My Favorite Memory with My Dad

When I was a Junior in high school I won tickets on the radio to The Utah Shakespearean Festival.  I knew exactly who I wanted to take.  My dad was the one to teach and share his love for Shakespeare with me.  Between my school and his work schedule, we decided that we would go on a Thursday night.  He picked me up from school and we drove straight to Cedar City (4 hours away)  I was barely 16 and still learning how to drive.  I drove the whole way there.  He taught me how to use the cruise control.  We drove in his little red chevy cavalier that didn't have a CD player  and southern Utah doesn't have very good radio reception, so we made our own music.  We sang songs from our favorite musicals (we had a lot).  It was so much fun.  Once we got to Cedar City we parked and walked around.  We watched the pre-show and then got our tickets for Taming if the Shrew.  We were a little disappointed at first because the performance was not in the theater that was built as a replica of The Globe, but Taming of the Shrew was one of our Shakespeare favorites.  It turned out to be one of the best plays I have ever seen put on.  It was the same setting, same story, same script but the time period was different.  Instead of being in Elizabethan Italy it was 1940'2 Italy.  It was phenomenal. It was a prime example of how very important costumes and scenery impact the overall performance.  I had seen this play done live before at USU when my Dad designed the costumes and the scenery for it.  That time it was historically costumed.  I loved both of them. by the time the play got over it was really early in the morning.  We stopped at a gas station for Mt. Dew and Dr. Pepper and then headed home.  For at least 2 of the 4 hour drive we talked.  We analyzed the play; pros and cons of design choices, rated the acting, toyed with ideas that we would change.  I loved these post-theater discussions.  We had them every time we went to or saw a performance. We talked about Shakespeare and his brilliancy.  When we reached Provo it was about 5 in the morning, Before we left we had decided that it would be better just to sleep for a couple hours in the parking lot of my school instead of going home and coming back. So that's what we did.

Update from me

So I haven't been in the blogging habit frequently (as obvious by my last few posts).  Also by the look of all the previous posts  I have recently experienced the loss of KaraLee.  However that is not the only thing going on in my life.  The purpose of this blog is to show that I am going on even after my loss, so  maybe I should post about something other than that.  So here it goes ...

I live in Logan, two hours away from my family.  I work at a movie theater (yes I do get free movies), and I am currently a full time student.  Not at USU, as my location would leave you to believe, but at Maximum Style Tec School of Cosmetology.  This may come as a shock to some of you especially if you know that I attended the Utah County Academy of Sciences for high school.  Yes, they are vastly different.

I have always wanted to go to beauty school.  Since I was a little girl I have loved doing my own hair and make-up and I have discovered that helping other people look and feel pretty gives me the same high.  When the spit hit the fan in Nov 2010 and I was mentally unable to continue in my University studies  I thought I would take a "nice break"  an go to Cosmo school instead.  HAHAHAHAHAHA.  Nice break.  Although the curriculum is much more hands-on than at USU, It has not been necessarily easier.  All in all it was just what I needed and one of the best decisions I have made in my life.  It has been anything but easy but I am learning that  (contrary to the hokey pokey)  that's what life's all about.

T-shirts

KaraLee LOVED slash was mildly obsessed with Batman.  She was never one for frilly, lacey, girly stuff.  That was me.  For the last maybe 8 years of her life she nurtured an attachment the dark knight.  It started around the time of the release of the movie Batman Begins with her best friend Kareena.  She never read any of the comic books but Dad had a coffee-table book about the creation of Batman that she adopted.  when she started high school her love grew.  If we found any type of Batman paraphernalia we would take a picture of it and send it to her or just give in and buy it for her.  This was when Batman stuff was very rare and not common to find.  One year when we were back to school shopping at a discount store she found a shirt with the old blue and yellow batman logo on it.  She was so excited.  The only problem was that the only size was 4T.  It didn't matter to her.  She bought the shirt intended for a toddler boy, took it home cut the logo out and sewed it to a shirt she already had.  Nobody would have guessed.

Since her death Batman has become a bit of symbol for us in remembering her.  We can't look at anything Batman related and not think of her.  It seems so ironic that in the last few years Batman has increased in popularity.  With the release of the newer Batman films, the gear and toys associated with the movies have become readily available.

Oct 2, 2012 would have been her 20th birthday.  To mark the occasion and to honor her on that day I designed a T-shirt featuring her name in the batman symbol.  I am hoping to distribute these shirts to her friends and family for everyone to wear on that day.  The quote on the back "Anyone can be a hero" is from one of the final scenes of The Dark Knight Rises, the final movie in Christopher Nolan's Batman Trilogy.

My Best Friend KaraLee

KaraLee and I were born 16 months apart. People always thought we were twins especially when we were little. I never saw a twin-like resemblance. I had light curly hair and she had dark straight hair. My eyes were blueish green and hers were the most gorgeous golden brown you'd ever seen. When we grew up she was taller and thinner than me. Sometime I look at pictures and see a resemblance in our facial features; the way we smile, or the shape of our faces.

By the time I was 16 I had moved 14 different times in my life. We moved around a lot because of my Dad's job (surprisingly nothing to do with the military). Lots of people asked if this was hard on us as young kids but generally it was not. Yes, we left lots of friends and attended a number of different schools, but we were used to it. We learned to make new friends fast and easily. We made a lot of good friends all over and when it came time for us to move again we would always do it again.  Most importantly whenever it did come time to move we always knew we had each other.

To say we did everything together would be an understatement. When I think back at any memory of my childhood she is there. We had so many inside jokes. So many unique favorites that were ours. We shared a room for the majority of our lives. We shared toys when we were little and clothes when we were older. When we got to high school I was editor in chief of the yearbook my senior year and she joined as a staff member solely because I begged her to. We discussed everything; our hopes, dreams and fears.

When KaraLee died in 2010 I was devastated. There are other facts and losses associated with the car accident that took her life including the death of my father, but one of the biggest things I face is the loss of my best friend. I miss her so much! She was the only person on earth that understood me almost better than I do myself. How do you cope when that person that you trust and rely on most is suddenly gone. That's the whole trouble with grief I guess. Because her young life was cut short so suddenly I didn't get to say goodbye. However I am certainly blessed because I have no regrets. There was no question between us where we stood with each other. I don't mean to sound like we were angels to each other all the time. We had our sibling fights and arguments like everyone else. But when it comes to the way we felt about each other; we weren't just sisters, we weren't just friends. We were best friends that happened to be sisters. I feel so privileged to have had this special relationship with her, especially now that she is gone.

This is a Tribute to my best friend and sister. I was missing her alot today and I found a picture, a sketchpad, a pencil, a ruler and a giant eraser.