Sing Me To Heaven: What do 3 act plays and 3 pan frostings and triple threats have in common?

So its been a REALLY eventful two weeks- well pretty much just last week- but thats alright. This week was fun and relaxing. And- luckily (sort of) for you my blog readers, limited though you may be- most of it has been video and camera documented, mostly because of my new and utterly amazing ipod, which takes pictures :D

Lets start with sunday before last.

You know- in Arizona, we talked a lot about triple threats, defined as someone who sings, dances and acts, usually with some musical theater background. No one has called me that this last week. Which is somewhat dissapointing- here's why.

Last sunday; started the day absolutely FLIPPING OUT about the upcoming audition into the BYUI program. My voice lessons hadn't been going quite like I wanted them to- less singing, more breaking down. My teacher is a saint- I don't know how it is with instruments, but voice is such a personal thing- they aren't insulting how you are handling your five pounds of wood, or twenty pounds of metal- they are telling you whats wrong with you. So as a teacher, you have to be kind of a therapist. Apparently, I am not the only one who breaks down to their vocal coach. But you know- I tried to calm my thoughts, using religion, using logic, using family, friends- nothing worked until I picked up my book, Eat Pray Love. (I recommend it. A lot.) She has this moment where she talks about “ the harbor of her thoughts”. She talked about having very strict rules- no self abusing thoughts, no criticism, no cruelty, no wishing to be someone else. I loved it, it was very easy to call up that image and try to expel panic-y thoughts. Went and did a nonmajor recital. I felt GREAT about it. Like really good- and calm! Definitely a new experience. And I got to wear my pretty new orange shoes- it helped. Observe video. (3 steps from being very angry at computer- because it won't upload my video......).

.....I guess never mind about the video. Maybe facebook will be nicer. Boo.

Monday morning- wake up, go to yoga, shower, get pretty-put the orange shoes back on- and drove up to BYUI- oh my gosh that drive takes forever. Listened to broadway and stand up to not be nervous. The 3 hour drive up payed back in a MAYBE 20 minute long audition/discussion with the head of music up at Rexburg. Singing wasn't half bad- it wasn't musical theater, but I did as best as I know, and have been trained to do. Then he scrutinized my transcript for a few minutes- talked about how my grades weren't perfect- because I had a couple of Cs. Lame. Makes me wish I would have spent a few more minutes on my classes. Here this now younger college kids. Also- never transfer. It sucks. But! On the upside, he said he liked my voice, heard a lot of potential in it. Vocally, I got in! Unfortunately, a week later when I called about administration and admission- BYUI won't admit you if you have more than 120 credits. Actually I wasn't too heart broken. I really, really wanted to go to school with my ginger siblings, but I wasn't too attached to that ideas. In a stroke of brilliance, I remembered if I went to BYU Hawaii- I wouldn't have to freeze from october to May anymore- no such luck. They cap at NINETY credits. Ri-flipping-diculous.

Thursday - I was in a scene for one of my very best fellow theater students. For a directing class, she had to do a piece of Dinner with Friends. She had already done one scene with me in it, and now for the second half had to do the another one. Working with Julienne made me kind of nervous- even though I got a theater associates at EAC- there is so much technique to it that they didn't teach us their. (HEY! Kind of like music- oh EAC- so much amazing experience- almost no technical training- except in dance. Rachel- if you ever read this- you rock my world, and are my hero). But Julienne had hard questions- “Has your character thought of this?” “Are you accusing her here or just admitting it?” “ Are you realizing this now, or have you known this for years?” Stuff that I'd never thought of. But it went pretty well- a couple forgotten lines, a 'dropped' wine glass that wound up broken but we still hit our moments. We made a few good pictures, and had some really strong emotions, it was pretty awesome. Then someone did a scene from Street Car Named Desire- that is my dream role. And I have 50 million ideas about how I would do it. So, don't ask me my opinion about other performances, other than Vivienne leigh and Marlon Brando. Holy amazing.

