[Merenwen's Scrapbook] The Willing Well

[Merenwen]

Okay, herein lies my feeble attempt at a scrapbook. I find it necessary to go ahead and warn you, there's no telling what you'll find here! I am a bit of a rambler. I like to talk, I like to write, I like to think, I like to share. It's not always awe-inspiring, but it's me, and I'm happy knowing just that. I suppose I'll start off by sharing that my inspiration for making a scrapbook had (thus far) been Jen, Lisa, Michael, and Kelly. I'll go a little further into detail: Jen... From what I gather, she's an amazing person! I have been stalking her scrapbook since I came back (I was on Miza back in January of this year, but left due to a string of increasingly difficult family issues.) I have practically read all thirty-five pages of her captivating scrapbook (I LOVE the dark chocolate story; I died laughing!)..... It's obvious she juggles her family, work, social, and Miza lives with dedication and perseverance. I admire her resolve and artistic license, for sure. Though I don't talk with her much, she pretty much made me want to get my butt in gear and make a scrapbook, too! Lisa... What an artist, eh? I have really enjoyed checking out her scrapbook, too. I was so excited to find another animal fanatic when I first came back. Furthermore, when I PM'ed her and told her I had been stalking her threads <insert shifty eyes> she gladly welcomed me to start one with her PC Bolden. So far, it's been a lot of fun... I'm not very confident in myself. At all. Whatsoever. Lisa usually pops her head back up into chat after reading one of my posts and says something along the lines of "Cute post, Jalen!" I have been writing for years, and I don't usually let like, my parents or boyfriend read my work. They just... don't get it. They don't understand why I write so much, and why I enjoy it. Having made friends who have writing in common with me, and the simple little feedback I get makes me want to write even MORE. I just wanna thank Lisa for her encouragement, whether she realizes she's doing it or not. Michael... Oh, Michael. Haha, something only Michael knows: I am EXTREMELY hot headed. I get flustered easily. The little things can sometimes get to me. I'm pretty good at not exploding on everyone, though.... Michael can usually tell when I'm off-kilter just by the way I "speak" in chat. He is always there to lend and ear to me so I can vent, and his advice is plentiful and welcomed always. He's a perfect example of not limiting yourself to a set age of friends. He's older than a lot of us, yes, but with age comes great wisdom and experience. He's an amazing listener, something I haven't had the pleasure of ...... you know what, I just realized this paragraph sounds choppy. Does it sound choppy? It feels choppy. Michael is funny. SO funny. And he listens to me complain. I like it. Being able to talk to him has given me the sort of courage to share a scrapbook and welcome the help of others. Kelly.... Kelly is a perfect example of why making friends is a healthy thing. He doesn't pop into chat very often, but when he does, he's always friendly, never negative or rude. He's helpful, er, at least in my opinion he has been! I will forever be in search of friendship, because let's face it -- there's no such thing as having too many friends! Whether near or far, they'll usually always be there as long as you keep in touch with them. And though I know Kelly is far, it's been fun getting to know a little bit about him. After some careful consideration, I decided last night after talking to him that a scrapbook could be a great way to get to know others. I suppose my scrapbook's purpose will be to share some things about myself for others to read, if they'd like. I'll most likely post pictures of myself, my art, the things that make me laugh, quotes, what I think about some of you, practice for BBC cause I totally suck at it, etc..... Like I said, you'll never know what to expect. On that note, here goes my first post in my scrapbook.... Thanks, you guys.

[Bolden Denusk]

You're welcome, and thank you for such a kind mention of me.

[Merenwen]

No problem. I try to give credit where credit is due!! <3

[Merenwen]

