Ha ha

Remember my awesome planner?

Yeah, I need to get back on that... but you see, I keep telling my husband that it would be sooo much simpler if I just had an iPhone. Someday perhaps. I can be a patient person.

Also on my list of things-I-need-to-get-back-on: eating well/losing weight, not freaking out about how I compare and doing well in dance... Oh dear.

Blegh

Blegh blegh blegh blegh blegh.

I shouldn't be complaining, but I am. So there. The fact that it's been gloomy weather and that I've been stuck inside translating this stupid computer manual for two days in a row now probably doesn't help either.

Right now, I'm mainly annoyed at the total lack of fairness in life, and I really don't care to hear that "life's not fair." This may or may not have something to do with recent announcements about the BDC, for example. I mean REALLY?

Ugh.

Yes, in fact, I would like to have my cake and eat it too.

The love of a student

I knew my husband was well-liked by his dance students... but I had no idea to what extent: They made a website in his honor! And it's seriously awesome: Check it out!

Yesterday

This basically sums up how Andrew and I feel about yesterday's competition:



Watching this video considerably cheers me up though.

Bunnies and things that make you fat

We went to Vegas/California President's day weekend so Andrew could compete. It was also Andrew's birthday, but poor thing had to spend most of the day at the dentist's or on the road. We'll party harder next year. We did go to cheesecake factory however, which was divine of course.

How lovely. And utterly fattening. But it was so worth it :)

Also, while Andrew was off in California, I got to spend some time with his parents. As usual, I had homework, but apart from that we did some shopping (I found some awesome fabric for a new pair of pants--when I find a spare minute to sew them in!) and went to an outdoors shop where we saw these very very cute bunnies.

Gah! Look at that little one in the food bowl! They were giving them away free because they mutliplied like, well, rabbits, and I was sorely tempted. Then I remembered rabbits stink, have cages you need to clean and die easily.

Oh well.

I also got a head start on my American history. To be completely honest I never learned much about early American history, growing up mostly in France and all... I'm doing my best to rectify that now.We played an awesome USA trivia game which also forced me to learn the names of US states (which I until then mostly couldn't place on a map. I know, shameful. At least I have an excuse...) That's also why Jen woke up to Andrew reciting Presidents and Vice presidents in the car. (He's pretty dang good, let me tell you!)

Later I sat down to catch up on some reading:

and this image made me kind of giggle. Does this make me a republican?

Singin' in the rain, and other musical awesomeness

An all-time favorite....


French style!
Ignore the video, it's awkward to watch people recording songs.




Nora Arnezeder behind the scenes.

Happy new year

...et bonne année!

Andrew and I celebrated the new year doing what we love most: dancing! We went to his old dance studio here in Las Vegas where he took some lessons before going on his mission, and about 20 people (mostly middle-aged women and a some men of all different ages) where there. It wasn't a big fancy event but it was lively enough, and it was nice to go out just the two of us and dance for pure enjoyment's sake. I had to share Andrew though, all the little ladies wanted in on the fun :)

I've already stated on Facebook that I won't be making any new year's resolutions, for one because I never keep them anyway, and for two because I already have goals and don't feel the need for new ones. I need to keep focusing on what I'm trying to accomplish and not let myself get carried away by day-to-day things. I've already quit team, so here's to simplifying!

Oh here's a funny story: one of the ladies came up to us and told us about how she had been on a cruise where people were celebrating their 30, 40, even 50 year anniversaries and she was just amazed at how long those people had been married. And then she said "I can tell you two will be one of those."

I guess we're doing something right.

Done.

I quit team today, it's official. Curt gave me the spiel about how the team will miss me, and that was it.

I can't say that I'm jumping for joy quite yet.



On an unrelated note, I have no idea what I'm going to wear for the BDC closing social...



Also, there is now nothing holding me back from cutting my hair as short as I want. YES!!!

