December eve!

One more sleep 'til December... a month of my birthday, Christmas, New Year's Eve... I'm pretty jazzed about all this! I love this time of year. I know this is total cheese, but it's magical to me...


But first thing's first... today. Oy! I'm glad the day is over. It wasn't a bad day, necessarily, just a Monday. Ya know? NOBODY wanted to be back at school today. We all had a bad case of the Mondays, blech. But, on the flip side, only 9 more days 'til the semester is DONE! Can I get a woot, woot?! Today was full to the max, but that was anticipated. And now I'm ready to curl under my down comforter and pass out...

Hope you all survived your Mondays. See you tomorrow - December!!

xoxo Jessi

Back to reality...

I absolutely do not want to go back to classes tomorrow!! I could do this Thanksgiving Break thing for another week, ugh... although, I do only have 2 weeks of classes and 1 week of finals left, so I am in the homestretch...

We have the final concert of the semester this week, so nothing like jumping right back into it. The week will be the usual mish-mash of tech rehearsals, dress rehearsals, and shows mixed in with regular classes and work, typical of performance week. But no complaints - I'm glad for the busy-ness because it will make time fly!

AND, after this week, the next week is my birthday!!! Yay!! I have nothing planned yet, but I'm excited nonetheless. I definitely want to celebrate... my birthday last year lacked the typical birthday excitement, thanks to a bad breakup, so this year I want to make up for lost fun and joy! I definitely envision cocktails, food and friends... oh, the possibilities!

Well, time to head out for a late dinner with the BF...

Happy Thanksgiving!

The veggies are chopped. The cranberries are prepared. The pumpkin pie is baked and the crust is ready for the cherry pie, which I'll bake tonight. Time to pack the car and head to Denver... after stopping to grab a bottle of wine (two?) and perhaps a caramel brulee latte from the 'Bucks... over the river and through the woods, to Grandmother's house we go...

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday, filled with good food and people you love!

Happy Thanksgiving!!
xoxo
J

I just can't, I just can't, I just can't control my feet...

I have this little problem. I'm a very impressionable person, particularly with music. I couldn't live without music. My parents, my brothers, my grandparents... we are all music people. My earliest memories include music in the forefront, including specific songs. Music is playing all the time... in my car, on my computer, at work, in my ears through the iPod... it moves me. Literally, of course, but it also compliments my life. I often think that my life has its own soundtrack, and sometimes I think about actually putting playlists together and saving them to disc (hmmm, future project??).

But I'm waxing poetic... back to my little problem... you see, the volume of a good tune is directly proportional to the likelihood that I'm going to jump outta my seat and bust a' move without even thinking. Not that getting down with my bad self is a bad thing, per se, but there are some places where exercising some restraint is recommended. Like at the office, for example.

[Haha, I just remembered something... once I was in the copy/mail room at work, waiting for a big copy job to finish, so I started rehearsing some steps instead of just standing there. Thinking I was alone, I really busted it out... right as my boss walked into the room behind me. He was quite amused... and I was rather embarrassed. Ahhh, good times at work...]

Anyhoo... I'm doing the 9-to-5 thing this week since I'm on break, and while I appreciate the opportunity to just sit and chill for a change, I need my tunes to get me through the day. This week I've been all about MJ, Janet and The Jackson 5, thanks to This Is It on Sunday. And I realized today that some songs are better played quietly in the office, if I want to avoid causing a scene.

Such as...?? Glad you asked! Here is an abridged sampling of Jackson songs that I have to handle with care, ranging from a slight tease to full on danger (but in no particular order)...

Blame it on the Boogie (I really can't control my feet...)


Billy Jean (oh, she caused a scene all right...)


Dancing Machine (she's super bad now... yes, yes she is...!)


Bad (if I had the time/money, I'd SO rock this shiz for Halloween next year...)


Nasty (Miss Jackson if ya nasty...)


