b/c I'm a flake, but not TOO big of a flake, and I know the right people.

So, haha. Today I went in to say hello to my wonderful Janet (Janet: my faculty mentor and amazing costume designer extrordinair, if you don't know of Janet, you don't know me) because I haven't in a while and I wanted to turn in my design app and ask about the Merit Scholarship. Turns out the scholarship app was due on the 13th!! AHHH!! So my nice morning chat w/ Janet turned into me scrambling upstairs to get the forms, filling them out lickity-split, running a reference form down to Priscilla (costume faculty) and up to Rory (assoc. dean, costume/set design faculty) with pleads of speediness. Of course Janet got one too. The girl at the desk chuckled because I knew I was way late and she knew I was way late and a good laugh was had by all, yeah. Anyway, because the costume faculty is soooo nice they all got their references in by the end of the day, even before lunch I think, and Janet made a call so all is well. So that was my fun morning!!!

Before my portfolio presentation for Intermediate Costuming I went to say hello again to Janet because we didn't have very fun times this morning. We chatted and I'm going to help her with The Secret Garden down in Cedar City (for U(tah) S(hakespearian) F(estival)). She might be able to pay me, but even if not, if I help enough I could be billed as the assistant costume designer which is a huge resume booster, plus working w/ Janet is always FABULOUS. It opens a couple of days after Spring terms gets out and Janet's going to drive down and back up in a day to see it and I could go along! I've always wanted to go down to Cedar, and now I probably will! Maybe next summer after London I can get an internship there. I love my major. I love my Janet.

I've been going through withdrawls since Millie got over.

BEE-YYYY-Utiful

Oh man, I love it here at BYU. I just got back from a Habitat build. Nadin came with to shoot some footage for a documentary. We went out to McDonald's after. Such a great day. I love doing things and being social this semester! It beats the heck out of my last three semesters, ESP my last semester. The weather is getting nicer (who knows if it'll stay) and we've passed the middle of Winter Semester. Somedays I just stand at the bus stop at 8 in the morning and look at the mountains and love my live. This feeling also occurs when I walk accross campus after being in the shop for hours, or driving Ven-oos to places I've never driven before or when I hang out with Ashley or when the roommies have fun parties and have people over. Pretty much I'm living the college life and loving it.

oh the social whirl-wind that is my life.

Last weekend was a three day and I had lots of fun. Let's see...on Friday...I can't remember what I did, but it was fun. Oh yeah, I babysat for Ash and watched Swan Princess, that was fun, as were the kids. I helped Kevin move the TV downstairs beforehand and drove the Saturn home after! Yay! I have a car. Genevieve and I have named it Ven-oos. On Saturday I woke up early to do Go Dog laundry that wasn't brought down, and then had a costume meeting for our Spring Sing in the Ward, I went to a build for Habitat for Humanity and met some super cool kids, then the gang and I (minus Becca) went to Nicholas' to play games. After games I crashed. Sunday night we had a Mexican Dinner, courtesy of Nadin, and had TONS of people over. It was a blast. We played games late into the night. Monday I went to Shopaholic with Shannon, Jill, Chris and baby. Then I went to Payson to hang out w/ Ash, then I actually did my homework.

For this weekend...I have a date! A guy from Doctor Who Club and I are going to the men's V-ball game. He's super nice, and dates a lot so I'm expecting a fun night, and in case you didn't catch the profundity of this event: This is my first REAL BYU date, where the guy asked ME out! It only took 3 1/2 semesters. And this is also the 3rd guy ever to ask me out (Sam, Cole, and now Tim). On Saturday I'll build for Habitat, then find something else fun to do.

Glossary

This is for Genevieve so she can read my posts, and for the fam too who don't know BYU lingo...

A-room: the onsite storage for costumes in the shop
the shop: the costume shop, where I work
Off-site: our costume storage by the old ag complex
the van: the astro van thatI drive off-site
HFAC: The Harris Fine Arts Center, where I live
Deanne: the costume shop's cutter/draper. She makes the patterns for our shows. She is also the assistant manager of the shop
Donnette: The manager of the shop
flat-patterning: using a standard sloper to make patterns, everything is flat
sloper: a generic cut out of a specific size of garment. They come in bodices, skirts, and sleeves.
Macbeth: our current Pardoe production, set in Mesoamerica/Book of Mormon times
Pardoe: our main theatre in the HFAC, seats about, oh I don't know, 600
DeJong: our concert hall in the HFAC seats roughly 1200
Nelke: our experimental theatre for student productions in the HFAC, seats about 150
Margetts: our black box theatre in the HFAC, probably seats aroud 80
stitcher: one who stitches. Also known as a seamstress or seamter, but we have to be politically correct here. I am a stitcher
first hand: a super stitcher that takes Deanne's mock up patterns, cuts them out of the fashion fabric and sews them together
mock up: a muslin prototype of a costume. These are created by Deanne and sometimes constructed by the first hand. After the first fitting they are altered and a pattern is cut from them
fashion fabric: the fabric that a costume will be made out of.

