my life is a teenage love song

who wants that?

not me.

"Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God."

psalm 42:11

"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."

romans 5:1-5

mjl.

when life hands you lemons...SING!

I'm fairly certain I've asked this about a thousand times or so, but why, oh why, can't my life be a musical?

I know a lot of musical skeptics out there criticize musicals for being too unrealistic because "honestly, how often do large crowds break out into choreographed song/dance numbers?" but if you really look at musicals, it's not so much an actor making an unrealistic break from the monotony of speaking lines on stage, but a character who is so completely overwhelmed with [insert appropriate emotion here] that he/she simply cannot express how he/she feels in any other way than through song or dance.

See, the beauty of music is that it is able to be understood on nearly a universal level. It's kind of amazing when you think about it; the fact that we are able to take in something as seemingly simple as varying frequencies and pitches and are able to, not only hear & associate them with certain moods, but further convey our own emotions by constructing these pitches into melodies. It's beautiful! When you think about it, even a toddler learning to speak can tell the difference between what sounds like a 'happy' or 'sad' melody.

So it would make sense that something as intricate and beautiful as a song should be used to convey one's most emphatic emotions.

And that's how I feel.

I’ve been so overwhelmed with certain emotions lately that I would love nothing more than to literally drop everything and start singing at certain people.

That’s all for now.

mjl.

oh, George

"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."

"Enlightened people seldom or never possess a sense of responsibility."

"Part of the reason for the ugliness of adults, in a child's eyes, is that the child is usually looking upwards, and few faces are at their best when seen from below."

"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."

- George Orwell

on a side note. I saw a link to Obama quotes. A lot of them were about bringing changes to the Presidency. Hahahahah. I love the fact that change means bringing in a nearly identical cabinet to that of our last Democrat president's regime. Man, Barrie, way to push the envelope with your revolutionary "change".

I'd love to see a President who doesn't confine himself to party lines but would be willing to actually bring change to the office.

mjl.

Irene Ryan

http://www.kcactf-8.org/RyanxXLI.htm

Jess and I got the Irene Ryan nominations for Picasso!!!!

All praise and thanks to my Heavenly Father!

mjl.

MISSY = THTRPLSICOMM! (:

I'm almost officially a political science and theatre major with a communications minor (maybe)!!!! Yay! I have the paperwork filled out and signed, I just need to turn it in. I'm uberly excited.

Aaaaaand tech starts today! Yay! I'm so excited for Picasso. It really is going to be a great show.

Don't forget to come and see it!!!!



♥,

mjl.

what is hecuba to he or he to hecuba?

So....I'm bored.

Picasso is going really well! Except rehearsals have been canceled for tonight (hence the boredom) and tomorrow because of all the sickly lepers in our cast. I can't help but feel a little guilty cause I feel like I'm the one who started all of this when I got sick a few weeks ago. This was followed by Jess becoming sick, Tyree getting sick, and now Danvir and Max. Though I must say, I don't know if it's the stubborn, Black Knight attitude in me when it comes to rehearsals or what, but I didn't let some stupid fluish fever stop me from rehearsing. Then again, that may not be dedication so much as it is stupid and the reason everyone else is ill. But whatever, I've been feeling really connected with Suzanne lately and am in love with using the marvelous Kristin Chenoweth as an inspiration. It's so much fun! So everyone mark your calendars and come and see it!

In other news...I'm irate, to say the least, at the lack of action being taken by state governments to enforce voter integrity and make sure there's not voter fraud going on in major swing states like Ohio. My 11th grade history teacher (a now registered Democrat) told us how the Democratic party used to pay him to vote for dead people when he was a child growing up in New York...it's nice to hear things haven't changed much and no one's willing to do anything to stop it. So I can only hope that despite the deceitful, cheating methods of certain political parties, enough people will come together and vote for the one candidate who is truly qualified to run this country.

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see...By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. - Hebrews 11:1-3

amen.

mjl.

"it's the price of fame, I guess"

I got cast in Picasso at the Lapin Agile! I'm playing Suzanne! Yay!

This is kind of old news, but I don't think I ever officialy said it. So now it's been said. (:

All glory and thanks to my Heavenly Father for the infinite blessings He's put in my life.

mjl.

naked teeth.

it is official.

the teeth are nude.

hallelujah. praise the Lord.

here's me...braces free.


in other news...
we had auditions for Picasso at the Lapin Agile last night (or technically two nights ago, since I do believe we are now almost 2 hours into Thursday morning).
I've been uberly excited about this for a while because I've never gotten a chance to work with the amazing Zoe Saba apart from when she directed Jess and myself for our Acting I final, and even in that short amount of time, both Jess and I had so much fun working with her and couldn't wait for this fall.

so anyways...yeah, I auditioned for Suzanne, who in the original play also played the Countess and the "female admirer" (which I was kind of hoping to do, cause getting to create 3 different characters would be too much fun (: ), but I believe Zoe has decided to cast separate actresses for each role, which is, of course, fine too. Moving on...Suzanne is not, by any means, my dream role. She will definitely be the most risque character I've had to play onstage (she speaks freely about her sex life and changes her shirt onstage, which will most likely be amended or taken out. so, as you can imagine, she is a 19 year old very different from myself).
I'm a little worried about my parents seeing their little girl up onstage talking about sleeping around but I'm hoping they'll remember that it's just a character and not me...no method acting involved.
Anyways...Zoe seemed pleased with my cold reading of one of Suzanne's monologues and had me read again with Danvir as Picasso and Michael as Gaston on Tuesday night; however, I was less than pleased with my cold readings and after Zoe dismissed me from the preliminary auditions with a farewell very similar to one I heard her give a girl last year who didn't even move on to callbacks, the anxiety and worrying grew exponentially.

So all last night and this morning was pretty much me convincing myself that I wasn't going to get a callback, let alone get cast in the show. (I have some serious self-doubt issues, so an entire evening + most of this morning to stew in my own anxieties was not a good combination for me). So when Jess told me she'd gotten the e-mail informing her of callbacks, I was suuuuuper stressed. I seriously refused to click on the New Mail link for like 5 minutes cause I had to pray and tell myself that it didn't matter if I didn't get cast. Thankfully, God, in his infinite wisdom, blessed me with the opportunity to perform again tonight because I did indeed receive an e-mail to get called back.

So call backs were really fun. I love getting the opportunity to read with different people and experiment with different stuff depending on who I'm working with, so this is usally my favorite part of the audition process.
Amazingly enough, when I arrived at callbacks, I was fortunate enough to see that I was the only one called back for Suzanne and Jess was the only one called back for Germaine (: So, at the risk of jumping the gun since we haven't officially been cast yet, there was much rejoicing from Jess and myself once we got to my car (mainly in the form of girly screams, haha). We've been through so many shows together, and have both had to go through getting rejected (we were both called back as freshmen last year for Lend Me a Tenor but didn't end up getting cast), plus she's one of my best and closest friends, so I'm really really happy for us finally getting our chance to have substantial parts in a real(as in, written by an actual professional) play on the mainstage at csub. that is, assuming we did get cast....cause there's still the chance that we didn't, i suppose.

