Last Week of Summer

The last full week before the Institute choirs start for Fall has passed. There were a lot of things I would've liked to get done in my apartment this summer that just didn't happen. Ah, well. Here's a rundown of my last Summer week:

Monday
I was supposed to practice with Josh for a concert happening Friday, but on his way to my place, he talked to the people in charge and they said they didn't need him anymore. He came over anyway to return some music books and we sat in the living room for about an hour talking and complaining about being tired. I guess it wasn't a bad way to spend my lunch break, although it was disappointing that we didn't get to perform in the concert.

Tuesday
The MTC choir sang "Where Can I Turn for Peace?" and I accompanied on piano. Elder Dallin H. Oaks was the speaker. I love him.

Wednesday
I went to a Mary Kay party at Jenny's house. There were just a few of us, but it was fun trying stuff out and Jenny did a good job of explaining Mary Kay's goals, new products, etc. She is going to do a back to school makeover party at my house this week. Yay!

Thursday
This was the most fun day of the week. I picked Josh up at UVU and we picked Jenny up at work in Lehi. We went to W Talent to sign papers and talk about options for photo shoots, etc. Josh wanted to check out Nordstrom Rack, because he has a store gift certificate, so we went there after W Talent. He was funny, dancing while he was trying on a bunch of jackets. I was either laughing or smirking and shaking my head at him most of the time we were there. He tried on a really crazy shirt and Jenny took a picture of him and me. Then we went to Wendy's, where a bunch of high school cheerleaders were checking him out when he went to get ketchup or plastic ware or something. Yeah, that's how it goes whenever I'm with Josh. Which leads to ....

Friday
Friday was the day I felt invisible. Without going into detail, I'll just say I figured out that sometimes spending time with a hot guy means people pretty much ignore me and only pay attention to him. :( It was like Thursday was a highly caffeinated drink and Friday was the crash afterward. Friday night, Jenny came over and brought sloppy joes. We ate and tagged yard sale items while watching About a Boy. That's my favorite Hugh Grant movie. I felt a bit better after that.

Saturday
Yard sale at my place! Jenny brought stuff over and we did a combined yard sale. We didn't make much money, but at least we got rid of some things, which I really needed to do. Then we went to Chuck-a-rama. After that, Jana texted me about a goodbye party for Brady before he leaves on his mission, so I went for awhile and then worked late.

Sunday
I went to Brady's mission farewell. There was a lunch at his parents' house at 11 and his Sacrament Meeting was at 1. Brady's talk was very good--he's going to be such an amazing missionary. He has this undeniable light in his eyes. Some members of LDC sang "Gentle Voice" after he spoke, and I played for them. It went well. I had MTC rehearsal that afternoon and Brother Eggett directed. We're doing "Behold the Wounds In Jesus' Hands" with organ this week, which I'm really happy about. It's my favorite choir song to play on the organ (Mack Wilberg's "Redeemer of Israel" is a close second). I went to Jenny's for dinner after the rehearsal. She made some really tasty chicken. After dinner, we looked at some more modeling contests we might enter. Oh! I forgot to say that I wasn't chosen as a finalist for the Torrid Model Search. Neither was Jenny. I'm totally fine with it, though. I'm actually a little relieved, because I didn't know how I'd have time to go to California to model for them anyway.

It's funny how I thought I'd have all this free time during the summer. I should know myself better by now. I just can't manage to let myself have free time--I always end up filling it somehow!

BBC's Big Read

I copied this list from my aunt's blog. I'm interested in anything having to do with reading!

The Big Read ( apparently sponsored by the BBC) reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they’ve printed.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.

2) Italicize those you intend to read.

3) Underline the books you love.

4) Strike out the books you have no intention of ever reading, or were forced to read at school and hated.

5) Reprint this list in your own blog so we can try and track down these people who’ve only read 6 and force books upon them.

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

Either the publishers of the list don't know much, or I'm not an average adult. Maybe both?

