Car issue #I don't know

So Tuesday nightish I'm heading to PCOM for my TAing job with a stretching and traction class and I notice smoke coming from under the hood of my car. I pray really hard that I make it to school and right as I pull into the parking lot my oil light comes on. I'm thinking 'this isn't good' and grab 1 of the 2 quarts of oil I have in the back of my car and set it on my seat to put in after class. 4 hrs later I'm done with class and I come out and I check my oil and the dip stick is dry...no oil on it at all. I add the quart and call my dad but he doesn't answer so I call Mommy and she told me to find the nearest gas station. I'm in the process of driving when my dad calls me and we chat about my car doing this odd thing. I get to a Shell and get 3 more quarts of oil and put them in. I check the dip stick again and its still dry. Thankfully there was a shift change of cashiers in the market because I went back in and bought 10 quarts of oil, the guy looked at me like I had 2 heads. He probably thought I was putting it in the wrong place since a normal car takes about 4 to 5 quarts and I got 10. So dad and I decided that i was going to play hop-scotch until I got home, so I drove about 5 minutes and stopped again and checked the oil...pretty much nothing on the dip stick so I added 3 more quarts. I drove another 10 mins and stopped...same thing. So now Daddy asks me to start the car and look to see if I can see where it's leaking. By this time my engine is covered literally everywhere with oil but there's one spot that I can see that's dripping. I move around the front of my car and i can see a steady stream of oil about as thick as a pen spouting from somewhere inside that I can't see. I tell him what i see and he meets me at my next stop and follows me home. So, the normal drive home takes me an hour...it took me 2 1/2 hours, 7 stops and 22 quarts of oil to get home and it was 12:22 when I parked my car at home. It turned out to be that my oil sensor had a crack in it and was thinking there wasn't oil so it stayed 'on' the whole time. Daddy was able to fix it yesterday and we both made it home safe. The next day Mommy and I went to the fair because I was dancing there with San Diego Ballet and we could pretty much follow my oil trail home coming up Lake Wohlford Grade. So if anyone sees large oil puddles on the grade, that's me!!

My oil trail on the driveway before backing into the
rocks on the side of the house...
and that's pretty much how it looked the whole way

A tribute to the King of Pop

So Miss Ann, my very first ballet teacher, asked me to dance with her in her summer recital entitled Legends & Superstars. I said of course and started thinking about a legend or a superstar that I would either like to depict of dance to one of their songs. I've always liked Michael Jackson's music and after picking one of my favorite songs and making sure it wasn't already being used, I started choreographing to it. I've never heard of anyone doing a pointe dance to a Michael song so this will be a first :) A friend of mine who did competition for a long time told me that I should add one of his key trademarks into my costume. Apparently he most always had a rhinestoned glove on his right hand so she had the idea of me rhinestoning my right pointe shoe and see who caught on about it. Well now all you who read my blog will know, but don't tell anyone ;) So on Saturday, June 9th, I'll be dancing to Michael Jackson's Bad with a rhinestoned pointe shoe and attempting to moonwalk in them. Michael, I hope I don't make you roll over in your grave after this...for those of you who would like to, please come watch, it should be good ;)

Pointe shoe and hat :)

Ballerina!!!

Whoop whoop!!! I'm officially a ballerina now, a payed ballerina!! San Diego Ballet contracted me this year for their season :) I'm soooooo happy!! 17 years of work is finally starting to pay off and it feels/tastes amazing. I'll try and be better about letting y'all know when my shows are. I know we're doing a new ballet this season, it's the story of Don Juan, can't wait for that one :)

Beach :)

Well I took Andrew to the West Coast for the first time on Sunday and he loved it!! I took him to La Jolla Cove and the tide pools first.

Looking out over the ocean

He was very proud that he didn't get wet, till after dinner

We found a nice outcrop to sit on and enjoy the view

After that we went walked some more and found a nice big grassy area and did some pas de deux lifts. By the third lift we had about 15 people watching us, it was pretty funny :) Here some of what we did...

We did just a normal arabesque press lift...

