It's always a thrill; going to the theater. You've practiced several months in grueling rehearsals, killed multiple pairs of shoes, undergone hours of teachers yelling at you and you're finally ready to go do it all on stage! Ok ok, fine that was a little dramatic :) ...except for the fact that it's all true.. hmm. Anyway, I always look forward to tech week on stage, despite how awful it seems to end up being. You go from a nice, safe studio with mirrors and familiar spacing, to this big dark stage that you're not used to dancing on and you're expected to have perfect spacing in the first run through. Tech week means late nights, going over and over again the same choreography you've been rehearsing for who knows how long, and sometimes you simply wanna die. Then again, there really is nothing better than stepping out onto that stage and overlooking the hundreds of red upholstered seats and the ginormous chandelier hanging from the beautifully decorated ceiling. Although, I can't speak for all theaters, but Capitol Theater is one gorgeous theater. It's kind of a cool set up actually. The company is based in the Capitol Theater. They take class and rehearse on the third floor where there are two studios, the administration works on the second floor where they have all their offices and intimidating cubicles, and the theater is on the first floor; this huge, amazing theater (with real box seats!! I don't know why I find that so cool, but it is!). So everything's all in one place! As opposed to the good old days of having to drive an extra half an hour to get to late Nutcracker rehearsals in Denver. Then you'd get home at 11 o clock or later and still have to do your hair for the next night and your homework for the next day. Yay for graduating high school :) and yay for not having to put my hair up in curlers every night before Nutcracker performances! haha.
So, all the trainees and the academy kids (and I mean ALL the academy kids) have been rehearsing a little piece called De File for the Gala that Ballet West puts on every year. It's this huge fundraiser they put on and honestly, I wish I got to be one of the people who was watching the show! They all get fed an amazing meal, then watch the performance, and then they all meet again for dessert. And they were all wearing these fabulous dresses and killer shoes..man, what it would be like to be rich!! haha They bring in all these people, who most likely have a lot of money based on what I comprehended, and put this whole night together in hopes of convincing these people to donate money to the Ballet. It's kind of awesome! They start out the show with De File, which is basically 150 kids on stage at the same time, doing who knows what because there's too much commotion to even tell what is going on! But it was a blast :) The choreography isn't anything too complicated, but the fact that the school director can get us all in organized formations is a miracle!
Our first night in the theater at Tuesday and we basically spent two hours trying to get a million and a half kids on stage and ran De File four times.. which is death.. on a stick. For the entire five minutes we are actually on stage, the majority of if is running around, and me, with the retarded lungs, can't for the life of me handle all the cardio without dying a little bit. The second night, we rehearsed the piece a few more times.. more dying :) But, at least the director, Peter Christie, was pleased with the progress we were making. It's so nice to hear when you are doing a good job and the people in charge of you are actually proud. To reward our hard work, he shortened our Thursday night rehearsal. haha it was funny because every single dancer walked out of the theater totally stunned that it was still light outside! Oh, the life of a dancer. Never seeing the sunlight :)
Friday night was my favorite night; dress rehearsal!! There's just a special thrill to a dress rehearsal. You slap on layers of break-out inducing stage makeup and head into the wings of the stage where a few company dancers are hanging out in their warm-ups. You only get one shot to get it right because, after that, the show has to go on! The orchestra and the other dancers aren't going to wait for you to get it right! Thankfully, the rehearsal went really well, except for a few minor mishaps. You know, little kids picking their noses on stage and having full on conversations during the Port de Bras section. Little things like that. The highlight of the night, though, was getting to sneak into the balcony after having rehearsed our piece, and getting to watch the company rehearse. They're all so inspiring! The way they own the stage and nail the choreography. I know it's super cheesy and nerdy to say, but I think it's important to watch a ballet every now and again. It helps me remember why I love it so much; why I put myself through countless hours of sweating bullets and angry teachers and blood blisters and frustration. We kill ourselves every single day so that when we get out there and see the hundreds of people paying to watch us dance, we can be proud that we worked so hard and accomplished something! Alright the nerdy part is over :)
After a long week on stage, performance day finally came!! The theater is fun, but when there's actually an audience out there, it makes it ten times better. You work a little harder and stick it out a little longer just for that applause at the end.. and then it's all over. We lined up on stage, the orchestra began to play (much too slow, might I add. One con of having a live orchestra is they always get the tempo wrong somehow. But no complaints!!) and we performed the piece, just like any other day of the week. It all went smoothly.. or so I thought, but I'll get to that later :) At the end of the piece, the conductor was supposed to lead us all into a bow, but instead he just put his head down and waltzed right out of the orchestra pit...leaving a little girl in charge of the bow. So obviously, she didn't know what to do, so we all just stood there in our final pose until the audience awkwardly stopped clapping and we clumsily headed off stage. Then, I heard that one of the trainees ran into one of the guys, leaving perfect makeup face print on his shirt! haha, I'm sure the audience didn't even notice though. You'd be surprised about what you can get away with without the audience's knowing :) But overall, it went well. It feels good that it's all over and we can start focusing on other things!
This week, we've been doing Ballet West for Kids so more on that soon!!
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
My long weekend in Idaho
So it turns out, when you spend several days away from home, it takes almost a half a week to fully recover and to get all your crap under control again. You get home late Sunday night and all you wanna do is throw all your bags down and collapse on your oh so welcoming bed that hasn't been used for 4 days now, so then you wake up in the morning and start quoting that creepy clown lady from My Big Comfy Couch or whatever that show was called. We all know that everyone only watched that show for the part where she says "who made this big mess?" and then she cleans her entire house in 10 seconds. In what reality is that ever possible?? If anyone knows the answer to my question, please enlighten me because I would sure like to know how to clean my whole house in 10 seconds. For me, it takes hours! I have to take all my clothes out of my bag (and believe me. I always waaay overpack. it's a little out of control) and throw the dirty ones in the laundry and fold and put away the ones that are clean (this step shouldn't even exist because there shouldn't be any clean clothes.. but I'm obviously too dumb to understand that a 4 day trip only needs 4 different outfits..) and then do my laundry so I have clothes for the week. Then, I have to spend a good half hour reorganizing my purse because, somehow in the span of a few days, a ginormous explosion of receipts and gum wrappers and movie tickets and random trash occurs in there. I simply can't grasp the concept of a trash can I guess! But of course, not all of these processes can happen in one day because I'm too busy dancing and facebook stalking people and catching up on all my tv shows (I know, so productive haha). So my room remains a mess until I can find an ounce of motivation to actually fold my laundry.. it just looks so good sitting all clean and wrinkly in my hamper :)
But, my room is finally all put together again so I can now proceed to blog about my fantastic long weekend :) First of all, I am so glad that Utah is so genius. Thank goodness for Salt Lake Express!! For all of you non-Utah and Idaho people, Salt Lake Express is this shuttle that brings you from a few different places in Utah to a few different places in Idaho and vice versa. So, I took my overpacked bag and hopped on a shuttle prepared for a boring 5 hour drive, but way too excited for get to Idaho to even care about how boring the next hours were going to be. Surprisingly, one of the guys I dance with was taking a trip up to Idaho Falls for the weekend, so he pretty much talked my ear off the whole time, which took away from my "zone out looking out the window at all the dirt" time, but at least the ride wasn't as boring as previously planned. I think I checked the time on my phone over a hundred times because I just couldn't wait to get to Rexburg at 10:30 pm!! But I think someone out there didn't want me to get there on time, because my driver took her sweet little time at every drop off and pick-up people were late and apparently we all needed a 15 minute break...long story short, I got to Rexburg at a very late 11:30, very annoyed. At least I wasn't the girl who was literally sitting on the bus with her mission call, waiting to open it that night with her family.
