Scene 24, Take 11.

The three words "That's a wrap" marked the end of four incredible days and my first experience working on the set of a legitimate film production. Not that all of my posts' titles need explanation, but the reason this entry is titled what it is... I'll tell you. Scene 24, which was supposed to be done in ten minutes, but because the director jinxed us all by voicing that aloud, took 11 takes and almost two hours to film. And it was an outdoor scene that depended on the sun for illumination and the longer it took, the more daylight we burned. Anyway, I'm telling this way out of order.

I was the Slater for an independent short film that was then called "Delinquent Duty" but has since been renamed "Chasing Cane". It was directed by Roy Ford, a SHSU alum, and it was sooo fun and an incredible learning experience. Before this, I never would've thought that 12 minutes of film could take 4 whole days to shoot!! We filmed at six different locations: The Woodlands Chamber of Commerce, Coffee Expressions, Lake Conroe, a really nice house in The Woodlands, and some warehouse in Conroe. It was nice to watch all the action from behind the scenes and to learn how everything was done and put together. And it was really nice to be super busy on the weekends!! I met some awesome people and learned some really valuable stuff.

To see still shots of "Chasing Cane" and to learn more about the cast, click here.

Watch the trailer of the first episode of the mini series, Chasing Cane! (We filmed the first two episodes so far).

I just wanna be okay, be okay, be okay.

I think it's appropriate to head this post with some Ingrid Michaelson lyrics, because she's all I've been listening to for the past week and a half. I just love her! Heather bought me her CD and I can't get enough. We have a lot of ground to cover in this post, so let's get to it.

Shall we?

The first Saturday of Spring Break, which was March 12, I woke up early so I could shower and pack and get gas before embarking on the 2 1/2 hour drive to Waco. What's in Waco? Tim and Ryan are in Waco! I made sure to burn plenty of CD's for the road and while my tank was filling up, I bought two big bags of Doritos for Tim and Ryan. The drive wasn't bad actually. I thought it would be long and grueling and boring, but time flies when you're jamming out. When I was leaving Huntsville, my GPS predicted that I would arrive in Waco at 11:52, but I arrived at 11:15. How's that for defeating the system?

We all met at Ryan's apartment, which was conveniently located right off the highway. No corkscrewing through little avenues and getting lost. What a relief! Tim met us there about half an hour later and we had lunch at Five Guys, which was delicious, then... since Ryan is a certified Baylor tour guide, I was treated to a state-of-the-art tour of Baylor University.

Fun fact: Baylor University is home to two live bears! I literally thought Tim was joking when he told me... then I was face-to-face with the bear enclosure. Lovely!

They showed me a ton of cool stuff, like the library that people apparently get married in, a huge concert hall with a huge organ, a time capsule that was buried in 1945 and will be uncovered in 2045, and this bench circle where everything echoes like crazy. Baylor is actually really beautiful. I thought SHSU was an exceptionally scenic campus, but Baylor is just as pretty if not more so.

After sneaking around the music building, the art building, and the ENORMOUS science building -- it was more like a 5-star hotel, if you ask me -- they took me to an amazing snow cone hut called Mr. Snow. At first, I was a little skeptical. I mean, a snow cone is a snow cone. Right? Wrong. This snow cone was the mother of all snow cones. It eats other snow cones for breakfast. Get the picture?

I sat there dumbfounded for a good five minutes, staring at the gigantic list of flavors, and couldn't decide, so Ryan took the initiative and ordered for me. So, I ended up with a polar ice/electric lemonade flavored snow cone nestled on top of homemade vanilla ice cream. What is also known as a "love nest". It was amazing. The next time I'm in Waco, I might just drive straight to Mr. Snow and forget to visit Tim and Ryan.

Kidding!

Anyway, check this baby out.

Doesn't that look delicious? I know!!

After that excursion, we retired to Tim's apartment and played a few quick games of Bananagrams, then Ryan had to leave. Sadness ensues. Tim and I played Super Smash Bros on my Wii for about an hour, and he made me a ham and egg sandwich. I learned something new from this sandwich, and that is the way college boys cook eggs. We were standing in Tim's kitchen and I was watching him whip the egg in a mug, mixing in salt and pepper and the usual. Then, he pops open the microwave and puts the mug in the microwave. I've never, in my life, seen someone cook eggs in the microwave. Isn't that such a "boy" thing to do?

