It's kind of funny how you put off blogging, and then there's just monumentally (or so it seems) too much to catch up on!
Well, here's a small update.
For those of you who don't know, which is probably no one who reads this blog, Kurt Russell Anderson proposed a proposal of marriage to me on March 31st! Just a few details...we were sitting on top of the van...yes, the van. It was perfect.
We're getting married July 2nd in the Mt. Timpanogos Temple, which is roughly forty-six days...but who's counting? Since we both love the 4th of July, we want our wedding to be a lovely, vintage-y, casual, picnic-y, American-y affair...with nautical touches and a healthy helping of Spectre from Big Fish. Oh gosh, if it turns out like we're thinking, it's going to be so fun. Fun is the goal!
We have rented a beautiful apartment in Provo, south of BYU campus. It's amazing. It's beautiful. It's so. much. fun. (Pictures to come) We're painting right now, and imagining what we would do if we had money for any kind of furniture. The place is unfurnished, and right now what we have is a cute little table from DI. and a twin mattress on the floor of the bedroom for Kurt who has ended his homeless year and is intensely grateful for the shower, the kitchen, and the shelter. It's pretty nice to have a husband who has been homeless for a year, he's easily pleased.
We're both doing school this semester. I'm taking a couple of General education classes so that I'll be able to graduate next April. I thought I'd be all tough, and awesome, and blast myself with stress so that I could get it all out of the way...but oh. man. Taking American Heritage, and Family Finance, being in a play Anne Frank, trying to train for a new job (Wilkenson Center Jamba Juice, come visit!) and planning a wedding...I feel a little overwhelmed. Especially with these classes. Taking 2 classes that can be considered moderately difficult during the regular semester is one thing, squeezing all of that info into seven weeks is madness for my poor, sieve-like brain. I'm glad they'll be over quickly, but I may just barely survive.
I am counting the days. Lit'rally. I have this little page of squares in my notebook that I fill in every day, ticking off the days and weeks until the play and school will be over, and until I can get hitched! Phew. It can't come soon enough.
I have a few enticements and rewards for myself waiting at the end of the semester! I'm going to buy myself a big bag of chocolate-covered cinnamon bears, Kurt, being the amazingly wonderful man he is, got us tickets to see Ray LaMontagne and Brandi Carlile in June, bridal showers and family fun...oh, and a little thing called Eternal Marriage to The Most Wonderful Man on the Earth. Ugh. Can't wait.
ok, so the new thing is daily fashion blogs. There are a lot of cute mormon ones, and here's a plug for my gorgeous and enviably fashionable friend Rebecca Hammond. Goodness gracious, she's amazing.Anyways, so in my internet travels through these blogs, there are a bunch of wonderful trends that I am totally loving right now, the topknot hairstyle being one. (I am starting to wear the topknot alllll the time. I have enough hair for it! Let the rejoicings rejoice! It took a minute to get used to, and a minute to convince myself I didn't look like Miss Stacy. But I love it hard now.)
Anyways, in my Dialects class (Yes, DIALECTS! You get to learn and speak in accents without being obnoxious or pretentious! Best thing EVER.)
Anyways, our teacher always shows us movie clips when we're starting a new dialect. Last week we started French, and we were watching a clip of the delightful "Father Goose" with the wonderful Cary Grant and the gorgeous Leslie Caron.
I wish I could find this clip for you because it is hilarious, and she gets drunk and he's charming as always, but I noticed that the exquisite Leslie Caron's outfit and hairstyle are basically the height of fashion right now.
Just look. Look!
I love it! And it just goes to show you that fashion is timeless!
Ok, I totally have a a girl crush on Mindy Kaling (Kelly Kapoor from The Office) all due to her Twitter. Girl is hilarious.
And I get a lot of music suggestions from her Tweets.
This song is one of them. I'm not a super R&B lover, but for some reason, this song is totally addictive to me. I cannot stop listening to it.
Plus I'm a total sucker for videos that do a through-the-ages thing.
Oh the clothes of yesteryears
How gorgeous is she? Holy crap.
(Don't you love the TLC homage at the end? Oh the silky pajamas)
And the song is hilariously conceited, but honestly, don't you think the women of today need a little self-confidence? I know I do. I'm sick of self deprecation, and comparisons and beating myself up. Probably you are too.
