Short and Sweet

Alrighty my friends, keepin' it short this time:

Rehearsal... same as usual, we continue to work on the piece we've been doing since FEBRUARY... and then call it quits for the day.

On Friday I sent Traves a really nice email explaining about the weekends I will be missing in the month of July, apologizing and offering to learn any new choreography from video or to come in and meet another time or anything to make my absence less awful (especially because it's been such a problem as of late). He never responded but in the middle of rehersal decides to clarify which weekends, as soon as I tell him 2 other girls say they will be gone this weekend and that weekend and whatnot... WHAT THE HECK?!?! Don't you have the courtesty of emailing him or anything?! It was just so frustrating, once again they are two of the girls in the ONLY piece we've actually put any time in to. So frustrating. Anyway...

On a happier note, I love fireworks, and yesterday was the 4th of July (for any of my brazilian friends reading, it's our independence day!). We went up to the top of a hill and watched the "Big Bay Boom" which is one of the nation's biggest firework displays! 4 barges set up throughout the bay, all synchronized and set to music that plays on the radio. From our spot we could see all 4 (and the 5th one that was set on a beach about 25 minutes south) and hear the music from the surrounding houses. To be brutally honest: it. was. AWESOME. Unfortunately my camera wasn't cooperating with the fireworks and I so instead of posting a picture that I took, this is one that I found on google... (ya, I'm lazy.)

So anyway, that was amazing, and now I'm back at work for the week. Can I get some love for data entry?! Ya, I didn't think so... hah.

So far, out of the group of students we just gave a tour to last week I have entered information cards that have included the following majors (that do not exist):

Carpentry

Astronomy

Culinary

Counseling (are you wondering what type? yeah, me too)

"Teacher" (if only that were really the name of that field of study...)

Pilot

Hope you have a great week, keep checking in for updates, however the plan for next week's rehearsal (foretold by Traves) is just Pulse again... sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ya...

WELCOME BACK, you're officially approved to read my blog whenever you want!

Dear Readers,

Today I have made my blog private. You are one of the lucky few who have been given permission to view this blog, as I am going to now begin to share my true feelings about everything... OK well maybe I'll spare you from my thoughts on gas prices or which types of dogs I think are more attractive than others, but I'd like to share my thoughts and opinions on how this whole "being in a dance company" thing is going without the fear that my artistic director or fellow company members will read and decide to form an alliance against me, or just decide to hate me because they disagree... anyway, here are my thoughts:

1. The whole "Vampire & Werewolves" show idea freaks me out. No, I am not scared of vampires and/or werewolves (although the werewolves in Harry Potter are definitely scary looking), I really dislike the idea of dancing a tweaked version of the story of Twilight. I have spent the last few years NOT reading the Twilight books and definitely NOT watching the movies because they are ridiculous stories written for 8 year old girls that have turned in to a worldwide trend in which women (and men) of all ages indulge in and lust after teenage vampire men, which has then sparked society's obsession with vampires (which, according to the History Channel video that Matthew owns, is a real cult of people that no longer drink blood because it is unsafe, but drink synthetic blood-like substances, worship odd things, believe they are "undead" and live underground in hiding because they believe they are a threat to society... WHY IN THE WORLD IS THAT ENTICING?). ANYWAY, that was quite the rant just then but those are some of my thoughts on why I am not excited about this whole show idea, however Traves gave us quite the lowdown into the feel of the production and although it sounds like Twilight (which, like you have just learned, I don't like), IF he puts a TON of work and money and thought in to the way we produce this show, we may be able to pull it off. If it doesn't turn out, none of you will be invited and I will deny ever being a part of it... ;)

2. I am beginning to become frustrated with the way we are running our rehearsals. We are STILL working on "Pulse", which is the piece we have been working on since we began rehearsing in FEBRUARY. This piece is between 5 and 6 minutes in length and we have been learning from a video (I would understand something like this taking this long if he were choreographing from scratch, but it's already been done before, we're learning from a video of a performance from years and years ago). Traves organized the piece so that 4 of our dancers were in it and Katie and I are understudies, which is completely understandable, things happen, that's a safe choice, however when it takes 5 months to re-set a piece that's been done  before, it's really frustrating to still not be in a piece... It is also very frustrating when girls continue to flake on rehearsal. Once again, I understand, things happen, sometimes we need to miss rehearsal, especially when it's smack dab in the middle of the weekend, but really, 3 weekends in a row?! I have missed ONE rehearsal since February, Katie has missed none, the other 4 girls are the girls that continue to flake which is another reason this piece is taking so long, half the time Traves just cancels rehearsal because the main girls won't be there which makes rehearsing pointless. But when that happens the girls forget the choreography because they don't review it during the week and then we spend the entire rehearsal going over everything they've already learned and that's what our rehearsal ends up becoming, a big ol' review session. I honestly don't know how he's expecting us to put together an entire show in the next couple of months, I'm up for the challenge, excited to move onward!

3. To piggy-back off of the last rant, you may no longer have to "Save the Date" for our September show. As of now Traves is only planning to put "Pulse" and a girls solo in to the show. Apparently there will be 2 other companies in the show as well that will perform. It just seems odd to me that Traves is putting together this ENTIRE show and he only wants to put 2 of his pieces in it... Also, if he only decides to put those 2 of our pieces in this show, Katie and I won't be in it at all. You would think if someone was putting together a show on their own they'd mostly feature their own company...