Anyway, that ham-and-microwaved-egg sandwich was my dinner, and as Tim's friends started to trickle in for a fun little get-together, I sadly had to go if I wanted to be home by midnight. The drive back was definitely more exhausting than the drive there. I was super tired by the time I got home, but I'm really glad I went. Really glad.

Childhood calls.

I came home this weekend to re-pot my sunflower saplings, and now the weekend is gone. It's gone by so fast, probably because it was amazing, and amazing weekends are always far too short.

On Friday, I went around looking at apartments for the Fall, and I think I've settled on one. It's called Woodcreek Apartments, and when I toured it, I fell in love with its quaint charm and roomy apartments. The concept of having a place to myself in just a few months is unbelievably thrilling. The only thing I'm worried about is taking Peach there. I don't know how she'll handle the move, but I'm sure everything will work itself out.

Saturday morning, my dad and I had a HUGE brunch at The Egg & I, one of my favourite restaurants in the Tomball area. I just love em. After that, we went to Wal-mart to purchase ingredients for a new dish I wanted to make: Creamy Rice Casserole. I saw it on the Food Network show "The Best Thing I Ever Ate", and the recipe sounded simple enough. With ingredients in hand, we went next door to Dollar Tree to find a watering can to properly water my sunflower, but we couldn't find one so we settled on a spray bottle. While I was there, I bought a new pot for my sunflower. Why not?... It was only a dollar. And since I was at a dollar store, or any store for that matter, anyone who knows me knows that I bought several unnecessary items. I bought a bubble set and a huge bottle of Arizona sweet tea. Hey, that's not so bad. I could've done worse, don't you think?

The bubbles and sweet tea weren't a complete waste. I spent the afternoon in the backyard blowing bubbles and watching Snapu chase after them. It was a gorgeous sunny day, just breezy enough to keep my bubbles afloat until they burst mid-air. My dad filled two glasses with ice and we downed the sweet tea in no time. After my bubble supply was exhausted, it was already 4:30 in the afternoon. Time to prepare the casserole. My dad did most of the work, but I got to dice the poblano peppers and mix the cream sauce. The casserole was delicious. That recipe gets my stamp of approval, for sure. My mom brought home rotisserie chicken, and it was a complete meal with enough leftovers for lunch the next day.

This morning, I woke up early -- "early" meaning 9:40 a.m. -- and woke my dad up so that we could make breakfast. I recently learned how to poach eggs through a Youtube tutorial... dorky, right? But I wanted to try it, so my dad and I poached eggs for the very first time. It was rather successful, and pretty much tasted awesome. My dad made his famous french toast, and I poached three eggs: one for me, one for my dad, and one for my mom. It was a fun breakfast, and one that I was pretty proud of. Probably because I helped, which is a big deal, because I am a goner when it comes to anything culinary. That's a fact.

I just came back from seeing "Alice in Wonderland" with my dad, and I really liked it. It was pretty graphic at times, which seemed out-of-place in what I thought was going to be a children's movie but turned out to be anything but. The acting was tremendous, Helena Bonham Carter was completely adorable and Johnny Depp was so loveable and complex.

Anyway, I had a great weekend and spent oodles of quality time with my dad, which is always a good thing. I'm now headed downstairs for my dinner, then am heading back to Huntsville where I belong. Ooh by the way, the Waco trip is on again, and I hope it stays that way this time. However, a lot can change between now and this coming weekend. Fingers crossed.

Love ya.

Sunshine

It's a perfectly beautiful sunny day to end the snow blizzard that befell Huntsville just two days ago. Not that the snow wasn't beautiful and fun, but the overall mood was just dreary and wet. I feel like this sudden sunburst reflects my life right now, as corny and dramatic as that sounds. Last week was horrible, and this week was just the lift I needed to make up for it. This week was amazing, to say the least. Nothing extraordinary or life-altering transpired, but there was just a lot of joy and friendship to be experienced. Contentment is the greatest wealth.