Model Behavior

Both Josh and I have pretty much decided to sign with W Talent to do some modeling and acting. I expressed my concerns about not having time to do the classes right now, and the modeling director persuaded me to at least do the photo shoot with comp cards now, and then I can wait until LDC is done again for the summer to do all the classes. In the meantime, I will be listed on their website and can start receiving periodic calls from interested clients. I was on the fence about it right up until the time I talked to her yesterday, and when she suggested I could do the photo shoot and hold off on the classes, I got really excited. That's when I knew I should go ahead and do it. Josh did really well in his interview. They had him do a cold read, which basically means you look at some lines from an ad for a few minutes and then say the lines to the interviewer as though you were doing a commercial. He practiced with me and I couldn't stop laughing (it was for bubble gum flavored toothpaste), so when he did it for real, I had to not look at him. The model director also gave us a tour and had him walk the runway. She asked if he had done it before, because he looked so natural, but it was his first time. We have another appointment on Thursday to do paperwork and schedule our image consultations and photo shoots. Jenny is also going to sign with them. It's so cool that we can all do it together. The more I think about it, the more excited I get. Yay!

Addendum to Monday, August 4th

I can't believe I forgot that I went to Shelby's bridal shower on Monday! We played games and had treats and she was so cute. She told us all about how she and Brandon met, their first date, and how he proposed. Very sweet. Brandon and Shelby were married on Wednesday and their reception is tonight.

Maybe I CAN do everything... or... maybe not

Tuesday, July 29th: MTC and Picture Picking
Tuesday is my favorite day of the week, because it's MTC day. The choir sang "Faith of Our Fathers" and I accompanied on the organ. After the MTC, I went back to the office where my friend, Jenny, met me to go through our modeling pictures. We each chose one picture to send for the Torrid Model Search, and around ten pictures each for our portfolios (see previous blog post for portfolio pics). Then we sent the files to Costco to be printed.

Wednesday, July 30th: A Model of Preparedness
I picked up the pictures at Costco and then mailed off the ones for Torrid. The post office clerk thought it was neat that I was entering a modeling contest and wished me luck. I went back to the office and organized my portfolio and made a performance resume for the front pocket. I also made some business cards with my picture on them that are pretty cute.


http://www.wtalent.com/main.php
Thursday, July 31st: I can shake my little tush on the catwalk (that's from the song "I'm Too Sexy"--I know my tush isn't actually little)
I met Jenny at her house around 6 p.m. and we traveled to Salt Lake together for an open call at W Talent. When we arrived, they gave each person a form to fill out and a number to wear. I was #10. I figured they must already want me, 'cause they labeled me a "10" right off the bat! There were about thirty people there for the call, I think--some kids, a few boys, one man, a few women, but mostly teenage girls, and all skinny. The ones interested in modeling lined up to walk the runway. They actually have a runway in the middle of the studio. It was awesome! They played some club music, and each of us walked to the end of the runway, pivoted right and left, and then spun around and walked back to the start. Jenny went right before me and had a way better walk than all the other people we watched. Must be all her pageant experience. I don't know if my walk was good, because Jenny didn't get to see it, but I think I had a good hip pop at the end of the runway. I was also wearing heels and a lot of other girls weren't, so I think that helped. We went straight from the runway to the photographer, who took four poses. Then we went to the lounge area and watched "Ugly Betty" while we waited for interviews. We each met with Evan, the CEO (very good-looking, btw), who said he really liked that Jenny and I came together and seemed like we were having fun. He kept a choir CD I took with me for a sample of my piano skills and then talked to me for about twenty minutes. He told me they haven't had a lot of opportunities for plus size modeling in Utah yet, but they want to branch out into that area more. Then he apologized for calling me plus size, because he didn't like to categorize people too much, but I said, "It's alright. I'm fine with being plus size." He also told me I shouldn't lose weight, because he thinks I'm gorgeous how I am. Yes, he used the word "gorgeous." They really know how to butter people up in this business! I do want to lose more weight, though. Then Evan had me read some lines for a make-up ad and told me if I were younger he would want to put me in High School Musical. I said I was thinking more like Hairspray, and he said, "Yes!" He also asked both Jenny and I who the guy was in some of our pictures. I knew they would like Josh! Evan scheduled an appointment for me to come back the following week (he also scheduled one with Jenny), and then Jenny and I met some hot guys (Clint and Craig) at a restaurant for a late dinner.