Scream (this was on replay all day today... I'm not going to admit how many times I played it...)


This list is nowhere near complete... but you get the idea. And the majority of today's pop acts...? Please. The only AMA performances that did anything for me (read: made me jump off the couch and shake my money maker or gave me chills) were Janet's and Whitney's. You gotta bring more game than that, Gaga. Boo-ya! (Ooh, someone's got her sassy pants on tonight... nothin' but love, y'all!)

xoxo J

Movie marathon weekend

My weekend can be summed up in one short word: L-A-Z-Y.

My movie-and-TV-show marathon on Saturday may or may not have been influenced by the margs and daiquiris consumed on Friday night (mwah-ha-ha!), but hot diggety I milked it for all it was worth... first up was catching up with the latest Grey's Anatomy episode, which I missed last week. Then all three Pirates of the Caribbean movies were on TV and kept me glued to the couch (hottie Johnny Depp makes me want to shiver his timbers... teehee!), and just when I thought I was O-D'ed on the flicks, I decided to seek out Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on the interwebs (thank you TV Shack!). I did get off the couch long enough to make food and take a shower... but all I did was put on clean sweats post-shower, ha!


Sunday I pared it down to two movies... I finally saw Michael Jackson's This is It. I love him. I don't care how wacko people think the late Jacko was, the man was an artistic genius. Watching him work in his element was SO. Effing. Inspiring! When I left the theater I wanted to head straight to the studio and start rehearsing and working on my own dancing... instead I did some costume design sketching like a good li'l student, *sigh*... Oh MJ, you are missed and loved!!


Then it was Quentin Tarantino time with the BF... Reservoir Dogs. Ugh, hated it. I'm sorry to any QT fans, but I'm not so convinced that he's some cinematic genius. Pulp Fiction was alright, and Kill Bill was okay, too, but I never leave his films feeling enlightened or anything. And the amount of blood makes me nauseous. I'm a Milk Dud girl at the movie theater, and Kill Bill made me want to toss my Duds right back up. I wish I hadn't watched Reservoir Dogs and just left my movie weekend on a good note with the King of Pop. Oh well, it was for the BF :)

I'm not a huge movie person... I like movies, but I don't watch them very often, so I'm impressed that I made it through so many in two days. I think I definitely hit my quote this weekend! And now back to normal life...

Turkey time!

Yes, I know it's early... but the apartment building I live in is hosting a Thanksgiving dinner tonight for all the residents. They do this every year and I love it. I live in international student housing, so many of the residents have never experienced Thanksgiving and it's quite fun to see what they all think.

Um, can I get a big WOOT, WOOT for the weekend?!?!? Ugh, whatta week. Nothing catastrophic happened, it was just long... I slept like CRAP all week, which just makes getting through everything miserable, and I was doing the its-almost-break-countdown, which just makes it all the longer. But now Thanksgiving Break has officially begun, yippeee!! Nine days off from classes!



After my turkey dinner tonight, I'm off to kick back with a marg or two with my school dance friends... the perfect way to kick off break, methinks!

Happy Friday everyone!!
xoxo J

Delusions of costume designs

(First off, I know I'm sucking it up big time with NaBloPoMo... but whatevs. I've got shiz to do... like sit around and be uber-lazy over the weekend, lol!)

My weekend recap... did some dancin' (Fall Dance Concert, holla!!), did some sleeping, watched some Broncos lose, ugh (seriously, guys, you were doing just fine in the first half, but then left your game in the locker room during halftime or somethin' - L-A-M-E!), ate some food, got some groceries, watched some movies... um, yep, that pretty much sums it up. So much for working on my costume design final project.

Speaking of. Okay. For my final project I have to design a dance costume for Romeo & Juliet, picking any time setting that I want. I decided to go with a bit of ancient Greco-Roman fla-vuh and rock it tunic style. You don't want too elaborate a costume for dance, so I thought a tunic would be perfecto. I found a pic to help inspire my design...


