Musical Theater

I'm doing terrible at posting on this frequently. This is only like my third or fourth post of the new decade.

I guess I'll start with musical theater tryouts. The dance tryouts were last Monday. During musical theater (7th period), our choreographer, Melanie, came and taught everyone a cute dance to a song from the musical ("Bye Bye Birdie") called "One Last Kiss". It was pretty simple, but it took her a while to teach us because there were so many of us and it's impossible for teenagers to shut up for ten seconds. I was freaking out because I had a voice lesson at 3:45 and we were still learning the dance after school ended. When we started actually dancing in front of Ms. Swallow and Melanie for our tryouts, I made sure I was in the first group. I didn't do too well of job, but I really didn't care. I grabbed my stuff and ran out of the school. I got to my voice lesson exactly on time. I learned to sing a song called "I'm Not at all in Love" from "The Pajama Game".

I practiced the song and the skit for tryouts a lot, and I had my little sister, Hannah, help me because the girl I was trying out for is really hyper and weird. Hannah was very helpful.

On Wednesday during school, I had my tryout. Ms. Swallow just put everyone in the old drama room to watch "Bye Bye Birdie" while she had people come in one at a time for tryouts. I went in there, and refused to have myself look scared, and I told myself there is no reason to since I've sung in front of Swallow many times. I smiled, did my song and skit as best as I could even though I felt a bit ridiculous, and I was pretty confident about myself.

Later that day, Mom made me go shopping with her, and I started to feel sick. My head hurt and my whole body ached. I thought it was just because I was shopping, since I hate shopping and it tends to make me feel sick. I felt terrible, but I don't think my mom exactly believed me because I was complaining about shopping, and that usually isn't a good reason to be sick. I was excited when I got home, because I accidentally left my phone home, and when I checked my messages, my friend had left me a text saying "Congratulations, you made call backs." I flipped out. It wasn't because of the fact that I thought I would actually get a main part, but it was more because I was so happy that she would consider me for a part, and thought I did a good job, good enough that she would want me to have a lead part. It was exciting, since I never make anything and am terrible at everything I try.

The next day, I started to get ready for school in the morning and was starting to feel a little better, but by the time I was putting on make up I was dying. I could barely stand up and was putting on my make up as fast as I could in front of the mirror so I could quickly sit down. Finally, I gave in and decided to stay home from school. I pretty much just slept, or tried to. I woke up so many times, and I kept on having mini spaz attacks or something while sleeping which I think had to do with my dreams (my dreams were pretty fun though :D). I kept on freaking out and thinking that I was going to sleep too late and miss 7th period for call backs. Eventually, I woke up and then had Mom drive me to school. I went to 7th period, and Swallow just had everyone who had call backs sit in the front, and she gave us scripts and had us act out different sections for her in front of the class and after school too. I thought I did a good job, but not good enough to make a part. I think I would have been great for the part, but there were just people who worked better and could do it better than me. I was pretty much able to guess who would get which part.

The next day I went to school because I didn't know if they needed me in musical theater or not. It was miserable, I was freezing and aching and everyone told me I looked stoned. They didn't need me in musical theater after all, and they posted the cast list later after school. It only had the ten main characters, there are still tons of other smaller parts that I want to try out for. I'm actually glad I didn't get a main part because of lacrosse. There are so many other parts and I'm really excited.

Today, I went to lacrosse and was so happy because they changed our location from an old church parking lot to a nice field at an elementary school. We actually played a lot of lacrosse today instead of just practicing cradeling or catching, it was fun.

Now, I'm super excited for tomorrow, because it's the Special Needs dance for mutual!! It's an annual thing, and we get to dress up and go to a dance and dance with our wardies and special needs people and it's so awesome. It's a bit weird sometimes because some of the older special needs guys I dance with just grab my waist really tightly while we dance, so it's a little weird dancing, but it's still loads of fun and I love it. I will certainly post about that next time.

Goodnight everyone, you all make my dark days brighter.

Singing, Lacrosse, and the Devil's Park

I feel bad that I haven't posted in a while, but I've just been busy. Well, more like lazy and yelled at every time I get on the computer. Quite a bit has happened, and I'll try to keep it shortish...

