I have ALWAYS been obsessed with the Nutcracker. When I was younger, I danced in the Nutcracker every year with my dance studio. When I learned to dance on pointe, my first performance in toe shoes was as an angel in the Nutcracker.

When we moved to Florida, my new studio didn’t put on a production of the Nutcracker, and this devastated me as I had fallen hopelessly in love at this point. I had to stay involved somehow, so I started a collection. Today my nutcracker collection is quite extensive, and I am so thrilled that I have my Christmas decorations in North Carolina now because I will be able to put some of them up in my apartment! No worries, I’ll post pictures when that happens

I was thrilled when my senior year in high school, the women’s chorus that I was the president of at my school was offered the opportunity to sing the vocals at the end of the first act. I was thrilled to be involved again with my favorite ballet and a now required part of my Christmas. It was fantastic to be able to participate in this show in a new way, and I still sing along when I hear the soundtrack!

And now, it’s all coming full circle. Today, here in graduate school, I am in my box office rotation. And every five minutes or so the phone rings and I sell a few Nutcracker tickets to children and their grandparents . . . does it sound cheesy for me to say this makes me feel all warm and fuzzy?

I love the Nutcracker . . .

So far so good on orientation. Yesterday was mostly a “hi, this is the faculty, these are your classmates, let’s eat sketchy burgers and questionable hot dogs now!”

Today was a little more productive. This morning I got my welcome packet (I feel welcomed), my textbooks (book bag heavier, wallet lighter), my ID card (with my senior year high school picture on it - yes, it is 6 years old), and my mailbox number and combination (which I will likely never use). I feel quite official now, and I’m excited that once again I can get the student discount at the grocery store - woot!

Then, this afternoon, we had a for real meeting with our program faculty members - 8 students, 2 teachers. Close and personal, eh? It was great to get to go over all the material that we had received in bits and pieces the past few weeks. We didn’t really learn a lot of new stuff, but I feel significantly less scattered now, and that’s nice. Also excited to hear that my laptop (which runs on Windows Vista, not XP) is not going to be a problem in my computer class. We’re gonna stick Office 2003 on it (I have 2007) and life will be dandy.

Still don’t COMPLETELY know my schedule as they are still working out the rotations for us (we each spend some time in marketing, development, box office, etc.), so I STILL can’t tell Starbucks what my hours are going to be. That has been more than frustrating, but I did find out enough to get by for the next week or so, so hopefully this will get resolved and my life will be complete.

On a side note, the orientation schedule has a lot of things that are not required for grad students . . . but it doesn’t really say that on the schedule. As a result, I’ve gotten a lot of free time this week (I took off from work since orientation seemed to be so involved). What am I doing with this free time? Why, goofing off with AJ and spending WAY too much time with the cats. They’re so awesome - I really want kittens of my own . . .

OK, off to bake cookies - if you’ve had my cookies, you know what you are missing. If not - trust me, you wish you did !

I found this meme over at A High and Hidden Place, and it looks like too much fun!

20 Years Ago: (age 2)

My mom read to me allll the time! I’ve been a big fan of books and reading since day one. There’s also a really cute picture of me when I was about 2 1/2. I’m sitting in a big rocking chair, and my little brother is in my lap (he’s about a month old), and I’m “reading” a book to him . . . and the book is upside down.

10 Years Ago: (age 12)

When I was this age, my punishment was getting the TV taken away, it wasn’t being grounded . . . It was taking my books away. I HATED it. Also when I was 12, I started to write a book, which I finished when I was 13. It’s a for real book - think Baby-Sitter’s Club genre. I’ve gone back and read it, and while it needs a LOT of work, I have actually really considered doing something with it . . .

5 Years Ago: (age 17)

At 17 I was a senior in high school, and I was getting so burned out on all the school reading that I kind of quit reading for pleasure. I hated it, because I looooved to read. I just couldn’t do it.

3 Years ago: (age 19)

At 19 I was kind of in the same place as I was at 17. I had tried to get back into reading after graduation, but when I went to college I majored in English and theatre . . . so was reading CONSTANTLY for class. I just couldn’t get myself to read for pleasure.

Last Year: (age 21)

I decided to heck with it about school reading, and every time I had a break from school (fall break, spring break, Christmas, Easter, you name it) I would read about a book a day. I still do that.

This Month: (age 22)

Now I have started grad school, so I’m working at finding a balance between reading for pleasure and reading for class. It’s been difficult. Becoming active in Bookcrossing has helped.

