Why not...

I'm at work and I'm bored so I thought I'd do this since my friend Bethany tagged me.

What were you doing 10 years ago?

January 31st 1998 I was living in West Jordan UT with my Aunt and Uncle Jack and Kelly and teaching kindergarten at KinderCare Learning Center in West Valley. I was also just getting ready to submit my papers for my mission.

5 things on my list today:

1. Sleep in!
2. Go to my voice lesson.
3. Go to Choir
4. Go to a vocal coaching with the opera director.
5. Go to rehearsal for Julius Caesar

5 snacks that I enjoy:

1. Carmel rice cakes
2. String cheese
3. Quaker 90 calorie granoal bars
4. Chips & salsa
5. Cinnamon grahm crackers & milk

3 bad habits:

1. Not getting my oil changes when I'm supposed to.
2. Holding all my frustrations inside then bursting into a cry fest when I can't take the stress anymore.
3. Being a little self-critical

If I were suddenly a billionaire:

1. Pay off my student loans
2. Higher a personal trainer for life
3. Go on a HUGE clothing and shoe shopping spree
4. Buy a car that's new than 1997
5. Donate money to my undergraduate music program so they could get some better facilities
6. Organize music scholarships for singers
5. Help my siblings finish getting through school
6. Travel to all the places I've ever wanted to go
7. Buy a house

5 places I've lived (I've got more than that!):

1. California (Tustin, Mission Viejo & Irvine)
2. Utah (Logan, West Jordan, Riverton & Ogden)
3. Needham, Massachusettes
4. Charoltte, North Carolina
5. Rexburg, Idaho
6. Guayaquil, Ecuador
7. Mesa, Arizona

5 jobs I've had:

1. Grocery Clerk
2. Pre-school teacher
3. Receptionist (Temp)
4. EFY Counselor
5. Administrative assistant

5 things people don't know about me:

1. I can't stand people who are stuck up and talk about themselves all the time.
2. I've never eaten Sushi
3. I get really nervous when I am a passenger in someone's car and the follow to closely. I usually have to close my eyes.
4. I get more nervous to sing in church than I do before a theater of 1,000+ people
5. I'm terrified to graduate because I have no idea what my next step is. I love school and could be an eternal student if I didn't have to write papers and take tests.

I guess I'll tag: My sister Shelley, my cousins Stephanie & Alicia, my favorite old roommate Jami and well...anyone else who wants to do this.

What's the big idea?!

It is 36' degrees this morning in Phoenix! I moved here to get away from this kind of weather and I swear it's followed me. It is so cold I had to wear a heavy coat and gloves and I could see my breath. Make it STOP!!! Oh well, at least I'm not still in Logan. It's only 16' there this morning. Brrrrrrrrrrrrr!

My True Color

What's Your True Color?

My Result: Green

You're green, the color of growth and vigor. Good-hearted and giving, you have a knack for finding and bringing out the best in people. Green is the most down-to-earth color in the spectrum — reliable and trustworthy. People know they can count on you to be around in times of need, since your concern for people is genuine and sincere. You take pride in being a good friend. For you, success is measured in terms of personal achievement and growth, not by status or position. Rare as emeralds, greens are wonderful, natural people. It truly is your color!

Take this test >

Happy New Year!

Happy New year! It's incredible how fast time flies. This year is sure to be full of excitement and adventure. The first big event to happen will be GRADUATION! Yes it's true, on May 8, 2008 yours truly will have a masters degree. I have really enjoyed my time at Arizona State and as much as I want to be done with school I'm sad to see it come to an end. I have been a student for...well...it seems like forever and you kind of get used to that after a while. That said I am ready start making money instead of borrowing it. What are my plans for after graduation you ask? Right now, I'm not really sure. I have a lot of ideas running around in my head and so my main goal this semester is to narrow them down to a few really good ones and go from there. If I had my way I would of course try to make a career performing, but I don't know how realistic that is when you have to support yourself and pay back student loans. I'm truly grateful to my friends and family for all their support and ideas and I know that it will help a lot when I need to finally make a decision so keep them coming! I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday and that you are looking forward to a great new year as well. More pictures soon!

Go Kart World

The day after Chirstmas we took a drive up towards Los Angeles to go to Go Kart World. It was pretty fun. They had three different tracks you could ride on. The first couple pictures are on the slippery track. The last few are on the Super Track. Uncle Steve took the rest of the pictures so I will try to get them from him soon.

Disneyland- Day 1 in CA

This Christmas my cousins from Seattle are spending the holidays with us. It's kind of nice since I'm the only one home this year. Our other uncle, Bryan who works for Nestle gets free tickets to Disneyland every year so we decided day 1 should be spent in "the place where dreams come true". It was pretty fun and the great part about free tickets is that you don't feel forced to stay all day and ride every ride because you're not wasting money. We rode what we wanted to and then got out of there before the big crowds left. The crowds actually were not too bad considering it was a Saturday and during the holidays. The longest we waited was an hour and that was for Space Mountain. Totally worth it! All-in-all it was a good day!

