The Girl of my Dreams

I met a girl last night. She had black and blue and blonde hair - mostly black, with a large patch dyed blue on top, dark royal navy blue, and a streak of blonde on the side. We met on a tour bus. It looked more like a school bus, brown non-cushy seats, and it was very crowded. Not smelly or anything, just crowded. I stepped on board and took the only seat that was open, maybe halfway back. Actually I wasn't even sitting on a real seat, I was in the middle aisle sitting on someone else's knee, that's how crowded this bus was.

We drove around Burbank, California. I recognized a bank, some of the shops, and knew approximately how far I was from home (Anne and Brooke's) if I needed to walk back. As the bus turned, I noticed next to me was this blue-haired girl. I smiled cautiously. She returned it. Over the next few minutes I clumsily attempted small-talk. I hate small talk. After a few failed attempts and what seemed eternal seconds of silence, I turned to her and said how I really liked her hair. Then immediately I turned to face front again, giving up, afraid she'd think I was a creep. She didn't. She thanked me for the compliment, and we started talking. Actually talking. I have no recollection what about. But it was "good awkward."

Suddenly the seat to my left opened up, I guess its inhabitants has disembarked. I claimed the seat, and asked her if she'd like to join me. She did. We sat together as the bus pulled on an on-ramp and onto the freeway. She told me she lived in Barclay, California, and was happy I was from the area. I broke the news that I was from Minnesota, and would be going back home next week.

By the time our bus reached its destination we were holding hands. It was really cute. We were really cute.

When we got off the bus we were at a zoo slash amusement park kind of place. There were pools, and I slipped and got wet up to my knees. I was thoroughly embarrassed, she just giggled. We continued to hold hands as we walked.

After we parted ways I was horrified when I realized I didn't have her email or phone number, and had no idea how I'd find her again. I don't know whether a relationship would have worked out or not, but I sure wish I'd had the chance to find out. At least I knew her name, and her town, so I'm hoping Google can help me find her.

Then I woke up.

If you ever meet the girl from my dreams, tell her about me, please? I rarely remember my dreams after waking, so I know she was special.

Pragmatic Christmas

I lucked out this Christmas - every gift my parents and family gave me was practical. Even including socks, which I'd asked for :)

My parents know me well, I discovered: they bought me a water-proof, fire-proof, theft-proof safe (no seriously, it's theft-proof, because it's super HEAVY). This was not something I thought I needed, so my first reaction was "I don't know how I'm going to use this." After some convincing I realized it will actually be very useful for hard drive storage, protecting all my movie-making footage if my house ever goes up in flames. The best part of the story, though: Dad explained afterward, 'I told Mom beforehand he [me] won't like this at first, he's not gonna see the use for it, and say "I can't use this", but once he gets his mind around it he'll figure out it can be useful'. Which is exactly what happened. My parents know me better than I do, apparently.

Birthday Celebration

Earlier this month I turned 26, and, as has become tradition the last few years, I invited literally hundreds of Facebook friends to join me at IHOP for a celebration. Amazingly, this year we had really good weather: no snowpocalypse, no ice storm, just plain ol' cold temperatures. In total, 16 friends and family braved the freezing temps to come celebrate.

The IHOP folks dealt very well with the sudden influx of guests - I'd not had a chance to warn them in advance about the large group, but when my family showed up the manager decided to wait on our table personally. Given the numerous comings and goings through the evening, perhaps a wise choice.

For me, the greatest gift someone can give is time, and looking around the table I knew for some of these friends, time is a precious commodity right now. I was humbled for them to spend their evening with me. I was also mildly upset, because as soon as the group grew to a certain size, I couldn't talk with everyone. And by mixing friend groups, I run the risk of people not knowing anyone besides me. This was especially concerning when I looked at the other end of the table and saw many of my quiet, shy friends gathered at that end. Oops. The "get all your friends together and hit the restaurant" idea worked super well in college, where everyone more or less knew each other, but I'm finding it might work less and less well in "real life".

It turned out okay - the shy people were mixed in with just enough extroverts that it worked - and halfway through eating I switched ends of the table to spend time with those friends. But still, I'm not sure if I'll do this again next year. I'd rather spend quality one-on-one time with all these friends, than limit our conversations (both in time and depth) in order to get around the table and see everyone. And I left the evening feeling as if I'd missed out, because no matter who I was talking to, there were other conversations I probably should have been in, too. I feel like I couldn't win.

