*drumroll*.... And....

DENIED!

Yes, again...

Let me explain. For those of you who don't know, I'm currently attending the American College Theater Festival (ACTF) in Ames, IA. I am here because I was chosen as a partner for an Irene Ryan Nominee. If you feel so inclined, you can look up all the information at the KCACTF Website. Anyway, we take anywhere from 1 to 4 months to prepare 2 scenes and then the nominee also prepares a monologue. All three pieces must equal a maximum of 6 minutes. Usually, the first scene is 3 minutes, the second scene is 2 minutes, and the monologue is left for the last minute. Today, we performed the first scene, then waited to find out if we went on to the next round to perform the second scene...

*drumroll*.... And.... DENIED!

Makes more sense now. :P Yes, we spent that long working on both scenes only to find out it wasn't really worth it... It's bittersweet. Now, we have the rest of the week to attend workshops and performances... but we, again, don't get to see what it's like to go beyond the first round of Irene Ryan. *sigh*

So... let's see... what else. Ran into a friend from high school! That was exciting and unexpected... Well, I should have known that she would be there because she's completely into acting. Pretty sure it's going to be her career. It was awesome! Then, on Wednesday I will be meeting up with someone from my high school class. Very excited. ^_^

Hm... ended up taking a nap today. Not sure when I ended up so tired, but I passed out about 4 this afternoon and didn't wake up until close to 7 pm. Haven't done that since I was sick last year... or this summer... I can't remember when I was sick last. I see that as a good thing.

Another good thing? Travis called tonight. Well, we've been texting, as usual, all day, everyday. We're getting more into calling while we are separated for more than 3-4 days. It's nice. ^_^ Loving it... *stares off to daydream*

*remembers* Oh yes! Half of us got stuck in an elevator today! Yes, no lie. It was only for about 15 minutes, but it was definitely interesting. And kind of funny... so I had to take a picture. It almost won out on the picture of the day, but didn't. However, I still think it needs to be posted so...

Dustin, Jamie, Ryan, and Jason hoping the technician shows up soon.

There! :D 

Hm... what else. Again. I guess that's all I have for today... 

Stay tuned!

Falling Behind

Hey there followers,

I have fallen a few days behind with the pictures, I know. However, I should be able to fix that tonight. I'm heading to Ames, IA with a group of theater people to attend the ACTF Festival for a week. As you can imagine, my pictures will be of things going on there. :)

I will post again tonight, most likely.

Stay tuned!

PS: This blog was written on my phone!

Welcome back to reality!

It's hitting hard now... There's one semester left of college. I haven't gone as far as to countdown the days, but ... maybe I will. Anyway, gets me really thinking. Not necessarily in a depressed way... just contemplative. I have decided to take at least a semester off before graduate school. A huge weight has been lifted with that decision. Then again, there is the worry about a job. I can't just work at Classic for that whole semester... Travis is going to find a job in Sioux Falls. Will we be at a point to where I could go with him...? Where will he and I be at that point? We're pretty steady now. I mean, we're strong and continue to enjoy each other's company. And it's amazing. I can only hope that we're even stronger by the time graduation rolls around. Oh, I hope so. ^_^

On a completely different subject, is it bad or weird that I love seeing the increasing numbers in my posts? Oh yea!! Any my followers! I have 5 now! So exciting. :P

Hm, what else? Oh yes.. I am proud of myself. I have been keeping up on my 365 Project. Granted, it's only been 11 days, but I'm still working on it without falling behind. Woot! So far, I've gotten positive reviews and that encourages me to keep it up too.

Something else I'm trying to keep up... working out. Yep. It's not too bad... yet.

Okay, ADD kicking in. One of my favorite shows is having their season premier so I'm gonna get going.


Stay tuned! (Omg... think I just found my signoff! Sweet!)

Internal Memory is Full

That was the message that I got from my camera yesterday when I tried to take a picture when I was out to lunch with Travis, Sami, Adam, and Sami's friends. SO... that's why I don't have a picture for yesterday yet. Sami has it on her camera. And for today... there were plenty of opportunities to take one... I suppose. It was a great day!

