White Sash Stylin

There was a "Test" for Kung Fu.

I forgot to channel my inner Korra, so I looked pretty weak and free flow 'ish.

But I did advance to the rank of white sash, rather than being a "no" sash so guess I am an officially official part-time student of Kung Fu. lol (Though I have been wondering if the sash "awards" and color denotations is a Western idea. Make sure those American's feel good about themselves, by giving them recognition every few months.)

About to "fight" K during the test.

I really feel like we over award things in America. I can't even tell you how silly I think it is that we give out medals, ribbons, and certificates to celebrate our mediocrity. Honestly my Kung Fu performance was sub par and I wouldn't have given myself any sort of recognition.

But I am now on my way to earning the elusive and coveted black belt :)

5'1 Bulldog and Sanda

I was fighting S. He's kind of an old man.  I mean he can throw punches and definitely has left some good bruises the last few months, but an older guy none the less. He's usually my partner.

We are working on form applications, and Sifu came over came over and told S he needed to keep his punches closer and smaller...(I'm pretty sure Sifu has legit concern I'm going to get injured one day, and I think he sees me as this walking liability.)

Well S, in his defense, told Sifu, "I'm fighting a five foot bulldog here. I'm gonna get hurt."

Yup. That's a new one. When I was in HS everyone called me Princess Chloe. And one time this boy was trying to be enduring and called me a piglet, but bulldog is a new one.

So I maybe turned down the effort 1%. 

After class I always rush over, lose the Nike's for flats, don my sweater with the puffed sleeves, and wrap up my scarf.  I feel like its my ritual for reclaiming the part of my princess self, and maybe to make sure they don't think I'm too butch or anything.

The Sifu called me back over, commenting that I always "dress up" when he still wants to work the form with me.

We went back on the floor and he took a step back. I advanced. He stepped back again. I kept advancing, until he asked me what I was doing. "Oh, I thought we were gonna fight..."

I really just like all the fighting stuff. 

Speaking of fighting. I haven't been back to Sanda for a while. Sifu wants to take his fighters to Italy for the world championships. And I was curious of course. I asked about the rate of injury, and the rate of death was brought up.

I don't think I'll aspire to become a Sanda fighter. (Though I just watched a bunch of youtube girls doing Sanda and now have this renewed idea that I could be legit.)

I told my mom about people dying in Sanda. She said "why don't you stop, and go on a mission instead." pshh. Are you serious? Um no. Kung Fu is awesome. Sanda is awesome.

(I would rather live in a Chinese Kung Fu convent if I had the choice.)

Kung Fu and Dance

You all saw the video of Wushu...

Well I am an assistant in some modern classes...(yeah whatever). Well last week I am standing in the corner thinking about how I could make this Wushu form into a dance when the teacher says..."Hey! What are you doing? Are you making up a combination? Yes, you are! Come teach it to the class."

I denied that I was doing anything. Just dancing.

Well, the whole class learned the first part of the Wushu form. I didn't have enough time to think through all the parts, so I take it in a new direction toward the end. I got someone to film it tonight. LOL.

They don't even know.

 

Can You Do a 540˚ ?

I woke up early on a Saturday to do Kung Fu. Classes started extra early because the Sifu was getting married in the afternoon.  And that's just pretty awesome he still got up early to teach us Kung Fu, on the same day he got married.

I really like, no love, Kung Fu. I finally remember people's names, people actually message me (like their my friends now), and I finished the first form.

Now that I can semi remember the form in its entirety, we now are refining all the details. I have a problem kicking. I have since my first lesson.. If it doesn't look like a half hearted fan kick, it looks like a funny developé battement. And it really shouldn't look like either. The power comes from the glute meds, and POW! Your body should make one straight line while you look over your shoulder.

To emphasize correct placement, and for practical application, the Sifu donned a protective pad for his lower torso. This way I could physically kick him without injuring him. "Are you sure I won't hurt you?" I asked. He said he's okay using the pad as long as Big Phil isn't the one tossing around kicks.  Well IDK how much effect my kicks were having, but I know I kicked him straight in the balls like 10 times....one his wedding day.

But after working uh, Kung, Pow, Chun and more Chi Tui (kicks)-this one is right (No idea how you spell the others and IDK if those are even right...(it's just how my ears hear them) a million times. I told Sean (assistant teacher) I wanted to try something else. He said I probably might be better at jumps then kicks, and boy was he surprised.  Those jumps were nothing compared to 340 with Kori Wakamastu.