Me with my cousins Stephanie, Alicia and her husband Luke

On the tea cups

Buzz Lightyear ride

Castle at night

Days 6 & 7 in NYC

Well...I'm back in Phoenix but here is a quick recap of the last two days. Thursday I slept in and then decided to go crash the NJ Opera Theater auditions. Crashing means that either you are on the waiting list because there were so many applicants or you never applied and you just show up and see if they have any cancellations. I called the studio in the morning to see if they had any warm-up rooms and they did so I booked one for noon. When I left Staph's it had started to snow a little and it eventually turned to sleet. Yea! Just what you need when you're trying to look your best and walk around in heels. ANYWAY...I arrived at the studio and warmed up and then went and told the monitor that I was on the waiting list and wanted to know if they could slip me in if there were cancellations. He had me fill out a new application and give him a new head shot and resume and surprisingly enough they fit me right in! I guess the weather was working in my favor. I sang my first aria and then they asked to hear the beginning of another. The great thing is that they let me finish it! My friend told me she only got to sing one so I figured the fact they let me sing two was a good sign. I'm glad I decided to do it. I almost didn't. After the audition the weather was still so bad that I decided just to go back to Stephanie's and hang out. I watched a movie and worked on translating the opera for next semester. It was nice to just relax. That night I met Stephanie down at Penn Station and we went shopping at K-mart to find Christmas tree decorations and then we went to Macy's to look at all the fun windows. Afterwards we went back to her place, made homemade pizza and decorated the tree. It was fun just to hang out.

Friday I slept in since we stayed up late chatting. I packed up my stuff, ate lunch, watched a movie, read a little and then the shuttle picked me up to take me to the airport. Pretty uneventful day but again it was nice to relax after such a busy semester. I arrived back in Phoenix last night about 10:30 pm and it's great to be home. Today I slept in, did laundry and rehearsed with the ward choir for the program tomorrow. Now I'm off to a Christmas party at my friend's house. I'll try to post the rest of my NYC pictures when I get them.

Day 5 in NYC

Today I met up with my friend Colte from ASU and his friend Ben (amazing how many people from AZ I've hung out with since being in NYC. 5 I think!) and we put our names in the lottery to go see the show "The Drowsy Chaperone" staring Bob Saget. As luck would have it only about 12 people entered the lottery since it was a Wednesday afternoon and so we all won front row seats to the matinee! What a deal, only $25! It was a HILARIOUS show and I highly recommend it. Colte being the go-getter that he is even took us to find the stage door afterwards and we met Bob Saget when he was coming out. He signed our programs and we even took a picture! Full House in the flesh. Kind of weird but cool. Colte has the picture on his camera so I'll have to get it later. After the show they took off and I decided at this point that I had had it with the freezing wind and so I got some more hot chocolate at Starbucks ((I'm starting to understand the coffee fetish people have) and headed back to Stephanie's. She is hanging out with an old friend who is town tonight on business so I'm just catching up on email and laying low. It's nice to be inside where it's warm. Who knows what tomorrow brings...I'm thinking of maybe seeing "Marry Poppins" or "Little Mermaid". Until tomorrow!

Day 4 in NYC

Common Cents- A project by NYC elementary kids to collect pennies in order to help families. Also the big Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center

Me in the front row of the Gershwin theater about to see "Wicked"!

Brian and I in the theater

What a GREAT show!

Tree in Rockefeller at night

Yesterday was a really fun day. I slept in and then went downtown to meet Stephanie at her office for lunch. She works right in the heart of NYC on Madison Ave. I took the Subway to 50th Street and Broadway and then I walked down past Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Center and Sax 5th Avenue until I arrived at her 11 story office building. I had to walk past security cameras and check in with a receptionist before I could even see her. Very swanky! I feel lucky to know such a corporate lady! For lunch we walked to Grand Central Station and grabbed a pita at a Greek place. The food was good and the price wasn't too bad...well until Stephanie looked at my receipt and realized that the lady had charged me $79.80 instead of $7.98! I'm sure glad she looked! Needless to say I got them to void the purchase and they even gave me my drink for free. After lunch I headed back uptown to check on lottery tickets for the evening performance of "Wicked". My friend Brian was in town from AZ on business in NJ and was planning on coming into the city and wanted to see the show. The lottery didn't start until 4:30 pm and since I had time to kill I got some hot chocolate at Starbucks and walked back down to Rockefeller center to look at the lights, check out the common cents penny display and going shopping as Sax. Of course I couldn't buy a thing there since a hat and a scarf cost $99! It was fun to look at the 8 floors of designer clothes though.

At 4:00 pm I headed back to the theater and put my name in the lottery and waited around for them to announce. You can only imagine my surprise when my name was the third one called. They give away about 26 front row seats for every show and they only cost $26.25 a piece. What a steal for a student. I waited around for my friend, we grabbed a slice of pizza and then went and saw an INCREDIBLE show. Being up close is DEFINITELY not overrated. It was AWESOME! It's a must see show. After the show we went to the Stardust 50s dinner to share some food and dessert then walked back down to Rockefeller since Brian wanted to see the tree. It was a good day! I walked a lot and it was really cold but I had fun.

A moment of reflection

Taking a short break from the NYC trip to post some pictures from back when I went to Utah to do an audition with Utah Opera. I sure had a fun time playing with the girls. They are too funny in the tunnels.

The girls in their tunnels

Eating lunch at the counter..."We're big!". Little did I know they had never sat at the counter and after that they wanted to all the time. Sorry guys! ;o)

C'mon Jocey...smile!

What is with these girls?

Now we're talking!!

Love my girls!!! Now I just need some with my Jeffery!