So yeah. After some bad luck earlier in the week (I found out I have the misfortune of having to see someone I really don't care for every single day because this person is in a lot of my classes and i got a flat this morning), God has totally turned this week around and blessed me more than I could ask for.

I am completely and incandescently happy.
All thanks and joy to my Heavenly Father.

mjl.

first day of school! first day of school!

boo.

as much as i wanted to go back a couple weeks ago when everyone else was gone at school and i was stuck with my 2 day a week work schedule, i really am unprepared for tomorrow.

i just bought my books this morning on amazon, so they won't even be here for probably a week or two. plus i haven't even paid tuition cause the frekaing mortgage company is screwing my parents over with a $4000 a month house payment, so they didn't have my tuition money last week.

so hopefully they'll let me pay tomorrow without too huge of a fine.

whatever.

in other news.

i think i'm finally getting my braces off tomorrow!!!!!!

i know i posted a blog like this months ago, but this time, i think it's really going to happen.

pray for me all you out there in bloggerland!

until then,
mjl.

mama i'm a guitarist now

So, I finally taught myself guitar, and it's ridiculous how much easier it is to play by ear. After only a couple hours on my first real day of playing, I can pretty much play all of "S.O.S" by the Jonas Brothers and I did it all by ear. Arguably, it's a pretty simple song, but I'm extremely proud of myself.

After 14 years of being taught that reading music was the only way, I'm so happy that I can finally play an instrument by ear somewhat succesfully.

Today is a good day and just another example of how God spoils me.

In other news...


I think McCain took like a 10 pt lead in the polls today.

Hellz Yeah. The future of our American government is looking brighter everyday.

Mainly cause the prospect of higher taxes being used to pay for a universal health care system that will allow people to literally do nothing but sit on their butts since the government will pay for/take care of their health care does not appeal to me in the slightest. That's the thing about these facist/socialist ideals that many (not all) liberals have and I just don't get; why would you want a bigger, more obtrusive government butting into your life, forcing you to be exactly the same as everyone else? Because God knows it'd be horrible for you to want to work hard, succeed, and push yourself forward in life. No! That's too unfair to the people who don't want to have to work hard; which forces you to lose that which you're working hard for as the massive, Socialist monster takes your hard earned wages and gives them to everyone else.
Why can't we keep what we earn? Barack suggests income taxes as high as 50% for some people!! That is beyond ridiculous! Especially with the way the tax brackets are set up, families like mine, who barely make the minimum amount to be put in their bracket, get taxed just as much as families who make a substantially larger amount. It's so stupid.

Oh, and the idea that the republicans fighting these higher taxese are only doing so because they're wealthy, capitalist pigs and they'll get hit the hardest by the astronomically high taxes is ridiculous as well. Coming from a poor little capitalist who gets too much taken out of her minimum wage paycheck in taxes, people should be able to work hard without fear of having half their paycheck sent away to other people who may be doing nothing but taking advantage of this mockery of a health care/welfare system where it seems you can do almost nothing and reep financial benefits for it.

In the words of the wonderful Mike Huckabee, "I'm not a republican because I was born rich. I'm a republican so I wouldn't have to spend the rest of my life poor waiting for the governemnt to bail me out."

*phew* Sorry, that was a lot of ranting, but I had to get it off my chest.

PLEASE REGISTER TO VOTE!!!!!



mjl.

you are the music in me

after 10 years of vocal training and 14 years of playing the old "eighty-eight", i'm finally starting to write music.

or, rather, i'm attempting to write music.

i'm still a little on the hopeless side of coming up with original lyrics that are meaningful and not overrun with fluffly pop stuff, but i'm pleased with how easily the chord progressions are coming to me.

it's becoming progressively more simple to hear the pitches i want in my head and then transfer them into a nicely harmonized chords on the piano.

but here's the rub, due to my lack of composition training, i'm kind of stuck on simple chord progressions with basic harmonizing octaves in the bass part (imagine the beginning of "Love Song" by Sara Bareilles), which is no fun for me because it makes me feel like a no talent poser who can't make original music, which may very well be the case, but i don't like feeling that way. so the goal is to make more original sounding chord progressions, which is working for now...but whatevz, this talk of chord progressions is boring me and i'm a musician, i can't imagine the pain i've just you poor blog-landers through.
bottom line = i'm just glad to finally be doing something with my decade and a half of musical training.

to whom it may concern (whoms being BC and CSUFullerton peeps), have an awesometastical first week of school y'all!
and to my pallys who have recently left/are soon leaving for schoolio out of town, i love you all, miss you already, and will see you laters!

Til Then.

mjl.

and if occasionally he'd ponder what makes Shakespeare & Beethoven great, him i could love til i die

i'm listening to a variety of classical music right now. well, i suppose after taking my music class this past spring, i can't in good mind call it "classical" since what i'm listening to really ranges from the romantic period (Chopin's Nocturne in C# minor) to, what i would imagine is, the modern period (movie scores from Pan's Labyrinth, Narnia, and Pride & Prejudice).

*sigh*

it never ceases to amaze me how truly beautiful music can be. isn't it fantastic and yet utterly bizarre to think that something as seemingly simple as an arrangement of varying pitches and tones can make you feel such an enormous range of emotions?
i mean, just from my own meager point of view, i have felt anywhere from ecstatic to utterly melancholy & heartbroken when listening to a song. and sometimes these mixed emotions can be derived from the same song! it's crazy! and then, to think that music can trigger certain things in one's brain and memory is even crazier!

it's like when God is talking to Job about creation and says that "the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy". CS Lewis used that idea of music being used at the world's creation and transfered it to Narnia where Aslan sings the world into existance. maybe it's just the music nerd in me, but that would be a phenomally cool way to create the world and would help explain why music has such an awesome influence on our brains.

though one thing's for sure, it makes me curious as to what it might sound like to hear angels and stars sing. it blows my mind even trying to grasp at how powerfully and magnificently beautiful that's going to sound.

alright, i'm done geeking out about music for now. hope my rambling didn't bore you too much. to whom it may concern, enjoy your first day of school! and to everyone else, enjoy your last few weeks of summer!

"Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders.
In a loud voice they sang:
“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!”

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing:
“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!”

