How I went to prom for under $50

Prom!  I'm still waiting for the pictures to come up on facebook (the reason I got facebook- see below) but you can check on www.facebook.com/catholicprom.  I'm the one in the short red dress- and yes, I found a prom dress!  First dress I tried on at Kohl's.  Ironic, huh?  Even more so because of the color.  I was planning on making a red or reddish dress for my graduation next year, since one of my high school's colors is red, and red is the main color of both of my top two colleges, St. Benedict's and Augsburg.  Lo and behold, a modest dress that is short (no hemming required!) and fit, and was on sale for like $30.  I remember praying in the car: Okay, God, I'm going to Catholic prom.  And I need a dress.  Modest would be awesome- then again, you want me to find a modest dress, I'm sure.  And under $50 would be great.  Thanks.  Love, Haili.

It turned out that most of the stores didn't open until 10:00.  I was at the stores at like 9.  So I ended up going to the one store that was open on a whim- Kohl's.  We frequent this store often and I knew they had some formals, but I was really banking on some consignment stores and Goodwill to have a nice dress.  Not Kohls.  But Kohl's had a $78 dress on sale for 60% off, and my mom had an additional 15% off (like I said, we go to Kohl's a lot.  My parents will walk out of there after paying $300 for a whole bunch of stuff and having saved like $900 [yes, we've saved $900 at Kohl's before- see why we like it?  Most of my dress shirts and dresses that aren't handmade are from this store]) So anyway, the dress was around $25.  And I was done shopping and it wasn't even 10 in the morning yet!  Yay!  So I went to the library and waited for lunch...

Prom was really awesome and I had a great time.  If you're curious about the post title, the ticket to Catholic Prom was $20 and that included mass, food, and entertainment.  Dress + Ticket= $45 (approximately)  If you don't count my shoes or accessories, which I already had.  The shoes were about $20 I think and they're fairly new- they're the heels I got to go with my easter dress- the silver ones.  My red dress had a silver buckle and I think they complemented quite nicely.  Still, that was $65 including the shoes- still well under $100 and not too far over $50.  The necklace I wore was a gift, and my hair accessory was also a gift- my little tiara.  There were two girls at prom, one named Sophie whom I dubbed Cinderella, because of her sparkling blue ball gown and jeweled headband and bun (she was brunette- that was the only difference.  She even had silver shoes!  And the best part was- she didn't plan it) and the other name Claire whom I dubbed Belle, because of her GORGEOUS gold ball gown.  It had a lace up back and the bodice was covered in tiny pearls and sparkles.  Her skirt was all tulle and sparkles and it was huge!  I was so jealous.  ;) Not really, but I loved it.  When I walked in, it was the first thing I noticed.  It was a ton of fun and I met two girls who shared my love of fairy tales, told and retold.  Whilst discussing Fairest and The Goose Girl and of course, Ella Enchanted, I told them about Beauty is Blind and not only did they love my title, but started spouting off stuff from the original fairy tale and when one started talking about Cupid and Psyche and I knew exactly what they were talking about... a friendship was born!

On to the explanation of the facebook thing above.  For those of you who know me, you will know that my parents have not let me get a facebook for the longest time.  Well, as of Sunday, I now have a facebook!  My parents are kinda paranoid when it comes to internet.  It's kinda funny- I don't have a curfew or anything, though I try to get home before midnight when I'm out and about (the only times I'm ever out that late anyway are when I'm a. babysitting, or b. at a few-and-far-between party, usually of the cast variety for a play.  And even then, I call my mom or dad first to let them know)  But when it comes to the internet, I made my own email at age 13 (the first really naughty thing I did- since I did it on my own- but once they figured out that I hadn't lied about my age to get it, they relented.  They were trying to set up an email through quest for me, but it wasn't working.  I just sped the process up.)  I made a website a long time ago that no one ever looks at, but if you're interested, it's www.misunderstandingsunderstood.webs.com but it appears webs has taken it down.  I made this blog, too, without their permission.  But I'm really careful online about stalkers and stuff.   That's why you won't see me posting where I live beyond something like my state, and why I use obscure nicknames for names on this blog to protect my identity.  I even have an online last name I use when I don't want to use my real name.  I have my real name on facebook, though.  I had to give my mom my password, but only so she can see what I see.  If I'm friends with someone she's not okay with or finds something she doesn't like, she's going to give me a chance to explain and/or fix it, and if I refuse, she has the right to change it for me.  At least until I turn 18, which isn't that far away.  I'm a good kid, and I don't think she's going to need to take those measures, but they're there just in case.  And I told her no going on and messing with my status or posting in my name like other people's moms sometimes do.  She said she wouldn't do that.  I trust her.

