Harlem Nights

HARLEM NIGHTS SWING DANCING!

This weekend was awesome!!!  I got to go up to Logan to Harlem Nights, a big swing...convention...thing.  There was a Friday dance, and Friday Late Night Dance, Saturday Workshops, a dance, and a late night dance.  I learned a lot, met many fun new people, and had a ton of fun dancing.  I rode up with my friend from Swing Team, Derek, and his friend, Chani.  Chani and I had so much fun hanging out, and became great friends! 

  

I think my favorite part was the Friday Late Night dance, at Club NY.  I've never been to a dance club before, so that was sweet.  I loved meeting new people and trying to figure out what the guys were trying to lead (that often didn't work so well for me).  I did

 not like dancing with guys who didn't know how to dance.  That was uncomfortable and happened far too often.   

I didn't have my camera with me, so I didn't get many pictures, but thanks to cell phone camera capabilities, I did get a few.  This one is me and Chani with our new friend, Grant.  He was so much fun to dance with!

I might post more pictures and/or videos once other people have posted them on facebook.  

 My other favorite part of the weekend was watching the competitions and performances.  There were sweet moves - air steps (lifts and flips and stuff), and styling moves.  If I can find a good video of the intermediate or advanced competition, I'll post them so you all can see how cool swing dancing can be!  

I don't really know what else to talk about, so if you want to know more about something, let me know, and I'll discuss it in my follow-up blog (once I actually have some pictures).  

"Life is too short to wear shoes you can't dance in." 

My favorite little sister

Today's blog is dedicated to my favorite little sister.  Tina.   No, wait.   Alyna.  Yeah, that's right.  Alyna is my favorite little sister.  We have such great times together through the years.  Pretty much, we can always make each other laugh.  Here are just some of the ways we've entertained ourselves:

• Quoting. We quote books, movies, Psych . . . anything.  
• Playing random games - the alphabetical big word game, or guess the book character, 
• Write quotes on the whiteboard outside our rooms.
• Mime/sing/act songs with duct tape over our mouths, or by glueing our lips shut with a glue stick.
• Draw a face on my forehead.
• Reinact that scene from Mr. Bean's Holiday where the kid blows the handkerchief off his face.  Repeat like, twenty times.
• Laugh at everything at 3am.
• Talk.
• Watch Disney Channel
• Make up songs - the Presidents (Eisenhower through Bush), Vultures We Have Seen on High
• Sing songs really loudly and badly - You Are My Brother, 
• Try to use quotes from Psych in everyday conversation.
  
• Take much pictures of ourselves.
• Read.
• Send Facebook Flair to each other.
• Have song wars - each person sings a different song really loudly, and the first person to stop singing their song loses.
• Dance in the rain.
• Do anything random.  Especially late at night.
• Make up Yoga line dances.
• Alyna jumping into my arms. 
• Scare each other.
• Handclappy game.
• Collect cows.
• Sign language talking during church.
• Make faces at the little kids at church.
• Watch movies, commenting loudly on random trivia.
• Help our siblings and cousins make big piles of ourselves on couches and/or chairs.
• Hang out on the roof of our house.
• Try on prom dresses.
• And probably more...

Needless to say, we've had a lot of good times together.  Also, it really explains, or illustrates our motto: "Blessed are the easily amused, for they shall be amused." 

A short weekend in Cache Valley!

Last weekend my roommates and I took a trip up to Cache Valley.  It was Mindy, Kayla, and I (the three roommates), and April (Oh She Who Lives In Heritage Halls).  After a leisurely morning of test taking and studying, plus I went to the bridal fair with Lisa - which, for the record, was quite fun - we left around 2pm.   Naturally, the car ride was very entertaining, with no actual homework being done, despite the good intentions and plans.  After dropping off April and Mindy at their houses, Kayla and I went to the frat house so I could say hi to Andrew.  Turns out, we came right during the burial services.  It was rather snowy and muddy, so we didn't go to the graveside, but we paid our respects from the porch.  Poor Buddy.  Then we went to Grandma's.  Kayla and I studiously pulled out our homework and promptly fell asleep until shortly before our planned party.  

The party was the girls at Mindy's house.  Being us, we partied by talking a lot.  Then Sam called, so we went over to Villarreal's, where we proceeded to talk some more.  Mindy, Kayla, and I claimed the corner of the couch, ate lots of popcorn, and talked.  There was a point (ok, a long time) where we were half asleep, but someone would start singing, "The sun'll come out, Tomorrow! Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow..."  I decided that we probably seemed pretty drunk.  Too bad we didn't get a picture or a video of that.   Mindy and Kayla and I all stayed at Grandma Briscoe's that night.  In the same room.  And all slept on the queen sized bed.  It made me think of Andrew's story about sleeping on the same queen bed as Garrett, with five feet and a wall of pillows inbetween them.  Quite a difference. 

Sunday we went to Sam's farewell, where he gave a wonderful talk and was supported by many girls, and not so many boys.  I was so happy to see my Tina sister!  It made us think about how soon our Alyna sister will be here!!!  After post-church naps, we went to Villarreals for lunch and talking, then around headed back to Provo around 5:30.  We stopped shortly at Grandma and Grandpa Hatch's, and got back to Provo around 8 after driving through a couple of hours of rain.  

All in all, a great weekend.  I really didn't get much homework done, but other than that, it was a good use of time, visiting with friends and family, and hanging out with roommates!

Summer

As a P.S., I should probably mention that I found out about the study abroad program. Finally.  It's a "No".  Kinda disappointed.  But I guess this means that I'll have more time to hike and make money and whatnot. I'm also wanting to go visit Kayla in Tennessee, since I suddenly don't have something huge I'm saving for.  July, maybe?  

Climbing!

This is probably the most exciting part of my life right now.  I've started climbing trees for work!  I first climbed (with gear and all that) last Friday, but quite frankly, I was terrible.  On Tuesday I just watched some of the guys climb while I was cleaning up.  I learned at lot by watching them, so by Thursday I was ready to try again.  I did much better.  Here's a picture of the sycamore I did all by myself.

I was up at the very top, at the crown.  It was Sweet!  Plus, I'm really a fan of the hand-saw leg sheath.  I think it's awesome looking.  And then today, I also climbed a sycamore.  I was up in the crown again, and I looked over at the nearest building and saw that I was higher up than the roof of the three story building.  Is that awesome or what!?!  Of course, they made me get out of the tree before I was done, because it was raining.  Apparently sycamores get really slippery and there are other safety hazards or whatnot.  Still, it was awesome. I was tree-climbing for over 5 hours this week!

Provo Winter

My only fun news for this weekend was Kayla and I went to Thoroughly Modern Millie on stage at the Fine Arts Center.  I've only seen the movie before, so I loved all the differences in the play.  There were a bunch of new songs, and a lot of the characters had a lot different personalities.  My favorite difference, hands down, was that one of the Chinese guys falls in love with Miss Dorothy, and saves her from Mrs. Meers, and she ends up with him instead of Mr. Graydon.  I had a lot of fun listening to the music and imagining dancing swing to it.  Awesome!

These are some pictures I've taken of our winter.  

These are the stairs going up to campus from the RB building (that's the building with all the dance studios and the swimming pools and stuff).  These are some of the stairs I used to have to shovel, with my old crew. That's a LOT of stairs.  Now every time I walk up them, I have a great appreciation for the fact that there's not snow on them.  
We had a really funky rain/snow/ice storm the other week that left snow iced onto every surface like tree branches and power lines.  I thought it looked really cool, so I took pictures.