The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped."

revelations 5:11-14

amen and amen.
mjl.

what are you going to go write about that in your blog?

so, this is fairly old news but as i rake my brain for topics to keep my dusty old blog from getting so...well, dusty, this is pretty much all i can think of. so. here we go.

for any of you out there in blogland who didn't know, some of the, let's call them, "quirkiest" people you can imagine tend to flock to my workplace of Edwards Cinema like the Israelites exodus-ing Egypyt. Some have names (ie "Tiny"-the burly 6'smthg" man whose voice register rivals mickey mouse's & "Two Hot Dogs & a large Diet"-a guy who ALWAYS, no matter what, orders two hot dogs and a large diet coke when he ocmes in), but most just deliver an anonymously quick and unwanted batch of driveby freakiness. this story pertains to two quirky gentlement in particular that i had the "good fortune" (?) of serving a few weeks ago.

aaaaaand ACTION!

Two Gents: *approach counter*
Missy: "Hi! How're you doing?"
Two Gents: "Fine and you?"
Missy: "Good, what can I get for you?"
Two Gents: "*list off random overpriced concession items*"
Missy: *gets concession items & returns to counter*
Annoying Fly: *flies in Missy's face*
Missy: *attempts to swat at Annoying Fly who is repeatedly flying in her face* "Is that going to be all?"
Gent #1: "Uh, do you have turrets or something?"
Gents #1&2: *laugh*
Missy: "....No. There's a fly."
Gent #1: "Well, I don't see it."
Missy: "*forced laugh*Haha........"
Gent #1: "What are you going to go write about that in your blog?"
Two Gents: "*laugh some more*"
Missy: "*more forced laughter*haha, sure........have a nice day."

so. here i sit. writing about it in my blog to appease the fat gentleman who accused me of having turrets. i hope you're happy, sir. if nothing else, you've served as a quick detour from my writer's block.

amen and amen.
mjl.

home alone...not

so, for those of you out there who may be unfamiliar with traditions of the family lonsinger...ever since i can remember, my grandparents (dad's parents) rent a beach house somewhere on the coast and my dad's entire side of the family stays there for a designated amount of time. it used to be a couple weeks, went down to a week, and now they're only staying for a few days. and as the times have changed, so have the beaches. we used to stay at morro bay and cayucous, then we started migrating towards pismo. currently, we're in oceano (a little town on pismo).

so i've taken a quick break from the family time to check the myspace, facebook, etc. and, of course, write to you loverly readers out in blogland. (if there were any doubts that my life is utterly lame, they were destroyed in the last sentence). the latest family event...dinnertime.

now, for those of you out there keeping score, there are (including myself) 2 grandparents, 4 uncles, 3 aunts, 8 grandchildren, 2 girlfriends of 2 of my cousins, and 1 friend of another cousin living in this house...that's right 22 people in one house going after ribs and clam chowder at the same time. it's kind of like a mix of home alone (you know, in the beginning of the movie when they're always scrambling around the house and they forget macaulay culkin) and those feeding frenzies you see on animal planet when the family of lions takes down the lame antelope with the gimpy leg.

but it's my family and i love 'em.

amen.
mjl.

a very merry unbirthday to me

so this whole birthday week has been absolutely phenomenal. everyday since tuesday has been overrun with going out to restaurants and getting to spend quality time with people that i love (with the exception of my actual birthday and friday when i had to work and was surrounded by the bizarre at Edwards). i couldn't have asked for a better birthday, and it's not even done!

tonight I finally get to go to the Jonas Brothers concert, and although I'm not necessarily looking forward to getting my eardrums punctured by the shrieks and squeals of thousands of teenage girls, I really do enjoy their music, and the fact that the boys are actually quite handsome, doesn't hurt either. (:

And after tonight, we go to Disneyland! Well, sort of. We go to Disneyland tomorrow morning, which should be spectacular. I love Disneyland. So yeah, this entire birthday week is pretty amazing. Thank you to all who've contributed to this awesomeness. I love you!

mjl.

about me

I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord...I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
-Philippians 3:8-14

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge- that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
-Ephesians 3:16-19

happy birthday to me (:

amen.
mjl.

we the people of the united states, in order to form a more perfect union...

happy late independence day!

in honour of the anniversary of the spectacular anarchy that broke our nation away from the oppresive rule of a tyrannical Britain in the late 18th century, i'm putting the most razor-sharp & insightful political outlooks on the American Revolution here on my humble blog.

That's right.

It's School House Rock time. (:






Hope your 4th was happy.

mjl.

i'll take a Venti Bittersweetened Transcript, shaken please

so who out there in blog land can solve this equation...

3-12 hours of rehearsal 5-7 days a week for 2.5 months
+
turning in 0 hmwk assignments in PHIL and a handful in MUS
+
skipping class way 2 much
=
?


Correct Answer:
Music = B
Logic/Reasoning = B-
Rehearsal/Performance = A

If you got it right, give yourself a gold star.

It's kind of bittersweet. I'm glad I didn't fail like I had thought I was going to, but the sad thing is, there should've been no reason for me to even consider failing as a possibility because these classes were ridiculously easy and I could've gotten 100% if I had actually turned in all the assignments and gone to class more often.
I hate being lazy.
From here on out, no more ditching. No more B's that could've been A's.


Amen.
mjl.

dona nobis pacem

God is our refuge and strength,

an ever-present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way

and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

though its waters roar and foam

and the mountains quake with their surging.....

“Be still, and know that I am God;

I will be exalted among the nations,

I will be exalted in the earth.”

The Lord Almighty is with us;

the God of Jacob is our fortress.


- Psalm 46: 1-3, 10-11



Amen.
mjl.

gather my insufficiencies and place them in your hands

You know how they say God works in strange and mysterious ways?

Totally true.

He never ceases to amaze me.

There've been a few things weighing heavily on my heart lately, and it seems like every single time I've felt that way and then gone to church the next Sunday or read an online devotional, the topics I'm reading or hearing seem to be totally personal and directed towards me, which sounds kind of creepy, but it's truly awesome.

It's like, I know these messages I'm reading/hearing were not written by their authors specifically to help me out with my problems at that particular moment, but God works through them to make it personal and helpful to me, which is such a cool feeling, cause I know that same message is helping someone else with completely different circumstances.

So even when things seem to be going to pot, and I truly cannot see how God can make something good out of my crappy situations, he manages to do so. So my advice to anyone out there in blog land who may be reading this is simply to hold on and have faith. Honestly, it's the best (& often hardest) thing to do. Go to God with your problems; He truly wants to help, even though it doesn't seem like it sometimes when we're stuck with really awful situations, He really, truly does.
Even though I've only been on this earth for a very short 19 years, I've endured a lot of death and sadness, some of the worst being the deaths of my little sister, Hayley, and my grandpa, and yet there is not one single situation I can think of where God did not pick me up, carry me through it, and help me learn something from that situation.

So please don't lose hope. Like it says in Matthew 28, "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." God is there with you and wants to help, you just need to make the small effort of asking Him for it.

So praise be to God in his awesome power and wisdom for, yet again, blessing my life, and I'm sure your's as well.