A couple of weeks ago, I went to a solo and ensemble clinic. I talked about solo and ensemble in one of my posts from last February (in the second and fourth paragraphs. Disregard the other stuff about me being in love with Anthony Bailey, that is way over and I barely talk to him anymore, except we texted each other for like ten minutes yesterday but other than that I never talk or see him). Solo and ensemble is where you sing a solo or in an ensemble, it has to be an art song (like a folk song or something, no pop), and you sing it in front of judges and they give you a score from 1 to 5, 1+ being the best, and 5- being the worst. Last year, even though I thought I did terrible and I was so mad at myself, I got a 1- and almost made it to districts. I really want to make it to districts this year, and my dear cousin Amanda told me about her voice teacher, Chris, who does a clinic for it every year.

So, I had one private lesson, three group lessons, and a recital. A guy named Taylor Myers, who was in my EFY company, was there too, so it was pretty cool to see him again. During the lessons, we learned to sight sing, clap rhythms, sing the Layton High School song in a harmony (bleh, go Viewmont!), and practice singing our solos in front of each other. I sang Scarborough Fair. I couldn't find the exact version on youtube, but that one's still cool. I love that song! Amanda sang Danny Boy. It was great, and I really enjoyed singing it in the recital, I wasn't really nervous. It was fun. I hope I get to go to districts this year!

I'm on the Viewmont girls lacrosse team. We've been conditioning this past month (I was seriously limping when I walked, I was soooo sore!!), and now we get to finally use our lacrosse sticks. We have to wear goggles and a mouth guard too which is very flattering. The mouth guard scared me because you have to put it in boiling water and then stick it in your mouth and let it mold in your mouth, and it burned. They are quite disgusting, I hate using them because then it's covered in spit and I don't want it in my mouth. I'm excited to start really training with sticks and getting better and I can't wait for the games to start in March!

I'm in musical theater at my school. Tryouts were last April, and it's 7th period during second semester. We're doing Bye Bye Birdie which I'm super excited for!! I want to either be Kim or Ursula (Kim's hyper best friend). I was worried because Swallow hasn't seen my hyper side. She just thinks I'm some quiet girl who likes to sing, so I'm determined to show her the real me during tryouts! Even if I don't get a main part I'll be happy, it's not like I expect to anyway. I can't wait to get started! Tryouts are next week, the dance tryouts are on Monday, and the actual part tryouts are on Wednesday or Thursday. I'm still not sure how it will work out with lacrosse, but I'm confident I'll find a way.

I'm probably going to work at Lagoon again this summer :( I hated working there, but I need a job and chances are, I'm not going to get another job with this economy. My friend gave me the ride department's number, so I'm going to try and get a job in that department, but if I can't then I'll just do games.... This is going to be another AMAZING summer...

Well, that's my month. Oh, well I forgot to mention that my dear mother turned 37 last week. Yay!! I like telling my friends that because a lot of their moms are in their 40's. Goodbye everyone, wish me luck with try-outs and solo and ensemble!

Amazingness

My older sister, Ashley, is the most amazing driver ever!!

The End


(she told me to post that)

Lacrosse

tOkay here comes my first post of 2010!

As some of you may or may not know, I've decided to do lacrosse. Viewmont High school (I'm going there next year) didn't have a girls lacrosse team. So, a girl in my grade named Addie thought that this was very unfortunate since she played lacrosse last year and like it. Therefore, she talked to her dad and they decided to start the team. Her dad is the Viewmont hockey coach. I had my first meeting back in November where everyone who wanted to be on the team and their parents came. I was really excited and couldn't wait to start. Mom is also now the treasurer of the team, since she's a master at counting.

Last Saturday, Mom and I went to a place called Tribal West Lacrosse in Sandy to get my stuff. We had tried some closer places, but they didn't have a good selection and I had been to this place last month with the team to pick out uniforms. So we went there, and I love that place. Everyone is so nice and actually knows what they're doing instead of some sports store where there's just a little corner with only three different sticks. When we got there, a nice lady working there (who I think might be named Nicole...) took me to a place towards the back where you can try out sticks and practice throwing and catching. I tried out a few different sticks and found one that I really liked using. She gave me some tips and showed me how to cradle which was really nice. I got a blue stick and four orange balls. I wanted to get glow in the dark balls, but another lady there said that when her daughter would practice at night with other girls, they would always get hit in the head because the ball would just flash through the air so they banned it. I got red and white polka dot spandex, a water bottle, two mouth guards, and goggles. After that, we went to Target and got me soccer cleats (Nicole said they worked just as well as lacrosse ones), hair and hygiene stuff, and some work out clothes. I also got a backpack to put everything in.