I am definatley better at jumps than kicks. Sean even hesitated at the last one saying he couldn't really do it and after his attempt told him "I did this one before I even knew it was Kung Fu." Basically a horizontal tour jeté.

Sean was pretty excited and pulled Sifu over and said that I really need to be trying Wushu again. After my failed attempt in my early few classes I was hesitant, but I got it this time---Kind of haha. My brain must be changing because it felt much more natural and like a dance.

And for your viewing pleasure here is a video of a legit Asian doing the form. Needless to say I am not Asian, or a guy, or very good at kung fu...and I need like a ton of gymnastics training to ever do what the guy does. Oh and I don't scream like the guy in the video. But here it is :)



Anyways after working Wushu for a while I wanted to do some more jumping, and trick stuff and Sifu asked me if I could do a 360˚. And I did my best Baryshnikov tour en l'aire ;) Can You Do a 540˚ ? Yes. Any more degrees than that? NO.

He said before I can really learn how to jump I have to get the physics part right. So I spent I good portion of the morning running in spirals trying to find the perfect "up" and "hang time".

We did lots more stuff and I had some interesting moments take place that in my life have never happened. But it was awesome. The Sifu and Sean always laugh when we start practical applications because it's that moment when "Chloe actually gets to fight someone," and my eyes light up. LOL. It's just fun.

Brain Part:1

This is not about anyone specifically, but everyone specifically.  As Professor Quirrell once said, "I just thought you ought to know."

There is always a lot I want to say.  And I know a blog is not a place to say anything but more trivial meanderings... Sometimes I want to stand up and talk loudly and force people to listen. But people hardly listen because of their brains. (Which here is a fun anatomy fact: back in Egypt'ish times people thought that the heart was the main "think" center and the brain was merely there to keep the ears apart.) The brain trumps the ears by probably 90% (preconceived notions impede the ears from hearing) and hardly anyone uses their heart as a think center anymore.

I am just as much at fault though. I can think of times when my ears didn't hear because of my brain.

But let's start thinking about our brain.

Everyone breathe. I always find it really cool when I actually sit and pay attention to breathing. "I literally think OMG I can't believe I'm alive. I haven't even been paying attention to breathing and this is just  plain awesome that I can breathe involuntarily."

Touch. One time, I can't remember who, said guys like to hug girls because they like to feel...um...girls chest's (yeah I'm not gonna spell out what your thinking...) well that killed the hug for me; guys and girls included. You may or may not have noticed but I often times to try go in for the side hug...sometimes full frontal hugs are unavoidable. But honestly there's only like 2 people (I could think of right now) that I would voluntarily hug.

Core Distal. If you've read any previous posts you know that I work too much in my distal edges. So do I really need to cover this one?

Upper / Lower. I sometimes (never think about it) forget that the spine really is connected to your brain. Which BTW my aunt was upset because a Children's Dorling Kindersly Anatomy book was lying around. And on the cover was a naked woman covered in the nervous system. You couldn't see anything because the pic was about two inches big, and was covered in a drawing of the nervous system....  Makes me think of the mother's of genius 14 year old's, who become doctors by their late teens.  Did their mother's worry because they studied anatomy? In anatomy class you see the the upper and the lower and the nervous system is on the inside, connected to the spine, connected to the brain.

Head-Tail. Is a tricky one. Anyways people don't generally have good head tail connection.  And when you don't have head tail connection,  you can't control your body kinesthetically.  Like this girl in my class. We are working on a dance and she continuously plows into the girl next to her. I see the 1st and 3rd of Newton's laws taking place in about second watching her dance. "An object in motion will remain in motion and for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction."

Here is a random picture of my dog.


To Be Continued.

Halfway

I tried out my new Kung Fu shoes. They are actually really light weight, and very flexible.

I learned how to break someone's arm, if they attack me from the side.

I passed the halfway mark on the set...almost finished...

Some people invited me to lunch, I didn't go :/

I still work in my distal edges...

Sunday's are the worst.

Today sucked.


My new Kung Fu shoes are pretty cool. They're just shoes, but they serve a really cool purpose. They have traction on the bottom, which I tripped me up a few times (pun intended). But I felt like I could defeat the avatar wearing those shoes :)

I haven't mastered the arm break yet, with an actual arm, but the motion I have down. And let me tell you, this arm break (should it ever happen to you) will basically, probably, shatter your olecranon process and all the other stuff in your arm. You better hope you have a palmaris longus in both wrists, cause the surgeon will probably need both to reattach everything. (my uncle is an hand/arm surgeon (yes they have those) and said they use the palmaris for reconstructive parts cause it's not really needed in the wrist.)