We should all just do the Pretty-Girl Rock.
(My favorite lines include: "Boys wanna marry lookin' at my derri--ere, you can stare but if you touch it Im'ma bury! Pretty as a pitcha, sweeter than a swisha, mad 'cause I'm cuter than the girl that's witcha")
So, I have this little problem. I like to call it "Sleep Rage."
You know how at the end of the movie "Hook," Tinkerbell whispers to Peter Pan "You know that place between sleep and awake? That place where you still remember dreaming? That's where I'll always love you, Peter Pan."
Well, Tink, that place is sometimes where I feel like killing people.
When I'm asleep and something, or someone wakes me up, there is a period of time, before I am fully conscious, mind you, where I am completely and justifiably (to myself) homicidal towards that something or someone.
I've thought of killing, or at least injuring some of my very best friends because they've talked loudly, made noise or done something to wake me from my slumber.
This is probably a bad thing. Now, take all this with a grain of salt. I never really have thought of killing anyone. I just really really really really really really really really really really really really really really reallyreallyreally want them to get out of the world.
That's all.
And then I become just a liiiitle more conscious, and I realize...that I'm still irritated, but less homicidal.
Then I become just a liiiiitle more conscious than that, and then I realize that I'm awake and there's nothing I can do about it, and oh well.
And then, and only then, sometimes, does the Sleep Rage end.
Photo found on Hyperbole and a Half.
P.S. I realize how fully crazy this post makes me sound. I guess I am. Sorry bout it.
Yes yes, the plight of all college students. It's a very common story. They get to that point where they realize that college doesn't last forever, graduation is rapidly approaching, and they still have no idea what they want to do.
I'm in the Acting Program at BYU. It took me 2 years to get in. Two years of stress and playing the Game, and doing everything I could just to make it in.
I'm in.
I'm in...now what?
I have no idea. During a recent theater trip to LA, we were able to do a Q&A with a large group of actors who were friends and colleagues of my teachers. They described the process and the way that an actor "makes it" in LA.
It's not for me. It's just not for me.
And it got me thinking...what is for me? What do I want to do? What do I do with this mostly practically useless degree and incredibly impractical career choice of mine?
Then, while listening to the Pocahontas soundtrack the other morning, I had a small ephiphany about the kind of person I am. And I realized I'm not really the leading lady type. (not in theatre, but in Life. Capital L for dramatic effect.)
Get ready for this one guys, this is embarrassing.
Because, really, if my life was Pocahontas, I would be Nakoma. The friend. The placid, complacent, platitudinous, prosaic best friend. The one who doesn't like to make waves, or even ripples, really. I don't dive off of waterfalls, or have animal friends, or talk to trees. I don't risk it all to be different or to go against the grain. I'm not ambitious. I don't have any grand schemes, or plans. I don't feel any burning need to change the world, or change the way things work. Sometimes being Nakoma makes me not very fun, sometimes it makes me afraid to take risks, sometimes it makes me miss opportunities.
Look at that face. The disapproval. Yikes.
The question is: Shouldn't I be the leading lady of my own life?
Can't be I be Pocahontas, canoeing bravely around river bends, singing with those mountain voices, defying the conventions, changing the world, having a hot bod and ridiculous hair and a sweet tattoo? I mean, look at this woman!
Stop it Pocahontas, you're fabulous. No, really, stop.
I don't know exactly what conclusion I've come to about this discovery. Right now I'm halfway between understanding that this is the way I am, and being this way isn't necessarily a bad thing, and being at peace with my Nakoma-ness; and knowing that I've got to start making some fundamental changes in myself in order to better serve my life and future.
But mostly...I just feel like this:
So basically, I have no answer. This was pretty stream of consciousness. (Conscious? I was never taught grammar properly.) I guess that this is just life, finding out where you fit in; which character molds you fit into, which you combine, which you stretch, and which you break. I also guess that life is blindly stumbling along, trying your best to have faith even though you're terrified....cause that's what I'm doing. Yikes.
Now, watch this video. This song is ridiculously wonderful. It'll make you feel good.
Moral of the story: Pocahontas is my favorite Disney movie.
And I'm lame for making this extended of a metaphor about myself from animated Disney characters.