Handwriting

I've always wanted to do the handwriting tag that's been floating around lately...I love writing down random things and it's always interesting to see peoples' handwriting (you don't see it much in the blogging world!).

1. Name and Blog Name
2. Right handed, left handed, or ambidextrous
3. Favorite letters to write
4. Least favorite letters to write
5. Write: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
6. Write in caps: CRAB HUMOR KALEIDOSCOPE PAJAMAS GAZILLION
7. Favorite song lyrics
8. Tag 7 people
9. Any special note or drawing

Update!

So I know that several of you have asked me to keep you updated on how Phantom of the Opera is going. In a word (well, phrase), it's going absolutely wonderfully! I can't believe we only have two weeks left of rehearsal before the performances - it's gone so quickly. This week we started doing full run-throughs every evening, late next week we'll begin rehearsing with the orchestra (in which one of my good friends is playing the flute!), and the week after launches us into 14 days of rehearsals and performances every day! We will have nine performances all togther - three matinees, six public performances, and three of those days will have two performances. It's going to be exhausting, but I can't wait!

I know that some of you were hoping for photos, but unfortunately I cannot acquiesce to your requests. :( It's actually for a good reason, though...we have a lot of costumes rented from a couple of professional theaters (who usually only rent to professional companies!) and their costumes are copyrighted, and there's also the fact that the rights to POTO were released very recently, the show is still being performed on Broadway, and there's just too many chances to get sued if a lot of pictures from our production got out. Sorry. :(

Being in this show has been such an amazing experience. Towards the beginning I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the rehearsals and everything, but now I really look forward to rehearsals (which is good, considering we have them every night for about a month ;)). And the talent is this show is incredible. Seriously, some of these people have it in them to go FAR! It's awesome to have the chance to work with them and observe and learn and marvel at the fact that we're all high school students. :D I think I've really improved a lot as well in singing, dancing, and acting. My voice has strengthened a ton and my range is better (I can hit the high Gs and Bs in Masquerade pretty easily now!), dancing on pointe every day can't help but improve you, and I think/hope I've learned to act better.

Watching the show come together and seeing everyone get more and more into character is SO much fun. I also have more of an appreciation for all the work that goes into the set and props and costumes...those people work so hard! And our set looks amazing. :D They covered the entire facade, painted it gold, and added box seats. The gondola is battery-operated (I want one! It's so cool!), and apparently it really will look like Christine is walking through a mirror. The set designer is also a professional illusionist, so that helps!

Once again, I am reminded of how much I love the theater and performing. I've had a profound post in mind to write about it, but now of course I can't remember it. :P I've said a lot of it already, but be prepared...there is one coming soon. ;)

And now I shall leave you with one of the most epic pieces of music from POTO: The Overture! Thank goodness I haven't gotten tired of the music yet...I'm beginning to think that it's physically impossible.

Yearly Recap

Here it is, the start of the second week of 2011, and I still haven't done my traditional yearly re-cap post. It's time to commence and test my memory! (Or perhaps just look at last year's posts ;))

January: The main highlights were attending the Moscow Festival ballet's production of "Coppelia" and reading my essay at the pro-life rally. The latter was...interesting...because I had to stand on a tub from the kitchen to be tall enough next to the podium. o.O It was rather funny because the speaker noticed and commented on it in the beginning of his talk as one of the things that had made his day. I just about died of embarrasment, of course!

February: Lots of ballet, watching the Olympics, and thinking romantical, fantastical, sometimes nonsensical thoughts. Goodness, I've changed so much since then...

March: This month's highlight was most definitely our ballet of "Peter and the Wolf" and "The Ugly Duckling"! I danced the part of the Turkey, the Cat (my first solo role!), and a swan in UD, and was a Hunter in P&W. Being a hunter...oh, good times! That's got to be the most fun I ever had getting into a role!