Blegh

It's ironic that I miserably flunk my medals exam (ok, I passed just fine, but I did very poorly. Especially after everyone else did really well. I was feeling pretty sick and weak and sure enough, I danced accordingly. I'm pretty embarrassed considering that I know I could have done so much better.. I seriously danced like crap. I even saw Curt making pained faces as I danced.) the day after I have yet another one of those conversations with my husband that go like this:

"-  Don't let me not quit team next semester
- I'm going to hold you to that...
- No wait!

...

- If I quit now then I'm a quitter. It'll be like all of that was for nothing. Oh wait, it already was: my only possibility of doing tour was this year, and that was quite obviously crushed...
- Then quit it.
- But I can't!
- You hate team!
- Yeah, but what if.... argh. You're right."


Message received, Universe. I get it all ready. Maybe I'm just being stubborn to piss off Lee.

Favorite part of Dancesport

Aside from Kim Acerson's dress...

Wow is all I can say. It's a dream. Designed by Jaime Gines... And I still can't get over it.

Anyway, my favorite part was making the Amateur Ballroom semi-final! Gah!

I squealed like a schoolgirl when I saw our number up there, and Andrew and I are still giddy today just thinking about it. It was amazing. And I'm very happy with how we danced last night, it felt great. According to the marks from the semifinal, we were couple # 10, out of 13 couples. Which means we didn't just squeeze in by the skin of our teeth, we were there fair and square! And we actually got a few marks from the semi too. (Ok, just five... but hey, I thought we wouldn't get a single one!)

Here are just a few pictures of the momentous occasion :)

Tango face

I put up way too many pictures on Facebook if you care to see more... Andrew's dad took all of these--aren't they great!? Thanks for coming to support us, we love having our cheering squad :)

Also, I said we haven't practiced nearly enough lately, but I though of something. Andrew's been training really hard for Smooth (which he did very well in) and I've been doing team and working in technique classes, so I think in a sense all of that came together and helped our partnership out a lot. It helps to diversify.

Andrew in Smooth with Jen

Also, doing five dances in a row is death. I need to really start running...

More videos on my Youtube channel if you're interested.

Lessons learned this weekend at Dancesport

Competition always has a little element of random.

Lots of people have terrible taste in dresses... I'm sorry, but heavy fabrics like velour do not belong on a standard dress (although the exception I've seen to that rule is Ashley's latin dress--it looks really nice. But that's also a very lightweight velour) Also, lime green looks good on almost nobody, so let's just ban that right now. I could understand having a bad dress because you can't afford a nice one or something like that (I have been in that sort of situation), but we're talking about girls that ship them in and spend hundreds of dollars to get theses dresses specially made for them... yikes.

It's never impossible to make it.

Andrew and I make a good dancing couple :) Three different coaches told us this week we looked together, which really makes me feel good. When we first got married I thought we could never dance together because of the height difference. So yay for us :)

Black seems to really be back in full force right now.

It's not a good idea to start practicing two weeks before a major comp. We danced below our potential, and is was evident in the results. It gives me courage too though, because if we made a pre-champ semi-final like that, I think we could do really well if we put in more time and effort. And I plan on putting more work into it now.

People get really anal if you dare stand to take pictures in the corner designated for photographers.

The high bun is in. Although I still hate the pointy unicorn bun, there are some nice softer ones that look very elegant. I almost did that myself this year, but my hair's a bit short in the back, it would've been kind of tricky. Plus I really like what Becky did--I'm a bit of classical person myself.

Hard work pays off. Most of the time. The couples that worked hard got good results that matched their input.

It's easier to lose to people that are friends/that you know a little about. If I talk to people in the warm-up/line-up area/dressing room, it feels more friendly than if you go into it with a very competitive attitude. I'm getting much better at having a positive attitude in competition too--I've worked very hard on not being bitter, and so far so good. It's OK to get disappointed, but I feel more calm about it and I get over it much faster now.

I'm still struggling with calling Standard dance "Ballroom". It's gonna take a while...

Dancesport...

Nails: check
Tan: check
Dress:

 
check.

And just wait till I show you my awesome hair! (That I had to wake up at 5:30 am to get done...)

