendly-fun Me and productive-scholarly Me. I know it's possible. I'm also trying to be better spiritually. I haven't been doing some of the basic things I know I should, like praying and reading my scriptures, not with real intent.

Maybe I'll be blessed with that artistic inspiration I've been missing for so long.

*So as not to seem so bleak, one of the awesome bits of news is that I got onto the 10 o'clock BYU Ballroom Team! It's an entry-level team, so we compete with each other to move up to the higher teams. BYU has five teams within the Ballroom Company, so there is plenty of room for improvement.

"Don't You Know You're Beautiful" by Seabird

Work & Play

I love finally being able to work! I've been so depressed this summer not being able to get work and make my own money. It's a wonderful feeling to be given a job and be rewarded for what you do. I work for a temp agency in Boston, and I've been assigned to do receptionist work in a couple companies so far. Though lately, since people have been going on vacation, the number of calls has been minimal. Thankfully, they allow me to surf the net and bring stuff to entertain myself. I've crocheted an iPod case, a fluffy pink yarmulke and matching coin purse (don't ask - I really don't know), and I'm in the process of making a blue teddy bear. I have his body and head done so far. He is lovingly referred to as "Frankenbear," but not due to my sloppy work. :I I've also drawn a client's cat as a thank you - I'm also pet-sitting on the side this summer for some extra cash.
I'm also FINALLY catching up on all my friends out on missions for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. A lot of them are young men who I went to school with freshman year of college. Two of them have their moms post their emails and letters on a specific blog, Elder Rudy Wright's and Elder Jeff Powell's. I love seeing all the pictures and reading about their experiences. It really helped me catch up on their lives, and I'm writing them each a rather substantial letter, since I haven't seen either of them for about a year now. I have many other missionaries to write as well, so this is just the first batch!
Also, on Sunday, I hung out all day with my dad. We went to church in the morning, and I subbed for one of the Sunday School teachers. The kids were really good, probably because I brought four dozen freshly baked peanut butter cookies. Then we went to brunch at Mel's and made silly faces. Then we went home and watched a BBC production called Wives and Daughters and ate ice cream cake. It was glorious. And the BBC movie was incredible! We had fun pointing out all the actors we'd seen from different versions of Pride & Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility, Pirates of the Caribbean, and others. And the story was so beautiful! I really want to read the book now. I'm also kindof in love with the actor that played the 2005 Mr. Collins and the evil East India Trading Co. dude from Pirates. He had such a sweet, tragic character in the movie, I just can't get over it.

"Go, confront the problem, fight, WIN! And call me when you get back, dahling, I enjoy our visits."
~ Edna Mode from The Incredibles

A Day of More Cooking!

When will the foodings stop??

I swear I talk about and do other things than cook and bake. But I have more to share.

So, another thing on the Frister List was a summer meal I like to make called the Tomato Steak and Baked Goat Cheese Salad. I was finally able to make it today since everyone was home for once.

The delectable salad. Everyone saves the cheese for last.

Then I did another baking experiment. We already know I love red velvet cupcakes. But we found that Bread and Chocolate had another cupcake recipe video. Theirs had a bit more cocoa, and added cinnamon and balsamic vinegar. It was simply delightful.

I made a dozen of these enormous delights and gave them to friends

Celtics Cupcakes

I think I'm addicted to making cupcakes. It's so terribly fun! And it's delightful to watch as you make everyone around you happy and fat ^_^

I made these at my friend Zach's house. We knew we wanted to make cupcakes, so we walked into the house and his parents were watching the Celtics game. Then Zach made a suggestion: instead of red velvet cupcakes, how about GREEN velvet cupcakes? And then, in the middle of making them, when the scores were really close, he announced that if they lost, we could not eat the cupcakes and would have to simply stare at them in shame and sorrow. So, we were a little more fervent in our support for the team. Good thing they won, or we wouldn't have been witness to the deliciousness of green velvet.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

So my sisters had their end-of-year bake sale for Boston Ballet this weekend. I made a few dozen red velvet cupcakes for them to sell, and to give to teachers. They are soooo delicious. I used a recipe courtesy of the blog haute from the oven. They're sweet and moist and bright red. It's my favorite cupcake, I think.

AAAH so much sushi.

Okay okay. I kinda went crazy.

Here we have four different types of yumminess. The nigiri around the plate are prosciutto, tofu, and sweet potato. In the middle there are sweet potato and tuna sushi. I shared with the family. The tuna was everyone's favorite.