You're probably super bored of hearing about my scleroderma, and I do not blame you, but I'll say it anyway. Another change I've experienced in myself partly by reading old blog entries is that I haven't had a poutful, whiney day in conjunction with being sick in a long time. And usually those come every couple of weeks or so. But nope! Who's a happy panda? Me.

I feel like so much growth has taken place in me over the past two years, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. The empathy and perspective that has come out of this is priceless, and continues to better my life each and every day.

God works in mysterious ways. He really, really does.

86,400 seconds

It's amazing to go back and read the first posts in this blog, and see how much my priorities have changed since then. My outlook on life is dramatically, ridiculously changed. If you went back in time and told the person that I was back then that in a year, I'd see scleroderma as the biggest blessing, I'd laugh at you. Well, maybe not laugh. I might've hit you.

I can't believe it's taken me until age 18 to realize how important it is to live like I'm dying. It's ironic that I actually had to reach the point of near death to finally wake up and start living. In high school, I was so insecure and so easily wavered by the opinions of others. Now, although I'm still conscious of other's opinions of me, I'm proud of the person I am and it's very hard to shake that now that I know who I am. Finally. It's no longer important to me to be the trendiest person, or the most popular, or the smartest. I'm a good person, and that's the most important thing I think you can be.

This week has been such a rocky, emotional rollercoaster, but the cool thing about my newfound self-assurance is that I know what the right thing to do is and if I stick with that, it always ends well. I've been really stressed out these past few days, and my mom keeps telling me to stop caring about these things that bother me, that they'll worsen my condition. She's right; my illness was stress-induced in the first place. But to not care? That is so much easier said than done for me. Sensitivity is my main attribute, and sometimes it works against me, but I'd rather live a short life having cared than live a long, unfulfilled life in which I didn't. I'm so sensitive that it made me sick, but look where being sick has gotten me. I'm the happiest I've ever been, and I've never been so sure of who I am and what I need to do than I am right now.

Tomorrow, Brooke and I are hopefully taking a road trip to Baylor, but Tim's partied out and is sick now so he might not feel up to it. I really hope we get to go. I miss Tim and Ryan like no one's business. And I really need this getaway. Like, really.

Fearless

It's fun to do things, just do things without thinking them over very much. Not knowing how consequential they'll be down the road, and frankly, not caring so much. It's fun to live life without a backwards glance, eyes fixed straight ahead, not on the goal, but on the landmarks of the journey.

It's fun.

Two words that describe my life perfectly right now. I feel more alive now than I ever did before. I feel fearless, and I'm making a point to tackle every opportunity that comes my way. I can't believe how much I held back before I realized how precious life is. There used to be a distinct separation between the person I was and the person I wanted to be. That wall is quickly being torn down, and with every brick that comes loose, I feel better and better. Why was I letting that separation happen before? Why was I holding so much back? Most importantly, why was I so afraid to just live instead of think all the time? Man, I hesitated so much. I missed out on even more because of it. I'm doing things now and planning things now that I never dreamed would be in store for me. It's such an amazing feeling, the best high ever.

Anyway, I'm typing this in the radio office. Did I mention I was on management for the radio station this semester? It keeps me busy, which is also new to me... being busy. But I enjoy being busy, which I never thought could happen but it has. I have office hours every day, but there's not a lot of work to do right now. Oh yeah, and I got a fourth roommate. Her name's Melissa and she's pretty cool. She has this ADORABLE tiny little dog named Duke, and he's just precious.

Upcoming events: My dad and I are trying out this Turkish restaurant this weekend that I really wanted to go to. Me and Brooke are road-tripping to Baylor next weekend to see Ryan and Tim!!!! Omg so excited! And I got the job at TADW!!!!!!!!!! So I'll be working there this summer and staying with Lynn, and we're going to try to get tickets to the Ellen show with Trang, and when Trang comes to visit, we're also most likely taking her to Disneyland. Best summer ever? I think so.

The best two months ever.

I'm sorry I keep neglecting my poor blog! I'm just all over the place, and while there's a tiny bit of unwanted stress in my life right now, I feel like the luckiest person ever!

