This is why I don't watch scary movies...

Last night, I was flipping through channels and saw that The Exorcism of Emily Rose was on. Morbid curiosity made me turn to the movie. I watched maybe 5 minutes. That's all it took for me to get freaked out enough to leave the room. And... I had a nightmare about it. Stupid photographic memory....

TWILIGHT!

How excited am I that the little Twilight widget to the right says "00 days?" Very, very excited. And, since I do have a sense of reason, I have decided to wait until tomorrow night with Ash and Karene, rather than watching it tonight at midnight and being dead tired tomorrow. And, if you happen to see it before me... I don't want to know what you thought of it. Hold your thoughts till after I see it. For real.

Believe it or not... I miss BYU

Yes, it's true, kids. I miss BYU. So bad. It's not even funny. The other day, during sacrament meeting the choir sang "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" and I seriously had to try so hard not to cry. I probably heard that song like 30 times during each of my work shifts at the BYU Bookstore, and I worked there for four years, so you can see why that song reminds me of BYU.



And... it doesn't help that the BYU Dancesport Championships were last weekend and I wasn't there and I didn't compete. And then I kept getting phone calls from Kylie and some other girls going "I wish you were here to do my hair and make-up." Believe me... Me too. I miss the ballroom world.

This is a picture of Christina Houston which I may or may not have stolen from her Facebook album... I used to do her hair. She did amazingly well at this comp.

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE living in New York. I love that I have this great opportunity to meet so many great people and experience so many cool things... but sometimes I miss the bubble. But... I know this is where I am supposed to be for now, so all is good.

I'm thankful for...

I found this list in a card that He Who Shall Not be Named in this blog sent me recently... I wrote it but somehow HWSNBNITB had it... but he wanted to give it back, so I am posting it. Some of these are old, and I added a few new ones. And okay, it is super cheesy, especially in light of Thanksgiving, but I remember giving this to HWSNBNITB because he was feeling down, so maybe it will cheer someone else up too.

1. The Gospel (and all it encompasses)

2. My super awesome family (seriously... My mom is like a cool mom, my siblings are hilarious)

3. Chocolate milk, but especially Ovaltine and BYU Creamery chocolate milk

4. Ocean breeze

5. Sunlight

6. Love

7. Respect

8. Freedom of religion

9. Second chances

10. Broadway musicals

11. Kettle corn

12. Scholarships

13. Encouraging smiles

14. Red roses

15. Jamba Juice

16. Babies (have you NOT seen my nephew? He is beautiful)

17. Gilmore Girls (especially Season 4)

18. The ability to dance

19. My talent and love for art

20. Good books

21. The Three Amigas (Nina, Nessa & Kylie)

22. Loyal Friends

23. Clean things

24. Raid (I have lived in many, many places where I used this A LOT)

25. The Hawai'i sky

26. Polihale (Google it)

27. Serendipity... Not the restaurant... I'm talking about the actual thing. (Ask me about my RENT story and how Ashley and I became such quick friends)

28. People who make me laugh

29. People who understand that I despise text messaging and don't bother me about it

30. People who take chances

Amalia Week

OMG... The sister reunion was amazing. My little sister and I are only 1 year and 7 months apart (don't even tell me she looks older than me. I already know) and we grew up sharing a room... so we grew up to be extremely close. Well, I moved away from home almost 6 years ago and not having her around as much has been really hard. But... now that I am living in NYC, she is determined to visit often since we are at least on the same side of the country now.


She decided she would come up for her birthday, so we had a week filled with festivities and sister-bonding time.

She had been here before, but only once and for 3 days during which we saw Times Square, and yeah... that's pretty much all we saw during that trip.


So this trip, I wanted her to experience as much of NYC as she could... We pretty much walked the entire city (IN THE RAIN!). We walked through some areas I knew she would like like Greenwich Village, Chelsea and the Upper West Side... We also went out to eat a lot. We had some amazing Thai food from Chelsea Market and I introduced her to Fat Witch Bakery, Pink Berry and Maoz vegetarian.

We did the museum thing... Which I have to say I probably liked the MoMA more than she did. I am WAY more into art and grew up studying it, so I was basically in heaven. But I think she loved the MET, especially the part where they had rooms that were brought over from Europe. I felt like I was at Versailles... Not that I've ever been there, but you know... It all looked very Versailles-ish to me.

We also got to see some Broadway shows which is surprising because my sister is totally my opposite. She does not love Broadway the way I do. But she surprised me by saying she wanted to see Hairspray and/or Wicked.

On Wednesday, we got student rush seats to Hairspray and it was amazing! But we still wanted to see Wicked...Bad. So, we tried the Wicked lottery like four freakin' days... It was so discouraging, and I am convinced that "Shades" (AKA the guy at the Wicked lotto) was not pulling my card on purpose because he totally knows my face and he knows I live here.