I stayed with one of my best friends, Ashtyn, on Wednesday night at her apartment and it was just so nice to get to catch up with her. We've always been super close, but for some reason, we both suck at staying in touch when she's at school and I'm off somewhere dancing. It doesn't matter though, because we always pick up right where we left off! She's got so many exciting things happening in her life right now and I am so happy for her and I can't wait to see where life takes her. Her family and she moved to Colorado when I was a sophomore and I think they kinda became my second family. During the summer, I think I spend more time at their house than I do at my own haha! As you can imagine, I kept her up way too late catching up and talking about everything. I was just glad that I wasn't the one who had an 8 am class the next morning!! whoops!!
I spent Thursday with my sister, Jessica, who drove an hour from Driggs to come pick me up. Thankfully, she dropped the two kids off at the in-laws house so we could have a girls day... which quickly turned into a "let's get fat together" day. We ate lunch at this awesome sandwich place, then got Jamba Juices for an afternoon snack, then waited until 5 o clock to go get ice cream and hot chocolate at our favorite place, The Cocoa Bean. I swear, it's got the best hot chocolate on the planet. Don't worry, we also did a little shopping in town and she gave me a tour of BYU-Idaho. It was fun just getting to spend the day with my big sister, whose always been the person I look up to and who I spent many years of my young childhood trying to be more like. Yep, I was THAT little sister haha. She's just such a fun person, even with two kids and a husband and a life. She makes me laugh all the time and she's really taught me so much throughout my life. She's trying desperately to make me social, but it's sorta failing :)
Friday was our lazy day. I think we spent the majority of the day in our pajamas, making breakfast that we ate at noon, cleaning up after messes that just kept getting remade, and making dinner that we ate at nine... both both meals were quite a success, so I'd call that a good day :) Plus, I got a three hour nap, which was totally and completely necessary!! All the while, Whitley and Craig were reeking havoc on the house in every manner possible. They say cleaning the house with kids is like brushing your teeth while eating oreos. I know fully understand this quote haha! Everywhere I turned, they were pulling out more toys or turning a perfectly clean room into a war zone. It's just a good thing they're cuter than crap and they can get away with it :) I got my first good home-cooked meal in 2 months and I quite enjoyed it. We made baked ziti for dinner. Let's just say that nothing tastes better than pasta after 2 months of sandwiches and cereal...
On Saturday, we actually put on clothes :) and left the house :) haha! Jessica wanted us all to go to the pumpkin patch so we could pick a pumpkin to carve.. mostly she just wanted to take pictures of Whitley and Craig with all the pumpkins, but whatever helps you sleep at night! It was so much fun seeing little Craig running around, desperately trying to escape the grown-ups to play in the dirt and eat rocks and whatever else little boys do. And Whitley wanted to find a pumpkin that was small enough for her to pick up AND not slippery. It's too bad she's only like 20 pounds and she was wearing a slippery jacket, because all of them were too big and all of them were too slippery. haha such a high maintenance child!! But, again, too cute for anyone but her parents to notice. Chantz picked the biggest one in the entire field because all the other ones weren't "cool" enough for him or something. Jessica made me pick hers out because she was too busy taking pictures and I, obviously, got the best one ever. duh. After maybe a few too many hours walking around the pumpkin patch, I think the "hangry" started coming out of all of us, if you know what I mean. And me and Jessica being the totally indecisive people we are had to shout out a dozen different restaurants before finally deciding on a place to eat. Without much argument from Chantz, we headed to Red Robin, which is always a safe choice. Yes another successful meal I would say, except for the tragedy of our bottomless fries coming after we had already eaten, but it was well worth the wait for those spectacular sweet potato fries :) I'm drooling over here just thinking about them!!
And now for the real kicker. My brother in law decided it was a good idea to set me up on a blind date with a kid he works with. So after a well received meal, we picked up Cameron, my "date" for the night and went to this awesome corn maze. I mean, I wouldn't really call it a date. I was with my older sister, my brother in law, my niece and my nephew... but still; It's always nice to meet cute boys on my vacations :) We went through two different mazes, all the while Whitley was wandering around with a flashlight in her mouth and Chantz trying to be a genius with the corn maze map. Me and Jessica were freezing the whole time and just trying to get through it so we could go have some hot chocolate, but it was still a blast! I think we were just lucky that Craig wasn't having a melt down (it was way way past his bed time) and Whitley didn't get lost somewhere! haha. I loved getting to meet Cameron. He's just a genuinely sweet person and a funny guy. He's leaving on his mission in about 2 months so I'm super excited for him!! Maybe our paths will cross somewhere in the future or something.
On Sunday, we slept in after a pretty "wild" night haha! and we spent the morning carving our pumpkins. Of course that meant Chantz was carving Craigs pumpkin and Jessica was carving Whitley's pumpkin. I stole a bag of pumpkin cookies and a bowl of leftover baked ziti, but then I was on my way home again!! I had such a fun weekend. I miss Idaho already!! There's just something about that place. I mean, you have to drive an hour to find any shopping centers and there's only one stoplight in the entire town, but it just feels like home. Hopefully I can go back soon!! But now, it's back to reality.. we've got a performance this weekend, so wish me luck! I'm sure as heck gonna need it..
But, my room is finally all put together again so I can now proceed to blog about my fantastic long weekend :) First of all, I am so glad that Utah is so genius. Thank goodness for Salt Lake Express!! For all of you non-Utah and Idaho people, Salt Lake Express is this shuttle that brings you from a few different places in Utah to a few different places in Idaho and vice versa. So, I took my overpacked bag and hopped on a shuttle prepared for a boring 5 hour drive, but way too excited for get to Idaho to even care about how boring the next hours were going to be. Surprisingly, one of the guys I dance with was taking a trip up to Idaho Falls for the weekend, so he pretty much talked my ear off the whole time, which took away from my "zone out looking out the window at all the dirt" time, but at least the ride wasn't as boring as previously planned. I think I checked the time on my phone over a hundred times because I just couldn't wait to get to Rexburg at 10:30 pm!! But I think someone out there didn't want me to get there on time, because my driver took her sweet little time at every drop off and pick-up people were late and apparently we all needed a 15 minute break...long story short, I got to Rexburg at a very late 11:30, very annoyed. At least I wasn't the girl who was literally sitting on the bus with her mission call, waiting to open it that night with her family.
I stayed with one of my best friends, Ashtyn, on Wednesday night at her apartment and it was just so nice to get to catch up with her. We've always been super close, but for some reason, we both suck at staying in touch when she's at school and I'm off somewhere dancing. It doesn't matter though, because we always pick up right where we left off! She's got so many exciting things happening in her life right now and I am so happy for her and I can't wait to see where life takes her. Her family and she moved to Colorado when I was a sophomore and I think they kinda became my second family. During the summer, I think I spend more time at their house than I do at my own haha! As you can imagine, I kept her up way too late catching up and talking about everything. I was just glad that I wasn't the one who had an 8 am class the next morning!! whoops!!
