home sweet home

I know that I have only been at school for like two weeks, but I have to say that I am sooooooo excited about going home over the labor day weekend. I get to see everyone, including my puppy, eat a lot of food on no budget, show off my new hair ( I got it chopped off kind of short), and sleep in! The last one is my personal favorite. I get to go shopping too! I am finally in a choir that does not have an ugly uniform, just a nice black dress - now I have to get one that is not sleeveless or sparkly. I am realy happy, I just hope that they don't try and make me do any chores or anything!

Yay me!

Just thought that I would let everybody know that I auditioned for and made SIUE 's concert choir! Wow, they are pretty good! I am really excited about going to the renaissance festival in k.c. in october too!

Anyway, thats all!

college

Yay! I am starting to get the hang of things around here, and I finally found a spot with wireless internet to post about it! So, I moved here on thursday, but classes don't start until monday, so I have a lot of time to kill. At first, there was nothing to do, so I sat in my room watching movies, listening to music, and (can you believe it) actually flipping through my textbooks. I visited the student union once or twice, but I was getting really bored! Then, yesterday, at an icebreaker party, I met like ten new people and ended up playing sand volleyball with them until about 1 am. I have only gotten lost once, and think that I know where everything that I need to survive is ( target, grocery store, and walgreens...right?). But alas, classes start tomorrow, as well as work, so poof! All of the time that I didn't know what to do with turns in to so much to do, so little time! Anyway, I think that I will survive, so all is well!

answers for stacey...

1. What is your ideal job, and why?

To be on broadway, of course! I absolutely love being up on stage, and I can't think of any time that I have been happier than when I am up there performing. It gives me that amazing rush... it is my addiction!

2. You have made it as a big time broadway actress. What show are you in, who is your leading man, and why?

Ok, I have so many shows that I would love to star in on broadway, but I guess the few that I could narrow it down to are:

*Phantom ~ with Hugh Panaro ( for the ultimate reason that I find him gorgeous)
*Wicked ~ I really don't have a desired leading man for this one, I just love the music!
*If they ever did another revival of Anything Goes ~ again, no desired leading man, just had fun this year
*West Side Story~with whoever the hottie with the great voice was at the Muny

3. After seeing mine, you've said that you could handle getting a tattoo. What would you get, and where?

Definitely a rose on my lower back. Don't have a specific reason, I just like it.

4. What is the craziest, most rule breaking thing you have done? ( Within reason of ourse! No illegal stuff here!)

I won't go into specifics, but a certain outdoor game of truth or dare at 4 in the morning... it involved partial clothing removal and standing in the middle of the street... anyway, next question!

5. If you could change 1 thing about yourself, what would it be and why?

I would know when to shut up! I have a terrible, lifelong case of foot -in- mouth syndrome!

A few answers!

So, christian interviewed me, and I answered his questions as well as I could.

1. What is your biggest fear heading towards college?

Well, I have two. The first would have to be living away from home in a town that I don't know well at all. True, I am living with someone who has been in edwardsville for years, but she has a job, and a life of her own, I won't have her in the car with me at all times. ( and if you are saying "well duh, use a map", NO! MAPS + ALLI = TROUBLE!)
Second is financial issues. I have lived with the reality of real financial difficulty for years now, but I have never had to deal with paying the bills with no money in the account- that was for mom and dad. Now, I need to come up with at least $350 a month ( although I did just get an on campus job at pizza hut today!) Still, needing cash and not having mom and dad there to ask for help is scary!

2. In your life thus far, what was the performance (not necessarily theatrical) you were most proud of?

Ok, that would definitely have to be my performance in high school, both acedemically, and everything else. In gradeschool, there were the people who were picked on, and the people who did the picking. I was one of the picked on... kind of a lot. Somehow in highschool, I changed that. First I changed my grades. I went from failing one or two classes a quarter to being on honor roll all year freshman, junior, and senior year. Also, I had no enemies that I knew of, and tons of friends. I found out my sophomore year that I could sing kinda well, and I used that a lot. For the most part, my teachers loved me, and I never had issues or problems with them. By the end of senior year, I had been a cheerleader, and was vice president of student council, a student ambassador, a member of jazz band, concert band, chamber singers, lit music, campus ministry, and had landed a few leading roles in guild productions. So yeah, I am proud of that!

3. You just recently started your blog. What made you decide to do it now?

Well, 2 things really. Going off to college made me want to have a way other than email and phones to let anyone who cares know whats up. Second, when I would check to see if other people had updated their blogs , and they hadn't, I decided to start a blog where there was a new post whenever I wanted one. Plus, I wanted my name to be all highlighty when I commented on other sites!

