Dance Log 13

(sniffle)

So Gid and I spent the past several days in Las Vegas for a business conference he had for the Western Governors Association. Have I mentioned my husband has a real job and it confuses me? He's like, "Hey honey, I have a business conference in Vegas. Want to come?" And then I'm like, "What's a business conference?" 

(sniffle)

{...you guys get that my sniffles are from a runny nose and not  from monthy girlish emotions, right?}



I've been feeling under the weather, and I just can't seem to get over it. Don't you hate that? I hate having the sniffles for more than 72 hours. It just seems unfair. Especially if you're on 'vacation'. Anyway, in dance today I was really hoping to be just

sen-SA-tional,

because technically it's our last day of class, and I like to finish on a happy note.

(sniffle sniffle)

Let it be known that I have a difficult time containing the contents of my nose when it is running.

Especially when I'm on the "draining" phase of a cold.

Especially when I'm on the draining phase of a cold and I'm pirouetting.

Not pretty. Not pretty at all. I was focusing so much on sniffing in enough pressure to keep the runniness in, that my dancing just seemed to be off. Not horrible, just not great; and I wanted to be great today. Knowing that today was our last day made me a pouty. Not the cute kind of pouty. The whiny kind. Which is unattractive. Wow- lots of different tangents today. I must be in major need of beef. Anyway, I was feeling whiny, when my teacher announced that the final will be taken next Thursday. Now, since I'm auditing this class (which means I'm paying for it, but not taking it for a grade since I've already gotten a degree and two minors) I don't actually need to show up to the real last day of class. But I'm allowed to. When my teacher revealed this information at the end of class, I cheered up.

One more chance to be the best ballerina I can be. At least for now.

Happy Thursday Friends,

two of my favorite things:

families & fall.

I think my favorite thing about families 

is all the 

personalities 

that come in them.

I think my fellow photographers will agree with me that

photo shoots with younger children are always a little terrifying.

Sometimes youngsters are quite happy to have a camera blasting away.

... other times they're less than thrilled.

I always find a great deal of pleasure in capturing the 

sweet personalities and charm that children posses. 

It's fun to see the handsome men and lovely young women they 

are growing into.

And you can bet your boots I find great triumph when I get a shot with everyone smiling.

Some of my favorite pictures have been taken 

the moment after I tell the kids 

they're done...

(which is usually a little white lie)

Gotta love families.

Sounds of Music...

I'm not sure why, but I've been craving 

Julie Andrews lately.

 Goodness, she's sensational.

I think it's mainly because I've been having the soundtrack from 

"The Sound of Music" in my head nonstop.

For instance, "How do you solve a problem like Maria" was in my head almost all day on monday. 

(except naturally I had to replace 'maria' with alyssa) I couldn't seem to do anything right. 

It just seemed a very fitting song for the day.

Later in the week, when I was feeling rather gloomy, 

I found myself singing "My Favorite Things" in order to cheer myself up.

Then, while I was preparing a fabulous dinner, the soft while snow falling delicately out the window, I started singing my own variation of "Sixteen going on Seventeen" to get Gideon's attention.

I suppose my ways of flirting with my husband are odd.

As I was showering, I caught myself singing the famous song which starts, 

"Doe a dear, a female dear..."

And as I was trying to get myself to fall asleep last night, 

I found success only by humming the beautiful tune of "Edelweiss".

Oh, sweet Julie Andrews,

I truly hope you know how utterly fabulous you are. 

in love...

with this little guy.

In the weeks to come, I look forward to cuddling him.

I look forward to rocking him to sleep, and trying to make him smile.

But for now, I just enjoy taking pictures of him.

(when he'll let me)

I just love being an aunt.

Dearest December,

Hi. Welcome to boise. Today we woke up to your delicate snow. A lot of it. 

Remember when we lived in Rexburg and you brought snow by the foot every year? 

Remember how I would slip on the ice at least once every winter? 

Remember how I had to bundle up for company rehearsal during the freezing morning before the sun was even close to up?

Remember all that? 

Well. I was wondering if you could maybe take it down a notch. 

I know you're all excited about Christmas and decorating for this, the most festive month of the year, but one of the reasons Gid and I love Boise is because the winters aren't as awful as they were in Rexburg. I'm just sayin', December. 

Could you maybe tone it down just a little?

I woke up with an awful cold, and I feel like a tranquilized bear; grouchy and achy all over. My boss called to tell me that he didn't want me to risk the roads and suggested that I go build a snowman. I was 1/2 relived because I felt so miserable, but 1/2 sad because that meant I would be missing yet another day of work, and I have a dirty feeling it'll be reflected on my paycheck. 

I spent the morning sleeping and watching lifetime movies while in my bathrobe and slippers. I used to watch lifetime movies with my roommates in college, December. Those were good times. We loved to make fun of the predictable plots and the incredibly bad acting. It was like a little reunion of myself and lifetime. I basically said, "Hi Lifetime, nice to see you again. Your movies are still crap. Nice of you to keep up the tradition." Then I took a nap. 

Thank goodness for husbands who buy me fancy kleenex, orange juice, white chocolate covered oreos and ice cream to make me feel better. Thank goodness for them, december.  

Anyway, sorry to welcome you in such a stuffy voice. I hope you enjoy your stay here. 

warmest regards,

alyssa

Fair Game.

