Dancing through life...

She turns 13 today! **sniff** My baby's a teenager...

We took her to the vet for her check-up and vaccinations last Saturday. The doc said she needs reading glasses, but other than that and her previously known ailments, she's in perfect health. She even demanded that my mom play tug with her the other day! According to a pamphlet on caring for older doggies (which we found in the vet's office), she is eighty-two in dog years.

We're going to put Snowball on a second arthritis medication, which works in conjunction with the Rimadyl. I believe the doctor said it was an opiate. Should be interesting.

I'm going cheesey-bone shopping after work, because my puppy loves her some cheesey-bone!

In completely non-dog related news, I have a wedding to go to in May. Alas, I had nothing to wear! I looked in the department stores, and didn't find a single thing that didn't scream PROM. So I looked on line.

Lo and behold, Amazon has come to the rescue again! I found a store there, called Bitablue Oriental Collection. They have some beautiful dresses.

Here's the best part though:
You can get many of them custom sized, FOR NO EXTRA COST!

I've ordered this one. There's a very slim chance that it may be here before Easter, but it probably won't arrive until the week after. I'll let you all know how it turns out. I am very excited!

Snowball just scared the fairy dust right out of me! I got out of the shower and went into my *supposedly* dog free room to dress and whatnot. I closed the door behind me, did my hair, dressed, and apparently completely missed the presence of my dog. Now, for those of you who haven't met her, Snowball is a seventy five pound Shepherd Wolfhound Mix; she's kind of difficult to miss. She must've blended in with my stuffed animals, though, because I had no idea she was there until I opened the door to leave, and she got up to come with me.

I think she's magic. She cloaked herself or something.

Oh, and Rich and I got out of participating in Language Workshop last night. Chris D. said "If you feel like you don't need to be here, come see me." So I went up to him and said "I don't talk," and Rich said, "She's my ride," and Chris said "Ok, fill out your forms and leave." ROCK ON!

My dog, Snowball, spent an hour sitting in the rain and lying in the mud this morning. She's out there again now, barking at who knows what. She's going to come in dripping wet again, and then try to play with the towel while I try to use it to dry her off.

Here's the thing: If I were to go out there and try to use the garden hose to bathe her, she would refuse to hold still. She loves getting wet in the rain, hates getting wet from the hose.

I just don't understand...

In other news, I have one week of classes left. After which, I am having my wisdom teeth surgically removed. Joyfun.

Also, I got an A on my final paper for my fantasy course. :) I got an A+ on the midterm, which consisted of roleplaying as characters from The Neverending Story. I was the Childlike Empress. :) So I figure I have a damn good chance of getting an A+ overall.

That reminds me:
Those of you who have read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, did you realize that Ford Prefect was named after a car? Apparently I was the only one in my class who realized this. One girl even went on and on about how "Ford Perfect" was the perfect name for the character. I Googled the name, and found a picture of a car from the 1930's made entirely of wood. I posted it, and everyone was amazed.

Yeah. I figure I'm almost guaranteed an A+, just for that one.

As you all know, RotK is coming out in theaters as of midnight tonight. As most of you know, I am the biggest LotR geek there is. I'm even making a scrapbook.
Anyway, I'm not going to see the movie until next week, as it is traditional for me to see it first with my mom. She introduced me to the cartoon of the Hobbit when I was quite young, then she gave me her boxed set of the books from like 1974 when I was in the third grade. I've seen both of the other movies first with her, so of course I have to wait for this one.

So please please please PLEASE, if you must rave about how wonderful and fantastic the movie was, could you put it behind LJ cut? For me? 'Cause I'll scratch your eyeballs out if you don't?

In other news, I have all of my Christmas presents wrapped and ready for the big day. Even Snowball's. She's getting a large jar of biscuits, a package of chew bones, a candy cane shaped rawhide, a box of Scooby snacks, and a new collar. It's purkle. :) It's so much fun to watch her open her presents. She's so cute. Mom wouldn't let me get her a pretty snowflake sweater though. I may just have to go back to Petsmart and get it myself.

Mom and Rich are getting...well, I'm not saying. They read this journal. :P You two will just have to wait.

