What's your hobby? An ode to prop making.

(Bloggers Note: I don't often take time to blog. My school has a staff newsletter and I'm hoping to be featured in the hobby section. Let's see what happens.)

Ever since I was a young child, I never thought that I had a talent. I watched the gorgeous singers, the dancers, the artists all show off. I tried a lot of different things, but nothing ever stuck. It wasn’t until high school that I found something that I was passionate about.

I always had a hard time speaking to strangers, or getting in front of a crowd. In junior high I signed up for public speaking, but that class got cancelled. In High School I decided to try drama. I did half a semester and decided it may not be the thing for me. I decided to try it again as a junior, and got hooked. My drama teacher was the first teacher that truly believed in my ability to succeed.

After high school I started doing shows at the Empress Theatre in Magna. It felt like nothing that I ever could have imagined. It felt like a home away from home where I could be accepted with my “uniqueness.” In 2016 I stage managed a show. While doing so I crafted the props for it. After the show, the artistic director asked if I wanted to stay on as the theatre’s prop master. I had a lot of fun, and enthusiastically took the position. I’ve been their prop master ever since.

Judy and Punch Puppets from The Fantasticks)

Candlestick Phone from Crazy for You

Doing props has become a real passion of mine. I love crafting and problem solving how to create items to be believable onstage. It is fun to look at an object, see the shapes, and find other items that could be put together to create that masterpiece. I am now known among the theatre community in the valley. I have other theatre’s contacting me, asking for help to create unique props for their shows.

Triton's Trident from The Little Mermaid

Ursula's Scroll from The Little Mermaid

I’ve learned with talents and hobbies that it doesn’t matter that you are good at something or not. It matters if you have fun doing it and it gives you the desire to keep doing it.

Bust made for The Music Man

Bomb made for Peter Pan

Cuckoo Clock made for Crazy for You

Dummy originally made for Urinetown, but used in Disaster! and Catch Me If You Can

God's Hand for Spamalot. Super proud of this one. First time I had ever used chicken wire. I did the math and made the measurements off of my own hand. We are all made in God's own image, right?

Falling Chandelier made specially for being able to safely fall on top of an actress for Disaster!

Woven band map of the city made for Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Liebster Award

I haven’t blogged in awhile, but I have a good friend that keeps giving me reasons to be motivated to do so.  I was nominated by my good friend Foxy for a Liebster Award! This is the first time I have heard of it, so I am going to try it.

The Fun Rules:

• The nominee must link back to the blogger who nominated them.
• The nominee must state 11 facts about themselves, and then answer the 11 questions provided for them by the person who nominated them.
• The nominee must then nominate bloggers with less than 200 followers, who they think deserve the recognition, and pose 11 new questions for them to answer.

Random facts about me:

1. I broke my pinkie toe back in Junior High, and it has never healed.  I now have a double jointed toe.
2. I will be graduating from the University of Utah in spring of 2014 with my bachelors in Human Development and Family Studies with a minor in Disability Studies.
3. I know a good amount of Pop Culture, because of the improv team I’m on, but know the most about things that interest children.
4. When I was four I broke my arm, leg, and got four sets of stitches in the same year.  The next year I got glasses.
5.  I am a part of three "groups" that I found outside of high school. (Utah Streetpass, Rocky Mountain Muggles, Jesters Royale)
6. I hate clowns because of the movie Dumbo... Pink Elephants on parade creeped me out and gave me nightmares)
7. I LOVE cheese. No joking. Ask Scooter, whenever I'm hungry, I tend to want Macaroni and Cheese.  I'm glad that Scooter likes it as much as I do.
8. I find awesome jeans at the DI.  I'm not cheep, I'm thrifty.
9. I enjoy making things.  My favorite mediums are paper and clay.
10. I spent almost 24 hours volunteering as an extra for the movie "Last Man(s) on Earth", it just went to Sundance this year, and is going to be on Netflix real soon. It's the first movie I was in where I have my name in legit movie credits.
11. I like to people watch.  It's fun to try and figure out what people are thinking or why someone is doing what they are doing.  It also helps me create more stock characters for improv.

Answers to Foxy's questions:

1. If money/success were no hindrance to you what would you be doing for a living? Why?

Without a doubt I would be pursing something to do with theater.  It is fun, and I love the feeling of being on stage.  It is something that gets my mind moving, and creativity flowing.
2. Is there a character from a movie/book you most relate to? Who is it?

             Luna Lovegood… (Refer to this blog post for moreinformation)
3. If you turned your Ipod (or other music playing device) on right now what would be playing?