When we got home, we put the mouth guard in boiling water. We're supposed to put the mouth guard in there for thirty seconds then put it right in my mouth and let it harden around my teeth. I was freaking out, because putting something that was just barely in boiling water in your mouth went against my beliefs concerning not hurting yourself. The stupid instructions said it shouldn't be hot. Liars, it hurt, but I kept it in. The first one didn't work out very well, but the next one worked well and now I have a nice mouth guard that makes it hard to breathe through my mouth, makes my mouth bulge, and makes me want to gag. It's so gross, I don't like it and I can't talk. My Dad and sisters had fun throwing the balls at me while I caught it with my stick, it was fun.

The first day of conditioning was last Monday. We aren't allowed to practice with sticks as a team until February, so now we're just conditioning. I don't know what I thought when I thought of conditioning, but I seemed to forget the part about conditioning hurting. When I got there, Addie's dad was there and he made us run a mile and a half. We then went to this open area above the ice skating rink and met our coach, Sam. She's 21 and played and coached at Alta High school. They then had us do lunges, jump things, stay in push-up position for a while, and run up and down the bleachers over and over. We had to do wall sit and pass a heavy ball to all of the girls down the wall and back up five times which killed, and then we did some stomach stuff. I was dead. When I got home I was so exhausted. I told myself that I didn't necessarily enjoy the first day just because it was the first and all first days suck.

The next day, I was so sore. I couldn't walk right and it hurt really bad every time I sat down, stood up, or went up or down stairs. Despite that, I went back to conditioning after school again. Tuesday was much more fun and I really enjoyed it, even though we worked just as hard. Sam's really cool and a good coach. One exercise we did, we had to do different stuff depending on the number she called out. Number two, we just had to squat down, but that was the worst part. She was laughing at us because when she had us squat all of us groaned really loud because we were so sore. We had to run up and down the bleacher stairs all the way to one end of the bleachers and back five times and lot of other fun stuff. When I got home that night I hurt so bad, worse than all day, but I was glad because I am getting stronger.

Wednesday, I was mega sore. I could not walk without limping, and if I sat down for too long, then I would have a harder time walking when I got up. The other girls doing lacrosse that I talked to were just as sore. I'm sure some of the students probably thought I was faking limping, but I really couldn't walk right, it hurt so bad just to walk, and I hated sitting down. I drove to piano and then after that I drove on the highway to Walmart. After sitting down for so long, I had serious issues in Walmart. My mom and little sisters were walking fast and I couldn't catch up so I had to try to do a jog and I looked ridiculous, and every time I tried to walk normally I couldn't do it.

Since we're talking about Wednesday, I'll just let you guys know that I went to mutual where we played Pictionary and Balderdash. I did a hitch kick after drawing a pictures of a shoe kicking a ball, and my pants ripped. It was a huge rip in the worst spot possible. After sitting down and thinking for about ten seconds, and I ran into the hall and took off my jacket and wrapped it around my waist so it hung down in front and looked like I was wearing an apron. No one saw it happen except for Sariah, Alyssa Quinton, and maybe Ethan, but I think most everyone figured it out by the end. I really don't know what he saw, and I'm worried. Instead of being embarrassed though, I thought it was hilarious. That and a couple of other things that happened which I won't type made that a mutual I will not easily forget, it was so funny!

I ran a mile and a half on the treadmill and I am still sore today, but you could barely tell I wasn't walking right, and by the end of the day I think I walked normally again! Yay! I can't wait to condition again and I'm so excited to start playing and being really strong again! I haven't been this excited about anything in a while. Aaaahhhh I can't wait!!!!!


Kk now that that's out of the way, I have a predicament. I want to get my hair cut. I don't like long hair very much, and if I had straight hair I would probably have it be really short. I want to get my hair cut, my hair is boring me again and I'm sick of always having the same old look. I want to get it cut like I had it in 7th grade, I loved it. It was shorter and cute. I want to know what you guys think I should do with my hair. I'm going to put up a poll thing with some ideas I've had, and if you have any other ideas for my hair just comment or send me an email or something to let me know. The first picture below is from 7th grade, and the second is from a couple months ago.