Tadaam!

Hair by Becky Lindstone--she did a great job in case you're interested ladies!

More dancing

Hello there!

Just wanted to let you know that I will be dancing in the faculty dance concert at the end of the month and you should come!

We'll be performing a very cool tango, and no, we're not actually setting our dresses on fire, that's just special effects to make you realize how awesome this concert will be. :)

I have nothing interesting to say

"Why waste cyberspace then?" you say.
Well, for one it's free, and there's plenty of it, so why not. A rule my husband lives by, incidentally :)
School is going pretty well. I love general conference weekend, but I wish we had Monday after off to recuperate and have time to do all the other stuff you needed to do... I really enjoy watching conference at home, it's so much cozier. I got to see friends this weekend, and I spent all weekend with my husband. No competitions, no lab, no performances, nothing to do really but stay at home together :)
And it's a good thing because this week's schedule is ridiculous. Team at 7 EVERY MORNING this week. (Yes I know, tour team does it anyway, but it's rarely every day for everyone). We have a show this weekend, and the parade on Saturday, so quite realistically dance is taking over my life this week.
Oh, and remember Elder Uchtdorf's talk on simplifying our lives? Yeah, that was meant for me. Really, what he meant to say was "when I was flying my plane the other day, I felt that Lydia needed to quit ballroom dance to maintain her sanity" (and my dignity too, I should add).

Hey there

You have no idea how many post drafts I start punching out angrily. And then after a while of furiously attacking the keyboard, I start re-reading myself and I make no sense.

I read a great interview today of the author of SSB. (Ok, it's not Nobel-prize stuff, but it was fun to read) It made me think about my own blogging. I tend to not write about the really negative stuff, because there are some angry, bitter emotions down there that I don't think it would do any good to publish. Those things that hit too close to home. Ballroom is one. Some of the others will most likely never see the light of day because as therapeutic as it may be to talk about them, it's not up to me to put it out there. (How's that for a cryptic sentence that tells you nothing?)

So that's the reason I try to blog about positive things. I think a lot of people only show the positive not nearly as much to convince others they're happy but more to convince themselves. If they write it down, it puts it in black and white, it's official. You can go back and look at your posts or journal entries or photo albums and say "hey, look how happy we were!" It's terrifying to say something is wrong! That makes it all too real.

And I'm not saying my life is awful. Far from there. I really do have a great husband. I love my major. I even have a calling that I enjoy. But that doesn't mean life doesn't go on and it's all bliss all the time either. It's not fun to have to work at a job that has nothing to do with the career field you want and keep turning down internship opportunities because, well, internship pays $0, job pays lot$. Hm, to pay bills or not to pay? But again, who am I to complain? I have a job. It's a really good job. Shoot, I even get benefits! (Well, some, I'm not full-time either) But when you have the choice between sitting at a desk looking at patents and computer manuals or going up to Salt Lake City working for a TV program with local celebrities and building up your portfolio...

Which brings me to another point: I think it's time to let go of the illusion that I'll ever make tour. I love dance. I love to dance. I love to watch dance. I love to perform. I LOVE concert. But it may just be time to make the grown-up decision now, and let it go. See, just writing about it now makes me want to cry. Maybe it's so frustrating because ballroom is really the first thing to stand up to me and say "No. You don't get in." It's entirely a question of pride: I keep hitting the wall and all I get is bloodied fists.

And speaking of cutting out depressing things from my life... I find myself enjoying "happy" (some would say sappy) songs more and more. I can appreciate the beauty of a sorrowful, powerful piece. One of my all-time favorite poems is Sylvia Plath's Daddy. And I assure you, this does not in any way reflect my own feelings towards my father or husband. I feel very keenly the hurt in writing like this, I get very worked up about injustice and pain, but sometimes I get so sucked in that it begins to affect me personally. So my favorite song of the moment is "Beautiful Life" by Fisher (look it up, it's a good song). And it may not be terribly creative musically, the lyrics aren't terribly original, but wow. It makes me smile. Sometimes that's just what you need.