I spent Thursday with my sister, Jessica, who drove an hour from Driggs to come pick me up. Thankfully, she dropped the two kids off at the in-laws house so we could have a girls day... which quickly turned into a "let's get fat together" day. We ate lunch at this awesome sandwich place, then got Jamba Juices for an afternoon snack, then waited until 5 o clock to go get ice cream and hot chocolate at our favorite place, The Cocoa Bean. I swear, it's got the best hot chocolate on the planet. Don't worry, we also did a little shopping in town and she gave me a tour of BYU-Idaho. It was fun just getting to spend the day with my big sister, whose always been the person I look up to and who I spent many years of my young childhood trying to be more like. Yep, I was THAT little sister haha. She's just such a fun person, even with two kids and a husband and a life. She makes me laugh all the time and she's really taught me so much throughout my life. She's trying desperately to make me social, but it's sorta failing :)
Friday was our lazy day. I think we spent the majority of the day in our pajamas, making breakfast that we ate at noon, cleaning up after messes that just kept getting remade, and making dinner that we ate at nine... both both meals were quite a success, so I'd call that a good day :) Plus, I got a three hour nap, which was totally and completely necessary!! All the while, Whitley and Craig were reeking havoc on the house in every manner possible. They say cleaning the house with kids is like brushing your teeth while eating oreos. I know fully understand this quote haha! Everywhere I turned, they were pulling out more toys or turning a perfectly clean room into a war zone. It's just a good thing they're cuter than crap and they can get away with it :) I got my first good home-cooked meal in 2 months and I quite enjoyed it. We made baked ziti for dinner. Let's just say that nothing tastes better than pasta after 2 months of sandwiches and cereal...
On Saturday, we actually put on clothes :) and left the house :) haha! Jessica wanted us all to go to the pumpkin patch so we could pick a pumpkin to carve.. mostly she just wanted to take pictures of Whitley and Craig with all the pumpkins, but whatever helps you sleep at night! It was so much fun seeing little Craig running around, desperately trying to escape the grown-ups to play in the dirt and eat rocks and whatever else little boys do. And Whitley wanted to find a pumpkin that was small enough for her to pick up AND not slippery. It's too bad she's only like 20 pounds and she was wearing a slippery jacket, because all of them were too big and all of them were too slippery. haha such a high maintenance child!! But, again, too cute for anyone but her parents to notice. Chantz picked the biggest one in the entire field because all the other ones weren't "cool" enough for him or something. Jessica made me pick hers out because she was too busy taking pictures and I, obviously, got the best one ever. duh. After maybe a few too many hours walking around the pumpkin patch, I think the "hangry" started coming out of all of us, if you know what I mean. And me and Jessica being the totally indecisive people we are had to shout out a dozen different restaurants before finally deciding on a place to eat. Without much argument from Chantz, we headed to Red Robin, which is always a safe choice. Yes another successful meal I would say, except for the tragedy of our bottomless fries coming after we had already eaten, but it was well worth the wait for those spectacular sweet potato fries :) I'm drooling over here just thinking about them!!
And now for the real kicker. My brother in law decided it was a good idea to set me up on a blind date with a kid he works with. So after a well received meal, we picked up Cameron, my "date" for the night and went to this awesome corn maze. I mean, I wouldn't really call it a date. I was with my older sister, my brother in law, my niece and my nephew... but still; It's always nice to meet cute boys on my vacations :) We went through two different mazes, all the while Whitley was wandering around with a flashlight in her mouth and Chantz trying to be a genius with the corn maze map. Me and Jessica were freezing the whole time and just trying to get through it so we could go have some hot chocolate, but it was still a blast! I think we were just lucky that Craig wasn't having a melt down (it was way way past his bed time) and Whitley didn't get lost somewhere! haha. I loved getting to meet Cameron. He's just a genuinely sweet person and a funny guy. He's leaving on his mission in about 2 months so I'm super excited for him!! Maybe our paths will cross somewhere in the future or something.
On Sunday, we slept in after a pretty "wild" night haha! and we spent the morning carving our pumpkins. Of course that meant Chantz was carving Craigs pumpkin and Jessica was carving Whitley's pumpkin. I stole a bag of pumpkin cookies and a bowl of leftover baked ziti, but then I was on my way home again!! I had such a fun weekend. I miss Idaho already!! There's just something about that place. I mean, you have to drive an hour to find any shopping centers and there's only one stoplight in the entire town, but it just feels like home. Hopefully I can go back soon!! But now, it's back to reality.. we've got a performance this weekend, so wish me luck! I'm sure as heck gonna need it..
Monday, October 8, 2012
Lauren's Birthday Dinner
One of the greatest things about living in a house full of eight people is the fact that there are eight birthdays. And birthdays always mean going out to dinner.. at least that's what it means for eight starving dancers who just want to eat good food on the weekends! I'll admit, this blog post is about a month overdue, but I was too busy updating on so many other things that I decided to put it off until now. As you could have guessed by now, my roommate, Lauren Denney, the tall, legs for days, blonde, Cali girl, was celebrating her 17th birthday. She's the only roommate in the house that's still in high school, but you'd never know she was so young. She's got more talent than I can even fathom sometimes and, as you can see from the description above, she's absolutely gorgeous. Ya, I hate her a little bit for it too ;) Anyway, we decided on this cute little Thai food place down the street from our house. Honestly, it didn't even matter where we were going, as long as I got to eat something other than a grilled cheese sandwich for dinner. I've really gotta learn how to cook..
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| Part of the dinner crew and the Birthday Girl :) |
I think I can speak for the lot of us that we all had a lovely meal. And to top it all off, Laura Cemin, our authentic Italian roommate, made these incredible fudge cookies for dessert. I'd be lying if I didn't say it was my favorite part of the night :) But that's just because I can't live without chocolate. I had a blast with everyone, though! I'm always so reluctant to actually get out of the house, but when I do, it amazes me how much fun we can have just sitting at a restaurant table and laughing about a funny comment, or complaining about how awful our classes were that day, or meeting random opera singers sitting across the room. And yes, that actually happened. Some lady came up to our table and asked if we were dancers. She went on to explain that they were a singing group in Utah. It's funny how people always know we are dancers right when we walk in the door. I swear, every time we go out, I always hear little whispers coming from different sides of the room. "Oh look, dancers!" "They look like dancers." I just don't know how they can assume that right off the bat! It must be the impeccable posture or something :).