3 Favorite Reading Locations:
- my bed
- outside by the pool at home in FL
- the coffee shop at school

3 Reading habits:
- when I start a book, I will usually finish it in the next 24 hours
- if I’m in public, I HAVE to be listening to music while I read
- I have 2 bookshelves full of books that I haven’t read

3 Things that distract me:
- other people
- movies
- schoolwork

3 Favorite Book Beverages:
- Diet Coke
- cup of coffee
- espresso-y drink from Starbucks

3 Favorite bookmarks:
- my mother makes bookmarks, so my favorites are all beaded bookmarks made by her!

So . . . what about YOU?

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This post is for the Blogathon 2006! I am blogging for The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. For more information about what I am doing, please click here!

Thirteen Things about LINDSEY

1. Alright, so, what has been up in my life since my last good update? First I had finals . . . which were a mess. I had a ton of work to do at the end there, and I would up getting a really bad sinus infection that lasted for almost a month. Getting my work done was a NIGHTMARE. But it happened. Phew!

2. Then we immediately left for Living Parables tour. It was great except that I was sick the whole time and spent almost 2 whole days in the bed . . . sigh. But we got some good performances in, and a neat service project. Not bad for my last things with the troupe. And on the last night all the underclassmen talked about the seniors and the seniors talked about each other, and we were a mess. Correction: I was a mess. Crying everywhere. Which is pathetic, because all four of the seniors are going to be in Winston-Salem next year, so it’s not like we’re going anywhere . . .

3. Then I graduated. Which was good, haha! We had a great graduation party the day before - kind of a cookout with our families. And Daddy got a new camera before graduation, so I have lots of great pictures of everyone in caps and gowns! And a bunch of family came up to see the graduation, so it was a really great weekend.

4. The week after graduation I stayed at school and packed things up and finished my GRE course. Then on Monday I went and took the GRE, completing #19 on my 101 in 1001. I was so nervous, because the admissions committee from the grad program I applied to was waiting on the scores to make a decision, and that’s a lot to ride on a test that’s on stuff I haven’t done since high school. However, I did really well, much better than I had expected (Verbal: 580, Math: 740). So, hopefully that’s good enough to get me in!

5. In the middle of all of this I took care of wrapping up all the Parables stuff that I needed to get fixed up for the future generations. We got all the reimbursment stuff worked out (#22), I delegated someone to get the new constitution approved since they never got back to me (#24), and I got all the coordinating director stuff pulled together and passed it along (#26)!

6. I also sorted through all of my clothing at school (you know, actually trying things on to make sure they fit or not), and I got rid of a ton of stuff, definitely at least 70 things, which completes #57. And I didn’t give it to Goodwill, I’m giving it to our housekeeper. Her house burned down, and she and her husband (the other housekeeper) are having to start from scratch, and they have a baby . . . it’s a tough situation. So, I’m considering #60 to be complete, even though it’s not going to Goodwill. To me, this is more important anyway.

7. I came back home to Florida on Friday, and on Sunday was my brother’s graduation party. It’s so wierd that my little brother is graduating high school! It’s even wierder that at his party I didn’t know hardly any of the kids (keep in mind, we went to the same high school) . . . they’re just all that young. And I wasn’t at the party as a guest - I was there as an adult chaperone. It felt odd. But it went really well, so 2 points for Bo!

8. And there was the big computer crash, which is all better now. I’ve been playing catch-up ever since. I’ve had a ton of stuff to do online (my website, email correspondence, etc.) that I’ve been neglecting because of, well, all the things you just read. Anyways, I’ve been frantically working to get everything back up to speed, and I’ve still got a lot ahead of me, but I’ve done a significant chunk of it tonight.

9. The new MagicMouth Productions website is up, and I must say, it looks STUNNING. It was designed by a company called MindSmack, and they’ve done a terrific job with it. We are really pleased with how it turned out, so go check it out!

10. Also in MagicMouth news, there is an article about us in the June 2006 issue of Entrepreneur Magazine!!!! Here’s the link, but you should really check out the paper copy if you get a chance - there’s a great photo in the magazine that’s not online. June issue, page 150 ;)!

11. And our DVD is supposed to come out this week. Ben went to Charlotte to review the final copy today, but I haven’t talked to him yet to see how it went. More news on that later!

12. My 22nd birthday is coming up soon (June 7), and I’m super psyched because I get to go up north for it, including being in New York City on my birthday. We’ve got a crazy busy week planned for that, so I will fill in the details later.

13. And a quiz to round things up!

Which Sex and the City Player Are You? Find out @ She’s Crafty

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