too fast to live, too young to die

okay, so in jr. high, there was this girl i was friends with, who i really looked up to. her name was leanna dindal, and she was a jack of all trades, master of ALL. as a 11/12-13 year old, she had cool wavey black hair, she got good grades, was smart and funny, really super creative, really good artist with cool writing. i ofter still wonder what happened with her--where she went, what she did. i remember her getting distant and she started spending lunch with the english teacher instead of with us. she seemed very troubled. so in a whim, i decided to look her up on myspace (as that is where i was), but no soup. so i look her name up on google--an other whim--to see if i spelled her last name right. well i did, and this is what i found...

in 2006, she got a scholarship from the H.U. Lee Foundation.
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Leanna Dindal
Since 2005 (with the studio since 1993) · Desk Staff

Leanna started dancing at Dance Studio 84 when she was five years old. Since then she has taken tap, jazz, ballet, and hip hop, performed in fourteen recitals, and appeared ten times in the Nutcracker Ballet. At the age of seven, she was part of a group dance under Miss Carla's direction that attended national competition and placed first overall in almost every category.

Leanna still continues to dance. Dancing will always have a place in her heart, and this love for dance started at Dance Studio 84.

(studio is located blocks from my house)
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Assistant instructor at gavin espinosa black belt academy
Miss Leanna Dindal
Purple Belt Decided
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2006-2007 ATA CALIFORNIA CHAMPIONSHIPS
WOMEN | Color Belt | 17 - 29 YEARS OLD
third place.



she's been a rather busy person. think i'll go down and meet her someday at the dance studio.

i'm sorry, was that creepy? i got bored...

she pratically kicked me out and forced me to go away for school, but now she won't let me leave. i love my family, but i can't live out here anymore. i'm always getting yelled at, and i'm never doing good enough.

i am finally over generic fall virus no. 1, and with the help of antibiotics i am getting over the simultaneous sinus infection. i popped my ears yesterday, and it was wonderful. no more night sweats as of today. and i slept in till 10, as opposed to waking up at 7:30.
i will be going back down to encinitas to visit my friend jen, who will be back in town from san fran. and then i will come back up here for thanksgiving.
i am sorry i failed to hang out with people more than i did, but first davis was sick, and then i got doubly sick for far too long.

on another note... i went on ebay today and picked up a turn of the century petticoat for $3.00. those things are hard to get, simply because i always think "okay, i just bought a silk wedding bodice for the 1890's for $15. why would i spend $30 on a petticoat from the 1900s?" but i can handle $3.

oh, and i totally want one of these.

At age 77, Richard Ramsey is likely among the oldest people in the U.S. to undergo a sex-change operation.


on another note...i have $600, and i can't bring myself to spend less than $20 on a pettern that i need to go forward with my evil 18th c plan of...stuff...


p.s. i am seriously considering just working on nothing but corsets from every era, just to get it out of the way. seeing as i'll need to make them sooner or later.

p.p.s. i have an interview at a jewelry store in conoga park tomorrow.

sal's shindig was fun.
today davis wanted to go to china town, but i don't feel like driving and paying for parking, and i rather like taking the metrolink. but it's sunday, and i don't think it runs on sunday. so we're going to the mall by IKEA instead. i kinda feel bad for not really being around the house at all. i'm supposed to be watching it and the boys, but davis gets bored senseless, so we go out. the frustrating thing it that he has no concept of spatial relationships. he seems to think that everything is near each other. at least he does in LA county. his plans of what to do require a ridiculous backtracking numbers.
to top it off, my ankle is fucked up. and not in a constant 'maybe i shouldn't walk on that' way. it's more of the random-fall-on-the-floor-and-stop-breathing pain. right in the joint. if it doesn't get better in a few days, i'm going to the doctors, because walking is an important part of my life, y'know? unfortunately davis doesn't seem to understand that walking=severe pain, and maybe i should lay-off it for a day or two, rather than aggravate it more every day.

halloween doesn't feel like halloween down here. and i miss you guys all the more for it. today is my last day at work. unfortunately we didn't make the sales needed to keep too many people on, so i will be officially out of work in about 10 hours. i have no idea when i am going to be getting my last check, but i hope it's soon. davis is now out of work, too. however i will be visiting in a few days, and then again for a week starting the 6th.

once again, no photos of the costume i made. as usual. maybe i'll arrange something soon.

i had decided the one thing i would get with my first pay check is stays to finish a few corsets i have almost done. farthingales LA is closed for now (online anyways), hedgehog handiworks only has 1/2" (i need 1/4"), and alteryears only sells lengths up to 14", and i need several 16.5" and 17". i can only guess it is the gods that i am not supposed to but them right now. in the mean time, i have to convince myself to not but a janet arnold book off amazon. they have them for like $25. AND the have the recent patterns of fashion 4.
maybe i shouldn't spend any unnecessary money. i already bought awesome boots. that was my impulse purchase. *sigh*

"Now why couldn't a nice little 12th C person from Provence wear a lovely little

bliaut up to Ireland and fall into one of their darn bogs and get preserved

for all time....."




so, i got lazy. i was going to replace the frog closures on my houppelande with the period appropriate buttons, but before i even consider that, i need to make the belt. it always amazes me that you can spend months diligently researching one style of dress, and be left in a complete daze as to how it closes or how the bet was worn, and then one day, sit down and open a book and have it right there. the one thing i need to do is work out the head wear bit. the veils were a.) intricately folded, b.) used a wire frame, c.) made use of hair WAY longer than mine, and i've not been able to find something suitable for structure, and d.) were yards of light fabric folded back on it self to produce many layers, and had a small pleated trim. hair nets had wire frames i do not have the time to make. head rolls look too cliche. the two options is hair down with a garland or hair up with foliage in it.meh...lazy.
i'm also going to have to piece the belt together with what little fabric i have left. thank god that was common practice back in the day. though i might end up with some weird pieces on the bias. i hope it doesn't look too funny.


