Contented

I am home.
I am happy.
All is well.

One of the craziest coolest songs ever!

So one day Mom and I were driving to Des Moines with the radio on the XM Broadway station.
We started hearing this song and then went on to talk for a while, when we started listening around 10 minutes later and listened to the radio, it was the SAME SONG!
It was this crazy song about a woman who loves blue eyed men and has a lot of babies with them.
And then she travels with all the children in a show.
Called.....'The Babylove Miracle Show'.
Or that's the nearest I can make out anyway.
.....And I have no idea who all those people in the middle are. But apparently they enjoy the show....A lot.
*helpless shrug*

But I've been looking for this song everywhere and it's not available (except for maybe buying the cd off Amazon), and I finally found it!

It's just the audio.
But.....HUZZAH!

The woman singing this, Karen Morrow, has the most amazing belting voice ever, but subsequently went on to star in several ginormous broadway flops.

So....
Enjoy the crazy, wacky, 70s-ness that is
'Babylove Miracle Show'
from 'The Grass Harp'



Babylove Miracle Show (Audio Only)
Uploaded by tobiagorrio

Sometimes Rogers and Hammerstein do say it best...

I have wished before,
I will wish no more.

Love, look away!
Love, look away from me.
Fly, when you pass my door,
Fly and get lost at sea.

Call it a day.
Love, let us say we're through.
No good are you for me,
No good am I for you.

Wanting you so, I try too much.
After you go,I cry too much.

Love, look away.
Lonely though I may be,
Leave me and set me free,
Look away, look away, look away... from... me.

~'Love, Look Away' from Flower Drum Song

Focused

I'm focusing.
I have a lot of stuff to do and lot of things have mildly gone wrong.
But I'm just taking deep breaths and working through it slowly.

I've got my eyes on the prize.
The weekend.

It's mostly academic stuff that's causing the issues.
My classes are a lot harder this semester than I've had in a while, and it's just taking a lot of doing to get everything done.
Which means not much down time.
Which means I get stressed.

I like to have my down time, and usually if I'm organized I can manage to fit some in here and there.
Not this semester.
Not now anyway.
It's almost constant work just to keep up with everything.

But I'm fine.
I'm focused.
I just need to keep moving and I'll be ok.

*deep breath*


He was born a sailor's son
Nothin' came easy or free.
Suffered the squalls, all the rises and falls,
and everything else in between.
He said, 'storms always fade after they've had their way,
They're never as bad as they seem.'

As long as the river still runs to the sea,
hey, lucky you, lucky me.
hey, lucky you, lucky me.

~'Lucky Me' : Great Big Sea

We're off to see the wizard!

Tomorrow (or today rather) Michelle and I drive to Minn. to take a voice lesson from Barbara Kiereg(sp?).
Should either of us choose UofM as our grad school, Barbara would be our voice teacher so it's really important to try and get to know her as much as possible before making a decision!
I'm looking forward to the drive.
I like road trips. =D
Especially road trips with ipods. *sigh* I love my ipod hookup. It makes life happy.

Anyway, our lessons will be in Barbara's house so we won't get to see the campus yet, but we will see it on Feb 6th and 7th when we go up for our auditions to get into the grad school.

I'm not gonna lie.
I'm kinda psyched.
I really want to like UofM, but I'm witholding my judgement.
I really wanted to like Northwestern too, but I ended up strongly disliking it.
So.....We'll just have to wait and see.

UNI grad auditions are on Feb 4th. So, YIKES!
AUDITIONS = NERVE WRACKING!!!
Oh well, it's better for the vocalists than it is for the pianists.
My piano major friends are going crazy practicing like maniancs for a million hours a day, and late into the night.
I know that each specialty has its' own challenges but....
Not gonna lie.
I think pianists have it way harder than vocalists.
It's just-
they're crazy.

Moving on.
Today was choreography rehearsal for 'Pal Joey' and guess what?!?!!
I GET TO DANCE!!!!!!
They NEVER let me dance at Wartburg!
I always have to play the mom or the old lady or something. and I love dancing!
Yes, I am chubby.
But I have 10yrs of dance experience people!!
Don't put me down for the count!
Chubby girl got moves!
Anyway, we worked on the Dream Ballet today (the only dance number I'm in by the way) and I get to do a cute little bit with some neat ballet moves.
(Wish I was a little better at ballet, I'm more of a tapper or a jazz dancer to be honest)
But I have the experience and with rehearsal I will only get better. =D
I'm so excited though!
I get to dance!
YAY!