Dad came home last night! It's so nice to have him back ^_^ He's always going to Saudi every few weeks for work. Here's the blog he sometimes updates about his adventures.

Tonight was a standard ballroom group lesson for waltz. It was great! I haven't done any standard ballroom in like, two months. And I got to wear my new fancy standard shoes. Hee.

All considered though, I'm kinda bummed. It's pretty lonely out here. There aren't many people who are interested in dating socially, and most of my friends from high school are still in school, so they can't play. I've been keeping myself busy, of course; ballroom three hours a night, blues on Thursdays, driving my sisters around to ballet, and making sushi. I still haven't found a job, so I feel a little useless. But soon, friends will be done with finals and come back to Suds, and I will find a way to make some money! And being home is pretty wonderful. I missed the trees and greenery, hanging out and rockin to rad car jamz with my sisters, talking to my dad, and having breakfast every morning with my mom.

Determination!

As one of my friends told me, "If you give up, I'll never dance with you again."

Dance-related threats work on me, I guess.

PS. I really want a Toothless figurine. Maybe I'll make one...

More sushiiiii.

We did another mad-dash sushi dinner today.

tofu nigiri, prosciutto nigiri, sweet potato sticks

I think my favorite was the tofu. But the prosciutto was pretty good too, it didn't need soy sauce at all.

Misomisosambaaa

I made homemade miso soup today! It was ever so tasty ^_^ This is the recipe I used:

Ingredients:

4 cups water

1/3 cup miso paste

3 green onions, chopped

1 tbsp shredded nori or wakame (seaweed)

1/2 block firm silken tofu, cut into 1 inch cubes

Dash soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

Bring water to a slow simmer and add seaweed. Simmer for 5-6 minutes, or more depending on your preferences. The seaweed will taste less salty/fishy if you simmer it longer. Reduce heat to very low and add the rest of the ingredients. Stir until miso is well dissolved. It is best not to boil the miso, because it will lose some of its nutritional value and the soup will taste different.

It was kinda rainy and cold today, so it was pretty much the perfect thing. Nice and warm and salty asian goodness.

Ballroom tonight was painful but productive. The first hour was a group samba technique class, and we did a full hour of crusado walks. SO much technique in my poor little brain and for my body to pick up. Practice makes near-perfect, I suppose. Then the next latin class was rumba. I had such a hard time with the spin turn to aida(sp?). Good thing I have all summer to practice!

My new favorite quote: "I don't practice until I get it right, I practice until I can't get it wrong!" (stolen from my friend on the BYU ballroom tour team)

Sushi!

Today was crazzy! It was the day of mad-dash sushi! It's kinda hard to make sushi for three hungry girls in an hour and a half before rushing off to ballet and ballroom. But we did it! We ate it on the drive over.

left to right: sweet potato & avocado cucumber sushi w/ roe (fish eggs),

salmon nigiri, plain sweet potato sticks

It was incredibly tasty, and the nigiri turned out perfect. I got the sushi salmon from Whole Foods, and it was perfect.

The rest of the night I did salsa and worked on cha cha with Ray, my partner for the Am-Am comp at Yankee Classic on January 20th. I forgot how very bad I am ^_^; He gave me CD of some rad swing/blues guitar by Stevie Ray Vaughan. I can see how John Mayer got his inspiration from this guy, his singing style is very similar. I want to see how it works as dance music.

Ginger peanut somen noodles dinner

clockwise from top: ginger-lime dressing, soba noodles, scallions,

crushed peanuts, and rice noodles for mom. everyone had coconut juice to drink :3

My sisters have what we call The Frister List. It is a list of places to go, things to eat, things to bake and cook, etc. while I'm home for the summer. One of those was to make the ginger-peanut soba noodle dinner they love so much. We had quite the adventure food shopping, and dancing down the grocery aisles. I love cooking with my sisters. It's like I have a small army doing half the work magically.

Now, this little dinner was supposed to be only part of a enormous feast for my mom for a belated mother's day gift. It was going to be appetizers of various seasoned edamame, then miso soup, the ginger-peanut noodles as a side dish with all sorts of sushi as the main feature, with mango sticky rice for dessert. *sigh* I think it's going to end up being spread out over the week. We'll see how it goes!

Mother's Day & Snow White

Today was Mother's Day! So I'll spotlight me mum's blog. Go say hi! My sisters made her a lovely breakfast-in-bed, complete with fresh fruit and gluten-free pancakes. I love you, Mom!

