This next year is going to be focused on me. As selfish as that seems, it's not unfounded. I haven't thought about me in quite a long time, and it's high time I get healthy, both physically and emotionally. I need a much stronger relationship with God (Heck, I need a relationship period with Him.), and I need to really focus on my mental health. Now, I'm nowhere Crazy-ville, but I wouldn't be surprised if I became one of those little old ladies from the horror stories who goes nuts and kills all her neighbors after their dog pees on her lawn. I've always been aware of it, but I've never done anything about it. I recently had an epiphany (spawned by some not-so-healthy discoveries I made about myself), and I 've decided to spend next year not trying to end world hunger or war. I've got to fix myself before I can affect anyone else. So that's the plan. Get closer with God, take care of myself, and be happy. That's all of my resolutions in a q

OK, so there's this show called Extras, and it chronicles an actor's ( Gervais from The Office-- original British version) movement through several films as extra parts, and he goes around sort of interviewing the actors in the leading roles. For example, the first clip I have posted on here is Sir Ian McKellen playing himself. Ricky Gervais is auditioning for a role named John, and Sir Ian McKellen is auditioning him. Just watch it. The second clip is with Patrick Stewart. Ricky goes to Patrick Stewart's trailer to pass a copy of his sitcom script in hopes that he'll give it to a contact or something, but it ends out with Patrick telling him about a current writing job that he is doing involving naked women. And you wonder why I love these 2 men. They are, by far, the best actors out there to date. Brilliance. If I ever end up writing a screen play, I'll definitely be writing characters specifically for them. hehe ~Stef

I know, I know... That's not next year, that's the year AFTER. Why must I be one of those people who likes to have long-term plans and goals? If it were up to me, I'd know exactly what I would be doing October 28th, 2015. Sadly, though, I am not able to predict the future. In any case, I am thinking about transferring to another school for the first semester of my Jr. year. I like Belmont. I do. But the opera program is, at best, lacking. I just feel that I'd do best somewhere where there were people as-- devoted is the only word coming to mind, but it's not the right word-- "devoted" as I am to opera performance. Keep in mind that this plan is still in the egg. It's not even hatched, yet. It could end out that I stay at Belmont until I graduate and then move on to another establishment for my Masters. We'll see. All I know is that I don't think I'll really get much experience here. It's only been one semester; I could be reading what

I love my dad. He's one of the smartest people I know, and I still have that little girl view of him where he can do no wrong, and everything he says is right. He's just wonderful. If some of you don't know, I attend Belmont University, and they've been having this ordeal with the Tennessee Baptist Convention where the TBC is refusing to support Belmont because it has "strayed" from the Baptist denomination. To make a long story short, Belmont is no longer supported by the TBC. Blah blah blah... This wasn't what my dad and I talked about. Well, we started talking about it, but then we got onto the topic of denominations in general. And then my dad brought up a good point: What do denominations do? They segregate the body of Christ. If that's not satanic, then I don't know what it is. Think about it. What would Satan like more than to separate the followers of Jesus Christ? This is why I've chosen to label myself as non-denominational. I mean

OK. Back to the unhappiness with my current friend situation... For the past couple weeks, I've had this general feeling of unrest when it came to my relationships. As I said, I'm really attached to the people I love, and I work for every relationship that I do have. Unfortunately, my friends don't. At least, they haven't been lately. I don't know what it is. You see, this weekend I had a pretty amazing get-together planned in order to celebrate my birthday being that I'll be spending all of it and the next day at the Schermerhorn for Christmas at Belmont. It was supposed to happen at my dad's farm over in Perry County, TN, which is about 1 and 1/2 hours away from Nashville. Anyways, there was going to be a bonfire, games, movies, etc. etc. etc... But come Saturday, 3 people cancel a mere matter of hours before we're supposed to meet. I then start calling people to make sure that they are still able to make it, and another person tells me that it's

