Life from Behind the Curtains

So I'm taking a theatre class and it's awesome. For our class, we need to work at least ten hours with one of the student directed plays. One way you can do it is by acting in one. I went to three auditions and then skipped two out of three call backs. I clearly had more fun things to do. The one call back I went to was for a nine-year old girl character. Clearly my height is entirely to blame! Or we'll blame the fact that I was tired that morning and not very excited to be there. Either way, no one will mention my acting skills and I will go on in life believing that I could be a star on Broadway.
Anyway, without a part to play on the stage, I had to find work to do behind the stage. I got put into the show "Rented Christmas" as the prop master. That's right. Prop master. Greatest job title ever. But really what does that mean? How does someone master props? I had no idea. I go into this play thinking that eventually someone will say something like "Have you ever worked backstage before?" or "Hey do you even know what a prop master is?" or "What are you doing back stage?! You're clearly meant to be a star!"
None of these happened.
Instead I got a lock combination that lets me into a giant creepy cage below the stage, a giant list of random things that need to be in the show, and a calender marking up all my precious party time with practice. So as any good Earl does, I made things up as I went along and eventually get everything needed for the play.
My job consisted of a lot of different things. Sometimes it was just wrapping a whole bunch of boxes. Sometimes it was wrapping those boxes again because somebody ripped them. Sometimes it was wrapping those boxes again because we wanted new wrapping paper. Sometimes I was wrapping boxes just for the fun of it. And one time I even got to make shoes out of duct tape. (Funny story, I made one too tight and it got stuck to my foot. Actually it was terrifying. I'm still scared of duct tape.)
Anyway, the moral of the story is I actually really enjoy working backstage! I don't know whether it's my new calling in life but it's definitely a fun distraction. The shows start tonight with performance at 7 and then on Thursday at 1, 2, 4, and 7. If you like to support your favorite girl backstage, come on by! It's free and you get a cookie for coming. Kylie Earl, my favorite sister, gets a shout out for coming to support me! I'll admit it's a little awkward afterward since you can't give the usual "You were great out there!" Instead I get "That was a good show. Uhh... So I'm guessing things went well backstage?"
Anyway here's the trailer for our show! If you look really closely at all the presents and props, it's like you can see a piece of me in it...

And here's a random picture of me hard at work that I wasn't aware someone took. This must be what it's like to have paparazzi following you... 

Anyway the show really is great and anyone who wants to come is invited!
Oh there's also this thing called finals coming up. It sounds like some nerdy knowledge bowl or something. It's like all of BYU is obsessed with it... No worries though, I'll continue to ignore it. I'm clearly too cool for it.

Recipes Worth Your Time

I haven't cooked nearly as much as I used to back home. Probably because my nutritional science major of a roommate has informed me of things called calories. Apparently when you stop exercising for hours everyday, eating whenever you feel like it makes you fat. Sad discovery.
Luckily for you I've been Zumba-ing and Just Dance-ing it up! It means I can still make all kinds of deliciousness every now and then. Here are the recipes that I have discovered to be definitely worth their trouble.

1. Hot Cocoa Cookies

Crazy amount of chocolate but oh so worth it.

2. Chocolate Cream Cheese Surprise Cupcakes

Super delicious! And if you feel like adding frosting because you really wanted Halloween looking cupcakes, do it. Totally allowed.

3. Cake Batter Buddies

They're pretty much crack with sprinkles. Luckily this addiction is affordable.

4. Soft Brown Sugar Cookies

So soft, so sugary, and so brown...

5. Pizza Cupcakes

Not a dessert! Who's proud of me?? Yet these are delicious enough to probably be considered a dessert....

Now go make something delicious to drown out your sorrows... 

Mythological Madness

So Halloween has already happened for me since our ward party was last night and I went all out. Chelsea, Samantha, Alyssa, and I decided our theme for the year would be mythical creatures. It's probably our best theme yet. Pure genius. Also I think it should be stated that these costumes took quite a lot of creativity on our part. A lot of googling went on to bring together the best of all the ideas... Check out my pinterest makeup board if you want the proof.

Chelsea was our adorable unicorn!

Her magical makeup was second only to her fantastically long horn. The jewels to the sides of her eyes are definitely my favorite part but hey, I'm a little biased. I love jewels... To finish off the look she wore a unicorn shirt making her the most easily distinguished of us all.

Samantha was our beautiful mermaid!

