The Inner Workings Of My Mind

So, here’s the thing. About a week ago, I remembered I had a blog. Never good. So I’m gonna give this another try. But a more realistic try than every day because I just can’t do it.

I have decided to dedicate the rest of this summer to discipline. Here’s what I mean.

1. I am going to get up every day no later than 10:30 (that’s a huge deal for me.) I need to be productive instead of sleeping….all the time.

2. I am going to be more regular about quiet times. Set times instead of “whenever I have time.” That tends to lead to “in a little bit” which leads to “later” which leads to “even later.” It’s not working out too great.

3. I am going to do some sort of exercise for one hour, 6 days a week. Keeping me accountable are my wonderful mother and one of my loving adoptive mothers, Mrs. Mary Teague.

4. I am going to attempt to blog about my new found discipline once a week on the blog I forgot I had.

5. I am going to divide up my money every pay check into realistic amounts for each thing I want to do. Gas, Spending, Tithe, Saving, Saving, and Saving. I realized recently I generally set my eye on pretty expensive things, like iPhones and cruises. So! Spending money will be cut down to a reasonable amount and the rest is going into savings. Hopefully my future will be filled with all kinds of giant boats taking me all over the world.

I feel like I’m Spring Cleaning my life…just a little late. Especially since Spring cleaning for me includes cleaning things out that I don’t need and organizing what’s left. Or maybe it’s a couple of New Year’s Resolutions…just a little late. Or early. Whichever you like to think of it as. Here’s to hoping I keep it up!

Here's a memory to keep me motivated.

So much to catch up on, this might be the longest blog of all time. I’ll do it in sections.

First. Moriah’s visit was AWESOME!! We had so much fun! We got to housesit together and basically just hang out. The zoo was awesome. (We found Hedwig.) And we went to Alyeska to hike up to the glacier, but discovered that they were still skiing and snowboarding. Yes, in June. So we took some pictures and headed back town. Most of our time was just driving around, finding fun things to take pictures with, seeing $2 movies at a new theatre (including Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in 3D), hangin’ out with my friends and eating. Lots and lots of eating. Mostly cookies the size of her face. Such as the one below. But it really was an awesome week, although it was like entering a winter wonderland without snow since she’s been staying in Laguna all summer. Life’s rough.

Then, about two weeks after Mo had to leave, Megan showed up. For how long? Ohhh, around 32 days. Oh yeah. Over a month. Best. Month. Ever. We did everything. Whale watching, Alyeska, wildlife preserve, shopping, tourist pictures, Husky show (including 2 week old puppies), watching the salmon run, zoo, movies, hanging out, FOOD, bowling, running, Forest Fair, hiking, Saturday Market, backpacking, running from moose- seriously, everything. I kept forgetting that she had to go home. I would catch myself in the mindset of, “well when school starts, we’ll be able to…oh wait.” That was always a horrible realization, but I love skype. It’s a wonderful thing in my life. As much as I miss my friends, I don’t worry about it. We keep in touch surprisingly well.

And now, the visitors continue! This year, for family vacation, the Family Fun Network has all traveled north. Efren remains south at the moment, but he’ll get here eventually. In addition to the spades tournament this year, we are including a hearts tournament and a ping pong tournament, as well as the normal tournaments of “who can keep the baby happy longest” or “who can balance on this longest” or “who is faster at ____”. Ahh competitive family. Always an interesting past time. This year, the FFN has grown by three small ones. Jessika (Jessi Girl), Jackson (Jackie Poo), and Lila (Little Lila). So far, the week has proved to be a fight to see who can spend the most time holding, feeding, or playing with various babies. So fun. I’m interested to see what pictures come out of this week. It’s always a great week with the Family Fun Network.

In other news, just to keep my readers updated, I recently quit my job at Banana Republic (for various reasons), and am currently unemployed. Kinda forgot how nice it was to not have to work, but I’m sure I’ll start looking for another job soon. Keep your fingers crossed for Moose’s Tooth!! School starts in a couple weeks (not looking forward to that), but that means more opportunities to audition for fun shows. This year brings Singin’ In the Rain which looks to be intensely competitive for parts right now, but hopefully I’ll do well.

Other audition opportunities that have recently come up include one for a feature film!! Literally! Haha I was blessed enough to be offered a role as an extra (no lines or anything) in a movie set to premier in 2012 called “Everybody Loves Whales”. I know shocking little about this movie other than the fact that it’s about whales, has Drew Barrymore and John Krasinski, I play a restaurant worker, and we begin filming in September. So we’ll see how that goes! I am so so so excited!! Can’t even tell you! Even if I’m in a deleted scene, I would think it was hilarious and be excited. I’m really pumped to get to work on an actual movie set and see how everything is done. A couple of my friends are auditioning for extra roles as well and one friend has applied and stands an amazing chance of being a PA (production assistant) in the art department which would be a HUGE leap in her career!! So excited for her!

