The Happiest Place on Earth

 I haven't posted in a while mostly because I have been really busy this summer. So far I have worked for OPAS doing lights again, got my brother married off, and went to Disneyland. I have been spending a lot of time with Thad when he isn't off at work in Chicago, Dallas, Seattle, etc. His last job before I leave is this weekend and then we will have a few weeks before I'm off. He goes to conferences for Intel and tells people to sign up for raffles or takes pictures or something. His job sort of changes each time but in general he goes to events like ComicCon or PAX or stuff like that. His last one was boring though because he had to sit around in a movie theater all weekend. But at least he gets paid!

 

YMCAA

My group of friends went to Disneyland last week. It was really nice that Megan had family down there that let us stay with them. They also had a pool! I invited Thad and was super glad that he was able to come. There are a lot of stories that I could put here but I will just hit some highlights:

• Riding Star Tours 4 times was really fun because Thad was so excited to go on it every time. The only downside was once everyone was screaming and we didn’t like that as much :-) Also Thad always wanted to be the Rebel Spy but he never was... :-(
• Thad bought us cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory! I had never had it before but it was deeeeeeelicious!
• Yolo is a county in California! 
  
• World of Color added a Brave section! And it was awesome! I also bought Glow with the Show Ears. They were really fun and I liked them. I wish the batteries hadn’t died for the second night but oh well!
  
• I'll let Thad's Facebook status tell this one: So today in a magical place, a magical thing happened. At the Blue Bayou, which is the restaurant inside of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, I had my first official date with Kacy. Like I'm talking one on one talking and nice sit down dinner type of date. Once we got in the restaurant the lady had given us the wrong menus. She gave us the lunch ones instead of the dinner. Which when we order made our waiter confused. In short after lots of apologizing, the chef delivered our food, and made it on the house. We also got these cool ice cubes that light up and change colors. All in all, best first date ever, best time at Disney Land, and best girlfriend. — feeling special. (It was pretty fun and awesome :-) A good memory to have!)
  
• Ice cream on Main Street was one of my favorite parts of the trip!!! I loved it!
• Fantasmic was a great show and a lot better than I remembered it being!
• Thad bought me a new tiara :-) Which I love and everyone called me Princess all day! And i had my pick and got the last one of the kind!
  
  
• Another Thad story... Well while eating dinner Tabasco sauce was shot in my eye. Fun fact of the day it hurts...a lot. After I stood up and manly took the pain Kacy preceded to push me down to make sure I was really hurt. 
•  Which I didn't realize he couldn't see the stairs so it really wasn't my fault!!! Chelsea shot it on accident and it was overall a funny event. I thought it was just soup and he was being dramatic, Eli thought he had swallowed my soda (he almost accidentally had 2 minutes ago), and everyone thought he was being dramatic until we realized what had happened and I proceeded to pour water in his eyes. But he is taller than me! So I had to put him on the stairs behind us so that I could pour the water down into his eye and have it actually go in. It was funny and wasn't hurt too bad but we went to First Aid on Main Street and they gave us eye cleaner stuff and then we called dad and he said to get Johnson and Johnson baby shampoo. So we did that and it worked great! No pain no gain right!?

  

  YMCAA

  
  

• I found a building with my NAME ON IT!!! Spelled correctly and everything!
  
• We loved having a day in between our Disney days to hang out by the pool! We had lots of fun diving off of the diving board (I learned how to do a flip!) and Megan's Aunt Francine even put bubbles in the Jacuzzi so there were suds everywhere!
  
• A guy with his family waiting in line turned around and did magic tricks for us! He made a hole go through Thad's hand!
  
• A lot of us Disneybounded which is where you wear casual clothes to make you look like Disney characters! Thad and I did Aladdin and Jasmine one day, Eli, Spencer, and I did the Aristocats another day, and I did Agnes from Despicable Me another day! Roz and Chelsea also did Mike and Sully from Monster Inc accompanied by Eli as Squishy from Monsters University, and Megan did mouse ears hair and a bow! Roz also did Snow white, Lion King, Ariel, and Buzz Light-year! It was fun and a lot of the cast members could tell who we were! I also did Aurora from Sleeping Beauty on the way down and Disneybounded while I was Disneybound. 
  
