50 Questions of Randomness

So I realized that I haven't posted in a few days, mostly because my life has been crazy with work, performances, and moving.  I don't really have anything profound to say or anything else really exciting going on in my life right now, so I thought it would be fun just to post some random questions.  You gotta have some fun in life!

1.  Where were you three hours ago?  I was dying in my apartment because it was so stuffy in there while sorting through shoes.  It was rather boring.

2.  What are you looking forward to in the next week?  I'd have to say Encore's two final performances of The Westing Game because they are going to be awesome and also being completely out of my apartment and not having to wonder if I'm going to have enough money to buy food.

3.  Is there anything pink within ten feet of you?  Well the rugs in my room have some pink in them, so yes.

4.  When's the last time you went to the mall?  Sometime in the spring maybe?  I honestly don't go to the mall.  I don't enjoy shopping and I don't like being around that many people.

5.  Are you wearing socks right now?  No.  I go barefoot, wear flip flops, or wear ballet flats.  I am not a socks kind of girl.

The Westing Game - A Journey Through My Eyes

A couple of months ago I saw that a theatre group I've acted with in the past was having auditions for a play called The Westing Game.  The name sounded very familiar so I looked it up and found that the play was based off a book of the same name, a book that I had read when I was in 5th grade.  I'll take just about any opportunity to act, so I figured that I'd go ahead and audition.  I also figured that it would probably be a good idea for me to actually re-read the book since I didn't remember much of it other than bits and pieces.  My first thought, before I started reading it, was that it was going to be a bit juvenile.  I mean, I'd read this book when I was a kid, sure there are those books that are timeless and that you love all through your life from childhood to adulthood, but I couldn't really imagine this being one of them.  I was completely wrong.  It turned out to be one of the most brilliant books I had read in a good while and I loved it.  With my first reading I immediately knew what character I wanted to play, a woman who just didn't fit in with the other characters.  They laughed at her behind her back, ignored, and treated her, quite honestly, like crap, until of course they needed her and then they were all willing to kiss up to her.  In that book, she was the person who I could identify with the most, with the way she felt and to an extent to the way she was treated.  I think I read the book through at least five times before my audition, just so I could get a good feel of the character and nail the cold reading of the script.

I'm Baaaaaack!!!!!

So obviously I haven't blogged since May, so almost 6 months now, but I do have a very good excuse.  In case you didn't know, internet can be quite expensive, like $40+ a month expensive for the cheapest plan.  If you didn't know before, now you do.  And so moving in a new apartment and all, having to pay for rent, electric, water, food, etc., well, let's just say that internet was not exactly a top priority.  Fast forward to the present and I am moving back in with my parents temporarily, well, probably until next summer, mostly due to the fact that my apartment was ridiculously expensive and for all that it looked nice, I've had a lot of problems with it and it just wasn't worth it anymore.  Did I mention how expensive it was?  And since it was so expensive, I was basically saving up pennies so I can eventually move to L.A.  So I'm going to be living with my parents for a while until one of my friends finishes high school and then we'll probably rent an apartment together or a house or something.  Yeah, you can tell we've really thought this through.  I think I'll leave it at that for now, but you can expect me to start blogging again.  I've honestly really missed it and I hated having those days when I had a moment of, Oooh, I really want to blog about this, and then realizing that, Darn, I don't have internet.  Really complicates things, I can tell you.  Until next time, au revoir!  Oh, did you miss me? ;)

Packing Up

So I get to move into my new apartment tomorrow morning, which, again is really exciting and really nerve-racking, and I've barely packed anything.  I swear, I am the queen of procrastination.  So at this moment I should really be packing and making the most of my time, but I guess my mind just kind of figured, well, hey, you've been procrastinating this long a few more minutes won't kill me.  We'll see if those will be famous last words.  While I'm still really excited to be moving, I've also been discovering how expensive it is!  If I'd known, I'd probably have delayed moving for another month or two so I could just save up as much as possible.  But I've been managing and I'm thankful for my parents who are doing all they can to help me.