foliage in the hair and wire frame veil



garland and an oddly shaped head roll? (and i love the black white and blue dress with white tippits)


i just like the dress :)

so... i finally got a job. YAY! it's at a halloween store in the del mar highlands. some company called RIP. i start friday 5:30-9:30 pm, saturday 5:30-9:30, and sunday 5:30-8:30. apparently they weren't going to put me on the schedule until next week, but a few people flacked, so i start this week. it'll be nice to have something recent to put on my applications. the last time i actually had work was 2 years ago. we're not going to count fosters freeze or emeralds trinkets because one job hated me, and the other fired me. so...and update would be good.

ps, sorry for any misspellings, i am like 4 feet from the computer screen, and i can't even read this post from here.

new photos up on DA




http://charlottevale.deviantart.com/

so, davis managed to lose the bag with his work clothes in it last night. joy. but i did find my jury papers, and my car is clean. unfortunatly, i still have to go in tomorrow and deal with it. then things flipped bitch again, and now GIA won't let me turn in assignments. said my account was close of something. however i can do everything BUT turn in my assignments. i have them all done. i just have to submit them and take the final, and then i will have my graduate pearls certification. not that it is doing me any good. other than that, i have spent the day recording movies off the DVR to DVD, and not getting my sewing done. *sigh*

and a happier note,
today is one of those days when the veil feels very thin. i love days like today. a joy to be outside.

well, still no job. i get the feeling i'm not too good at interviews. i'm going to apply at the spirit on thursday. unfortunatly, i found out they were hiring about 20 minutes befor they closed, so hopefully there's still room left. davis is working now, which is exciting. though i hope he get's more hours soon. however, i am not going to be looking forward to 8 hours of self-entertainment. it would be better, but i have very limited gas resources, and about the only way i can work it is by going somewhere and pretty much staying there all day.
so i've taken to reading, since party city is accross from barns & noble. i'm almost done with anne bronte's agnes grey. but when i went to finish it before i left for LA, it was GONE. who the fuck else would read that random of a book. i mean, i think it's random. i'd never heard of it before.
on another note, i saw richard dreyfuss at Starbucks today.

and now for the angry news. i did jury duty. i served 2 days. i should be getting a check. but instead i got a failed to appear notice. i can't get ahold of a human when i call, so i have to go in tomorrow and argue my point. i had the papers they give stating that you served, and for how long, but they disappeared. all my jury duty stuff was in my jane austen book, which i was reading while i was there, and then i just left it in the car. and then of course i give people rides and they just throw stuff in the back. so now i am having issues finding it. so i have to go through paper by paper looking for it. *pissed off*

progress coming along on my stays. i have the linerlining done. i am almost done basting in the gores for the lining and outer fabric. now i have to decide on what kind of stays to use, spiral spring, spring steel, or a heavy plastic. i'm going to us 1/4" wide. so do i wait to go to farthingales and save on shipping? or do i buy everything i need (for the 1810 and the 1680 satys) at one time online?

cut the first layer of my regency corset and sewed it all together. i should have don my research before cutting the fabric. i decided to try and find examples of corsets made from that pattern. it is highly recommended by all accounts, with one exception...it runs rather small. so instead of the size 14 that should be fitting, i need to trace and cut a size 16. ANGRY! gussets are a bitch and i just did a ton of them. STILL ANGRY ABOUT THIS. *sigh* it's late, and i am thanking god i can reuse the gussets and straps, and that i somehow ended up with almost twice the fabric i needed. i'll worry about this another day. *sigh*

this has been the most stressful first two weeks of being 21. i hope this is not some implication of what the following year will be like.
on the up-side, davis got a job at party city yesterday. yeah, not the greatest place, but it pays the same as every other job opening does now, and it's 9 hours a day, 7 days a week. i have two interviews on tuesday. one at party city, one at a jewelry store in del mar. they're opening a new store in la jolla, but i don't know when. unortunatly, since i have no retail jewelry experience, i get minimum wage, though it sounds like it will be full time.

for my halloween costume, i just need to figure out a belt pattern, and make a head dress.

next project will be a regency corset followed by a bib-front while voile gown to match. i will also be making a bodiced petticoat.

and now off to joanns for fabric, salvation army and good will looking for a suit, 99 cent store hoping for tights, and other things i do no remember, but they are written on a post-it note, so they should get done.

a general update. i am 21 now. YAY! i didn't really even drink last night. i just bought some stuff.i refuse to spend my $100 my aunt gave me, but i have used up most of the money i got on smokes and hair-dye (i re-dyed my hair). i still have no clue as to how i'm going to get my nails done. the nail and the acrylic are separating, so i need more than just a fill. my mom said she'd get is done for me for my birthday, but i've heard no mention of it since, and i kinda hate to push it because she's been getting freaky lately. but i if i don't get a job down there (SD) by the 7th, i won't have enough money for gas AND food, both of which i need, so now it is time for the mad fucking dash of hell.

( and in other news... )

YAY! dress is done! well, for the most part, that is. i still have to make a belt and finish sewing on the frog closures, but i'll do that in SD because it's tedious and time-consuming. hopefully i'll wind up with photos later today. after that, i think i am going to make the wire-frame headdress (or at least try my hand at it.) if it fails miserably, then attempt at a veil it is.