Pretty sweet, yes?? I think this would be rockin' to perform in, especially that flowy bit of arm business... it would create such striking lines and effects on stage. And I like alotta leg on stage, so short is good. And that braid?? Love it.

Anywho... so I have to find a pattern that somewhat resembles this, as well as find fabric, cut it out and sew it. I figured a short tunic would be kinda simple and not too difficult, and then the flowy arm business is just some draping. Now, the most sewing I do are ribbons and elastics on my ballet shoes, and rogue buttons that have jumped ship from my clothes, so we'll see how "kinda simple" this really ends up being. I'm starting to worry that I'm a bit delusional in what I want to do... but first things first... I have to find a pattern and the fabric before I worry about cutting and sewing.

I put off going to the fabric store all weekend. I did not, and still do not, want to sift through pattern after pattern, and then try to figure out what kind of fabric would be best (read: nothing insanely difficult for a sewing virgin such as myself). I made myself go tonight, though, since I'm supposed to bring my pattern and fabric to class tomorrow morning. I walked into that store and felt like a deer in headlights. I didn't even know where to start, and I was too intimidated to ask for help (stupid, I know). I wandered around until I found the patterns. I looked through a couple racks of $2.95 patterns, but no dice. I then sat down and thumbed through a couple huge pattern books, and started to think I was on to something... I found a few dress patterns that weren't 100% right, but I thought maybe I could alter them with the help of my teacher... but then I looked at the price of those patterns - $15.95!! Are you effing kidding me?!? Helllllll no. I didn't even make it to the bolts of fabric. Seeyalater, bye!

I wasn't off to a good start to begin with... I love shopping and scoring cool shiz like any other gal, but I am not an endurance shopper. I hate digging for too long or through too much to find what I'm looking for. If I don't find it in a couple hours max, I check out and head home. The fabric store only got about 20 minutes of my time tonight.

So now what?? Well, I'm going to see how the interwebs may help me... online patterns have to exist, yes? And then if I have to, I will plea with my teach about how clueless I am with all this, and to throw me a bone. Which just means ask if she might help me design something from scratch... which seems like it would be more difficult, but the thought of going back to the fabric store gives me a major tick.

And seriously, if anyone out there has any degree of sewing/designing/DIY experience (ahem, Maegan...!) and has some words of wisdom for me, I'm all ears!!!

No funky juju!

So, what does a girl do when she has nothing to write about, but feelin' the pressure to write since it's NaBloPoMo?? I didn't have anything to write about yesterday either, hence my absence from the blogosphere. I guess I could talk about something dance-related, since that is what this blog is about...

I had the Fall Concert dress rehearsal last night, which went waaaaay late. There were a handful of mini-dramas and everyone was grumpy in general... the faculty, the tech crew, us dancers... so that made for a long, awkward night. Ugh. I hope tonight has better juju. Funky juju isn't good for a performance... the audience can pick up on the funky energy and the show can fall flat. No funky juju allowed for tonight's show - or tomorrow night's, either! But they say that a not-so-hot rehearsal means the show will be great. Fingers crossed!

It's snowing again, so all I want to do is get cozy in my sweats, read a book and drink hot beverages. And cook and bake. I think the weather is supposed to be dreary and wet all weekend, though, so maybe I'll get a chance to do these things. Oh, but maybe not... I have my costume design final project that I must start working on... I have to find a pattern and fabric and then start sketching my templates... maybe I'll work on this while I watch the Broncos on Sunday. I also need to work. And I'd like to see the BF at some point. Oy vay. Anyone else think that weekends should be extended to three days???

What does everyone have on their weekend agendas??

Happy Friday!!
xoxo J

Check it!!

