Past Year's Resolutions

Larissa does this thing every year where instead of making new New Year's resolutions, she reflects back on the previous year and lists what she has accomplished as if they were resolutions:

What did I accomplish this year?
Every year I ask myself this question and make my retrospective resolutions for the year. Hindsight is 20/20. And I think it is much more uplifting to relect and thing, "Wow- I did that!" than to think, "I didn't meet two of my ten goals. I'm a failure." Know what I'm saying?" - Larissa

I love this, so I'm doing it this year.

In no particular order:

• Attend Salt Lake Comic Con's Fan Xperience and meet Tom Felton, Billie Piper, Ralph Macchio, and Brandon Routh
• Play a dream role in two of my dream shows: Poppy in Noises Off! and Martha Jefferson in 1776
• Celebrate my 5 year anniversary at my company
• Get a raise nearly equal to all previous raises in the previous 5 years
• Paint a cool design on a clock
• Finish watching the original Star Trek television series, Phineas and Ferb, Family Ties, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Netflix's Daredevil and Jessica Jones, Melissa and Joey
• Catch up on Granite Flats, Atlantis, Ever After High
• Get my heart broken by someone I loved and trusted
• Lose 21 pounds (maintain within 5 pounds)
• Complete the Personal Trainer Food plan three times
• Walk approximately 70,000 steps or more each week 
• Vacation at Disneyland with my best friend and her family, including a princess meet-and-greet dinner where I FINALLY meet Mulan for the first time and am utterly charmed by Anna and Elsa
• See King Lear, Amadeus, Charley's Aunt, Henry IV part 2, Dracula, and Two Gentlemen of Verona at the Utah Shakespeare Festival
• Donate to several charities
• Be the face of Salt Lake Comic Con 2015!! Photos in the Deseret News, Tribune, adjacent Websites, and KSL, not to mention several professional photographers. Get photos with Chris Evans, Hayley Attwell, James and Oliver Phelps, and Jenna-Louise Coleman
• Have a blast with friends as Marie Leroux in Is He Dead?
• Paint an original piece of art
• Eat my way through The Food and Wine Festival at Epcot
• Get photos with Chip and Dale, Sleeping Beauty, Belle, Cinderella and Prince Charming, Rapunzel and Flynn, Snow White, Mulan, Pocahontas, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Donald Duck, Cinderella's Stepmother and Stepsisters, and Gaston at Walt Disney World
• Be chosen by my own ivy-and-unicorn-hair wand at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
• Hike Delicate Arch, Double Arch, and Landscape Arch
• Be nominated for as Best Supporting Actress in 1776 at the Empress Theater's annual gala
• Try paddle boarding for the first time
• Sing at CenterPoint Legacy Theatre's Fairytale Festival
• Attended the temple 17 times
• Read the Book of Mormon twice

I did manage to achieve a few actual goals, too. Not bad. I cannot imagine what I'll accomplish next year. Looking forward to finding out :)

Happy New Year!

2015 Resolution Time!

Happy New Year, everybody!

I learned a lot about myself last year, and I decided I need to make some resolutions this year to keep me on track:

1. Physical: Exercise at least 30-60 minutes a day three days a week, or walk (or run) at least 10,000 steps a day. I would think the reasons for this are obvious. Last year I was consistent for nine weeks. This year I want to move more than I did last year. I did not buy a gym membership, but I did get a FitBit for Christmas and I already love it.
2. Spiritual:
   a. Read at least 4 gospel-related books in addition to The Book of Mormon. I struggle with reading non-fiction books, but I want to infuse positive thoughts and the spirit into my regular life more than I have in the past.
   b. Sit in the chapel and not in the balcony during Sacrament meeting. I pay more attention in the chapel, and it motivates me to be on time or early.
   c. Do not immediately open my journal when I sit down; make myself available to talk with the people nearby. I've been doing this for several weeks and have already met some cool people... and had one date.
3. Educational-ish: Read 25 books this year, including those in #2. Reading goals aren't new for me, but it is fun at the end of the year to see what I've read...and even more fun to surpass the goal and have to set a new one partway through the year. Hope that happens again this year!

That's all. I want my goals to be manageable and simple enough to remember and work on throughout the year. They aren't big, but they are meaningful to me.