3. On a more positive note: We have been asked to perform in an industry showcase in August (20-21)!! Hopefully (I'll be praying for this), Traves won't just decide to do "Pulse". He mentioned that he wants to do something "Lady GaGa"-esque that is more appropriate for an industry showcase, rather than something that is more suitable for a company performance where all the pieces fit together (if you've danced before you may have more of an idea of what I'm talking about, if not, don't worry about it, I like Lady GaGa). This will hopefully be a good time to get to know our company members better and spend time together outside of rehearsal, it will also be nice to put together a more technical and fun piece to perform, and a GREAT chance and motivation to MOVE ON and be done with "Pulse"... haha can you tell I'm tired of it?

I think that's the end of my rant. I'm not usually this negative, I just haven't been able to voice my opinions and frustrations about the bad since the blog was open to anyone that wanted to see it. So to close I will say: Welcome to my new blog, heightened security, new URL and all, I am excited to be brutally honest with you from now on... ;)

I will leave you with one last thing. I am currently watching "So You Think You Can Dance" which just hosted a company called Axis (< click that link!), a company collaborating dancers with and without disabilities. Watch the video. I'm not sure how I feel about it, cool idea, weird that the person in a wheelchair becomes a type of moving prop for the dancer on foot... let me know what you think!

Also, I got sunburnt at the beach today, REALLY sunburnt... pray for me...

Spectacular Moments during Typical Days in the PLNU Office of Admissions

This is less of a blog post and more of an ongoing log of working in the greatest office in San Diego, probably even in the whole world.

Starring: Emily James, Audrie Peveler and Jackie Scherer

Ongoing office records:

Speed walking to the printer and back to the front desk: Emily- 26 seconds

Folding posters in half: Audrie- 8 in 1 minute

Ongoing quotes worth noting:

"Her mom is Hawaiian, her dad is bald... like that's some racial identification..."- Emily

"Yes, when I faked being engaged to my friend I got lots of those [engagement] ads, but now that I'm not, I get lots of coffin ads [on Facebook]..." -Audrie

Ongoing project... the storage closet:

We were asked to clean and organize, here is our story (*Law & Order* dun-dun)

Friday, June 17, 2011- these "before" pictures were taken, Catharine goes over what needs to happen with most of the things within...

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday: Audrie and Emily pull everything out, clean and organize:

Poop? Actually it's just a dirt clod...

The iPod I inherited from lost & found

Yup, we even found a finger!

The hallway outside the storage closet

I honestly don't know how it all fit

The first look at our work-zone at the bottom of the stairs

STILL more stuff...

These are the signs we hung when we left it all out overnight

This is Audrie's breakdown about the United States being a nation of consumerism...

And now, we have run in to a problem... we have more shelves, but no poles to set the shelves on... keep checking up to see what solution we find and what the finished product looks like!

Turns out, we don't need no shelves, because Audrie and I are amazing cleaner/organizers... 

And now may I present, THE ORGANIZED STORAGE CLOSET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All those boxes on the top... they're empty!

THE FLOOR!!!!

the end...

after

before

Catching Up

Well, I've got a bit of catching up to do... but since I didn't have rehearsal this last weekend it makes up for me being behind... right?

Rehearsal was great! We auditioned for the "queen vampire" role. To be honest, the audition was super awkward... we don't have any music yet so the combination we learned was without and Traves said, "I already know what your technique is like, so really this audition is just so I can see your performance as a vampire"... Emily doesn't perform with her face very well unless she's on stage in costume with loud music, none of those things happened during my audition, so not only did I look absolutely ridiculous, I felt stupid too! I definitely gotta work on mastering the vampire stare... Anyway, it was definitely out of my comfort zone which was kind of cool (definitely a fan of being pushed... most of the time). I got a "very good!" when I was finished so that was encouraging as well! Traves also likes to remind us during class that we're already in the company so we shouldn't be afraid of looking stupid, thank goodness we took that all to heart, it was also helpful that we all felt stupid at the same time (well, technically since we went one at a time it wasn't all at the same time BUT for the sake of the argument we'll consider the whole audition the same time?).

After the "audition" we continued working on the computer dance (I can't remember if he's picked a name for it yet). When we first started this piece it was meant to be completely serious but also ridiculous, "seriously ridiculous" some would say... So the beginning of the piece is crazy weird but we are supposed to look like we're serious about it all. Since beginning the piece Traves has decided it would work better as a flash performance and the choreography has evolved to fit that plan. We start body burping and twitching and move in to synchronized choreography and slowly start to mess around... Katie and I "Paula Abdul"-it (remember in middle school when you thought it was really cool to stand behind someone and you both would snake your bodies but in different directions? That's what I'm talkin' 'bout!), McCall attempts but can't master the snake move, causing Katie and I to spin and double high-five it. Yes, it is just as awesome as it sounds. Keep you eyes open for us at things like local farmers markets, Wal Marts, Balboa Park, etc... We'll be the ones most likely wrapped in tin foil and glitter (Traves admits, he LOVES sparkles).