Christmas

Christmas was simply delightful this year. I handed out root beer and chocolate kisses to my friends with the note "Have a merry kissmas and happy root beer." I'll admit I stole that from Aunt Marjorie, she did that many years back but I still remember that and thinking of how clever she was. In return, I got some friends gifts too.

Twelve days before Christmas, someone left a small wooden stable on our front porch and a snow globe. We were all very excited about this, but were wondering about the empty stable with no nativity characters in it. The next day, we got a goat I think, and then a bunch of hot chocolate mixes. Each day, we've gotten another piece to the nativity and another present for the family. It's been really fun to see what we get each day and I'm really grateful someone did this for us.

Two days before Christmas, I went over to my cousin Amanda's house. They had just come back from Canada, and Amanda and I haven't hung out in a while which made us feel sad. I went Christmas shopping with her and we played the piano together (that's one of the wonderful things about Amanda, we can play the piano for entertainment and take turns which I can't do with my other friends because they get bored). Hannah came over a couple hours later to hang out with Chelsie, and we both slept over at their house.

The next day, we went home and were instantly put to work. When people think of holidays, they think of fun and relaxation. I think of cleaning. I'm used to it though so I didn't mind the work. After I was done cleaning, I started trying to work more on my mom's present.

I got Mom an amazing present this year. She specifically told me not to get her a snuggie, so I just ignored that wish anyway. However, I didn't get her just a regular snuggie. I went online and found instructions on how to make your own snugglet. Therefore, a couple of weeks ago Dad and I went shopping and bought fabric and some special (expensive!!) fabric paper that you can put in your printer so I could sew on pictures of the family. I made the snuggie a couple of nights before, but I still had to print and sew on the pictures. I was freaking out when I was printing the pictures because I didn't want to mess up and the special paper was too expensive to waste. I got them printed and cut out though, but then I was freaking out because we had to leave for Aunt Marjorie's house for our annual (except for last year) Christmas Eve get-together. I brought the snuggie, pictures, and sewing machine with me and tried desperately to get it done, but sewing on the images was really hard with so much fabric everywhere and the pins keeping the pictures on kept on falling off. I managed to get a couple of pictures sewn on before going upstairs for our program and I just pinned the rest on carefully. Uncle William and Uncle John and their families were there along with Marjorie's and mine (obviously).

Upstairs, everyone was singing Christmas songs which was a little strange at first but then I just joined in. We then started our talent show. Emma Jo went first and she sang a song for us. Emily and Matthew, my little cousins who are like 4 and 2 I think, got up and sang and danced for us which was adorable. Hannah played the violin and everyone was impressed how good she sounded after starting to play last September. Amanda and Chelsie played the piano and Jordan, Uncle John, Mackenzie, and Skyler all sang or acted out the Best Song in the World. Ashley and I decided to do a skit, in Chinese. It was pretty simple (btw this is writting in pin yin):
Ashley: ni hao (hello)
Celeste: ni hao ma? (how are you)
Ashley: wo hen hao, xie xie. (I'm pretty good, thank you)
Celeste: wo shi si lin. ni jiao shen me? (I am Si Lin. What is your name?)
Ashley: wo shi (I am whatever her Chinese name is here)
Celeste: wo shi xing huan he niu nai, guo zhi, shui, cha, ke le, he ka fe. Aye aye! ni shi zhonggou ren ma? (I like to drink milk, fruit juice, water, tea, coke, and cofee. Aye aye! You are Chinese?)
Ashley: bu shi, wo shi mei guo ren. (no, I am American)
Celeste: wo shi ye mei guo ren. Ta shi wo ma ma (I am also American. I point to my mom saying "This is my mom")
Ashley: bu shi, ta shi wo ma ma (no, this is my mom)
Celeste: bu shi, ta shi wo ma ma
Ashley: bu shi
etc, etc....
Ashley: *gasp* mei mei? (little sister?)
Celeste: *gasp* jie jie? (older sister?)
Then we both hugged and then I said in French: merci, je t'adore ma soeur. Which then confuses everyone. It was great, everyone seemed to like it.

I then presented the unfinished snuggie to Mom and told her that she has to wear it since I made it and it has pictures of us on there or I will be upset. The technique was the guilt her into wearing it.