 This one is kind of funny, but it would probably be either something from a musical.  My top two that I tend to listen to the most are Beauty and the Beast (Either Home, Belle Reprise, or If I Can’t Love Her), or something from Through The Looking Glass.

4. What is your guiltiest pleasure?

Guilty Pleasure? Ha, probably watching all of those silly “reality” TV shows.  My favorites to watch are Survivor and The Bachelor.
5. What would you today tell the you of ten years ago?

Probably, “Don’t worry what others think.  Junior High is dumb anyway.  It is a time where everyone is trying to figure themselves out.  It is okay to not have a lot of friends.  If you have one good friend that accepts you for you, then you are set for life.  It is okay to sit by yourself at times.  Maybe go pick up a book if you are feeling alone at school. Be who you are, go have fun, and make sure you start off with doing theater right when you get into High School.  I promise you won’t regret that.”
6. Do you sing along to the radio? What's your favorite song to sing to?

 I catch myself singing to the radio when I am alone, driving the bus for work.  Since I work with children, we listen to Radio Disney, so you can get an idea of what I sing to.  But, altogether, I enjoy singing songs made by Disney Channel stars.  Sadly, I can sing along with almost any Justin Bieber song…
7. If you won the lottery tomorrow, what would be your first non-bill/debt paying purchase?

Since I am getting married in May, I would say buying a house.  The whole idea of renting will be fun, but I think it would even more be fun if I had a place where I could be myself.
8. Favorite vacation spot?

I’ve only been there once, but Disneyland.  I went when I was 19ish and remember the magical feeling I felt there, and the fun that I was able to have.
9. Describe your perfect day.

Doing something with Scooter, where we didn’t have to pay for a single thing.
10. What is one thing on your bucket list?

I think that doing ordinances in all of the Temples in Utah would be fun.
11. If you could be anyone else for a day who would you choose and why?

This one took me awhile to come up with an answer, but I decided that there is no one I'd rather be, than me.  I'm comfortable with who I am.  Honestly, I have my own trials and struggles to deal with and don't want to find out what other people have to deal with. 

Nominees (in no particular order):

Stress? What Stress?

Amy Which Way It Goes

LivingVi-Keri-ously

Questions for nominees:

1.      What is your favorite color and why? 

2.      Who is your greatest inspiration? 

3.      What is the strangest thing you've ever eaten? 

4.      What is one talent you wish you had?

5.      If you could take a one week trip to anywhere in the world, where would you go?

6.      What is the one thing you couldn't go a single day without?

7.      What is the last book your read?

8.      Do you prefer movies that make you laugh, cry, or scream in terror?

9.      What do you want to learn to do this year??

10.  Would you go skydiving?

11.  Why did you start blogging?

Engagement Story

(Alright, I promised this a little while ago, so here it is!)

Many of you want to know the story of how Scooter and I got engaged.  I will first have to talk about how we met. 

How we met

Back in June the Jesters Royale participated in Battle of the Improvs.  It was a terrifying situation for sure!   Push MyButton, who was one of the teams that participated, was awesome, and we decided that we should be pals.  We would go to each other’s shows and support each other.  We decided to do a bowling hang out in August, where only me and two others on the Jesters team showed up, and almost all of PMB came.  I talked to everyone that night besides Mr. Scooter.  At the end of the night, everyone was hugging everyone, and then I saw Scooter and we decided to hug because everyone else was hugging.  It was the most awkward hug ever! After that I decided to add him on Facebook.

Peace Summit

On Facebook we would chat a little about what was going on with our improv teams.  One day I decided to “poke” him.  It started an ongoing battle where we would go back and forth poking each other.   I then popped up on Facebook chat and told him that I wasn't going to give up, and I knew that he wasn’t going to give up.  He then proposed a peace summit.  I asked him what the peace summit entailed, and he told me a movie.  I thought, we’d be hanging out at someone’s house.  So I asked him where, and he said that it would be at the closest theater to my house.  He then said that we should probably add a food establishment to it.  Not even thinking it was a date, I agreed to this.  Boy, I can be naive for sure!

(We like acting like Delinquents-@WJ Park)

Dating

We became officially boyfriend/girlfriend on September 17.  Dating was fun, and we got close for sure.  Wanting to spend more time with me he joined the Jesters, along with still being on his other team.  We talked about marriage.  We then decided to go look at rings.  I picked my favorite ring from each place, but in the end he got to decide which ring I ended up with.