• The Aladdin show in California Adventure is great for resting tired feet and still being entertained! 
  

Overall it was a fun trip! I don't think I would want to drive it again and I think I may be Disneyed out until I have kids... At least at Disneyland. But it was a great trip! Now I have to ready for a much longer and farther away trip...

Urban Flipper

From the fete de lumieres!

L'Amour a Tous Les Droits

This is a song that we listened to the other day in french class. I liked the video and thought it was cute. The main line is "L'amour a tous les droits et nous tous les devoirs" it means "Love has all the rights and we have all the duties". I like that idea. :-) Yep!

Serez-vous ma copine?

Oui!

So Thad and I are a couple now. We had been talking about it for a while. It's been hard for me because of France and there were a couple ways that we could go about it. But I wanted us to be official. I've known him for a long time. We were in the same grade and we have always stayed friend even though he goes to Fox and I go to WOU. That picture is from Winterball my Sophomore year.But i am happy. We are decided to go on Pause while I go abroad at least until I figure out what my situation is like over there. But I am happy. I think he is too. He wanted to wait and ask me in person but we've known for a few days.

:-)

Also that's how he asked me. In french. He knows me so well!

Copy Cats

I just stumbled upon this and thought it was SUPER cute!

Outstanding Off Stage Contribution

The Outstanding Off Stage Contribution award is given to a technician who has demonstrated excellence and commitment to technical aspects throughout the season. When these awards were started seven years ago, they weren’t supposed to be a “life-time achievement award.” Each student’s work was to be individually considered for each year. This year is no exception. Excellence is this technician’s trademark. “Good enough” is not in their vocabulary. A powerhouse, a dynamo, a perfectionist, and a caring thespian: this technician always met challenges head-on and was always looking for ways to improve a show, even during the run of a show with sometimes somewhat comical results. I’ve said before that a show can still run even if no one shows up except for the stage manager. This person didn’t have to prove it, but I know that they could have done it. Having worked on every show since their freshman year, having accumulated more thespian points than any other technician at this school, and greatly raising the bar regarding what it means to be a techie, this could be a lifetime achievement award. Perhaps it has simply been delayed. The 2011 recipient for Outstanding Off Stage Contribution to the Theatre goes to Kacy Helwig.

Old but good :-)

A Funny Thing: Regret

It's hard for me to not regret decisions that I made in my past. I went to Linfield tonight with Chelsea to see Spring Awakening. And it was a really well done play. Worthy of the trip out there and really very beautifully done. And it's times like that where I look at my decision to leave and I see what I walked out on. I walked out on being the head person in another organization. I left being the lighting designer for the next 3 years of shows. And I know that I did. And when I look at that knowing how much I really do love doing it... I regret that. I regret that I didn't stick with it and become even better at it and more amazing. And i had a lot of good connections there that I could have utilized. And it is times like that where I wonder what direction in life I would be in.

And I don't regret it in like a "I wish I could go back and change it" way but in a that was a good direction that I could have gone but chose not to. And it makes me have regret because I don't know if in ten years I will look back and wish I had done things differently. But I think that just wasn't where I was supposed to be. And for that I am happy that I moved. I am happy with where God is taking me in my life and the opportunities that I have. But it just sort of puts me in an odd frame of mind to go back there and think about where I was at the time. Who I was. And it all just seems so strange to look at what I thought my life was then. And where I thought I was going. But it is all so different from what I pictured. And not in a bad way but just in a different way. So different.

For our french midterm today my professor did a listening activity about the jobs that she has done in her life. And I thought it was really interesting how she had so many jobs. And I haven't had that. But what was more interesting was her story of how being a teacher was the last thing that she ever wanted to do. But yet then she did and she loves it. It makes me wonder if I am going that route... The last thing I ever wanted to be was a foreign language teacher because of my mom being one. And now suddenly I am thinking it could be a good route... It just seems so crazy how all these decisions that I face have so many different influences on the direction of my life. It just seems surreal.