The Abridged Version of My Life Story..... >< You're welcome to read this if you'd like, but it's certainly not necessary. It's a humbling story, I think, and one I'm not shy to share. I was born in Denver, Colorado to a set of sorry alcohol/drug abusers. My four brothers were all lost due to miscarriages during the third trimester, or due to premature birth (at least that's what I was told.) When I was born, my birth mother and I barely made it, and I was rushed to intensive care. When I was about two years old, my birth mother moved us to Georgia to live with my maternal grandparents to escape my abusive birth father. In his rage over "having his daughter kidnapped/stolen" he followed us to a nearby city. There were some confrontations, but he eventually went to prison over selling stolen car parts. Eventually my birth mother and I moved out of my Papa and Gramma's house to live in another neighboring city. My birth mother got back into drugs heavily, unfortunately... She would leave me for days and days at a time alone in our apartment to fend for myself. I wasn't to open the door for anyone but her, and I was to never, under any circumstances, answer the phone if family was calling. The importance of her fix began to outweigh the needs of her daughter, and soon our electricity, water, etc. was cut off. I bathed in the same water for two months, and lived off of canned tuna and Little Debbie's snacks. After I began getting sick, she took me to a friend's house where I lived for almost a week before she finally came to pick me up and take to me 4-H camp. When I returned from camp, my birth mother wasn't there. My grandparents were. They took me home with them, and I found that a lot of my things had been moved to their home, but my birth mother wasn't there. As I got a little older, they explained to me that they had searched all over three counties looking for us, and they finally got the landlord to open our apartment... The place was disgusting. Syringes were found everywhere, and the heat of the June and July summer caused the paint to peel off the walls. There were candles everywhere because we hadn't had power. There was moldy food everywhere, garbage, etc. My Papa cried every day until they found me. My grandparents became Mom and Dad when they adopted me the summer after my eighth grade year of school. Happiest day of my life. My Daddy is my best friend, the #1 man in my life. He's a Marine, a Vietnam Veteran with 3 Purple Hearts. He taught me that having a healthy sense of humor is crucial to living a happy life. My parents are.... Amazing. They have done without so that I could have everything. I love them more than anything in this world, and they have pushed me to go above and beyond what I've been through, and to always be the best I can be. I don't know what I would do without them, but I know I wouldn't be alive. On that note, something that REALLY bothers me (I mean really) is when people who screw up say, "Ohhh, I can't help it; I had a difficult childhood!" or "My parents neglected me!" etc, etc... Look, I don't give a rat's tail what you've been through. You make up your mind to better yourself and to be your own person regardless of what your past is like. You don't sift through your friends, looking for pity. Some of the most highly regarded people in the world have disturbing pasts, and they didn't get there from whining about it. Our pasts define who we are as people, and it can either make you or break you. Don't let it turn you into a pity party. ANYWAY, today I'm a nineteen year old sophomore college student. I'm a sister of Alpha Gamma Delta sorority. I have 70 beautiful sisters who love to have fun, and we all come together under our purpose to raise awareness of juvenile diabetes! I have an AMAZING boyfriend. We're promised, and each day I have with him is pure bliss. He's the most gracious, loving man I have ever met besides my father. His name is Bryan, and he runs an online bakery. He's a chemical engineering major on a five year dual degree enrollment plan. He paints my toenails when I'm sick, leaves me surprises all over the house, takes me out to eat days he doesn't cook, and my parents and friends adore him just as much as I do.



Bryan and I are a silly, sweet couple. We balance each other nicely, and compliment the best in one another. We're adventurous and daring, always up to try new things. I LOVE ANIMALS!! I have a malamute/wolf hybrid puppy named Sitka, and he's just a bundle of joy. I love horseback riding, drawing, writing, painting, etc... I like to do silly, crazy, dangerous stuff. I've been told I'm a lot of fun.. I hope it's true? Hahha, I try to avoid being judgmental... I don't like to be judged, so I try not to do it to others. I have pinchable cheeks, according to Seven Xu, Michael, and Stas Grigori. ^^ I have three tattoos, and eight piercings. Can you see them?! Haha, I don't think you can!! I'm a very straight forward, blunt person... I'm not afraid to give anyone what-for, and I'm not gonna lie to you and tell you it's okay if it isn't. I'll be the first person to give you an honest opinion, whether I like you or not. I like green, I'm 4'10", I prefer squishy pillows, I love seafood and red meat, but meatloaf is disgusting. I can eat my weight in fried clams and lobster. Hibachi is scary but fun. I like to tell people my stories. I promise to always try and be interesting! Hahah. >< I welcome your stories here, as well. I like to hear about others just as much as I like to share about myself. ^^ Oh, man. I almost forgot. My name is Katie.

[Mesa]