A Day After Sarah's Birthday

Today Deanne gave me a stitching job! I sewed two panchos together. She's been giving me more complicated things to do. This could be because there are really no repairs or alterations for MacBeth, which I'm a stitcher for, so there are more builds that need to be worked on, or she trusts me to do more stuff. Yesterday she let me cut the chest peice/cross over thing for MacBeth's feathered cape from the mock up and pin it on the cape. That's pretty special. I'd like to think I'm getting better. I hope to get pretty good so I can be a first hand maybe someday. First hands cut the fabric from the mock up patterns and actually build main pieces.

MacBeth also has a lot of crafts that I'm to do some of. One is to attach more feathers to MacBeth's cape. Crafts are fun because there's a lot of designing involved since there aren't patterns or anything.

Speaking of patterns, I'm doing pretty well in my pattern making class. It kind of blows my mind that I'm actually becoming a costume designer! We've learned flat patterning with bodices and skirts so far. We work off of size 12 slopers which are very close to my size, so the skirts I've been cutting patterns for would work for me. I drafted my pleated skirt to be my size because drafting was easier than using a sloper. For my designed skirt I'm cutting the pattern I'll be using for my creative project for my Isaiah class. Of course I'd make a costume piece from a doctrine of Isaiah.

This weekend with Shannon and the Herricks was so much fun! It was great to be around NE people in a big family atmosphere, almost just like home. And the baby was cute too. Turns out Shannon's blind date that Jill set her up on was with Tim from the Doctor Who Club, and Shannon's cousin on her mom's side is Elder Flint from the Yankee Hill and Beatrice wards! He got off a month ago. Funny to see him again. He asked about you Riss :)

Classes are great, I'm keeping up with everything. The place I want to live for Spring only offers Spring/Summer contracts. I'm supposed to call back at the end of February, but housing will probably be full by then. I'm pretty sure most complexes have S/S contracts and kids just chance it if they stay for only Spring and hope that someone will buy their contract. We'll have to see what I end up doing...living with Ashley and commuting everyday...? haha, probably not.

I spent Saturday morning with Ashley. As per usual we went to Taco Bell for lunch. I made a video...

February the Fourth

I have a cold, but meh. Because this blog has basically turned into an ongoing schedules of events in my life...

Before the end of the week I have a New Testament, Isaiah and Marriage Prep paper due. I haven't started any of them, but they're super easy.

On Friday I'm going to Carolin(e?) with my costume shop buddies. It's the new Tim Burton film based on some book, I don't know. Some of the girls really like the book, so we're going.

On Saturday, I should probably do homework and clean my room and chop up one of my dresses to make a skirt, and Saturday night I'm going to go out with Shannon Herrick! She's coming down for Jill's baby's blessing (yes, Jill has a baby!) so we're going to rock it hard-core Provo style on Saturday night.

On Sunday I'm going to Jill's ward for the blessing, then dinner w/ the Herricks at Jill's afterwards. I'm so happy to have NE people around me! Jill's husband is in the bishopbric of a singles' ward, so I'll get to visit w/ more young happen'in cats my age. Isn't that fun?

I baked pumpkin cookies on Tuesday night. They are delicious of course, although I hate the elevation here that makes me guess on time, jerk.

Because I'm just a babyduck following behind...