Her scales were made with a mixture of clear sequins and eyelash glue. Add intense purple and green eye shadow and some blue lips and you've got yourself a mermaid. She even had pink hair highlights with jewels and seashells but sadly I didn't take any good pictures of it. Failure on my part. Oh also I sewed her skirt from some pajama bottoms and an old dance costume we found at DI. I actively avoided documenting proof of that... But kudoos to Samantha for loving me enough to wear it no matter how many mistakes it had! I was actually feeling pretty good about how it turned out until we got to the dance where we met another girl dressed as a mermaid. When I asked her where she found her fantastic skirt (because trust me we searched to by one) she informed me she made it. It was around that time I promised myself to stop believing that I had any sewing skills just because I've watched my mom sew every now and then.

Alyssa was our lovely elf!

The ears were our best find for that outfit for sure. But I also gave her fantastically green sparkle eyes. Which I'm still impressed she let me do glitter on her after her experience with glitter on our lady Gaga Halloween year. We also added the jewels across the forehead and some green shimmer around her cheeks and ears to help them stand out. She actually made herself some sweet elf sandals too but I sadly didn't get a picture of them.

I was a ferocious dragon!

Yes my makeup took around two hours to complete but since I won a creepy vampire pen for best makeup we can officially say worth it. My scales I made using fishnets on my head and coloring them in. The Mask over my eyes is black eye shadow, red and black jewels glued to it, and red sparkles sprinkled over it all. Really not very hard at all. My lipstick is just red and gold sparkles. My costume was actually a dark fairy costume. For a little girl. But hey I worked it anyway! I also had some crazy long black nails that definitely took a few people out.... Not to mention that my wings that were definitely ruining people's hairstyles... I really was a monster of destruction that night!

 All in all we looked fantastic and were definitely turning some heads. Although the fact that once again no guys were dropping to their knees for dates with us still has me confused. I'm a girl who loves covering herself in sparkly makeup that will get everywhere if you let it touch you... What more could a boy want?!

Giving Blood: TABD

I gave blood!! This is not NBD people. This is a TABD. Totally A Big Deal!! So be impressed.
Nobody is quite sure when it begins. One minute everything in your life is beautiful and peaceful. The next minute your world has changed. Your father has come home, announcing he's got something for you. You're so excited! He always brings you delicious treats! And then you see it.

You've never been afraid of a needle before but suddenly you're so terrified of the tiny instrument you are too frozen to move. Your dad takes a step towards and the spell is broken. You run for your life. Anywhere from the needle! You must get away! But your dad knows all your hiding spots. He finds you, talking calmly and assuring you of no danger. It's a little needle, it can't hurt you. You're breathing rapidly but you offer up your arm. He lightly taps your arm telling you to relax but you can't seem to manage it. Tears have started pooling but you're strong enough to keep them in at least. He starts a count. 1... You say to yourself "It's ok. When he reaches three I can relax my arm for at least a second. I can do this. 2-

BAM! He stabs you right in the arm when you are clearly not expecting it. It's completely understandable that you would jerk your arm because only some kind of crazy person would start a count off and then jab before they reach the end! He looks cross and tells you that you weren't supposed to move. You reply that you were not aware that was how it was working trying to be sarcastic but a few tears have fallen and you look too pitiful to gain the full effect of back talk. This time he stabs you without the count down and you have managed to relax your arm because you want so badly for it to end already. That's when you're informed that the needle has actually broken and he has to go get another. You sit through another cruel stabbing assuring your father that next time you'd rather die from the disease than get the shot. He laughs and moves on to his next victim.

So anyway... I'm afraid of needles. However, in recent years I've realized it is a silly fear. This is what lead me to sign up for the blood drive in the first place. They made me read this packet about all the reasons I might not able to donate. I studied that thing harder than I studied anything in my life and still couldn't find any reason to get out of it. Then I go into the little cube and the lady asks me for an ID. All I brought was my school ID which wasn't going to work. I was saved!! But no. She lucky found another way to make it work... Yay. Then to make matters worse she's pulling out a needle and stabs me before I'm even sure whats going to happen. I didn't appreciate that one bit!
The next nurse comes in. He seems nice enough but knowing he's going to stab me in the arm makes me associate him with every childhood nightmare I've ever had.  I'm lying a chair before I even know what's happening. As soon as he tells me I'm not allowed to move my arm anymore, my face is turned away. There's not a chance I'm going to see that needle break through my fragile flesh! He informs me that he's only rubbing something medical on my arm and I could turn my head. I inform him I want to know nothing about what is going on no matter what. It's taking all my concentration to not punch him in the face and run while I still can. Finally he informs me I'm going to feel just a slight sting when the needle goes in. I nod and suddenly its in. I'm sure I jerked a bit but not enough to move my arm which in and of itself is an achievement.