Passing the halfway mark was pretty awesome. I like the second half, because there is A LOT of just raw, legit action drive, that is useful in a fight.

I met some new people, they invited me to lunch. I wanted to go, but had prior, supposed "commitments"... And I will be changing my name, to my dad's boss's name in his cell phone. What if I had been kid napped, crashed, died? Oh well, my dad already told me he's not Liam Neeson, and doesn't have any special "skillz". (Taken reference)

Because I am short, and a girl, they say repeatedly that all my power needs to come from my waist (center). That I won't really taken anyone down on the mere strength of my arm. So, yup. Still working on that.

 I have never liked Sunday's or even Saturday's, they are both equally terrible if you don't have anything to do. When I was at school, I would have actually preferred working straight through weekends, like go to classes/work and such. I would rather work for 4 straight weeks, every day and take 10 days off every fifth week. We are throwing out the Georgian calender and bringing in the Chloe Calender when I am Dictator of America.

Today started out ok. Breakfast was phenomenal actually, thanks to my part - Bacon, Potatoes and Mango Lemonade. We had other stuff, but my part made it better :)

My friend left the church because she couldn't go to an extra "men's only" meeting. I say if I HAVE to go another meeting, I will leave the church. And I had to sit with my mom's primary class today for 2 hours while they practiced the children's singing program.

At about 1 hours and 30 min, the four year old class (not mine, I had the fives...) Well they got a bit restless, and started flailing selves this way and that, a few girls started using their dresses as hoods, and one nearly flipped over the banister.  They were all twirling and letting their tongues hang out. It was really painful to sit through as an adult, so for a 4 year old, I can't even imagine.

Dinner was awful. Like I can't even tell you what I ate. I did have a glass of limeade and ice cream. I hate ice cream too. (Shaved Ice person, I never eat ice cream, makes me ill...) Lets just say that dinner started off burned, then going back and forth between take out, to Jett eating every last crumb of our only good cereal.

And my eyes hurt from staring at a computer screen since 6 o'clock. Yup. Today Sucked.

Becoming Korra Part: 2

Kung Fu is especially hard. It's not like dance either. The Sifu wanted me to run my set with Aurora. I asked Aurora if we could start halfway through, since I don't know the end. She actually told me "No, we have to run it through the beginning and make sure every part is perfect." That's where dance is different. Learn the movement then make each part perfect. I took the opening stance.

I videoed myself performing the set last week. It was really bad, but good see it in film. I looked pretty loose, and full of free flow through the whole set. So I tried to engage all my muscles and channel myself into bound flow, which only was partly successful.

Aurora told me not be so hard on myself. "I'm not being hard on myself. Coming here every week is like an audition. And I'm not getting the movement and I'm not recreating it, the way Sifu does. If this were an audition I would be cut."

Speaking of auditions

Afterwards, I was laying in bed, checking my Facebook, when I saw Michelle's face on the screen.
It felt such a long time ago that Michelle and I were chasing the Disney Dream up and down the Pacific Coast. It was really only a month ago that Michelle and I sat in L.A. traffic believing that today would be the day our lives would change.

I made the mistake of bringing the audition calender up on the screen, because it was then I remembered how just how badly I want to become Alice.

But I think the world needs more people like Korra than Alice. We need people being good, grounded and action driven. Just like Korra.

 Like Korra

Laban Movement Analysis and Kung Fu

Dance is B.E.S.T.
Body

Effort

Shape
Time

Lets focus on Effort. Which includes, Space, Weight, Time, and Flow.

Action Drive Korra

Space, Weight, and Time are the Effort Actions... the Action Drive. Haha sounds just like Kung Fu...

Space = Direct/Indirect
Weight = Heavy/Light
Time = Sudden/Sustained
And then Flow = Bound vs. Free

I figured out the reason why Kung Fu is difficult for me is because it's 100% bound flow.
I am a lot of free flow, which means I basically suck at Kung Fu.

Kung Fu is not only Bound, but also Direct, Heavy, and Sudden.

So I guess it's good that I figured all this out, (can't believe it took m a month though...) Now I know that I am working with my polar opposite movement pattern.

Though Korra isn't all bound flow. So it all suits me just perfectly.

Missed Sanda Class :( The reason.

I usually don't eat dinner on Mondays.

I leave for work at 3 o'clock, and teach until 8. Then I go to Sanda until 9:30, which by the time I return home it's too late to eat. And I have burned so many calories that it would be silly to anyways.

I decided to make a conscious effort and ate a decent lunch, knowing I would need the calories to make it through the night and Sanda.