I suppose I found this background image and loved it so much that I decided I must make a scrapbook entry for it. Haha. Literally I was just Googling background images, and this popped up. Someone might think I like Bob Marley... It isn't true. I don't like Bob Marley anything, and I doubt I ever will! Haha. The colors are my sorority colors (red, buff, and green), so I think I'll go off on a tangent here and tell a little about sorority life. Since I've been back at Miza, I've occasionally shared a picture with my letters, or told a story about my sisters. Sometimes I get comments about naked pillow fights... I'm here to tell you, I don't know of a single sorority ANYWHERE that hosts parties in which people run around naked bashing each other with fluffy pillows and the like. We don't see who can get the drunkest, we don't look down on unaffiliated people. We don't have sex with our professors so that we get good grades. We don't like, you know, ummm, talk like this, like, all the time, because, like, haha, like, we have money, so, like, we can afford to like, you know, sound like ditzy idiots. We're real people, and we're women, just like your mom, your sister, your best friend, your teacher, your neighbor, the lady who sits in front of you at church. We have standards and morals as individuals, and they don't change just because you pledge to a sorority. Let me just start from the beginning and clear things out as I go along: In high school, I was never by any means one of the popular girls. I didn't play softball or cheerlead, and I was never on homecoming court. I was an avid Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) member/competitor, and my passion was acting and singing. I would sing for hours on end every day after school, whether I had a lesson that day or not. I wanted to perfect my vibrato, extend my range another octave, learn my scales and arpeggios, correct my diction in my French and German foreign language pieces.... I'm from a small town (population < 2000) where basically if you didn't play a sport, and if your parents didn't donate their every penny and minute to the football town, to hell with ya! There were cliques galore, and I just never really fitted anywhere. I had a few choice friends and a boyfriend, but they both came and went, as they usually do. If you ask anyone from there what I was like in high school, they would probably either tell you I was one of the weird kids, or I was a (insert slander here), because I didn't talk to anyone. All four years of my high school career, I desperately wanted to change schools. I wanted to transfer to a bigger school in the next city over. I wanted to take the performing arts class, as the teacher there was really somethin' else. She had retired from her postion of choral/performing arts/dance teacher, but they begged her to come back. She did, and this very day she is drawing her retirement AND a full salary (and believe me, it's WAY higher than what the other teachers get!) Unfortunately, they told me each year that my graduating class of 2010 was just too big. It's law that they must take everyone from within the city limits before taking those outside the limits, and there was already a waiting list. Finally, my senior year, my daddy went up to the administrator's office and begged them to please grant me an interview and consider me for transfer. He took all my paperwork, test scores, records, etc.... The principal agreed, and I went up for my interview, and because it was my last year, I had no disciplinary record, and high test scores, they approved my transfer. Well, the new school was huge (compared to my old school), and it took me two months to figure out where everything was! And yes, there were more, bigger cliques. I sort of found my place... I made some really close friends, but not a bunch of them... So I graduated high school, and two days later my best guy friend of three years became my boyfriend. I got my letter of acceptance from the university I applied at, and then, it hit me: Where were all of my friends going? Uhmmmm..... Well, I panicked! I actually cried! After making friends, and deciding to stay in the area to go to college so that I could commute, I was back in the same boat! Out of my huge graduating class, only some of them were coming to the same college, and one of them was going to be a Mass Comm major, like myself. And I didn't even know the guy!! Man, oh man, I stressed. I knew I liked hanging out and doing stuff. My best friend was going to FIT in New York City, one of them was off to Young Harris, etc. etc.... And here I was, hanging out around home to go to college. One of my friends I had taken drama with messaged me on Facebook and asked where I was going to school, and it turned out she had changed her mind about going to a far-off university, and was also going to the same university as I was, and for the same reasons! The more we talked, we found out we wouldn't have any classes together, but she mentioned something: RUSH. Ahh, RUSH. Or recruitment, as the sororities call it. It sounded intimidating, and I wasn't sure what all the fuss was about. I just wanted to get my degree and get the heck outta there. But my friend begged me to go through with her. She said she was worried about making friends at college, too, and that pledging to a sorority meant we would have between 50 and 80 friends that would ALWAYS be there for us. PFFFFFFT, man I thought I was gonna gag. But I looked it up, anyway. I researched every sorority on campus: Delta Delta Delta Chi Omega Alpha Gamma Delta Phi Mu Kappa Delta Alpha Xi Delta There are two types of recruitment. Formal, which takes place during the Fall when classes start, and informal, which takes place any time during the Spring, after Christmas break. Formal recruitment takes place over an entire week. It's a complex cycle in which you are put into groups with a leader called a Rho Gamma (we called them Rho Gam), and on the first day, you wear a sundress and go visit each sorority's house with your group on a schedule. At the end of the day, you eliminate one, and they vote on you based on what they learned about you that day. The next day, you come back, and do it all over again. After your first