So that’s everything going on in life right now. Hopefully I’ll get back into the routine of blogging and you won’t have to wait two months. So sorry. I’m workin’ on it.

Thanks for reading! (for more pictures of trips, check facebook or megan’s blog http://megziesmagoo.blogspot.com/ )

Man. Life goes so fast. So much is happening and has happened lately. Not only in my life, but in my friends’ and family’s as well. From 3 babies being born, mission trips to Southern Asia, multiple graduations, weddings, and funerals. So much emotion packed into a few months. It’s been a roller coaster, that’s for sure. But one thing I love about it, it’s with my family. So no matter how much we get tossed our way, we’ll always be together. Even when we’re far apart. I love us. Crazy and all.

Another thing coming up that I am PUMPED about are people visiting me!!! Yes, mom has some people coming to visit her, but I also have some visitors just for me!! I’m so excited! The closest of these trips?? Hannah Moriah Leilani Sallis. She gets here in 2-count them two days. I don’t know how I’m gonna sleep the next two nights I’m so excited. I keep planning all the things we’re gonna do and see and how much fun we’re gonna have. AH it’s crazy!! But even if we just sat here and did nothing but watch movies all day, I’d be happy. One of my best friends in the world would be with me. And of course we’ll have to visit our friendly neighborhood Qdoba. What would a trip with Mo be like if we didn’t go to Qdoba?? Lame. That’s what it would be.

I love when people visit me, because it’s like I can share a piece of my life with them that no one else has seen. It bonds us. Then when I talk about random things or people, they know what I mean. I love it! I love being able to share this adventure of mine with my friends and family soon to come!! Another friend is planning on coming in July for a whole month!! That would be Megs. But she’ll get a blog post when it’s closer. For now, I cannot wait to hang out and talk and cook and never sleep with this crazy awesome friend.

And yes, we do pose with cheesecake because it is just that good. Especially Hastings cheesecake. Even though Hastings closed. May they rest in peace.

Anyways. I got off on a random tangent. But suffice it all to say, I’m just a tiny bit excited. This just might be the best summer ever. And the best part is kicked off in just 48 short hours.

Pictures will be posted. I promise. However, I can’t promise that they will be posted in a timely fashion. We’ll try!

Love y’all and thanks for reading!

Wow. It’s been a really long time. For that, I apologize. Deeply. On the bright side, I bet it made your anticipation of this post so much more exciting than usual!!

Here’s a brief update of my life since I last blogged:

I finished school and all the crazy projects that kept me busy until very early in the morning. I have started working stock hours as well as normal hours at work (where we unload the new shipments of clothes) which has kept me busy early in the morning. School was hectic for a while there, but I am officially finished and done. Summer’s here. I’m almost moved out of my dorm and back into my parents’ house. Just one load left and the move will be complete. I’m heading to Oklahoma in a few days to spend a couple of weeks with family and friends. We’ve got some visitors scheduled for June and July that may or may not look something like this.

Aaaand I’m excited. There are no shows lined up for the summer, but hopefully next year I’ll be able to be in Singin’ in the Rain and a show called Chemical Imbalance. I haven’t read the second one, but it’s supposed to be a comical spin on Jekyl and Hyde. I should learn how to spell those two names, but I’ll do that later. I am also running for office in the UAA theatre club, so keep your fingers crossed that next semester I will be head of TTR (Theatre on the Rocks) Social Media. I can’t remember if I wrote about this before, but I’ve decided to double major in Theatre and Journalism/Public Communications, and I’m starting to lean toward minoring in French. It’ll be a lot of work, but I’m up for it.

So, life’s pretty busy, but I prefer it that way. I’d rather never sit down than never get up. Which is a weird way of saying that, but you know what I mean. I’m SUPER excited to go to Oklahoma and see my new niece Jessi in person! And little Jackson Teague, and I hope to be there to welcome another little Teague to the world! It’s an exciting time in our family’s lives and I love getting to be a part of it, even though I’m far away.

Finals weren’t too hard, once I finished the projects. I guess my professors decided to take it easy on us since they ripped us to shreds with final videos and such. Some I’ve created recently were two commercials for Kikkan Randall’s platform “Fast and Female” where she encourages women of all ages to be active and healthy, and another was a music video spoof of rap videos in which we made fun of our mutual dislike of clowns. They freak us out. If you would like to view them, the music video can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfMMPTzx1lk and the commercials are also on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M71GQIBo0kU and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqEFTbRRu_o&feature=related Enjoy.