Let's see... the story last left off about a month before I went to Disney World. Disney World was unbelievable! The 15-hour drive really wasn't that bad! Of course, I just sat in the back and slept, but I heard no complaints from the front seat either. And believe me, if it was a bad drive, I would've heard plenty. But anyway, here are the parks in the order we visited them.

Disney's Hollywood Studios:
This was probably my least favorite park, but I did enjoy it a lot. It was rather small, but there was the Pixar Studios and The Tower of Terror and the Aerosmith Rockin' Rollercoaster! I loved the last two, they were my favorite! I took tons of pictures from every park too, but I'll post some later, maybe in another post. Actually, no promises on that. I keep forgetting about my blog and when I finally remember to write, it's like months after the event actually happened and I feel dumb.

Animal Kingdom:
My favorite park!!!! It rained on us, which kinda sucked, but it was still a great experience! My favorite things here were... oh wow there were quite a few favorites. And by the way, there were like NO LINES at any of the parks!! Thirty minute wait, tops! Most of the waits were only ten minutes!! Anyway, my favorites were Expedition Everest, a roller coaster where you go forwards, then backwards. We went on that twice :). Kilimanjaro Safaris, which was a ride in an open-sided safari vehicle into the wildlife reserve. Rhinos and gazelles and cheetahs walked like RIGHT NEXT to me!! No cages or fences!! I also loved the Circle of Life festival of the Lion King, and the bird show... I forgot what it was called, but it was fun!

Epcot:
This was a neat-o park. I loved all the countries. My favorite country was probably Japan, because they had a wicked gift shop haha. And there was this awesome show in China with these Chinese acrobatic children. They were just so cute and so talented. I also loved the ride Mission: Space. The simulated g-forces on that ride amaze me. Technology these days... And there was this ride called Test Track, apparently the fastest Disney attraction of all time. Haha you're basically in a car going through all the tests that real cars go through before they sell them. And at the end, you race around this sideways track at like 70 mph. It was cool.

Magic Kingdom:
Okay this is basically just like Disneyland, but some things are different. Like Space Mountain is pretty darn different. I actually think I like the Space Mountain in Disneyland better. My favorite thing here was the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor. It's like a digital puppetry show where the monsters tell jokes and they actually talk to you and interact with the audience. It was really cool and really hilarious. We didn't stay at Magic Kingdom long because we'd basically seen everything there, so we left early and hit the road to go home.

Awesome trip. I'm so glad I got to go.

And recently I just got back from California, where I spent my Christmas break. This was seriously the best Christmas of my life. I mainly stayed with Trang and I went to my aunt Co Ut's house like ever day, which is odd because I never really talked to that side of my family until now. But I got to know them, especially my big cousin Lynn, and I feel like I missed out on a lot growing up. They're the coolest family ever. Better late than never. And I went to Winson's formal dinner, which was a 13-course meal that Winson cooked and presented. It was so fancy. I'm hoping he does a dinner like that for my college graduation. Shoot, I'm willing to pay him. And I got to know many of my baby cousins and bond with them. It was just such a rewarding trip. Also, for Christmas I got: a new digital camera (dad), three purses (trang, lien yee, muoi yee), four pairs of shoes (lynn, lien yee), two dresses & two pairs of tights (lynn), money (muoi yee, grandma, trang), two jackets (co ut), a necklace (lynn), and a really nice blouse (lynn). And with all my Christmas money, I came home and bought a Nintendo Wii. Again, best Christmas ever.

And while I was there, my mom bought two turtles from a Chinese super market and me and trang got to release them back into the wild. That was a rewarding experience. Another Christmas gift.

Anyway, I'm about to start my second week of this new semester. My classes are alright, even though I couldn't go to them last Thursday and Friday because my fingers got slammed in a car door. Yeah, I cried for a long ass time about that one. My finger still hurts a little, but I'm recovering pretty fast. I also just got put in the management team for my radio station. I'm Traffic Director, and I still don't really know what I'm doing. I have yet to be trained, but we're having a meeting tomorrow.

I need to get my eyebrows waxed...