day, you're usually separated from most of your *Rho Gam group, due to the fact that not everyone will vote exactly the same. You usually meet with your group to get you schedule for that day, though. You meet a lot of girls this way, though, and was actually a lot of fun. *By the way, a Rho Gam is an applied for position. You have to be interviewed, and if you're accepted, you must disaffiliate from your sorority so as not to skew the opinions of the PNM's (potential new members) in your group. It just wouldn't be fair if they knew you belonged to a certain house, because if they really liked you, they would want to be in your sorority. Then, you risk pledging to a sorority in which you only like one girl! Anyway, I know it sounds complicated... and trust me, when you're going through RUSH, it's SOOOO confusing!! It's a really complex system though, and it's designed to make sure you go where you belong, as long as you're honest with yourself and the girls RUSHing you. Basically, at the end of the day, you rank the sororities based on that day, where you would want to go. While you're doing this on a computer one at a time per Rho Gam group, the sororities are talking about what they did and didn't like about each girl. And it's not like, "Oh I didn't like her because she's blonde" or "She has braces." It's more along the lines of, "Okay this girl said she had slept with a boy from each fraternity on campus over the summer to get to know them all." or "This girl said she gets drunk every night and doesn't plan on going to any of her classes." We're not unreasonable. We don't want girls that will give the sisterhood a bad reputation. No one does. One member can do something wrong, and if it gets out, the whole sorority gets a label. When I went through, this is what I heard about each sorority: Delta Delta Delta (Tri Delt or Delta): The girls who sleep with everyone. All brunettes. Phi Mu: The fake Barbie Doll girls. All blondes. Chi Omega (Chi O): The loud, rude, trashy girls. Weird. Alpha Xi Delta (AZD): The fat girls. Kappa Delta (KD): The stuck up rich girls. Alpha Gamma Delta (Alpha Gam): The boyfriend stealers. I tried my best to dispel the rumors and learn what I could about them before I went through recruitment. I learned about their colors, their mascots, their philanthropies, their purposes, etc. Out of all honesty, I really wanted to go Delta or Phi Mu because I liked their philanthropies. But once you're a part of a sorority, you don't really see where these awful rumors come from! It's absolutely absurd, and 90% of the time, it's started by someone who isn't affiliated. Go figure! The day recruitment started, we got into our groups and lined up by birth date in front of our first house. My heart was pounding, I was nervous, I was intimidated... I had no idea what to expect but a bunch of smart, pretty girls, and that scared me. They counted down from ten, and the doors opened. What happened was the last thing I could have expected. The girls were all cheering! They had cheers memorized, and they were smiling and clapping. We went in one at a time and the girls came by the door in a circle in the foyer to get one of us at the door, tell us welcome, and walk us through to what's called the Chapter Room (it's basically a living room). When everyone is in, we're all standing in a circle around the Chapter Room with a girl behind us. The president of the chapter usually introduces herself, and tells about the first day, which is called Open Rounds. She'll say something along the lines of "Hello, my name is ______ and I'm the President of ______ Chapter of _____ Sorority! I just wanna welcome you to your first house, and I hope you enjoy Open Rounds!" Then she'll tell about our theme, and explains that the girl who walked you in are gonna take you to somewhere in the house to just talk and get to know each other. Next is usually philanthropy day, where we do a craft while we talk about our philanthropy. Then sisterhood day, we talk about all the things we do within our sisterhood, with each other, like the new member retreat, Bigs and Littles, date nights, movie marathons, Dips for Dinner, etc. Then comes Pref Night, or Preference. Preference is your last chance to get them to pick you over the other sororities! You talk about what makes your sisterhood different, and what you found when you joined. Finally is Bid Night. You usually make signs with their names on it, and stand in front of your house. The Rho Gams take the rushees for a short seminar about which Rho Gam was from which sorority, and same with the Panhellenic members. After the seminar you go outside to your groups and stand in circles. A small envelope is placed at your feet with your name on it and you have to place your hands on your head. When the Rho Gam's shout "GO!" you pick up your envelope and open it to get to your bid. A bid is an invitation to join a certain sorority, and you only get one. From there, you sprint as fast as you can to your respective houses. Even though I Preffed Chi Omega, my bid was for Alpha Gamma Delta. This happens when you get high votes in one house than another. I ran to my house, and got a tote bag with my new letters on it, two t-shirts, a new member jersey, a croakie (used to hold sunglasses around your neck), a car sticker, and a heart shaped poster that says "Welcome Home, Katie!" (above: group picture, Bid Night, after getting my bid for Alpha Gam.) My pledge class (a pledge class is the group that pledges at the same time as you) got Bigs that night. A Big is an older sister who is pared with you based on what they gathered from your personality during recruitment. She teaches you ritual (like the *candle passing, meetings, etc.), songs, virtually anything you want to know about the sorority. Your Big makes you a bunch of gifts up until you are officially initiated. Some of these include paddles, "Ode To My Little" (a big collage of pictures of yourself and your big), your Rose Box (a box of letters from your sisters), a pin box (a small box in which to keep your member pin), etc. (above: paddle exchange with my big, Mary) *a candle passing happens for a number of reasons. You stand in a circle and sing a song called "Today." We light a candle and pass