Schroeder

I find that I have a need to name things, anything I've put my own money into, or anything that I spend a lot of time with, as if they were real and actually loved me back. The first car I drove at home I named Molly. My laptop I named Patty. The scoliosis back brace I had to wear for a year and a half I named Dorothy. So many girls.

And then I decided that my car needed to be a boy. I need a man in my life. One that can protect a single girl as she commutes up to Sandy and back everyday. We're gonna go through a lot together, I can feel it. Lots of time, lots of early early mornings, rainstorms, venting sessions, singing lessons.

So I have named my car Schroeder. Just like the boy who plays the piano on Peanuts. It just seemed to fit after driving him all week. We go places. Like rehearsal. Every night. I'm SO protective over him! The nights I have to park him on the street because the lots are full, I worry about him all night long! And then I drive him back to a safe parking lot space in the morning! With all the love you can have for an innatimate object, I love my car!

Ode to the Students of Provo High

My, my, it has been WAY too long since I wrote! It seems every night I have to debate whether I can type for 5 minutes, of if I would rather have those 5 minutes to sleep. Lately, the need for sleep has trumped everything.

So my time student teaching at Provo is coming to a close. On Monday I start commuting up to a middle school in Sandy. I'm actually really excited for a change and some new classes to teach, despite the added hour of driving every day. Boo. But I've really loved PHS. The cooking classes have been a blast, but suprisingly, my Adult Roles/Financial Literacy class has made a little place in my heart. I've been teaching the whole "Dating" unit to this class of 40 juniors and seniors at 7:35-9am every other morning. I've told them some of my great dating stories (the girl who has been on 98 first dates) and they've told me some of theirs. We've talked about why people get married these days, what's really important in a relationship, and I've pleaded with them to only marry for love. We've had some great talks, the highschoolers and I, and then the time I spend reading their assignments and grading their papers is my favorite part of the day!

I make them go on dates and tell me about them, write cute little proposals, stories of how they and their "one and only" will meet, and then write letters to their future spouses. These kids write the most moving stories, the most heartbreaking pledges of love, of how they want this love to last forever, of how they'll never love another. And their stories are simple and perhaps a little naive, but they really have thought about it, and they really believe in it! Its made me feel like a highschooler all over again, and in some ways, WANT to be a highschooler all over again because of how they are so in love with love! I've fallen in love with their love for love and their passion for what they want. They are so full of it, so dreamy and dramatic, and I love it.

So to the highschoolers of Provo High, thank you for letting me your little teacher, as inexperienced and scared as I've been to pretend that I know all about this stuff and that I actually have something to teach you. You've been great. I wish you all the best in life after high school.

The Loneliest Number

And then Valentine's Day rolls around and you're reminded how very single you are.

And you pick up where you left off mentally planning the single life you will forever lead. There've been so many individuals in my life recently that inspire me in their ways of making a life out of their singleness, and it's so consoling. I keep meeting the most talented charming beautiful girls who have already graduated from BYU, found a living for themselves, and still perform in the local theaters, still passionately doing what they love, enjoying themselves, still leading fulfilling happy lives, and I want to be like them!

So I'm planning how happy I'm going to be: I'm going to teach cooking classes in the junior high down the street and perform in the community theaters and and go to the temple every week and paint the walls of my apartment and sew purses to sell in boutiques and buy a bird and listen to jazz all evening and be very very happy.

Smokey Shop Band Accent

I made it in to Smokey Joe's Cafe at the Scera! The show is on in April! The best part is that my Daddy will be here for the last two shows b/c he's coming out for my graduation! Its a super fun show, full of 50's/60's rock and roll, and they're making us the most incredible dresses! The cast is 6 guys, 7 girls, and an absolute dream to work with.

The MDT Showcase was a blast! "Little Shop of Horrors"! It was a fun experience rehearsing/performing with all the die-hard Music-Dance-Theater majors. I'm really glad I'm not one of them!

Big Band Night was super fun! They did our hair all 40's and dressed us up, and I got to solo with Synthesis! I sang "Lullaby of Broadway" and "Can't Take that Away". Ray is intimidating up there, first time with the band, telling you to just jump to the bridge, change the key, make sure you hit the minor scale on the ending, etc. What an honor, though! Synthesis is fantastic!

AND I bought a car today!!! A beautiful white 2001 Hyundai Accent! I'm so lucky! And so very very poor!

I can't...I have rehearsal

I made Smokey Joe's Cafe call-backs! They're tomorrow!
That makes 1 call-back, 3 practices, 3 dress rehearsals, 4 showcase performances, and 1 solo Big Band Night performance just this week! Oh, and then I'm singing in church on Sunday! Help!

Nauvoo Core Cast

I made Nauvoo core cast call-backs! http://www.lds.org/events/info/0,8197,726-1-649,00.html 12 hours of script reading! Very long, very exhausting, very emotionally draining. Lots of crying, lots of spiritual moments, lots of Nauvoo memories. It was very hard to figure out who they were thinking of for each part, even by the end of it, and they let us all go at once (opposed to telling us to leave one at a time like previous years), so I feel like it could go a lot of different ways.

I would still love the opportunity with all my heart, but I realized that almost instead of longing to go back and do the pageant again, I found myself more appreciative of the opportunity I had to already be in it. Lots of people there had never been to Nauvoo, and never seen the pageant, and I felt so priviledged already to have had that incredible pageant experience, though only as a Young Performing Missionary dancer 2 years ago. This experience made me recall how I've already felt it, and loved it, and shouldn't feel like I am missing everything if I don't get to go as a core lead. http://www.meridianmagazine.com/travel/070628nauvoo.html

Get this: we'll find out if we made it "hopefully by March 1st, but likely by mid-April"!