My Favorite Elphaba: Alexia Khadime

So, If I didn't tell you yet, when I went to Germany I took a weekend trip to England where I saw the broadway show Wicked! It was amazing! And now that I've seen it live, I have fallen in love with England's Wicked cast. I never saw the show in America, so that may be why I'm biased but you should hear this girl sing who played Elphaba.

Her name is Alexia Khadime and she is brilliant at Elphaba. I can't wait to buy her album that she's working on.
She's got to be one of my favorite singers right now.
Check out her new song and video on her website.

New year, new goals

I haven't posted in a while, not that I didn't want to just because I've been busy working and sleeping and not geting on my computer when I come home from work. But would you blame me? I'm at work for 8-9 hours a day just sitting in front of a computer.

Here's a letter I wrote, to send to missionaires about a month ago, but I never printed it or mailed it to anyone. I'll try to do that sometime this week, but for now it's my new blog post :) Enjoy :)

Dec. 28, 2008

Hey!

I’m sorry I haven’t written you in forever, and considering I write for my living there’s no excuse.
How have you been? What are you up to? I haven’t heard from you in forever!

I’ve been busy, but mostly with work, sleep and trying to cram too much fun into weekends.

I work at NBC NewsChannel 7 in Boise, Idaho I am the morning show producer. That means I write what the anchors read for the 5-7am newscast. I’ve almost been here for a year! I interviewed exactly one year and a week ago. So crazy! If you haven’t heard, yes, I did graduate in journalism—I went to school to learn what I do. Any other questions? Pretty much my life is my job, and then sleep, and food. I feel like a slave sometimes and I want to go back to school – where I was carefree. Maybe I’ll go back in a couple of years. Right now I’m treating my job as my master’s degree. I signed a 3 year contract up here so one year down two to go. I really do like my job, but I miss taking 5 different subjects a semester and learning something totally new every 4 months.

My highlights of my year are few but fun. I tried wakeboarding this summer, I sorta got up. I wanna try that again. I went to Germany this fall. (My cousin and her husband live there. He’s in the military. I figured, free place to stay and a tour guide!) I flew out by myself and met up with my cousins. It was a fabulous adventure. I went to Frankfurt, Germany, a little south west of there and then into France – just on the border. And one weekend there we flew to London, England and saw the Broadway Musical Wicked!. It was so fun! I also rode mountain bikes through the Black Forest, (If you’ve never been “real” mountain biking this is the place to go, it was hard but fun!)

I fly home to Utah to see my family every few weeks – about once every two months. I have cousins up here who live 30 minutes away so I visit them as well. They are super fun! I just spent Christmas with them. They treated me just like one of their kids. It was fantastic!

The day after Christmas my younger –not so little anymore—brothers flew in to visit me! Even though it was supposed to be a quick flight from Utah to Idaho, it took about 6 hours because their plane from Colorado was delayed in the snow. But thankfully they waited for standby and got on the last flight up Friday night.

I showed them the News Studio yesterday, they were impressed. Now my parents are coming up this afternoon—driving in a car to pick them up—and brining me random things I never moved up with – Like my yearbooks and my guitar—I know random –but they are big and heavy.

Well, as the new year is coming I’m looking back at my “year in review” and trying to think of things I didn’t do this year that I want to add to my list of next year.
1. I work the graveyard shift right now and have since I moved here 11pm –9am so that’s number one: get off the graveyard shift.
2. Read more books, I’ve gotten good at renting from the $1 rentals and watching any movie I want, but I really can’t tell you a book that I have read this year –that is sad.
3. I want to learn the guitar. Yes, I own one but I want to actually learn how to play it. I think it’s possible
4. I want to go to NYC! My uncle and aunt live there, he works at the institute building there, I so want to go visit!
5. I want to go up to some sort of mountains once a month. I live in Idaho, I should do more outdoor things now.
6. I want to buy my first car. I really want a jeep kinda thing—any suggestions? Right now I drive my grandparent’s old Cadillac. I love it and it serves me well, but my sister is about to get home from her mission and she needs a car, and I need something else.

I have a lot more goals but I’m not gonna bore you with them now.
Basically, I want to finally feel like I belong here in Idaho—or move on to somewhere that feels like home. Right now I feel like all this is just temporary.

We’ll see where life takes me.
I hope you are doing well on the mission. I need to study preach my gospel more and read more church books.

Have a Happy New Year and I hope all your dreams and goals happen for you this month and year.

Love ya,
Ranae :)