April: I think that Holy Week was, as usual, the highlight of the month. The Tridentine Rite Holy Week services are so incredibly beautiful. The rest of the month, if I remember correctly, was mainly spent reading and doing schoolwork.

May: The Holy Hill bus trip! I love bus trips, I love visiting shrines, and I love May weather, so I always look forward to our church's annual pilgrimage to Holy Hill. May was an interesting month...I really did a lot of growing up, but it was the kind of growing up that's actually enjoyable.

June: I turned 17. I spent several days helping to clean the entire church in preparation for the Prior General's visit, and amazingly had a very good time and didn't go crazy! Cleaning is really not as bad as it's cracked up to be, though. I also played the Doctor in our performance of Hans Christian Andersen's story "The World's Most Beautiful Rose", and was reminded once again how much I love storytelling in any form.

July: I finally got a job! One of my friends was able to recommend me at the country club he works at, and I got a job bussing tables in the restaurant. So I began working my first real job from 4 to around 10 or 10:30 pm every Friday night. Oh, and that was also the month I found my first white hair!

August: The first week of August was spent at girls' camp. I was a leader for the first time, and, well, let's just say it was a good learning experience. I think I'll be much better prepared for this year, though! And towards the end of the month I reached another turning point in my maturity - fear ceased to be my ruling passion and I returned to my original, much more confident personality.

September: Wow, I didn't post at ALL that month. The main thing I remember is that we took lots and lots of dance (several hours every night...it was really fun before I got completely burned out ;)), and my grandpa and uncle visited for a weekend.

October: October was an exciting month! I found out that a theater group in town was doing Phantom of the Opera, I discovered my love for murder mysteries, and...I visited Christendom College!!! That was my first airplane trip that I remember, my longest trip away from home, and the first time I'd traveled by myself...and ohmygoodness, it was wonderful! I had such a good time and started very much looking forward to returning for an extended stay in August '11. :) Thankfully that actually translated to a renewed interest in my schoolwork, too!

November: I signed up for the ACT and began to feverishly (well, for the most part...) study for it, and rode on a Christendom high for most of the month. ;)

December: Snow...cold...Phantom of the Opera rehearsal...choir...schoolwork...dance... ... ...CHRISTMAS!!! I also experienced the disappointment of getting my ACT postponed, but as it turns out that was probably a good thing. I felt much more prepared when I actually took it.


So, that's what 2010 was for me! The main word I would use to describe it is "growth". I grew and changed so much that year. I have a feeling that this year's word is going to be "change", but, even though it scares me at odd moments, I am very much looking forward to it.

Joyeux Noel! :)

"In our world, too, a stable once held something that was bigger than our whole world."

-from The Last Battle by C.S Lewis

MERRY CHRISTMAS, ALL MY DEAR FRIENDS! :)

Making Christmas, Part Two

Now for the Nativity scene! We made the figurines and stable about 10 or 11 years ago, and I love setting it all up every year.

And can you find Ratty?

There he is!

My mom had the awesome idea of putting this big mirror (which we found on the curb) on top of a dresser (which we found in the basement) in the corner of the living room. I think it looks quite nice!

Making Christmas...

...making Christmas, making Christmas!

That, in case you don't know, is a line from one of the most insanely hilarious songs from the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas, and that is what we have been up to lately! Behold some photographic evidence of our work!

Ratty trying to be helper kitty (and epicly failing, poor thing)

My beautiful green bird!

Some ornaments my mom made...I like to call them the Five Freaky Friends




One of my very favorite ornaments!





Another favorite...I've had it since I was 5 years old. We used to have a nightlight with that picture, too, but sadly it broke a few years ago. :(





My very first ornament, made by my dad 17 Christmases ago.





The mice looking at Cinderella's coach



And there's the entire tree!

You know, Blogger seriously needs to re-do their photo uploading tool, because all of the pictures end up at the top of the page and it's extremely time-consuming to move them where I want them. Not to mention that now I can't cut and paste in my blogger posts...anyone know how to fix that?

