Clean Up Batter on a Team That Ain’t a Winner

I had a big birthday this year. I’m officially old.

I remember being around 19 and having friends through theatre who were as old as I am now, and thinking they were SO old.

I remember when my oldest sister was this old and thinking how weird it was to have such an old sibling.

If you bought clothes as old as me, they’re vintage.

If you bought furniture as old as me, it’s antique.

But, you know what? It was a GOOD BIRTHDAY.

Last year sucked, and I’m hoping it had something to do with having a bad birthday (stuck in rehearsal all day, then supervising a school dance all night).

The only sucky things about my birthday this year were having to go to church and then having to go help out with ward choir practice.

Other than that, my birthday was great.

Lauren made me white chocolate blueberry cheesecake, and it was INCREDIBLE.

We had a family dinner and my mom made Mexican food.

We had a Lost marathon.

Two episodes of To Catch a Predator!!!

I was given gifts like these:

And best of all, I got to see lots of people who I love, and I got TONS of birthday wishes through the mail, phone calls, texts, and Facebook.

2011 is going to be a good year.

PS – This is the best song about turning 30 EVER WRITTEN. (I’m not sure if there are any others, but still…) There’s an f word in it, though, so if that bothers you, don’t listen.

LOVE THIS SONG.

Back to Blogging

You’d think that when one is unemployed, they’d have lots of time to spend blogging, right? Instead, time is filled with doing as many odd jobs as possible, performing a play, filling your dwelling with Christmas decorations, spending extra time cooking in order to create as many new recipes as possible, watching horror movie marathons on AMC, binging on Candy Cane Kisses, participating in baby blessings, celebrating at least 17 immediate family birthdays, etc.

Here is a brief (in Jeremy’s world, anyway) list of what’s been going on since I last blogged over a month ago:

• War of the Worlds came and went. It was overall a very fun experience. I loved, loved, LOVED working with my friends Dave and Sara. For the first time ever, my BFFF and I got a moment on stage together! Overall, I beat myself up quite a bit over my performance. I felt I could have done much better, but I got a lot of compliments, so I guess it balances. The hardest part of the experience was dealing with fellow cast members who didn’t know their lines well into the run. Part of my criticism of myself was that I never got any semblance of comfort due to the fact that I never knew what was going to come out of my fellow actors – or if they were even going to bother to come onstage sometimes. Blah. Overall, though: good experience.
• Halloween wasn’t celebrated very well due to WotW and the fact that it was on a Sunday. Lauren and I did, however, dress up in Spartan cheerleader costumes to go and help her family decorate their house for Christmas – on Halloween.
• I’ve been recording for other companies, in addition to doing my own tracks lately. It’s nice when I don’t have to worry about the quality of the overall project, and just have to do specific parts. It’s not nice having to adjust to others’ recording settings, though. And not having a Mac sometimes handicaps me.
• We went to a midnight Harry Potter screening. It was probably my least eventful one to date, but Lauren was there, so that’s a plus. We all wore matching shirts that said “I Fake My Horcruxes.” They weren’t as popular as the “Show Me Your Patronus” ones, but we did get lots of glares from zoobies and lots of people staring at our chests trying to A) read what it said and B) get the joke. Nothing is more fun than watching a confused kid (whose parents were #1) dumb enough to take him to the very adult movie and #2) dumb enough to take him to a midnight showing) staring at your wife’s chest for a good minute.
• We also saw the movie Skyline, which was the absolute worst, most horrible, terrible, no good, very bad movie EVER MADE. The Brothers Strause already killed the alien movie genre with Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem, and now they’ve spit on its remains. Terrible script, terrible acting, unlikeable cast, bad direction, awful effects, etc. My life’s mission is to keep anybody else from wasting money on this movie. PLEASE, DON’T!

That’s all that I can remember right now, other than what was mentioned at the beginning. My Thanksgiving resolution will be to blog more (like you’ve never heard THAT one before). Happy November!

Unemployment Update

Technically, I’m not unemployed. I’m self-employed. I’ve been doing recording projects and such since I lost my job. But I get to work on my own time and schedule. From my list last week, here are the things I’ve accomplished.

• I’ve been working on the house husband thing. So far, I’ve done everything but laundry. I’m not against laundry, and it’s not like I don’t know how to do it. I just haven’t needed to do it because Lauren has been keeping up on it. I’ve found that inviting people over gives extra motivation to clean, though. If you’ve never been over for dinner, let me know. We’ll have to get you over here as soon as the apartment needs cleaning again. Sidenote on the house husband thing: I haven’t resorted to soap operas. Yet. I have, however, watched Fight Club edited on Bravo (with commercials for modeling, housewife, cooking, and gay shows!), old horror movies, new horror movies, a documentary about John Hughes, and more. (Does anybody remember that awesomely bad movie Madhouse with Kirstie Alley and John Larroquette?) All this while cleaning/organizing!
• I lied about my first apartment project. The pictures are still sitting here. Well, they’re sitting in a new spot across the room. My first big project was to make cases for all the stacks of DVDs I have around. I’ve had DVD recorders for years, so I record a lot of movies and shows. I had to go through TONS of stacks one morning and figure out what was on each disc to create labels for them. I can only work on it for a little while here and there, so it’s only halfway done. But it’s getting cleaner by the minute in here!
• I haven’t written anything yet. This blog is the first thing. HOWEVER. I did take steps toward writing a couple plays. It could very well happen soon.
• I auditioned for a play, and I’m 100% sure that I’m going to be cast. I should find out tomorrow.
• I haven’t had time to read anything yet, but I started to read some plays. They were in a different language, so I should get bonus points for that.
• Been doing the recording thing, plan to start doing a LOT more in a week or so.
• I haven’t visited the Dancehall Divas yet. I need to remember to do it early in the morning, because if I do it when Lauren’s home in the afternoons/evenings.
• I haven’t played the piano yet. Fail there.

So, you can see, lack of a steady job has been good for me. I’ve also had lots of time to do fun things like see people. Did you know I had friends?! I had started to forget, too. Tonight, Stephanie came over and we ate yummy homemade burritos, watched World of Color, and visited. The other night, we got to see Heather & David and Wendy & Dave. We also got to learn about natural childbirth methods in the middle of the Cheesecake Factory! We got to spend time with my OTHER friend Dave. And we’ve been resting and relaxing in the evenings. We got to see Inception again. We’ve been able to keep our blu-rays from Blockbuster in a steady rotation.

I should be really worried right now, but instead…I’m savoring this opportunity to breathe.

Oh, and one other thing from my list – I haven’t started writing my Friday the 13th musical yet, but we DID watch the part of Friday the 13th Part 3-D tonight where Jason squeezes a guy’s head until his eye pops out. IN 3-D!!! It’s brilliant. Especially because you can see the wire pulling the eyeball out – IN 3-D!!!