This is my final week of classes, except for Freaks, because we missed a class in the middle of the semester, so I have one more after the break. Then...nothing!...until February 2. I've got the new course catalog in my posession, (they actually sent me one this semester!), and I've already picked out a few courses:
Sign Language (I was supposed to take it this semester, but it got cancelled.)
Tai Chi
Guitar (but only if Santa brings me a guitar. Otherwise, maybe Piano.)
And the following course, the description for which is taken directly from the catalog:

Fantasy: From The Hobbit to Holes
Albert Einstein said, "The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowlegde," and Oscar Wilde stated, "One's real life is so often the life that one does not lead." Why does fantasy appeal to children and adults? What important messages might it contain? Is fantasy even more popular during troubled times of political instability, and if so, why? These and other questions are explored against the varying backdrop of the sociocultural conditions in which each story was written. We read The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien, The Neverending Story by Michael Ende, The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, Holes by Louis Sachar, The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, and Sabriel by Garth Nix.

I've already read half of the books on that list. Not only that, but the course is online! I can go to class in my pajamas! How hot is that??

I'm not exactly sure what else I'm going to take, but we'll see. I'm going to make an appointment with my advisor ASAP so I can get into that course.

Work is going well. Everyone there is nice, and I'm making money. So woohoo!

I'm off to write my final psychology paper. Wish me luck!

This has been a great couple of days!
It all started Sunday, when Rich, M!ke and I went to the RenFaire in CT. I told them to be at my house a little before nine thirty AM. My dad went to leave for work at nine, and discovered them playing with swords in the driveway. It turns out that M!ke had been there since eight AM, but hadn't bothered to knock or anything.

So we finally got on our way, and we managed to not get hopelessly lost on our way there. We finally arrived, and it was great! Saw a few old friends and made lots of new ones. I have now joined the Ship of Wyrd, as Summer "Bubbles" Rose the Bard. Yayness! I'm willing to bet that by the time NYRF starts, a certain Wyrd Cousin will have everyone calling me Bubbles full time.

Because of my joining the ship, I now have two little sisters, both of whom are physically larger than me, of course. Wynter and Autumn. Yay!

I bought a dagger, who I have dubbed Moon Chaser. I'm hoping to have the sheath engraved at some point.

The faire was a blast, but the trip to Friendly's afterwards was just as good. There's no way to explain any of this, but I'll give you some quotes:
"I'm pregnant!"-M!ke, after drinking out of the magical straw.
"The cherries are tingly!" Rich (don't ask.)
"You look like the back wall of a carnival stand!" Rich
"You my baby momma!" M!ke, after establishing that it was me, not Snowball.
"We don't run around waving dildos yelling "Toga! Toga!" Autumn, in reference to stupid people not knowing anything about Faire.
"It's hard to pee in chainmail." M!ke
"Can we have crayons?" Us
"How does it feel to find out you have a uterus?" Autumn, in reference to the first quote.
"You can't get pregnant from tampons!" Me, but I don't remember why.
There was some mention of eating either babies or virgins, and pork flavored ice cream, but that's inappropriate.

After that, M!ke, Rich and I all went back to my house. I packed, M!ke left,and Rich and I were off to New Paltz for the night!

Monday was fun. We went to get yummy coffe, and we went shopping. I got tattoo markers at the art store. Rich bought me a couple of helpful little sparkly rocks at the Awareness shop. (I successfully resisited the prosperity stone of DOOM! Yay me!) We got some lunch, then went back to the house to play with swords. I got to meet the puppy! We watched TV. Then, the storm started.

I haven't danced in a good thunderstorm in a loooooong while. This one. Was. Amazing. I felt soooooo good afterwards. I was slightly disappointed that the electricity didn't go out, though.

After Mother Nature got finished venting, we drove me home. I collapsed, and then Tuesday happened...

Had an interview at the New School Tuesday. It went really well, except for the minor interruption of a FIRE DRILL! That was amusing. :) I should know if I got in in about two weeks. As we left the building, the deluge started again.

Getting home took forever because of the giant accident on the West Side Highway. But I'm patient, so it's ok.

Rich hung around for a while, then I went to sleep, which leads us to...

Wednesday gaming! Woot! Great game, except for the turncoats. I bite you all! M!ke was there, and it was nice, and the world did not end. Went to Friday's afterwards, then drove the Evil Twins home. Went back to Mer's to fetch VW, who stayed at my house last night.

And now we have today. Snowball didn't realize VW was here until he got up this morning, which was pretty funny. But the best part about today happened slightly before that.
I got up. I checked my e-mail, and discovered....
MY SWORD HAS FINALLY SHIPPED! WAHOO! AND A BARREL FULL OF MONKEYS! ::Happy Leslie Dance:: It'll be here in less than a week, barring any disasters. I'm so excited I could burst!

Well, that's about it for the most amazing four days I've had in a long time. Now I must shower and go to work and such.

(PS-Rich, I'm being good. I swear. ::Evil grin::)

Have a lovely day!