Through these, I’ve discovered that I enjoy video editing and producing, though I don’t want to make a career out of it. Just something I might start doing in my free time. I like to see all the pieces come together. It’s fascinating to me. I love picking the music to go in the background and placing it at just the right spot, though it can be frustrating and take forever at times. Oh well.

Well, that’s about it for this blog post. They will become more frequent again, though probably not every day. Sorry it’s been so long and thanks for reading!

This baby doesn’t really have to do with anything, but it made me laugh.

So, is it just me or does it seem like everyone is slowly but surely moving over to Blogspot and getting blogs there rather than WordPress? Is Blogspot better? Is it cooler? Are there more options? I don’t know. Blogspot bloggers, why have you chosen them over WordPress? Please enlighten me, for if I am missing out on something awesome, I would prefer to no longer miss out.

In other news, it is finally spring break. I feel like whenever I say that there should be a choir led by Whoopi Goldberg singing out a beautifully harmonized “HALLELUJAH!” The rest was much-needed and is being much appreciated. So, though I keep hoping I’m not imagining this, I actually am in Huntington Beach, California where everywhere I look there is sunlight and palm trees and no snow. It’s amazing. Also here are my oldest siblings and their baby-on-the-way. I have decided it is ridiculous that I have not been able to visit them yet and hope to visit them a LOT more often. Baby is due in two days and we are all waiting with bated breath for her to grace us with her presence. The name is a secret for the time being, so until she is born you may call her Gertrude or Echo. Whichever you prefer.

While we’ve been here we’ve done some shopping, walking downtown, walking on the beach, napping, eating yummy foods, sleeping, and today we went to Disneyland. It was awesome. (Sorry, senior class, but this time it didn’t rain or flood. It was perfect. And for some reason, there’s more Pocahontas memorabilia here than in Disneyworld. Go figure.) We rode the Pirates of the Caribbean ride which I thoroughly enjoyed, and just basically walked around to soak up the beauty that is Disney. I don’t think that will ever grow old for  me. I was really tempted to jump on the back of one of the trolleys and swing out and sing a Disney song, making up my own choreography to see how many people thought I worked there. Mom didn’t think it was that awesome of an idea. Maybe next time.

All in all, it’s been an awesome spring break. (Cue Whoopi and the choir.) I’ve finally been able to sleep and see my family that I haven’t seen in far too long and to top it all off I get to be somewhere warm and beautiful and tropical and surrounded by all things Disney. I’d say that fits me perfectly.

Basically in one day, me and my mom went from seeing the Iditarod (awesome!) to being on the beach. One LONG day of flying took us from the land of winter to the surf capital.

Also-Moriah. Would it not be the greatest job in the WORLD to be one of the Disney princesses?? I think that would be LEGIT. Just a thought.

I have realized recently how proud I am of my home state. I love being able to say I’m from Oklahoma. I’m a Sooner. This may be because my brothers and sisters and parents have brainwashed me into saying Boomer Sooner since I could talk, but I think it’s more. I love being from the South. And as everyone in Alaska that knows me can tell you, I tell everyone gladly. I loved doing the show Christmas Belles because we had accents and I could be from the south. Everyone says when I sing they can hear my accent come out. I wasn’t aware I had one, but I’m okay with this. I catch myself listening to country more often now (sorry Brook) because it reminds me of home. Especially Carrie Underwood’s song “I Ain’t In Checotah Anymore”. I love the line “There’s nothin like Oklahoma.” It’s so true. I love my home state. Podunk towns, tractors, cows, tornados and all. Not a huge fan of the musical or the song, but I won’t hold that against the state. It’s a bunch of nice people, football fans, and delicious sweet tea.

It makes me sad sometimes when people assume Oklahoma sucks and that no one would ever want to go there or be there for any amount of time, when actually, it’s one of the coolest places ever and people always leave feeling like they’re family. I miss the genuinely awesome people. Granted, I probably won’t tattoo state memorobilia on my body like some people, but I do love the state. It will always be my home and I love it. Short post today, just some thoughts I’ve been having lately. You’re doin fine, Oklahoma. Boomer Sooner.

I’m sorry but I have to keep this short. I don’t have much time, but I wanted to update you guys on everything. School is hard, but really good. My classes are pushing me, but so far I feel good about how I’ve done on it all. Also…most exciting news of all, I got hired at Banana Republic! Yay! I am finally employed! Also, I started doing hair and makeup for the show currently going on at UAA. I am gonna be honest, I’m pretty dang sleep deprived and feel like life is just a bunch of sprints at the moment. Thankfully I’m keeping up with the work load, but I’m gonna be honest, Spring Break CANNOT come fast enough. Not only will it be time when I can finally rest, but I will get to go to Huntington beach and see Brook and KK and little baby Echo!! And the rest of my family who I have not seen in FAR too long!

