Do I look weird?

This commercial makes me laugh EVERY time I see it!!!

I had to at least try to be as awesome as this guy. You should too and then share it with me.

Also, I dyed my hair. K, thanks, bye.

24 is a Bore

I've been 24 for a few weeks and already this year of my life is bumming me out. I just don't think I have anything that will top the excitement of last year.

Let's take a look back at a few of the awesome things I did last year...

* I performed in Cinderella. Not only was I singing and dancing (waltzing!), but I got to do puppetry and dress up like a bunny footman!!! SOOO MUCH FUN!!!

* I wrote a thesis. What, what?!? That's right, I wrote a thesis and it was printed on 100% cotton paper and bound with my name on the spine. It took me forever researching and writing. I even pulled a few all-nighters to make it all wonderful and delightful. So now you can go to California State University, San Bernardino's library and find a book written by me. Oh yeah, it's called 'Influences of Morality in Theatre for Children'. Yeah, pretty awesome.

* I went to the Oregon Shakespeare festival and saw 6 shows. My absolute favorite was Julius Caesar. It was the best! I loved the entire experience. Also, the actors weren't too bad to look at either...


* I did an internship where I Assistant Directed/Stage Managed the Jurupa Stake's production of The Trail of Dreams. If you haven't heard of it, or if you weren't tricked into coming by me it is a totally awesome pioneer musical written by James Arrington, Marvin Payne, and Steven Kapp Perry. Totally legit. We were able to make a recording of it so if you ever want to see it...trust me, it's worth it.

* I GRADUATED!!! What is awesomer than that? I am now Master Merle. Ah yeah. I graduated from CSUSB with a Master of Arts in Theatre Studies: Theatre for Young Audiences. Holy mackerel. Now what? (I dunno.)

* My sister and I did a Survivor 5k Mud Run! It was the funnest thing ever. When I get all of the pictures I'll try to do a post with them. They are pretty humorous. This mud run was dirty, exhausting and SO MUCH FUN!!! When we crossed the finish line, in 1 hour and 9 minutes thank you very much, I was ready to sign up again. We climbed, swam, ran, slid, crawled and more through all of the obstacles and it was so great.


So yeah, those are some pretty big and amazing things that went down and all I've done so far, at the age of 24, is learn how to crochet (I'm pretty good at it too. I hope everyone wants crocheted doo-dads for Christmas). I sound like I went from 23 to 83. Yuck. I need to go skydiving or something. Any suggestions in making this a year of awesomeness?

Tangled

I have not had my hair cut (except for a few trims) for about 3 years. It was time. So I talked to one of my friends at work about cutting it all off and donating it to locks of love. The next day (today) I went over to her house and it all went down. I was/am so excited about my new short hair. I loved my long hair, but I got tired of it and in a couple of years I'll have it back again so no big deal.

In all we cut off and are donating 13 inches. HOLY MACKEREL!!!

Locks of Love,
Merle

Merle meets Templeton

Little Miss Merle Girl
Got in the shower
To wash all her cares away.
She soon saw a spider
Way up in the corner
And said Templeton would be his name.

Little Templeton was daring
And certainly brave
But had little sense in his brains.
He came down to see Merle
Against all her warnings
And soon was hit be some sprays.

Little Miss Merle Girl
Wept for her new friend
Because he was stuck to the wall.
He was now octopalegic
And she couldn't help him
She would be late to work at the mall.

Little Miss Merle Girl
Went to the bathroom
To check on her friend in the shower.
He wasn't there anymore
But crawled up beside her
Presenting her with a flower.

"Little Templeton Sir,
How are you here?
I saw you held wet to that wall."
"Little Miss Merle Girl,
Evaporation dear.
Got me back on eight, no time at all."

(I'm now friends with a spider named Templeton!)

That Squirrel Called Merle

So this past quarter for school I have been super busy and it's mostly because I was in the show Cinderella, which I loved! I had such a good time playing dress up, dancing and making so many friends. Seriously, I love to waltz. It's kind of the best. Why did it ever go out of style? Sad.

Anyways, since I was part of the ensemble I got to run around doing different roles and having fun. All of my characters were different levels of cluelessness, which is always quite amusing. Also, since I had experience during puppetry I got to manipulate the cutest squirrel ever put together at the beginning of the show and work the horse that pulled Cinderella in the carriage to the ball. Since I got such an amazing job I also got to dress up as a Rabbit/Footman. Which is basically all this post is about. I loved being a bunny! The outfit, the dance, the extra arm (so people thought my hand was behind my back instead of in the horse's head, shhh...) I loved it all. Except for my upper lip being worn and torn by the whiskers. That wasn't as fun, but it got better and wasn't as bad towards the end of the run. Anywho...I wish everyone could have seen it, but here is the cutest picture I've taken in a while... (maybe ever?)

Santa Claus is Coming...

As I headed to work the other day I saw Santa Claus walking towards me. Last year when I saw Santa walking in a mall I wanted to body slam him to the ground. This time I got anxious and sick to my stomach and prayed he wouldn't talk to me, smile at me or even look in my direction. Is this a guilty conscious?

I told a friend about this reaction as opposed to the reaction I had last year and we started to analyze it, but never quite finished. What we got from the two scenarios was that when I wanted to hurt Santa he had his back towards me and when I was caught like a reindeer in Rudolf's nose (headlights - sorry I had to) he was coming toward me. I guess I am more apt to attack an unsuspecting old man and throw up when he looks at me. I have a bright future ahead of me.

Fight or flight? Depends...I'll be a warrior until I see that twinkle in the eye.

Screwged

Yay, it's December! I love this month. So many things to do, gifts to buy, family to see, weather to complain about... It's the best!!!

December is also the time (and the only time) I find it good to listen to Christmas music. None of this listening to it in September and October. That's just ridiculous. You still have a few holidays to go through before Christmas. I hate when I am trying to look for Halloween paraphernalia and I have to pass several Christmas aisles to find the aisle of the holiday that is two months prior! Also, if stores could stop playing the darned Christmas music until after we've savagely eaten turkey and pies and cranberries and the likes I would be a much happier shopper.

Anyways, I digressed. I am happy that it is December and I am now in the mood to listen to Christmas music. Yay! Except I don't have my Christmas music. Not so yay... It's all on the computer that I used to purchase the music off iTunes, which is currently broken under my bed and replaced with a smaller, cuter, non-broken version. I just don't understand why iTunes doesn't transfer the songs that I purchased from them. I get that they don't want to transfer the songs I uploaded from cds. Fine, I have to put them on again, but whatever. BUT I PURCHASED THEM FROM THEIR SITE AND ADDED MY ITUNES ACCOUNT TO MY NEW COMPUTER!!! What is going on. I hate them for not letting me listen to the songs I purchased for last Christmas during this December. My only hope is my super smart computer savvy brother can pull them from the depths of my other computer and restore them to listening awesomeness. Even if he can I'll already have wasted 2 weeks of the only month of the year in which it is acceptable to listen to them. Stupid iTunes. Stupid music. Stupid Christmas. Bah Humbug!