4. Which 3 people in your life do you most admire?

Sorry c2, I can do 2 or 4, but not 3... so, I guess first is my grandmother. She is a breast cancer survivor, her son has mental retardation, now she is living with diabetes, and her husband suffers from dimensia. Second is my mother. She didn't know what she wanted to do after highschool, so she went to school to be a radiological technician. Now she does a job she doesn't like, gets paid crap, has worked her ass off for her family, and has helped her mother through breast cancer and diabetes, her brother through mental retardation, and her father through dimensia. Third is my father. To me, he knows everything. He has so many stories to tell, and the amazing thing is, they are all 100% true! But most of all, he taught me to sing. Last is my little sister, my boo bear. Ever since she was born, she has been second best. I took dance lessons, so did she, off and on, but then quit while I went on. I took piano lessons, and so did she, but quit because she wasn't getting it like I was. She was in a choir with me, but quit because she wasn't having any fun, and she didn't like that she was in the backround while I had the solos. In the production of Anything Goes, all she wanted was chorus, but she didn't even make it while I scored the lead. When she was 5, she had mono, and now she has a skin disease that has been an easy target for other peoples comments. But God, I wish I had her figure!

5. What do you see yourself doing after graduating college?

My dream is to do Broadway, but I see myself teaching music!


Thanks C2, that was fun.

and now, for a few questions...

Ok, here are the rules!

1. If you want to participate, leave a comment below asking to be interviewed.

2. I will respond by asking you 5 questions- each person's will be different.

3. You will update your journal/blog with the answers to the questions

4. You will include this explanation and offer to interview others in the same post.

5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them 5 questions.


so...any takers?

2 out of 3 aint' bad ?

So lately, I have had three big goals...
1) Find somewhere to live during school
2) Get a car
3) Get a job to pay for the two above

Today I accomplished 2 out of my 3 goals. Great!...or is it?

You see, the two goals that I accomplished were,
1) I found this lady who travels a lot who is also very close to campus. Since she is always gone, she is renting out bedrooms in her house, and the people in them have pretty much full run of the house. I get the whole, finished basement to myself! Yay!

2) I put a down payment on a used, 98' Dodge neon today, I am paying the rest of the $3500 tomorrow when the radio and a/c are finished, and I will have MY OWN CAR, for the first time ever. Yay!

so, you may be saying, why wouldn't this be great? Well, this is the last week of the Muny, and so my source if income is soon to be no more, so I really have no way to pay monthly rent until I accomplish goal #3. I have a few possible opportunities, but so far, no set job. Oh well, I have been lucky thus far, who knows?...

By the way, I move in probably this week/weekend, and make it permanent sometime next week, so wish me luck!

nice surprises

Don't you love it when something kind of cool happens, and you just are in this really good mood for awhile? This has happened to me a few times in the past two months, and it happened twice today, and once last night.

It all started when I met Norbert Leo Butz last month by surprise after a production of 42nd street. I was having the worst day ever, and I heard at intermission that he was out in the audience. I just about died. I got to talk to him, get his autograph, and pose for a picture with him. It turned out to be a great night.
Later that month, I started out by going to a surprise party at a pizza joint. I figured that I would go, talk a while, eat a little, and go home. Instead, I was invited to a poker party at Stacey's apartment, and I went. We laughed, played video games, went swimming, and then played poker. Completely unexpected for me, yet really fun. Nice little surprise.
Earlier this week, I found out that a show that I really want to see more than anything, The Last Five Years by Jason Robert Brown ( which the above mentioned Norbert Leo Butz originated one of the leads) is playing in town, and a group of friends is going to see it, and I am going with them. Yay! Things like that make me so happy.
Last night, I was working at the Muny, with my dad, and afterwards, I was waiting for him because he was driving a van for all of the cast members who are out of towners to their hotel. The people playing Maria, Tony, and Anita in West Side Story , were sitting back stage waiting after the show, and I was looking for my father, so I ended up back there too. I sat down and got to talk to Natasha Diaz, who was Anita, for awhile. When the van got back, I got to ride in the back, and talk to some other cast members. It was soooo cool!
Today, I went apartment searching in Edwardsville, and ended up finding a woman who will rent out a bedroom in her house for a heck of a lot cheaper than any other apartment I can find, and this charge already covers everything including cable, gas, water, electric, heat/ air, everything! Yessss!
Later today, my uncle told me that he might buy me a car! It doesn't get much better than that!

Lets see if I can stay on a roll!

movies yes, or movies no?

I have been contemplating going to see "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" lately, but I am the kind of person who goes to see a movie in theatres only if it is worth it. If I will get the same satisfaction out of the movie by waiting until it comes out on video, and watching it on my somewhat big screen with my good speakers, then I will wait.

And so I am asking anyone who has seen it... knowing the above information about me, should I go to the movies?

Also, if anyone has any other good movies that they have seen lately, let me know!