Proposal

On November 16, I was just having an awful time.  I was planning to run the sound for the Jester’s show that night, but someone dropped out of the line-up so I stepped in.  On the way to the theater I was just complaining away to Scooter, not knowing anything was up.  (Apparently before the show he pulled the MC away and told him of his intentions.  They ended up changing the last game in the show to accommodate for this.)  During the first half I noticed a huge bulge in his back pocket and I commented on that at half time.  At that moment he excused himself to the bathroom. (Suspicious!.. Lol)  The very last game of the show we were playing Double Blind Freeze Tag.  For those of you that don’t know what this is, two people do a scene, while the other actors have their back to the scene, the MC then freezes the game, and then the next person in line taps out an actor, assumes the position that they were in, and then begins a new scene.  I was out doing a scene, and then an actor comes out and then he gets in a completely different position than what the previous actor was in. (Apparently, right before he went to get in the scene, Scooter told him to get in that position) He is down on his knees, with his hands making a bird beak by his face.  He did the whole scene this way. The MC finally froze the scene and Scooter tapped him out.  Scooter is then talking, and that is when my mind finally connected the dots.  I then started to tear up, fanning my face with my hands.  In my mind I was thinking, “This isn’t improv anymore.” He then pulled the ring out of his sleeve and proposed.  Of course I said yes!

Well, there is the story.  We will be getting married on May 17, 2013 in the Salt Lake Temple.

(Us in our Christmas Pajamas)

Everyone's a Hero in their own way...

It’s no secret to anyone that I love Miyazaki movies, especially “The Secret World of Arrietty.”  To briefly describe this movie to you, it’s about Borrowers (little people) who get discovered and have to move.  There is one scene in particular that I absolutely love.  It is where the Borrower Arrietty talks to her human friend Shawn.

Shawn: “You must be afraid to be the only ones of your kind. Every year there is fewer and fewer of you. Aren’t you scared that you all will soon be gone?”

Arrietty: “What a horrible thing to say! I know there’s more of us because Spiller said so!”

Shawn: “Who’s Spiller?”

Arrietty: “He’s one of us. He lives out in the forest. He said that there is hundreds more of us.”

Shawn: “That might be true. But none of us can live forever can we? We all have to die sometime.”

Arrietty: “Why would you say something like that?”

Shawn: “Because it’s true.

Arrietty: “I guess so.”

Shawn: “Believe me. I know what I’m talking about. Sometimes things happen to us that are just beyond our control. And when these things happen there’s really nothing you can really do about it.  You just accept it and prepare for the worst. I wish it wasn’t that way. But you can’t live a life that’s built upon nothing but wishes. I mean it’s impractical.  Sometimes you just have to accept the hand of fate.”

Arrietty: “Oh no you don’t.  Sometimes you have to stand up and fight for the things worth fighting for.  You have to survive.  That’s what my papa says.  So we’re leaving even though it’s dangerous.  And we are going to survive.  We’re Borrowers and we’ll make do. We always have.  As long as we have each other to live for, we’ll keep on living.”

Shawn: “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.  I’m actually the one who’s going to die.  There’s something wrong with my heart.  They’re going to operate next week, but, it probably won’t help.”

Arrietty: “That’s terrible.”

Shawn: “I’ve always been sick and had someone looking after me.  And that’s why when I saw you I just wanted to find a way to protect you.”

Shawn was someone who felt helpless, and wanted to go help save someone the best way he knew how.  He was trying to be a hero in his own way.

Back near the beginning of this year I encountered a child that has left an impression on me.  This one day I was just listening to what kids were saying to each other.  Another child leaned over and read this dear five-year-old’s shirt out loud.  It said, “Cancer is a terrible hair stylist.”  The other child jokingly said, “What? Do you have Cancer?”  She quietly responded with, “I do.”  I froze and told the other child that he shouldn’t talk any more about it.  The curiosity got to me and I started to ask her questions.  

Me: What kind of cancer is it?

Her: I don’t know.  It’s in my tummy.

Me: Did you go through kemo?

Her: Yeah.

Me: Did you lose your hair?

Her: Yeah.

Me: That must have sucked.

Her: It did.  I got rid of it when I was four.

She then looked down and then looked up with a big smile.

Her: I got to go home on Christmas!

My heart melted for her at that point.  She had gone through so much and she is only FIVE! I complain about the little things in life and she has experienced so much worse.  I was at that point that I decided that I could do something for her…  So, I did something in honor of her…

Wait for it…

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I CUT MY HAIR!  

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It took awhile to grow it out, and I finally cut it this past Saturday so I can donate it to Locks of Love.

I’m still trying to get used to the length... 

I now leave you with, everyone’s a hero in their own way…