I sit there for a moment. And another. Suddenly it occurs to me that I'm totally fine. Nothing is hurting me. I slowly turn my head and look at my arm. There's a tube leading out of it and realizing that it was my blood doesn't even bother me. It was a miracle! I was totally fine! I just sat there bleeding out like a pro! I did gasp when he began filling up the vials with my blood... But other than that I did remarkably well keeping my cool! The nurse actually asked for my number afterwards so I must have done an even better job at acting cool than I realized. Or he just wanted to see how many stupid things I actually say. I tend to talk a lot when I'm nervous no matter what I'm saying...
Anyway, the moral of the story is conquer your fears and you might just get a date. Or at the very least a small bag of cookies which is definitely worth it!

So You're Having Trouble Making Friends

Hey no worries, we've all been there. You're aware that you're totally awesome and fairly normal but you're not sure how to convey that information to other people. That is why I came up with some great ways to get people to understand your greatness! 

1. The first great way to let people know you're awesome is very simple. When asked to introduce yourself along with something interesting, you simply state "My name is ______ and I like to party." If anyone around you laughs more than a polite laugh or in fact chooses the same greeting for them self, you smile and nod their direction. You have just made friends with a kindred Hot Rod fan. If you are NOT a fan of Hot Rod, DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS METHOD! You'll ruin the coolness of it. 

2. This next method is also simple but gives you an even better chance at making friends with kindred spirits. You simply bring up your favorite TV shows ASAP. TV habits tell you a lot about people. If they don't watch TV, it means they will not find any of your quotes funny and you may as well stop talking to them now. Unless of course you don't watch TV either (which would explain why you're reading a blog for entertainment...) in which case you two can be happily out of the loop together. If they only watch reality TV, then tell them that stuff is only fun for vacations when you're bored and walk away. If they name off at least three shows they have in common with you, quickly assure them that you are friends and then have an in depth conversation about whether Psych is still as funny as ever or whether it's dropping. If they say that they watch Arrested Development, hug them and inform them you are best friends and you'll be by later to watch old episodes with them. 

I'm telling you people, this is mainly a joke but seriously TV is a huge indicator as to whether you're going to get along great or averagely ok with somebody.

3. Another option is to Facebook friend people you want to get to know. And while it is a perfectly acceptable in this society, I have yet to figure out how to treat those kinds of people. I mean here I am, stalking somebody I just became friends with on Facebook, and then I see them walking by. Is it polite to start a conversation by saying "I see you liked The Office as one of your favorite shows. How do you feel about this new season?" It's perfectly acceptable that I have that information since we're friends on Facebook but is it acceptable to mention to them that I know things about them? Are we all supposed to pretend that we didn't stalk them as soon they accepted the request? I usually try to play it safe and just don't give the person any idea that I know so much about them. But sometimes admitting that you stalked someone gives them the chance to admit they also stalked. And that my friends, is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. 

Secret Weapon: If you are feeling that none of these methods have been effective enough, I've got a sure-fire way to let people know you. Pull out that old morph suit you have sitting around and wear it to your ward game of Capture the Flag with some flour bombs. It's genius! Not only does it show everybody that you are random enough to own a morph suit, it also proves that you're smart enough to use any excuse you have to wear it. The best part of the morph suit is that while wearing it, you will be virtually blind which means you can talk to all kinds of people thinking that it's your friend Alyssa when it is very much not her. The only downside is that you will never be aware of just who you were talking to since you're too proud to admit you had no idea who you were talking to and unwilling to ask their name. Also, don't expect the morph suit to help you be great at the game. While it's useful to be able to blend in with the shadows, it's not useful when you can't even right in front of you. It does take the fear out of running into enemy field because as far as you can see, there is absolutely nobody in front of you! Until they are right in front of you and you have to dodge to avoid knocking them over. All in all, people will remember you. So do it. 

If you tried these methods and still haven't made many friends, I'm in the same boat. Others may tell you that you'll have a much easier time making friends if you get to learn about other people or something along those lines... But my advice is to just pull out the morph suit again. 

All to Impress a Boy

My loving sisters have informed me, as nicely as they know how (meaning very blunt), that my blog is boring. So here's a fairly interesting story of my sad attempt to woo a boy by being the greatest gospel doctrine teacher.

It all started the first week of church. I happen to notice this very good looking boy in my gospel doctrine class. I spent the whole lesson thinking of how I could talk to him. Or in reality how to get him to talk to me. Good looking guys are my downfall. I can not strike up an innocent conversation with them no matter how long I stare at them wishing I could. Anyway, this boy, despite my obvious stares, does not talk to me after class. I should have taken that as a warning sign...

Instead I begin to plan on how to get this boy to notice me. A miracle happened in the midst of my scheming! I was asked to teach Sunday school the next week. After clarifying that it was indeed the same class, I began my preparations immediately. This lesson was my chance to show off just how awesome I am!