I knew right after this amazing night that I was with a really great group of people and I can't wait to spend the whole year with them! I've felt at home here right from the beginning and I think it's partly due to having such welcoming friends. I love taking class with them everyday and hanging out with them on the weekends. It's always a good time :)
I know this is about a month late, but I hope Lauren had an amazing birthday! She looked stunning, as always and made me laugh the entire night. Ahh to be 17 again :) .. I mean, I'm only 18, but still! Things get a lot harder once you turn 18. And by that I mean I can't force my knees to turn out anymore, my lower back is always in pain and I feel like an old woman every morning trying to climb four flights of stairs up to the studio. I can't even imagine what I'm gonna feel like in five years.. anyway, Happy very belated Birthday, Lauren!!! Love you, and your crazyness, and your inability to focus on your school work :), and your sense of humor. All my love!! :)
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| The whole group :) Had such a fun night!! |
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Living the Ballet Life
It makes me laugh when I think about those people who say "I'm living the life." Some of them are usually pretty successful, working a steady job, going home to a family every night, spending time with friends on the weekends. Then, there are the ones that aren't married, living on their own, partying most nights, doing the whole unattached thing. There's a whole spectrum of people who claim that they are living the life. The point to this random rant? It's all about perspective. If you are loving what you are doing with your life, then, technically, you're living the life! And the truth is, I am living the ballet life :) I get this awesome opportunity everyday to squeeze into a leotard every morning at the crack of dawn (ok ok, that's an exaggeration...but seriously, 7 am is pretty early!), and get into the studio and work my butt off in ballet class everyday. I get to rehearse with amazing teachers and choreographers. I get coached by supportive, experienced people. I get to watch an amazing company prepare for their next tour or performance. Sure, it's torture most days. I mean, who in their right mind would consider looking at themselves every single day in practically no clothes at all, forcing their bodies into very unnatural positions to make a "correct" ballet position, enduring pain on most occasions just to be able to take class and lying about it when people ask if your hurt (be honest. All dancers have done this one time or another), putting yourself down when you fail, underestimating your successes when they occur. It's tough, but honestly, I couldn't live without it; the feeling you get when you nail that triple pirouette, getting that one correction from your teacher that you so look up to and respect, hearing the audience cheer for you after performing a variation. That feeling of success! When the thing you do everyday is so gosh darn impossible sometimes, it is so much more rewarding when you finally get it right, at least for that moment. So, I guess you could say, I'm living the life :)
I think I'm really happy here! It's easy to get in a rut when you're devoting so much time to an art form that kinda hates you. But, it's one month in and I am absolutely loving it! I look forward to each day, taking class with Jeff Rogers, one of favorite teachers of all time. He's the first teacher I've had in awhile that I feel like I can sit down and have a real conversation with. He's a real person, which is amazing because he was an incredible dancer in his prime, and I think that would give him a good excuse for being arrogant and unrelatable. He makes class everyday so funny and exciting; cracking stupid jokes and making me laugh as the stupidest things. I'm really excited to learn from him all year. Right now, we are working on a few things in rehearsals, which happen for a few hours after class. With Jeff, we are learning La Ventana, a Bournenville piece with two girls and a guy. All I can say is it's killer. If any of you know of Bournenville's work, you know how hard it is. There's a pas de trois in the beginning, then two female variations, one male variation and then a finale; all of it is full of fast footwork and awkward jumps and very 1800's stylized port de bras. But, I really enjoy Bournenville work! The only other ballet I've done by him was Napoli when I was like 14, so it's nice getting to go back to that. We are also working on a new piece with the ballet mistress of the company; Aladdin. Pam, the ballet mistress, is choreographing this full length ballet on the company this year, so I guess we were kind of her guinea pigs for a couple weeks. It was 11 to 4 for one week and then 11 to 2 the next week; just setting new choreography, which can get a bit tedious. Hours and hours of her setting pantomime and steps, just so we could rehearse them over and over again and then she'd change them..over and over again. It was cool getting to work with her though. I got to be the part of the baby tiger and sometimes the monkey and sometimes an Odalisque. It was thrilling learning so much choreography in such a short amount of time!
The last thing we are doing right now is Ballet West for kids. In the next month or so, we get to go out in groups to different elementary schools, performing a very shortened version of the Nutcracker and teaching kids a little bit about ballet. We've learned all of it so now we just have to get our castings and rehearse.. a lot. I used to do these outreaches with my old ballet school in Colorado and they were always so fun, I mean except for the part about dancing on concrete and carpet and having to dance on practically cold muscles, but the looks on the kids faces when they saw you in full makeup and costumes just made it all worth it. So, I can't wait to start doing that!! It's going to be a blast.
In the afternoons, we take class with the Ballet West Academy kids and I love getting to see them most everyday. It kinda keeps me young haha :) I envy their tiny little bodies and how young they are still. I wish I could go back and be ask good as they are now! It's amazing to me how they can be such great dancers at their ages. It makes me sorta jealous actually. Even the youngin's are competition I guess ;) We take a variations class with them and we've learned all the variations from the Kindom of the Shades scene in La Bayadere. Although each one is extremely challenging in it's own way, they are all so fun to do. Variations class twice a week has to be one of my favorite classes. You wouldn't imagine how much work goes into only two or three minutes of dancing. There's so much style and technique and attention to detail when it comes to having a short little solo on stage. And you have to nail it because there are no other people out there with you. It's both an intense anxiety attack and an exciting exhilaration. But, we love it all the same!! haha
And after a long days work, I get to go home, crawl back into my nonjudgmental, totally comfortable pajamas and lay in bed on my laptop until I can't keep my eyes open any longer. On some occasions, my sister skypes me or I call my mom for a couple hours, but mostly, Netflix becomes my best friend :) sad as that may sound. But, honestly, being the introvert that I am, I just need the last few hours of my day to be by myself and veg out in front of a lighted screen, watching dramatic television shows or facebook stalking people I really miss. It's fantastic :). In fact, I think I have an episode of Modern Family that's calling my name. And I think I'm going to get to that. So, goodnight! More talk later...
I think I'm really happy here! It's easy to get in a rut when you're devoting so much time to an art form that kinda hates you. But, it's one month in and I am absolutely loving it! I look forward to each day, taking class with Jeff Rogers, one of favorite teachers of all time. He's the first teacher I've had in awhile that I feel like I can sit down and have a real conversation with. He's a real person, which is amazing because he was an incredible dancer in his prime, and I think that would give him a good excuse for being arrogant and unrelatable. He makes class everyday so funny and exciting; cracking stupid jokes and making me laugh as the stupidest things. I'm really excited to learn from him all year. Right now, we are working on a few things in rehearsals, which happen for a few hours after class. With Jeff, we are learning La Ventana, a Bournenville piece with two girls and a guy. All I can say is it's killer. If any of you know of Bournenville's work, you know how hard it is. There's a pas de trois in the beginning, then two female variations, one male variation and then a finale; all of it is full of fast footwork and awkward jumps and very 1800's stylized port de bras. But, I really enjoy Bournenville work! The only other ballet I've done by him was Napoli when I was like 14, so it's nice getting to go back to that. We are also working on a new piece with the ballet mistress of the company; Aladdin. Pam, the ballet mistress, is choreographing this full length ballet on the company this year, so I guess we were kind of her guinea pigs for a couple weeks. It was 11 to 4 for one week and then 11 to 2 the next week; just setting new choreography, which can get a bit tedious. Hours and hours of her setting pantomime and steps, just so we could rehearse them over and over again and then she'd change them..over and over again. It was cool getting to work with her though. I got to be the part of the baby tiger and sometimes the monkey and sometimes an Odalisque. It was thrilling learning so much choreography in such a short amount of time!
The last thing we are doing right now is Ballet West for kids. In the next month or so, we get to go out in groups to different elementary schools, performing a very shortened version of the Nutcracker and teaching kids a little bit about ballet. We've learned all of it so now we just have to get our castings and rehearse.. a lot. I used to do these outreaches with my old ballet school in Colorado and they were always so fun, I mean except for the part about dancing on concrete and carpet and having to dance on practically cold muscles, but the looks on the kids faces when they saw you in full makeup and costumes just made it all worth it. So, I can't wait to start doing that!! It's going to be a blast.