I'm looking forward to this year. I get to go to Disneyland with my best friend, and my family is planning a vacation this summer, too. I'll also celebrate my 5-year anniversary at work; I've never worked anywhere for that long, and I get an extra week of vacation time as a reward! I also get to play a role in a play I've wanted to be in for years and years. With any luck, I'll have a lot more fun surprises (and few not-so-fun ones). 

I am hopeful!

What are you looking forward to this year? Have you made any resolutions?

Interview with myself 2014

Sometimes I wonder about my life. I lead a small life -- well, valuable, but small -- and sometime I wonder, do I do it because I like it, or because I haven't been brave? So much of what I see reminds me of something I read in a book, when shouldn't it be the other way around?
- You've Got Mail

I'll be honest: 2014 was not an easy year for me.

I saw big, wonderful changes in the lives of many of my loved ones: my family grew, my friends had babies. They have been through a lot and I am glad they finally get their happy "re-beginnings." It is truly awesome!

Aaron and Heidi are the cutest.

My own life stayed stagnant. I wasn't very good at not being jealous of my loved ones' life events. The future I expected to have is more unlikely with each year that passes. I'm not quite sure what to do with myself in the meantime. Then again, nobody's future is secure and no one knows what will happen one day to the next. Whether I marry and have kids there will always be times of stagnancy, but I like to think maybe then I will be less lonely. I've had a tough time trying to come to terms with my loneliness this year.

In the theatre world, I was in two plays that I have wanted to participate in since high school: The Sound of Music and Jekyll and Hyde. Who else can say they played a nun and a prostitute in the same year? To be honest, it felt like a step backwards playing in the ensemble two plays in a row. I missed having my character development built into the script and personal attention from directors. But I worked with awesome choreographers and worked with a lot of people I've wanted to. I am glad I was in both of them. I'm proud of my work and grateful for my new friendships.

I saw plays in New York City, and Cedar City. I went on my first business trip. I got to go to Salt Lake Comic Con, Fan Xperience, and Fantasy Con for free. The events and vacations infused some much-needed relaxation time, and fueled my gratitude for my regular life at home.

1. What did you do in 2014 that you'd never done before? 
   
   I exercised 5 days a week for 9 weeks -- first time I've ever been that consistent!
2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year? The only resolution I made last year was to read at least 12 books. I ended up reading 41, including plays, children's books, young adult fiction, adult fiction, religious and other non-fiction. 
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? My brother Peter and his wife Jordyn, and my besty Kate and her husband Brandon both had their first babies this year -- both boys!
   
4. Did anyone close to you die? Not this year
5. What countries did you visit?
   None outside the United States
6. What would you like to have in 2015 that you lacked in 2014?
   A significant other to share it with
7. What dates from 2014 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
   No specific dates, just events
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
   3.7 weeks without sugar or carbs
9. What was your biggest failure?
   Gaining all of the weight back after #8
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
    Nothing more serious than allergy-related colds. I had laser surgery again.
11. What is the best thing you bought?
    Tickets to Matilda, Newsies, and Cabaret on Broadway  
12. Where did most of your money go?
    Probably food.
13. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
    
    The panels at the conventions: William Shatner, Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, Denise Crosby, Nathan Fillian, Adam Baldwin, Karl Urban, Karen Gillian, Doug Jones, the guys from Kid History, Billy Boyd, John Rhys-Davis, Sean Astin, Simon Pegg, Mark Sheppard, Renee O'Connor, Alan Tudyk, Manu Bennett, Stephen Amell, and John Barrowman. Waiting in line was totally worth it every time.   
14. What song will always remind you of 2014?
    Taylor Swift's "Shake it Off" and "Everything is Awesome" from The Lego Movie
15. Compared to this time last year, are you:


1. Happier or sadder? Sadder 
2. Thinner or fatter? Fatter 
3. Richer or poorer? Richer (hooray!) 
16. What do you wish you'd done more of?
    Exercising in any form
17. What do you wish you'd done less of?
    Feeling sorry for myself
18. How did you spend Christmas?
    Surrounded my family and food at my mom's house
19. Did you fall in love in 2014?
    Nope
20. What was your favorite TV program?Parks and Recreation. The Late Show starring Jimmy Fallon is a very close second.
21. Do you dislike anyone now that you didn't this time last year?
    Not that I can think of.
22. What was the best book you read?
    Cinder by Marissa Meyer. A dystopian-future, fairy tale retelling that doesn't feel bleak and is actually quite funny? Yes please! I couldn't read it or the sequels fast enough -- can't wait for Fairest to be published later this month!
23. What was your greatest musical discovery?
    John Legend's "All of Me"
24. What did you want and get?
    A Roku for Christmas
25. What did you want and not get?
    A family of my own
26. What was your favorite film this year?
    I'm going to go with The Hunger Games: Mockingjay part 1, though Captain America: Winter Soldier, Veronica Mars, Into the Woods, and Big Hero 6 are big contenders.
27. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
    
    I turned 36, and spent the day at Regional Conference for church, ate waffles with friends, and dinner with my family.
28. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
    A romantic relationship that lasted more than a few weeks
29. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2014?
    "Accentuate the positive; decentuate the negative."
30. What kept you sane?
    Friends who know the right thing to say or do. Never condescending, always supportive and kind and often funny. We celebrate and commiserate together and love each other no matter what.
31. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
    Tom Hiddleston
    
32. What political issue stirred you the most?
    The sorority house shootings in California. It makes me crazy that a person can think that another person not wanting to sleep with them is a good reason to murder them. No one is "owed" sex or anything else. My feminism is growing stronger.
33. Who did you miss?
    Dr. Cristina Yang. Grey's Anatomy is not the same without her.
34. Who was the best new person you met?
    This is hard! I'm going with Madison Hanson and Wendi Griffiths. They and a few of our other dressing-roommates in Jekyll and Hyde made the experience great, and I love having having a few more Disney-obsessed friends.
35. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2014.
    This year my big one is that I am terrible at "enduring to the end." I can handle short-term goals, but tucking in for the long haul of days with unrequited hopes, or dieting or exercising consistently, or a large number of work weeks with no vacation in sight, and I too easily fall into a bad attitude. It's so, so hard to put that aside and cultivate a good one again; to see the beauty in the now and have faith in the future.
36. What are you looking forward to in 2015?
    A trip to Disneyland 
37. What else?
    Growing relationships with friends, family, and (hopefully) the man I'll share the rest of my life with.

Enough of that. On to 2015!

Pretty, Pretty Princess

I was first introduced to the game Pretty, Pretty Princess about ten years ago when I was asked to play with a six year-old girl, her teenage brother, and her sister's older-teenage boyfriend. I have been longing ever since to play it with my nieces, and I finally had my chance on New Year's Day!

The premise of the game is easy enough: be the first to accumulate a ring, bracelet, necklace, both earrings -- one at a time -- and tiara. The challenge is that there is only one tiara, so it can be "stolen" away if someone else lands on the space. You might also land on a space that requires you to put an item of jewelry back in the box. And heaven forbid you be forced to wear the black ring. You can't win if you have the black ring, so if you get it you hope someone else lands on that space to take it from you before they can win. It's an adorable game.

My four year-old nieces LOVED it! I think it was the first time I'd ever played a board game with them, and it was fascinating to watch their different reactions. Breezy got the tiara first, and was very, very upset when someone else landed on the space and she had to give it up. She was also very averse to having to wear the black ring. She can usually talk her way out of or into anything, so I think it frustrated her that she couldn't circumvent the rules. Fortunately, the game is fast-paced enough that she won the tiara back quickly and someone else (probably me, I got the black ring a lot) took the accursed ring from her. Happily for her, she ended up winning the first round. She then decided to retire, deciding she wanted to go out on a high note.

The first pretty, pretty princess

Zonks took all of her setbacks in stride, even while I continued to figure out the rules, so they changed from time to time (I think I didn't start enforcing the "return" aspect until the second game). I'd be interested to know her thought process: did she not care enough to be upset, or did she figure it would work out in the end, or did she just enjoy being included? I have no idea. She won the second game fair and square and was delighted to continue playing.

The second pretty, pretty princess
(Pink seemed to be the lucky jewelry color for awhile)

The G-child, their older brother, came to watch about halfway through the second game, and then asked if he could play, too. You have no idea how much that tickled me, knowing that I'd learned the game from two teenage boys in the first place. I love that he had fun playing with my mom, his sister, and me, and it cracked me up that he wasn't at all embarrassed to put on the jewelry, though he said the earrings were uncomfortable. He won the third game and looked stunning! Such a good sport, and a darling big brother.