Cleaning Up Facebook

More and more I've been realizing, as I scroll through my newsfeed on Facebook, how sexual the most innocent sounding pages have gotten.  I'll be going through and suddenly there's a post of a half naked woman from a Disney quote page that I liked in the past.  Some of the posts are just stupid, some are truly offensive, some are marginally funny, but they're all inappropriate.  For a while those kinds of posts weren't all that common.  I'd see them occasionally, but they were fairly easy to ignore and the good posts were far more frequent.  At this point though, I feel like that's all I see.

As they did get more frequent, I stopped just ignoring them and started removing the post from my feed.  I didn't feel like I really needed to be constantly looking at that kind of content.  More recently though I realized that in a way, by continuing to like the page, I'm supporting them in posting that kind of content and that's not something I really want to be doing.  So at this point, I'm clearing out the junk completely.  All the crap is just completely overshadowing anything good that is posted.  So now if I see an inappropriate post from a page, and it doesn't matter what page it is, I'm unliking that page.  It might be a bit extreme, but now I can browse through my newsfeed and not just see inappropriate post after inappropriate post.  And that makes me feel better because I don't feel like I'm supporting something I don't like anymore.  Now before I like a page, I look through its contents and make sure there's very little there that's going to bug me.  In with the good, out with the bad.

Moving On, Moving Out

The closer and closer it gets to May and the more I know that I need to be getting stuff done and getting things together, I feel like more and more I'm just putting stuff off, that I'm in denial.  Maybe its just because I'm scared.  Its so exciting to talk about getting your own apartment, to be moving out for the first time, but when it actually comes down to it, its also frightening.  To suddenly have all this responsibility thrust upon you, to suddenly have to consider so many more things, to realize that mom and dad won't be just down the hall to go talk to, to realize that you're going to be on your own in this unfamiliar place.

31 Days: Five

March 5:  Favorite Movies You Never Get Sick Of Watching

Yay for an easy question and for posting on the correct day!  This will probably be one of my shortest posts during this whole thing.  So here goes! 

The Lord of the Rings

31 Days: Three and Four

March 3:  What Makes You Happy?

So I'm only four days in and I'm already doubling up a second time.  I promise I shall get better at this!  Hopefully...

So this is another question that's kind of hard to narrow down because there are a large number of things that make me happy.  But I will do my best to not make this too lengthy.

31 Days: One and Two

Hello, so I'm really bad at knowing what to blog which means there are many times that I go days or even weeks at a time without blogging simply because I don't know what the heck to write.  But yesterday a friend of mine posted a 31 Days series on her blog and then posted the list in case anyone else wanted to join her.  Since I've never done a series I thought it might be fun to give it a go.  I can't exactly promise that I'll be able to do everyday, obviously I already missed day 1, but I do promise that I'll never let myself get behind by more than one day.  So here goes nothing!

Raindrops on Roses

So I have not blogged in a while, for which I am rather annoyed with myself, but I have also been getting used to a totally new schedule.  As I've mentioned before I think I now work at a call center which I've discovered that I really enjoy.  A little over a week ago, my trainer went around asking for volunteers to work on graveyard for at least the rest of the week.  Since I'd asked a couple weeks earlier to be put on graveyard, I immediately volunteered, as did one my friends.  I finally found out today, no, sorry, last night, that the six of us who volunteered to go on graveyard, are now on permanent graveyard which was pretty darned fantastic.  While I'm really enjoying graveyard, its also been a huge change.  I've basically been working and sleeping and that's it.  My body's still trying to adjust to the change, I think.

We Are Just That Awesome

So I don't really have anything profound to say today, not that I usually do, but in any case I thought it would be kind of fun to make a random list of the fun and maybe not so fun things that happened today.  I sometimes have a tendency to look at just the bad things and not the good that happen in a day, so there are times when I'll make a list of both and usually the list of good things is longer than the list of bad things, so here's for today!

A Single Rose

So I think I mentioned in my post with the Valentine's Day questionnaire that there are times when I really struggle with Valentine's Day because I am single and have been single for so long.  I've certainly had times where I've felt like Valentine's Day is a bit of a slap in the face for those who are single.  But this year I told myself I wouldn't have any of those thoughts and I would make it just a good day.

