Friday, March 28, 2008

Spring cleaning!

Hello!
I am sorry to say that my posting from here until the end of the summer will probabaly be very sporadic. I am officially living back hom now (minus my bedroom furniture, which I'm bringing down in a Uhall on Sunday) and looking for a job that has nothing to do with the food industry.

My task this week has been to clean out my bedroom (full of living room furniture and mom's sewing stuff) to make room for my stuff. That doesn't sound like such a problem right!? Well...it wouldn't usually be except that sometime about 6 months or so ago, a pipe burst in the basement causing my parents to have to replace the carpet in the downstairs living room. That pretty much means that everything from the living room, ended up in my room that had already been stuffed full of holiday things, etc. (I mean, I don't blame them, I didn't live here!)
So long story short, we cleaned out my brother's room and are in the process of turning it into mom's sewing room...while doing this, we found water damage...which means we had to rip up the carpet, tear down some dry-wall, etc. So our process of cleaning up has been slowed a bit.
*Note: I like pulling up carpet and doing various sorts of demolition things* :D
So at the present moment, skipping a ton of boring details, my room is ready to go and the living room is cleared out enough to bring my stuff through it. :D YAY!
Our house is not gross, it's just cluttered and I'm helping mom go through EVERYTHING to eliminate that problem! (I'm a task master and actually it's been kind of fun to clean...) that is so weird!


As far as the job hunt goes, I applied at the community college down here to be a temp! :D Bethany (the best friend from a few posts before) used to do that, and her mom works in HR there, SO I might have a chance of getting it! :D woohoo. I'd love to work in an office. I think it'd be fun!


"Annie" the musical they are doing this summer with my community theatre is later in the summer than usual, so I can't be in it because I'll be at orientation for the last 2 shows. I'm not really that bummed about it because I HATE that musical. I just wanted something to do here aside from working...BUT I have found a girl that plays on a slow-pitch softball team, so hopefully, I'll be able to do that! YAY! After playing the past 2 summers, I'd rather do that anyway.


There's my update!
I'm sorry it's nothing to write home about.

:D

Friday, March 21, 2008

August Rush

August Rush is one of the best movies I've seen.
I can't even add the prepositional phrase, "in a long time." because It's one of the best films I've seen ever.

wow!
go watch it.
seriously.

A CHORAL ARRANGEMENT OF FLIGHT OF THE BUMBLEBEE

I sang this arrangement a couple semesters ago! It's so much fun!

Go watch it!!!!



AMAZING

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Birthday fun

I have wonderful friends who do wonderful things!
Today is my 23rd birthday, and it's the best birthday I've ever had!

Last night the gang went to Texas Roadhouse *as usual on Monday nights* and they made me sit on the saddle and have everyone "yee-haw" for my birthday.
Today Sommer *roommate* and I went to a matinée, learned part of the dance to Devil went down to Georgia, then Mama Hawkins took us to Madelein's for dinner!
THEN, at Bible Study, Laura made a cake and sang to me and Gabe *who's birthday is the 29th!*
Thursday is my official "birthday/going away party" so I'll have MORE fun with friends!

It's been amazing!
I'm also getting really REALLY sad about leaving everyone Monday...


:) and :(

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Let me tell ya 'bout my best friend Part II

I didn't intend on posting another story about Bethany, but I figured you were all dying to know about the Beowulf sock puppet show, so here it is!

Our senior year of high school, we studied the Beowulf epic (as most high school students do). Instead of simply reading this particular story, we had to do a "project." This project could be pretty much whatever we wanted it to be. For example, most of the kids in the classes made movies (which really means that the boys finally got the chance to do stupid things in front of a camera for a grade), others did storyboards, and some drew pictures or made statue things, etc. My friends (Lane, Leeann, Chris, Bethany) and I decided we wanted to do a live show of some sort. The movie idea was way over played anyway. I'm not 100% sure how the idea to do a sock puppet show came about *I THINK it was from Lane's genius* but there we were...5 creative kids, the Beowulf epic adventure, some plain socks, and the bottom half of the Calvary Baptist puppet ministry's stage curtain. I have no recollection of 90% of the details that went into making this show, and actually, the only reason I remember as much as I do is because we have it on tape. I do know, however, that Bethany was the narrator with the WORST British accent ever; Lane was the entire supporting cast and the king of Higlick *spelling*; Chris was Grendel, complete with a sock rolled glue, then rice, and spray pained green; Leeann was the most ghetto Beowulf to ever grace the stage, and I was Grendel's mom, who looked kind of like a bad drag queen *with a deep voice* until I screamed...which sounded like an opera singer. During the making of this production, we decided to reference as many ridiculous things as humanly possible including, but not limited to, The Scarlett Letter, Mario Brothers, Zelda, the phrase "shoot to kill!?", and the king's throne...which was a picture of a bedazzled toilet...

Needless to say, we were super under rehearsed and laughed almost the entire way through, but our teacher *and classmates* loved it so much, that we were forced to do it for the entire junior class. *shrug*

This story isn't nearly as funny (or dorky) as the Arabian Dance, but it still makes me laugh to replay it in my head!




AND I'm pretty sure my stories like this embarrass Bryan, so I figured why not another one! ;)

Friday, March 14, 2008

Let me tell ya 'bout my best friend

My best friend, Bethany, is getting married in May!!!! Her WV bridal shower and bachelorette party are April 5, which means I've been in major maid of honor overdrive. Everything has finally been planned and mailed and I can get back to working on my gift for her. YAY!
Because of the Bethany centered universe I've been living in the past few days, I figured I would tell you a little about our friendship.