In the afternoons, we take class with the Ballet West Academy kids and I love getting to see them most everyday. It kinda keeps me young haha :) I envy their tiny little bodies and how young they are still. I wish I could go back and be ask good as they are now! It's amazing to me how they can be such great dancers at their ages. It makes me sorta jealous actually. Even the youngin's are competition I guess ;) We take a variations class with them and we've learned all the variations from the Kindom of the Shades scene in La Bayadere. Although each one is extremely challenging in it's own way, they are all so fun to do. Variations class twice a week has to be one of my favorite classes. You wouldn't imagine how much work goes into only two or three minutes of dancing. There's so much style and technique and attention to detail when it comes to having a short little solo on stage. And you have to nail it because there are no other people out there with you. It's both an intense anxiety attack and an exciting exhilaration. But, we love it all the same!! haha
And after a long days work, I get to go home, crawl back into my nonjudgmental, totally comfortable pajamas and lay in bed on my laptop until I can't keep my eyes open any longer. On some occasions, my sister skypes me or I call my mom for a couple hours, but mostly, Netflix becomes my best friend :) sad as that may sound. But, honestly, being the introvert that I am, I just need the last few hours of my day to be by myself and veg out in front of a lighted screen, watching dramatic television shows or facebook stalking people I really miss. It's fantastic :). In fact, I think I have an episode of Modern Family that's calling my name. And I think I'm going to get to that. So, goodnight! More talk later...
Thursday, September 20, 2012
An Overdue Hello
Well... this is kind of embarrassing. You know that situation when you accidentally run into the one person you really didn't want to see because you were supposed to do something for them and just never got around to it. So, you've been desperately avoiding them, hoping you'll find a legitimate excuse as to why you never did that thing for them. But, they finally caught you so your only option is to just suck it up and endure the next few awkward minutes of hopeless excuse-making and pretend apologies. This is that situation. Yes, I realize I haven't blogged since maybe late July (and the worst part is that I don't really remember the last time I actually blogged). Yes, I feel like a slacker who basically abandoned her poor little blog out of sheer laziness and lack of motivation. Yes, it is a little crazy that I feel this way. But! I have chosen to get over this whole avoiding the blog phase and start fresh. Consider this my new beginning :)
And with this new beginning comes plenty of catching up. In advance, I am sincerely sorry..seriously, I apologize for what you're going to have to hear for maybe the next hour of your life. You see, I can't just leave you all hanging from late July! That would be unfair and would obviously make me into a terrible blogger who doesn't continue the oh-so enticing story of her life. And I just won't have that! ;) Anyway, for the sake of all that is sane, I'll try my best to keep this as short as possible. No promises though...
I believe we left off with Kaitlan's very entirely boring, relaxing and totally necessary summer vacation. 7 weeks of sitting on my butt, eating whatever I want, and getting completely out of shape. It was a beautiful time :). Lots of tanning at the pool, and by that I mean laying in the sun for hours only to return home with the exact same skin color as I had that morning. Bummer.. Lots of summer bucket-listing, which was quite surprisingly successful! I completed 29 out of 37 of my things to do on the list. I would call that a pretty decent feat. I went camping, I spent an entire day in my pajamas (unfortunately doped up on anesthesia after getting my wisdom teeth forcibly cut from my mouth), I danced in the rain, I went to a drive in movie theater twice!, I slept under the stars, I made ice cream, I tye dyed t-shirts, I ate breakfast for dinner, I did melted crayon art (of which I am very proud of. I'm basically an artist now...basically), I went fruit picking, I watched the sunset and sunrise, and very very many other wonderfully fulfilling activities. And although I didn't actually complete the list, I think I made a great enough effort to call it a successful summer. I spent most everyday with my closest friends and had the time of my life. I think I'll always remember that summer as one of my favorites.
But, as always, the 7 weeks of paradise go by way to quickly, August passes away and the school year has to begin again. As you all know, if you have been reading my blog, I accepted a spot in the trainee program at Ballet West in Salt Lake City. So, once again, as in every year for the past 3 years, I packed my bags and hit the road, literally. The one plus to dancing in Utah as that I'm only 7 hours by car from home. So, instead of having to haul my million and one bags through the grueling airport, sweating bullets and killing myself for a day, I threw my million and one bags into the back of a truck and my mom and I took a little road trip to Salt Lake. I even got to take my own mattress, a lamp, and a bookcase that we constructed into a dresser type thing for my multitudes of clothes. The other perk of driving to Utah: getting to pack as many clothes as I want :) No airport means no weight limit! haha I'm pretty sure my mother did not like that at all though.. whoops! Anyway, the drive was...full of Wyoming, which means lots of dirt and tumbleweeds and pretend mountains. But, it was nice to sit with my mom in a car for 7 hours just listening to music and having pointless small talk. I think we always take that for granted; all the little conversations that don't really mean anything. The thing I miss most about not being home and with my family is just sitting at the kitchen counter, laughing and talking about stupid things and goofing off with people that get me. It's hard moving in to a house full of people that don't really understand who you are or why you do the things you do. I guess it just takes time to adjust to other people...
So, we finally made it to Utah after 7 hours and a few bags of raisinettes later. My mom got to stay for the night and she helped me settle into my new house. I'm living with 7 other girls who are also trainees at Ballet West at this cute little old house in some ghettoville. It's cute! And homey. Like a place you would go visit your grandma at. It already feels like home. I share a room in the basement with my roommate, Haley, the cute little redhead who's sweeter than I can even comprehend sometimes. She's 18 like me, and she's from Pittsburgh. She has an adorable baby voice that she uses when talking about any and all animals. She's just a genuinely sweet person. Like I said, it's an adjustment, but I think we'll make it. Two of our roommates have cars, so they take us to class every morning and haul us to the grocery store when we run out of food and help us all actually have a social life on the weekends. Thank goodness for Lauren and Bryony!
Alright, I think this has gone on for quite enough time.. again, I'm sorry for the dragged out story of my seriously uninteresting life :) But I love my readers!! whoever you are... So, I think I'm just going to tell you a little bit about my schedule and cut this off before you all die of aneurisms. Ok here goes:
7:00 push the snooze button on my phone for like half an hour
7:30 rip myself out of bed and desperately try to wake myself up and get ready
8:00 depart for ballet class
8:30 warm up for class, which entails bending my body into very unnatural positions and laying on the floor trying to grasp the fact that I have to dance for the next many many hours
9:00 take ballet class with my amazing teachers
11:00 get a quick drink and rehearse for a few hours, depending on the day and our schedule
4:00 start afternoon classes with the Ballet West academy
6 or 7:00 finally finish classes and go the frick home, where I will collapse on my bed, watch a few hours of Greys Anatomy and die..
Yep, that is pretty much my day! There you go! It's alot. It took me about two weeks to adjust to the intense schedule and the terrible altitude. Who know that dancing at sea level for the past two years would do such a tragic number on my stamina...let's just say I was wheezing after the first half hour of class, which is just pretty sad. But, I think I'm finally getting the hang of it all, and I'm loving every minute of it! The teachers are all so great and I feel like I can really talk to them if I need to. My roommates are great and I love living in this house. In short (which is absolutely necessary), I'm having a great year so far. I think it's going to be a really great year for me and I am so excited for it. Ok ok, I think that I've gone on for far too long now, so I'll blog again very soon! I promise this time!!