Aunt Marjorie then brought out some gifts that Grandma and Grandpa Stevens sent us from Mongolia. Each of the younger girls got a Mongolian boy and girl doll. Each of us got a Mongolian CTR ring, and it says "3C" on it. Us older girls got a cute Mongolian purse, the men/boys got ties, and the women got some fabric thing. It was really cool, we then passed out our cousin gifts. It was William's family's turn to give my family a present this year, so we got candy bars, Harry Potter 4 and 5 ps2 games, popcorn, and a giftcard to McDonald's. Needless to say, he is still my favorite uncle on my mom's side (I had a thing when I was little for rating my uncles, and he was always number one). Amanda got me smarties from Canada (which are actually like m&ms) and these really awesome giraffe earrings I saw her looking at yesterday. They are awesome! My pajamas are really cute, and coincidentally ended up matching Amanda's except they were different colors. The adults all then had to take pictures of us in our pajamas.

I really love my family. My dad was talking while me, Ashley, William and Wendy Rae, and someone else were in the room and then he said "Well, Santa isn't real." All of us gasped at the same time. Someone said "shun the non-believer!" and then at the same time, William and me said "Shun!" just like in Charlie the Unicorn. Oh man it was funny, I love my family. Just stupid moments like that can make my day.

When we got home, we went in the living room and just kinda hung out and watched Sylvester play with a game piece I kept throwing around. Ashley and I spent some time in the kitchen dancing to the Christmas music. Soon, they took pictures of us and we set out chocolate milk and cookies. Emma tried to bring out nine big carrots, one for each reindeer. Mom and Dad convinced her to leave just one out and that we'll leave a note telling Santa that his reindeer can get more out of the fridge if they want to. I went to sleep very easily that night for the first time in my life on Christmas Eve. Hannah told me later that she couldn't sleep. I'm so glad those days are over.

When morning came, I had a premonition while I was sleeping that something was going to happen. Sure enough, a couple of seconds later, Ashley and Hannah came in and scared me awake. We then went to wake up Emma. I thought it was funny that Ashley, the oldest and 17 years old, was the first awake and woke everyone else up. Last year, both me and Ashley were the first ones awake. At exactly 7 am, we woke our parents up. They said to give them 5 minutes so we went into the kitchen to make some hot chocolate and then stared at the Christmas tree and presents in all its glory. Soon, our parents came and we opened stockings first then started opening presents. We open them oldest to youngest, one at a time because it's fun to see what everyone got and how they react. Ashley got mainly clothes, of course. I got a back massager, a skateboard, two how-to-draw books, a small sketchbook, two very amazing books, jewelry, a jewelry box, skinny jeans, three shirts, and a sweatshirt with Eeyore on it. Ashley and I were both jealous when Hannah got a backwards snuggie (bathrobe). All of us but Emma got the Sims 3. I haven't played it yet. Emma got mainly barbies and littlest pet shops and polly pockets.

The rest of the day was really good. Everyone was super tired and took a small nap at one time or another. I finished making Mom's snuggie later. And, a hundred pin pricks and minutes later, it was done. I was very proud, and also made a vow never to make a snuggie again, or at least ones with pictures on it. Dinner was very delicious, and afterwards everyone in our family helped clean and it was fun because we were working but talking and laughing at the same time. It was a good day.

The next day, I started reading The Hunger Games. It is so amazing!! I stayed up until 5 am reading it, the whole time I had my back massager thing going. It pretty much just vibrates but I love it. On Sunday, I read the second Hunger Games book and stayed up until 2 am reading it. Now whenever I start to move or walk, my body like buzzes because of the back massager I think, it's really weird. You guys should all read the Hunger Games because you will stay glued to it until you finish, I can't even describe how amazing it is. The thing that's killing me now is that the third and final book doesn't come out until August, and the ending of the second book was so crazy that I'm just dying inside because I can't read it again for another 8 months.

Anyway, that was my awesome Christmas, I loved it! Thanks Mom, Santa, family, and friends!

I Just Want To Be Me

I wish I could just be me and not care about other people. I am constantly wishing I could be other people which isn't good at all. I can't seem to just be myself and have my own opinions or way of doing things, I always try to follow people instead of just stopping and asking myself if that's really what I want to be like.