The dashing, fun-loving prince

All in all, the game was a big hit, and my sister-in-law and one of my brothers has asked to join in whenever we play again. I'm glad it went over well! I must remember to bring it along with me this Sunday.

If you decide to try it, let me know what you think. Pretty, Pretty Princess is aces in my book!


(Hey! I just realized this is my 900th post! Crazy! Thanks, for reading, my friends!)

Making rather merry in December

Oh, December. You were so good to me! Due to some rewiring at the office, I worked from home for an entire week (not usually my favorite way to work, but I'm proud of the fact that I showered and got dressed every morning regardless of whether I saw anybody). I also relished at 12-day vacation from work wherein I mostly read The Wise Man's Fear (an excellent fantasy novel), watched various movies and a lot of Doctor Who and Sherlock episodes, ate delicious food, and slept as much as possible. I also taught my last Relief Society lesson (in this ward, at least).

Carrie moved to Las Vegas and a bunch of us threw her a surprise good-bye party. I'm very proud of the fact that I didn't ruin the surprise, especially since it was my job to get her there and let everyone know we were there so they could hide (seriously, how did we function before cell phones?). She was definitely surprised, and we all had a blast. I miss her. I'm glad she's going to visit from time to time!

Carrie is in the middle, holding everyone's arms/hands.
Yes, most of us girls are wearing tiaras. Yes, three of them are mine :D

Phil was a wonderful Phil Davis in CenterPoint's White Christmas

His dancing was gorgeous, as one would expect from someone who has competed in ballroom competitions!

Kate was a sweet, strong, loving Mrs. Cratchit in HCT's A Christmas Carol.

No wonder they keep inviting her back year after year!

The office Christmas party was at Tucanos this year. YUMMMM!

This chocolate cake was as big as my face, so of course it was photo-worthy.

Ginger Dudes from Les Madeleines 

(I put the bobby pin there to show you how tiny they were!)

Kristen and I had a fun time shopping and supporting our friends at The Dickens' Christmas Festival. We started off speaking with British accents... and then forgot about them. Oh well, next year, ok Kristen?

I also had the pleasure of hearing her and our friend Stephen sing Christmas carols at This is the Place a few weeks later, but sadly none of my photos turned out.

Mr. and Mrs. Charles Dickens
He was taking a break from writing The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Can't wait to find out how it ends ;)

Lovely Andrea. I didn't get to see her perform, but her direction for Scrooge was wonderful!

One of several crazy snow storms. I feel pretty lucky I only had to drive in one.

(I have new tires now, so hopefully future snow driving won't be as frustrating or scary.)

Larissa's annual A Christmas Story pajama party is always a highlight!

Wendy invited me to see A Christmas Carol with her, and I jumped at the chance to see her again

BTW, this is what I look like with straight hair :)
Look as much as you like, 'cause I don't know when I'll do it again...

Fun socks and cute boots are two of my favorite things during winter

(the other is warm scarves)

Liz's Black-Tie birthday party

The birthday girl

So fun to see Maddie and Connor there. It was like a tiny Little Women reunion!

I lit a fire in my fireplace for the first time since I have lived there.

It never did blaze. It burned so slowly that the coals were still smoldering the next morning.

I discovered this during a post-Christmas visit

Cookies, M&Ms, and a cheese plate for a girls' night/sleepover 

Trust me: the cranberry cheeseball was delicious. We tried it on celery and it was amazing!

Possibly my last Butterbeer of the season. It's been really fun seeing the barristas's reactions when I ordered it.
I might swing by Starbucks on Saturday to see if they still have enough toffee nut syrup for one more...

 I made myself go to the mid-singles dance at Rice-Eccles Stadium for New Year's Eve.

I even went to an after-party and met some new people. Are you proud?

Katie and Kirsten made sure I didn't feel lonely!

 

We had the best view of the fireworks :)

Happy New Year!

Ring out the old and on with the new. January is likely to be a somewhat quiet month, since I'm saving money and rehearsals may or may not keep me busy. That's okay. I wouldn't mind some time curled up with a book and another attempt at a fire on the next snowy day!