INPUT NEEDED! Friends, if someone were to hand you a business card at a flash performance (of awesome-ness) that had a QR code on it, you would be stoked that someone was speaking your language right?! Especially if they were dancing to a song made BY computers FOR computers right?! I'm definitely going to need some feedback on this assumption. And in case the link above didn't describe it all for you, you scan this code with an app on your smart-phone and it would take you to our company's web page, telling you all about any upcoming performances or our bios, which are super legit... The following is what would go through my mind as a spectator during this performance:
"Oh shoot, it sounds like a computer is about to explode! Wait, it's music, and there's DANCERS! Shoooooooot, they're high fiving each other, awesome. They're really good, I wonder what company they're with.... (someone hands me a business card), oh cool, Butterworth Dance Company, no way, they're savvy enough to have a QR code on their business card! *SCAN* awesome! Their website is on my phone, that was so awesome and easy!!"
So obviously that's exactly how you would feel right? Ya, I thought so...

Anyway, the rest of my life has been hectic up until this week, we had a HUGE conference on campus through the admissions office called NACCAP (National Association of Christian College Admissions Professionals).

I don't know if anyone else realizes this, but it takes 2 whole days for about 10 people to make 500 beds... it was painstakingly long and tedious but we got the job done. I have also been in the process of begging local businesses to donate pamphlets, coupons and things to the event, I'm pretty sure I told you all about that already but I even managed to get 500 reusable grocery bags! It was great to see that all come together and not have to deal with begging people for free stuff anymore, and everyone loved them (I hope).

Our office is just about finished with events for the summer (excluding NYC which some counselors will attend and any camps they have to go to), but I'm completely done! I really love events but after not sleeping for like 2 weeks in a row, I (and the entire rest of my office) am thankful to get back to normal work. Audrie (another student worker for summer in admissions) and I have now been assigned a new project:

the dreaded, "storage closet" aka "the black hole"

Young Hall, Kansas City, Elevate, Bible Quizzing and most importantly, Rehearsal

Long time, no post.

My dear friends, the last two weekends have been very uneventful... that's a lie, we just didn't have any rehearsals for me to blog about. The first few paragraphs contain information about my 2 weekends without rehearsal, if you find these completely boring and/or uninteresting you may scroll down to the big bold red letters spelling "rehearsal", that way you may skip the personal stuff and get down to brass tax (whatever that's supposed to mean)

The first weekend of no rehearsal was my last weekend in my beloved apartment, until the end of August that is (we actually chose the same apartment to reside in for our LAST year at PLNU). Everyone moved out and Emily was all alone (and to those of you who know me well, that is never a good thing, nor do I enjoy it), I came up with every excuse to have visitors whilst packing and cleaning before my move (including: "Brittney, I need my cooking supplies, you can move back in now" and "I need someone to watch 'House' with"). Saturday I attended the PLNU graduation. Actually, there were 3 that day but I went to the middle one... Adam was nice enough to share his tickets with Matthew and I so we got to sit with his family in the sun for 2 hours (believe it or not it was enjoyable ;) and a shout out to Adam's cousins of whom I've never met, I appreciate that you couldn't come so that I could attend).

That Monday I moved down to the nation's best surf dorm... Young Hall, although this link is NOT one of the better pictures of the dorm, it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever lived, actually, I take it back, it IS the most beautiful place I have ever lived. Oh and yes, I did just spend 20 minutes finding a picture that gives you a small idea of what it's like to live here... This is the view from my pillow...

Ok, I'm done bragging now, but seriously... ok now I'm done.

I'm sorry, I just got really distracted... now back to my weekend, which I realize is mostly likely quite boring and unexciting to you. I moved, I have a lot less stuff than most people yet still managed to struggle organizing it all, bring on the challenge! Well, I managed to put everything somewhere and now I can't find anything I want... I've lost a wedding invitation which I need to RSVP to, and my fish food went missing for almost a week and a half, Steve got real upset with me.

That weekend on Sunday my dad called me out of the blue and asked if I wanted to go to Kansas City with him. I found out later that this proposal was only because he needed a way to convince my mother to go, but I can't complain, I got a free vacation out of it, also, I enjoy the fact that my mom will go because I'm going, not just because my dad's going... So anyway, he booked the tickets.

I worked during the week... duh.

The next Saturday morning I flew in to Kansas City, KS (Actually MO, but then we drove to KS), waiting for an hour and a half and then met up with the rest of the fam in the airport! By the way the whole basis of this trip was to visit family that lives there. My dad's cousin/also my cousin picked us up from the airport and took us on a tour of the city... Jeff knows everything there is to know, and more (and usually the "and more" is just a saying, this time it is not). Jeff knows every statistic, world record, historical event, word meaning, "per capita" fact and Kansas City exclusive known to man, which naturally makes him the best tour guide to have while exploring a city I am unfamiliar with (thanks Jeff!). The weekend was essentially uneventful... we literally ate (a LOT of midwestern food... which means I gained 5402875493 pounds), and hung around my dad's aunt's house, which I believe makes her my great aunt?! As uneventful as the weekend was, it was quite a blasty-blast. My Namibian cousin Lee got his US citizenship, cousins Lee and Josh graduated from high school and Zach graduated from college, quite the party weekend and a perfect excuse to fly out to visit everyone for a weekend. I really enjoyed reconnecting with the cousins, considering we haven't seen each other in YEARS.