On another happy note, I'm done with classes (you already know this most likely) at college and have to return my books.  Only I was missing a CD set from my very expensive music textbook.  And I have to return them before June 8th.  But I had to find those CDs.  And I found them today and I'm really happy.  They've been missing almost all semester, so ironically, I never got to use them.  But now at least I have them.  So, YAY!

Things I like at this very moment:
M. J. Putney's books Dark Mirror and Dark Passage.  I'm trying to get ahold of the next book, Dark Destiny.  But it won't be released until July.  It's about time traveling mages in 1804 and 1940 England.  Just read it- it's good.

Margaret Peterson Haddix's The Missing books- Found, Sent, Sabotaged, and Torn.  I just finished Torn and really like it.  Again, time travel (wow, theme here I didn't plan)  It's about missing kids from history (Virginia Dare, John Hudson, Richard, Duke of York, and Edward V, and Leiserl Einstein, to name a few) who were kidnapped out of their time by time travelers (don't remember why- adoption?  Famous kids to be adopted?) Anyway, they're trying to fix all of history by putting the kids back.  The main character, Jonah is one of the missing kids from history, and the last book, Revealed, is supposed to tell who he is.  Between Torn and Revealed, there's supposed to be Caught (about Einstein's daughter) and Risked (supposedly set in Russia)  I can't wait this long, people!!!   This is why I hate reading new series.  You have to wait so long in between books.
Okay, I'm excited now.  But I've got to go to school...

Oh, more good news.  Finished typing Elli's novel the other day!  Now she just has to edit- it's longer than she thought.  She thought it was 6,000 words or something, but according to word, it's 7,515.  Yay, Elli!  And shhh- I'm buying her birthday presents, but I'm not telling because she's one of the two followers I have.  Come on guys- if you read this, follow it so I know that you read it!!!

okay, I'm out
-Haili

Long story short...

So, I didn't think I'd be going to prom this year because I just didn't really want to and my family couldn't really afford it.  But when I found a dress that fit (other than the fact that it was too long- but being four foot nine, that much is to be expected) for $18.99 at Goodwill, I decided that I should go.  No sooner had I done this than I realized that NOBODY, and I mean NONE of my friends were going to prom.  I was going to be alone on a boat stuck with people I barely knew and bored out of my mind.  Not to mention that the zipper on my dress went to poop and didn't work anymore.

So then I decided to sell my ticket; but I still wanted my dress fixed because I wanted to wear it.  So I brought it to the lady I babysit for since she's a seamstress.  Long story short, it would have to be hemmed 9 frikin' inches, a corset back and modesty panel put in, another panel in the front because I thought the dress was okay modestly, but she pointed out that because I'm so short EVERYONE looks DOWN at me- so I have to be extra careful.  So we'd have to put something in front, and add some off the shoulder straps for security since it was strapless.  Anyway, it would've cost $100 at least.  I didn't want to spend that much on it and I didn't even like the colors.  It was black with hot pink accents.

I had also recently figured out my "season" to find out what colors look best on me and come to the conclusion that I was a Warm Autumn.  Which basically means I can pull off golds and oranges and browns and greens and blues really well (just not ice blue) but my two big no-no colors?  Hot pink and black.  So that dress was about the worst color possible for me.

So, I decided to spend the $50 I would've spent on a prom ticket on a young women's retreat at my church that was going to happen this weekend.  Only, only four girls signed up.  My parents had also orchestrated it so that they were "kid-free" this weekend (and were probably going to celebrate their anniversary, which was Tuesday)  My brothers were on a Scout Camp and my sister was going to a friend's house and I was going to go on the retreat.  Well, that worked out well... not.

So turns out that there's Catholic Prom this weekend and my friend (who was also planning to go on the retreat) is going and wants me to go with her.  Basically, she's coming to my piano recital Friday night and I'm spending the weekend with her- so my parents ended up kid-free anyway.  So now I've got to find a prom dress before Saturday.  That's going to be my mission today- but none of the stores open til 9- it's 8:30.  *sigh*  Wish me luck!