It was also my sisters' last Snow White performance. The Boston Ballet School in Newton had a showcase of all their classes for three days, coupled with a short ballet. It included dancers from the Boston Ballet Pre-Pro program, as well as from their more intensive division classes. My sisters were tree spirits for one cast, and members of the Evil Queen's court for another. There are some watermarked professional photos of the ballet here, if you feel like taking a look. I was very impressed with the performances of both casts, but my favorite was today's. All the lead dancers were focused and expressed their parts perfectly. The ballet was originally created to be a way to get the younger generations interested in ballet dance performance. I'd say it does its job well, but it's also very well done as a short ballet on its own.

Congrats to Lise & Sasha!

Day Before Mother's Day

One of my best friends at home is my friend Jeremy. Today we finally got together (family and New York adventures prevented me from seeing him in any of his end-of-semester concerts) and caught up on life stories. We went to Big Fresh (an amazing stir-fry, organic, hippy food kinda place) like we usually do when I'm home. Then we went on an adventure to find the perfect mother's day gifts. I already had mine planned, so I was along for the ride. We forgot that the mall was swarmed, so we got out of there speedy fast. That's one weird thing about me. I really don't like shopping. The shopping part of shopping that is. I love being with people and talking and running around together, but I hate spending money and trying to figure out what fits/what matches/what "just works". Happy ending: we found the perfect gift. Then we went back to my house and made cards out of construction paper, markers, and stickers. It was so fun!

My mom has given me the task of backing up and ultimately clearing the home computer. It might be slow because it's just dang old, but it doesn't hurt to virtually tidy things up. I'll be happily occupied for some time with this. :)

~Me

New York Trip!

I got to visit Sarah at Bard!! The drive up was so gorgeous, sunny skies with lazy poofy clouds and gorgeous rolling hills for miles around. I really like driving, especially on the highway. I love being able to go fast.

Stopped somewhere nice to eat my sushi

I listened to the "Car Jamz" CD Sasha made for me. Lots of rockin tunes like "Fergalicious" and "Love Drunk" and "Human". The Volvo has a pretty nice sound system, so I took full advantage of it. I also listened to the Owl City Concert mix I made after I saw them in Salt Lake. It was so happy and chill.

I finally got to Bard after three hours and found Sarah. We ate the delicious food from the mess hall and listened to hipsters talk of scary things that happen when kids do drugs. Sarah took me on a mini tour of the campus. We:

played on an art exhibit

ran through the courtyard

and took a trail to the edge of the Hudson River

Then we bought veggiemonster food and candy and watched three episodes of Battlestar Galactica (season finale of season 3!) with Martin & Sarah. I was a huge BSG fan my freshman year. Katherine and I would watch an episode every week. I still haven't watched the very last two, so no spoilers please. Then we listened to Matt play the uke and sing to Beirut until we fell asleep.

The next morning was so sad. I really wanted to stay but I was tight on time. Right when I was almost home, I got hopelessly lost in Framingham for an hour. I was so stressed and upset with myself that I broke down in tears at a nearby bank. I think I need a GPS next time. I was fine going to NY, got there in less than 3 hours with just Mapquest directions. But the lack of roadsigns in Massachusetts does not help at all.

I calmed down though and went to the opening night of the Boston Ballet School's production of Snow White. It was really quite amazing! I took notes on sisters' technique and ideas for myself. And now I REALLY want to complete the Imogen Heap dance I started choreographing months ago. Maybe I can find a few high school girls that would be willing to do some modern-ballet kinda stuff.

We'll see.

~M

You Keep Staring Like You've Never Seen the Stars...

If you need me to remind you who you are...

Yeah, I'm on a little bit of an Elbow kick right now. They've got such chill, lovely music.

[Station Approach, The Stops, The Bones of You, Mirrorball, Grounds for Divorce, Weather to Fly]

Basically the biggest thing I did all day was eat a slice of pizza at Sweet Tomatoes. I talked to a mom there who has a job in nutrition, so it was a huge treat for her kids to have pizza. :P They were super cute and were telling me all sorts of crazy stories. I also planned my trip to Bard to visit Sarah. Hopefully that will happen Thursday. I need to get cracking on studying calculus, I'm going stir crazy without a job! And I really want to paint something. Inspiration just seems to elude me. Maybe if I find the right song... "The Stops" is really stuck in my head.

...and I'll miss you the way you miss the sea.