it (duh!) and once it goes all the way around, the ritual chairperson (or whoever begins the passing) names what the passing is for. Usually it's for "lavaliere" or friendship". When a sister is lavaliered, she gets a pendant in her family's shape with our letters on it, and our secret letters on the back. Friendship is when a sister gets adopted. Adoption takes place when a sister's Big quits, usually, or if the Big was never really there for her Little, which is a rare occurrence. Now that I'm a sister of Alpha Gamma Delta, I see how everything comes together. I see how the scoring works, and why you wind up where you belong when you're honest with yourself. My sisterhood is special, and it means everything to me. I have 70 sisters who will always be there for me. Alpha Gam isn't just for four years; it's for life. Even after I've graduated, there are ways for me to stay involved with my sisterhood. There's alumnae events, opportunities to be advisors for the chapter, etc. Now, something that really irks me is the questions/jokes I get about naked pillow fighting parties. Parties, in general, even. We're not like what you see in the movies. We aren't shallow or naive. We aren't bitches. I hate it when people make us out to be rich, snobby girls with daddy's money. We don't pay for our friends, and if we did, I sure as hell don't pay enough for mine! Anything we pay for is either something that's ordered, and it's ours to keep, or it goes to our philanthropy. Here's a couple examples of what we pay for: When I went through recruitment, on philanthropy day at Alpha Gamma Delta, we decorated labels and put them on jars filled with cookie mix for diabetic children. When I went Alpha Gam, we took a weekend and went to Camp Kudzu to distribute the jars for the kids with diabetes. Dues paid for all the jars, the labels, the stuff to make the mix, etc. Our dues also go to the Alpha Gamma Delta Foundation. The foundation sets aside money for the SIS Grant. The SIS Grant is a grant that can be applied for by sisters in dire need of financial assistance. You can be awarded up to $2000. We have a strong sisterhood... We do a lot together. Dips for Dinner. Everyone makes a dip and brings it to the house. We have a movie marathon and eat the dips as dinner. We have a flatscreen TV that an alum bought for our house. We have nights where we play Wii and sleep over at the house. We had a Christmas party this past year where everyone brought a gift. We sat in a circle and everyone held a random gift, and our president read The Night Before Christmas, and every time she read the word "and" we passed the gift to the right. When it was finished, you opened the gift! (above: Julia and I, and Alyssa creeping in the background. We took the Christmas cheer to the Sigma Nu fraternity house to share the love!) Every time a sister has a birthday, we go out to eat at the local Mexican restaurant, the Lazy Donkey. We had a new member sleepover, and decided we would get water balloons and attack the fraternity house next to us, Delta Chi. We pretended like we were going to do a dance for them, and let 'em have it! (I did the glittery war paint!!) The new members are taken by a handful of older sisters on what we call the new member retreat. For my NMR, we went to Helen, Georgia. One sister's mom and aunt paid for us to stay in a HUGE cabin in the mountains. We offered out services this past semester to the Magnolia Ball. While I'm STILL not sure what the Magnolia Ball is, those invited show up in formal attire in their expensive cars, and go to this big event. We valet parked their cars, and they even tipped us! I'll never forget getting to drive my first Jaguar, Porche, BMW, Lexus, etc. ALL IN ONE NIGHT!! It was pretty amazing. We have what's called socials with fraternities to keep up fraternal relations. It's when we rent a venue, select a theme, hire a DJ, and go out to dance and have fun at the venue. Some of our themes this past year were "Does this make me look frat?", "No time to siesta; We gotta fiesta!", "Dynamic Duos", and "Waking up in Vegas." Even when we don't have socials, on Thursday nights, the fraternities often host parties at their houses for anyone and everyone to attend. Pi Kappa Phi (or Pi Kapp) held a RAVE party one night. They covered the walls in black trashbags and splattered neon glow-in-the-dark paint everywhere, and hired a DJ! (above: getting ready for the Pi Kapp RAVE!) (above: getting ready to head to the "No time to siesta; We gotta fiesta!" social with Kappa Sigma fraternity!) We volunteered our services at the Step at a Time Road Race in March this year. We handed out water and gave our support for the runners, and even a handful of our girls ran for the cause! (above: helping out at the Step at a Time road race!) We get together for fun days when we're out of class sometimes, to do stuff like Seek-and-Find's! And yet, even with all the fun stuff we do, there is always tragedy in the world. This year, we lost two Alpha Gam alum to the storms that wrought the area of my country. The University of Alabama's Psi Chapter of Alpha Gam was affected by the disaster. We created a banner to show our Gamma Tau Chapter's love for theirs, and made it our Facebook picture. We do a lot together, and for one another... And as for the whole college drinking scene, yeah, some of us drink. Do we get plastered and post the pictures everywhere? No. Do we sleep with every guy we meet? No. Of course not. Yes occasionally we will go out to the bar, do a little dancing, have a couple drinks. But we hold our standards high, and we maintain our ability to act like adults. If an advisor (an advisor is an alum who is sort of a house mother, but we don't have house mothers) finds out you've acted stupidly in public, you get counseled for it. They tell you what you did wrong, and ask you not to do it again. There are warnings, and there are consequences. For example, if you hold a naked pillow fight party, you'll probably have your membership yoinked. Not good. Not good at ALL. So, I know this was long and all, but like I said. I like to share stories. I hope this cleared a little bit up... So... next time someone makes a joke about stupid sorority rumors, I'mma link this to 'em. Bam.