First, Travis stayed last night. Well, he came over just in time to sleep. haha He had a guy's night last night. He ended up coming over at about midnight. Then, we slept in this morning. It was glorious. Then, we actually went to the gym and worked out. We've been meaning to go there for months... literally, months. I actually really enjoyed it. We started with walking, went to stretching and sit-ups. Well, I did sit-ups and he did his Kung Fu moves. After that, we did swimming! Again, something that we've been meaning to for months... literally, months. :P After our workout, we were going to go back to his place to just hang out, but I needed to get my computer and what not so I would have something to do while he played "Fallout: New Vegas." I guess by the time we got upstairs, we changed our minds. We decided that we wanted an afternoon snack. Then, a movie seemed more appealing than leaving. haha

Now, I'm sitting at home, flipping back and forth between "Princess Diaries" and "House", writing a blog, and contemplating watching one of my new movies instead. Yes.. long story short, I still need a picture... actually. I think I have an idea. Yay! Okay... I'm off for the day.

Getting back into the groove.... kinda

Okay. Got the first 3 pictures up. Thinking I'll get into this regularly uploading pictures... Well, we'll see. I'm sure there are some days that I will fall behind. Anyway...

I do have to admit that tonight's picture was a little bit of a cop-out... I wanted to get a picture of my friend Katie and me at dinner, but I forgot my camera. Figures. Then, I remembered that I took down my decorations and figured that was worth documenting. :D

Alright... full post. So... I think details about Thursday night's flights and pick-up. :D Okay, first flight wasn't too horrible. Short and sweet. It was only about an hour long. Then, Dallas. Again, I was let off in the same terminal that I was leaving from in a few hours so I didn't have far to go. Course, now that I think about it... It may have been nice to occupy my time with going to a different terminal. haha I couldn't use my computer without paying for the internet. I didn't think I had enough time to really get into any of my books that I had with me. So, I just kind of sat there. Waiting. Then, they made one announcement that our plane would be arriving about 40 minutes late. It's times like that  when I'm glad that I was at the gate early because they never made the announcement again so half the people didn't hear anything. It was really confusing because there was another flight to Sioux Falls basically right after ours. So, we ended up leaving close to 45 minutes late. Again, the flight was fine until I noticed that we weren't descending about the time we should have been. After about 10-15 minutes of wondering, the captain came over the sound system and said that we were diverting to Des Moines. The runway was too icy in Sioux Falls to land and we didn't have enough fuel to circle Sioux Falls while they de-iced the runway. My first thought was, "Omg, we're going to end up being stuck in Iowa overnight." Luckily, we were only there about 45 minutes to fuel up and waste time. Then, it was a quick 35 minute hop back to Sioux Falls and I was finally home. Well, almost. I texted Travis as soon as I could turn on my phone. After getting off the plane and making it to the baggage claim, I got a text from him saying he was outside the doors. I kind of wish I could have seen my reaction to that. I have a feeling that it was a little over-dramatic, but I was so excited to see him. So, I hustled outside and there he was. I ran up to his side of the car, waited for him to close his door, and threw my arms around his neck. *sigh* That was the best hug. Then, we kissed. And smiled. And kissed more. lol No tears or anything. Well, if there were, it was mostly because of the wind and cold. Best kiss ever. <3 So, it did kind of end up like a movie. Well, I hadn't gotten my big luggage yet. So I put my carry-ons in his car and went inside to claim my baggage. It didn't take too long. Then, we got in the car and braved the interstate home to Madison. We ended up going about 35 mph the whole way, but we got back in once piece. No worries. Oh yea... Thursday was our 6 month anniversary. <3 We were going to go to dinner, but with the weather, we went to dinner in Madison instead.

Let's see... Then, NEW YEAR'S! It was awesome. A small party of Casey, Adam, Shaun, Mike, Travis, and me, but it was still awesome.

Yay for timers on cameras! lol

We played Rock Band after midnight and I hadn't played in forever so it was pretty sweet. hehe Yes, at midnight, Travis and I kissed. ^_^ It was the best New Year's Kiss ever. With the exception of last year... wait... No, even including last year, I've never been kissed at midnight on New Year's. In high school, I always ended up babysitting. And the years following high school, I was either away from my significant other visiting family or single for the holidays. There may have been one year while I was with Scott that we were actually together for New Year's, but other than that, no. That was my first picture of the year. Perfect way to start a project, I think. lol We ended up staying up until 8 am the next morning. It was awesome!