Amen & Amen.

mjl.

thus all fairy stories end

Evita is finally over ):
I'm going to miss that show so much. It didn't really hit me until the balcony scene last night; as Jess stood there singing "Don't Cry for Me", I actually began to tear up. As I stood there I realized how much time we had all put into the show & how much I'd taken for granted the blessings of being able to hang out and perform with such amazingly sweet & talented human beings practically every day for the past couple months. I will never forget the friends I've made in the Evita cast, they are truly spectacular human beings and I love them.

So after the show we had the longest strike I've ever been involved in. I'm thinking the show ended around 4ish, but strike didn't end until 10smthg. I spent the majority of the time helping make one or two person jobs into three (or when necessity called, four or five) person jobs with Francisco and Gabriel. It was fun (: Though even though we may not have been choosing the most productive routes to getting our jobs done, we were at least working, which is more than can be said of certain people in the cast who hid in the annex and did nothing.

Afterwards, michael, francisco, gabriel, jess, and myself sojourned to our last Evita denny's trip where Jess & I were entertained with some v. funny stories about Amazing Race contestants/chemically inbalanced former CSUB theatre students/creepy old CSUB professors who talk slow and push up their glasses a lot. So overall it was a fun night.
I really am going to miss hanging out with these people, especially since I've spent anywhere from 3-12 hours a day, with some of them, almost everyday for the past two months or so. ): But I'm hopeful that we will hang out more in the future, and we still have our Disneyland trip ahead of us, so that should be awesome.

Until then,

mjl.

it was like love at first sight with my ears

COME SEE EVITA at CSUB this weekend and next!

It's amazing!
Opening night went fabulously, last night was pretty good, and tonight will be spectacular cause we have an adjudicator coming so we have to be.

So come enjoy our amazing musical that we've worked so hard on (:

See you there,
mjl.

music is the inhaler to my proverbial asthma

and schubert's "Erlking" is my inhaler stuffed with tobacco.
that is easily one of the scariest songs written, so it's not surprising that it's considered one of the great "German Art Songs" (or "lieder" in the tongue of mein stämme)

So, "erlking" (or erlkönig) translates into "elf king" or something similar, and he's essentially this demonic creature who lures children and has a fatal touch. He was basically made up to scare little German kinder like myself. Here's a picture of the lovely fellow and one of his victims.

Tres terrifying, non? Though, I think he's usually depicted as being more handsome because he is supposed to lure little children.

I can recall Amy playing it for Megan and I when I was about Megan's age now and thinking it was terrifying then, how fortuitous, then, was I, when I discovered that we would get to discuss it in class and in even more depth at home for homework?

Here's a translation of the terrifying piece of art into english:
Narrator:Who rides there so late through the night dark and drear?
The father it is, with his infant so dear;
He holdeth the boy tightly clasp'd in his arm,
He holdeth him safely, he keepeth him warm.

Father:"My son, wherefore seek'st thou thy face thus to hide?"
Son:"Look, father, the Erl-King is close by our side!
Dost see not the Erl-King, with crown and with train?"
Father:"My son, 'tis the mist rising over the plain."

Erlking:"Oh, come, thou dear infant! oh come thou with me!
Full many a game I will play there with thee;
On my strand, lovely flowers their blossoms unfold,
My mother shall grace thee with garments of gold."

Son:"My father, my father, and dost thou not hear
The words that the Erl-King now breathes in mine ear?"
Father:"Be calm, dearest child, 'tis thy fancy deceives;
'Tis the sad wind that sighs through the withering leaves."

Erlking:"Wilt go, then, dear infant, wilt go with me there?
My daughters shall tend thee with sisterly care
My daughters by night their glad festival keep,
They'll dance thee, and rock thee, and sing thee to sleep."

Son:"My father, my father, and dost thou not see,
How the Erl-King his daughters has brought here for me?"
Father:"My darling, my darling, I see it aright,
'Tis the aged grey willows deceiving thy sight."

Erlking"I love thee, I'm charm'd by thy beauty, dear boy!
And if thou'rt unwilling, then force I'll employ."
Son"My father, my father, he seizes me fast,
Full sorely the Erl-King has hurt me at last."

Narrator:The father now gallops, with terror half wild,
He grasps in his arms the poor shuddering child;
He reaches his courtyard with toil and with dread,--
The child in his arms finds he motionless, dead.

.........so....yeah. That's pretty much it. Though, arguably, it's a lot creepier in German. And to get the full effect, you really need to hear the music that goes with it and the creepy/sweetness of the Erlking. So, now that I've been able to share with you the terror of my people, let me enlighten you with some good news.

I left my two weeks notice via voicemail this morning at the country club (:
At this point, I'm just waiting to get the call that I'm assuming is inevitably going to come from my boss, but whatever, I will be strong this time and not be a doormat. I've been praying for strength and it's going to hold.

In other, other news...Evita opens this Thursday!!!!
We had our first run through with costumes yesterday and I have, approximately, 83billion.98734 costume changes! It's quite chaotic. Plus, my the underwire lining on my corset has bruised my sternum and I now have, what looks like, an infected cut on the back of my ankle from my character shoes...but apart from that, I'm really excited about the show :D

Come and see it this weekend or next! It'll be awesome! (I hope :D)

mjl.

there's an inexplicably catatonic mexican woman behind me, isn't there?

So, after months of threatening to do so, I finally cut my hair for charity.
The Verdict: ...Eh.



It looks ok, I suppose, but it's sooooo short :(

in other job news....it's like i was just hit by a hurricane of job chaos this past week or two.
it started with me leaving a note at the country club saying I was going to be gone 3 wknds in May and that I'd gladly take the shifts of whoever could fill in for me.
Little did I know this was going to cause my boss to freak out and call me, telling me that when I was hired I agreed things like this wouldn't happen; which was news to me. He then proceeded to ask me how often "this is going to happen" (this being the shows I perform in), to which I replied, "Well, my next show probably won't be until November", enter the Boss: "*Napoleon Dynamite siiiiiiiigh* You know, I really don't need this right now, and if this problem is going to be a regular thing, we're going to have to find a reliable worker to take your place."
What the heck?! I'm not going on holiday here, bud, this is school! So this conversation ended with him saying I'd have to come in from 8-12 on the two show weekends and work anyways and that he'd try to find someone to take my other shifts.
Gah!
So this situation ended with me calling the next day and leaving a voicemail with my two weeks notice, telling him that my schedule is obviously too unpredictable for their liking so I'll leave. This resulted in him calling and saying "You're a valued employee, and we don't want to lose you. It's hard to find someone we trust and obviously it's not economical right now for us to go through training with a new employee. So, if you will, do you think you could hold on through may til june and we'll see how it goes for the summer?" Which, to me, sounded like "We don't want to hire someone right now and train them. Please stay"
But, being the doormat that I am, I agreed to stay on T_T My chums in Evita say I'm being too nice and offered all sorts of "advice" on how I should quit (my favorite was dropping one fire ant down my boss' cast on his leg)
So, that kinda stunk...especially since this past weekend was the invitational and I had to work about 12 hours both Saturday and Sunday, which was torturous, but apart from that, I recently got really great job news that makes this all ok!

