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.

Mile High Blues Extravaganza!

This weekend was absolutely wonderful! To preface, I have had this planned since the end of January. I am allowed three absences in my classes. I planned on using two for this trip, but since I got the flu, I could only afford one. It was like a fake spring vacation (since we at BYU don't get one, we get out early in April). It was just for fun, but it was also hard work. The workshops were extremely educational, and I learned a lot about lead-follow technique. I've found that since doing blues, I am so much better at following and maintaining my connection in ballroom. About 25 of us from the Salt Lake City and Provo areas of Utah went over. Everything was meticulously organized. We had vans and switched off driving, and no one got lost. It all went perfectly smoothly. We had schedules written up with the car piles, stops, who needed to be where and when.

Thursday, we left around 2. It's an 8 hour drive, and it was me, Laura, Scott and Josh. We were totally prepared with road-trip-worthy snacks, an excellent music selection, and conversations all about dancing. We got to Kat's house around midnight. Kat's parents were amazing, and let us all stay at their gorgeous mansion about an hour from Denver. They are a lovely Mormon family, and had a big old golden retriever. They even made us french toast and eggs for breakfast and sloppy joe's for dinner. Mmmmm :3

So the next day we had some time before registration, so a van of us went adventuring. We saw the sculpture garden, ate at a hippy-organic place called the Rainbow Cafe at CSU (had a dish just like the Big Fresh Special mmmm) and went shopping in downtown Fort Collins. We tried on old fashioned clothes at an antique store, perused the White Balcony, looked around a thrift store, and ran around a puppet-and-games kids store (I bought a mini art kit complete with a mannequin). We finished off by trying on dresses at Cira and getting the boys' opinions. I loved this one flowy black Monroe-style dress, and I would have bought it but it was $100.

Friday night was the first dance - everyone is in casual clothes. It was really fun having a live band, but they tended to do longer, faster songs, which wore me out quick. We all had a marvelous time. The finals for the social dance competition were held. A few of us left around 2 because we were tired.

Saturday - we got up early to go to the workshops. Next year I'm definitely auditioning for the advanced level. We had lessons with Dexter about how to dance with anyone, tips on social conduct etc. Chris and Campbell (so much loooove, saw them when they came to Boston) did a lesson on "Flomentum." They talked about how to match the momentum of your partner and how to control it, and flowing from one figure to another (lots of fun spins and turns, and elastic connections). They are my favorite by far. Another reason why I love Chris and Campbell: Campbell went to Stanford, and Chris studied Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Tech. Nerdy dancers are the best. Here's a clip of their beautiful dancing.

Then Scott organized a group private with Joe and Nell, and we worked on drag blues. It's a different connection that's more based on copying your partner rather than following, and it looks like you're dragging each other around, resulting in a very grounded effect. I consider Scott an excellent dancer, and I felt really proud that he was complimenting me on my dancing. I used to be really intimidated by him. I haven't danced with him since September. Kat is a gorgeous blues dancer and I love watching and learning from her. Mike, Laura and Josh were also in the group, members of the Provo Blues Ambassadors. Then we ordered lunch from Noodles & Co, rested for a bit, went to dinner, and then got ready for the next dance.

We all gussied up in our very best. It was amazing because we had met so many fabulous dancers earlier at the workshops, and I had fantastic dances, every single one. The two guys that posted on my wall were a couple of my favorite leads at the dance. Erik goes to the Air Force Academy, apparently there's a sweet blues scene there. He was super fun to dance with, we played off the music really well. There were a lot of people from Boston, which made me happy. I miss the Blues Union group from the summer. I didn't get to dance with everyone I wanted to though... I couldn't make it through to the end of the Late Night dance. I left at 3.
And then Sunday we got up, most people went to church, and those who wanted to went to more workshops and dances, but about six of us took a nap and then drove home through the sun and snow.

It was a truly inspiring weekend, and now I'm back in Provo with a body aching to dance.

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. :)

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