Hey HEY! I'm tickled pink to announce that li'l ol' me got my first guest blogging post published today!!! Go check out the FAB-u-lush Midtown Girl (LUV this girl!) for her weekly "Single in my City" series. I was VERY flattered to be asked and had a lot of fun answering her questions all about dating life here in the FoCo... and yes, I know I'm technically not single anymore (don't worry babe, I mention that in the interview!), but I go out and about enough to be part of the FoCo's nightlife, AND people watching is one of my fave past times. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU again, Midtown Girl, for asking me to feature my city in your Single in the City series!!

And in other good news for the day... I just love synchronicity. Sometimes God just knows what I need. As usual, I'm sore, tired and my attitude towards some of my classes and professors isn't on par this week... so wouldn't you know it, instead of holding regular class, my modern dance professor decided to give us a yoga/stretch/massage day (er, he didn't give us massages... um, yeah, weird... he had us partner with each other and we're all chums in there... just clarifyin'...). And then at the end, he had us lay on the floor to completely relax in meditation - i.e. we all got mini-naps! It was deelish.

You know what else is deelish?? Two-shot soy caramel macchiato's... thank you, Starbucks. Yep, a li'l mid-week splurge for myself! And thank you baristas for not forgetting my two shots of espresso today... this happened last week, and lordy mama was not happy when she realized it halfway through. When I ask for two shots of espresso, there's a darn good reason yo!

(um, yes please?!?!)

Hope everyone's week is going well!

xoxo J

It's nice and all, but....

I get the point of NaBloPoMo... motivate people to write on their blogs more frequently... but sometimes quantity negates quality...

Take this post for instance. Not a lot of substance.

I could

drag out

my sentences

to make it seem

longer...

but then that's just annoying.

So, yes, today's post is lame, as I don't have much to say, but since it's NaBloPoMo, I gotta get something on the page. And I'm heading to the BF's for dinner, which means I'm signing off of the interwebs for the night. I'm really tired, hella sore and I've been rockin' one doozy of a headache all day today, so while there are a few things I could (read: should) do tonight, I think some chill time with the fella is the better prescription.

See ya tomorrow!

Oh yeah! NaBloPoMo and another dance concert

Whoa, whoa, whoa... NaBloPoMo already?!?!

Um, yeah, I'm a little behind the times here... but whatever. No way in Hades am I going to pull off blog posts for the days I've missed but that doesn't mean I can't jump in and get-'er-done for the rest of the month. And awaaaaaay we go!

Nothing too exciting to report here... oh wait! Yes there is. My Student Dance Concert piece got selected to be featured in the Fall Dance Concert! I was one of four that was selected, out of 15. Not too shabby! So what I thought was going to be a chill week last week wasn't so chill, but it a-okay, because my piece got picked! Never in a trillion years did I think that was ever going to happen... not because I don't think I'm good enough, but because my style is a bit diff than everyone else's. I like to use mainstream music with lyrics (the faculty don't love this - oh, the horror!) and my movement tends to be more "pedestrian" or "vernacular", depending on who you ask... which just means you can see my hip hop/African/swing dancing background in my work. I don't make apologies for my style, but when it comes to school, I just don't expect to be picked for the Fall/Spring concerts. But I did! And I'm tickled pink.

This week's agenda... tech rehearsals tonight through Wednesday, dress rehearsal Thursday night, show time Friday and Saturday. And sweet jesus, Thanksgiving Break is only two weeks from now. Bring on the turkey and football and laying around in my jammies!

(Oh, and P.S.... I have a new project that I'm really excited about! I will fill you in sometime later this week... Have a fab week, y'all! xoxo!)

Miss you

Dear Blog,

I miss you. I had various posts in mind each day all last week, including the Aspen Adventures update and Halloween pics that I've promised my lovely readers... but then life got in the way. Just when I thought life would calm the eff down a bit with Student Dance Concert being done, my piece had to go and get selected to for Fall Dance Concert (!!!) and calm eluded me once again. This week will be more hectic than last, with tech and dress rehearsals and all, but hells bells, I'm going to try! Don't give up on me, dear Blog...

xoxo,
J