I got hired at Edwards Cinema! Yay! Free movies for Missy! Aaaaand, I got a call the other day from Dr. Falconer at the Tutoring Center at Cal State, so I may have 3 jobs come next school term (including Rabobank, if I ever decide to work there)! Yay! Praise the Lord! God is good!
So now I'm really going to have to quit the country club for real, which should be disasterous, but hopefully I'll have a back bone and actually quit this time :/ (I'll bring an ant just in case :D)

So that's that. A lot has happened in the past couple weeks, but God has gotten me through it :D And now we approach tech weekend, which should be fun :D and soon we get to open! yay Evita! I love this show and my cast member so much!

Sorry you all had to endure a whole lot of ranting, but I really needed to get it all out, thanks for reading my dear listeners, and I will see you next time!

Until then,
mjl.

"hey, i've got The Hives for you" "i beg your pardon"

two words.
Carol Channing.
oh my goodness.

so, thursday night we got to hear her talk for an hour or so about her childhood, theatre, and the meaning of life...you know, the usual. and let me tell you, any fears i ever had about getting old are gone when i see that woman. she is 87 and not only is she still kickin', but she is hilarious and still the tony award-caliber performer she was 60 years ago.

towards the end of her lecture, she started into this beautiful monologue from Hello Dolly and then started singing "before the parade passes me by" (or whatever it's called)....it was AMAZING. it was like "is this really happening? am i really watching this legendary Broadway star perform in front of me?" wow, it was amazing.

so Friday night, as if i wasn't geeked out enough already, we got to perform on the same stage as her. we sang "santa evita" (among other awesome songs performed by the amazingly talented CSUB theatre students) and after a brief intermission, got to watch her perform. it was spectacular, to say the least.

she invited us to sing a chorus of "Hello Dolly" with her.
.............
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

i geeked out even more.
oh, and she blew a kiss at me and smiled at me a lot :D
she's such a sweet lady!

so yeah, all the carol channing-ness gave me some happy thoughts for the weekend of boredom at work i just endured while some of my besties were out having a grand ole time in frazier park...but now the weekend is over, thank the Lord :D

until then,
mjl.

"she was young, but now she is dead. dead like any animal who's ever died."

i love The Office.
i am beyond ecstatic that it's back on the tele.
last night's episode was awesome.
i love jim halpert, as well as everyone else in the entire show, but especially jim.

news for today:
-got a 62.5/60 on my music exam :D (we got 4 EC points to "curve" it out, but i had already missed 1.5 for getting a song name wrong)
-went to the gym & re-fell in love with the ab machine *sigh*
-made more cookies (=cancel out any good things brought about by the gym)
-i do NOT want to go to work this weekend. i'm not-so-secretly hoping that the country club burns down so i don't have to go back there ever again


oh, and i'm going to see the Jonas Brothers this summer.
sure this is old news, but it just kind of hit me that i'm going to a freaking awesome concert this summer that will totally be amazing :D

that is all

mjl.

"oh, you're hardly my first!" "THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!!!"

our vocal director for Evita, Ms. Peggy Sears, makes me laugh (among many others in the cast of Evita), though she tends to do it unintentionally by vocalizing what we are all thinking but dare not say...here are just two examples.

Peggy:"Where are the people who keep messing that note up? Where's John Paul?"


Mandy:"You guys need to sing that last chorus of 'Rainbow Tour' sort of disheartened"
Peggy:"Oh, they won't have any trouble doing that."

mjl.

ashton kutcher, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, & love

so my day has basically gone like this.

wake up at 9:00.


eat a microwaved cinnamon/brown sugar poptart.


watch punk'd for an hour.


bake cookies while watching That 70's show for an hour.

+


sit on myspace & facebook while listening to Love by The Bealtes

+

+


Conclusion:
-I love not having class on Tuesdays or Thursdays.
-Ashton Kutcher is pretty funny.
-All you need is Love.

mjl.

los descamisados

I love being in Evita. I really do. Apart from maybe "Beauty & the Beast", this is the most excited I've ever been about a show.

Though as glorious as it is, it's preventing me from seeing my family or friends (except for the ones that are in it with me :D). I'm lucky if I can get an hour or two with my family on any given day.

I'm hardly coherent when they leave for school in the morning and then when I come home from rehearsals at 10:30, they're asleep :( And I can't even see them on the weekends cause of stupid work. GAH! But whatever, at least I get this weekend off.

mjl.

put me down for a lifetime of success...

give me credit, i'll find ways of paying
stand back! Buenos Aires! Because,
you want to know whatcha gonna get in me
just a little touch of star quality!
*and pose*

two words.

dance solo.

so as marilyn was teaching us the rest of "Buenos Aires" she called Cassie and I forward to have this little dance duet thing followed by dance solos by cassie & myself :D yay! thank you Lord! though i won't lie, it's a little bizarre to be the "dancers" in the show...that sounds stupid, what i mean is, we've always been shoved to the back as the real "dancers" got to be up front doing all the cool stuff, so yay for me & cassie :D
granted, my solo is only an eight count of me on my own and cassie's is two, but whatever, it's definitely a step up from what we're used to :D and then for the rest of the dance cassie and i are in the front :) it's very very cool :) so i hope you all enjoy when you come and see our magnificent show.

in other cool evita news...
i found out last night that i suck at rumba-ing. gah, i am hopeless at dancing "sensually" as marilyn puts it...i am supposed to be very close and pressed into gabriel while we dance, without looking too awkward/not somewhat in love with my partner like i'm supposed to :/ so hopefully that will get better....hopefully.

so yeah. evita is so fun. easily the best show i've been in. i love everyone in our cast and crew...almost, haha, just kidding...but not really :D

God is good.

Amen & Amen,
mjl.

should i start this song out with a question?

i might be getting my braces off today.

cross your proverbial fingers.

these stupid things are causing me some serious pain and cancor sores. hopefully dr. martz will listen to my monologue of how suckish they are and how i can't wear rubberbands due to the pain, therefore making me continue to wear rubber bands won't do anything for my teeth since i can't even wear them so he might as well take them off....
but hopefully i'll say that more eloquently.

i've had braces since the beginning of my jr. year (aka...2005).
before that i had them for the entirety of the 8th grade (aka...2002-03).



i want them off!!!!!

mjl.

