tights and taps

that's right friends, i have purchased tap shoes. why would elaina go about purchasing tap shoes? well friend, i will tell you... i'm going to take tap dancing lessons! if i were any more excited there would be two of me (i just googled that phrase, hoping to remember where it came from... turns out its not any where on the internet. someone must have said it to me at some point and i filed it away under awesome in my brain). any who, i start tap lessons on tuesday evening. i look forward to this greatly. i love, love, love dancing and have missed it so much. it's going to be great to be taking some lessons and not spending tons of money on them this time. a couple stories about tap dancing. first, it's hilarious to me that i'm taking tap lessons b/c of the amount of time i have spent pretending that i already know how. when it comes up i always claim that i know how to tap dance (i've never taken a tap lesson in my life) and will always demonstrate that i know how (with enough jumping and enthusiastic jazz hands people are always convinced. i'm pretty sure it's the jazz hands... and my winning smile). i can remember times when britt would be in the hospital and she would request that i tap dance around the room to cheer her up (mind you, i was probably 19 or 20 years old when this was going on). but i'm always happy to oblige when someone wants a pretend tap recital (much like i'm always happy to oblige when people ask me to rap). the second reason tap lessons are hilarious is as follows: once we saw this kids group performing at the fair... they had rewritten the lyrics to 'dance: ten; looks: three' from chorus line (it's about... uhmm... getting plastic surgery in certain areas to get more jobs... if you know what i mean). Anyway they changed the words in the chorus to Tights and Taps instead of the two other things. So now that song replays in my head all the time except I can't remember most of the changed lyrics so it's a combination of the two which goes like this:

tights and taps
won't get you jobs unless their yours
didn't cost a fortune neither
didn't hurt my sex life either

obviously, i can't go around singing that every time i put on tap shoes. but it still makes me chuckle every time it pops in my head.

tights and taps are definitely one thing i don't have a shortage of in my life.

this is jessica (one of my roommates) and me at the canal in downtown richmond. we like to pretend we're tourists so that's why we're flashing the deuces. not that i have to justify the deuces to you.

while we're on the subject of deuces, one time when we were in high school some guy in a car randomly gave us a peace sign and in high school that's the funniest thing in the entire world. for a very long time we all went around giving people peace signs randomly.

speaking of high school, one time after school we were walking to mcdonalds before a comedy sportz game and some guys in a car threw bavarian creme filled donuts at us. ok so, 1. who randomly has bavarian creme filled donuts in their car? and 2. if you had bavarian creme filled donuts why in the world would you ever throw them out the window?! you eat that ish!

dear chuck e. cheese, WHAT THE CRAP IS YOUR PROBLEM?!? thanks, a REAL ambassador to fun!

but seriously, ann just text messaged this to me. i got really angry at first b/c you know what? jennifer freaking invented the ambassador to fun title and now chuck e. freaking cheese has stolen it! that's ABSURD. get your own made up title, you rat!

i've been having a really good week at work. i think the week away helped clear some cobwebs and now i'm able to enjoy the work a bit. plus i haven't had to deal with a certain person in texas so i'm not nearly as angry as i had been. lets just hope for the sake of my blood pressure that he doesn't come around for a while. i hate feeling like my brain might explode. i realized today, though, that i can be extremely stubborn and hard headed (especially in the work place). i suppose that's one more thing to work on. dear future elaina, try not to be so freaking stubborn.

this is from jamestown. i like this picture b/c i think it looks like i photoshoped myself into it. i think that's awesome. anyway, we recently went to jamestown, yorktown and williamsburg. it was pretty interesting stuff! we also spent a couple days in dc. some of the dc highlights:

-the juggle jogger: so dc is very much a jogging city. people are constantly jogging around. after days of traipsing (definition: to walk or tramp about. definitely not the tramping that's fo sho) i realized it was less painful on the legs to jog than to walk. so i think that's why everybody is always running around there. anyway, at this one point we see this guy run by and as he is running he is juggling! he's the juggle jogger. i'm not totally sure why you would do that and he didn't seem to be doing it as a joke or to like be practicing for his magic show. he appeared to be a business man in his late 40s who happens to juggle as he jogs. i want to go to there.

- joseph controls the universe with his MIND: so we're walking down the steps at the lincoln memorial and joseph says 'i wonder how many times a year someone falls down these steps.' as soon as he finished a kid totally eats it in front of us. joseph was kind and offered assistance (it was the least he could do after pushing her over with his mind) but she said she was fine and promptly whipped out her cell phone (to use the phone a friend life line, i'm certain). the moral of the story is: watch out for joseph.

- cell phones are dangerous: so one of the days while we were hurrying from one incredibly important site to the next i decided to become obsessed with playing on the internet on my phone. this was all fine and dandy while i was sitting on the metro. this was not fine and dandy when i was walking into trees. that's right... smacked my head on a tree branch. and you would think that would have sent the 'elaina put your phone away' message loud and clear but no. about ten minutes later i proceeded to accidentally walk into the men's restroom thinking it was just a hallway. AWKWARD. it was only then that i decided to put down the phone and use my eyes to watch where i was going.

-liam neeson's lessons on black holes: so we went to the air and space museum. sadly we didn't get to spend much time there (i really, really need to go back... i LOUVRE outer space with a passion) but we did get to see this film about outer space. pretty much they put you in these chairs where you are leaning way far back (i swear i only fell asleep for like15 seconds) and the entire ceiling is this crazy screen and then liam neeson tells you all about black holes. i learned the phrase 'event horizon.' i also learned that bill doesn't believe that space time is bent (i totally do and would fight someone to the death even though i don't know what i'm talking about... it's just one of those things for me). i also learned that black holes will suck you in like a person in a canoe headed toward a water fall.

in other news, reason number 372 i love richmond: daffodils grow wild here. at first i thought maybe just a lot of people planted them but then i realized they were EVERY WHERE. that's amazing! my favorite flower just grows all over the place! i'm such a lucky girl.

i recently revamped my list of 10 things to do before 2010 is over. here is the updated list:
1. keep a journal
2. take dance lessons
3. go to a concert
4. take an improv class
5. take a pottery class
6. read 10 books
7. see a play
8. learn to juggle
9. take more photos
10. go hiking

of these items, so far, i have completed number 7 - see a play. wicked is in town currently and about a week ago we saw it. i was extremely hesitant about seeing it b/c i read the book and was turned off by it and frankly scared to see the play. but nate is persuasive without really even trying and he presented the opportunity to win the wicked raffle. so what happens is for every show they save 10 pairs of orchestra tickets to be raffled off two hours before the show for $25 each. brianna, nate and i decided we would try our luck for the saturday evening show. long story short, nate won two tickets and then brianna won one so we were all able to see the play! YAY! it was cool to be so close and i really enoyed it. the sets, costumes, make up, lighting were all incredible. not to mention the acting and singing. i enjoyed the music a great deal. and felt like i related to glinda a little too much (maybe i need to do some soul searching about that). Overall it was a good, entertaining show. Definitely worth the $25. ;)

from this experience we realized that brianna, nate and i are a scale of optimism. you see brianna thought there was no way we were going to get tickets, i thought that only two of us would get to see it and nate was 100% confident that we would all get to see it and never even considered that we might not get in. i think this is the perfect illustration of the type of people we are. and this is why they bring me joy in my heart.