It's been a while. 1 day over 2 months, to be exact. I guess I should explain myself. There's not much to say really. I'm fucking busy. haha Things have slowed down, now, thank GOD, so I have a few seconds to catch my breath, but, as I said, there are only a few seconds available to me. There was one point where-- now, this was entirely my own procrastinating fault-- I was writing 2 entire research papers in one night. The horrible part was that both were extremely scientific ("Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and It's Effect on Everyday Life" and "The Media's Portrayal of Autism: Appropriate or Misleading?"), so there was a lot of research required for both. Oi. Congrats to me, though, for finishing both papers in record time. haha Needless to say, I'll not be doing that again. The night of, I had a full on panic attack, because I didn't know how I was going to finish them. BUT I took a step back, breathed in and out for a little while, an

I went to my University's Study Abroad meeting today, and I am so exited!!! I have several choices to choose from, and I have a feeling that this is going to be a very difficult decision to make. So far, I've narrowed it down to 5-- only 5-- countries: 1: Italy   2: France   3: Germany   4: Australia   5: England   HECK, YES! I think that would be b ri ll ia n t . In Italy, France, and Germany, I would be attending a highly selective conservatory, and in the others I'd be studying opera performance at a University. What I'm thinking of doing is doing Australia for 1 summer and then 1 semester in Italy/France/Germany and 1 semester in Italy/France/Germany. I'd have to decide which... But I'd also like to do an academic year. There's just something about it... A full year in a foreign country at a conservatory sounds pretty choice to me. :) Anyway, on to the title of my blog. For my First Year Writing class, we had to write about a moment that defined

There are always those movies that, when you watch them for a second (or third, or fourth, or fifth... I think you get the point.) time, you are once again in love with the story, the characters, everything about it. Bridget Jones' Diary is one of those movies for me. I could watch it 50,000 times, and it would never get old. Her adventures-- or, better put, misadventures-- in romance are ones that women, even me, dream of. Now, I'm not one to particularly scream out from the rooftops that I'm a hopeless romantic, but... What can I say? I am. I see a good chick flick and fantasize about the best scenes happening directly to me. I picture myself as Bridget Jones, and Colin Firth is telling me that, despite all of my flaws, he likes me just the way I am. I close my eyes and have a little daydream starring yours truly running after my love in a pair of "genuinely tiny knickers," a pair of tennis shoes, a camisole, and a cotton hoodie worried that he might leave me fo

I'm driving along I-40, and as I near my exit to turn onto Fessler's Ln., I notice a blinking sign on the side of the road that reads as follows, spelling error and all: "FUGITIVE SAFE SURRENDR NEXT EXIT." Naturally, I get a little worried. Is there some serial killer loose near my apartment? Is it safe to take the exit toward my apartment? It also doesn't help that about a week ago I heard a definite gun shot followed after a few minutes by police sirens close to my apartment. That made me feel really safe. Awesome. I called my dad, and he said that they're doing this new thing where they're creating safe places for fugitives from the law to "surrendr." I guess I understand that, but... It still makes me feel a little uneasy. Why choose a mere 4 miles away from my apartment for criminals to turn themselves into the law? I mean, don't get me wrong. Good for them for making that choice to accept the consequences for their actions, but I want i

Well, I don't know about you guys, but I was just issued a CapitalOne card. Wahoo for me getting approved, right? Now I don't have to worry about a band of Norsemen coming and beating me up while yelling Viking curses, because I have the protection of a CapitalOne credit card. I feel safe. Whooooo. :) haha As the audition for American Idol nears, I'm actually getting a bit nervous. I wasn't nervous at ALL last season. But I guess I'm anxious this time because I've actually prepared for it. I've spent a couple months working a few songs up to snuff, and I'm taking my looks seriously, which is big for me. Maybe all of the work I've put in will pay off. Maybe not. We shall see in less than 2 weeks (ACH!!). It's weird to think that I'm taking part of such a huge phenomenon. And for all of you naysayers, well... You can't deny that it's a phenomenon. It's enormous. I'm not really all American Idol gungho myself, but I appreciate a

So I finished Belmont's required AlcoholEdu course, and I've not been more aggravated. Not only did I have to sit through around 2 and 1/2 hours of alcohol-related information via a powerpoint-esque presentation, but they also made me take an exam going over every little detail. Thankfully, I already knew quite a bit about the whole alcohol thing, but... still. It was ridiculous. I've never been one for standardized exams, and the fact that the final exam going over all of the information they threw at me was standardized did not bode well. I ended up having to take it twice, and I only passed with an 80%. Ridiculous. Granted, I didn't really pay attention to the online course, but... hey, I passed, didn't I? haha Good for me. I saw the Simpsons Movie earlier this week, and I must say I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the movie. I rarely go into a movie and laugh through the entire thing, but I definitely laughed 98% of the time. It was hilarious. It was