Random Photo Memories

Remember that one summer, when my hair was mysteriously turning blonde, and then I later found out that it was being bleached by a nasty face wash? And then remember how I got to meet Jim Brickman and hang out with him backstage because of the fact that we have a mutual good friend named Diane? And then remember how months later, I remembered to ask Diane for a copy of the pictures she took of me with him, and suddenly I remembered the awful blonde hair fiasco? UGH.

And then remember that one time how Stephanie took awesome engagement photos of Lauren and me, and Matt was our special guest for the shoot?

And then remember that one time that we took Nick to the Haunted Forest for his 16th birthday and I had glowing gum? And how Nick & Phil were a little scared?

How about the time that I took my awesome friend, Shane, to Little Shop of Horrors, and he loved it? And how he said he even loved it as much as High School Musical – which is a LOT for Shane.

Or when I FINALLY got to hold my new niece after a month of being busy/sick, and I naturally tried to see if I could eat her?

Or! Or! When David and I went spider-hunting and captured/killed one to protect our womenfolk?!

Remember how I used to make food all the time, and was really good at making sorbet? And how everyone who ever tried it loved it (except for when I tried making chocolate sorbet & lemon sorbet – stupid Martha Stewart)?

Do you remember how Amesily got married, and Julie, Heidi, Kyle, Chase, Janessa and I were the most fun people at the whole event?

Yep. I remember all those things, too.

[Insert (attempt at) Clever Title]

I’m really tired, but I’m clearing off my DVR tonight so that it doesn’t get too full while I’m gone for the rest of the week. It’s sad that my priority is TV and not packing. I will probably get to the competition and find that I forgot to pack underwear because I was so tired when I packed. Oh, well. Sometimes TV is worth going commando. In the meantime, I’m watching/recording stuff off my DVR and recording random thoughts.

I wish I was a better writer, like Trash or Julie. My blogs are more lists than actual writings lately, and that saddens me. I used to LOVE to write and always wanted to make it better. Now, I just throw a list together and call it good, like I’m a theatre reviewer for the Deseret News or something.

I’ve had a weird feeling all night. I can’t put my finger on it. I don’t know if it’s about Shakespeare Competition, Urinetown, or something else that’s not as present on my mind. Whatever it is, I’m not liking it, and I wish it would go away.

I also dislike feeling like somebody is bugged by me, and they won’t say why so I can fix whatever I’m doing to bug them. 9 out of 10 times that I feel this way, it’s usually me just being stupid/sensitive. But tonight, I had several moments, and I’m paranoid. It doesn’t help that I’ve had that other yucky feeling.

I’m not going to see Lauren again until Sunday. This sucks. Luckily, though, we live in an age where there are cell phones for texting and calling anytime. I could not have survived in Shakespeare’s time.

I want to be in a show. I want to perform somehow. It kills me that UVU is doing shows that I would love to be in – AFTER I’ve graduated. I know I’m not very good at acting and singing, and that I can’t ever get cast in anything but A Christmas Carol, but I’m dying to be on the other side of the table at auditions for once. I love directing. I like music directing. I LOVE teaching/coaching. I just miss the days when I balanced it better and went back and forth between music directing and acting. Sadly, I don’t see any performing in my future. As long as I don’t have a full-time job, I have to only do jobs where I can get paid, and acting isn’t one.

I don’t want to be sitting on a bus with students for 5 hours tomorrow. I bought some new headphones that are REALLY good at noise-canceling. We’re driving straight from Orem to St. George to see Aida at Tuacahn. Please, God, give me the strength to not kill any children.

I’m missing the following people right now (for different reasons): Grandma Orton, The Culps, Heidi T., Bryan, John, The Masons, Pre-Crazy/Skanky Mariah Carey

Saturday Night Live has not been funny this year. I think I’ve only chuckled a couple times so far. That was pretty funny when the new girl said the f word, though. And that freakish thing that was dancing inside a giant metal atom was pretty laughable. I’m told she’s some famous singer, though.

I think I’ve finally narrowed down my Halloween costume to a few choices. I’m not terribly excited about any of them, which leads me to believe that maybe I should just not dress up this year.

I’ve been blogging semi-regularly for 3 1/2 years, and while this isn’t a huge accomplishment, it’s pretty big for me. I’ve NEVER been good at keeping a journal, so it’s fascinating to go back and read my thoughts on what was going on and how I was feeling months or years ago. When I look back on this post, I’m going to think: “Wow. I was a real downer that night.”

Say Anything (but preferably “yes”)

Remember when I threatened to do do this? (That’s a link. Click on it.)

Well, I did it.

Here’s what you need to know: Lauren LOVES the movie Say Anything. Possibly because I’m the one who introduced her to it a long time ago, possibly because it’s just a really good movie. But in any event, she LOVES it.

The day after Lauren and I started dating, I informed Teri that I knew how I was going to propose to her, should the chance arise. I also told Matt, because I figured if anyone would be able to find a 1980s-style boombox, it would be him. He failed.

Lauren and I have known for a while that we’re going to get married, because let’s face it, you just KNOW. We’d talked about it, we’d even gone ring-shopping. We decided that it was best to wait until Joseph was over, due to all of the crap that was already happening in the cast because of our relationship (ie, “Can you use your relationship with Jeremy to get me a bigger part?). We also decided we wanted to be officially engaged before youth theatre starts for the fall, because being asked a million times “Are you getting married?” was not sounding too fun. That gave us a window of about 12 days.

Lauren knew it was coming, and I STILL completely surprised her.

Here’s a rundown of events:

Sometime in June: I ask Matt to help me find a boombox
Sometime in July: Lauren tells me that she does not want a public proposal, nor does she want her family involved. Drat! There goes my idea, since I can’t stand outside her window. I start brainstorming for other ideas. Nothing works for me, though. I’ve GOT to find a way to make it work. Heather recommends that no matter what, I have somebody there to take pictures of the proposal so that we have the moment recorded.
Throughout August: We go ring shopping to get ideas. Lauren narrows it down to three choices and leaves it up to me to pick the one.
Friday, August 21 (afternoon): I ask Heidi to help me, because Matt was having no luck, and neither was I.
Friday, August 21 (evening): Joseph is FINALLY over. Lauren comes to my house, where the ring had just arrived, and I have to be sneaky in order to look at it.
Saturday, August 22: I show up at Lauren’s house to have a relaxing evening with her family, and when I get there, Say Anything is on, so the idea is fresh in their heads.
Sunday, August 23: I spend the ENTIRE day with her family, and I feel like part of it. I feel like I’m bonding with her dad, which is good, because I haven’t known him like the rest of the family.
Monday, August 24: I text Amber Kaye and ask her if we can have a Rocky Horror night at her house on Thursday, but it’s really a front for a proposal. She is STOKED. What kind of sick freak proposes on Rocky Horror night? ME. Lauren is OBLIVIOUS. Amber is officially in on the plan and goes out of her way to help me. She even joins the hunt for a boombox.
Tuesday, August 25: Wrench! I’m in faculty meeting at school, and I find out that I’m expected to attend back to school night on Thursday. Department Chair tells me that I don’t HAVE to go if I already have plans. Crisis averted. I go to the SCERA costume shop and rent a trenchcoat. I buy Lauren’s dad, Randy, a 2 liter of Coke, because we’re from a culture that doesn’t use champagne/wine for things like this. I sit down with him and ask for his blessing to marry his daughter. He seems genuinely happy/excited and asks when I’m going to propose. I tell him Thursday, but Lauren doesn’t know. He tells me about his proposal to his wife, Emily. We have a genuinely great conversation. Lauren knows that the proposal is coming, but has NO idea when.
Wednesday, August 26: I tell Heather of my plans for a proposal, and she gives me one last big pointer for how to make it more special. Lauren and I go to a good-bye dinner with Heather & David and Wendy & Dave, because H&D are going back to NY in the morning. I show up to get Lauren with a bunch of roses and a card which reads “Dear Lauren, I’ll always be there for you. All the love in my heart, Jeremy.” Lauren gets the Say Anything reference, which also puts the idea of Say Anything completely in her head again.
Thursday, August 27 (morning): Amber texts everyone for Rocky Horror night, letting everyone know that we’re bbqing and watching the movie starting at 7:15. Lauren is planning to go over early to help Amber get the food ready. She invites me, but darnit! I have a meeting with my department chair, and I probably won’t be there until right at 7:15. Also, they still may try and get me to go to back to school night, so we’re crossing our fingers.
Thursday, August 27 (afternoon): Lauren tells me that she’s getting all ready. DOES SHE KNOW?! HAS SHE FIGURED IT OUT?! I tell her that I appreciate that she’s getting ready for Rocky Horror night. I go to my meeting with Department Chair and stop by Teri’s on the way. She likes the ring, and is excited for what’s coming. Her mom also gives her approval, and Bristol and Kiva (sp?) think it’s “pretty.”
Thursday, August 27 (late afternoon): WRENCH!!! Lauren’s brother, Phillip, offers to come and help Amber with food early as well. Amber calls me in a panic. I text Phillip: “Call me right now and don’t let Lauren know, please.” He calls, and I explain the situation. He seems genuinely thrilled, with such exclamations as “nice!” I finish my meeting, run some errands, and then drive around near Amber’s house until I get a text telling me that Lauren is there and they’re ready.
Thursday, August 27 (early evening): I get to Amber’s house and get set up. I never found the boombox, so I have my iPod boombox. Batman is now officially a part of my proposal, since his logo is on my iPod. The Beatles play a part as well, because Lauren mentioned that she loves my yellow submarine shoes, and since I don’t have any white sneakers like Lloyd Dobler, I wear them. I position myself in the middle of Amber’s backyard and text her, telling her that I’m ready. She tells Lauren that she’s got to light the bbq, and comes outside. I crank “In Your Eyes”, but my boombox isn’t very loud! Lauren could hear it, but couldn’t tell what it was. Amber calls for her. Lauren walks out with a puzzled look on her face. She sees me, and gets a MORE puzzled/happy look on her face.

She realizes what’s happening, and grabs the railing to keep from falling over.

She comes to me, and I put the boombox down, but leave it playing softly.

I tell Lauren how much she means to me, how much I love her, and how I want to take care of her forever if she’ll let me.

I pull out the ring, but my hands are shaking, and the pocket on the coat is DEEP. I fumble a little before getting it out. I get down on one knee and open it, and Lauren is overcome with emotion.

I ask her to marry me, and she says “yes” without hesitation. Before I can actually give her the ring, she kisses me.

My shaking hands fumble to get the ring on her finger, but it’s a perfect fit.

We embrace, and after snapping a few shots, Amber BOLTS into the house to give us privacy.

We had some time alone for a while, and then came into the house, where Amber was waiting to take a few more pictures. Chris had arrived by this time, too. He had BARELY missed the proposal. Poor guy.

We called Lauren’s family, and her little sisters FREAKED OUT. Very excited. Then I spent forever trying to get my phone to send a picture of the ring with the caption “Hey- what are you doing December 19?” to my family. It finally went through (darn Amber’s cellular black hole!) and then I started telling friends.

Lauren’s brothers, Phillip and Nick, showed up and when I answered the door, they both hugged me. I love those guys.

We had an amazing dinner (thanks, Amber and Chris!) and watched Rocky Horror. Only Chris and I had seen it. Everyone else was watching for the first time. (Don’t worry, I edited it for Nick.) It was a blast. During the movie, people tried to call me and text me about the engagement, but like I said, Amber’s house is a black hole. I finally gave up on trying to tell friends and was going to wait until the morning.

After the movie, Phillip took Nick home, and Lauren and I showed the photos to her parents. We then took Phil to get slushes and drive around listening to music for a while.

This morning, the news was out. I told Phillip that he was welcome to tell anyone. Nick took the liberty of sharing, too. I’m glad they’re excited. I went ahead and sent the picture out to a bunch of friends, too, and everyone who asked for details was told to wait until I got a blog about it done. So, here you go! :)

I’m so lucky. I love Lauren so much. I can’t wait to be sealed to her forever in less than four months. ACK!!!!! It’s going to be the longest four months of my life, but SO worth it.

Love you, Lauren!

December 19!!!

Happiness Is…

Downloading multiple covers of “Holiday Road.” I was looking for Lindsay Buckingham’s version, but instead found 4 completely different but equally interesting ones.

Having a good final dress rehearsal for Charlie Brown. The tech this year is already better after one day than it was after the entire week last year.

Seeing Heidi and Holly this weekend for a few minutes.

Glenn’s homemade burritos. Even though they cause HORRIBLE gas. TMI, maybe?

Dum-Dums!

Uncle Buck on DVD.

John Hughes movies in general.

Another tentative job interview is scheduled. I should be hearing back about the last one any day now.

GRADUATION IS A WEEK AND A HALF AWAY!!!

Pity the Jeremy

I haven't taken the time to blog for a while because I've been crazy busy (quel surprise). In case you're wondering why I've been so busy, of even if you're not, here you go:

School started. I hate it. I have the worst case of senioritis known to man. I'm down to only taking classes that I HAVE to take, which include two education classes (both deathly boring), and three theatre classes (all three of which I love so far) in order to keep my scholarship. As much as I love my theatre classes this semester, which are fun classes that aren't required for my major, I just want to be done with school. 10 years ago this very minute, I was a senior in high school. That's too bloody long to go without graduating college.