*UPDATE*
....not only are the braces still on...

i now have two more rubberbands stretching across my teeth T_T

supposedly, during my next visit in may, i will receive my last adjustment and the appointment after that, i'll get my braces off.....i don't believe them, but whatever...hopefully it's true.

have i not commanded you...

be strong and courageous? do not be terrified, do not be discouraged for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go....Joshua 1:9

*the names and locations have been changed to protect the guilty*

man. what a week. although this is now old news, i awoke thursday morning to hear that mum had called Mrs. Josefina to tell her about the rumours I'd been hearing about Josefina's affiliations with drugs. this came as a bit of a shock to everyone and flung quite a bit of rage my way from a couple of my friends in particular.

yet oddly enough, this did not phase me...because as mad as they were, i had no doubts that what i did was the right thing to do. God obviously has a plan for everyone's life and I know that if he didn't want Josefina's mom to know about her doing drugs, he wouldn't have had me talk to mum about it and in turn, have mum talk to Josefina's mom about it.

i truly love and care for my friends, which is the only reason i did what i did.

mum later talked to mrs. josefina the next day at an awards assembley and relayed to me that mrs. josefina said josefina wasn't mad at me (ha) and that if all of us knew about her doing drugs and i'm the only one who did something about it, i'm the only true friend she has. :/
i don't know about that...i have no doubts that my other friends care about josefina...i'm just not sure they realized the gravity of the situation josefina put herself in. i will assume from their reactions to her doing drugs that they haven't had loved ones' lives ruined by drug use...for which i'm grateful, because i wouldn't wish that on anyone :( it's horrible...though i wouldn't have minded a little support. but what's done is done.
it turns out only one of my friends was seriously ticked about me trying to help josefina, and josefina called friday to say thank you and ask if we can just put it behind us...so whatever. cool beans, i guess. if she meant it, that's awesome, if not, then whatever. what's done is done and i'm cool with moving on.

trusting God in times of trouble brings such peace and, honestly, it feels amazing when things are going to pot (wow, bad un-intended pun) and He grants you with a spirit of peace and serenity.

Amen & Amen.
mjl.

and the money kept rolling rolling rolling...

Evita Status: Still amazing. Rehearsals are like the highlight of my day. I love it so much. I found out the other day that I get to learn the Rumba (sp?) for marco's tango song with this really nice guy named Gabe who graduated from Cal State a few years ago. i'm excited to be getting good stage time as an ensemble member, it's something new to me who usually gets shoved to the back with a giant bonnet covering her face T_T ok that's a lie, i got pretty good stage time in "Beauty and the Beast" considering it was my first musical ever, it's just "annie get your gun" and "wizard of Oz" that gave me some trouble...

oh, and i also may have a singing solo! yay! In the song "Santa Evita" there are supposed to be little girls singing, so we have four "young women" (as peggy calls us) singing it. Amanda sings the first verse, I sing the second, and Aly & Maria join us on the third...though it's probably, more likely than not, going to be changed to me having to sing a duet on the second verse cause maria wasn't there yesterday and peggy said they might have it so that there are voices being added on with each verse...but whatever, i'm still in love with rehearsing for this show :D

...moving on...

Jonas Brothers Status:
Lodge 7 Row SS

eh. i'm a little perterbed that I've been on the computer since 7 and had my code ready for forever only to have the middle section be the best seats i can get right at 10:00 AM when the presale started...especially when some girl on Team Jonas (who doesn't even live in California, but lives in Pennsylvania!) was able to get row 4 orchestra seats at 10:02...but whatever, i need to be appreciative of the fact that i got tickets at all, and they really aren't too horrible.



so thank you God for giving me the opportunity to be able to go!
and thank you me for getting myself such an awesome 19th birthday present...I am such a giver.

goodnight and goodbye.

...ok, not really, it's only 11:25 AM, but whatever...

mjl.

jai guru deva.

thanks to the Heavenly Teacher.

even though it's a Hindu mantra, man, is it true.

thanks be to God for all he has blessed me with. i was complaining all yesterday about how i hate my new job and how horrible my first day was (which arguably, having everything fall apart 5 minutes before closing with no one there to help is a pretty nightmarish situation), but after church last night and finishing Frank Peretti's The Wounded Spirit today during work, I realized how good I have it.

God has blessed me and provided for me so much throughout my life and when one little thing goes wrong, I completely fall apart. Why? Is there any possible way I can convince myself that these mediocre problems I'm facing can even slightly compare to some of the horrible things going on with other people that still manage to trust that God will see them through? No.

Even looking at the people in my own life, like mum. She's had to lose one of her babies, her father, and in not too long, as Nonnie's demensia gets worse, her mother, yet she remains strong in her faith.

Things like seeing my mom stay strong, reading the words of authors like Peretti and Lewis, and of course being immersed in God's Word through church and the Bible have been great inspirations and given me the necessary push to remember what I'm going through is not that bad, and even if it seems like it is horrible at the time, God is still with me, helping me through it.

so in the words of Paul & John:
"jai guru deva...nothing's gonna change my world"
mjl.

"So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."
Isaiah 41:10

bailando queen

the majority of evita rehearsals tonight was dancing.

i cannot tell you how good it feels to be dancing again :) it makes me miss dancing at Civic

...but anyways, the Buenos Aires dance looks like it's going to be really cool, especially the partner stuff, once it gets all fixed up. michael and i are skilled and were doing pretty well. i love being twirled in and out, it reminds me of Dancing With the Stars :) though michael insists So You Think You Can Dance is better...psh.

but yeah, the dancing is cool and marilyn is so great to work with :) i'm very happy with life right now, until tomorrow when I have to go to my first day of work training at the stupid tennis pro shop. i need to find another job so i can get out of this one before i even start it. mum insists on starbucks....i'll take what i can get.

xoxo,
mjl.

oh the drama.

jonas brothers tickets went on presale this morning.
there's three hours of my life I'll never get back.
don't get me wrong, i love the brothers jonas, but the attempts made by tens of thousands of teenage girls to get presale codes and tickets all at the same time causing the server to crash multiple times was ridiculous.

i didn't even end up getting tickets since the irvine presale won't be happening for a couple days, but i may have blown my only chance at getting a presale code since i was going to get tickets for the san fran show and still have the code for it which i don't plan on using. oh well.

the real drama arrived about 20 minutes ago when i was making myself a ciabatta sandwich (the most delicious thing known to man). i opened up our cupboard and felt a sharp but subtle pain in the bottom of my foot, like barely stepping on the point of a thumbtack...the pain grew rapidly and i looked down to find a live bee attached to the bottom of my foot.

*cue freak out*

i've never been stung before and therefore had no idea if i was allergic or not. which caused me to jump around, screaming about the pain that was now spreading throughout my foot and the fact that i may be allergic and die at any second.

this was followed by mum coming at me with a huge steak knife. which, as you can imagine, was not the most comforting sight in the world. according to her, a knife is the best thing to use when flicking out a bee stinger.
.....
i was less than assured.

so there i was. leg up on our kitchen counter, mum going at my foot Sweeney style with a huge steak knife, followed by her tweezing it out.

quoth the mum, "wow, he left his whole bottom half in your foot."