Came back to work for the week and hit the ground running...

Elevate is a huge Nazarene Youth Camp that is hosted by PLNU, their contact with the school is our admissions office, so Catharine and I took charge. About 1,000 junior high and high school students graced us with their presence this weekend. There were lots of awkward jr. highers, one especially excited to show everyone his sunburn, many needing the "personal hygiene" talk that comes around middle school age. High schoolers are a bit more fun, but way too cool for any Elevate staff members... I spent the weekend driving around San Diego picking up gift cards for leaders, coffee at 7:30am and even Cheerio's for a kid who was allergic to gluten and refused to eat fruit (apparently Krispy Kreme doughnuts were NOT a good choice for this group, not only for the gluten allergies but really, who thought it was a good idea to feed teenagers pure sugar for breakfast?!).

I also got to witness a rare event... BIBLE QUIZZING. Yes, this is a real thing, and you must someday experience it. Link to World Bible Quiz Association. Here is a picture and then I will explain:

This isn't the best quality but it might give you a better idea of how this went down... so each team has 4 members and on their chairs there are little pads, as soon as the team member's hind end leaves the pad the buzzer goes off and they get to answer the question being asked. There are different kinds of questions (I don't remember their terms) but whenever one of them, I think it was the reference questions,  was going to be asked the teams did this little arm/hand shake/thing I can't even explain. So then the speaker asks a question and whoever jumps up first gets to answer regardless if the speaker was done or not. Once a student has jumped up it is their opportunity to finish the question and answer completely, this year they had studied the book of John (I thought it was the whole bible which almost made me cry thinking about how much there was to memorize, this note made me feel much better...). Most of the time the student attempting to answer the question would do something weird in order to help themselves remember the answer, one kid bent over like he was about to puke, one girl kept pulling down her pants at the kneecaps, a lot of them would close their eyes or play with their fingers... this was INTENSE! One time the speaker said "This is a reference question (weird arm movements)... 'W'" BAM a girl jumped up, rattled off about 5 sentences of verse AND the reference, no sweat... it may have been the nerdiest think I have ever watched... and I know some BIG nerds ;). By the way, most of these kids are home-schooled, and most of these kids actually enjoy it...


REHEARSAL
So now that I've completely filled you in on just about anything that was remotely exciting in the past 2 weeks, I will continue on to the real reason I blog... rehearsal.

Some details will be spared, considering I don't know exactly who reads this...

We continued to learn, and actually finished, Pulse. I was also thrown (this "thrown" expression is only kind of literal in this context...) in to a bunch of different lifts and flips and such since the girl I understudy for was gone again. They were fun and scary and quite painful the day after (remember how I said my armpits hurt? yaaaaa). Anyway, finished the piece and moved on to the next!

After talking to Traves, the Artistic Director, about our show in September, I realized I may not actually be in the show, so that "Save the Date" post a while back, you can delete that for now... We have 2 guest companies coming to perform in this show and our company will be showcasing a solo that has been set on one of our dancers and Pulse (which I am not in as of now). Soooooooooooooooooooo unless Traves decides to add another piece or someone gets hurt (which, contrary to popular demand, I hope does NOT happen), I'll be spectating from backstage.

Good news! We will be producing our own show the 2 weeks before Halloween... this year Halloween falls on a Monday so I'm not quite sure WHICH weekends exactly, but I'll keep you posted. I just looked back at my blog to figure out if I have given you these deets (details), but I got bored of looking so I'll just tell you, either for the first or second time, you pick.

Listening to Traves explain the story line, all I could think is "really?". Let me tell you the story and you can try to guess what I thought of:

"A group of lady Vampires (yup, you probably already guessed it...) are traveling through a forest(?) when they're attacked by a clan of Werewolf men (if you didn't guess it after vampires, you now know exactly what I'm thinking). One vampire get separated from her gang (apparently she happens to be the vampire queen?) and her life is spared (I can't remember why). She then crosses paths with the main werewolf during the day but they don't recognize each other because (to my Admissions family: I just almost wrote "becasue" and thought of Shining Moments, to everyone else, please ignore this distraction) it is no longer a full moon and the werewolf is just a man. They fall in love. Their clans discipline them because their love is forbidden, and they are no longer allowed to see each other..."

At this point in the story I asked Traves, "So, like Twilight but dance?" (yes, I was that blunt) and he responded "No!"... then continued to finish the story:

"The vampire and the werewolf find a group of witches that can help them, they make a potion for each and then you see the vampire and the werewolf with the potions and then the lights go off... you never know if they drank the potion or not!"

Traves is stoked about this. After hearing his vision that goes along with the story I am a little more jazzed (hah, dance pun!), but I was definitely skeptical in the beginning considering I am NOT (and never will be) a Twilight fan...

Traves is planning this show to be outside, about 30 minutes, and interactive... Basically a haunted house idea through our studio, you walk through the back and stand in the middle of our "stage" and things are happening all around you, especially while the dances are going on... screams, bushes and tree branches shaking, the works. I am definitely excited to see this all come to life considering we will need to start from scratch on lighting, floors, boundry-ing the area, the whole set-up shebang.

