Beautiful Video

Thought of You from Ryan Woodward on Vimeo.

Watch this beautiful video- choreographed by my friend Kori Wakamatsu and danced by two of my former MDT students at Riverton High, Shellie Telford and Michael Milkanin- both now MDT majors at BYU.

I Swear...

I don't swear very often. Sometimes in school when I'm at my wits end (usually with someone in stage crew) or sometimes a well placed swear in rehearsal will get the attention of the cast (along with the throwing of a chair). But, I know for a fact, that, at least at my school, I do not swear as much as the athletic dept. coaches (and certainly not as much as our choral program. Our choir teacher is like a sailor*).

The point is, swearing doesn't really offend me, and though I don't do it often (Jackie wins that award in our house), when I do it, I like to make it count. Here are my preferred variations of swearing (usually when I'm alone in the car).

The following work with any profanity you can think of (although they are not always grammatically correct):

****apalooza

****nation jingle himer schmit

****me up and call me Shirley

****zacrackin

****zapoppin

****me and everyone I've met

What in the**** is going on

Crock ****ing Good

It's kind of like mad-libs, but if you're going to swear, be creative!

*she is not like a sailor. She's in the Morman Tabernacle Choir and I've yet to hear her swear. But it's funny imagining it. It's even more funny imagining our previous choir teacher Leanna Wilmore doing it as well.

Black Friday

So last Thursday night, Jackie and I decided to brave the crowds at Walmart at midnight in Brigham City. We arrived around 11:45pm. I was on assignment to get some $1.97 DVD's for my brother Tim (he wanted the Bourne trilogy) and we were going to look for some presents for the girls.

After wandering around a bit (no cart for us), I hung around electronics (with 1000's of others) while Jackie staked out toys. Around midnight, there was honest to goodness shrieking (the same sound I would imagine that starts human sacrifice) as Walmart employees began opening their palates of stuff. Jackie scored a Zhu-Zhu pet- but it was at the risk of life and limb. Try as I might, I could not get into the aisles with the DVD's (Walmart intentionally put the DVD palates in narrow aisles so you had to maneuver for them). When I finally got there, I could only get the Bourne Ultimatum for Tim (but I could have gotten him every season of Sex and the City). I tried to get to the Wii games, but by the time I got there, there wasn't anything I wanted (because people were carrying them away by the 20's- I don't even think they stopped to look at titles). I did score a $10 Toy Story 3 DVD (which I was very proud of) and Jackie got a Snuggie for Millie and some games for Ellis.

After the madness, the real Christmas joy began. We stood in line for about an hour to get $47 worth of stuff. Thinking back on it, I should have gone up and gotten some magazines to read in line, but I didn't.

After Walmart I had contemplated going to Kohls for their 3:00am opening- but decided it wasn't worth it. Give me my Amazon and Costco and my shopping will be done without super long lines.

Christmas Gifts

I rarely write Christmas lists- and for the most part, I ignore other people's lists as well. I want to surprise people with stuff they didn't even know they wanted.
Yesterday, Jackie made up her Christmas wish list
* A suitcase
* The book, A Guide to Humanistic Studies in Aging: What does it mean to grow old?

* The book, The Creative Age: Awakening Human Potential in the 2nd Half of Life

This is it.

No gloves, chocolates, massage oil, gift certificates or music.

2 hardcover books on aging and the arts and a suitcase.

The gauntlet has been thrown down.

To delve into the tricky mind that is Jackie and find out what she wants- when she doesn't even know that she wants it.