~Marina

Summer 2010: Week 1

Tuesday, April 27th:

Mokay. So this morning, I awoke to my phone buzzing from several txts from my sisters telling me to wake up and get my butt over to the high school, so I went and gave them their presents (Lise got a BYU sweatshirt like mine, Sasha got the first book in the Wheel of Time series called The Eye of the World), talked to my old science and calc teachers (below are the doodles I drew on Dr. Pegram's board), and then drove my sisters home (with much car jamz). Then I took them to dinner at Sweet Tomatoes (DELICIOUS italian thin crust pizza with crazy awesome tomato sauce), then to ballet. While they were at ballet, I went and hung out with my ballroom teachers. Everyone was super excited to see me, and I talked to Ray for a while. He knows some awesome lindy and blues places, so I'll be going this week. ^_^Then drove my sisters home, screaming lyrics all the way, making people look at us weird. Came home. Kinda worried about finding a job. The end of day 1 home.

Wednesday, April 28th:
Today I was going to do a lot of stuff (like laundry, visit more teachers, talk to students about college, etc) but no. I was lazy. SO I ended up visiting my awesome friend Steph after I dropped my dad off at the bus station on his way to Saudi :'( . We made tortilla soup. It turned out SO GOOD. I don't even know how, we didn't follow the recipe. We just threw stuff in we thought would taste good, like black beans and corn and peppers and chicken. It was so so fun. After that, I drove over to my sisters' ballet studio in Newton. My old ballet teacher was there and she was so excited to see me! Ms. Busch was so nice, and she let me come in and watch the class. My sisters have gotten so incredibly good. I'm really amazed. I do miss ballet a lot, but not quite enough to go through the pain again ;) Turf Toe once is good enough for me. So then I went to dinner at Lam's with my mom (really good Vietnamese food). I got tofu vegetable red curry with summer rolls and coconut juice. It was so amazing. The guy next to us had a ridiculous accent and was really loud about how awesome he was. He and his date(?) even started singing some hokey song at one point. It was all we could do not to laugh out loud. I could barely contain myself. After our lovely dinner (and me being interrogated on various points of my life), I drove off to ballroom for the group lessons. Everyone was so happy to see me, but I can't believe how out of shape I've gotten after only a few weeks! I'm going to be there so much this summer. It's gonna rock. BYU ballroom team, here I come.

Thursday, April 29th
Today was pretty dang sweet. I took apart my mom's MacBook (because the hard drive died) and went Blues dancing. It was pretty cool because there's basically a clone of every blues dancer I know in Provo. But now my toe is acting up again. Joy.

Friday April 30th:
Ordered the harddrive for the Macbook. I plan on taking apart our other two MUCH older computers for kicks. I went to ballet (took the Tahoe, man that thing is a monster) with my mom and sisters. I helped weed and water the ballet garden, which was quite nice given the uncharacteristic warm sunny weather. Then when my sisters got out of ballet, we went to dinner at a Middle Eastern restaurant called Karoun with my relatives from Alaska. I also discovered, while I was chatting with some of the ballet people, that Mr. Anderson has a huge thing for ravens! I think I might make something raveny for him, like a tribal raven painting or something.

Saturday, May 1:
LOBSTER DINNERRRR that I have been dying to have for YEARS. We had lobster and mussels and clams and oysters on the half shell. I've never had them on the half shell, so it was a pretty fun experience. And I've heard that they are an aphrodisiac? I'll have to test that out one day in the distant future :P Must be the zinc.

Lobsterrrrr. He's looking at you.

Lise...you're doing it wrong.

Sunday, May 2nd:
Drove my sisters to Snow White rehearsal. Then Mom, Lise, Sasha, and the Alaskans went to theCoach Grill for dinner. Whoa-expensive, but really tasty.

Left to right: Granny, Grumps, Lise, Me, Sasha, Mom, Roz

in front of the picture we were talking about all night

Monday, May 3rd:

Basically lazed around the house all day. Cleaned up a bit, did laundry. Alaska people left on a plane today.

The hdd I ordered Friday for my mom's broken MacBook came around 4 pm. I didn't have the proper screwdriver for extracting the old hard drive from its protective little metal home. So my friend David ran over with a Torx driver. Installed it beautifully. Then we went on a Best Buy adventure to find the Mac OS X Snow Leopard. The hunt for the snow leopard was a success. After a bit of confusion formatting the new hdd, it's now installing smoothly and happily. I'm actually really glad about this because now I can just put all my music on the mac for my sisters to use! The hdd I bought off NewEgg is 320 Gb, so it has more than enough room for what my mom/sisters need it for. Happiness!!

Until next week ~ Me.