Then something really unfortunate happened. I went to my first class.  The students were working on their tendu's (which for something so easy to perform were absolutely horrifying.) I would fix one kid's foot, and slide over to the next. And that's when it happened. Damn the floor. I let out a little yelp, and pulled a fleck of wood out of the back of my pants.

There was a stab of pain, where my leg attached to my butt. I could feel the small bump of the splinter and thought "Why did this have to happen the first 10 minutes on the job?"

I went through the rest of the night conscious of the small splint of wood lying under the dermis of the leg/butt attachment (insert medical term). And overall it really hadn't been the best of evenings...

I put most of my efforts into working the uneven bars and cartwheels with the kids, and let me tell you that every single one of those kids were really gassy. And it was rather unpleasant to lift and flip them (Please Parents stop feeding your kids dairy, for sake of your child's tumbling teacher.)

The night ended assisting with the special Olympics athletes, all women ranging from 16 to 40ish. One lady/girl/ athlete (I can't tell their ages), has taken this liking to me. Mary Anne likes to stroke my arms, and kiss me on the arms and shoulders, sometimes I will be not paying attention and she'll kiss me on the back. She is always in this constant state of "startle", so I never really know how to respond.

So with Mary Anne's advances, tooting children and that lodged splinter, I settled on taking myself to get yogurt instead of getting beat on in Sanda.

I went home and despite my mom's best efforts with a needle we could not remove the splinter.

It's still in there. But I'm going to Kung Fu tonight no matter what happens.

Hypnosis

Before I become Korra, there are some things that need to change. So I underwent hypnosis, just to see if it made any difference. It did. I'm different now.

To put me under, the hypnotist asked me to get on an "elevator".  I had control of what the elevator looked like and all the details, which she made me picture in my mind. Well, I'm not an elevator person, I always take the stairs cause it's faster... So really the only elevator I regularly ride (and those of you who know me are going to laugh) is the Tower of Terror.

Now no matter how hard I tried to picture Willy Wonka's magic elevator, I could only picture wide seats, faux metal, and handle grips to brace for the unexpected drop. I really didn't want to get on the Tower of Terror, for fear that the hypnosis would be a metaphor of my future life. I didn't want to ride to the top, and have my life drop out from under me. But I got on that elevator and rode to the 13th floor and it never dropped, just descended slowly to the basement of my subconscious.

I don't remember all the parts of what took place, in my brain, but I know it worked because I am different.

I like the new Chloe, much more like Korra. The irony makes me laugh too, I rode the Tower of Terror to find a better, and braver me.

Sanda: First time punched in the face.

You know the arcade game where two guys are fighting each other, and you press buttons for kick, punch, throw to the ground?...

Well that is Sanda.

There were three good looking guys there, and I felt that I was somehow going to take away from their class being a girl and my first time at Sanda.  The Sifu said he wasn't going to "dumb" things down for me, and I should try to keep up as best I could.

He paired us up to do fireman runs. And when it was my turn, boy, was everyone surprised. Even the girl working the desk started snapping pics of me, probably for their facebook page lol. Fireman runs are when you jog while carrying a person on your back/shoulders. Kori Wakamatsu's modern classes  prepared me for that moment, because on more than one occasion did I have to carry someone across  285 and 287 ;) So I dominated at the particular drill.

Then we all suited up, and the Sifu gave me a mouth guard. I have a horrible gag reflex and had to almost cut it in half before I could wear it with out choking.  He put protective gear on me, saying I looked like a chick from Battlestar Galactica...yeah I've never seen that show.

Sanda

Sifu told the other guys they would NOT be "beating" me up (hence the purpsose of the class).  Good thing though, because one drill had me continuously getting thrown to the ground, and I didn't have the landing softly technique down.  So I worked basic drills, just blocking and punching, and take down drills on the guys.

I realized, and it was pointed out, that I work too much with my distal edges (no they didn't say that). But it was taking so much energy to throw and block so far from my center, and after about 15 minutes I was dying.

Honestly I was pretty weak, in terms of punches and overall technique.  And I kept forgetting to block my face and was actually taken aback when one punch landed me square in the nose, thank goodness for gloves though.

I had some moments of success with one move though, The Slam Down. (haha I have no idea what it's called).  And I started to feel bad cause these poor guys were taking it over and over again.  And a few times I lost my balance as well and would fall really hard on top of them (bad visual hehe)

The whole time I was worried about getting injured too, but it was pretty awesome. I'll probably try Sanda again next week.

Spear Training - Kung Fu class #4

I could have gone to the mountain today, I didn't.