Friday, August 1st: Bite Nite
Friday was the release of Breaking Dawn, the fourth book in the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. Barnes and Noble had a big dress-up party starting at 9:00 p.m., so Jenny and I put on formal dresses and went to enjoy the fun. They had fortune-tellers, trivia games, costume contests, and face-painting. I got "JACOB FAN GIRL" painted on my arm in black and red and Jenny got glitter painted around her eyes. If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's okay. I know not everyone is into the books like we are. At 10:00, we went to a diner-type place around the corner for some food. At 10:30, everyone started lining up outside to wait for their books, which the store wouldn't start selling until 12:01. I said, "There's no way I want to stand out here in a formal for two hours!" Suddenly, we remembered that we had bought our Harry Potter books at Smith's (a grocery store) and there hadn't been a big crowd then. Jenny called Smith's and they said they had 80 books and only two people were in line so far. I said, "Let's go!" The guy behind me in line had been eavesdropping on us, so I said I would tell him where we were going if he didn't tell anyone else. He and his girlfriend met us there and waited with us in line, along with another couple of friends who we told about it. We met a nice mom and daughter there who were the first in line. We had our books and were out the door by 12:05. I'm so glad we didn't wait around at Barnes and Noble!

Saturday, August 2nd: Gonna rock it up, roll it up, Do it all, have a ball, Saturday Night, Saturday Night
I went to a fun goodbye party for Daniel, a boy from choir who left this week for a mission in Ghana, West Africa. We ate barbecued hamburgers, talked, played the "What if..." game and the "Snort" game, and then watched The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. I think we all laughed through the whole party. You know how it is when you're with friends and everything becomes funny... good times.

Sunday, August 3rd: Take a look, it's in a book, a reading rainbow
There was no MTC rehearsal on Fast Sunday, so as soon as I got home from church, I started reading Breaking Dawn and basically only stopped to eat and go to the bathroom until about 3:00 in the morning. I did take a break to watch KBYU for a little while, because my eyes were tired of looking at words! I got about 2/3 of the way through.

Monday, August 4th: Ummmm....
I think I just worked, because I don't remember doing anything special that day. I talked to Josh about meeting with the talent agency, since they seemed interested in him, and he said he wants to go.

Tuesday, August 5th: Meanwhile, back at the MTC ...
The choir sang "Look at the World" and I accompanied on the piano. I really like that song. I think I'll suggest it for Institute Chorale this year. After the MTC, I went to look at an apartment for Joseph and Miriam. It was already rented, even though it had just been listed that day. Story of our lives right now! I hope we can find something soon 'cause there's not enough room for them to live with me!

Wednesday, August 6th: Call-Back
Jenny and I went back to W Talent for our follow-up appointments. They talked to us both together and want to sign us to do modeling and some commercial acting. We would have to pay for our first photo shoot with their photographer, hair stylist, makeup artist, and wardrobe consultant. From the photo shoot, we get a comp card (a kind of flyer that you give to potential clients with pictures of you in four different "looks") and they start a professional portfolio and give you a CD of the pictures. They also have classes to take, but the main modeling classes are on Tuesdays during MTC time. When I explained my conflict, they said they could probably start booking some things from just the photo shoot, but I feel like I need some kind of training, since I have very little experience. The more I think about it, the more I feel like it's not the right thing for me... at least not right now. I get to be in the spotlight enough already and I feel good about my current performance opportunities in the choirs I play for. I set up an appointment with them for Josh and told them I would think about it for a week and let them know when I come back with him. They also asked for our photographer's phone number, because they really liked our portfolios. They might call her if they need a photo assistant for their main photographer. Maybe I should be the agent instead of the talent! I think it would be awesome to do a photo shoot with their photographer and stylists, but I don't want to feel pressured or commit to something that I can't put my whole heart into.
After the meeting, Jenny and I went to see her friend, Clint, sing in a concert of LDS artists for LDS booksellers. Dinner was provided with our tickets and some really good musicians performed. Clint was great, even though he was really nervous.

Thursday, August 7th: The daydawn is breaking
I got home late Wednesday night, intending to read one chapter of Breaking Dawn and then go to bed. I couldn't put it down. Suddenly, I realized it was starting to get light outside! I only had two chapter to go, so I finished it and caught a few hours of sleep before going to work. I guess it's appropriate that it really was breaking dawn when I neared the end. I'm not going to say much about it, because some of my friends haven't finished. It took me about a day to absorb it all and Amy and I have already discussed the important details. I felt like a zombie all day from lack of sleep.

Friday, August 8th: Finally the weekend!
It was my friend, Brian's last day at work, because he's leaving to go to law school. Our department had a lunch at noon. I think sometimes food tastes better when it's free. I looked at an apartment for Joseph and Miriam this afternoon. It's in a really old building and was really dirty, but the manager said they are cleaning it this week. It's not as nice as my apartment and it costs more, but we haven't had much luck with anything else yet. We'll see....