Unfortunately, that’s all the time I have for blogging at the moment. I was on a break from playwriting, but I gotta get back to the homework. Another update to come as soon as I can–which will probably be at least a week. Sorry. But I’ll get it done as soon as I can.

Don’t worry, Mom, this hasn’t happened…yet. It’s just how I feel.

Backed by popular demand, I’m blogging. Sorry it’s been a while. My apologies. School is back in session and I’m taking mostly journalism courses this semester. Also I’m taking a playwriting class in which we are going to have finished a 10 minute play and a One Act by the end of the semester. Both we are required to send off to either competitions or publishers when we are finished. Apparently a bunch of UAA kids have gotten stuff published that way and others have won a bunch of money. That’d be nice. It’s enough incentive when I don’t wanna do any of the work. The only class that isn’t based on writing is geography which is really environmental science where we get to do projects about how we’re killing the world. Yay.

The next possible show for me is called A Dollhouse which is a feminist piece that takes place in the Victorian era. Ironically, the auditions are on Valentine’s Day at dinner time. Ha. But I have to prepare a monologue. Blech. I am also looking for a job. I’ve applied a bunch of places, but haven’t heard back yet cause I just now applied. We’ll see what happens, cause I need a job. Hahaha

So I’m pretty excited for this semester. It’s gonna be a pain in the butt homework wise, but I’m learning how to record for the radio, I’m doing news reports and interviews, and filming a commercial and a music video. I’m excited to actually be doing stuff required in broadcast journalism instead of just listening to lectures. I’m also taking a media ethics class and I’m pretty sure a couple people in my class have zero morals. None. Whatsoever. But the discussions are really interesting. It has solidified in my mind that I do NOT want to be a journalist in newspapers and such. I prefer broadcast journalism much more. It’s gonna be a hard academic semester, but I’m gonna be really proud of everything I’ve done when it’s over.

Well, that’s an update for now, I PROMISE to try to blog more. As for now, I gotta go figure out a title for my One Act and get working on it. More updates to come! And I can’t even think of a title for this….my bad.

Well, now that the fam has all flown out across the world, I’m showin off my responsibility skills by taking care of a cat and a fish. So far, the cat has not tried to eat the fish. I consider that success. Other than that, I am in charge of trash, doors, lights, and cars. None of which are as exciting as the fish. I have also discovered it is nearly impossible to blog while watching the Office. Michael Scott may be one of the most distracting people in the world.

So far this break we have been to Norman to see the Gray Owl coffee shop and to Poteau to see my grandma and ride her super fast moped. I think we pushed that thing to 20 mph. It was legit. Christmas was awesome, I met some FASCINATING people on New Year’s Eve, and Oklahoma got the white Christmas everyone’s been asking for since about 1900. Seeing that it is January 4th, I will be heading back to the land of almost zero sun in about 5 days. I have loved every minute of coming home and seeing everyone. Especially my family. Wish I could see Brook and KK and baby Echo, but I’m sure they had fun at their baby shower!!

I have also seen A LOT of movies this break. More than people should, I’m sure. I thoroughly enjoyed Sherlock Holmes, Brothers was good but super depressing, 2012 was good but kinda long for me, but the one that dominated them all was Avatar. It was incredible. I LOVED it. I kind of wish I could be an Avatar and live there. I saw it three times and wish so badly that it was real. Not everyone loved it, but I thought the details were what made it so much better than any of the other movies I saw this break. Although I didn’t dislike any of them, and during a few of them there were multiple moments when I was literally the only person laughing out loud in the theatre. OH well! I thought they were funny. Me and my sister and mother also thoroughly enjoyed “Up”. That little Asian kid is hilarious!

Anyway, not a ton going on right now, just hanging out. Good times. But that’s really all I got to say at the moment. Thanks for reading!

In light of it being the Christmas season, I can see how you would expect me to blog about Christmas right? WRONG. Today’s post is about something completely different. And rather random. It just occurred to me, and I decided to blog about it.

Today I am taking a kind of poll. Husky or Bernese Mountain Dog. That is the question. I have personally always wanted a Bernese Mountain Dog. My sister has always wanted (and used to own) a husky. Both grow to be around the same size, both are winter dogs. My mom would highly dislike both. Husky’s are more agile, and Bernese’s are more plump and cuddly. Don’t get me wrong, I would LOVE either one, but if I got to pick, I’d go Mountain Dog. So I was wondering what you guys thought. If you don’t mind, please take a moment and comment your vote. I’m just curious what the general population says. I’ll do a more serious update blog thingamajig in the next 3 or 4 days. But for now, Happy Birthday Jesus!! What’s your vote??