So then the past few days have been a catching up and what not. Saturday, I was dead. Travis and I slept until 4 pm and I was still dead. Then, I found out that I had to work at 6:30 am the next morning. I basically forced myself to sleep about 10 pm. It worked out well... I was able to get up for work and everything even though I didn't want to. Now, I don't work again until next Sunday. SO... that leaves all this week to clean up the place and work on stuff that I've been wanting to. Well, at least I hope I can. It's so nice to just sit and not do anything. I was able to sleep in until about 10 this morning before my body decided it was time to wake up. Still not bad.

Oh yea! Last night I ordered a new phone! It's my upgrade time, so I went online and ordered it. It should be here by Thursday. I'm pretty excited about it. I'm leaving Blackberry and going to an LG Vortex. It runs the Android 2.2 system. I can't wait! Thursday will be nothing but fixing up my phone. haha

Well, I think that's all for now. Yay for a full post! Check ya later!

Melissa Jean

A day late....but HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Yes, yes, yes. Yesterday (officially) marked the beginning of my 365 project... so.. the first picture?! You'll have to check out the page I created! lol (Yes, it works!) Oh yea... and the second one too.

Alright... so I will post a full on blog tomorrow. Promise.

And the countdown begins... or ends?

Well... I guess that depends on which countdown you'dI be referring to... The one of my return to South Dakota, the one of my stay here in Arkansas, or...

Yea... I tried being all... whatever there, but it didn't work out so well. haha

Alright, so it's my second to last night here in Arkansas. I've been looking at the weather and the airlines situation and I'm a little worried. Over thousands of flights were cancelled along the east coast because of a blizzard... and that effects the rest of the country. All the backlogging that's happening and what not. I have to go through Dallas on my way back... I'm going to check my flight status tomorrow. I tried tonight, but you can only check it one day in advance. Silly in times like these. Anyway, hopefully all works out fine. I've also been told that the weather is supposed to really come down hard on South Dakota on Thursday night... of all the days in this next week. Of course. Anyway... I'm hoping for clear skies and runways.

I guess this post is a little short... I'm sure I may end up writing another one in one of the airports.

So, I will leave you with lyrics. Can you guess them?


"Have you ever wished for an endless night...lassoed the moon and the stars and pulled that rope tight?"

Merry Christmas Eve!

Yes, it is Christmas Eve! ^_^

I know that being online isn't the best thing to be doing on Christmas Eve, but we are waiting for more family to show up so there isn't much going on here.

Oh yea... "here" would be my grandparents' place in Arkansas. Well... technically, my sister's grandparents... or my ex-grandparents. (Can you follow that? :S) Anyway, I'm in Arkansas at their lake house. To us South Dakotans, it's nice, fall-type weather here. A light jacket will suffice just about all the time. There isn't any snow... as of yet. Apparently, there's supposed to be no more than an inch on the ground between tonight and tomorrow. We'll have to see. It's nowhere near as much as we have up north. It makes me laugh when people down here think that this is freezing. Hahaha... One things that does make me sad is the bickering that happens with my sister Callie. I'm not sure if it's because we don't see each other much or what, but we seem to bicker over the smallest things. It's not huge.... just always happening. I wish we were closer... geographically and emotionally. I just... I'm not sure what I can do to make it better. There's my Christmas wish. *sigh*

So... sidenote. I've become addicted to those stupid Facebook games... Frontierville and Cityville. Stupid games.

I'm missing Travis tonight. It's our first Christmas together and we're apart. I'm glad he stayed all last weekend with me.

Missing my mom, little sister Hope, and little brother Charlie, too. They're in Iowa. I may not get to see them again until graduation in May. Hopefully, I'll be able to make it back there sometime before that, but I'm not sure how finances and school time off will end up working out just yet. Thinking that 6 months or so off before heading back to grad school will help a lot with catching up on visits. Especially since it'll be the fall semester I'm taking off. I've been told by a few people that taking a semester off is a good idea. That makes me feel better about my decision.

"Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned."--Buddha

Vacay = Time to play!

Alrighty, it's official. I am done!

As far as an assessment of this semester... It wasn't my very best, but definitely wasn't my worst as far as anything goes.