Plans began with the game we were going to play. I probably should have began with the lesson but I knew that wasn't going to be my strong suit. I decided on a get-to-know-you game because everybody was still meeting each other. Plus it was a great way to do more research on my boy. A protected Facebook page can only show me so much. And I obviously couldn't add him as a friend because of the simple fact that I'd only learned him name through stalking techniques. The game was a simple one where everyone wrote down two interesting facts about them self and then we went and guessed who it was. It took a while to get through them all but overall seemed to be a success.

After preparing the game I moved on to the lesson. I'll admit it took a while to get that part together but eventually I got a lesson that would be very flexible with time and class participation. Luckily it wasn't a call to repentance kind of lesson. It's a little hard to fall for someone who seconds before was telling you about how wicked you are...

It was a few days into the week that I suddenly realized I hadn't even considered a treat for the class! I don't know how it wasn't my first thought. I take every teaching lesson as an opportunity to try a new recipe without having to eat it all myself. Luckily Chelsea found me these delicious bad boys. Snickerdoodle Cupcakes!


I definitely recommend them! My only remark is that I added more milk and powdered sugar to the frosting.

However this good impression was so important to me I even made cake mix cookies as back up in case I didn't like these cupcakes. I'm telling you people, this lesson was the only thing on my mind all week. I'm embarrassed now by how much work I put into it but man did I nail it!

It was perfect! The lesson went smoothly, the cupcakes were delicious, the game worked as well as I could have hoped for, and I was even looking pretty good! I had imagined everything that could go wrong and the worst I could imagine was the boy not being there. But he was! Do you want to know how he reacted to this brilliant display of awesomeness? Well I couldn't tell you. He kept his head down just about the whole lesson and just gave me a simple "great lesson" at the end of it as I was leaving.

Excuse me?! The lesson wasn't even the good part! And while I was hoping for a drop to one knee and an absolute begging for my number I would have accepted a simple "Love the cupcakes! You should come bake for me!" or even a "You should teach the lesson every week!" But no. He didn't even say great lesson with enthusiasm!

So the moral of the story is, always make a gospel doctrine in the hopes of impressing lots of people instead of one certain one. It's a much surer route of success.

Dorm Decorations For The Unskilled

I'm at BYU Provo now and life is grand! I've got a great apartment, awesome roommates, and classes have yet to kill me. Now one of the things I was the most excited for was decorating my own room at college. Don't worry I'm aware that's nerdy. Anyway my lovely roommate Chelsea and I decided to cordinate our room decorations with the colors red, black, and white. Here are our adorable bed spreads!

Plus we did some adorable crafts to help add to the theme. However, I'm not very crafty so I had to try and find the simplest crafts out there. Now I've sharing them with you all so that you can try them out yourself if you're as unskilled as I am!


This was my simplest craft. Mainly cuz it wasn't a craft. I just took a picture frame, added a picture, and then tied a necklace around the back of it to hang off the side. Also it is the only one that doesn't match the theme of the room.

My next craft I just mod podged cute paper around the frame, glued on some white buttons with hearts on them and added an adorable family picture!

My jewelry hanger I already had from a previous mutual but I had to fix it up to match the room. So the outsides are covered in red sequins, buttons, and rhinestones, many of which came off on the trip up here :( Then I added a smily heart to the top and the word lovely at the bottom.

Now I'll admit none of these have been too crafty. This one I would count as crafty though! I took old random pictures of my friends that I will never use for anything and cut them out to fit around the boarder. I mod podged them on and bamb! You've got yourself a picture outline! Now you can then put a picture inside the frame but it looked a little too crazy to me that way so instead I put words on the inside. This project was almost really great except for the fact that the D in friend ins't in line. If I was completely my mother's daughter I would do it again until it was perfect. But because I'm also my dad's daughter it doesn't bother me enough to fix it.

Chelsea and I both decided to do these decorative letters and it is probably my favorite craft. It was just so easy but I love it so much! You don't even need instructions for it because you just make it however you want. You can do as much or as little with it as you want!

This next project is the one I'm most proud of because it really is a definite craft! I took a plain wooden framed mirror and started by painting it black.

Then I made those flowers around the edges by cutting pieces of fabric in flower shapes, burnign the edges, sewing them together, and adding a sequin to the middle. I also chose words to put on the mirror. I actually didn't have enough E's so I had to trace it onto another sticker and cut that one out.

After that you paint the mirror part with black paint. Once that dries you just peel off those stickers and you've got yourself one sweet project! Then if you're really want to tie it together you add on some perfectly placed rhinestone stickers and you're a craft genius.

 I swear everthing looks better in person so come visit me! I'm still learning how to make friends so I could use the company.... :)