*I'm gonna need it....

Senior Pictures...what???

Okay... sorry I haven't blogged in a while. It's been slightly crazy.  Finals are over-yay!  And I'm finally going to edit my novel from NaNo- my code expires next month- yipes! Time flies.
A little bit on my life at the moment:

• I went and saw "Beauty and the Beast" (the DISNEY version!) at a high school not far from mine.  It was great- except the girl who played Belle was more of a Megara (from Hercules) and kept belting out heartfelt lines like "Oh but then/as my life has been altered once/it can change again" from Home.  And they put her in a blue, yellow, and orange diagonal striped bodice.  You'd think as the main character, they'd find her a plain blue bodice.  Seriously.  It threw me off every time I saw her.  I give the whole performance a B.  The Beast was awesome, as were Lumiere and Cogsworth.  For some odd reason, I also found myself liking Maurice, though he didn't do anything spectacular- he just stuck out to me- in a good way.  I think.
• Went to open my Grandma's Cabin.

This is where the post title comes in.  On the way home, my mom says, "You know, we have to start thinking about senior pictures."

I was like "What?!? Oh.......wow.  Um..." I had my yearbook with me and asked my mom which senior pictures she liked.  She, of course, picked out all the boring ones- ones taken in studios with plain drab backgrounds in boring clothes that looked good, but were nothing special.  Now here's our problem.  I want my senior picture to be unique, just as quirky and odd as I am.  I want people to look back at my senior picture and remember something specific about me.  One kid had his dirt bike in his senior picture; you may not remember him, but you'll remember he liked dirt bikes by looking at his picture.  Last year, our tuba player Alex had his tuba in the picture with him.  Some people take it with a special place in the background.  Others with their musical instruments or animals, like their horse.

My mom wants me to wear a formal to semi formal outfit- preferably a green blouse that I wore this year for school pictures, with a plain background.

I want something that is more...me.  Those plain pictures can have so little personality in them and are easily forgotten.  I want to have a unique picture- something that reflects my personality.  I'm a dreamer- I suggested an eyes-up pose.  I thought about recreating this pose from my favorite movie:

In different clothes, of course.  Wouldn't want to make it too obvious that I'm basing a picture off of an animated Disney movie.

Still, the more I look at this pose (the first one, not the compilation) the more I like it.  I could wear a bow in my hair as a headband (I used a scrap of purple fabric tied in a bow as a headband one day and you wouldn't believe all the compliments I got!)  If I don't have a scrap I like, I can buy a two inch sample from Joann's (didn't know you could do that- now I do.  It's awesome!)  If not that, I could wear one of the dragonfly hair pieces I made in ninth grade.  I wore the necklace this year in my school pictures.  The hairpiece too, but you couldn't see it.  If I used a daisy instead of a dandelion, it would also mean something- daisies and dragonflies are important symbols in my life.  Dragonflies remind our family of my brother Steven (my only biological one) who died at 2 days old.  The story my parents read to 1 1/2 year old me to explain death to kids had to do with a dragonfly who couldn't go back with the water bugs.  Water bugs being the living people, dragonflies being those in heaven.  They can see us, but can't come back.  Daisy was my nickname as a baby- very little used, at that- as in oopsa-daisy.  Yep- I was always klutzy.

And not only is Beauty and the Beast my favorite fairy tale, but it's one that means a lot to me.  I'm writing a novel based on the fairy tale, so it would also reflect my writing.  She's singing in this pose, so it would represent my love of music.  And since I'm almost acting, it would also show my passion for drama.  This is the kind of picture I want- something with deep meaning... hopefully my mom agrees... :D

Epicosity Beyond Comprehension

Yes, I just made up that word.  But it's the best thing I can do to describe this:
It's Google Docs- for composition!  And it's free.  It's called Noteflight and it's seriously the best thing since sliced bread.  I can write and compose songs on any computer with internet- anywhere.  And it's way easier to use than Finale.