Classes... Art History was my weakness. Studying. Reading about things that I'm not particularly interested in... tough one. The other classes weren't so bad. Relatively laid back semester actually.

Next semester, I'm looking forward to Graphic Effects II. Building my portfolio. I have a pretty good head start, but to be able to finish it will be great. Have I talked about my portfolio idea? Ah ha, I've mentioned it, but haven't gone into detail! Perfect time to....

Okay, so... The theme is "Traveling Artist/Musician." I've had the idea of using this suitcase for a few years now... It wasn't until recently that I came up with a way to tie it into my style as an artist. For my recital last year, I came up with a quote.

"I've got nothing but the paint on my hands and the music in my heart."

I just can't choose between the two so I've decided to combine them. My visual elements are music notes with paint splatters for the note heads. There's also a "swoosh" with 5 lines in it to represent the music staff. So, the suitcase is lined with canvas... looking to add sheet music to the lining. On the top half, there's a place for my computer, my resume/references, my business cards, and a CD/DVD. The bottom half is where all the boards with my artwork will be. I have left the original straps in there to aid with taking the boards out. I'm thinking for the teaser/mini portfolio (the ones the employers get to keep) I'm going to make like a travel photo album looking... thing. lol Some kind of spiral notebook, I think. I've made a list of all the things that I still need to do in order for it to be complete... yea... long list.

ANYWAY... new subject. Um... what though? Oh! My apartment is clean... mostly. All my laundry is done and put away. I'm even packed for Tuesday... ON SUNDAY! LOL Tomorrow, I'm hoping to get ALOT of drawing/artsy stuff done. Sleeping in will be nice, but I'm thinking that it won't be much past 10 am. Or at least I'm kind of hoping. Either way, tomorrow is a day for art. I wanted to today, but working from 6:30 am - 3 pm kinda took that out of me. Hm.. and I guess it's after midnight now. So... technically today is a day for art. haha

Travis is staying with me tomorrow... tonight. (It may take me a while to adjust yet. So whenever I say tomorrow... I mean Monday... which is today. BLEH! :P) Okay... so we are spending Monday night together since it's the last night we'll see each other until next week. I'm hoping he's able to pick me up from the airport next Thursday evening which will be our 6 month anniversary! ^_^ Love him so much. <3

So, my plane leaves Tuesday morning at 11 am... approximately. Meaning that I will have to be at the airport by at least 9 am. Luckily, my friend Alex is going to be kind enough to give me a lift to Sioux Falls at about 7:30 in the morning... even though he is not a morning person. (Thanks, Alex!) I'm excited! I get to see my sister, Callie, my grandparents, my Dad, and more family. Last time I saw them was in May for Callie's high school graduation so it hasn't been that long. Still. Excited!

It's hard to believe it's Christmas already... I mean, by this time next week, it will have been here and gone. Where has this year gone? Seriously? Whoa.

Alright, I went as far as looking up "sign-off phrases"... I think I decided to use quotes. Some random, some not so much. Today, I will use mine. This also helps me to expand my interweb connections. haha





"I've got nothing, but the paint on my hands and the music in my heart." -- Melissa Jean

Finals, finals, finals....

Well, well, well.....

I meant to post this earlier this week... and then have a post-finals week post. So, instead, I will have a semi-post finals week post... ish. :P

Let's see... I had two group projects, one quiz, and... a pseudo final project. Digital Editing and Graphic Effects I were the two group projects. Relatively easy. The quiz... Art History. I still have to take it, but it's not going to be too bad. Been studying all week. Then, the pseudo project was for Portfolio Development. So pointless, I'm not even going to describe what needed to be done.

Alright, so.... month long vacation. Very excited. Will be taking off next Tuesday to go to Arkansas for Christmas. There's New Year's Eve Party being planned amongst "the guys" and company. (For those who don't know, "the guys" are my group of guy friends including Shaun, Casey, Alex, and Travis. That's the base group... "and company" includes everyone else. :P) I am excited for New Year's Eve with Travis. *kissy face*

Speaking of Travis, I'm totally going to gush for a little while. So completely head over heels. I'm not sure of his extent of awareness on the matter, but I'm pretty sure he knows. lol <3

Hm... what else? I guess more later.

STILL HAVEN'T FIGURED OUT A SIGN OFF PHRASE. HELP!!! I need suggestions.