Well, I'm technically a day late with this, but I'm gonna do it anyway.

New Year's Eve came and went. I didn't get my kiss, and I was feeling really crappy the whole night. So much for a great start to the new year. But as the first day of 2009 continued, I realized that it's actually not that bad. I got a call explaining that a phone had died, but that plans were still on for today. Score! Very laid back time just playing Guitar Hero and Katamari. Yay for me. :]

So now I guess I'll just go ahead and do my good and bad of 2008, and my resolutions.

The Good:
- I did a kickass job as Head Sound Tech again this semester for Dearly Departed.
- I got accepted to 2 of my top 3 colleges already.
- Alabama had an undefeated regular season. :D
- Spent 3 weeks with my awesome uncles up in Philly over the summer. Kinda learned what it's really like to live on your own.
- Found a job that I really like.
- Learned to surf. :]
- Entered (and showed!) in my first film festival!
- I got to see the Tortuga Twins 6 times!
- Got to go to 2 different Medieval Times!
- Got a free drink from a lesbian bartender. (haha, you just had to be there.)
- Got my belly button pierced.
- Drove a car probably worth more than our house.

The Bad:

- My first summer of no Camp Chatuga. :[
- Having to accept the fact that I probably won't get to go to Western for at least a year.
- Getting stood up for prom.
- Having to put up with irritating kids every day (a.k.a my art class)
- Having my car break down... twice.

2009 Resolutions:
- Stop biting my nails before college.
- Stop saying "I'm sorry" as much.
- Not worrying about what people think.
- Get A's/B's all year.

Happy 2009 everyone.

Ugh, I'm so bad at keeping up a blog. 1st New Year's resolution... post at least once a week.

Onto what's gone on in the past month.

Well, I've kept my job. :] It was absolutely CRAZY on Christmas Day. Let me tell you... Super Bowl Sunday at Zaxby's was cake compared to that nightmare. It was made better by time and a half pay though. Woohoo! I'd worked every day til yesterday after Christmas and every day was just as bad. At least my next paycheck will be really nice!

School has been out, and it's been wonderful. I think this is the first time that I'm thinking, 'Ahh, it's so nice to have this long of a break.' because I've been busy almost every day since we've gotten out. No exams before break, except for my drama one. All the others should be easy. No worries, there. Looking forward to my new classes, but still can't help but be nervous about drama.

So far, Mrs. Jones has given out over 100 audition packets, about 60 of them to girls, making a lot of competition to get in. The character I'm audtioning for, Dorcas (yes, her name is really Dorcas), is one of the 6 other brides. I love her character (she's the biggest horndog out of all of them. one of her lines literally has the words 'sexily' before it. ha!), and she doesn't have to sing a solo. However, I'm a realist and realize I'm more than likely not going to get it. I have a decent voice, but nothing compared to a lot of the other girls trying out. I can almost guarentee Mrs. Jones will ask me to be head sound again, which I have no problem with. I love sound, but I'm not gonna lie... I really want to be on stage for my final high school show. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Not really sure of what I'm doing for New Years Eve. My mom was talking about having a small party with one of her friends from our neighborhood, and I might actually get my first New Years kiss. Hehe. ^_^ I'll have to report further on that afterwards.

Til then, drink lots of sparkling grape juice. That's what I'm planning on doing. :]

Wow. You know, it's funny how when people tell you that things fly by, you don't believe them til you take their place. Like me, for instance. Most of my friends are at least a year or two older than me, and I was constantly hearing them say, "Don't rush. Enjoy it while you can." Now I know what they mean. As I'm sitting here typing, I realize that come Monday, I'll have 3 weeks left of school before holiday break. After than, just a couple more weeks, and then the end of my first semester of high school will be over. It's just hard to believe how quickly it actually has gone.

Anyway, here's some more updates. :]

I FINALLY found a job. And believe it or not, I actually enjoy it! I'm working at Spartan 16, a local movie theater. So far, I've been trained in concessions and ushering, and believe me... ushering is the better of the two. I did it last night, and it's really a lot of fun. You just have to quickly clean up each theater after it's through, then move on to the next one. The only downside... you sometimes find some... undesireable things. Other than that, it's not bad at all. Concessions isn't bad either, it just has a lot more cleaning involved and you have to stay later, which is why I don't like it as much. One cool perk about my job is that I get unlimited free movies, which rocks, cause I see a LOT of movies. Definitely used it to see Twilight. Ha!

Dearly Departed, the play my drama dept. did, went FANTASTIC! Every crowd that came in was rolling in the aisles. I cried like a baby after our final show on Sunday. It was just really depressing to finally realize that it would be my very last high school straight play. But I couldn't have been happier with it. I'm excited about our banquet and auditions for Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, our musical for next semester. Is it so wrong of me to get my hopes up about being a bride? Even if I don't, I'm really hoping to at least be in support cast. I really do love musicals.