We met in the 6th grade at a sleepover and as she says, "we realized we were the biggest dorks at the party and we had to be friends." Which couldn't be more true as you will notice in the pictures following this post. The only thing from that sleepover I remember is having a "talent contest" (which in 6th grade just means that we sang) and the girls couldn't pick who was better, so we tied (or something like that), and playing a game about having dots? and the two of us kept saying "foe" instead of the number "four." *shrug*

Some of my favorite memories involve antics with Bethany. For instance, she was staying the night at my house and we decided choreographing a modern dance to the Arabian Dance from the Nutcracker would be a great idea. *note: neither of us took dance...unless you count tap and ballet at age 3 and 4, which I doubt you do.* The concept of this dance (if you can call it that) was something about 2 lost souls trying to find one another. So we spent the entire length of the song wandering around my bedroom doing the stereotypical dragging of the foot with each step until at long last, on the penultimate measure of the musical piece, we found each other and embraced in a very modern dance sort of way. ...I'm not making this up...though I wish I were because now you have proof of the caliber of our dorkiness. The best part of this creative collaboration, if you will, was a jump and catch thing that we decided to put in. I was supposed to run and leap into Bethany's arms. Now, those of you who've seen me know that the mere thought of all these lanky limbs hurling through the air could could create panic in even the bravest of souls. Bethany realized this fact as well...only I was already in the air when this struck her. In a desperate attempt to save herself, she quickly yelled, "I can't catch you!!!" and jumped out of the way (sort of) causing the two of us to end up in a heap splitting the floor and the edge of the bed. I think we ended up laying there for at least 10 minutes in side splitting pain from all the laughter.

Another memory has to do with 3 other friends, a Beowulf project, and a sock puppet show with Mario Brothers and Zelda theme music, but that's a story for another day. :)

Bethany has been there through almost every phase of my life. She's the kind of friend you only come across once in your life, if you're lucky. We've had our fair share of troubles, as all close friends have. We even went about a year in middle school without speaking (8th grade girls, you know how that can be.) But throughout it all, God has kept pushing us back together. Bethany and I were the first voice majors from Chapmanville (I'm pretty sure in the history of the town EVER...ok maybe not that, but we'd certainly never heard of any.) She went to the University of Charletson and I headed to WVU. When the program at UC folded, she decided she didn't want a degree from a school whose program didn't exist anymore, so she transfered to Lee University in Tennessee (8 hours away from WVU). *WHICH, by the way, she should have gone to right out of high school...it's the only school she ever talked about, but I'm just sayin'* ;) I think we actually went an entire year without seeing one another, but no matter how much time passed, we picked back up where we left off.

Our group of 5 from high school no longer speaks really. Lane is in Illinois being a model and going to rock shows! Natasha just got married the 23rd of this month, and her son Parker is a little over 7 months old. Tabi is an EMT and Volunteer Fire Fighter and is actually helping me plan the bacholerette party!!! Bethany will graduate soon with her degree in Music Education, her fiancee is a youth Pastor in Virginia, working on his Masters of Divinity in...Christian Ministry? perhaps? I have my BM in Vocal Performance and am about to go to Seminary to get my MM in Church Music and my boyfriend is getting his M.Div. in Christian Ministry. It's interesting to see how God has worked through the various stages of our lives, and kept the two of us close in a lot of things. One thing Bethany and I always dreamed about when we were younger was how we were going to live down the street from one another in our silver days in one of the Carolinas, sit in our rocking chairs on the front porch, and sip on sweet tea while our husbands hung out somewhere else. Honestly, that may never happen, BUT when Jonathan *her fiancee* and Bryan get together, it feels like gatherings just might go a little something like this:
Bryan and Jonathan talk about ::insert some highly intellectual theological discussion here::
while Berf and I run around like 5 year olds, singing random songs from All State, and laughing at the top of our lungs. This will be the situation for the rest of our lives and I can't wait.
She is truly the best friend I have ever had the privilege of knowing.


Enjoy the pictures!
These were taken over Thanksgiving Break after seeing our High School Choir's "Bah Humbug" - a musical version of "A Christmas Carol".


If ONLY you knew us in the 7th grade...




We used to dress up in prom dresses and such and take pictures with a fan blowing our hair...so this is recreating that...I also can't believe I'm giving you more proof of how dorky we were/still are! Some things you never outgrow.



Obviously, I'm blinded by her rock.



I don't associate with white chicks who throw gang signs...



This is one of the only normal pictures ever taken of us.





Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Singers

I know I said I'd post an update, but I've been inspired to make a list of favored vocalists.
This isn't necessarily my "top of all time" or anything, nor are they in any particular order, just a list of lead singers who tear it up vocally! I'm actually a huge snob about vocalists. I don't really listen to bands with singers who don't sing well. You can call that whatever you want, but I can't really help what I like/how I've been trained.
I hope you enjoy!?

* Freddy Mercury - Queen
* Steve Perry - Journey
* Dennis DeYoung and Tommy Shaw - Styx
* Ann Wilson - Heart
* Martina McBride
* Terry Kath - Chicago
* Phil Collins
* Kevin Cronin - REO Speedwagon
* Christina Aguilera
* Amy Lee - Evanescence
* Michael Buble
* Linda Eder
* Adam Levine - Maroon 5
* Pat Benetar
* Gary LeVox - Rascal Flatts
* Stevie Wonder
* Shannon Hoon - Blind Melon
* Brad Detar - The Juliana Theory
* Whitney Houston


The list goes on and on, but those are a few!

k bye!

The boyfriend...

is HILARIOUS!
GO look at his latest blog post:
Five Unquestionable Truths

oh no!
haha


<3


An actual post will follow in sometime. I'm kind of of Maid of Honor overdrive at the moment AND I'm in my last 4 days of work *YAY*, so I'll get around to ti sooner or later!
:D