Dancing With God

 Since I've started this blog, I've had a number of people ask me where I got the title and why I chose it.  The simple answer is that one of the things I absolutely love to do is dance, particularly ballroom dance, and, well, God is perfect and you always wish for the perfect dance partner, so why not dance with God?  That's the short and simple answer that's easy to give.  The long answer, the deeper reason, has always been harder for me to describe.  I don't know why, but it always has been which frustrates me, because the reason I chose that title is not simply for the reason I gave, though obviously that's part of it.  But that's just the surface, the rest is much deeper.

Be Mine

So recently a friend of mine did a little Valentine's Day questionnaire on her blog and posted a link to it.  Since I've been out of ideas of what to post, I figured this would be fun.  You can check it out here if you're interested!

Lord of the Rings, Sherlock, Doctor Who, Oh My!

I mentioned a few weeks ago that a couple of friends and I did a double feature at a local movie theater and saw Les Miserables and The Hobbit.  Well, as it turns out, one of my friends, had never seen Lord of the Rings.  Being huge fan I am and with my other friend also being a fan, we decided that he absolutely HAD to see the movies.  But setting up a time to try to watch all three turned out to be a rather challenging task since watching all three movies takes up nearly ten hours.  So in the end we decided it would be easier to do it over two days.  Tonight was our first night, watching Fellowship of the Ring.

Encouragement of a Friend

Earlier today, while I was out walking one of my dogs, my phone went off, informing me that I had a text message, or in this case, that someone had posted on my Facebook wall.  When I checked it, I was incredibly surprised to see that it was informing me that one of my former youth pastors had posted on my wall.  The surprise came from the fact that I haven't really seen or spoken to him since my family moved into Albuquerque.  Since the message only gives a the first couple of words of the post, I really wasn't sure what the post was about.

So when I got home, I headed straight over to my computer and proceeded to check it out.  I was again incredibly surprised when I saw that it wasn't just a short post like I was expecting, but almost a full page.  Reading what he said, reminded me of why he was always one of my favorite people.  He told me that he had seen my blog and wanted to encourage me in my weight loss.  That in and of itself was huge for me.  And then he shared his own weight loss goals and story with me.  Again, that was huge for me.  I have a few people who are encouraging about my weight loss, but none of them have really struggled with being overweight or struggled to then lose that weight.  Reading his story was one of those moments of, I'm not alone in this.

Most of the time what I post on my blog is meant to be interesting or something to learn from or just fun, in short, I try to post things that will encourage or interest other people.  What I never expected, was that through it, I would receive some of the encouragement I've gotten from friends who have read it.  And for that, I feel very blessed.

Thankful for the Little Things

So a couple days ago we got a notice on our front door that our water would be shut off in order to make some repairs in the area, which basically meant, we're redesigning part of the golf course right across from your house and we're doing something with the water lines to improve it.  Yeah, kind of annoying, especially since I don't golf and could care less how the golf course looks or functions.  But, I was not consulted in the matter, so, oh well.  In any case, the notice said the water would be off from 8 am till 4 pm, kind of an annoying time frame because I don't usually get up till around 8, but I figured getting up an hour or so earlier wouldn't kill me.  I honestly wasn't all that concerned because I was supposed to be working for most that time frame.

Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining

So I woke up this morning feeling pretty depressed.  I'd had this absolutely perfect dream where the guy I liked finally liked me too, my career was getting started and going really well, I was thin and felt beautiful, and basically everything I wanted had come true.  It was so vivid, so real...and then I woke up.  Worst feeling ever.

River of Lights

 So I realize that I'm almost a month late posting these, but, honestly I haven't had the time to go through all the pictures I took.  But, hey, better late than never!  So here are a few of the pictures I took.  Enjoy!

Disappointment Hurts, But Life Goes On

So today was a day of several rather important events, well, two important events really.  As I mentioned in my last blog, I started this new diet today and had my audition for Anne Frank.  I was worried about how I would do with the diet because today and tomorrow I'm on what they call a modified fast.  So basically I drink this shake type drink once in the morning and once at night and that's it.  I can't eat anything or drink anything other than water.  It actually turned out to be much easier than I thought it would be.  The shake was very filling and even now, almost ten hours later, I'm not horribly hungry, though I am kind of watching the clock as I wait for 8 o'clock to roll around.

It's For Men?!