Anyway, I am done explaining because I don't want to 1) get your hopes up or 2) give too much away if it's supposed to be a surprise.... you may already know too much (don't worry, I won't kill you, unless Traves makes me...) So, now you have this to look forward to. If it's done well it's going to be amazing and one of the most different performances I have ever been involved with.

OH! And I forgot one of the best parts! Traves' friend is creating ALL NEW, ORIGINAL music for the whole show! If that's not super cool then I don't know what is...

So in rehearsal we learned a piece of the vampire's solo and will be auditioning for the "vampire queen" role next weekend... we will end up with one vampire queen and the rest will be her horde (I think that term might only apply when discussing zombies?), and might also double as the group of witches at the end. Either way, lots of dancing!

Anyway, I just realized that this might be my longest blog post yet so I will let you go now, back to real life.

I will leave you with a quote from one of my favorite TV series, Arrested Development. If you haven't seen this show, you must, it will change your life...

sing this: "somewhere over the rainbow.......... there's another rainbow".

Surprise Party #2 and the beginning workings of a "Flash Performance"

Remember how most people have one surprise party? Well, it looks like I'm no longer a part of the "most people" club...

So, as you will remember from my last blog, my roommates and friends threw me a surprise party on my actual day of the anniversary of my birth. (mind you, this is the first surprise party in the history of surprise parties thrown for Emily). Large hole in the ground filled with water (well), on Friday night Matthew took me out to a fancy dinner to celebrate my birthday. We went to a little italian place called Old Venice, candles everywhere, white tablecloths, fancy schmancy. Apparently we were supposed to wait to sit outside on their patio where it's all lit up and romantic but since I had no idea where we were going I got impatient and hungry so we went early and sat inside, but it was still beautiful! The lady sitting at the table next to us started to take weird pictures of her husband so I offered to take one of the two of them, which was really my way of getting her to take a picture of us without seeming too touristy... well played Emily, well played.

It was a glorious dinner and I had the Cilantro Pesto Shrimp Pasta plate, good for 4 reasons: 1) Cilantro 2) Pesto 3) Shrimp 4) Pasta, and in case you were wondering it also had sun-dried tomatoes and pine nuts, heaven, end of story. Matthew had some kind of Penne Prochuitto (I can never figure out how to spell that) pasta dish that was also delish! (like me abreivs?)

At one point in our meal I mentioned that I had to go to the restroom but that I thought it was back through the kitchen and it looked a little scary to wander back that way so I decided to hold it. Out dinner came and went and we left the restaurant with uncomfortably full stomachs (and bladder; mine, not Matthew's). At this point in time Noelle begins to text me and ask when I'm going to be home since she has to return a skirt of mine so I told her I'd have Matthew stop by her place on the way home. As we drive in to Matthew's complex (Noelle lives there too) he drives right up to his apartment and Noelle tells me she'll walk since it's a "nice night". We walk up to Matthew's front door and I point out the fact that he left his sliding door open, he replies "oops". His door is already unlocked, which is also weird since he has sketch neighbors, but I've already had a surprise party this week so I'm not expecting anything. Maybe he just had someone drop off flowers or something for me while we were out? We walked in to his apartment and I set my things down at the table, went to put my leftovers in the fridge and half way there Matthew takes them from me and does it for me, saying "don't you have to pee?". YES! So I walk in to his room, flick on the light, turn the corner and SHAPOW, 4 of my friends (Noelle, Ari, Kim and Nate) are hiding in the closet, one in Matthew's bed in case I decided to sit there first... thanks for not grabbing me from under the covers Adam. 

This may quite possibly be one of the few times in my life where I was legitimately terrified... I wish someone would have taken a picture at that moment. Although I told you about everything suspicious, I genuinely had no idea because, who really gets two surprise parties in one week? Also, don't forget, my bladder was full, I nearly wet myself. I finally got a chance to pee but have decided that a full bladder is the absolute worst opportunity to scare someone, even if it's for their birthday, because no one wants to hang out in their pee-pants (Taladega Nights anyone?) all night long? The rest of the night was filled with long conversations, Guitar Hero and DDR (dance dance revolution) [Grandma, these are video games]. 

And now, back to things related to dance:

Rehearsal was normal, nothing too exciting. We're finishing up "Pulse", which will be nice so we can move on to new things! We have also scheduled a "Flash Performance", similar to a flash mob but with less mob. On June 25th our company will head to a public place (TBD), turn on a boom box and perform a piece, no permissions, no rules, just dance until the piece is over or security kicks us out, whatever comes first. We will most likely be using the "computer-blowing-up" piece (I feel like it really needs a name already). That's pretty much all we know about that as of yet. Also, we don't have rehearsal for the next two weeks :( but this will give me that much more motivation to go in to the studio nearby and talk to them about their work study program (yes, I haven't done it yet but I'm working on it ok?!) 

And as of now that's pretty much all I can think to tell you about. Today is Matthew's moving day, we are moving him from an apartment in the back of the complex to one right up front. Please pray for us, I legitimately have no idea how we're going to move his kitchen table... Matthew and Adam may just have to walk it across the entire complex... we will see. 