Until then.. your ballerina to be :)
And with this new beginning comes plenty of catching up. In advance, I am sincerely sorry..seriously, I apologize for what you're going to have to hear for maybe the next hour of your life. You see, I can't just leave you all hanging from late July! That would be unfair and would obviously make me into a terrible blogger who doesn't continue the oh-so enticing story of her life. And I just won't have that! ;) Anyway, for the sake of all that is sane, I'll try my best to keep this as short as possible. No promises though...
I believe we left off with Kaitlan's very entirely boring, relaxing and totally necessary summer vacation. 7 weeks of sitting on my butt, eating whatever I want, and getting completely out of shape. It was a beautiful time :). Lots of tanning at the pool, and by that I mean laying in the sun for hours only to return home with the exact same skin color as I had that morning. Bummer.. Lots of summer bucket-listing, which was quite surprisingly successful! I completed 29 out of 37 of my things to do on the list. I would call that a pretty decent feat. I went camping, I spent an entire day in my pajamas (unfortunately doped up on anesthesia after getting my wisdom teeth forcibly cut from my mouth), I danced in the rain, I went to a drive in movie theater twice!, I slept under the stars, I made ice cream, I tye dyed t-shirts, I ate breakfast for dinner, I did melted crayon art (of which I am very proud of. I'm basically an artist now...basically), I went fruit picking, I watched the sunset and sunrise, and very very many other wonderfully fulfilling activities. And although I didn't actually complete the list, I think I made a great enough effort to call it a successful summer. I spent most everyday with my closest friends and had the time of my life. I think I'll always remember that summer as one of my favorites.
But, as always, the 7 weeks of paradise go by way to quickly, August passes away and the school year has to begin again. As you all know, if you have been reading my blog, I accepted a spot in the trainee program at Ballet West in Salt Lake City. So, once again, as in every year for the past 3 years, I packed my bags and hit the road, literally. The one plus to dancing in Utah as that I'm only 7 hours by car from home. So, instead of having to haul my million and one bags through the grueling airport, sweating bullets and killing myself for a day, I threw my million and one bags into the back of a truck and my mom and I took a little road trip to Salt Lake. I even got to take my own mattress, a lamp, and a bookcase that we constructed into a dresser type thing for my multitudes of clothes. The other perk of driving to Utah: getting to pack as many clothes as I want :) No airport means no weight limit! haha I'm pretty sure my mother did not like that at all though.. whoops! Anyway, the drive was...full of Wyoming, which means lots of dirt and tumbleweeds and pretend mountains. But, it was nice to sit with my mom in a car for 7 hours just listening to music and having pointless small talk. I think we always take that for granted; all the little conversations that don't really mean anything. The thing I miss most about not being home and with my family is just sitting at the kitchen counter, laughing and talking about stupid things and goofing off with people that get me. It's hard moving in to a house full of people that don't really understand who you are or why you do the things you do. I guess it just takes time to adjust to other people...
So, we finally made it to Utah after 7 hours and a few bags of raisinettes later. My mom got to stay for the night and she helped me settle into my new house. I'm living with 7 other girls who are also trainees at Ballet West at this cute little old house in some ghettoville. It's cute! And homey. Like a place you would go visit your grandma at. It already feels like home. I share a room in the basement with my roommate, Haley, the cute little redhead who's sweeter than I can even comprehend sometimes. She's 18 like me, and she's from Pittsburgh. She has an adorable baby voice that she uses when talking about any and all animals. She's just a genuinely sweet person. Like I said, it's an adjustment, but I think we'll make it. Two of our roommates have cars, so they take us to class every morning and haul us to the grocery store when we run out of food and help us all actually have a social life on the weekends. Thank goodness for Lauren and Bryony!
Alright, I think this has gone on for quite enough time.. again, I'm sorry for the dragged out story of my seriously uninteresting life :) But I love my readers!! whoever you are... So, I think I'm just going to tell you a little bit about my schedule and cut this off before you all die of aneurisms. Ok here goes:
7:00 push the snooze button on my phone for like half an hour
7:30 rip myself out of bed and desperately try to wake myself up and get ready
8:00 depart for ballet class
8:30 warm up for class, which entails bending my body into very unnatural positions and laying on the floor trying to grasp the fact that I have to dance for the next many many hours
9:00 take ballet class with my amazing teachers
11:00 get a quick drink and rehearse for a few hours, depending on the day and our schedule
4:00 start afternoon classes with the Ballet West academy
6 or 7:00 finally finish classes and go the frick home, where I will collapse on my bed, watch a few hours of Greys Anatomy and die..
Yep, that is pretty much my day! There you go! It's alot. It took me about two weeks to adjust to the intense schedule and the terrible altitude. Who know that dancing at sea level for the past two years would do such a tragic number on my stamina...let's just say I was wheezing after the first half hour of class, which is just pretty sad. But, I think I'm finally getting the hang of it all, and I'm loving every minute of it! The teachers are all so great and I feel like I can really talk to them if I need to. My roommates are great and I love living in this house. In short (which is absolutely necessary), I'm having a great year so far. I think it's going to be a really great year for me and I am so excited for it. Ok ok, I think that I've gone on for far too long now, so I'll blog again very soon! I promise this time!!
Until then.. your ballerina to be :)
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Lazy Summertime
The fact that I haven't posted anything new in this little blog just comes to prove how lazy this summer has been thus far. I hope you all enjoyed your sojourn from reading mile long paragraphs and boring stories of my life. It sure was a long vacation from blogging for me. I just felt like there really was nothing interesting to say. I'm sure the few of you who actually read this didn't want to read boring pointless stories about me sleeping in most mornings, sitting on my fat butt for most of the day, maybe hitting the pool for a few hours a day, and then staying up far too late with my friends. Yep, that pretty much sums up the past 3 weeks! Although, I'm definitely not complaining. After some hardcore dancing for an entire month, I needed a few weeks to recover, especially since it turns out I might have had a stress fracture in my 5th metatarsal. For those of you who don't really care about anatomy, the above sentence pretty much means I overworked the outside of my foot, which really should qualify me for a few good, long weeks of laying around and watching movies :). And that is exactly what I did! haha! Not going to lie; I probably would have done the exact same thing even if I hadn't have injured my foot. I mean, come on! We all need a little vacation time, right?! I am totally justifying my lazy period and you will all have to deal with it! So there :)
Besides sleeping for 15 hours a day (ok I didn't really sleep that long, but my dad would beg to differ. He doesn't know anything though ;) ), I've done quite a bit of swimming at our neighborhood pool and I have actually tried to start running again. I used to love running, but maybe that's because I was running at sea level, which means I could actually go a whole mile without literally collapsing on the floor and dying a little bit. You'd be surprised how much easier it is to breathe when you're a mile lower in altitude. I miss the oxygen... So I've been trying to get myself into the habit again, but it's quite the effort when I know that I won't be able to breathe and my brother will be totally showing me up the whole time. I sort of hate him for being so in shape. I mean, I'm in shape, but it's a different kind of "in shape." I hate to burst everyone's bubbles, but dancers don't really get a lot of cardiovascular activity. Most of what we do is anaerobic. We go for about 5 minutes and then stand there for 5 minutes while our teachers scream at us for sucking so bad, and then repeat for hours and hours on end. Seriously. Welcome to my life :) I'm sure living it right! haha! But, I really want to work on some cross training while I'm taking this time off from dancing. Let's just hope I can get off the couch long enough to put on my tennis shoes and run a few miles a day! Now, that's just dreaming :)
Now, don't think I've just been sitting around all day. Ok maybe that's just half true :) Believe it or not, despite the above statements, I've actually been working on my summer bucket list!! I knew you would all be wondering about my progress in my efforts to actually have an interesting summer. I still have a lot to do, but I'm surprised about how much I've already done so far. 14 down and 24 to go, and I still have about 5 weeks of summer left, so I think I can still do it. I just need to find some people as crazy as me to pull all-nighters with and go paintballing and have poker nights with! If you can find anyone that fit this criteria, just let me know :). I'm in dire need of them! I still have to figure out where I'm going to pick berries and how on earth I am going to be able to stay up all night. Seriously, who actually has the will power to get through the whole night without drifting off? I guess most people just down cans of caffeine to do it, which is always an option I guess haha! Somehow, I've got to figure out how I'm going to wake up early enough to watch the sunrise and how I'm going to find the motivation to watch all 8 Harry Potter movies in one day. I don't think I anticipated how much effort and time I would need to devote to complete all these crazy activities. But, I've committed myself to this insane list and so, for the sake of calling this summer successful, I must do it! Wish me luck!!