So today was kind of an interesting day.  Mostly good, but it had its fun and interesting parts to it.  I had a short work day which was super exciting because it was incredibly stressful and disorganized, mostly due to the fact that our regular day crew manager just left to go on a cruise (lucky!) and we had some other random manager there who didn't seem to totally know what she was doing.  On a Friday, that can be kind of disastrous, and since she made some rather unwise cuts to our crew much earlier than she should have for a Friday the rest of us were kind of screwed once it got busy.  Plus people were ordering some really weird salads today.  Needless to say, I really wanted to smack some of those people for ordering their ridiculous salads.

But I lived (yay!) and had a get together with a friend to look forward to.  Since she lives in Santa Fe we don't see each other a lot, so I was ridiculously excited to hang out with her, because she's so much fun to be around.  We met at Starbucks and got some coffee and ended up spending three hours just chatting which was a lot of fun.  We oohed and aahed over Les Mis and The Hobbit, debated the singing abilities of Gerard Butler in Phantom of the Opera, discussed life and school, talked about books, careers, Downton Abbey, Sherlock, Doctor Who, more Les Mis and The Hobbit and generally just had a fantastic time as our conversation jumped all over the place.  I always love how she sometimes says the most unexpected things that make me think, wow, was not expecting that!  She never fails to make me laugh.

Going On An Adventure!!

So I don't get to hang out with friends too terribly often, 1) because our schedules are usually completely different and 2) because most of them live out in the mountains so its not always real easy to do anything.  But I did make some new friends during my time as part of the cast of A Christmas Carol and as it turns out, some of them are as nerdy as I am. =)

Look To The Future

A couple of weeks ago, a girl I work with mentioned that she had a job interview with a company in Albuquerque.  The job sounded fantastic and she encouraged a lot of us to try applying as well.  The job sounded great and exactly what I've been kind of looking for so when I went home that night I decided to apply.  Now don't get me wrong.  I honestly love my job (I work at Dion's, btw) and the people I work with and everything.  But its not exactly a career job, the schedule changes every week so I don't have a consisted paycheck, and I'm not making a ton of money.  Since I'm planning on moving to L.A. sometime soon, I figured I needed a better paying, more full-time job.

So I went ahead and applied and, man, was it a hard application!!  Typing test, oral test, computer proficiency test, it was intense!  But I got it done and submitted it and got a notice that I would be informed in 72 hours if they wanted an interview.  Well, after 72 hours I hadn't gotten a call, so I figured, oh well, at least I gave it a try.

A Year In Review: 2012

1)  At the beginning of the year I decided to get a couple of mice:  Matthias, Martin, and Methuselah.  Not knowing much about mice, its been a bit of an adventure, but not one I regret taking.

2)  For my 21st birthday my parents and I went to the zoo for the first time in probably close to a year and had an amazing time.

3)  For my mom's birthday we went to the botanical gardens which were gorgeous and completely in bloom.

4)  On May 20th my family watched the solar eclipse which was pretty interesting.

5)  Got to see the 4th of July firework show at the Balloon Fiesta Park.

6 & 7)  My family went up to Silverton.  This and the next picture shows some of the gorgeous scenery we saw.

8)  During part of the summer I got to work as a sales representative with some really neat people.

9)  My family joined the ranks of the crazy people who take all of their animals with them on vacation.  We took our cats with us on our second trip up to Silverton.

10)  Our crazy family photo.  This is what we're really like. =)

11 & 12)  We also visited Vallecito and saw so many deer in the couple days we were there including a doe and her twin fawns which were adorable!

13)  My mom and I did a photoshoot with a mushroom.

14)  I had the opportunity to go on a fall retreat with two of my best friends.  I was so blessed to get to spend time with them.

15)  Just before the cold hit, the rosebush I planted in the spring started to bloom.

16)  Enjoying those last few warm days hanging out in the garden.

17)  Again, for the first time in many years my family and I went to the Balloon Fiesta.

18)  The Hobbit premiere was amazingly epic!

19)  I had an amazing time as a member of the cast of A Christmas Carol and made a lot of new friends.

20)  River of Lights with my parents after not having gone for several years.

A friend of mine did this and I thought it was so neat with the pictures so I decided to copy her. =)  Hope everyone had a fantastic 2012 and here's to 2013!!  Cheers!