1.:.I don’t really know how tall I am. I have some idea that I’m over 5’10 ½”, but I haven’t really measured since then. That was years ago and I’m positive I’ve had growth spurts since. I tell people I’m almost 6’.
2.:.For all the romantic literature and movies I watch, I have a very realistic concept of love and marriage. My friends tell me I should marry a Jane Austen hero, but I have no aspirations higher than meeting a guy at church, falling in love and getting married. I don’t even expect him to be all that tall, although that’s a major preference.
3.:.I want 5-8 kids. I used to think it was a competition and I had to have 9 to beat mom, but I know better now. Some mothers I know are interested to see if these numbers will change after I’ve experienced pregnancy, I don’t foresee that they will.
4.:.My roommates and I have had a communal Sunday dinner since Freshman year. If you eat our food, you have to share a random fact about yourself. I also impose Luke family dinner rules about everyone being served w/ their plates on the table before you can eat.
5.:.As flighty of a reputation as I’ve received, I think I’m very well grounded and capable. I’m working my way through college and am very well established in my major. I will graduate on time.
6.:. I can use a table, circular, band and jigsaw proficiently. I can also use nail guns, screw guns and drills. Give me any other power tool, show me how to use it and I will be happy too. I love power tools.
7.:. My friends tell me I’ll be famous someday for my designs, but I really don’t aspire, or plan to be. This may sound unambitious, but I count it as being realistic. I want to be a mom more than I want to be famous. I do foresee making gowns etc. for some brides or friends for a little extra dough. That would make me happy.
8.:.My plans: Get my Bachelors from BYU, get a masters somewhere, go to fashion school then work internationally. ..or Continue with my education until I get married, get at least a bachelors, then have lots of babies and make excellent Halloween costumes where ever my husband gets a job.
9.:. I love thunderstorms because my mom woke up all the kids one night to watch a huge storm through our front picture window. We all cuddled in our quilts and it was great.
10.:. I’ve been an aunt since I was 10. I was always upset that Caitlin could babysit our oldest niece and I couldn’t. Eventually mom made Caitlin take me with her when she babysat. By the end of high school I was a highly sought after babysitter. I now only babysit for a couple of families outside of my own. I really like to babysit; it’s like being a trial mom.
11.:.My nick-names include, Shelb, Belb, Bel, Belby, Shel, Shel Shel, Shelby-Lou, Shleck, Schleckindepoken, Shelbinatrix, Shelbinator, Grandma, and Princess (that one’s a joke). When were little Marisa called Logan Fred (and still does) and I was jealous so I made her call me Bob. It didn’t last long.
12.:. I bit the fingers and toes off of all my Barbies. I bit Prince Eric’s nose off and Princess Jasmin’s earrings off. Caitlin and I used to take naps in our doll house.
13.:. My all time favorite game is Catch Phrase, but I play best with adults because we think the same. I also rock at regular Scene It even though I’ve barely seen any of the movies. I won the one and only game of Trivial Pursuit I’ve ever played.
14.:.I read all the Jane Austens before I was 16, but truth be told, haven’t reread any of them completely since. I only read the best parts again. I’ve also read one of each Bronte, Charlotte’s my favorite, Emily’s on crack and Anne tries to be somewhere in between.
15.:. When I was a kid I wanted to be a vet (then remembered I hated animals) an Egyptologist, a jocky, gymnast, and figure skater (too tall for those three by twelve). I decided to be a costume designer my Freshman year in high school after watching Daniel Deronda on Masterpiece Theatre. Turns out I’ve been designing and researching costumes my whole life, and I love the theatre and movies.
16.:. People assume I’ve read a lot of books, but I’ve read very few. Between Masterpiece Theatre and Wishbone, I’ve just gained a vast knowledge of literary classics.
17.:. When I was little, BYU was the place that Nebraska girls went but never came back from because they got married right away. I never wanted to go here because I was convinced that would happen to me and I’d never go back to Nebraska.
18.:. I work in a basement and live in a basement and practically sleep in a basement. My major is very demanding. I was associate designer for Thoroughly Modern Millie recently. At its peak I spent 11 of 13 hours on campus in the basement of the Fine Arts Center.
19.:. My worst nightmare was when my daddy died and the earth went black and white and never laughed again. There was a shot of the “camera” panning out on a black and white earth in silence. I woke up crying.
20.:.I’ve been to two rodeos in my life and LOVE them. I want a pair of cowboy boots, but have been informed by a real cowboy that real cowboys/girls only wear round-toed boots, which I think are ugly as the day is long. Because I refuse to be too much of a poser, I refuse to buy the cute pointed boots, so I am bootless.
21.:.Almost 4 years ago I spent a summer in Salinas, CA living with my brother’s in-laws and working at the Western Stage Theatre’s costume shop. It was one of the best summers of my life. I want to go back.
22.:.My dream play to costume/see is Arcadia by Tom Stoppard. If I had a time machine I’d go back and watch 1993’s original production with Rufus Sewell and Bill Nighy.
23.:. I’d love to get married in 2010 because that would make anniversary math very easy.
24.:.I hate cold cereal. I’m very rarely ever in the mood for it. I chalk this up to the fact that we stopped making hot breakfasts when I entered high school and we had cereal everyday. I also get bored of food very quickly, and considering the fact that cereal gets soggy doesn’t recommend it.
25.:.I’ve kept a journal every night, except for when I had migraines, since May 2003. I’m now on my thirteenth volume.