....

mum has just informed me that there have been 16 bees found on our floor, some dead, some still alive. this includes the kamikaze killer who tried to murder me.

so this is basically the floor of the first story of our house right now.


stay away from bees, kids.

the end.
mjl.

*interesting side note* my name, melissa, is greek for honey bee. ironic, no? i am comprised of that which seeks to kill me.
put that in your pipe and smoke it.

mejor tarde que nunca

i have no idea if that's correct or not...my spanish has gone nowhere but downhill since taking it last year....but yeah, Happy (late) Easter!



oh yeah. and JB presale tickets go onsale in 10 hours...except the irvine show, which is the show i'm going to.....*unenthusiastic* yay.

oh yeah. (part deux). first night of Evita rehearsals were tonight. it was basically all dancing and tomorrow will be basically all singing. this is pretty much my dream of what rehearsals should be like: singing & dancing. it's like nothing but pure expression of art. i am excited.

hope all your Easters were blessed and spifftastical.

until then,
mjl

thank you and have a Good Friday

what's more surprising than seeing my dad come out from behind a screen dressed as a disciple of Jesus?

a)mom's very un-surprised face at seeing her own surprise party
b)jean pierre destroying a 500 year old tapestry
c)a fox news report on pandas watching other pandas getting it on
d)going to one of the best Good Friday services ever only to have it interuppted when we hear the creaking of two curtains being pulled apart revealing the kid who played jesus last night up on our church's cross wearing what looked like a paper machette diaper

if you guessed "d" then congratulations!

i literally had to close my eyes and bow my head for the remainder of the time he was visible in order to stop myself from laughing. it was not good. which saddened me because it really was a good service, apart from...that.

so happy Good Friday world, hopefully your serivce went better than mine.

♥
mjl

panda porn and maundy thursday

Happy Maundy Thursday everyone.
For those that don't know, Maundy Thursday is our celebration(?) or commemoration rather of the Last Supper.

So today started out with a huge deposit into the bank account which I planned on using to buy Jonas Brothers tickets later this week. That plan was short lived as Da informed me not 20 minutes later that he needed to borrow like $100 for gas and car washes for his and mum's car. T_T

After donating my Jonas $, chunk and I ventured to Food Maxx to buy groceries for mum to make party potatoes (= my favorite food of all time). On our way into Food Maxx, we passed a nasty dirty van which megan pointed out "needs to be waaa-", she was cut off because the scary, motorcycle leader-looking mama who drove that car was standing right next to it on her phone...scary. We later passed motorcycle mama 3 or 4 times in the store...scarier.

So yeah. Made some chocolate chip cookies later at home ("the best you've ever made" according to mum, i disagree) & when mum came home and flipped on some Fox News, we were privileged enough to watch one of the strangest reports I've ever seen...Panda Porn.

Apparently, the panda population was going down in China and the chinamen needed a way to spur the mating of the pandas...they tried viagra. didn't work. apparently male pandas were too lazy to mate and would rather chomp some bamboo (& who can blame them), but then someone got the idea to show them panda porn. weird.
the report went something like this:

british FN correspondant: "they show the pandas videos of other pandas getting it on which then makes those pandas want to get it on"

....yeah, it was weird. only slightly more weird than the maundy thursday service later that night...

for all my years of being a christian (i'm entering my 19th year of living as well as my 19th year of being a christian), i'm fairly certain i've never been to a maundy thursday service...soooooo, i didn't know what to expect tonight, but i know there was one thing i did not expect and that was seeing my father come out dressed as one of jesus' dsiciples...yeah.

the service paper thing said "'The Last Supper' - Presentation" which for our church usually means something a little werid...i'm expecting a video, maybe a skit. so when the time comes for the presentation to start, we hear some voices over mics from offstage and then faj comes on dressed as a disciple and i'm thinking ".....what is this?"...he was followed by 12 other men from our church (most of whom i recognized since most of them are our Elders), all dressed as disciples with the exception of the young guy dressed as Jesus who wore an acolyte's robe.

so the whole presentation was a bit on the odd side.
Jesus wasn't memorized and had to keep looking down at the table for his lines and then we had to receive communion from them which was even more odd and awkward.

upon approaching the table megan commented "oh no! i'm too short" which made me laugh/try to disguise my laugh as a cough (which didn't work). then mr. burzlaff (i don't know which disciple he was supposed to be) was attempting to break off the weird looking bread i was supposed to have but was having trouble. when he finally did break it, not only did he hand me a huge chunk, but also the several crumbs that went with it.

i ate the big chunk (which tasted like pie crust, of which i am not a fan at all), downed my wine to get rid of the taste of the pie crust body of Christ, and walked back to my seat with 4 or 5 good sized chunks of the same nasty pie crust in hand.

easily one of the more bizarre communions i've ever had.

though it was pretty funny when one of our senior pastors also got too much bread from mr. burzlaff. he was smarter than i and ate his big piece, then saved the smaller pieces to dunk into the common cup of wine, which broke off into the common cup when he did so, ahahaha. i love church :)

so that was my day in a walnut shell.

lessons learned:
-don't insult butch women's cars unless you're sure they're not in earshot.
-porn should only be advocated when advancing the panda population.
-dad doesn't need to wear disciple robes anytime soon.
-don't dunk your communion bread in the common cup.


amen.
mjl

happy birthday hayley

Today would've been my little sister Hayley's 15th birthday. :(
But she gets to celebrate it in Heaven, which is cooler than anything we could've done for her here. I love you Hayley.

Ironically enough, we celebrated mum's birthday today...even though her birthday isn't til april 5th....but it had to be a surprise party since it's her 50th and we had to find a time when Amy was here...so it was tonight...surprise.

Mum looked less than surprised as she couldn't figure out why her friends were all standing in the corner...yelling "surprise"...I enjoyed replaying her face for my family as often as I could...that was fun.

I also poned at Scattergories.

Letter: L.
Cattegory: States.
Everyone Else's Answer: Louisiana.
My Answer: Lethargy.
Conclusion: I rock.

Though arguably some of the best Scattergories moments came from Maddy's and Megan's answers.

Letter: M.
Category: Crimes.
Megan's Answer: Mutilation.
Conclusion: Megan is a little creepy sometimes.

Letter: A.
Category: Author.
Maddy's Answer: Alfred Einstein.
Conclusion: Einstein had an unheard of brother who wrote books.

amen.
mjl

There's No Place Like Home

And there's no better way to start a blog than with a cliche.

Home at last after a daunting three days on various coasts of the Pacific Ocean. This trip has been fun. I can't even begin to say how cool it's been to get to spend time with no one but my family after what seemed like months on end of not getting to see them for longer than an hour or two each day because of rehearsals or stage managing, and it was cooler cause Amy was actually with us rather than thousands of miles away in Wisco.