Going into fall semester, I was worried that I was going to get stuck doing the French farce. I had already agreed to do music for Nosferatu for my production hours, but didn't have anything lined up for my scholarship. Since I can read French and speak it somewhat, I figured that's what I'd be doing. The first day of school, however, I found out that the farce had been cancelled, and Chess had been moved up. I freaked out. I had wanted to be involved with Chess, but knew I couldn't because it was scheduled for April, when I'm supposed to be student teaching. Right away, I asked Dave Tinney if he was planning to MD himself or if he needed one. He seemed genuinely excited and asked if I was interested. I told him I was, and we both planned to talk to the department chair, Terry. By the time I got in to see Terry, I think Dave had already talked to him, and he said that it was a great way for me to get my scholarship hours. Woot! I was dying to do Chess, and I've been dying to actually work with Dave.

The fall auditions were held a couple weeks ago, and Dave asked me to sit in on them. I was shocked. However, the one person on the faculty that I expected to give me crap for being there did. He said he was joking, but I'm not sure he was...

Anyway, after auditions, Dave wouldn't even post a callback list without asking my opinions first. After callbacks last Monday, he went through every single person with me. It was awesome. I'm used to being respected like that at every other theatre I work for, but this is the first time at school that I've felt like an important member of a production team and not just a lowly student. We haven't had a single rehearsal yet, and I already love working with Dave.

We got the show cast, and there's already crap going around because we cast a BYU student in a lead role. Normally, I would be pissed, too, but since I sat through all the auditions, I know for a fact that no guy in our department could have sung the part. In auditions, I tested them all on "Anthem" which goes up to a G. Most of the guys struggled with the high range. For the part we cast a BYU guy, he sings up to a D above that. I can see why sometimes professors get a bad rap for casting decisions. No matter what you do, people will find a reason to be unhappy. (Including myself. *cough, Ah, Wilderness, cough*)

We don't start rehearsals for weeks, so after we got Chess cast, I started going back to Seussical rehearsals. Seussical has been a really rough show for me to do because of events that went down last time. I actually tried to get out of the show before it started because the past got dug up and I knew it would be too hard to handle. I said I would stay with the show if they could not find another MD, and after about 5 turned them down, I was back on the project. I'm actually glad I stayed with it. I've been a typical MD on this show: showed up at the beginning, taught all of the music, disappeared for a while, and then went back to polish. (Some MDs around here don't even go back after they teach it, and it makes me frustrated to no end.) The cast is much better than I feared they would be after me leaving them for a month, and it's turning out to be a really good show. I'm also dealing with rehearsals better than I thought I would, which I'm going to credit to the fact that I prayed my guts out about it when the whole process started.

That's the bulk of what's been going on. The rest of my time has been spent doing homework, teaching piano, two whole afternoons of youth theatre every week, staying up late enjoying my new HD-DVR (Psych and Mad Men in HD = Happy Jeremy), watching Psych DVDs until I fall asleep every night, and trying to have some kind of social life (translation, I've seen Teri and Kimber once, Emily and Heidi once, Matt once....I think that's about it). Oh, and of course Church stuff.

So that's it. If you don't hear from me until April, don't panic. Know that I probably love you, like you greatly, or at least tolerate you, and I'll call you as soon as I graduate.

And right now, I have to go memorize a scene that I'm performing in class tomorrow with the mask that I made this afternoon.

TTFN!

PS - The title of this blog is a reference to something, and if you get it, you rock.

Sabbath Poetry Part Deux

Megan visited today!!!!!

Excitement around!
Megan would like to see Chess.
One night in Bangkok!

Aja lives in York -
The new one, not the old one.
Sometimes we miss her.

Megan teaches school,
Just like Anne of Green Gables -
But without red hair.

Sabbath day haiku
Can really enrich our lives
And keep us awake.

Willa Cather, puke,
Barf, wretch, vomit, up-chuck, hurl.
I've no love for her.

Pierce Brosnan should be
In a production of Chess.
He's "good" at Abba.

Sometimes I miss T.,
My tall artsy girlfriend who
Comes to visit me.

I don't miss Heidi.
We're fighting, but I can't seem
To remember why.

I like to believe
That I am a serious
Poetry artist.

***
When Megan saw that I was writing haiku, she jumped in on the action, too. Here's the best part: she did not see what I was writing about. These were what she came up with on her own. Great minds...

Jeremy, direct!
(A squeaky clean Chess version)
Are there John Wayne fans?

Treat weird people well.
If not, you will squirm and burn.
The prophet said so.

Phantom songs are nice
Unless they are on repeat.
Wait, I've heard this song!

Kleenex box on stand
Only one person used so far.
Are they too rough, huh?

Mission companions
Some can be real bums.
Don't tell their moms, though.

(Modified Haiku)
Heidi's in Dallas
Taryn's in lovely D.C.
Aja's in New York, New York.
Who's in Toledo?

***

Creepy, eh? Then Megan read mine, and came up with some responses to some of mine.

Oh, Jeremy, son.
Have mercy on Ms. Cather.
Blame UVSC.

Jeremy is mad.
Artsy girlfriends run away
To the CIA.

(Re: Heidi)
Call a truce you two
Share a cupcake and then
Chat on Facebook soon.

Irony is fun.
It rhymes with Jeremy, yo!
Pierce Brosnan can't sing.

Summer in Review

School starts in less than 12 hours. While I'm glad that it didn't start when Utah school districts start for the first time in ages, giving me an extra week, I'm still not excited. I should be. I have classes with all of my favorite teachers in the theatre department. Most of my classes this semester are fun classes and not required. It's my final senior year, meaning after two more semesters, I'm DONE. I should be stoked, right? But I'm not. Oh, well. Even though it was way too short, I had a GREAT summer. In honor of this, I decided to create a blog to award some moments of the summer and give them due respect. Drumroll, please...

Best Personal Theatrical Experience: The first full run-through of Saturday's Warrior/The White Star. I really teared up when Jimmy reformed and saw Pam at the end of the show. Other than one little issue I had to deal with, working on the show was an incredible experience. I would give my right eye to work with Matt Neves again, and I would cast pretty much the entire cast any chance I could get. There was such an amazing atmosphere (which I credit to the Spirit, but that's another blog in and of itself) that I've never experienced working on another show. I secretly hope that I get asked to do the show again next year.

Best Professional Theatrical Experience: In the Heights. Holy freaking crap. Loved every minute of it. And I not only teared up, but for the first time ever, I CRIED at a show. Very moving. From the moment "Atencion" began to the moment "Everything I Know" ended, I had tears streaming down my face. I really was the ultimate fanboy after the show. Brilliant theatre.