I'd never before witnessed the Harry Potter Craze, so I thought this past Friday evening would be a good chance for me to check it out. Not only did I check it out, but I also became completely sick of it by night's end. It just doesn't make sense to me. First off, the books really aren't that great. Secondly, I find Harry completely nauseating. He's a whiny prepubescent little boy, and I have absolutely no use for him. Be that as it may, there were several hundred people crammed into the relatively small space that comprises the Borders at Brentwood (you know, the one on Franklin Rd. next to Chick-Fil-A and whatnot?). People were dressed up, Gryffindor scarves and all, to celebrate the release of the final installment of the Harry Potter series. Now, I was there because I was helping out a bit at Borders. They needed some extra people, and I was free, so... There I was! In the few hours I was there, I was reminded of all of the reasons I chose to stop working there

Why is it that kids in college (or kids around my age, anyway) feel the need to go through this hippie lifestyle exploration? Sure, the hippie ideal is nice with the whole community aspect, but... If you were to go back in time to the mid-60's to the mid-1970's and actually speak to an honest-to-God hippie... Well, if you make it past the horrible smell (au naturale, my ass), you'll realize that hippie theories are merely drug-induced nonsense. And whether they like to admit it or not, they were inspired by the beatnik media stereotype from the 50's, which was based on the distorted view of live people and Jack Kerouac's fictional spirituality. You know the people in cafes with berets and black outfits who snap their fingers at the end of a supposedly deep "performance" of a haiku-esque poem... Well, those are the beatniks, the starters of the hippie movement. Hippies, in general, saw the dominant culture at the time to be a corrupt, hardened body that st

It's been a while. I've just been so busy... ish... :) No, I've just been trying to spend less time on the computer. Anyways, though, life has been relatively busy. I mean, I'm working, and I'm also relearning how to play the piano, and boning up on my music theory. I was really embarrassed during my proficiency test for theory and piano. I seriously didn't remember ANYTHING. I've never been good at sight playing (I can sight sing like no one's business), but it was just horrible. I couldn't play anything. And then for the theory test. Now, I used to be pretty good with theory. I wasn't an ace or anything, but I knew what I was doing when I looked at a piece of music. But when I was doing that test... They were throwing around phrases like diatonic scales (which is, simply, a major scale... Stupid Stefanie) and relative keys (I kicked myself when I retaught myself the whole relative key thing.), and I simply couldn't remember what I once knew

As I said, I'm going to be one busy chick from the beginning to mid August. It all starts on August 11th (So far, that is. There might even be more going on!), when I will take part in an audition for Into the Woods at the Boiler Room Theater. I'm extremely excited about that one, because it's been such a long time since I've actually done anything artistic or been in front of people on a stage. It's also wonderful that I am practically made for the part of The Baker's Wife. I know, it sounds like a bit part because she doesn't have an actual name... but that's kind of how the whole musical is. Oh, Sondheim, you are a silly, silly man (and by silly, I really mean absolutely brilliant.). Seriously, I've had several people tell me that I am Joanna Gleason's (the woman who originated the role of The Baker's Wife on Broad way ) protege, so that's nice. I need to get my headshot /resume together. After that, on the 13th, I'll b

So a lot of stuffage has gone down in the life of Stefanie in the past week or so. First things first: Borders, Inc. "let me go." HAH! Now, my manager specified to me that this is only temporary, being that they were asked to cut 100 hours from their schedule time. She also said that the 100 hours that the were asked to cut are probably going to be reinstated in around 6 weeks. Well... I'll be in school. Sorry, buckos! The thing is, I was pretty much on the verge of quitting anyway (Jon, you can kiss my ass!!), but that's another story entirely that requires much more time than I have accessible to me right at this point in time. So now I'm free on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays... which is actually kind of cool. Granted, I'm not making near as much money as I should, but I'm sure that will be remedied soon. I have a couple of ideas that I'm muddling over. We shall see, methinks. Second things second: Orientation for Belmont (aka Towering Tradit