...and then a lift from Swan Lake which requires a lot of trust

And then we did some ballet poses or just random stuff...

classic arabesque

dying swan from Swan Lake

something pretty :)

Assemble' off the rock

being weird

I don't know what this is...a contemporary handstand

After a fun filled day I took him to Ruby's on the Pier. I had never been there but my aunt told me I should take him there, so I did. It was sooooo good!! It's an old style 1950's burger joint and their shakes are AMAZING!!!! Then we had a nice walk along the beach in which we both got a little wet. I told him though if he got too wet I was going to strap him to the roof till he dried off ;) I showed him how to catch sand crabs, he just thought that was weird and we got to see 2 California Grey Whales swimming just off shore...that was cool!!!

Black Forest shake & Orange 50/50 shake...both were really really good!!

What we do to ourselves

I thought it would be interesting to show some of you guys who aren't as knowledgable about the dance world what we do to ourselves to achieve the abnormal. So, here we go!

We put a lot of strain on our hips to achieve the perfect 180 degree turnout

We will shove our feet under anything heavy or bolted to the wall to improve our pointe,
in this case it's a heater

We will bend ourselves over anything to make it look like we have no spine

We will use anything to put our leg on to achieve over-splits

We use any flat wall or the floor to achieve the perfect center splits

And yes, guys do all this too. Ballet is thought to be a 'chick thing',
but you ask any guy that does ballet and
he'll tell you it's far from easy and far from just a 'chick thing'

We twist ourselves into acting like a pretzel 

And all of this is to look graceful and pretty, wear pretty shoes and twirl on stage for a show that will last around 2 hours. Once you've gotten the sickness of ballet you can't get rid of it, there's no other rush as great as that moment when you just did something on stage you've been working all your life to do.
Dancers are addicted to the stage like people can be addicted to alcohol...dance is a drug, and it's one of the best drugs to be addicted to  

Me! :)

Took some random pics of me doing dance stuff, haven't done that in a while. Enjoy!

Tondue back, crosse

splits standing up

random contemporary pose

Happy I can finally do this!

I like this one

I kept falling over doing this one, so I cheated and used the wall ;)

Unedited

With effects

Unedited

With effects

It was fun having a mini dance photo shoot! :)

Dancing!!

Right now I'm hard at work getting ready for performing Coppelia in Temecula in May. I'm very excited about it and it's nice to be dancing with the intention of performing something :) I'm also very excited to be dancing with the stage crew at the Temecula Old Town Theater, I've missed all of them soooo much and can't wait to see them again!! So rehearsals are starting to get hot and heavy again but haven't quite gotten there yet. I rehearsed Czardas last night, which is a character dance, for about half an hour and I was sweating like there was no tomorrow. This dance is between Franz, the main guy, and a street girl, me, that he is flirting with ;) Swandila, Franz's fiance, gets all bent out of shape when she sees him flirting with me and runs off stage in a huff. So Franz and I, along with some back up girls, do this lively character/street dance during Act 1. In just my half an hour rehearsal yesterday I was dripping out of control and one of the girls wanted to keep doing it, so after the 3rd run through in a row I said "I'm done, where's the bucket!" because I did literally feel like throwing up :P Tomorrow I have rehearsal for an hour and a half with Stephen, a guy that I'm partnering with for a short piece called Play. It's a short and sweet, fun partner dance that's not too hard so it should be easy. The highlight of my month will be when my friend from Ohio comes out to dance the role of Franz in Coppelia and to take a much needed vacation to see me ;) I met Andrew 2 years ago in Austin, TX when I did Ballet Austin's 3 weeks summer intensive. I was surprised when I was in New York for a day during my intensive at The Rock last year when he came to Lincoln Center to see me. I love that boy and can't wait to send almost 2 weeks with him!!! Hurry up Andrew, I can't wait much longer!!! ;)

Andrew and I when he surprised me at Lincoln Center

He was so sweet! He walked me back to the bus we took to NYC
 and waved goodbye until he couldn't see the bus anymore.
I had so many people ask me who my boyfriend was ;)