Well, I guess my lazy summer is officially over. I had my break and now it's time to start getting off my butt and doing something with my life :) FINE!! haha. I am proud to announce to you all that I got my first real job today! And my dad thought I was a lost cause. I have finally proved him wrong that you can't get a job just submitting an application and waiting for their phone call. A few weeks ago, I put in my resume to a little place called PostNet across the street from my neighborhood and they called me today and told me they wanted to offer me a job! Thank goodness I will be making some real money... at least for the next 5 weeks. That's good enough for me! So I guess this means I have to put on real clothes before the afternoon hours and get over to my job everyday. Darn it... but, I am so lucky to get this job, seeing as I am only going to be home for another month or so. So, thank you PostNet!!
That's pretty much all there is to report. It really has been a lazy 3 weeks. It was a lovely vacation from the real world, and now I have to get back into it again. Hopefully, my life will be a little more interesting from here on out and I'll have a little more to say the next time I blog. Thank you for all reading all the pointless crap I have to say. It makes me so happy when I log onto my blog site and see how many people care to look at my page. I love knowing that people like reading what I have to say, even if it is usually really dumb or boring. Thanks for reading about my life anyway!! I love being able to write it all out on here. It's sort of like my therapy haha! Without all the crazy therapists and funny smelling couches...
Besides sleeping for 15 hours a day (ok I didn't really sleep that long, but my dad would beg to differ. He doesn't know anything though ;) ), I've done quite a bit of swimming at our neighborhood pool and I have actually tried to start running again. I used to love running, but maybe that's because I was running at sea level, which means I could actually go a whole mile without literally collapsing on the floor and dying a little bit. You'd be surprised how much easier it is to breathe when you're a mile lower in altitude. I miss the oxygen... So I've been trying to get myself into the habit again, but it's quite the effort when I know that I won't be able to breathe and my brother will be totally showing me up the whole time. I sort of hate him for being so in shape. I mean, I'm in shape, but it's a different kind of "in shape." I hate to burst everyone's bubbles, but dancers don't really get a lot of cardiovascular activity. Most of what we do is anaerobic. We go for about 5 minutes and then stand there for 5 minutes while our teachers scream at us for sucking so bad, and then repeat for hours and hours on end. Seriously. Welcome to my life :) I'm sure living it right! haha! But, I really want to work on some cross training while I'm taking this time off from dancing. Let's just hope I can get off the couch long enough to put on my tennis shoes and run a few miles a day! Now, that's just dreaming :)
Now, don't think I've just been sitting around all day. Ok maybe that's just half true :) Believe it or not, despite the above statements, I've actually been working on my summer bucket list!! I knew you would all be wondering about my progress in my efforts to actually have an interesting summer. I still have a lot to do, but I'm surprised about how much I've already done so far. 14 down and 24 to go, and I still have about 5 weeks of summer left, so I think I can still do it. I just need to find some people as crazy as me to pull all-nighters with and go paintballing and have poker nights with! If you can find anyone that fit this criteria, just let me know :). I'm in dire need of them! I still have to figure out where I'm going to pick berries and how on earth I am going to be able to stay up all night. Seriously, who actually has the will power to get through the whole night without drifting off? I guess most people just down cans of caffeine to do it, which is always an option I guess haha! Somehow, I've got to figure out how I'm going to wake up early enough to watch the sunrise and how I'm going to find the motivation to watch all 8 Harry Potter movies in one day. I don't think I anticipated how much effort and time I would need to devote to complete all these crazy activities. But, I've committed myself to this insane list and so, for the sake of calling this summer successful, I must do it! Wish me luck!!
Well, I guess my lazy summer is officially over. I had my break and now it's time to start getting off my butt and doing something with my life :) FINE!! haha. I am proud to announce to you all that I got my first real job today! And my dad thought I was a lost cause. I have finally proved him wrong that you can't get a job just submitting an application and waiting for their phone call. A few weeks ago, I put in my resume to a little place called PostNet across the street from my neighborhood and they called me today and told me they wanted to offer me a job! Thank goodness I will be making some real money... at least for the next 5 weeks. That's good enough for me! So I guess this means I have to put on real clothes before the afternoon hours and get over to my job everyday. Darn it... but, I am so lucky to get this job, seeing as I am only going to be home for another month or so. So, thank you PostNet!!
That's pretty much all there is to report. It really has been a lazy 3 weeks. It was a lovely vacation from the real world, and now I have to get back into it again. Hopefully, my life will be a little more interesting from here on out and I'll have a little more to say the next time I blog. Thank you for all reading all the pointless crap I have to say. It makes me so happy when I log onto my blog site and see how many people care to look at my page. I love knowing that people like reading what I have to say, even if it is usually really dumb or boring. Thanks for reading about my life anyway!! I love being able to write it all out on here. It's sort of like my therapy haha! Without all the crazy therapists and funny smelling couches...
Friday, July 6, 2012
A Ballet West Independence Day
There is a simple joy in the 4th of July. You get to paint your nails all sorts of crazy colors, sport the totally unattractive yet completely awesome red white and blue eyeshadow and participate in everything patriotic, and that means eating everything that is red, white and blue, and wearing every article of clothing that involves those three colors. Pretty much, it's one of the few days of the year I can look really ridiculous and not get made fun of by those too lame to go all out on this glorious holiday. Coming from a very holiday-spirited family, we like to go nuts for every holiday, but 4th of July is one of our really crazy ones. We usually make a flag cake with blueberries and strawberries and have a barbeque. Me and my sisters paint our nails, of course, and coordinate our outfits at least 2 days in advance. I just love getting all into it, even if I look like a freak. But, that's the beauty of it all.