Just so you know...

Now that Thanksgiving is over...

I reserve the right to be

overly excited about Christmas.

Get ready.

just sayin'.

Dance Log 12

Thanksgiving was basically the best ever.

I have the best parents ever.

The best family ever.

The cutest nephew ever. 

The best home ever.

the best husband ever.

So very much to be grateful for.

I don't know how in the heck I got so stinking lucky.

 Seriously- I'm so lucky it gets stinky sometimes.

Now on to dance.

This morning I woke up to snow. Normally I'd groan at the prospect of putting on tights and a leotard when the weather is like this, but I basically leaped into them this morning. It's been over a week since my class, and I couldn't wait for it!

I put on tights.

Then leggings.

Then pants.

Then sweats. 

A tank top.

Then a jacket.

Then another jacket. 

Then a scarf. 

Then a beanie

 (or a toque as my Canadian friends would say). 

Then socks.

Then boots.

Needless to say, I was very thickly layered.

As I walked to my car, I slipped on some ice, and basically bounced off of my layers and back to my feet. I didn't even feel anything. Good start to my day.

It was obvious in class that I my technique was a little dusty, but as always I prevailed. Wow. Overconfident much? What can I say- I've been blessed with an overwhelming amount of humility.

One huge plus in class is that since I've gotten my hair cut, I never have to mess with it. I can't stand having hair in my face when I dance, and with a pixie cut, I am happy to announce that it's the best ever. So that was nice. It was also nice of the dance theater company members to all make sweet comments about my new head of hair. Girls love compliments. 

Then it happened: that point in class where my teacher tells us to do something that I've never heard of before. It's french and weird. I've never heard it or (more importantly) seen it before. I hate it when that happens. And then my instructor looks at me like I should have known this at birth, and now I'm supposed to lead the class in the combination.

Usually when these "special" combinations come, I try to wing it, and fail miserably.

(insert sad dancer picture)

Not today. I didn't do anything perfect (as I'm sure you all knew already), but I did a pretty sweet job. My teacher even made a comment about how I did it well.  I was on top of the moon. By the end of class, I was giving myself metaphysical high fives back and forth. I rocked that final combination.

Anyway, I'm just happy to be dancing again. I love thanksgiving, and you can bet your boots I'll be posting some pictures of my cute nephew and writing more about the Texas festivities gid and I enjoyed, but right now I'm just happy to be in freezing snowy Idaho. It's not my hometown, but for now-it's home.

such a good dance day.

happy Tuesday.
xoxo



pixie lyssie

Well.

I guess I can say

I've had just about every hair length

that you can have.

And now I can say I've had a pixie cut.

flakey.

November brought boise the first flakes of the year. 

And I'm not talking about people who are unreliable and quirky; not those kinds of flakes. 

The flakes of which I speak are the first snow flakes of the fall season. 

I know what many of you are thinking: 

"Hate to break it to you alyssa, 

but snow means it's winter." 

If I lived in England or Ireland (I wish), that may be true. But here in Idaho, winter formally starts on December 21st. So I'm embracing fall leaves (even if soft, white, deliciously cold crumbles adorn them). 

When I woke up to softly falling whiteness it was like November personally wanted to give me a gentle reminder that not only is Thanksgiving next week, but Christmas; yes, Christmas, is finally coming. Soon I would get to be at home with my family and my newborn nephew to celebrate the holiday of thanks. Soon I would get to watch "A Charlie Brown Christmas". At least 3 times. Soon I would get to buy a Christmas tree and have a decorating party with my sweet husband. Soon we would be dancing in our teeny kitchen to oldies Christmas music. Soon my family would snuggle up by the fire and read the Christmas story. 

Soon. 

 Not today. But soon.

Dear, Sweet November. Thank you for the soft, cold, white reminder.

love,
alyssa

perspective.

My sweet husband's car broke down on Tuesday.

On his way to the temple.

After his call, I rescued him, and after the session, we arranged to have the unstartable vehicle towed to our humble little home. We were out of the temple around 9:30, we tinkered around with the car for another hour or so, and then the tow truck took a while to come. Needless to say, we got to bed later than expected. I'd had it. After a long day of ballet, work for 9 hours, and a temple session I was so done. Did not want to wait for a tow truck to pick up one of our cars. Why did our car randomly break down in the first place? On our way to the temple?! I did my best to bite my tounge, but I was so irritated as we were getting into bed. It wasn't just the car. It was stress about work, stress about the dishes in the sink, stress about traveling plans. And stress about our newfound problem: mystery breakdown car (that we've had for less than a year PS).

Two words for alyssa: anger. mangagement. issues.
That's actually three words. Get over it.

Anyway, as we were getting ready for bed, I mentioned to gid

something about how I was sorry we'd had such rotten luck,

and I hoped tomorrow would be a better day.

Gideon responded, "Are you kidding? We're lucky that my car didn't break

down while I was on the freeway!"Then he added some creative "worst case scenario" details.

"We're lucky my car didn't breakdown on the freeway in the middle of high speed trafic. With semis!" He concluded,  "We're so lucky I'm not in the ER because I got hit by a semi!"

All I could say was, "yep. We're lucky alright."

I guess it just depends on perspective.

Happy Thursday, friends.

xoxo