Weekend-

Ballroom show. A few weeks ago, one of my fabulous fellow dancing students came to me, knowing my extreme interest in team, and said “Hey- we need one more girl for our west coast number- just show up tomorrow morning”. Wham, bam- I am up and dancing every tuesday and thursday morning at 7:30! Days before BYUI audition, I tried out for team next year, and then did the show weekend after that. Kind of stressful- oh my gosh I have never seen so much makeup and hair gel and false eyelashes! Jeez- it was like a pageant with more rhinestones and tassles! But it was fun to watch the other dances and hang out with the friends I have made on team. It went pretty well on both nights- goodness knows that I made my partner practice it with me over. And over. And over. And over again. “Can we do the whips?” “The part with the slide” “The country western part” “The lift” “The whips again?” But it went well- went home and scraped and scrubbed all of my makeup off, slept heavy.

Tuesday morning- check my email before going to give my costume back and I saw this-

Dear Student,

Congratulations, we would like you to be part of the USU Ballroom Dance Company. We have a spot reserved for you on the Performance Team. Please continue to check emails for more information about team.

Regards,

(My new coach)

And I went- WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! My poor room mates. It was 7:30 in the morning. But seriously?! Seriously?! Oh my gosh- at EAC- I gave Rachel fits! I was awful! I couldn't pop my hip to the right side!!! And now I am one of ten on the performance team!!!!! WOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Realistically, we will get more in the fall. But still! Not only am I awesome! I am MORE awesome than the other 50 people who didn't make it! Oh narcissistic. Scratch that last.

So this week has been very relaxing- I got onto ballroom team. Good therapy session. I talked a lot to her about our religion- it must be hard to treat people in Utah with out knowing the culture and the religion. I talked to her about the analogy of the 3 act play- the pre-mortal life, and life after this etc. I talked about it in reference to all the things that frustrate me- that frustrate everyone. I get angry at Heavenly Father- for not just, listening and following my plan!!!! It is perfect- I have worked on it so hard! Every tiny little detail. Some times- I want to be like my roommate- she just has so much faith and trust in God- such a great relationship with him. I wish I did. AJ laughed and said- I think God is a good parent- he is used to people being angry at him . Think of parents of toddlers- No you can't eat ice cream for dinner. No you can't go play with your friends in the dark scary playground. No you can't put your hand on the stove to see if I'm lying when I tell you it will hurt you. And toddler/ Sarah acting like a toddler responds- But WHYYYYYYYYY!??????????!!!!!!!! I, HAAAAAATE YOU! But he knows that this is good for you. And he loves you, so he is willing to be the bad guy. Like Andy said. And about the three act play she said- you know- I know you respect and admire these girls who are so faithful and doubtless- but their plays are boring. Your play? Has conflict! Has a main character who knows and is learning more about herself! Who is determined, and presses on through adversity- I would come see your play. She's kind of stellar.

But finally- I had been craving oranges- or just, maybe citrusy things in general. Or maybe it was that once upon a time, I saw “Meet Joe Black” and there was this AMAZING looking orange cake- and I really wanted to recreate it.

Doesn't that look delicious?! So my cake and my cupcakes look NOTHING like this.

I got the idea from allrecipes; here. It had you pour jello liquid into the cake- interesting. Got flavor in it- but made the texture weird. And then did this for the frosting. Ok- can I tell you my new found respect for all the candy makers of the world!!!! Sugar, water and corn syrup can wreck a pan so quickly. The whole thing got syrupy pretty quick. First pan- went upstairs, and when I came back down- solid. Like, laffy taffy, was going NO-WHERE kind of solid. Ok. Just water sugar and a tablespoon of syrup. So whipped egg whites first- then did syrup thing. Went to fridge to get egg whites out- turn back- its solid again! Different kind of solid- like more of a powdery solid. Still had to chip it out- but it was possible! So I was like- ok. One last time. This time, I put it in the egg whites WHILE it was basically boiling. Made it a bit more liquidy than I would like-

I will conquer the idea of this frosting! Cause the flavor was good! And it was so cheap to make! So frosting= on going process- orange cake- need a new recipe. Alright! Thanks for reading, over and out til next time!