Carolina Ren Faire finally had to depart. It made me sad to see it go. But I'm thrilled I got to go to it so many times this year. The last time I went was with my dad and Gerri, which was a real treat cause I know that they really didn't want to go. But it was great to get to share one of my passions with them. It was also really special cause I got picked for one of the shows.. the Ded Bob Sho. That was wicked fun, and I was grinning like a dork the whole day afterwards.

I've officially gotten into my top 2 college choices! My number one is Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC, and my number 2 is USC Upstate, which is right around here. I really really really want to go to Western. I went and visited the campus a couple weeks ago and fell in love with it. It's nestled right in a little valley between the gorgeous mountains, the facilities are beautiful, and I just loved everything about it. So now I'm scholarship searching, determined to get there one way or another.

Other than that, my Crimson Tide boys have really made me proud this season. We've been number 1 in the nation for I can't remember how many weeks now, and for the first time in 6 years, we not only beat, we SHUT OUT the Auburn Tigers, 36-0!! I just about peed on myself. ROLL TIDE!

Not too much other than that right now. Til then, just keep from clawing your ears off after hearing Christmas music since Halloween. :]

- Chelsea.

Do I even want to go back and see how long it's been since I've posted anything... negative.

Damn. I had to.

Let's see. SO much has gone on since August, I could be typing for days. But I'll try to come up with a condensed version. The film festival was a complete smash. I ended up being one of only 3 people that actually stuck it out the whole way, plus I was the only girl. HA! I got rave reviews from some people in high places. Go me. :]

My final year of high school has started up. Yep, I'm a senior now. I've got a really easy senior year class-wise. Film lit, art 1, drama, and gov./econ. It's been going pretty smoothly. I love all my teachers, and my fellow students... ahh, not so much. My art class is the reason I hate most underclassmen. Our football team is actually doing great this year, a 6-1 record. We've got 3 of the hardest teams in our area for our last 3 games, and who knows? We actually have a chance of winning this year.
As for the play, it's coming along great. Both our casts and crews are doing a great job and I can't wait to finally debut it later in November. I'm back at my sound board this year (heck yes!), so I get the privilage to watch the show every night. I suggest everyone who knows me, come.

Still no luck in the job department. I thought I had a position at Hot Topic, but nope! I haven't gotten a single returned phone call. One day this weekend I think I'm gonna head back to the mall and check up on 'em.

Nightmare on 9 has really been my main focus since about mid-September. It was really my baby this year, because I was put in charge of coming up with the story and the theme. LOTS OF STRESS. Tomorrow night will be our second weekend open, and hopefully it'll be a lot better than last weekend (Friday was Homecoming, this Friday, they're expecting 1,500 people to go to our home game). It's been hard to tell how we're doing though, because our groups have been so varied. Mostly it's been people coming to critisize it who'd been there previous years, or young couples coming to critisize just to be cute. UGH! Yes, I know that we're not very big or very good! We give all our money to charity and everyone volunteers! We're not HHN, okay?!

Another HUGE thing is that the CAROLINA RENAISSANCE FAIRE is back!! It had been wayyyyy too long since the last time I got to see the whole reason I go... The Tortuga Twins! They're pretty much the main celeberties of the ren fest world, and I've been a fan ever since this time last year. So far, I've gotten to see them once at the Georgia Renaissance Faire, and twice at Carolina. I'm hoping to get back there this weekend, and possibly next weekend as well. I just wish that I could get back there every weekend, but with me not having a job right now, my mom doesn't want to keep giving me $20 and gas money. If you get the chance, try to head up there and see them.

That's about all I can think up as of now. We've got another pep rally tomorrow, and I get to go play guide at NO9. Keeping my fingers crossed to get to go to CRF with Cee on Saturday or Sunday!

Peace!

Today made me realize something... I HATE PETSMART. At least the one near us.
One of the first things I planned on doing today was getting down to Petsmart to get the two white mice I would use in my film. I looked it up and saw that they're only about $2 normally. That's fine.

So I drive down there and head over to the small animal section... no mice. They had 2 rats, but no mice. The first thing that bugged me was the lack of employees. I stood at the small animal section for a good 20 minutes before finally asking one of the front clerks if she could send someone to help me. A girl finally comes along and I ask her about the mice. Her reply, "Oh yeah, we've got those. Just not out here." I asked her how much they were... her reply, "The mice? $9 each." My jaw nearly dropped to the floor. They were charging $9 for a little white mouse that most people buy to feed their snakes?! No way. It seemed idiotic to spend $18 on two animals I'd have to let go of anyway.

2nd thing that really pissed me off. After considering it, I thought it'd be a better idea just to get one of the rats. I've wanted a rat for many years now, but my mom despises them. But, I thought "Hey, she'll think I'm being economical. And she did let me have my hamster a few years back..." So after taking another 20 minutes trying to find an employee, I was hit with another jaw dropper. "Are you 18?" Come on. I'm not trying to buy cigarrettes or porn. It's a RAT. Yeah. So unless I had a parent with me to do the paper work... no rat. UGH!