I know, I know, it's been awhile...

Well hello there!!

Although you don't read this blog to stay updated on all parts of my life, I am going to update you anyway because it's been a long time since I last blogged and that's what friends do... (appropriately so, considering I did not rehearse last weekend.)

Last weekend was Easter weekend, which means that I got to go home!! I had Thursday, Friday and Monday off of school and it was so relaxing. Wednesday was Matthew's birthday (23... he's such an old fart now! [love you Matthew!]), we spent the evening celebrating with dinner at Miguel's (yuuuuuuuuuum) and hot tubbing. It was nice to be able to spend the evening with him before heading home. On Thursday morning I caught my flight back to P-ville (actually to sac), spent the day with the seester (yes, you should say it the way I spelled it), and then met up with the fam-bam-ily at BJ's to celebrate dad's birthday! Two birthdays next to each other is a terrible thing because it means two birthday dinners back to back and two birthday desserts and just about the time your "uncomfortably full" feeling from the night before starts wearing off, it happens all over again (and in my case continued happening all weekend long). The next day I spent running errands with my madre, she even bought me some early birthday presents since I'm her favorite daughter (wink)... I got a pair of sweet shoes and HARRY POTTER 7!! What a glorious birthday!! (thanks parentals!) :). Friday evening mom made steak (uncomfortable feeling returns). Saturday my family celebrated easter, which we dubbed, "preaster" since it was a day early, salmon and ham (amongst other things), and celebrated my birthday, dad's birthday, and Kevin's birthday with a homemade ICE CREAM CAKE (frosted by yours truly).

Sunday mom made ribs, 3 racks of ribs... I think you can now understand why I came back to SD 100 pounds heavier...

By Monday my body was about to explode from all the food but the fam went out to one last dinner together... Olive Garden... thankfully my mother was feeling the same so we were able to split a meal which was perfect. Overall I spent the weekend eating, oh and I also watched a good amount of TV and caught up with all the fam and some friends (Stacey) too, but mostly I just ate. Oh right, one more thing (the 'rents would be sad if I forgot to mention this), they bought a property out in Lotus, we went to visit. :) They will begin the construction of their new home shortly, exciting for them, not so much for me, I am not excited to leave the house I grew up in... The new property is 12 miles from the nearest grocery store, 15 minutes away from our current house, next to the town of Coloma where gold was first discovered in 1848, and 2 parcels away from the bank of the south fork of the American River.

Came back to SD on Monday and on Thursday night/Friday morning my roommates and I held a royal party to watch the royal wedding... Do I care that much about watching the wedding itself? Not really. Do I love every opportunity to do weird things I can only get away with because I'm in college? Abso-fruitly! Baked scones and made whipped cream and jam to celebrate waking up at 2:30AM and watched along with the rest of the world. I think I was up for about an hour and a half before getting tired of watching man-choirs and going back to bed. (Also, we did invite the neighbors... with formal royal invitations... signed from the queen...)

Deena and Johanna (friends from way back to our freshman year) came to visit us on Saturday, so we went out to BJs for a nice lunch with a large group. I got a baby pizookie in celebration of my birthday and because I had to leave early for rehearsal, but it was worth it! And just in case you were wondering, yes, this is the 2nd BJs trip and 2nd pizookie in two weeks...

Rehearsal (the main reason you keep reading what I write about every week) was great. I guess last week they worked on lifts for a dance that I'm understudying for which was nice for me because I didn't have to learn anything extra from last week (sometimes my brain can only take so much learning in one day, which is why college is so nice because I can just spend like 3-4 hours in class each day and call it quits...). We mainly worked on "Pulse" in order to finish it soon and the girl I understudy for was out so I got my fair share of a workout. We also talked about a new piece Traves is thinking about, but I won't spoil it for you yet... I'm skeptical so you may just have to wait to see it, I'm sure it'll turn out awesome though... all I can say is we won't be sparkling in the sunlight but there may be furry men?

Oh and I got a haircut on Thursday.

Tuesday the 3rd was my 21st birthday. (I realize this blog is getting long, but that's what happens when I slack off and don't get the chance to blog right after rehearsal). Janelle sent me a light up martini glass (awe-some!), my mother sent me some other schtuff and I got lots of cards and a generous donation from the most wonderful grandma :). Matthew and I made dinner, a fancy chicken wrapped in cheese and prosciutto and baked in white wine and olive oil (yes, I was ID'd when purchasing our cooking wine!), he then kept exclaiming "Emily, we don't have time!" when I continued to suggest evening activities like watching "Lost", this suspicious-ness continued when he walked me up my stairs and made me knock on the neighbor's door... to which I was surprised with a small group of my friends celebrating the anniversary of my birth!! Daniella and Lauren made a pizookie (yes, another one, but this was homemade and even more wonderful), and we all (Daniella, Lauren, Nate, Sam, Brittney, Sarah, Adam, Ari and Matthew) played Scategories (one of my favs, especially because it's one of the few I can actually win!). Overall it was a fantastic birthday!