Favorite Music: In the Heights, OneRepublic

Favorite TV: Mad Men, Fear Itself, Psych (the 80s prom episode was one of the best episodes of any show ever), The Soup

Favorite Movies: As if it wasn't obvious, The Dark Knight. I really loved WALL-E, though, and I quite enjoyed The X-Files: I Want To Believe.

Favorite Activities: Hooters & The Dark Knight with Emily, Matt, and Melinda; relaxing bbq with Taryn, Megan, Taven, and Holly; meeting Ashley Brown after Mary Poppins; catching a ghost on film in the form of an orb at the Winchester Mystery House

Best Personal Achievements: Teaching the advanced acting workshop for youth theatre and seeing the progression in some of the kids - I may not be the best actor, but dang, I can coach kids in it; Various cleaning projects - I've never had such clean and organized living space; rewriting the majority of the vocal parts in Saturday's Warrior/The White Star - I had a blast, and I was really proud of how they turned out, especially when I was told that Janice Kapp Perry was pleased with what I had done with WS

Best Purchases/Gifts: Batman lunchbox, license plate, and keychain from Teri & Bristol, new iPod, new car, New York souvenirs (especially my 30+ scripts that I bought from The Drama Book Shop)

That's about it for now. I may come back and add some more stuff if I remember something. It's late, afterall, I'm dead tired, and I've got school in the morning. UGH!!!!

Too Many People!!!

Last night, I judged the SCERA's Celebrity competition for my third time to help Shawn out of a pickle. When I was there, I saw some people who at one point or another I considered dear friends. I haven't seen them in so long that I don't even remember when the last time was. I know it was at least a year ago, but can't pinpoint it past that.

It was nice to have a moment to visit with them, but I was in a hurry to get home and finish transferring all of my mp3s to my external harddrive. As I was driving home, I started to think about said people. I haven't spoken a word to them in at least a year, but I still care about them and want to know how they're doing. We never had a falling out. We never had an event that caused us to have bad feelings. And yet, I've just been too dang busy to see them.

It got me thinking about my friend Jann, who you may remember from previous blog posts. I used to see her at least once a week during my senior year of high school, and for at least a year or so after. Then it just got less and less to the point where now I'm lucky to see her twice a year. I haven't seen her now for well over a year, and it kills me. We always have so much fun when I see her. She's one of the most kind, caring, genuine people in the whole world, and yet, as much as I try, I can't seem to make time to see her.

Then, around the time that I was passing East Bay on I-15, I thought back to Celebrity again. Dick Harmon was there because his daughter was in the competition. He writes for the Deseret News, but he used to work for the Daily Herald. Sharon Gholdston also used to write for the Daily Herald, and she passed away within the last few years. I started thinking about how much I love the Gholdstons, and yet I completely lost contact with them when John left BYU for Cedar City. I wonder how they're doing.

The progression from Jann to the Gholdstons got me REALLY thinking about people that I used to do theatre with in Springville, when I was doing it for the fun, and not for the "art" or the "money." I miss that, although at this point, I could NEVER do a show without stressing about the art of it. I could probably handle doing a show and not getting paid, but I can't tolerate working with people who don't want to make the show as good as possible. (Luckily, the people I'm missing are NOT the ones who build their own theatres to give themselves good roles OR the people who say things like "why strive for more than mediocrity of that's what our patrons expect?")

By the time I got home, I kept thinking "I know too many dang people!"

There are people who I've cared about a great deal, and I don't even know if they're alive anymore. I heard that one of the actresses that was in the first play I ever directed was in a car crash and died. I don't believe it, but I would like to have assurance that she's still alive and not just have to hope.

There are people who I get to talk to occasionally, but never get to really see. Others that my only contact is Facebook, and yet I don't ever take time to send them messages or post on their wall. Blah.

I'm getting to the rambling point, the movie I'm watching is winding down, and I'm sleep-deprived from 4 weeks of being up really late and getting up early for youth theatre workshops. (Sidenote- new rule: when Jeremy is sleep-deprived and driving to Pleasant Grove before 8 AM, he is NOT allowed to listen to the mix of Lonestar's "I'm Already There" with the clips of messages to soldiers in Iraq.) Therefore, I'm wrapping up this blog. If you're reading this, and you haven't seen me for a long period of time, know that I'm not intentionally avoiding you. Well, most likely...

Gratuitous Gratuity

Things I'm grateful for - right this minute:

1. Edited horror movies on Chiller. I've always wanted to see movies like Stephen King's Thinner and now I'm finally getting around to it. Stupid? Yes. Do I care? No.
2. My EQ Presidency. It's nice to be able to delegate and know that the job will be done better than I could do it.
3. I was finally told something that I've needed to hear for FOUR YEARS from somebody I never thought would say it. A huge burden has been lifted. If you've read all of blog entries, you should know what this is about...
4. The cast of Seussical learns quickly.
5. In a couple weeks, I'll have 1 1/2 full weeks of no piano lessons, no youth theatre workshops, no rehearsals, and no school. Taking a vacation is too expensive right now, so instead, I'll fill my days with things like script-reading, going to the temple, working on Nosferatu, cleaning out my closet, etc. Fun times! Oh, and I plan to watch some Alias, too.
6. Lagoon. I went for the first time since I was 15 the other day. And it was free. My brother bought me a ticket so I would go with him and his kids and there would be an even number of people to ride the "scary" rides. The twins were really good about going on things, other than Wicked, which they only went on after being bribed. Yeah, it's just Lagoon, but it was fun, and it was a nice blast from the past (with some fun new additions). If you go, though, STAY AWAY from Rock U2 the Top. SO flat and horrible. ACK! (Which saddened me, because I knew someone in the cast.)
7. I'm FINALLY on the homestretch of renaming all of my mp3s that I lost in the harddrive crash. When I copied them back to the computer from my iPod, all the names were messed up. I've had to fix them all manually.
8. My summer youth theatre workshops are fun, despite being work. The Advanced Drama class is especially fun so far. I'm finally putting my The Haunting of Hill House script to use!
9. I finished all the songs for You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. I just have some instrumental tracks to finish. I was going to wait to do them until Nosferatu was done, but I'm going to go ahead and knock them out tomorrow and Thursday, hopefully.
10. Wendy and Julie both had their babies, and they were fine. Julie's unnamed boy looks just like Trey in the pictures, so he's going to be cute and chubby. And according to Wendy's sister's Facebook status, Wendy's girl, Zoe, has fat rolls. I'm very excited to see both babies - tomorrow!
11. It's barely after midnight, and I'm already tired and ready for bed. Yay! Goodnight!

Sabbath Poetry

Today in church, I had a visit from Aja and Megan. I would like to point out at this moment, that they had the choice to sit by me or by Holly, since Holly was stubborn and wouldn't come and sit on the side of the room with the cool kids. They chose me.