For a long time now I've wanted to be like my friend Heather Lieber. She is so beautiful, is good at dancing and track, has amazing friends that she hangs out with all the time, she's an amazing singer, she has an older brother, and she's super nice and caring. I find I always compare myself to her subconsciously. Every Friday night, while I'm at home listening to a book and playing solitaire on my iPod for three hours straight or playing a million songs on the piano because I have nothing better to do, I always think about how she's probably having a sleep over at her friends and having a really good time and being a normal teenager.

I used to want to be like Megan Anderson because she's gorgeous and has just one little brother. All of the boys like her and she is always hanging out with her friends and having fun. She's really good at dancing and she's always so happy and smiley.

There are tons of other people I could list, like this one girl whose blog I just read about how much fun she had last Friday night and saying how they don't do normal teenage stuff on Friday nights. Her having fun and doing weird stuff with her friends is more normal than I can be. The only time I hang out with people is when I do night games with the other people my age in my ward before going back home and blocking everything out with my iPod.

I can't even have my own opinions. If my older sister Ashley tells me she likes something, then I like it too. If she doesn't, then I hate it. My little sister said she hated Owl City's music, so I asked Ashley if she likes it. She said yes, therefore I like Owl City just because I want to be like Ashley and I'm just used to adopting any opinions she has.

I wish I could just stop caring and not try to act like the other kids at school, because I don't like most of the kids at my school any way. I just want to be a normal teenager who hangs out with friends all the times and doesn't care what other people think because we're just having fun. When everyone thinks of Christmas break, they think of hanging out with friends. I think of sleeping, iPod time, piano time, and staying at home all day. Hanging out doesn't even cross my mind because I don't hang out with people very much any more.

I wish I could just be me and not care what other people think and not worry about feeling like a loser because everyone is talking about how they hung out with their big group of friends every day while I hid in my bedroom and listened to piano music on my iPod or a book.

The main reason I wanted a job at Lagoon was so that I could buy an iPod. Now that I have it, I don't care about the other $600 my Mom owes me. I got a 120 GB iPod so that I could stick a million movies, books, youtube videos, and songs on there. It helps me just relax and not care. Whenever I have to do chores I listen to it, if I had a bad day, I crawl into my bed and watch people playing the piano on it from youtube or listen to Disney songs or a book and play solitaire for the hundredth time. It's like a mind number and I'm addicted.

I wish that I didn't care that I did that, that I could just listen to my iPod and not care about what everyone else was doing, that I wasn't subconsciously comparing myself to them. I wish I could just be me and be happy like that.

English Papers

This past week in English, everyone had to type four stories about their childhood. I was very excited when I heard about this because I think I had a really fun childhood and I constantly wish I can back. We could choose four things to talk about. Mine were romance, childhood fun, first emotion I remember, and what I want to be remembered by when I die (which isn't exactly childhood).

My stories were different than the others because I didn't have specific stories, I just talked about what I did throughout the years or a couple of stories.

We got to listen to some of the stories during class. Some of them really made us shudder like ones about how a little kid pooed while going down the slide and so my friend had to clean it up (very descriptive), someone else was running to jump into a lake but got their foot caught on a nail which tore at her foot, someone else got a bunch of splinters in their feet, and then really cute ones about true love.

Today my friends told me to read my "True Romance" one which I didn't want to do. Sure it was my favorite, but it was my longest and I didn't want to bore everyone. My friend also suggested that I do the one about my toilet phobia, but I didn't want everyone thinking I was a freak before second semester. I finally decided to read the romance one. I read it as fast as I could. Everyone seemed to really like it, and I couldn't help but smile in amusement as I read about how I fell in love with another boy and then another. Afterwards, everyone was asking me what school I went to because I don't think the elementary schools here in Davis County had a lot of girls and boys falling in love and kissing before the age of ten. Bacchus wasn't the best school and there were certainly some bad kids there with all of the graffiti everywhere, fourth graders wearing all black and eyeliner, and second graders already cussing at everyone. However, I loved that school, it was so fun and much better than the schools here because it was more down to Earth.

Anyway, these next four posts below are my stories I wrote, and you can read them if you want. I had tons of fun doing these. True Romance, Toilet Phobia, Childhood Fun with Ashley, and What I want to do in my life and what I want my kids to remember me by.

Enjoy.