Anyway, on Saturday, we recruited some helpers and ended up winning tickets for Saturday night. It's kind of funny actually, because we had three people there to help us and it was my sister's name that was called, not the helpers. Still.... a shoutout to Anna, Mary and Karene for being so selfless and braving the NYC rain to come help us win. I will totally help you win lottery tickets next time you need them.

Anyway, it was an amazing experience for her. I could just tell how excited she was to be there. It reminded me of my first time seeing Wicked and how I almost cried because I was so excited. After the show, I took her to the stage door to meet the cast (which is totally a tradition) and we our programs signed... We did this at Hairspray too because I LOVE Constantine Roussouli (AKA Link Larkin). Like... A LOT.

We also did the birthday thing... We went to dinner at Maoz which is so good, by the way. Then we went to Max Brenner's with two of my sister's friends and then we went to Arlo and Esme for dancing. Natalie, Elise, Kristin, Jeff and Rustin joined us for the dancing as well.

The weekend was a little more relaxed. We went through Central Park (which is so beautiful in the fall), walked the Brooklyn Bridge, walked the East Village, and shopped for vintage glasses frames. That last one took forever, but we miraculously ran into a vintage shop near the Life Cafe in Alphabet City that specializes in frames. So all was good.

My sister left very happy with her trip and I am so happy I got to spend nearly a full week with her.

Pictures to come soon. I promise!

Halloween...

So, I realize I am SUPER late in posting anything Halloween related, and that may or may not be because I don't really get excited about Halloween. But, I finally got some pictures from Ashley and thought I would share...

First, I was going to be Elphaba because I found out what they use for her make up and how they do it... I thought it would be a fun challenge... But, since I am probably the cheapest person you'll ever meet, I decided I didn't want to spend money on MAC Paint (actual paint, not the eye shadow base), an Elphie-ish outfit and a WIG (can you believe it? WHY did I ever chop off my hair???)


This is Julie Reiber who is the BEST Elphaba you will ever see... No battle.


So then I decided I was going to be a Pink Lady. I am not going to lie- that was totally a recycled costume from last year... which is hardly a costume. I just have to wear the jacket that Megumi made me...

But the night before, I decided I was going to be someone from Hairspray (the movie- because the hair in the musical is WAY more extreme and probably harder to do). I borrowed this vintage dress from Kristin and spent three hours at work teasing my hair and making it really big. Of course, my hair will NEVER do anything I want it to, so my hair deflated like every 5 minutes and I kept having to re-tease it. I also turned my hairspray bottle into an Ultra Clutch bottle and carried it around.





But anyway, here are the party pictures:


Me and Tony as Edward Scissorhands... I think he probably hates me because I kept breaking his scissor blades...



Ashley (80s Jazzercise Instructor), Amanda (Dorothy), Kristin (Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's) and I at the party.



Anna and I



Ash and I






And now, if you'll excuse me... I need to go find some breakfast.

More later!

I always knew I would meet Edward... haha

Wanna meet Robert Pattinson????

Today is your lucky day!

The star of hotly anticipated new Twilight film will be at Planet Hollywood Times Square this afternoon to whore out the movie and take part in a handprint ceremony.

And, if you scream loudly enough, he might take a picture with you and give you a hug and shiz!

WHEN: Tuesday, November 4, 2008 at 5:00 pm

WHERE: Planet Hollywood Times Square - - 1540 Broadway (corner of 45th Street)

Send us your photos!

xoxo

A tribute to Nessa (who is alive and well)

My other half is leaving me to go on a mission on Wednesday to Malaga, Spain. I sure will miss her, but I am glad she will get to fulfill her dream of serving a mission for the Church. She will be able to share the joy that the Gospel brings into people's lives.

I sure hope they have ice cream (and LOTS of it) in Malaga or I am not sure how V is going to cope.

Here are my favorite Vanessa memories:

* Kylie calls me to see if Vanessa can come to my birthday dinner, and without thinking about it, I say "I don't know her..." Hahaha.... Sorry, V... You know I love you.


* Vanessa calls me after a VERY long day at school to see if she can move in because she hates her apartment. Thus, began the Summer of Nina and Nessa.

* CPK, swimming pool, Dairy Queen... Need I say more?

* Prank calling Nathan Cashion every 5 minutes for an hour. He SO loves us.

* Trying on ballroom dresses in the RB... If I had a picture of the Copa Cabana samba dresses, I would totally post it

* Buying matching velour suits and wearing them to the ballroom closing social

* Cookie making = a weekly tradition

* V thinking she was SO sneaky the day she picked me up from work at Del Sol

* Throwing Kylie a Happy 3/5ths Birthday Party

* Making up our own samba routine in 285 complete with bacha caras and bota fogos

* V talking back to Brent Keck... AND NO ONE talks back to Brent

* My weekly Facebook message from Ness with photo commentaries

Anyway...those are a few. I hope Nessa's future companions can put up with her morning monster syndrome and with her humor...


So looking forward to the reunion!

xoxo,


Me