Probably the reason that they chose me was that church visits from Megan and Aja mean that my inner poet is released in the form of attention deficit in Sacrament meeting. I wrote 8 haiku for them, and they rather enjoyed them. It got me thinking: "where better to share my poetry than my blog?!" However, Aja has the ones I wrote today. So instead, I'll share the ones I wrote for Megan's birthday last year. I'll have you know, though, that the ones I wrote today were mostly inspired by actual phrases or topics that I heard from the Sacrament speakers. The paranthetical commentary/explanations between some poems is by none other than Megan, too (since I stole them from her Facebook note where she posted to immortalize them last year).

Birthdays are like cake
Well, I suppose not really
But you can eat it!

Birthday cake tango
We dance tonight for Megan
Don't step in the frosting!

Italian sodas
Drink to celebrate the joy
Which is called Megan

Megan makes brownies
I hope they're not "special" ones
It's the Sabbath, yo!

Megan's nice red shoes
Seem to me to be calling
"There's no place like home!"

(For Heidi)
Heidi, red viking
Conqueror of the Arctic
We claim as our friend.

(For Aja)
Aja drinks sodas
And sometimes gets quite tipsy
Dance, you monkey! Dance!

(The next refer to Katherine Hepburn)
Katherine, oh Katherine!
Calla lillies are blooming
Why don't you love me?

Katherine, my love
One day we'll be together
Darn that Spencer T!

(Explaining that the reuniting of the Spice Girls is one of the "signs of the times")
The end of the world
Is soon to be upon us
In the form of Spice.

(And finally, where does he find all the time to write these?)
Jeremy is bad
He has a hard time list'ning
In his Sunday School

Wish List

• To fall asleep. Soon.
• To have an AWESOME time in New York next week.
• To magically have a few minutes to see some of my friends who live in New York.
• To get Charlie Brown done. (I still love it, I'm just starting to struggle with focus.)
• Even more time to see friends. It's been a month since I started having "free time" and I still haven't seen the majority of the people I wanted to.
• To see WALL-E at least 4 more times this summer.
• For Pierce Brosnan to never, ever, EVER sing again.
• For Colin Firth to never, ever, EVER sing again.
• For Stellan Skarsgard to never, ever, EVER sing again. Okay, actually, when he's being humorous, I'm okay with it. But not serious singing.
• To find out that when the movie of Mamma Mia! comes out, they will have redubbed the singing voices of the leading men so they don't sound as gosh-awful as the soundtrack.
• To go on an investigation with TAPS.
• A fur jacket.
• A flying car.
• A planet full of unicorns.

Old Fart

I'm starting to realize how old I am, and it sucks.

First of all, I officially have a sibling in her 40s. Said sibling has a daughter old enough to be driving, and a son old enough to have a learner's permit.

My 2nd oldest sibling is having his 20 year high school reunion this year. That shouldn't make me feel all that old except for the fact that I completely remember his hotter-than-the-fires-of-Hell graduation. I was plenty old enough to remember that. It was the year that "Don't Worry, Be Happy" was on the radio non-stop.

I get antsy when I stay up late at night. I used to LOVE staying up late every night and sleeping in every morning, but now I feel like I'm wasting half my day when I get up past 10. (Stupid early morning classes last semester...) For the last year or so, when cast members have invited me out after shows, I've turned them down almost every single time. I'm starting to stress when I'm out after 11. If you really know me, you should know how alarming this is...

I'm less than 3 years from 30. I'm older than the title characters of Friends were for the first few seasons. I'm older than my dad was when he got married (which seemed old to me when I was growing up. I'm older than two of my siblings were when they had kids. In fact, by the time they were my age, one had 2 and one had 3. Only one other sibling has kids, and he was only about a year older than I am now when his first were born.

When I actually have a free night, I have so many options of people to see and things to do that I just shut down. If somebody else doesn't invite me to do something, I usually end up just hanging out with myself. This is actually kind of good, because I and myself have a lot in common. And when I hang out with myself, I don't have to worry about any of the following: being guilted for not hanging out more, being bugged about my religious beliefs, being pressured to watch movies/plays that I don't want to see, having to pay for two people for dinner, etc.

There are at least 5 former piano students of mine in my current ward. This wouldn't be as alarming if it weren't for the fact that almost all of them were my students before they had left elementary school.

Speaking of my ward, the average age there right now is about 19-20. Most of these kids have probably never even HEARD "Don't Worry, Be Happy" - let alone remember it.

*Sigh*

I'm Free To Do What I Want Any Old Time

Another semester has come and gone. I only had 2 classes, but they had so much homework that it didn't feel much different from spring semester. Both classes seemed like kind of a waste. I expect to get pretty good grades, and that worries me. How come I can't get good grades in the education classes that aren't a waste of time for me? Oh, that's right. The Education department is messed up. Oh, well. This semester, I did the following projects (and got 100% on most): a WebQuest about the validity of doing High School Musical in a high school, a digital story about plot-development and using Wicked as a well-developed plot, a book report on Black Like Me which resulted in my hating white people for a few minutes, an autobiography, a biography of Elfi Panholzer, and a paper comparing my autobiography to Elfi's biography. There were smaller assignments, too, but those were the big ones. And now, I have one more semester of actual classes, and then student teaching. There is a light at the end of the tunnel!!!

I also recently took the PRAXIS-II exam. It was a 100 question test about my knowledge of theatre. It was ridiculously stupid. It is designed for secondary education majors, and yet there were questions about elementary school kids' development. What the?! The biggest kicker, which makes me hate the state of Utah right now, is the fact that it doesn't even matter how I score on the test. If I get a 20% or a 100%, they don't care. They'll certify me just for taking it. LAME.

Saturday's Warrior/The White Star is up and running. It was an amazing experience until the end. The last week, the gloves were off, and somebody on the production staff became very selfish and non-collaborative. There are some gosh-awful things about the music that I wish more than anything I could fix, but I was told that my opinion doesn't matter on the issues. The reason that I hestitated to do the show came true there at the end, and the last few rehearsals I went to were miserable. However, I still love the cast, I still love the director, I still love the choreographer, and I'm still glad I did the show. It turned out pretty darn good, too. There are some aspects of the show I don't like (basically all the tech, the manipulative slide shows, the tracks that I couldn't fix), but overall, it's a good show. And it blows my mind to see how many people are going to see it.

If you read my blog, you know that I've been dying to act lately. I actually have some free time for once, and a director has pretty much offered me a great part in a good show, and I would be paid. However, I just can't bring myself to audition. I feel like I need to keep taking a break until the fall. Heaven knows what I'll be stuck doing at school then, and I don't want to go a whole school year without any free time again. If I get a break, it will make that tolerable. For the first time in years, I don't have a show lined up, and while it was stressful at first, I'm kind of enjoying it now. I'm also worried that the second I get involved in another show, the Elders' Quorum will suddenly need more of my attention. I guess I should pray about it, and fast. The auditions are soon.