People always think I'm wierd at community theatre in the summer when I'm all like, "Choreography rehearsal! HECK YEAH! Let's dance in the 100 degree warehouse for three hours! Let's do it again! Dance till it hurts!"
But I just love to dance.
*shrugs*
What can I say.
I just gotta cut footloose.

I get by with a little help from my friends

Feeling a little better today.

The two tests are done.
(Coughenour gives the tests from HELL)
And despite some slip ups, I'm feeling pretty good about both of them.

I've got everything else under control (for now), and things are lookin' up.

Tonight I'm going to go and have fun with Emily and some peeps for her birthday.
Huzzah Emily's birthday!!!
and tomorrow we're going to enjoy a 'Rome-a-thon'. =D

In any case.
I survived.
Tonight will be fun, and so will tomorrow.

*sigh of relief*
Now I just need to de-tensify.

When the you-know-what hits the fan

Everything went to crap today.
FRICK!!


Must-

last-
to-

...end-
of-

week.....


Ack.
*head plant*

YIKES!

Back from Kansas.
We didn't move on in the competition, but none of us feel bad about how we did. We thought we did a great job.
And despite some rough patches, the trip as a whole was fun.
I sure wish we could have stayed and gone to some of the awesome theatre workshops they were offering, but school and crazy homework-ness called and we were dragged against our will back to campus.

Soo......I've got a lot of stuff to do.
I thnk it just seems bad right now, because I've got three tests this week.

But...I've got music to work on for grad school auditions in the next few weeks,
my senior recital music to work on,
Pal Joey rehearsals every night (and lines and music to memorize for that)
Knights on Broadway rehearsals on the nights I don't have Pal Joey,
and May Term play will start work as soon as we get the scripts sometime in the next week or so.

On top of that I've got Form and Analysis, which is quite possibly the most difficult class I've ever taken in my life. The homework is incredibly hard and requires group meetings all the time in order to get it done.

But mostly, I'm worried about all my performance stuff.
That's a lot of memorizing in a short time.
A lot of different things, all of which are expecting to have my entire attention all the time.
And I can't do that.
I've got to split myself.
Which results in everything getting a little bit jipped.
*sigh*

It's ok though.
I'm sure things will look up somewhat after this crazy academic week is done.
Then maybe it all won't seem like so much.

An interesting day.....

So....This morning I woke up to something very strange to do with my health.
I'm not going to say what, but it was definately wierd.

Then as our little troupe of strolling players was preparing to bord the van to Kansas for KCACTF competition, I fell down the stairs in Cardinal Commons (seriously, top stair to bottom stair) and injured my bottom.
Yep.
My bottom.
Not gonna lie.
I cried a little.
It kinda hurt.
And now I've got a crazy mad bruise.
Ooooon ma' bottom.
*head plant*
Of course I do.

So, then began the long drive to Kansas.
The road was drifting closed like the whole time and at one point we spent like an hour going 3mph (not an exaggeration, that was the actual speed).
.....Yeah.

We stopped at Hickory Park in Ames for some hickory goodness, picked up Dani D in Decater, and finally made it to Lawrence, Kansas home of the KCACTF 2009 competition!!!
HUZZAH!

Our hotel is a teensy bit skeezy, but we're cool with it.
We've got our WalMart goodies, wireless internet, and several laptops.
We are set.
=D

Andrew discoverd on a map from the hotel that the Oregan trail ran through Lawrence!
COOL!
We kind of played around with the idea of walking it tomorrow during our free time (we just have to register so we'll have a lot of that).
We could like leave people behind (You died of cholera, stay here) or have people be sick (D, you got bitten by a snake, walk 20ft behind us until we say you're better).
LOL.
Good times.

Tomorrow is registration day, which means we'll probably go to a mall and see a movie or something.
Then Monday is the competition day.
If we move on to the next round we'll stay here till Wednesday.
We're not counting on it per se, but it would be nice.

So to sum up;
weird health thing
bruised ma' bottom
skeezy hotel
Oregon Trail.

Welcome to Kansas.
=D

But baby it's COLD outside!

It's cold.

It's very cold.

This morning when I walked to class it was wind chill of -46 degrees outside.

Frickin' cold.

Frickity frick frack frickin' cold.

Any exposed flesh would start to get frost bite in a walk from Knights Village across campus, so we have to wrap our faces in scarves and things.

Frickin'.

Cold.

All the schools were cancelled today, and when we got to class the professors were all like, "Yeeeaaahh....You can't expect little kids to walk in this cold."

*Spasm*

So....What?

You think that somehow when WE walk outside the temperature around us raises to a non-dangerous level cacooning us in a bubble of warm toastiness?