That was a 20 measure snippet of my latest project, a counterpoint duet for Connie and Jennie of "Twice Upon a Time"

I'm not going to win Script Frenzy; I've accepted this happily.  I have made great progress.  I finished my first outline EVER and it was 2.5 pages long.  WOO HOO!!!  Nothing I do is ever that short!  Anyway, I've had a major plot breakthrough.  Instead of the King and Queen sending  their daughter away to keep her safe, the bad guy kidnaps Connie, one of the twins, and accidentally looses her.  Maybe in the style of how Miss Gulch looses Toto in the Wizard of Oz.  Any ideas would be welcomed.  She ends up being raised by the Carver family until the day Jennie ventures out in the village and insanity ensues...

These are bits and pieces from their "I want" songs.  Connie's first, then they're together, (in a Distance Duet) and then Jennie.  I must say, I love Connie's melody.  It's so poignant; she's searching for where she belongs in the world.  I love it.

Anyway, good night.  I have to be at church by 7:45 tomorrow morning so I better get some sleep.  Yipes.

(wrote this post at 11:30 last night- coffee is a great thing :)
-Haili

Oh, Elli had her skating show last night.  She did "Colors of the Wind" and it was great.  I have a love-hate relationship with skating shows: I love them because they're so awesome and I like the costumes and the music; I hate them because I know that I'll never be able to do it.  I was talking to my mom about this last night.
When I told her that she said, "What do you mean, you can't skate?"
"I can't.  I don't think your skates fit me, and they hurt.  Maybe I need arch supports.  And you do not want to see me in one of those little skating outfits."
"If you skated, it would be a little skating outfit- skating is great exercise.  And my skates are formed to my feet.  You need to get them formed to yours.  And the place where we get Elli's skates has this oven thing they put the skates in and warm them up, then you put them on and mold them to your foot."
"How much does that cost?"
"It's free.  And you guys could do open skate at the Y this summer."
"We should do that then."
I've always felt like I never understood part of Elli's life, like my mom doesn't get my writing or music.  So, it would be really neat if I could at least learn to move around on the ice.  I used to hate skating because the skates hurt so bad I couldn't wear them for more than 15 minutes, let alone skate on them for more than that long.  and then we were always on the outdoor rink whenever I skated and it's hard to learn on that.  I also have flat feet like my mom, so I'm sure that doesn't help.  I still need to get inserts for my shoes.  My mom's trying to find an affordable pair.

Okay, gotta get going.

How in Keidreiy do I find these people?

So, I have this odd habit of finding people who could literally be my clones.

EXHIBIT A: Rebecca
I met a girl in my math class last semester named Rebecca.  Her favorite color is purple and she always wears these purple converse shoes.  I love purple, and my parents were going to name me Rebecca Rose.  I found out that her parents were going to name her my full name.  Weird, right?  Oh, and her favorite Disney princess is Belle (same as me) and she's even got a Belle sticker on her phone.  She's just as Disney crazy as I am and quilts, which is something I'd like to try.  She plays the violin and loves classical music.  I can play "Oh Come Little Children" on the violin and wish I could play more, and I love Vivaldi and Clementi.  And Beethoven, though my relationship with his music is more of a love-hate.  He's such a weirdo.  Seriously.  Rebecca also likes writing and if I remember right, she did Camp NaNo at some point.  She's also (legitly) ADD, something I think I have sometimes, so talking to her is so much fun because her brain moves as fast as mine.

EXHIBIT B: Mia (of Aperture Mittens, Hello World, and The Inkblots)
Ah, Mia.  (pronounced like Maya, by the way.  Will never look at Mee-a the same way again!)  Her full name is only a few letters off of mine and its very awesome.  Her initials are MMG and mine are MCG.  Kinda cool, right?  She's the one who introduced me to the insanity that is NaNoWriMo.  Yay!  She loves writing and reading and the Bible and playing violin.  She also loves photography. (see Aperture Mittens- that's her photo blog)  I would get into photography except I'm really bad with cameras.  I don't know why.  Their batteries die on me, SD cards get lost, screens break, pictures get deleted, camera gets lost... Maybe I should just avoid cameras altogether.  Anyway, Mia's awesome.  She also knows the ever-elusive Ellyn Gibbs, whom all of my friends are friends with (seriously, Melissa from elementary school knows her from church, as does Amy from the school I attend, and Mia from my college... it's weird... seriously creepy) Ellyn Gibb's book Torn Heart? Mia is the girl on the cover.  (apparently because she was the only one of Ellyn's friends with short hair- the heroine has short hair)  Cool, huh?

