Spring changes

The Arvada center is doing their spring student recital this week. The tech rehearsal is tonight, dress is tomorrow, then the show Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Last year I helped choreograph and rehearse the senior student dancers. Christina kept saying she wanted to get me on stage, and this year she will. I'm playing the Paris Opera Ballet Mistress, who comes to the orphanage to audition the children for my ballet company. I'm in the first and last scenes of the ballet, and I have a duet with another older dancer who plays the nun running the orphanage. I haven't been on stage in 8 years. I hope everything goes smoothly. I have a fantastic costume loaned from the Arvada Theater company's collection, all made from vintage patterns with ruffles and bustles. I've been trying to create an equally elegent and poofy hairstyle.

Additionally, I sewed 7 costumes for the little ones. They were double lined bodices with a two layer gathered skirt and lace accents. It's been a headache getting these done, mostly because the pieces were cut in assembly line fashion by other volunteers, and almost every piece had to be recut by me to fit the pattern. Some just didn't fit together, and some were cut from entirely the wrong pattern piece.


But I just have two more ribbons waistbands to finish, then check for stray threads and I'm done! I'll post pictures after the show.

In two weeks I'm going back to school. I decided I'm going to apply for nursing schools in the fall, so I have summer and fall semester to complete prerequisites at the community college. I'm super excited to be back in class and be challenged. My job has gotten pretty easy and light over the past year, and I'm in dire need of a big change. (you know, besides the whole buying a first home and getting a dog ;-)

Speaking of the first home, we're having new windows installed next week. Geez, they're expensive. There goes our 5 year anniversary vacation money. But our windows are such trash it's really a necessity: no screens, no locks, no heat/cooling effect, ugly, and difficult to open or close. We made it through the winter but there's no way we can last the summer without better windows.

And speaking of the dog, she's growing up so fast! I'm still having a hard time realizing she's going to be around for a long time, that she's part of the family. She still feels like a novelty to me. I enjoy that having a dog gives me and Ben more reasons to be outside, walking and talking, being social at parks and hiking, etc. But if it was just my choice, we would only have a cat. Although Jem is maturing and calming down, she's SO much maintenance. I hate the messes on the floor and the toys and socks she chews and leaves all over the house, the nasty smell of dog food, the expensive vet visits, the need to put trash cans on top of counters, the howling when we leave her, and on and on. More than anything, it reminds me that I'm not ready to give up my independence and start a family. I mean, I'm sure when you're holding your own infant, those selfish feelings go away and you're willing to change your life for this person, but for now, I like my freedom and clean home and not having to keep constant vigilance for a little creature (when Ben is home to watch Jem, at least). It reinforces my decision to go back to school and I'm happy for that.