Happy stuff now:

• I'm watching Alias right now. I haven't really watched it in two years, and it makes me very happy.
• I've been able to have a few scary movie nights with my nieces and nephews. The Eye wasn't as bad as I had feared. Jessica Alba is as wretched as ever, but the movie rose above my expectations.
• Lego Indiana Jones is pretty much the coolest thing ever. I've finished all of the levels, and now I'm going back through to pick up things I missed on the first go-round. It's so stinking addictive.
• It's summer, and that means I'm fully addicted to Otter Pops again. Gosh, I love those little frozen sticks of delight.
• I've been catching up with more friends lately. Last night was Taryn's last night in town, and also the only night she could get together, so we bbq'd with Holly, Tavin, Megan, and Taryn's friend Karen. (I missed Family Home Evening for it. Ssh! It'll be our little secret.) She brought pineapples, and right in front of my eyes, she cut one. And I ate it. And it was amazing. I've never had pineapple that fresh. I've only had it after it's been cut for a while. Oh, and since Taryn has sat by me at Church the last couple weeks, people in our ward think we're dating, which makes me giggle. As if I could ever get a tall, artsy drink of water like THAT!
• I get to sleep in as late as I want tomorrow, and Thursday, and Friday, and Saturday... I love the last week of a semester.
• I've started recording tracks for You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, which I'm doing with youth theatre next year. I never knew the show until now, and I love it. I particularly love the chord progression at the end of "Happiness" when Lucy says the title line to Charlie. And I like the creative ways I'm using Schroeder onstage. He'll randomly play on his toy piano, and then it gradually fades into a full combo. Tomorrow, I'm going to record the title song. I'm excited.

That's it for now. Enjoy this funny video that brings me great joy:

High School Tony Awards Honor Nation's Biggest Drama Club Nerds

Wish List #2

• To know everything about the future of Lost. Waiting a whole year for new information is going to kill me. At least I'm going to have some free time soon, in which I plan to rewatch the complete series to this point.
• To be able to do the play I'm wanting to audition for. Especially after the director basically begged me to be in it.
• More time to socialize. Woot for Saturday's Warrior/The White Star opening this weekend!
• For the two people who said they'd help me out with an assignment that is now 4 days overdue to come through. Or at least one of them. Guh!
• A better sleep schedule.
• To see The Dark Knight and The X-Files: I Want To Believe NOW!!!!
• For Steven Spielberg and George Lucas to say "Just kidding!" and then reveal the REAL ending to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Bonus: for the real ending to involve ancient Mormon lore. :)
• More fun parties with people like Amanda and Elwon, Mitch, and Nana. (The other people there were fun, but I see them more often.)
• Success with the one last hope of anything being recovered off my harddrive.

Things I Learned This Semester

• Don't EVER be working on three shows simultaneously. It's way too much stress.
• That said, it's fully possible to work on three shows simultaneously and have them turn out really well. I was blown away by how good Dinner for Four, The Wizard of Oz, and especially Smokey Joe's Cafe were. I had expected it for the first two, but I didn't expect SJC to be nearly as good as it was.
• Speaking of SJC, it's possible for divas to just be misunderstood, stressed people. "Rosie" pulled me aside, and with tears in her eyes, she apologized. I accepted and promised that she could be on my friend waiting list. As soon as a spot opens up, she'll be back to normal friend status. :) (I told her that to lighten her up, as I was afraid she was going to totally cry.)
• Writers' Strikes are not the worst thing in the world. In fact, they allow you to not spend so much time catching up on TV shows every night before bed.
• Some people are never going to be happy, and to compensate, they try to make other people around them miserable. If you befriend them (which you definitely should do, because they NEED that), don't get too close and don't trust them with any information. Especially if they are very two-faced to their other friends and you've witnessed it firsthand.
• If you have a gut feeling that you shouldn't do a show, and you really don't want to, DON'T DO IT. Especially when other people in your department are actively trying to sabotage it because they're bitter and angry that they're not involved. If your heart is not in a show, don't do it. Let the whiny problem-causers take over.
• If you don't date when you have the time for it, you'll regret it. When you have somebody you want to date, you'll be way too busy to find time to do it.
• It IS possible for a normal, non-freakish, non-ugly, non-deceptive active LDS girl to have a crush on me.
• I'm NOT the world's worst actor.
• I may never get over the need to prove myself to people who have messed up my confidence in the past.
• Evil sisters-in-law may not be around for ever. Treasure each moment with them while they last. hehehe.
• Disneyland is the best place ever for white trash breakdowns.
• Even if you've been teaching kids for 10 years, you do NOT know how to teach kids. Also, even if you're close to getting a degree in theatre, you don't know as much about how to teach theatre as a science teacher does.
• There is a major teacher shortage in this state (and country, for that matter) and yet the Education Department insists on trying to scare off as many students as possible.
• True friends will still be friends even if you have a stretch of many weeks when you have no time to even call.
• Extra special friends will still insist on keeping up with you when you're incredibly busy and will make the effort to call or text as much as they can to make sure you're okay. Or, they'll come to all of the shows that are keeping you busy just so they can see you for a few minutes.
• I'm tired of waiting around for The Fray to release a new album. I mean, come on! They had enough good material for at least half an album when they played Usana last July. What's the hold up?
• No matter what happens, I will always love Kelly Clarkson and feel confident that one day I'll marry her.
• Even if you have a new harddrive- DON'T TRUST IT. Back up everything.
• Some people who work as "techies" for theatre are doing it because they're too brainless to work fast food, and people take pity on them and give them jobs. Even if you're yelling "GO!" in their ear, they can't figure out that they need to push "Play" on a CD player.
• If you get too comfortable in your Church calling(s), or if you vocalize the fact that you wouldn't mind being released because of the stress, you'll end up with a more stressful calling and you'll sense that God is up there laughing and saying "Take that!"

My Funny Prank

My good friend, Daniel, has a problem with phones. He keeps losing them. When this happens, he loses all of his contacts.

During Kiss Me, Kate, which Daniel stage managed, this happened. He accidentally got my number mixed up with a semi-closeted gay guy who was MAJORLY in love with him. We'll call that gay guy "Rod." There were some AWESOME mix-ups during KMK involving Daniel thinking that I was Rod and Rod was me.