NO!

It's just as cold for us as for little kids!

In fact, they're probably more bundled up than we are!!

They're probably WARMER!!!!!

*face plant on desk*

Anyway.

That's my little weather rant for the day.

.....FRICKIN' COLD.

"Best Life" and all that good stuff

So last week all the talk shows were doing their 'start of the year' "BEST LIFE" things.
Oprah's being the most prominant because, let's face it, she's Oprah.

Last week was also my first real week back on the wagon after my little Christmas food adventure. =D (wouldn't trade it for anything by the way).

So right now I'm feeling really motivated.
Not to say that I wasn't motivated before, because I wouldn't have come this far if I wasn't, but now I'm really motivated!

I just feel so good about my health!

I've come so far and I really feel like I've made lifestyle changes that will stay with me for the rest of my life.

I am healthy for me.
I ENJOY being healthy!
Sure, it isn't always fun getting there, but I trust myself now and know that I have the willpower to do anything I really want to.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is,

HERE I AM WORLD!!!!
THERE IS NO FEAR!
THERE ARE NO EXCUSES!
AND NOTHING (AND I MEAN NOTHING!) IS GOING TO STOP ME!

.....so watch out. =D

Snap.

Weekends make life sad

Ack.
I hate weekends on campus.

The first weekend that schedule allows, I'm going home.

Oh, and I miss my home friends.
A lot.

...And my parents.

*sigh*

Here comes another week, and stuff to occupy my mind.

Memorieeeees! Light the corners of my miiiiiinnnnddd!!

Christmas Dinner Pictures!!!

They're finally here!

The table. Isn't it pretty?!

Singin' Christmas Carols around the piano while we wait for the Dinner to be ready



Dad carvin' the turkey


The Gang's all here!



Seated at the table looking o-so-merry.

Alex tries to get us to say, "The Governor of Syria" During Christmas Charades....Yeah. Good luck with that.

Everyone's trying to guess....."SCROOGE! TINY TIM! THE BISHOP'S WIFE!"

Chazse get's a basket filled with femanine goodies in the gift exchange. And doesn't he look thrilled?

Me and my JFK rug/wallhanging thing. LOL! Coolest. Gift. Ever.

Kate and Chaz are entranced by the amazingness of the glitter ball.




Until I step in! Feel the love. =D



The evening comes to a close, so Chaz and Sam take a nap.


HUZZAH FOR CHRISTMAS DINNER!!!!!

Bracing myself

Alright.

The first week of classes is almost over.

Orchestration will not be bad at all, just time consuming.

Sort of, mindless copy work.

German 2 will be just about the same as German 1.

Not to hard, you've just got to learn the stuff and do your homework.

Shakespeare will be fun.

The teacher's a little uptight but the class flippin' amazing and I have a feeling we will make her crack before too long. =D

Form and Analysis will be horrifically difficult.

This class is about to become the bane of my existance.

It's going to rip my brain out and stomp it like grapes for wine.

My soul will slowly be sucked out through my eyes onto papers filled with notes and roman numerals.

But Margie's in it with me, and she's always a good teacher/helper/saviour of all things theory, so hopefully I'll survive alright.

Pal Joey is going well (considering it's only the first week).

I'm ahead of the game as far as memorization goes, so I'm not too worried.

I am, however, going to try and keep ahead of the game by continuing to memorize.

Who's not gettin' yelled at this production?

Rachel's not gettin' yelled at this production!

No word on resolution for the two conflicts I mentioned in my previous post. I'm just waiting now, so........We'll see.

The weekend is almost here!!!
I'm SOOOO HAPPY!

*chants*

week-end, week-end, week-end!

Cheers mates

Frickin'....just.....crap.

Ack.

A conflict has come up.

Two things that I was TOTALLY looking forward to which were NOT going to conflict, now conflict.

And that makes me really upset.

Especially since no matter what I try to do now, someone is going to be upset that I had to change plans.

I'm sorry.

But both things are of equal importance and somethin's gotta give so I can make this work.

*head on desk*
Ack.

I hate conflicts.
I hate conflict.

Being organized is supposed to stop this crap from happening.

Good day number 2

This is gonna be as short as I can make it, because I've got to pack.
Eek!

Today there was a lot of putting away of Christmas decorations, memorizing of lines, and icing of my poor right arm (stupid wii tennis elbow!).

Mom and I managed to finish 'Cranford'.
Which was AWESOME!!!
Yet another tick in the 'amazing mini-series that Rachel loves' category. =D
We laughed, we cried, we cried some more, laughed again, said "OH NO!", then said "I called that!", cried again, and went "Awwwww!"
Good stuff.
Wonderful stuff.