That's a load isn't it?

It's that time of the year again...

I would like to reiterate just how beautiful today was. A cool breeze and sunshine is all it takes. Really though, I wish every day were like today. I'm excited to go back to school. I'm actually excited for physical science-- I rocked Bio 100 (if I may say so myself. No really) and I'm planning on doing it again with physical science! As a matter of fact, I'm planning on rocking all my classes. I'm actually quite a nerdy studious type in some respects, it's just I lose focus too easily... but not this time. I want to try harder this year. Life being crazy between my program, dance, work, other classes, church, and of course marriage... is not an excuse since I chose every one of those things.

I'm excited to start team--there are so many fun girls coming onto backup this year, I think it'll be a really good group, and let's face it: I love team. I'm also planning to take up latin again. I think I'll try out for tour team one last time, and after much observation I believe the most important thing they look for is well-roundedness. Well, that and being single. Kind of too late for that one, but I can still try. It can't hurt I figure (Andrew mocks me for saying it "figger" instead of "fig-your").
I'm excited for the holiday season... as a matter of fact I'm already getting pretty far on a Halloween project that is bucket loads of fun to do. I realize it's probably somewhat childish to get so excited about small things but that's what makes life special: the details. Therefore, I will continue to get excited about holidays, special occasions, events, and the like.

I've decided on a new project that will be fun for several reasons: it will get me out of my comfort zone and will help me look for new ideas around me. I want to bring my camera with me to campus every wednesday and find one person whose outfit/look/hairstyle etc. looks unique (well really, that I like is a better explanation) and take their picture and post it on my blog, à la Sartorialist. I think I'll post it on Lulu. (Incidentally, I'd love it if you'd go over there and follow me if you're interested :) I can't wait to get started! And who knows, I might even make a friend or two in the process.

Also, I'm excited to not be going to work every day. While I am extremely grateful to have a job, and such a good job at that, and wonderful colleagues, it's really not what I want to do with my life and, well, let's face it school is frequently more engaging...

Only a few more days till it starts, but I'm just about ready! Oh but first: one last trip to seven peaks!

Competition

We competed in Las Vegas last night, and guess what...

We got third place in pre-champ standard!! woot!

Considering our goal was to make the final, I'm VERY happy with that result. And it was so nice dancing with Andrew: he's such a pleasant dancer, I felt comfortable and he took great care of me throughout the comp. We have a couple photos on the way too, they will be up soon! Oh, and check out the hair:

And I got to wear my pretty new dress :)

Some favorites from concert....

Click on photos to see them in a better size. Cliquez sur les photos pour les agrandir.






Taken by Laura Johnson (http://laurajohnson.smugmug.com/Dance/Ballroom-Concert-Encore/11815851_Z3336#834967968_2Yfzk

BYU BALLROOM DANCE IN CONCERT -- 50th anniversary!

This year will really be amazing, and you shouldn't miss it for anything! The concert will be awesome, it's a great date, and on top of that, you get to support yours truly in what she loves to do!
On top of that, we're expected to sell tickets, and our team spirit and participation are noticed by the powers that be.
SO....
Tickets are available for friday evening, saturday matinee and saturday evening-- for 12$
Please, if you're planning on going, get your tickets from me. I can either buy them for you or you can call in to order your tickets and tell them my name (Lydia Nelson) and they'll put it towards my list. (If you act fast, I can get tickets early and get you some awesome places!)

So that way, everyone's happy: you get tickets to "that thing you love," you can show that girl you like that you have taste and you're not a cheap date, and I get to sell plenty of tickets, maybe win something cool in the drawing, and show my team spirit!

ugh

I was going to rant about dance sport and move-ups, but I decided that I just need to shut up and see what happens. If you're a non dancer, please send any prayers, positive airwaves and other spiritual and intellectual efforts my way for the rest of the semester. If you're a fellow backup member, I won't begrudge you not doing so :)

Oh, and anybody know of a gentleman looking for a standard partner? If so, do send them my way, I would greatly appreciate it.