Once again I'd like to apologize for the lack of witty comments and funny stuff, but this week has been hectic and my eye has been constantly twitching for 4 days now, I wanted to finish this baby so I can publish it before this weekend when I'll have to write another one! (I really do like these, when I'm in the mood at least...) So I'm off to rest and rejuvenate so I can start cracking comments and be somewhat entertaining again soon!

Oh also, thanks for your prayers for my ocean view room for summer... you failed... well I guess you didn't really fail, you just didn't pray hard enough because we got a room on the side of the building but will hopefully be able to see the ocean from the corner... sooooo thanks for your half-hearted prayers, "friends"... (and I'm only clarifying this because you can't hear me, but that was sarcasm, one of my many spiritual gifts, along with my powerful sense of smell)

Anyway, thanks for reading, 'perciate it!

Short rehearsals call for short blog posts

Rehearsal on Saturday was short, which was a bummer because I REALLY wanted to dance on Saturday, I was "in the mood".

Saturday was about 80 degrees and LOVELY, I spent my morning laying in the sun and only came in with a slight burn on my backside (of which I am reminded every time I sit on the leather seats in my car...), but nothing compared to two of my roommate's burns from the day before, I have seen them lean up against the refrigerator, smother in themselves aloe, and have even assisted the rubbing of vinegar on their fried skin, all to ease their pain because they lost track of time at the beach on Friday... (hah, that's what they get for going to the beach while I was working Preview Day!)

Anyway, once I got to rehearsal Traves decided he didn't want to do any warm-up/class (it was about 90 degrees inland so there was really no need to "warm up" as we were all already sweating) so we stretched and got right in to rehearsal. We ran "Pulse", one of our girls was gone and didn't have an understudy for the piece so I stepped in... She's actually on the complete opposite side that I have learned so everything was backward, that got interesting, I'm sure it looked like a train wreck and a half but we got through it! We then ran "Origin" and the tech dance (I'm really looking forward to this piece getting a name so I actually have something to call it). About 45 minutes later Traves let us go, he said he was really tired and next week would be a full rehearsal... dangit... I'll be gone for that one... (going home for Easter).

I spent the rest of my day apartment hunting with Matthew and Adam and watching Dirty Dancing with a group of girls I live with. I know this is a random thought placed in a random blog post but I can't stop thinking about how truly blessed I am. I freeking live ON the beach and I forget to thank God for that in itself all the time! I have the greatest boyfriend I could have ever asked for, an AMAZING group of girls to call my best friends and my school genuinely cares for me, so much so that one of my professors is having our class over for dinner at her house on Tuesday... and this isn't even the first time I've hung out with a prof at their house! Go to SDSU and try that, good luck, guarantee they cancel any class with under 20 students... I just registered and will be taking a class with 1 other student in the fall, that's a total of 2 students and 1 professor for a 1 unit class... dang I'm blessed. Oh, and did I mention, I'm on a professional dance company?! Ok, so now that I've gotten this all out of my system I will continue on with my normal blog post, and do my best to keep it short like I promised in my title... (chyea right)

This final paragraph will serve as a shout out to Deena Delin... She recently brought to my attention the fact that Butterworth Dance Company reminds her of Mrs. Butterworth, which makes me crave waffles... a lot... Anyway, I didn't even put the two together until she said something during our hour and a half long phone conversation. I will first apologize for the random-ness of this post, thank you for reading it anyway, and now end my blog post with a tribute to syrup:

Save the Date, September 8th... no, I'm not getting married...

So, I LOVE rehearsal...

But first, sad news: Mesa College is not offering dance classes over summer... looks like I need to start working out another way to be able to get my required minimum of 3 hours of class per week. A girl on my company said that the studio near PLNU offers a "work study" program where I could volunteer some hours in their offices in exchange for classes. Actually, now that I think about it, it's starting to sound fun, especially since I'll be working only 30 hours/week over summer... sweet, way to talk myself in to it, me! hah

So today for rehearsal... 

We did our usual warm up, caught the girl that was out up on her spot in "Pulse" and did the dance a few times. We then began to work on a new piece called "Origin". This piece is inspired by the evolution of man (not saying I believe in it, but it's still a cool idea...), we start in a huge huddle on the ground (yes, like a giant graceful dog pile on our knees) and the song begins and the lump breathes and shakes and then expands (the dog pile grows! hah, ok I'm done referring to it as a dog pile now...). Throughout the piece (of the schtuff we have so far) we expand and contract a lot, Traves describes it as a sea anemone when you touch it... haha. Anyway, I'll keep you posted with that one, we didn't get super far. We then spent another chunk-o-time on our tech dance (yes, the one to the music of a computer blowing up). 

During one of our breaks one of the company members asked Traves if he ended up taking anyone from the audition we had a week or so (however many, I can't keep track of time) ago. He said watching us all dance together and then watching others dance with us just didn't feel right. He said that together we all look so good and do so well and we all have a same quality of movement that the others just couldn't match up to... AWWWWW Yeaya! Hahahah it's nice to hear we're already developing as a company together, (It's true love!). We're like some kind of elite club... or not... but sometimes I like to pretend that I'm that cool like that...