EXHIBIT C: McCaila (the creepiest of them all- I'm serious- she could be my long lost twin)
So about a year ago, Elli got a Make-A-Wish because her heart condition is life-changing. (stuff doesn't have to be terminal, I guess...) Anyway, we went on a Disney cruise, which was awesome.  I was hanging out in the teen area and they were having this get-to-know you game.  So they had us arrange ourselves by birthdays.  I hung out with the Decembers, and began asking, "Hey, what day's your birthday?" just to be friendly.  And the chances of a group having two people with the same birthday is something crazy- like 65%.  I was telling them my birthday, December 10th, and someone said, "Hey, she's got a December 10th birthday, too."  So I go over to say hi to this girl.  Here's our conversation:
ME: So, your birthday's December 10th?  What year?
HER: 1994.
ME: Whoa, me too!  That's crazy.  What's your name?
HER: McCaila.
ME: Me too!
HER: I spell it really weird.  (and here's where I started going bonkers)
ME: So do I!  How do you spell it?
HER: M C C A I L A
ME: M I C H A I L A.  Only like two letters off.  That's weird.
HER: Middle name?
ME: Christine
HER: Susan.
ME: That's my grandma's name!
SOME RANDOM LEADER: Okay, now arrange yourselves by shoe size.
ME and HER look at each other
ME: What size do you wear?
HER: 5 1/2
ME: Me, too!
HER: No way.
ME: Whoa.  This is getting creepy.
HER: What do you like doing?
ME: I play piano, french horn and guitar.
HER: I play piano and bass.
ME: Whoa.
Silence
ME: You like writing, right?
HER: Yep.
ME: Acting?
HER: Yep.  I directed a play and I'm writing one right now.
ME: Okay, that is downright scary.  I'm directing a play now- and I've written plays for years.
We continue to talk about Shakespeare and other random stuff.  She even looked kinda like me- brown hair, brown eyes, on the shorter side but still taller than me.  I sadly, do not have a picture of her- didn't have my camera with at the time.
The creepiest part?  I never saw her again.  I searched her on the internet, but couldn't find her.  I don't remember her last name and all I know is that she's McCaila Susan ???? from Canada who was born December 10th, 1994.

Yeah- I just searched the internet again.  I found a couple of McCailas from Canada.  Now, if I could just find her...

Opening night!!!!!

so the play opened tonight. it went pretty well, but I was really stressed out. I thought I had to pick someone up and I didn't. I forgot my shoes at home so had to go back. I got stuck in rush hour and ended up . my makeup wasn't working right my hair was falling out and I didn't know how to do my wrinkles it was stressful. anyway I'm on my mom's phone and it is not working very well so I'm going to stop now.

 IDEA: actress with multiple personality disorder who makes a person for every character

that's it for now

Story ideas already...

So I woke up this morning- actually dragged myself out of bed at 6:45 am (I usually get up an hour earlier than that, but I was up late babysitting last night and didn't get home til midnight) and somehow managed to have an idea for a story in my head.  Oh, the crazy things my tired brain comes up with.

Anyway, tentatively titled "The Time Traveler's Daughter" and going to be used for next NaNoWriMo (in November, not Camp NaNo) if I can get a plot, it's about a girl growing up in modern times who discovers that she's not from this time period.  Things that tip her off are her height (she's really short, and humans have been getting taller every generation)  her ideals, what she believes in, ect, ect. Not sure, I'll have to do research.  But it turns out that her father was trying to time travel and she was playing with it and accidentally got transported to the year 2012.  The machine may have made her younger- maybe back to a baby, I'm not sure, these are just swirling life smudges (Beauty is Blind reference!!!) in my head.  But it does wipe her memory, and she is adopted (most likely) and raised in modern times, until she starts thinking "I feel like I'm in the wrong time period" which is the thought that triggered this whole idea.  And maybe there's a romance.  And there will be 3rd person flashbacks to her grieving family in their time period and her dad trying to fix his machine to find his daughter.  And maybe her dad comes and finds her.  And there should be a bad guy- but who?  And maybe I'll actually write this in 3rd person for a change.  I'm thinking Mina for her name, but I'm not sure I'm crazy about that.  And I don't know what time period she's from.  Maybe the late 1800's?

What are your thoughts?

Opening night for the play tonight!!!  Wish me luck!  My aunt is coming up from Arizona for my sister's confirmation.

All right.  Adios!