I drove to Kung Fu for the noon o'clock class and waited in the lobby with my new friends. The assistant teacher Sean, who knows of my Korra enterprise, excitedly asked me "Did you see the season premiere of Legend of Korra last night?" Um, "No I don't watch TV, I didn't even know it was on." Haha, so much for being super committed lol.

I was excited when we went into class and the Sifu told us each to get a spear. In my head I'm thinking, "Yeeeeaaaaah, this is so sweet. This is like hunger games training too."

Spear training is not fun though.

 Especially if you have short little arms. And after holding the spear for a couple of minutes I decided that they should not have given me something potentially dangerous (ok the tip was dull but still) to twirl around and jab. I should have just gone for one of the sticks.

You have to hold the butt of the spear with your left hand, and you move the spear by isolating your arms from the elbow down.  The Sifu explained, that by limiting the range of movement this helps to eliminate variables in movement and keep things clean and consistent.

I've never been much of a spear person, and am even more so not a spear person after today. I've always fancied more sword-like weapons.

I decided to stay for the Kung Fu Fitness class afterwards. Now Fitness is a special word. When I think/hear of the word "Fitness" I think of the Nelly Furtado song that has the line "just working on my fitness." Fitness to me implies, mom mid thirties, on the elliptical "just working on her fitness," selfie photo with that line post work out.

So to call what I endured for an hour and a half, fitness, is really not touching on what went on.

We started off with sort of a leap frog exercise, except you had to bunny hop over the people. This was terrible and I was soaked through my clothes after one turn down the line.  This was followed by kicks, start one right, one left, two right, two left, all the way up to 15 right, 15 left, then again in descending order. I jammed at the next exercising a moving plank/crab walk. This craziness went on for a good while, and they brought a monster truck tire for us to jump on... they had us compete for times and reps, and losers had to do some awful set of exercises. I kept losing because it was my first day, and I was just a little slow.

If  could do Kung Fu and Fitness every day, I would be so ripped and awesome.

First Gymnastics Class Ever

My best friend growing up was Danielle. She was an absolutely amazing gymnast. At 11 years old she had six pack abs, could do everything, and if I recall correctly, placed 7th all around at nationals.

I always felt the need to upstage her whenever she showed off for the class, on the playground, at sleep overs etc. Since growing up watching Danielle's awesomeness, I have always wanted to take and excel at gymnastics. Now that I have grown up (and can try anything I want) I enrolled for gymnastics.

Let's go back to January.  A teacher from my work asked me to assist her in after school tumbling, in which the classes had become so popular she needed extra spotters.  In the beginning, she sometimes would ask me to demonstrate, "near arm cartwheel, pivot, rebound, roundoff, rebound, straddle forward roll". I would stand there "uhhh, can you repeat that" haha.

They don't ask me too often to demonstrate anymore :) but I can spot kids, demonstrate things singularly and such...So when Giselle's gymnastics academy was desperate for a dance and gymnastics teacher, I thought what the heck.  I didn't know anything about the apparatuses, but have the tumbling part down... And on the first day I banged up my chin trying to demonstrate on the uneven bar, YUP first time on one of those.

I went on Thursday for my first class and this is how it went.

Everything was pretty easy up until the teacher, BJ, asked me to do a round off on my left side. This was something I have never attempted. I can do cartwheels to the left, but never thought to do a round off. I fell over and I actually was really annoyed that body would not let me land on feet correctly.

My least favorite thing was uneven bars. I tried to channel my inner Gabby Douglas, but kept hitting the bars on my bones and the pain was pretty crippling so I'd let off right away.

Favorite: Hands down vault. All we had to do was run, jump off the spring board, and land on the platform in a crouched position. Pretty fun.

Then we did back handspirngs. They felt much better then when I tried them after class on Monday. It's going to definitely be a few months before I can go for it myself though.

When I returned home I felt that overall I am probably not suited for gymnastics. I would much rather do Kung Fu instead. But I know it will make me a better Korra if I can do a plethora of tricks. So I'll stick with it.  It's a free class for me too, so I guess it's worth it.

"Becoming Korra"

This blog used to be called "Becoming Alice."  And I will never stop trying to be Alice.  But lets be real. There are a whole lot of Alice's out there, and not too many Korras'.

What does one do, after so much failure? Begin something new.

It took only an hour at Taipei National University of the Arts to peak my intrest in Kung Fu. I always secrectly wanted to study martial arts. But I wasn't into the whole, overweight lady in her 40's, teaching adult Karate, claiming to be a black belt. I needed something more real than that. Like in Taipei.