Also, Traves gave us "Save the date" cards (no, no one else is getting married this summer... they better not, Matthew and I can no longer afford to purchase wedding gifts for any more weddings until the summer months are over,) for the show we will officially be dancing in on September 8th! It's called the Red Ribbon Dance Project and is a benefit for AIDS research. You can follow this link (here) to the website that provides more information. Traves also told us that he's working on getting us performances at the Natural History Museum and the Museum of Man about 2-3 months from now in Balboa Park. Apparently the Natural History Museum didn't want any of our pieces to be anything about man, they just want art, so that's the main reason we started other pieces today so we could have them for that museum, but now that we know some of our pieces may be better suited for the Museum of Man we're talking to them now as well... instead of picking more suitable pieces for the venue, why not just go to multiple venues?! (I feel like we're in the middle of museum drama or something, legit!). Traves has it down haha and I am STOKED to perform again, it has been WAY too long!

So, I think this is pretty much it about rehearsal, and really just about life in general. School is busy, but, in case you didn't see my recent facebook posts, I am getting extremely excited for my lit class that is ALL C.S. LEWIS! YAYAYAYAYAYA. I'm stoked, there are no other words to describe it. We have also found a 5th roommate for our Flex apartment (the ones on campus, for those of you unfamiliar with PLNU) next year so now we can look forward to room draws on the 18th to see which apartment will be ours! I have also successfully secured roommates for my summer home in Young Hall (voted surf magazine's #1 college dorm)(also, although the website does say MEN, over the summer it turns in to coed summer housing... just in case you were skeptical), so we will go through room draws most likely in May to hopefully get a view of the cliffs and the ocean that we live RIGHT next to :). Ok, I officially think that's all you need updating on... and also, in case I haven't done this before, thanks for reading :).

Body Burps, Bruises and Baby Giraffes

Another rehearsal!

The company is getting to know each other and I LOVE it! :)

As I left you last week wondering if anyone else made it on to the company, I will now tell you that we are still the original 6... (or at least I think...) no one new showed up to rehearsal so I'm assuming that if he took anyone from those auditions they are now project dancers (unpaid dancers to be used for larger group dances but are not a part of the core company).

Traves said that the studio we practice at may open our first hour of rehearsal time up for open class with us so it will not be rehearsal, however if no one shows up (which is likely, because who really wants to take class from a company they didn't get in to?), we will do a simple warm up and use the time to rehearse. From now on we will be extending our rehearsal time from 2-4:30 and eventually bump it to 5:00. (YAY!).

We spent most of our time on "Pulse" again this week. The girl that I understudy for was gone so I got to step in and take her place, which was really fun! I am not so much a fan of learning and memorizing choreography (who really likes to learn and memorize, it's like studying! yuck) but I LOVE dancing it once I've learned it. I can't remember if I've explained this before but we're redoing this dance from a few years ago so we're learning it off of an iphone video. This sometimes becomes complicated due to the fact that we're watching little dancers on a little screen that is backwards from the way we will do it... we managed to figure it all out though, so don't stress (I know you were stressing...).

The new part of the dance we were learning was a lot of floor work. At one point we all do some kind of handstand with our legs and bodies in crazy positions and then drop to our shoulders and do some kind of break dancing move turned ballerina style and do the splits in the air, then we fling our leg over to roll us around and have to roll back (when you see it you'll know why I'm trying to describe it) to get up and do a left handed cartwheel. (sounds cheerleader-y [which I hate], but it's definitely NOT, just clarifying....). Writing about this a day later, I can truthfully tell you that even muscle in my core hurts, has knots or in my shoulder's case, is visibly bruised, however I must admit, I LOVE feeling like this, means I worked hard! (which is a stretch for me to say in almost any other circumstance.)

Toward the end of our rehearsal we spent some time on the computer dance. I honestly don't know what else to call it and I wish I had the music so you could know that it really does sound like the computer is about to blow up, because I really don't know how else to describe it. The whole dance we're supposed to look ridiculous and technologically flustered. In the beginning we have to tweak out, Traves calls them "body burps", use your imagination.

Getting excited to perform... hopefully sooner rather than later. I sometimes feel like I'm chomping at the bit to get on stage, but I will be as patient as possible... which is not very, but hey, I'm trying!

At the end of rehearsal we all started talking about facebook and now we're all facebook friends, which means we can be friends in real life now (what a happy BDC family!) and last week Traves said he wants to have us all over to his house sometime. I don't even care what happens, I'm legitimately just stoked that we're starting to become friends! (yes, you're right, I am one of the nerdiest people you know).

Also, Traves was talking about a few other choreographers that will be coming in to set pieces on us to perform. There is a competition going on on the BDC website that people are submitting their choreography and the winners will be paid to choreograph for us. (Click here if you're interested in entering the competition.) So we will have lots of different styles and pieces to choose from when it comes time to perform! :)

And although this has nothing to do with dance (but I can relate it! ;)) Matthew and I went to the zoo, there was a brand new BABY GIRAFFE! Here's how I relate it... my back hurt so bad from dance (and because I've been having back issues) that the whole time at the zoo I kept having to bend over and stretch it out and Matthew was super embarrassed by me :)

Anyway, rehearsal was pretty basic this week, but I had a blast. Also, my armpits hurt... bet you never knew that was possible, but I'm here to tell you that it is... my armpit muscles are in pain. Anyone want to give me a massage?