The new Doctor Who was announced today,
and as Sarah S put it so well, "Who the heck is Matt Smith?!?!!"

Who indeed.
We have no idea.
He looks like he'll be a good choice.
My only reservation is that he's only 26.
And that's a pretty young Doctor!
It'll be interesting to see if he can bring in the sense of age that the role requires. I mean, the Doctor is supposed to be over 900yrs old!
Sooo.......we'll see.

Here's a video of the interview that aired today on BBC1



Tomorrow I head back to the Burg where a new semester (and lots of work) await.
Here we go!

Good day number 1

Today was good. =D

We went and saw 'Doubt', which I thought was really good, but Jacob didn't like as much because, "It didn't resolve anything."

Of course it didnt' resolve anything!!!
That's why the movie's called 'DOUBT'!
lol.
Anyway. We had one of our famous post-movie arguments about it. Which always ends in us just forgetting it ever happened, because we're totally just arguing for the sake of arguing.

Then we got some Chik-Fil-A at the GIANT one on 53rd.
Good stuff.
Followed by Coldstone.
yummmm....

Then we went back to Alex's and played Speed Uno for a couple hours until everyone could get there when we played
*drumroll please*
GIRL TALK!

LOL!!!
It was pretty freakin' amazing.
For those of you who don't know, Girl Talk is this game from the early nineties aimed at middle school girls. It's basically 'Truth or Dare' with a little spinny wheel that tells you what to do.

I had to call the operator and try to get her to connect me to the President. Which was a little scary as we were somewhat afraid she was actually going to put us through to someone. *eek!*
But she just told me to call 411.
Haha!

Jacob had to jump up and down like a frog for 1 minute.
I got a good video of that on my cell phone.
And it will continue to make me laugh for years to come.

Tracey had to put lip gloss on Blake blindfolded.
Which ended with Blake having lip gloss all over his beard.
Oh man, I laughed so hard and it hurt so good.

Then we played Apples to Apples for a bit resulting in the following

The word: Misunderstood
Michelle G: The Attack on Pearl Harbor?!!?
Alex: It was more of a love tap.

LOL!
Good stuff.

Then we watched a movie from 1989 starring Tom Sellek and Paulina Porizkova called 'Her Alibi'.
Tom is a mystery writer who goes to sit in on court sessions in order to be inspired. He sees Paulina, who is a Romanian acrobat/clown charged with murder, and is enchanted. He provides the cops with an alibi and takes her home.
Romance ensues.
Tom gets a haircut, they survive several attempts on their lives by bumbling Romanians, and they go to a Clown Gathering. Yeah.
A Clown Gathering.
LOL!
I must admit.
It was pretty freakin' funny.
Intentionally?
Sometimes. ;-D

Then we sat around and talked for about two hours, before parting company.
There were lots of hugs to go around.
*sigh*
I will miss them.
But that's why we have text and facebook.

In other news....
TOMORROW THEY ANNOUNCE WHO THE NEW DOCTOR WILL BE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I AM SO NERVOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THIS IS HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yikes.
I freak out just thinking about it.
I hope it's someone good.
I hope they're a good actor.
I hope they're dashing.
I hope they don't ruin my favourite tv show.
EEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I just-
I can't-
*huge breath*
Ack!
So, more news on that tomorrow.
The news should be out by 5:35pm UK time which is about 11: 35am our time.

Fingers crossed!

Holding on for dear life

Break's almost over!!!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't make me! I don't wanna go!

I don't wanna gooooooooo!!!!!

*sigh*

It goes so fast.
It seems like I just got back last week.
I haven't had enough time yet!

I want to do more stuff with Mom, have more game nights with my friends, see a couple more movies.
I don't want to go back to responsibility yet!!

Oh well.
I'll just have to really make these last two days count.

Tomorrow me and the gang are gonna go see 'Doubt', get dinner (and maybe some ice cream) and then settle in at Alex's house for what will probably be maaaannny hours of Speed Uno, and then possibly a movie of some kind. =D

Saturday Mom and I have quality time lined up.
We're going to watch this mini-series together that we started the last time I was home.
Mini-series time is special time for Mom and I.
It's the thing we do together.
And I'm really excited for that.

So.....
I'm gonna do it!
I'm gonna make these days count!


And then I'm gonna go back to school and try to not die!
(theeeooorrrryyyy claaaaaaaassseeesssss...ugggggghhhhhhh)

HUZZAH!