[Gossamer]

This was such an amazing read. Thank you so very much for this scrap. I think I got more out of reading what your experiences with your lovely Sorority and all the great pictures than I got out of a whole five years of going to school and just walking by Sorority Row and catching glimpses of the girls there and reading the occasional article in our Griz paper about the doings in the Sorority world. How wonderful that you are part of such a lovely group.

[Merenwen]

Thanks so much! It's a really complex system, but it's fun to be apart of! I'm glad you enjoyed it... I hope I can dish out some more interesting scraps while I'm here at Miza!!

<3

[Merenwen]

After spending approximately four solid hours cleaning my room last night, I decided I should do another scrapbook entry. Haha, I like the leisure of being able to just ramble and post pictures and share stuff that makes me happy. I think today, I'll be a little mushy and tell my story about my boyfriend, Bryan. He's been on my mind a lot so far today... I'll start from the beginning. I'm passionate about theatre. I love to sing, act, and dance (even though I'm a terrible dancer.) Where I'm from, we have what's called the Carrollton Cultural Arts Center (CCAC) where every summer they do three programs known as Primary Theatre, Children's Theatre, and Teen Theatre. Teen Theatre is exclusive to kids ages 13-19, and around the time school lets out, they hold two days of auditions. The summer just after my sophomore year of high school, I auditioned for a small cast part in the show Once Upon A Mattress. I wanted to do a lot that summer, and I knew if I had a huge role, I would be required to spend a vast majority of my summer at rehearsals three nights a week. When I was cast in the show, I noticed my part was labeled as Sir Luce's Lady Lucy. I wondered, "Oh geez, that means I have a set partner for all the dances and scenes already...." I hate it when they do that. I like to pick someone I'm comfortable with, someone I know I'll get along with so as to eliminate any stress factors. Stress makes a shitty show, I'll just tell you. So I searched the cast list. I found this: Sir Luce - Bryan Hendren Bryan WHO? Who the heck is this kid? I just knew he was one of the little newbie guys. Had to be. It was always my luck. That's another thing I hate. When they pair veteran actors with kiddies. If you're exceptionally good, it's one thing but.... Makes me wanna rage. Anyway, a week later we began rehearsals. I went in feeling confident and excited about seeing all my theatre friends. Being from a tiny town with no performing arts program, I had often made the 15 minute drive up the road to participate at the arts center. There were always opportunities, as the three kid's programs were just summer activities. As I looked around, I noticed some of the people there. Friends. People I hadn't seen in a while. A girl that was labeled as my "rival." People I had never seen before. A guy that I had never seen before, a CUTE guy, sitting in the middle of all my friends.... Peculiar. A couple of weeks into rehearsals, I stood at the piano with the accompanist with a girl I wasn't quite friends with, but I was familiar with from doing shows in the past. The dance coordinator was beginning to teach the first dance, which happened to be heavily male-based. This girl (whose name is Ciara) and I were talking, and I finally said, "So, I noticed you hang out with that guy in the blue shirt a lot. Is he from Carrollton, too? I've never seen him here." She replied, "Oh yeah, that's Bryan Hendren, he plays Sir Luce. We, uhhh, just broke up... Things are awkward right now." Turns out they dated about two months, and she just wasn't feeling it. I confessed, "Man, he's cute." “Yeah he is! I just want us to be friends though. You should totally talk to him. He’s really nice.” Yes. Yes, I think I will. And I did. He WAS nice! He was funny. And man, was he cute... Awesome for me, he turned out to be my dance partner! He was my Sir Luce! But as the weeks passed, I noticed he had taken a liking to this other girl.... my “rival.” Go figure. Now, this “rival,” Samantha, wasn’t labeled my rival without reason. I had been taking voice lessons for nearly three years at this point. My mentor was not only my coach, but a very close friend. She’s an amazing woman who is still to this very day very supportive to me. I learned quickly from her, and took any constructive criticism she had to offer as a blessing. I used everything she threw at me to my advantage, and with it came constant positive reinforcement. This other girl, Samantha, had been taking lessons approximately a year longer than I had, but we were the same age. She’s one of those “Yeah baby, I’m gonna be a star! I’m going to New York one day and I’m gonna be a star!” If you don’t believe me, I will be MORE than happy to direct you to her Facebook page. Samantha’s mother is the same way. She pushes Samantha to be this fake shell of a person, and fills her with this nonsense that she is and always will be the best at everything she does. Filled her full of hot air. Now, Tracey, our