After Jackson brought home Kung Fu Panda 2. 

A midnight internet search brought up Atlanta Kung Fu and Sanda. WTH is Sanda? I kept reading it as Samba haha, isn't that ballroom dance? ;) I put in an inquiry and they called me back.

I set a trial class, and actually even found someone to go with me. Thank goodness cause I was going on zero friends here in Acworth, now I have like 1. (Not the point though.) I went, I saw, I signed up at that moment. Realizing that this was it. These people could help me become ALICE.  I could stretch my brain, (remember dance combinations better), and learn tricks (have awesome skills to show).

After the trial class on Tuesday, I got up so early on Saturday, and drove to Kennesaw Mountain, where they have Kung Fu on the Mountain come wind, rain, and snow.  I was late getting there, because apparently everyone one goes to the mountain at 7:30 am on Saturday and there was no where to park. I missed them going up and (sprinted) ((Walked at a medium pace)) up the mountain and waited for them. We reviewed the sequence (I don't know what they call them in Kung Fu) from my trial class and I secretly hoped that I didn't run into anyone I knew.

Apparently sometimes the group is lacking for the mountain class. Well, besides the Sifu, it was this old guy and me.  If I saw anyone I knew, school, work, Heaven forbid someone from church, I'm sure they would question what I was doing with these two guys, my dad's age, at all hours of the morning on the mountain.  But it was legit, professional, people knew the Sifu, cause he's there all the time doing Kung Fu.  I still felt a little silly though.

Later I drove to the facility for the open class, where, it was a new old guy, guy my age, and the Sifu and we went to work, refining every detail of the movement sequence, and learning the basic stances etc.  I wanted to throw some weapons around, cause there were all types of spears and swords on the wall. They are used in Sanda, which is- fighting basically.

The Sifu, wants to make me a fighter and eventually join is carefully molded group of fighters. He wants to teach me Wushu, the Chinese government's own special Kung Fu Style (but it is hard, harder than advance ballet.)

I told the old guy(the old guy is the assistant teacher btw), who was working with me, that I liked Avatar. I said I wanted to train to be as good as Korra, should the opportunity arise for me to audition to play her. He said I didn't need to be as good as Korra, that they had tricks to make it appear so. I still want to be as good as Korra though.

We finished the open class with us basically fighting, throwing punches and kicks. Learning how to take someone down. It was a done really slow. I was paired up with the old guy, and he was really hurting me (i.e. beating me up) haha. I took him down when it was my turn.

Afterwards, he showed me how to put this Chinese wine stuff all over my arms and legs (to help with bruising), and told me not to get pulled over because I smelled like alcohol now.

I went to class again on Tuesday, and added more to the sequence I've been working. More Wushu too, which I suck at. But I've only been 3 times, so I guess it's ok to struggle in the beginning.

I wish Dance... Ballet, and Modern, was more like Kung Fu. They don't turn the air on, so you get really warm, and the Sifu wants it perfect every time. You can't get away with marking something. It's full and real every time.

And making every moment count in that class is how I will become Korra.

Sunday Oralndo. Hard Drive Productions for Harry Potter World Auditons.

When I was in the 6th grade, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was released. I decided to show my enthusiasm by dressing up as Fleur Delacour for the premier party. And was chosen as the best dressed, receiving the first copy of the night.  Naturally, with my poise, and charm, and relatively good dance skills I was destined to become a Beauxbatons student in Harry Potter World Japan.

I bought a brand new, French Blue Leotard, seamed tights, and listened to an actor deliver lessons in how to speak in a french accent. Despite my recent failures my destiny would take hold.  This was better than Alice.

The audition was different. I registered a month in advance. 'A' auditioned in LA, the week prior, so I would knew what to expect. It was a perfect set up.

'A' said they took, what she considered weaker dancers, without much upper body strength, but flirty and fabulous smiles. And that suited me just perfect.

There were 20 of us. They took our picture. We actually filled out forms (no one ever gets to that in Disney lol). Giving our vocal ranges, special abilities, everything.

I felt stupid. I was the only one dressed to the nines. Everyone else had on their contemporary clothes, despite this being a "Ballet Audition".  I decided to use my seemingly obnoxious outfit to my benefit. I looked serious. Not like those other girls.

They went fast through the movement. I focused like my life depended on it (It did depend on it, I couldn't, and wouldn't go home defeated.) I danced, and smiled, as turned, and jumped. My life's training culminated at that point. I was off my music a little, but I didn't stop. I was lovely, and happy, and stood watching the others dance, knowing I would be off to Japan in no time.

