Tuesday, April 28, 2009

My Rodents

Last week I bought three cute little mice. I named mine Rita. The others were my mom’s (Gypsy), and my brother’s (Lucy). They’re all girls. I also had to buy the cage but I think it was worth it because the mice are so sweet. My brother and I put them into plastic balls to exercise. At first, they didn’t exactly know what was going on and they bit us when we tried to hold them. But once they got used to their new home, they stopped biting us and became very lovable.

Night is day for rodents and so they make a lot of noise when they’re exercising in their “exercise wheel." They’re so small that you can hold them in one hand, and they still have room to move around. Sometimes, when they don’t want to be picked up, we pick them up by their tails. And if you’re going to get one, I suggest only holding the front of the tail, not the end.


I also have a hamster named Sadie. Her and Rita look the same, they both are white with light brown spots. I think the mix is very pretty. Both my rodents are always wearing a cheery face. I like to hold Rita and immediately after hold Sadie to feel the difference. Sadie is much bigger because she is a hamster. My brother has a hamster named tawny and she happens to be a tawny brown. Tawny is the biggest rodent in the house. I will never get tired of my rodents.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Schoolhouse Rock LIVE!

A couple weeks ago, I performed in a show made up of all the Schoolhouse Rock songs. I was cast as a swing dancer in the song about gravity. It was a 50's-style song, so we wore letter sweaters and khakis, while the girls wore poodle skirts and button-up blouses.

The first week when I learned the dance, I got nervous. At call backs, they just showed us little kick step moves and that was easy, but when I learned that we had to flip these girls over our shoulders and do big moves like that, I was terrified!

So for a while, I just gave up. I thought eventually the directors might take me out of that number because I was doing so badly, but they didn't. Instead, the director came up to me and told me that I had to have the dance down by next week, and that scared me. So I went home with a friend, who also was a swing dancer, and he taught me all the moves correctly and when to do them in the song. I went home and practiced, and practiced, and practiced until I got the dance down cold. Oh, and I worked out . . . a lot. I needed to be able to lift my partner over my head.

So the next week, when I performed it in front of the directors, they were proud that I had it down. And so was I, because I learned that I can have fun with the dance if I got it down first. I ended up having a great time in that show and now, I miss doing that dance!