vocal coach, would always express to me how frustrated she would get at Samantha, because she would never take Tracey’s advice. She would say, “Oh okay.” and then continue doing things her way. I just wanted to get better. I wanted to do well and make her proud and show off her hard work through my voice. Back to rehearsal... It really effing irked me to death that he liked her cocky, self-righteous attitude... I mean... I don’t know. Still, to this day, when I ask him, his reply is “I have NO idea what I was thinking.” Much to my dismay, they started dating, and I even warned him (because I knew of her reputation) “She WILL cheat on you.” Well, this pissed Bryan off and he stopped talking to me for the rest of the year.... UNTIL, I saw him at an FBLA competition. He just walks up to me and starts talking to me like we’re best friends. I looked at him kinda funny and decided to just go with it. Eventually his face turned red and he says, “I have to tell you, Katie. You were right about Samantha. She cheated on me.” Immediately, I felt awful for him. I knew how much he put into making a girlfriend happy. Ciara and I had become close friends over the summer and during that school year, and she told me about all the wonderful things he did for her. She said he was really nice, and deserved a sweet girl, but couldn’t for the life of her understand why when he knew I liked him that he would pick Samantha. I didn’t either! Man, I just realized how naive and selfish this is making me sound.... Oh well. So we talked and talked throughout the competition, and finally he asked me if I wanted to go to a movie that weekend. My reply? I had to turn him down; I had plans with my boyfriend. Yes, that’s right. When Bryan started dating Samantha, I started dating a guy named Zach. Interesting guy, but way on the immature side. Eventually, after a year and a half of dating, he couldn’t take the separation when I changed schools my senior year. I was devastated. I put everything into that relationship and I felt like it was all for nothing. How stupid. But I told myself, boys come and go, don’t worry. Bryan, having graduated a year before me from the high school transferred to, had a bit more free time than I did, being in college right up the road. Because he was still in the Carrollton area, we started hanging out and doing stuff together. In the way I was there for him, he was there for me. Ciara kept insisting it was deeper, that he liked me. But naaaahhhh, we were just friends! We wouldn’t date, and I knew it. My mom also insisted he liked me. I told her the same thing, but more along the lines of, “EWWW MOM! NO! Bryan and I are friends! JUST friends!!” Bryan, Ciara, and I spent a lot of time together during the summer after my sophomore and junior years, and during this time, I got to know Bryan’s younger brother, Matthew. So when I transferred to Carrollton, and Ciara and Bryan graduated and went of to their respective colleges, I started hanging out with Matthew some. Matthew was the same age as me, and also really into theatre and music. Eventually.... we dated.... Two weeks passed, we broke up. He was immature and annoyed the hell outta me. Bryan started acting funny, and when I asked him what his deal was, he confessed to me that we had kinda liked me, but I dated his brother instead! WHAT?! Are you being serious?! Yes. Yes I am. Blew it. Man, I couldn’t believe it. I called Ciara and we met up for lunch and a movie and to spend the night at her house and she said, “If he doesn’t like you now, he will one day.” Yeah yeah, I’d heard her say that so many times I could call it out before she could get it out of her mouth. I was annoyed. I finally made up my mind, okay, whatever, you know what? I hate boys. All boys. They were all stupid and I didn’t want to be a part of any more of their silly antics. Never. Never EVER again. Bryan called me with, “Hey, wanna go see Ironman 2 and get dinner?” “Sure, meet you in Carrollton.” Click! And we did. And he bought my dinner AND the movie. Huh. That was nice. I’d have to return the favor for him next time. Next time came. He paid for dinner and a movie, again. I finally called him and asked if he wanted to go on a bike ride with me. We did, and man did we have fun. The next time he called, we went and road bikes over at his neighborhood, a gated living community on a lake. It was nice. We went out to where it had flooded earlier in the year and played Indiana Jones in the mud, swung from tree limbs, climbed some rocks and whatnot. Got really dirty and had some fun. Graduation finally rolled around, and I was sitting in my chair out in the football stadium, texting Ciara, who had come to see me and a few others graduate. Graduation was long, grueling, boring. I got up, walked across the stage, got my diploma, sat back down. Waited. Waited. Waited. Faked throwing my cap. Ran towards the stands to see my family so they knew where I’d be when they finally made it out. My dad was... doing the chicken dance? “Daddy, what the heck are you doing?!” I yelled. He pointed and shook his head and pointed and waved and pointed and shook and