Step#14-- Have your cake and eat it too

It's almost my birthday, and since I'll be leaving for Florida in a day (YIKES) we celebrated it tonight! Lots of fun, lots of food, and an amazing cake. It's sad that I won't be home for my real birthday, BUT how many chances will I have to celebrate my birthday in DISNEY WORLD! I'm excited. I had a good birthday here, and I'm sure I'll have a good birthday in Florida. These are the pictures of my amazing Popcorn cake!

Step #13--A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words

There's nothing like a good picture to go along with a memory. Here are some of my favorite pictures from The Barber of Seville. Enjoy!

Step #12 Breathe

Emily Suzanne Randall: actress/assistant stage manager/prop locator/actor-technician relations regulator/go-fer/ AHHHHHHHHHHHH

The Barber of Seville is more demanding than I could've possibly imagined. I have so many responsibilities and I hardly know what to do with myself. I've had to choreograph all the ridiculous scene changes over and over again as things were added and removed. I'm constantly needed in two or three places at once: checking on props, putting on make-up, being on stage, being on headset, checking up on actors and technicians, etc. etc. Tonight was the most ridiculous night yet! I swear I've never been so stressed before in my life. Still, I'm having a blast. As crazy as this experience is, it's good for me. I've never been in this sort of position before, and it's empowering. But, it's still stressful. I find the best way to deal with the stress is to breathe. Stop for a few seconds and breathe. It's amazing how the transformation of oxygen into carbon dioxide can relieve so much pressure.

P.S. This is a picture of me with my black hair (don't worry Mom, it comes out with soap)

Step #11 Do it over and over again

Grammar and Usage class

Let me just say, I was not excited to take this class.

Day one: I felt overwhelmed. How could I diagram sentences? It didn't make any sense! I put adjectives where? What are adverbs again? How can I tell if it's transitive? Yeah...BUT! I soon discovered that it's not impossible. Diagramming sentences is easy and, dare I say it, fun--once you get the hang of it. We've been practicing the ten sentence patterns over and over again and I finally get it. We took a diagramming exam last week and I got 100%!

Anything is possible. Next on the list...make a million dollars

Step #10--At least I got a good story out of it

I was at the ward activity on Monday and I felt myself strangely drawn to the Tug o' War station. I took up the rope in my hands and began to pull against various opponents. Unfortunately, when I went up against my friend Eric, instead of pulling, I found myself being pulled. Before I knew it, I was face down in the grass with a twanging pain in my left hand. I decided to ignore the pain for the rest of the night and the next morning, but as I stood waiting for my Latin ballroom class to start I realized that my finger was about twice its normal size. As it turns out, I sprained my finger. HOW EXCITING! I've never sprained anything before. I'm bummed because it makes typing, playing the violin, brushing my hair, and doing pretty much everything harder, but I get a lot of sympathy, and hey! I got a good story out of it!

Step #9--No count downs

The past few months my calendar has been covered with little "x's" marking each day. I was counting down to something. Today I realized I had no idea what I was counting down to, so I've decided to stop. One lesson I'm constantly learning is to live in the present. When I'm always looking towards tomorrow, I don't have time to appreciate today...and then I realize a week has gone by and I wonder what happened to all that time I thought I had.

I remember hearing a quote from somewhere, I don't remember where, but it went something like this: "Today is a gift, that's why they call it the present." Too true. So no more crossing off days, no more count downs. Time to focus on the here, and the now!

Step #8- When you can't stand it any more, DANCE

The end of the semester is approaching. Crunch time. Stress time. There are moments when I feel like ripping out my hair or throwing furniture across the room. But those aren't real positive stress relievers. Instead, I try to do something fun: draw, paint, sing, blow bubbles, anything to take my mind off of my homework for an hour or two.

My favorite stress reliever these days is dance. I go dancing on campus several times a week and it's a blast. I'm actually starting to get pretty good too.