Past Year's Resolutions: 2015

What did I accomplish this year?

Every year I ask myself this question and make my retrospective resolutions for the year.  Hindsight is 20/20.  And I think it is much more uplifting to reflect and think, "Wow- I did that!" than to think, "I didn't meet two of my ten goals.  I'm a failure."  Know what I'm saying?

In no particular order:

1. Attend the Tony Awards in New York City!!!  What a dream-come-true, all thanks to my little sis.
2. Be featured on a national network television show.  Blood and Oil.  Opposite Don Johnson. Yes, that Don Johnson. 
3. Choreograph Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat for Taylorsville Arts
4. Choreograph 4 elementary school musicals for Murray City and Sandy City
5. Be dance captain for Sandy Arts Guild's Shrek
6. Perform as an ensemble member for my very first time in Sandy Arts Guild's Shrek
7. Perform in Nunsense for my third time.  Sister Mary Leo and I can't seem to part ways.
8. Meet the original Broadway cast of Jersey Boys (minus John Lloyd Young) and sit front row center for their concert - Midtown Men
9. Increase my husband's business, Life of the Party Entertainment, 234%, since I first began working with him three years ago
10. Continue to celebrate many special occasions and adventures with my hubs
11. Continue to work out regularly
12. See myself on the big screen at the movies during the Sundance Film Festival - Don Verdean 
13. Live through rubber bands, metal springs, and braces galore
14. Take a road trip to California with one of my dearest old roommates, Andrea, for the wedding of one of my dearest friends of the past 14 years.   I love him with all my heart, he was one of my toasts at my own wedding, and now I can love his darling wife just as much!
15. Visit Las Vegas thrice - once for Mobile Beat, once for Las Vegas DJ Show where my little sis and her hubs met up with us, and lastly for a quick 24-hour trip to visit my older sister while she was there for a convention.  On the February trip, I survived the most violent illness I've had in a long time - even having to call a doctor to come to the room to treat me because I could not leave the room.  Awful.  Rob learned a lot about me that day and I him - he's amazing. 
16. Take my parents to see some of Utah's/Arizona's wonders they had on their bucket lists: Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Cedar Breaks, Zions' National Park and the Shakespeare Festival.
17. Visit Disney World and Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights/Harry Potter with my husband - we've been talking about doing this since I first met him and he told me he worked there for three years.  Lindsay and Elliot were extremely generous in hosting us.  I can't wait to go back in November to help make their wedding the best day of their lives.
18. Throw the greatest "A Christmas Story" party yet
19. Continue helping beautiful brides plan and implement their weddings
20. Continue helping with The Cultural Hall Show Podcast
21. Learn how to groom/shave my cat 

Resolutions of Year's Past
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008 

Past Year's Resolutions: 2014

What did I accomplish this year?

Every year I ask myself this question and make my retrospective resolutions for the year.  Hindsight is 20/20.  And I think it is much more uplifting to reflect and think, "Wow- I did that!" than to think, "I didn't meet two of my ten goals.  I'm a failure."  Know what I'm saying?

In no particular order:

1. Stay married!  Apparently this is a pretty big deal.
2. Visit NYC for 2 weeks, seeing 16 shows (My favorite was Beautiful, thanks for asking)
3. Be on David Letterman.  For real.  Here's the story and video.
4. Buy a new new car.  2014 Honda Civic EX.  Probably never going to happen again in my life. 
5. Choreograph Hairspray for Taylorsville Arts
6. Choreograph Broadway My Way for Taylorsville Arts
7. Choreograph for Murray elementary schools
8. Perform as Vi Moore in Sandy Arts Guild's Footloose - I guess I play adults now?
9. Perform in a dream show Marvelous Wonderettes for Sandy Arts Guild as Betty Jean Reynolds - Wait, I'm 18 again?  
10. Audition for my first show at Hale Centre Theatre and get called back!  
11. See Frankie Valli perform live at Niagra Falls - that's one off my bucket list
12. Increase my husband's business, Life of the Party Entertainment, another 20%, meaning his business has doubled since I began working with him 
13. Maintain my six-times weekly dates with Gym
14. Be in a movie - Don Verdean.  I was just an extra, but we are seeing the final product at Sundance Film Festival Saturday
15. Win "best couple that never actually hooked up" in the costume contest at Pepper Nix's Halloween Spooktacular for our "A League of Their Own" costumes, we've been trying to win for three years
16. Become a redhead (for a show, but I kept it).
17. Get braces, a wish in the making for 17 years
18. Visit Rochester, Niagra Falls, Ohio, NYC, Moab, Las Vegas (twice), Phoenix, Shakespeare Festival, Goblin Valley
19. Throw the greatest "A Christmas Story" party (creatively speaking) yet
20. Read the Fablehaven and Under the Never Sky series
21. Finish watching Twin Peaks, How I Met Your Mother, The Carrie Diaries (don't judge), Sherlock, and Breaking Bad
22. Continue helping beautiful brides plan and implement their weddings
23. Continue helping with The Cultural Hall Show Podcast

Resolutions of Year's Past
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008 

What Surprises did I Face in the First Few Months of Marriage?

For those of you who have not yet seen my guest blog for The Cultural Hall, here is a little teaser.

Four months.
That’s how long I’ve had to figure out this whole marriage mystery – life with the blinders off as some would say.
Many have asked what has surprised me most about marriage.  Most of the answers that immediately start scrolling the news banner in my brain would either be of such saccharine mush that the askers would surely lose their recently consumed sugar that all the crap has been blessed out of, or be improprietous at best.
Thirty-Three Years.
That’s how long I’ve had to listen to all of the conversations and advice on all of the marital surprises or lack thereof.
So, what is most surprising?

Check out the post here to find out!

Life on the Island of Misfit Toys: Another Guest Post for The Cultural Hall Podcast

After writing my last post for The Cultural Hall Podcast, a bigger issue came to light than that of which I was writing: Why are grown single adults of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints often treated as if they are adolescents?  As one of our readers commented, there is “…the state of arrested development that LDS singles often live in. We age, beholden to the same rules and expectations placed on us at age 12, without the benefit of the doubt that we actually matured beyond age 12.”

If you want to read more, and I promise it is a lot more optimistic than this first paragraph sounds, head on over to The Cultural Hall Podcast website.

The Appearance of Evil

Want to read a controversial guest-post I did for The Cultural Hall Podcast? 

I'm warning you, this is a totally vanilla, boring topic for most  of the world, which explains why I have been insulted for the very first time with the word "insipid."

However, for the LDS audience, sleeping in the same hotel room as your boyfriend is quite the hullabaloo.  Who knew?   Apparently you can't sleep in the same room without having sex.  Except that I can.

Read the post.