Here we are a few months later, and Daniel has done it again (twice, I think, actually). So, during tech/Hell day for Ah, Wilderness! I decided to have some fun. I got Daniel's fiancée, Liz, involved. I texted Daniel and started flirting with him. Right from the get-go, I was hoping he'd think I was Rod. He thought I was someone else that was a friend of his, so he played along. After a little while, he tried to call me. I didn't want it to go to voicemail, so I answered and hung up. What I didn't take into consideration was that Daniel knew my caller tune. So, he approached me and said that somebody had been texting him and oddly enough, they had the same caller tune. My response: "Oh, yeah? My EQ President has that on his phone too, and every time we call each other, we laugh about it." With that simple statement (which is true), Daniel was off my trail.

I texted him off and on all day Saturday and then again on Sunday afternoon. He tried to call me again a few times and I did the same answering and hanging up trick. On Tuesday night, I started texting him again and this time, I would send him messages from my pocket so he would get them while I was standing there. Liz and I were having a blast screwing with him. However, over the course of that night, he was starting to take it too seriously, so I decided to start to let him down gently. While John was giving notes, Daniel was sitting by me (and actually resting his head on my knee at some points). I kept sending texts when he was right there. They didn't go through, though, so that plan failed.

On the drive home, Daniel texted and said "Why do you hang up every time I call you?" So, I immediately called him. I figured that if I talked to him, he'd figure it out. I disguised my voice to sound like an upset girl, and he TOTALLY fell for it. I talked to him for a minute or so and then hung up on him. He texted me later and asked if I was sure I knew who he was, and I responded with his full name. Liz told me the next night that seeing his name in the text REALLY freaked him out.

So, Wednesday night, I let Liz know that by the end of the night, I was going to let him know it was me. She agreed that was best, but we decided to have as much fun as we could in the meantime. Daniel told me all about the phone call (which, btw, one of my favorite parts of this whole prank was getting to hear everything from Daniel's point of view, and having to act like I didn't already know it). I told him that it had gone on too long and I was getting involved. So, I started texting myself, and I'd show Daniel my texts so he could see that it was coming from my number. I brought up Rod, and told Daniel that it sounds like something he'd do. He even agreed that the girl on the phone sounded like she could have possibly been a guy pretending to be a girl.

Through my texts, we established that the person who was texting him knew Liz and me as well. They also knew that Daniel and Liz were engaged, and Jeremy is a dick. Daniel was freaking out and had a theory that it was a girl in the department, and he was certain that Wes would know her number, so during intermission he was going to ask Wes. The problem was, Wes has MY number, too, so the joke would end there. Liz and I had been going too long to let Wes be the one to ruin it. I said I would text Becca and ask her if that was that girl's number. I texted Becca and asked her to send me a text that just said "No. Not her." She did, and on my way to tell Daniel, I accidentally deleted it. I told Daniel about it, though, and he believed me. Phew. He didn't ask Wes. Daniel was now fully convinced that it was Rod.

During the second act, I started texting him like crazy, and he got REALLY serious. He started apologizing profusely for not remembering my number and for screwing around. He explained that he thought I was just a friend screwing with him. I responded "Maybe I am, and maybe I am." He didn't catch it, though. He apologized again, and I sent him a text that said "The next time I see you, you can give me a hug. And I'll squeeze your butt."

He didn't respond. Liz went over to see what was unfolding, and I waited a couple minutes and did the same. Liz had just left, and Daniel got really excited with me and said "Liz knows who it is!" I asked how he knew, and he said, I kid you not: "She just lied to me and said she didn't. I can tell when she's lying." Hmm…

I put my arms around Daniel, and he hugged back. Then, with both hands, I grabbed his butt. He didn't catch on. He just said "What are you doing?" So, I did it again. He pulled away and said "YOU KNOW!" (The whole situation was very Friends. Think Chandler and Phoebe in The One Where Everybody Finds Out.)

I said that I did know, and he asked who it was. I smiled, but he still didn't get it. He told me that Liz wouldn't tell him either, and reminded me that he KNOWS when she's lying. Here's the gist of the dialogue that happened next:

Me: Are you sure you know when she's lying?
Daniel: Yes!
Me: Because what if she's been lying to you all along?
Daniel:…I think she has been!
Me: So, the question is – who is a better liar? Me or Liz?
Daniel: YOU KNOW! Who is it?!

I waited a second, then put my arm around him, leaned in toward his ear, and in my girly phone voice, I said "We're talking now. Are you happy?"

Daniel FREAKED – but in a good way. He was laughing. He immediately said "Were you just texting yourself tonight?! You called yourself a dick!!!"

I filled him in on everything. Then I asked him why he didn't catch on when I grabbed his butt. He never got that text! Stupid reception in the concrete jungle of UVSC.

I ran down the hall laughing, and had to fill Liz in. Some of the other cast were onto what was going on, so I had to tell them all about it, too. I followed Liz to talk to Daniel, and he looked like he wanted to die. He told her he could never trust her again, but then he admitted that if I wanted to play the same trick on her, he would have gone along with that. I left them alone and then told the whole story two more times to other cast members, because by now, almost everyone had heard about it. They were all teasing Daniel, and it was great.

During notes, I sat by Daniel, and he seemed cool about everything. He was his usual cuddly self. (Sometimes, I don't realize how gay Daniel and I seem until I put it down in writing. Hmm.) Then afterward, everyone else started grabbing his butt, because they didn't want to feel left out. Hehehe.

So, the moral of the story? Liz and I are much better actors than Daniel gave us credit for. You hear that, UVSC?! I CAN ACT! Suck on that, theatre department. J

Tobias is Dead

I knew it would happen eventually. To be honest, I thought it would have happened sooner. He started acting the same way GOB did, by not eating and hanging out on the bottom. I cleaned out the fish tank, and I never plan on using it again. It's a good thing it was only $10. Come to think of it, I wonder if the cheap tank is what killed them. Hmm...

In other news, I got to go to the Salt Lake Temple with Rachel and JD yesterday. Wow. AWESOME. I've never been to a live session, so that was neat in and of itself, but the interior of that place is incredible.

Afterward, we went to Applebee's (Rachel has never been there. Seriously. How could someone who is almost 25 years old never have been to Applebee's?) and the stupid waitress (yes, I called her that. She doesn't deserve the title of "server") dumped water all over the table, and it made a waterfall into my lap. She didn't even act that apologetic, and then we weren't offered any kind of free food or dessert. The only thing we got was pushy service and a check that wasn't split right (despite Stephanie explaining it twice). I was ticked. If you ever go to the Gateway Applebee's and get seated in Ashlie's section, ask to be moved. Seriously.

I'm still stressing about the situation with the casting at school. The morning after I wrote my last blog, I woke up at 6:40 AM because I had a nightmare that I was punished for not wanting to direct a show. I didn't get either of the roles I was up for in Ah, Wilderness! and was instead given the role of "Toviah," which was a bit part and very similar to Tevya in Fiddler.

That's about all I want to talk about right now. I'm tired, and I have cleaning to do before bed.

In honor of Tobias being with Jesus now, enjoy this video.