Time to start brainstorming for next year. Maybe laser tag.

Minnehaha iBand

Faculty and staff with iPads performed in an "iBand" for the Minnehaha Academy Annual Christmas Musical Variety Show, December 13, 2011.

Inspired by the North Point iBand: http://youtube.com/watch?v=F9XNfWNooz4

Special thanks to Nicholas Freeman for recording and editing.

Life is Good

At 1:06 a.m. I turn 26. And Life is Good. I say that because my life is going "as planned"? Not exactly the words I want to use. Hm. But to say it's "going well" sounds so boring.

Just got home from a production meeting, where we did our post-mortem on the last movie shoot (not nearly as much name-calling and yelling and gnashing of teeth as I'd expected :) and also figured out roles for the next project. I'll be production managing, and I'm super excited.

Our star from the last movie just emailed me a draft she's written for a sequel. I enjoy reading scripts, and I'm very excited to read what she's done with the character.

Friend Pam took me to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert earlier this week. What a light show. Wow. Great music, too, but really: total techie-drooling over all the cool toys they had.

Work has been busy; boss approved all the projects I want to be working on, as well as the potential of me working remotely from LA for a week every now and then.

I have so much to do that life will never be boring. I need to take time to pause and listen to God's Calling, though, because I'm just going my own way and not really taking the Holy Spirit into account. Prayers for that appreciated. And frankly, call me out on it if you ever feel so inclined. I need the reminders.

Chapel talk last Thursday went well. Lots of folks have commented how it meant something to them. Folks who wouldn't have to say anything; they've gone out of their way.

In my friendships I'm noticing how much I've matured from the person I was a year ago. I'm forcing the relationships less and listening more. Part of it's from busy-ness. Part of it is maturity. Let's pretend the larger portion is maturity :)

At AWAKEN this past weekend the director and her husband (the founder) announced they will be leaving the ministry at the end of this year, in order to focus full-time on their church (he's the pastor). So there won't be AWAKEN next year. The board might find new leadership for the year afterward, they might not, it's a "definite maybe" :) In any case, it's interesting because since October 4 I've been coming to peace with this being my last year in the drama (without knowing this may possibly be the last year it even exists!), and I feel good about it. Again, everything just feels like a natural progression. I'm not trying, life is just falling into place.

Oh, and one more piece of evidence for that theory: I've been waiting and waiting and waiting to hear if school will hire me to work the Madrigal Dinner event in February. I've worked it every year since 2004 (except last year because they took a year off), but this year I resolved that they needed to approach me, I would not go begging for the contract. This is mostly because, in many areas of my life, I'm tired of pushing my way onto a situation, or trying too hard to make something work. I chose in this case to resist that urge. It's been hard, but finally this past week I got the email that the director wants to talk with me, and though I don't want to count the chickens before they hatch, I'm pretty sure they'll hire me. So that's exciting.

One last vague example, I recently chose to do the "right" thing even though I thought it was going to cost me significantly. In the end, it didn't, but I still have the satisfaction of making the right decision.

My conclusion is that God's calling me to live my own sermon: live the Pooh-wei, allow life to happen and don't waste my hours fretting.

And at 1:06 a.m. I turn 26. Life is good.

Chasing the Miracle of Trust

Speaking in chapel at Minnehaha seems to have become an annual tradition for me. Special thanks to Jeff Crafton for the opportunity, Rich Enderton for videoing (Nicholas Freeman for providing the camera), and Brian Hallermann and Van Donkersgoed for lighting and recording me today. Everything went off with only the very minor-est hitches. I'll take partial credit, for planning ahead, communicating my needs, and having backup plans in place, just in case. In fact, I was complimented by the tech crew for being the most prepared speaker they have all year. We even had sappy "cry music" queued up just in case I broke into tears on stage (which I legitimately thought might happen). The techies set up special blue lights on the black curtain to look like a Stevenote, and my notes about slide transitions and lighting fades must have made sense, because they hit every cue spot on.

The audio in the recording is a little hissy, but my words are legible. Er, understandable? Here's the video from this morning.