So stay tuned for Part Two!

Snow

We finally have some snow! It snowed a lot just before Thanksgiving weekend, and Thanksgiving day and the friday after were both bright, beautiful, blue and white days. Being able to look out the window at work and see sunlight and snow and rolling hills and black branches etched against the blue, blue sky made working for 9 hours on Thanksgiving much more bearable! That, and the fact that I earned twice as much in tips as usual, not to mention I worked about 2 hours longer than I normally do - the specter of Christendom College always dances before my eyes, encouraging me!

For the first time ever, my mom, sister, and I went shopping on Black Friday. I actually had a lot of fun! Just two words of advice: 1. Don't go in a big city, if you can help it (in our town of 30,000, pretty much everyone we saw just looked like they were having fun...none of the crazed shoppers one always hears about...but I hear that in large cities in can be a bit different), and 2. 6: 30 am is just about the perfect time to go! It's early enough that you can have all the fun of getting up while it's still dark out (well, I find that fun, at least! ;)), it's well after the first mad rush, but it's not so late that people have started getting cranky. It was so weird to arrive at the mall at 6:30 am and find it as full as a busy Saturday afternoon! And everyone looked wide awake...that was the funny part! We didn't get anything terribly exciting, but the sales were excellent. When you're a poor student trying to save money for college, saving a few extra dollars is always a priority!

POTO (Phantom of the Opera) rehearsals started this week...my sister and I have been at one of the local high schools every evening from 4:00 to 5:00. It's not been terribly interesting so far, as we've only worked on blocking (which for me means lots of standing around!), but I can already tell it's going to be amazing. I'm really looking forward to starting to work on choreography next week! Oooh, and we also got scripts which we'll get to keep! I just highlighted and sticky-noted mine last night, and it already has copious notes...fun fun...official official! The scenes I'll be in in Act 1 are:
Scene 1: Rehearsal of Hannibal;
Scenes 2 and 3: After the Gala, Angel of Music, Through the Mirror (the ballet girls are in the background stretching, practicing, etc. the entire time);
Scene 5a: The Magic Lasso; and
Scene 7: Il Muto (one of the operas).
In Act 2, I'll be in Scene 1: Masquerade;
possibly Scenes 6 and 7: Don Juan (another of the operas);
and Scene 8: Track Down This Murderer (although I'll just be singing off-stage in that one).
I'm very happy with my part! It's fun because I'm actually a member of the opera company, and there will be tons of stage time!

Well, I really need to go study, write, and stop procrastinating! But before I go, I'll leave you with this beautiful song: Snow, by Loreena McKennitt. Nothing says "winter" to me more than this song.

The words are equally lovely and come from this poem, which is definitely one of my favorite pieces of poetry:

Snow

by Archibald Lampman

White are the far-off plains, and white

The fading forests grow;

The wind dies out along the height,

And denser still the snow,

A gathering weight on roof and tree

Falls down scarce audibly.

The road before me smooths and fills

Apace, and all about

The fences dwindle, and all the hills

Are blotted slowly out;

The naked trees loom spectrally

Into the dim white sky.

The meadows and far-sheeted streams

Lie still without a sound;

Like some soft minister of dreams

The snow fall hoods me round;

In wood and water, earth and air,

A silence everywhere.

Save when at lonely intervals

A farmer's sleigh, urged on,

With rustling runners and sharp bells

Swings by me and is gone;

Or from the empty waste I hear

A sound remote and clear;

The barking of a dog, or call

To cattle, sharply pealed,

Borne echoing from some wayside stall

Or barnyard far afield;

Then all is silent, and the snow

Falls, settling soft and slow.

The evening deepens, and the gray

Folds closer earth and sky;

The world seems shrouded far away,

Its noises sleep, and I,

As secret as yon buried stream

Plod dumbly on, and dream.