Today's adventures consisted of checking out of our suite, a quick trip to Morro Bay to buy some British Candy (Aero bars are now officially my new favorite thing), a long tour of Hearst's Castle, and a dinnerish type meal in Cambria.

I'd been to Hearst's Castle before when I was like 11, so needless to say, I'd forgotten what it was like. Our loverly tour started with a 40 minute long IMAX film on the history of Hearst castle...this was somewhat less than amusing. Especially considering there was a Hispanic woman talking to her little daughter in Spanish throughout the entire movie...even more than somewhat less than amusing. Plus the fact that Hearst kind of looked like a child molestor and was a bit of a creepo was even scarier on a huge IMAX screen.

The tour itself was actually pretty cool. We got to ride up on this bus and as we were driving up to the castle, we had an amazing view of the Pacific Ocean which had a magnificent blanket of cloud over it, with little mountain and hilltop peaks peeking out at various spots...I attempted to take a picture with my phone, but I assure you, it does not do justice to the awesome creations God has made.


When we finally got to the castle, we were introduced to a man named Frank who we found out would be our tour guide for the next 75 minutes *cue eye roll from megan, amy, and myself*. First we got to see the awesome Neptune pool, which was re-done 3 times because Hearst was a freak like that who was never satisfied, though I will admit, it was somewhat amazing to look at.


While listening to Frank ramble on about some fun little tidbits of Hearst trivia, our story received the addition of another interesting character whom I have lovingly christened "Jean Pierre", named as such because his parents spoke nothing but French throughout the entire tour. We were introduced to Jean Pierre as he began pounding on one of the tables on the veranda overlooking the Neptune pool *cue stink eye from mom to frenchie parental units*
Here is Jean Pierre in action. The woman with the motionless, seemingly-dead baby in a hat strapped to her abdomen is Frenchie Parental Unit Part 1 (aka the mama). Daddy Frenchie was wearing an orange shirt with a big blue stripe across the chest...for being french they knew squat about how to dress. I know, this picture kinda sucks, but such is the life of a stealthy photographer with a gold razr for her stealth/spy camera.


awesome ceiling in one of the guest houses...casa del sol, perhaps?


Frank, our tour guide, and the vomiting dog-thing fountain


stealthy photograph part 2. victim: megan.


this thing was pretty awesome simply because it's like 3500 years old or something. Frank said it was around when Moses was floating down the river in Egypt as a baby. How cool is that???? It's a statue of Sekhmet, Ra's daughter and guardian.


Here's the front of Casa Grande. Hearst's big house...I think this is the "castle" in Hearst's Castle.


Stealthy Photograph Part 3. Victim: Jean Pierre.


The living room of el Casa Grande. We were instructed to only walk on the gray guest carpet laid out for us to walk on, since most of Hearst's furniture and artifacts are hundreds of years old. This rule did not apply to Jean Pierre, who ran off the trail and tried to jump on one of these couches. Frank was less than amused. As was Mum.


I thought this was a cool statue of Mary and Baby Jesus. Hearst had some pretty awesome furniture and artifacts. Seriously amazing stuff.


This dining hall inspired the set designers of the Harry Potter movies for how they built the great hall for Hogwarts. Pretty cool.


These choir seats lined the walls of his living and dining rooms. This would've sucked for me whose butt would have most definitely broken it. This was pointed out when Amy dared me to sit in one of them.


Awesome indoor pool with gold tiles hand placed, one at a time on the bottom. This guy had way too much money on his hands.


So, that pretty much concluded our tour. There were a few more outbursts from Jean Pierre and the Frenchie parental units, but none that I was able to capture with the gold razr. It turned out to be a pretty cool tour though. Definitely some beautiful architecture and furniture.

After leaving Hearst's, we drove down into Cambria to find a bite to eat. After much driving and arguing over acceptable parking spots/dining locations, we found an open spot near some pizza place (which also served "Mexican Burritos and Tacos", as opposed to those Swiss tacos you keep hearing about). The car next to us had a pretty sweet bumper sticker that reminded me why I'm glad I'm a republican.


The pizza was good, though we were only allowed one re-fill on our sodas, which sucks for my family since we go through our diet cokes and arnold palmers like celebrities go through spouses (or adopted 3rd world babies).
I think the restaurant's initials were JBJ, though I was only concerned with the JB, for obvious reasons...well, maybe not so obvious if you don't know me...here's a hint ()....and here's a picture of the table which was branded with the restaurant's initials...


So that concludes my out of town adventures with my family. It's been fun. Now I can look forward to chilling with them at home for a while until Amy has to go back to Wisco, and we all start school again :( Though I am looking forward to next quarter's easiness of philosophy (blegh), music classes (huzzah!), and Evita rehearsals.

I love you all and thank you for listening...or reading, as it were.

Until Then,
mjl

happy st. patrick's day

i managed to go the whole day without wearing green and/or getting pinched.

kudos for me.

kudos for st. patrick for getting a day named after him.

kudos for God for getting st. patrick through his trials and getting me through mine.

no kudos for whoever thought to put a creepy looking yorkie in a st. patrick's day graphic.

Amen.
mjl

X-Men Perfume, Avila Pier, & Clam Chowder

day two (or maybe it could be considered the real day one) of our Easter vacation commenced this morning.

i finally fell asleep at 2:30 AM & woke up 6 hours later to a "continental" breakfast of pancakes and exceptionally good hasbrowns & eggs...this was followed by shopping at the nearby outlets, a trip to the Avila pier, and then off to Pismo for lunch at Splash cafe...fun times, for serious. the coolest part of the day was finding out that one of my cousins lives in a hotel above a bar in pismo...ok, that's probably not the coolest thing, but i thought it was kind of interesting...
apart from that, it's been pretty chill.

i love getting to spend time with my family like this, especially since it seems like i always have rehearsals or a show to run off to and don't come home till the wee hours of the morning when my family's asleep...thank God for Easter vacation...literally...since we wouldn't exactly have Easter without him.

this year's been pretty cool thus far (even though we've only been in it a whole whopping 3 months). i've been feeling closer to God and my family and feeling utterly in love with what God's given me. i hope to write again soon.
But for now, here are some loverly pictures from today's adventures...

As is now a custom when we go shopping in Pismo Outlets, I stick a stocking-esque sock over megan's head in a shoe store...don't worry, it was clean.


You can't tell, but this strip of paper has X-Men Perfume on it...or maybe it's cologne...either way, it smells awesome


Mom (& part of Amy's head) on the Avila Pier...mom's favorite beach, for whatever reason


Megan was probably the most excited out of all of us to be on the pier...she kept thinking she would fall through the cracks between the planks and get eaten by Jaws


Dear old Mum and Da...who will be celebrating their 25th year of marriage this July and their 50th year of living this April and October, respectively...I do love them quite a bit


♥
mjl