A few girls were weak. Especially in their upper body. No one was smiling as much as me either :) One girl though, was AMAZING. Perfect. Hands down she was going with me to Japan.

And guess what?

They didn't take her.

And they didn't take me!

They took those silly weak girls, who I personally thought were just a but awkward.

I was devastated this time. But I couldn't show it. Couldn't let anyone know. That's not Chloe style latley. I played it off, whatever, did I really want to move to Japan? No, it was just for fun.

But I will be back next year.

Friday at Screenland Studios.

 Face Character Auditions Tokyo:

I figured arriving an hour early would put me in maybe the first 20. Nope #94 and Amanda was two numbers behind me.

I was resigned. Calm. I was Alice. I did my research. I knew how Alice felt about the Red Queen. A raven is like a writing desk in so many ways...my favorite tea was warm tea, and it was even my un-Birthday.

I was put into the second audition group.  I stayed a ways off from 'A', trying to gather information from people who looked like Disney veterans. I found one. I met T. He was 20, charming, very youthful looking and had this voice like signing. He had been Peter Pan's best friend on a cruise for a year.

 

This is Peter ;) ahem Tevor. I found a picture of him online.

T was gay, but I was in love right away.

He had a big circle of people surrounding him, as he told us about his life on board the ship. All of us hanging on to every word. He had lived in the magic. We all wanted to know what it felt like.

He now worked at Mater's Junk Yard in California Adventure, and was trying to renter the world as a face character. Despite being way to tall for Disneyland/ Disney Tokyo Peter he had his sights set on the Mad Hatter.

I followed T, a couple other Peter Pan wanna be's, with Amanda by my side into the room. Into our hopeful future.

I wasn't prepared at all for the movement combination. I was well fed this time, not hungry. But my brain was slow. The movement wasn't hard, per say, just confusing so many arms, twirling, every arm was similar, yet just a little different.

The time came, and no one could remember the steps. Not even T, who turned out to be a weak dancer compared to the other princely and Peter hopefuls. I tried to be my best bubbly, and shining Alice. And was cut, along with T, and Amanda. 'A' miraculously made it through to second cut.

And we all departed, adding ourselves to lists of facebook, and instagram friends, laughing how we would see each other again at next years at Tokyo auditions.

Wednesday- The Audtion at Screenland Studios

 Dancers for Tokyo Disney:

I decided to meet 'A' at Screenland this time. I had to have my head in the game ("getcha, getcha, getcha, getcha head in da game" -Troy Bolton ) I had my aunt to drive me up there.

Once again I wasn't in the height parameters, but who cared, they were going to be adoring me at first sight. It didn't matter that I was the shortest person that 100 person crowd.

They told us to prepare for ballet. Perfect. I had this. Not some Urabn/Latin/Bollywood Style...

In groups of 50 they took us in to teach us a ballet waltz. And guess what? Waltzing is my favorite. Who dominated? Me. Who stretchted their short arms longer than anyone else? Me.

And I was cut.

But I made a new friend, Amanda, who came all the way from Canada to find her Disney dream. I said I would see her again on Friday for face character auditions.

Mickey and the Magical Cartographer(Map)

Debbie Reynolds Studio

"Mickey and the Magical Cartographer(Map) Audition"

Well, a week, a crash diet and 10 pounds later I found myself driving through Little Mexio with 'A'.  We were heading to an audition in which I was totally unprepared for. Of course I was playing the intimidation card and puffed up with sublime "I don't really care what happens, but I know I'm gonna make it" attitude. Not to 'A', but Myself haha.

 Well I definitley wasn't in the height parameters, but I was going to be so awesome that they were going to take me regardless of my short stature.

I dragged 'A' to the second row center. You are visible, but not all stand out showy like front row center. And it was in those first few steps that a week of starving yourself just isn't helping you hack it when it comes to moving your heart out.

The choreographer called his movement Urban. I call it Latin - Bollywood with a piroutte.  And then there was a whole section where we just had to show our best stuff, and the whole time I was watching everyone else, I thought "I should not have put movement improvisation skills on my resume", because this urban, latin, bollywood, hip hop, musical theater, pirouette combination + my best skills was well...I'll just tell you.

I'm in a group of hot, sexy black chicks, and I probably looked like that one awkward white chick that can't dance. I must have looked really smooth, jumping around and trying to leap, on 500 calories. Well I was cut. They kept quite a few talented, sassy black girls...and yup still wish I could somehow channel that out of me.