So there I was, sitting peacefully on the couch in my parent's bonus room. All of the sudden I realize, "Hmm... I'm hungry." So I get up and make my way toward the pantry. Well, I was really stupid and left my purse sitting on the ground right by the couch, and I was also really stupid and wasn't looking where I was going... Next thing I know I'm teetering forward toward a door frame. I instinctually throw my hands in front of me, and-- now, I'm not sure how this happened-- the back of my right hand hits the door frame, catching my fall. I didn't think that it hurt too badly at first, but after a minute... FLAMES. Now I'm just trying to keep my mind off of the dull ache that's throbbing through my fingers. It also doesn't help that every time I move the fingers on my right hand, I feel bones cracking. I have a bad feeling about this... Shit.

2 of the absolute funniest commercials I've seen in a LONG time... Whew...

It's too early to tell, but I think I made the correct choice in taking the job at The Farm. I really like it, and it's a weekend job (which I can keep during the school year... SCORE), and it's stress free. And it's working with puppies and kitties!!! I'm totally down with that. For me it's pretty much ideal, because when school starts I'll need the week nights to study and whatnot. You know, all of those school-related things. :) But yeah... Taking The Farm job was a good idea. At least, it looks like it was. I'm not going to count my eggs until they've hatched. Crossing fingers! The only problem thus far is gas. I mean, I'll be fine with that... It looks like the gas prices are going down. At the gas station by my apartment, it's only $2.98. That's not too bad (It's so sad that I think $2.98 isn't that bad... I remember the $.99 days. Those were nice.) It is going to take a pretty big chunk out of my paycheck, though, but that

So I am really proud of myself today. :) I put up a shelving unit on my wall ALL BY MY ONESIES! :) It looks kind of like the picture on the right, except that the two panels behind the shelves are metal... and the wood is a dark brown... mahogany, maybe... Anyways, though, I put them up all by myself, and I'm very excited. I'm a handy-woman!!! I mean, it involved using a drill and everything, and I did it! Go Stef, right? Now all I have to do s commandeer the planks of wood that Mam-maw (my grandmother) has in her back yard from when they took her old deck down and made a new one. I'm going to have this pretty massive, 4-tier, backless bookshelf (that is easy to take apart and cart around where needed) along the wall opposite my bed (and new shelves!!! teehee). It's pretty much going to be the shit. ... Holy crap, listen to me. I'm getting excited over BOOKSHELVES! haha You know you're a geek when... :) Oh well. Hey, at least I'm doing somethi

Ridiculous. Absolutely freaking ridiculous. A "medical condition" gets Paris Hilton out of jail (and a small skin rash, at that!)?? WHAT. THE. FUCK. The fact that Paris Hilton spends a mere 5 days in jail and is allowed to leave due to a "medical condition" is absurd! She gets to go home and live in the lap of luxury for the next 40 days whlie wearing an ankle bracelet which she'll probably turn into a new fashion trend... Which people who cannot think for themselves will eat up like candy of course. I mean, come on! She so got a favor. A big, fat favor. I wonder how many officials she had to screw to get that worked out for her. It's not beyond her, anyway, to do anything to get what she wants. I'm completely with the Upright Citizen's Brigade. "Paris Hilton, Go Away." She is one of the many things that has made the USA a complete laughing stock. Some of you might say that Bush is worse, but I'm personally a fan of him (WHAT??? SOMEON

Yes, my friends. It has come to that time again where Stefanie has no clue what to do with her life. I have 2 job openings that have been offered to me. They are as follows: --- One is at The Farm at Natchez Trace, a luxury boarding facility for animals. It pays $9/hr and I get to work with dogs all day (mostly big ones). That's all well and fine, but the fact is it's a good 30-40 minutes away from my apartment (and that's on a good day). I'd love working there, but I'd be spending SO much money on gas. And then when school starts I'll be doing part-time hours, so then gas will add up even more because I'll be driving between Belmont, the apartment, the house, and work. With how much gas is costing nowadays it just doesn't seem like I'd be making any money at all. Boo. But I WOULD love what I'd be doing. --- The second is a job at CompUSA as a Business Representative. It pays $10/hr plus bonuses for extra sales that I do. It is closer to the apar