This year, I had the privilege of being in Utah for Independence Day. I was so bummed that I left my red jeans and my stars and stripes shirt at home, which totally ruined my entire outfit plan, but I made due and pulled something together from my limited, one suitcase wardrobe. Ugh, I hate having to choose from just a few shirts... and by that I actually brought at least 15 shirts :) I just like to complain about not having all my clothes with me. It's amazing I've survived 2 whole years without my entire selection! haha. Fortunately, we got the day off from ballet classes (halleluiah!!!), so I enjoyed a little bit of extra sleep. 9:30 feels a lot better than 6:30, for sure. Just saying. Never thought I would have to wake up earlier during the summer than I ever did during the school year... ridiculous. Anyway, after about an hour of picking an outfit and putting on eyeshadow at least 5 times to make sure the red white and blue didn't make me look like a total idiot, me and a few of my friends decided to go out for a Patriotic brunch at the Original Pancake House. It turns out everyone else in the entire Salt Lake Valley had the exact same idea as us. We showed up to a mile long line going outside the door of OPH and we were told we would have to wait and hour and half before getting a table. Being the impatient and starving dancers that we are, we looked up another diner, which was a block down the road. What we didn't know was that we would be walking up to one of the sketchiest diners I have ever seen. Dee's Restaurant diner looked like it had come straight from the 80's in some run down city. But, it was either creepy little diner, or wait an hour for that coveted stack of pancakes. So, naturally, we risked it. It was actually pretty cute inside, with the faded leather booths and the waitresses carrying baking sheets for serving trays. And even with an entire menu of breakfast food, we all ordered the same thing: the patriotic pancakes; a stack of three pancakes covered in strawberries, whipped cream and blueberries. Perfect start to an amazing 4th of July. The plate was huge, but when your hungry and you know you don't have to fit into a leotard that day, those three gigantic pancakes seem to disappear. I really don't know what happened to them :)
After a very fulfilling breakfast, we went back to the dorms, where I crawled back into my cozy bed and watched multiple episodes of How I Met Your Mother and surfed Pinterest for a good hour. There's nothing better than a little relaxing on your day off. I hate it when I end up wasting my entire day actually doing things and getting outside, as opposed to the rest of my life that is spent in a ballet studio, lit by florescent lights and scented with feet..But really, I mean, it's fun hanging out with friends and going out on the town, but sometimes you just need to take the day to lay in bed and eat Doritos all day. Sounds pretty productive to me :) So, I was glad that I was blessed with those few hours to relax and get my internet time in for the day. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
In the evening, everyone went to a Salt Lake Bee's baseball game. I've only been to one other baseball game, but I already know to expect about 2 hours of complete boredom and practically nothing happening but a few old, fat guys occasionally making a run. But, I was excited to be able to hang out with all my friends and pretend to act excited when the one home run actually happens. I really had a good time though! The game went by really fast, probably because I spent half the game waiting in line for an ice cream cone and a cup of water, both of which were totally worth the wait.. and the $5. Concessions are so ridiculous. I can't believe they can charge you $7 for a hot dog. After the game was over, we waited around a little while to watch the firework show in the stadium. I've been in Washington DC twice for the 4th of July, so I wasn't expecting a firework show better than the one they show at the National Mall, but I was blown away by how spectacular the entire show was. It lasted a surprisingly long time and I felt like they sparks were going to fall on top of me. It was an amazing ending to a very successful day :) I love fireworks. If the Colorado laws and the money allowed, I would shoot them off everyday. But then, I guess they wouldn't be as special. I will have to settle for the biannual occasion of fireworks.
We got home at about midnight that night and I didn't get to bed until 1:30. Darn you, Facebook addiction!! And darn you, the need to shower after sweating at a nasty stadium all day long!! Let's just say waking up the next morning was not a joyous occasion... 5 hours of sleep does not fit me well. But, it was totally worth it for that amazing baseball game and firework show :) Now I just have to wait until Halloween for the next holiday I can go crazy for.. that's quite a long time for a holiday fanatic.
This year, I had the privilege of being in Utah for Independence Day. I was so bummed that I left my red jeans and my stars and stripes shirt at home, which totally ruined my entire outfit plan, but I made due and pulled something together from my limited, one suitcase wardrobe. Ugh, I hate having to choose from just a few shirts... and by that I actually brought at least 15 shirts :) I just like to complain about not having all my clothes with me. It's amazing I've survived 2 whole years without my entire selection! haha. Fortunately, we got the day off from ballet classes (halleluiah!!!), so I enjoyed a little bit of extra sleep. 9:30 feels a lot better than 6:30, for sure. Just saying. Never thought I would have to wake up earlier during the summer than I ever did during the school year... ridiculous. Anyway, after about an hour of picking an outfit and putting on eyeshadow at least 5 times to make sure the red white and blue didn't make me look like a total idiot, me and a few of my friends decided to go out for a Patriotic brunch at the Original Pancake House. It turns out everyone else in the entire Salt Lake Valley had the exact same idea as us. We showed up to a mile long line going outside the door of OPH and we were told we would have to wait and hour and half before getting a table. Being the impatient and starving dancers that we are, we looked up another diner, which was a block down the road. What we didn't know was that we would be walking up to one of the sketchiest diners I have ever seen. Dee's Restaurant diner looked like it had come straight from the 80's in some run down city. But, it was either creepy little diner, or wait an hour for that coveted stack of pancakes. So, naturally, we risked it. It was actually pretty cute inside, with the faded leather booths and the waitresses carrying baking sheets for serving trays. And even with an entire menu of breakfast food, we all ordered the same thing: the patriotic pancakes; a stack of three pancakes covered in strawberries, whipped cream and blueberries. Perfect start to an amazing 4th of July. The plate was huge, but when your hungry and you know you don't have to fit into a leotard that day, those three gigantic pancakes seem to disappear. I really don't know what happened to them :)
After a very fulfilling breakfast, we went back to the dorms, where I crawled back into my cozy bed and watched multiple episodes of How I Met Your Mother and surfed Pinterest for a good hour. There's nothing better than a little relaxing on your day off. I hate it when I end up wasting my entire day actually doing things and getting outside, as opposed to the rest of my life that is spent in a ballet studio, lit by florescent lights and scented with feet..But really, I mean, it's fun hanging out with friends and going out on the town, but sometimes you just need to take the day to lay in bed and eat Doritos all day. Sounds pretty productive to me :) So, I was glad that I was blessed with those few hours to relax and get my internet time in for the day. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
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| The group at the baseball game :) |
In the evening, everyone went to a Salt Lake Bee's baseball game. I've only been to one other baseball game, but I already know to expect about 2 hours of complete boredom and practically nothing happening but a few old, fat guys occasionally making a run. But, I was excited to be able to hang out with all my friends and pretend to act excited when the one home run actually happens. I really had a good time though! The game went by really fast, probably because I spent half the game waiting in line for an ice cream cone and a cup of water, both of which were totally worth the wait.. and the $5. Concessions are so ridiculous. I can't believe they can charge you $7 for a hot dog. After the game was over, we waited around a little while to watch the firework show in the stadium. I've been in Washington DC twice for the 4th of July, so I wasn't expecting a firework show better than the one they show at the National Mall, but I was blown away by how spectacular the entire show was. It lasted a surprisingly long time and I felt like they sparks were going to fall on top of me. It was an amazing ending to a very successful day :) I love fireworks. If the Colorado laws and the money allowed, I would shoot them off everyday. But then, I guess they wouldn't be as special. I will have to settle for the biannual occasion of fireworks.
 |
| This doesn't even serve justice to the incredible firework show! |
We got home at about midnight that night and I didn't get to bed until 1:30. Darn you, Facebook addiction!! And darn you, the need to shower after sweating at a nasty stadium all day long!! Let's just say waking up the next morning was not a joyous occasion... 5 hours of sleep does not fit me well. But, it was totally worth it for that amazing baseball game and firework show :) Now I just have to wait until Halloween for the next holiday I can go crazy for.. that's quite a long time for a holiday fanatic.
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