I've been insanely busy with Seussical and whatnot, but it's totally worth it. Even though I'm neglecting my blog...
Here's a preview of upcoming blog topics:
Seussical - It's kicking my butt, but SO rewarding. If you want to see it (which you should), I'm in the T/Th/S cast, and you need to get tickets ASAP, because it's selling out. There are a few nights I'm not doing, so if you want to see me, double-check before you get tix.
New job - If we're close, you already know about this. I've been working a new job for a few months, and it's become pretty much full time now. It ROCS. (Yes, I spelled it that way on purpose.) Today was my first time spending all day in the office. Teri says that makes me a "grown-up."
That's about it. Other things worth sharing:
I miss Troy McClure. I feel pretty confident in saying that the beginning of the downfall of The Simpsons was Phil Hartman's death.
Lost is fun to rewatch. Even the seasons that you THOUGHT were stupid originally and didn't know where they were heading.
I want to be in Disneyland so bad right now that I can taste turkey leg.
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.
fI had THE MOST PRODUCTIVE weekend. Scratch that, WE had the most productive weekend. Lauren did as much as me, if not more.
Yesterday, we cleaned the crap out of our apartment. I also did a lot of reorganizing, gathering trash, etc. AND! My project of getting the pictures all hung on the wall? DONE.
After working our tails off all day, we sat down to watch Lost with our nephews.
Today, we had our first week of early church. BLECH. Have I mentioned lately how much I dislike my ward? Well, it’s not any better 4 hours earlier. It was a pretty rotten block today.
But when we came home…we cooked a great Italian dinner to break the fast, played the snot out of Lego Indiana Jones, completely overhauled my iTunes files and settings, spent a lot of time with more nephews and a niece… And Lauren finally saw the movie Clue for the first time (and she squeezed a nap in, too).
I feel like tomorrow, we should take a break from our labors (heh) and just relax. In actuality, we’ll probably just play more Lego games (I also introduced Lauren to Lego Star Wars tonight), and clean/reorganize our craft and office supply drawers.
Tuesday, I go back to recording and trying to actually do “real” work. But dang, this weekend felt good.
Sidenote: I don’t like the direction my blog is taking lately. I need to figure out how to change it.
I was thinking the other day about how all I ever blog about anymore is student teaching. This could lead one to get the impression that I don't have a life outside of student teaching. That impression would be correct.
I have done a LITTLE bit outside of student teaching in the last month and a half. Let's see how much I can remember:
I went on a trip to St. George and Las Vegas with my family in January. My brother-in-law, Mike, and my nephew, Braden, were running in the St. George half-marathon, so we went to support them. Then we went down to Sin City for a couple days. Everybody seemed to get along pretty well, and I bought some cool new hats (my family seems to think that the best part of vacation is shopping), and lots of new "teacher" clothes. I'm getting a sweater vest collection that would cause Chandler Bing to be jealous.
I had a birthday (in St. George, actually). I feel really old. I got some great presents, though. And my sister's family broke into our hotel room (okay, so maybe they got a key from the front desk, no questions asked - CREEPY) and decorated it all out in birthday balloons and streamers.
Chess came and went, and it was incredible. We got a LOT of positive feedback, and some nasty feedback as well. I can't remember being more proud of a show, and I went as much as I could. I'm having major withdrawals now. Dave Tinney told me to call my sponsor and get them to help me through it, and recommended repeating "Chess is not stronger than I am." It's hard, though! I loved that show.
I've been playing the acting role of a lifetime. Not really, but it's kind of fun. In December, part of my stake presidency approached me and asked me to help with ward conferences this year. They're going around to each ward and giving a presentation on Alma 30 to each group of young men/women. They wanted someone to act as Korihor and someone to act as Alma to reenact the classic battle of words. It's kind of creepy when a member of your stake presidency tells you that you'd "make a good Korihor." Being the slave of duty that I am, I agreed to do it. I helped them with the concept (they originally wanted period costumes, among other weird ideas) and I helped pick the Alma. I've been going to the different wards, and it goes something like this:
Member of stake presidency starts talking about Church-related things
I start laughing in the back of the room
People start getting uncomfortable, unsure of who I am
SP member asks if I have a problem
I say I do, stand up, and take the floor from him
I totally attack the Church and many beliefs of the Church, comparing Korihor's arguments to modern-day issues
Kids are caught off-guard, but gradually catch on
Some of the adults FLIP and are about ready to leap out of their chairs and give me a piece of their collective mind
Alma argues with me
I demand a sign that God exists
SP member steps up and saves me before it gets TOO heated
Fun, eh? Apparently, I'm not doing to bad. Some of the people have really freaked out. One girl said that I "scared the crap out of" her. One lady had to hold down her friend, because the friend freaked out and was ready to claw my eyes out. Playing an anti-Christ is fun! (Mostly.)
I've also been doing a lot of relaxing lately. By the time I've taught school 5 days in a row, with piano lessons or youth theatre afterward every day, I'm spent. My Saturdays are full of working and teaching piano, too. Fridays and Saturdays I've been too exhausted to even leave the house very much. This is good, though. I'm getting to bed earlier than usual some nights, and I'm catching up on my Blu-Ray collection.
Another "relaxing" thing I've started doing is watching Lost from the beginning. It's been 3 years since I've seen the first 2 seasons, and now that it's giving out answers and recalling previous information all the time, I thought it was a good idea. So, I introduced my sister, Emily, my niece, Kaylee, and my nephews Braden and Jason to the show. They're hooked already. We're going a weekly Lost night, and if people don't keep up due to silly things like Academy Awards, they have to catch up on their own time with the Internet. I forgot how amazing Lost was right from the get-go. However, it's a little frustrating to patiently wait for certain storylines and characters to come into the picture. Not gonna lie- I miss my Juliet.
I'm now harboring not one, but TWO internet crushes. Ugh. It's a disgusting double-standard. I'm totally opposed to meeting people over the Internet and hooking up with them in reality, but if you've met a girl in person, it's TOTALLY okay to secretly pine after her by reading her blog and/or Facebook page. It's also okay to have conversations with her online on a regular basis. Just not if you don't know her in person. Judge me all you want, but at least I know these two girls aren't really hairy, middle-aged men who have a thing for artsy, nerdy guys in their 20s. Now if I could just find time (without cutting into my relaxing or Lost time) to actually ask them out in person... *sigh* It will happen, though. The next time I see one, I'm totally going for it.
That's about it. I guess I really haven't been doing THAT much other than student teaching. At least teaching hasn't TOTALLY consumed my life yet, though.
Oh, one more thing - this blog post's namesake. This Thursday, Teri and I are going to Rascal Flatts. Some people have questioned if Teri is dragging me there. However, it's time for me to come clean. I freaking love Rascal Flatts. In fact, I'M dragging Teri there. Our seats aren't the best, but I don't care. I haven't been to a good concert in a while (Hello, Fray! Time to stop touring Australasia and get your butts back here), and concerts are always best when you're surrounded by drunk cowboys.
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.