I was fuming after that. Afterwards, we went to the little petstore down the road from us. I'd never been there before, but it was quite nice. The owner was SO sweet, a cute little old woman. She was very helpful and when I asked about the mice, she showed me a cage of smaller white rats instead. They seemed to be a lot easier to handle (the mice were just so teeny!) and would be a lot better on camera. The rats were only $5, and I figured that that was a lot better than $15 at Petsmart, and I told the lady I'd like one. I'd told her beforehand how much I loved them, but couldn't really keep one because of my mom. She smiled, grabbed a rat from the cage and put him in a carrier, telling me, "Here. He's my gift to you. Tell your mother that I thought he was too cute to feed to the snake.

And if she won't let you keep him, you can bring him back." HECK YES! Not only did I get my rat, he was FREE and I could bring him back, which I knew I'd have to do.

When I was through there, Heather and I spent the next few hours in the woods by the lake filming. My little rat (that I named Scabbers) actually bonded quite quickly with me. He happily sat on my arm and my shoulder. My mom, on the otherhand, nearly kicked me out of the house. Damn. No rat for me yet.

As of now, I've just gotten all the base editing done. Tomorrow, I have to finish up shooting a few scenes that need to be redone, finalize the editing, and burn it to a DVD. Almost done!

Oh yeah. Because of time limits, I ended up changing bits of my story to shave off some time. Also, the title is now "meecy mice.", after my favorite nursery rhyme as a kid.

Goodness. I need to get to bed. Another long day tomorrow.

So this is what stress truely feels like? Huh. Interesting.

This week wasn't much but anxiously waiting for today. Today was the day we got our 2 requirements for the 3DayFilm Festival. The object we have to at least have shown in the film is... a roll of toilet paper. Not too hard. But the line of dialogue we have to include... "There aren't any mice in outer space." Talk about an easy way to get writers block.

After about 4 hours of hard thinking, I came up with my screenplay that will be filmed tomorrow. I don't want to give much away, but it's gonna be a spoof movie, like "Scary Movie", except with mostly fairytales. It's called "The Mouse, the Warlock, and the Cupboard." So far, it'll include references to "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe", "Harry Potter", "Alice in Wonderland", "Cinderella", and will poke fun at today's culture. It will also feature my little sister kissing a live mouse, but that's all I'll give away. You'll have to wait and see after Sunday.

I'll more than likely be spending all of tonight writing up the script for it, and will be spending all of tomorrow filming.

Oh the joys of filmmaking. :]

Okay, scratch that. I am very much a procrastinator. I've been like this all my life. Always wanted to keep a daily journal, but could never really make myself write in it every day like I wanted. Eventually, I would just stop all together.

But not tonight. I need to do something to make me sleepy.

A lot has gone on since my last blog. I spent 3 wicked weeks in Philadelphia helping my uncles out with their bed and breakfast. I spent those 3 weeks making beds, scrubbing toilets, cooking, washing dishes, helping clear out an apartment... lots of stuff. But I also got a taste of what it's kinda like to be independent. On days that I had the afternoon/night off, I ventured into the big city. And honestly, I was scared my first time trying to catch the trolley in, a rare thing for me when it comes to something as simple as that. I had money, which was another strange thing, but honestly, I'm one of the most frugal people on earth and I tried to limit my money spent while roaming around the city. A few days, I just walked around Center City, trying to learn how to read the map, visiting little stores, and eating at Hard Rock. One day, I went in and went to a section I'd only been to once, earlier that week.. the "gayborhood" of Philly. Spent about 2 hours Giovanni's Room, the biggest bookstore there, just relaxing and chatting with some of the nicest people you'd meet. A few other days, I went into the bit closer University City, where 2 of my favorite places, The Bridge (a very high end movie theater) and University Pinball (a decent sized, nicely run arcade.), were located. Also, every night I could, I'd bring Oscar, their mini poodle, to the beautiful dog park about a block away from the b&b. It was so nice being up there, just getting to see them again, and having something to fill my days with rather than just vegging out down here. I'm very glad that I went.

As for now, I'm prepping for my senior year of high school and my first little break into the film industry. I'm an entrant in the 3dayfilm festival, a decent sized film contest for students in the 7th-12th grades. You're given 3 days to write, shoot, and edit a less than 5 minute movie with a certain line of dialogue and object. I'm very excited for it. I also was interviewed to be in an article about the festival, which will be a thrill in itself and will look great on my resume.

I just finished Breaking Dawn about 15 minutes ago. Yes, I read 754 pages in less than 3 days. I'm very happy with it, and am okay with letting it go, like I was with Harry Potter. But right now, I can feel my reading buzz start to burn off and exhaustion beginning to take over. So as for right now, I believe I'll say goodnight.

"Don't be afraid," I murmured. "We belong together."

"Forever," he agreed.

- Breaking Dawn.