yelled. “Here!” He yelled. “HERE!!!” When I finally realized he wasn’t talking to me, it was too late. I turned to meet a flash of pastel green, swooping me up into the air, off my feet, around in circles. I laughed and hugged Bryan’s neck. He’d come! He’d come to see his brother graduate and came straight to me! Wow, and right behind him came Ciara, looking lovely in a pretty long, blue dress. My parents tried to snap pictures of us, but we were bouncing all over the place. They all came out blurry! As the crowd slowly dispersed, Ciara left, and Bryan stayed to take pictures with me and my family. Bryan instructed me firmly NOT to leave until he got back from visiting his parents and brother. He did finally come back, and I followed him out to his car. He unlocked and opened the door for me, and when I got in, there was an envelope on the seat. In it was a little card, congratulating me on graduating. Two days later, I had some friends over to my house to swim, and Bryan asked me to be his girlfriend. Of course I said yes. Since we’ve been together, Bryan and I have been on an abundance of adventures. We went to the north Georgia mountains to stay in a cabin with a couple friends and go horseback riding. We’ve been white water rafting, and for his birthday and our one year, I took him parasailing in Florida. He’s been beside me in everything, and he spoils the living daylights out of me! For one of our dates, he took me to a restaurant in Atlanta called Fogo de Chao. It’s a Brazilian steakhouse, I believe. It’s very formal, and the waiters walk around with every kind of meat you can think of impaled on steel spikes. There’s a round card on your table, and it’s red on one side, and green on the other. When you’re hungry, you flip the card over to be served. They swarm your table with filet mignon, chicken, prime rib, ribs, sausage, etc! You just tell them how you want it, and they cut it off and onto your plate! There’s a massive salad bar, and side items they bring to your table. It’s $50 a person, but it’s ALL YOU CAN EAT!! Amazing? Yes. On top of it all, he also bought us dessert and coffee. Mmmm.... White and milk chocolate mousse cake with cappuccino! I took him to my sorority’s formal this past year, for which he bought my dress.... a $450 Betsey Johnson! It’s lovely, and I wish I could wear it more! When I got my puppy, he surprised me and bought me most of the things I would need for him! As we were leaving to shop for the necessities, he simply opened his trunk and said, “Surprise!” When I moved, he spent all day helping me hang my paintings and moving my TV, etc. He put my curtains up, helped me organize everything, etc. This summer when we went parasailing, I returned with TERRIBLE sunburn. He helped me apply medicinal lotion, made sure I took my medicine for it, painted my toenails, did all my laundry, walked my dog.... you name it! He is SO supportive of my sorority life. He comes to as many of our events as he possibly can. My family ADORES him. He comes over to my parents house a lot, and they always ask about him. He even helped my daddy lay concrete for an addition onto our house! He's helpful and selfless. He did “The Twelve Days of Valentines Day” and left me a gift corresponding to the number each day. Let’s see if I can remember. A balloon in my car. Two coupons to get him to cook dinner a night, and one to get him out of work for myself for a day.... Ugh, I can’t remember! There were roses, chocolates, poems, quotes, etc. He puts me on scavenger hunts all the time... The latest one, I returned home from getting a spray tan right before formal, and found him in my closet, where he presented to me a promise ring. It’s a lovely little thing, and I don’t think I’ll ever take it off! The list just goes on, and on, and on.... I love him so much, guys. And so here is to all ye women in the world! GET A MAN LIKE MINE!! Until then, be jealous. Muwahaha. <3 When I get some time to feel like fooling with resizing pictures, I will put some up!

[Seven Xu]

Let me know how you like this, if you don't I can will something else together! I think it's pretty cute. Again, I can work something else together if it is unsatisfactory. Or, try to work with CSS a little more. Iunno. Tell me what you think. test test test This is how words look! Code: Select all [frame=black][center][img]http://i.imgur.com/7uBtQ.jpg[/img][/center] [style=width:612px; padding:25px; border:1px dashed #d73e94; background-color: #000000; margin:auto;][color=#d73e94]Words go in here[/color][/style] [center][img]http://i.imgur.com/maPkq.jpg[/img][/center][/frame] LOVE, CODYFACE

[Avant Garde]

CODYFACE!! I absolutely adore this. Thank you so much for donating your time and skill to creating such a magnificent hunk of GENIUS for me! You have embodied the precise vision I had in mind without my ever even having to give you details! You read my mind! Haha, yes, I will abuse this template like it's nobody's business, and explot your talents all over Miza! So awesome. I'm practically speechless! I hope to weave a fun little thread with you sometime in the near future. Please consider? LOVE, ME