Big Fail. But Big Fun. At least I wasn't as bad as this one awkward old lady in velvet jazz pants.

I ate a whole Cubano Sandwich afterwards. It was the best thing I had ever tasted.

Microbiology.

I need to figure out my back up plan  if I don't make any friends with the princesses at Disney. The other day I was standing in line at airport security and let my brain wander into a tangent of me becoming a microbiologist.  I would of course go to grad school, and make sure I went the thesis route, because I have a stellar topic for a thesis or not sure what the technical term is, but like a study.

I have a problem with taking my shoes off for the TSA. My 3 year old, Old Navy, foam flip-flops cannot hide bombs or metal objects. I normally wear easy to remove shoes, flip flops or flats, sometimes I wear boots but I don't like soiled socks to touch my shoes (soiled from the TSA's floor). I stand on my tip toes or lateral side of my feet while I'm disrobing and through the scanner. But here is my study that relates for Microbiology. I will describe using the scientific method.

Question: Is it safe to remove our shoes at all?

Observation: Everyone is required to remove their shoes for the TSA, excluding children and old people (both groups of suspicious individuals I'd say) All those 13-75 year olds remove their shoes, half with socks half barefoot. Men and older people tend to wear socks, while women typically go barefoot. Now I have hypothesis.

Hypotheses: I hypothesize that due to the thousands of barefoot and socked individuals that pass through the TSA disrobing area and scanner, has led the floor to be contaminated with bacteria. I also suspect that the area is not sanitized often (if not ever). (Hence sleeping in airports and never seeing this take place.)

Test: I will start by swabbing the floors of the disrobing areas as well as the foot markers  in the scanner of 5 major US airports: ATL, LAX, MSP, JFK, SLC, DFW (DFW already offer booties to travelers). I will then monitor the growth of bacteria via petri dish.

Results: There will be rampant bacteria growing in my petri dishes. These dishes I will send back to the lab, where will find bacterial evidence of athletes foot, the plague, ecoli bacteria, ebola, and flesh eating bacteria.

I will then tell the world of my findings and airports will be forced to to scrub the floor hourly with a strong disinfectent and provide clean booties for everyone to wear. Wearing booties through security will be mandatory.

The end. I Hope the TSA dies.

OH! Here is a letter I wrote the TSA a few years ago. Sorry for the language and graphicness of it...and spelling errors. I wasn't in the right state of mind. Just sometimes your get butt gets pat down enough times you hit a breaking point, and write a crazy letter to them. Again apologies. I do wear underwear in public and when I travel.

My First Disney Audition

Standing in line with 900 other people was my first audition. I waited, sizing up those around me...who was gorgeous, who looked like they just rolled out of bed and the girl with the Merida hair? Of course no one could compete with my natural beauty and flawless skin ;)

 There were other phenomenal looking girls, but all suited for some one else...plenty of pretty Belles, Jasmines and Tianas. I knew every other girl in that line was judging her own beauty against the others. And as shallow as it sounds, I decided that I was the most beautiful and youthful girl to play Alice's friend. And then they took us in, 60 at a time, looked us over (for a second) and crushed our dreams (that's a little dramatic though.) I met up later with my friend, 'A', who read for (insert Princess Here)...(she rehashed her performance non stop the next two days trying to figure out what went wrong...she read then was measured a second time and cut).

 Later we stalked Amy the casting director online. Joked about driving to her house dressed as Princess 1 and Princess 2 to prove our worth. We laughed about how she turned down 850+ princesses and princes that day. I reassured 'A' that Mandy Moore could have been in that group of 900, and Amy only glanced at her, seeing she was unfit. While Mandy actually playing Rapunzel in the movie, could have made a great and perfect (to the exact voice) Rapunzel in Disneyland. (Except Mandy Moore is 5'9 and that's way too tall. But you get my point right?)

I have now decided to take on Disney by flying to every audition in the US and UK. Well like 4 of them all fall on August 15 but the others I am THERE!

I wasn't too disappointed to get cut. Even though I would have literally sold my soul to work for Disney and still will. I can't even call what I went to an audition. All I said was "Hi my name is Chloe," and smile like my life depended on it. And for all Amy knew, I could have won an Oscar for playing Alice, with training from Julliard. But the real kicker was when Amy sized us up, I was standing next to the most beautiful, athletic, glamorous African American princess, who I am sure I'll see next time I go to Disneyland playing Tiana. I stood next to that girl thinking of how lately I want to be a sassy black girl. But that's another story :)

Alice twirling at Disneyland.

Me rocking out with the Pirate Band at Disneyland.