I got up yesterday and let Snowball out, as usual. As usual, she started barking at something or other. As usual, I went to see what she was barking at this time. However, the thing that I saw was highly unusual-There was a Samoyed vistiting my dog! (For those of you who don't watch Animal Planet, this is a Samoyed.) I had never seen this dog before in the neighborhood. It had a tag and a collar and everything, but before I could look at the tag, it ran off. It seemed to me that the visitor wanted to play with Snowy, but didn't really want to get close enough to actually play. Snowball, of course, was very upset. She's not used to other dogs. It took me forever to get her inside and calmed down. Then for the rest of the day she wanted to go back out and look for the other dog.

Then, at about midnight, when everyone else had gone to bed, Snowball decided that she wanted to go outside. So I let her out, figuring maybe she "had" to go out, if you know what I mean. It turns out she did, but after she finished, she decided to lay down in the grass and watch the neighborhood. I, on the other hand, wanted to go to sleep. Not being an outside dog, she can't stay out all night, so I had to bribe her to get her back in the house.

This morning she went outside and promptly layed down in the mud. I swear, she's doing this just because she thinks it's funny to watch me get annoyed with her.

Lots of stuff to write about. Some interesting, some not so interesting. (I'll try to keep it more interesting than not.)

SHOWCASE
My drama showcase went absolutely swimmingly. People were saying that it was the best Integrated (Musical Theater Students) showcase they had ever seen. Scene-Partner-Andrew and I were attacked by the gremlins two nights in a row, when the balloon that was supposed to pop simply refused to.
AMDA's new theater is beautiful, and big, and, of course, acoustically miserable. Oh well, you can't have it all. (I will have a video of the performance eventually, in case anyone's interested.)

MOVIES
Patti and I rented Death to Smoochy and The Banger Sisters, both of which surpassed my expectations by a long shot. I thought I was going to die laughing during Death to Smoochy. I highly recommend it.

PUPPY DOG
Within the past week, Snowball has had two parties, all by herself. First, she opened the biscuit cabinet when no one was home and devoured the remainder of her biscuits. Then, my mom was cleaning out a closet, and she knocked over Snowy's breakfast treats onto the floor. The dog ate three of them before anyone bothered to pick them up.
Then, last Tuesday, she got skunked. No one knows how, but she did. She didn't even bark at the skunk. It must have snuck up on her. She's had three baths, and she still smells.

SPEAKING OF PUPPY DOGS
My voice teacher hired me to puppy sit for her dog in two weeks. She's paying me to go to her house and play with her dog! (And walk him and such.) Woohoo!

HAIR
I was bored, so I decided to dye my hair. It is now (temporarily) "Redwood."

ADVENTURES
Last night Patti, Ricky, and I were walking down Columbus at one in the morning. We passed a little outdoor cafe thingy with some people sitting outside. There was an SUV parked in the street with its windows rolled down and music playing. We were talking about this when one of the guys at the cafe said to Ricky, "Hope you never have to sing this song to her." (I was walking next to Ricky, and I have no idea what song was playing.) Having had a rather large amount of caffeine, I found this highly amusing, and I'm not really sure what happened until the guy started hitting on me. At first he thought that Ricky and I were dating, then he thought we were brother and sister("You look like Donny and Marie Osmond!"), then he thought that Patti and Ricky were brother and sister. After we got that straightened out, he hit on me some more. Then, he said that Patti looked like a lesbian. We were fairly intrigued by this random guy, so we kept talking to him, and he guessed that we were performing arts majors, told us that he'd like to get together with us for a drink some time, gave Ricky his card, taught me how to shake hands, said that I had a great laugh and that I was "enchanting," and then we left, going "What the hamster just happened?" (At some point he told me that he's 37 years old, and that my parents would love him, which really kind of creeped me out.) ANYWAY...The three of us are really curious about this guy, so Ricky's going to e-mail him, and we'll see what happens. But if we do go out for drinks with him, it's all of us or none, and we have contingency plans in case we need an out.

CLASSES
Classes are going well. Monologue kicks bottom, Film & TV kicks bottom (I'm really good at it so far), Improv was canceled, Dance has been kicking my bottom, and Musical Theater is just kind of there. I am, however, singing "Everybody Wants to be a Cat" from The Aristocats, and "Frank Mills" from Hair, both of which I love.

OTHER NEWS
I have become almost completely nocturnal recently. It's fun!
The thunderstorm last night was really cool, but unfortunately I didn't get to go out in it, because I was in class.
I think that this whole war business is ridiculous, and it's pissing me off.
My birthday is in less than a month.
I'm re-reading Lord of the Rings for the umpteenth time. It never loses its charm.
That's all folks!