Christmas Letters of Yore

I am currently working on my 2009 Christmas letter.  I noticed that I have some old ones still saved on my computer.  So, I thought I'd share some of them.  They are actually quite funny.  I was so optimistic!  Silly, Angela.  Optimism is SO overrated.  Cynicism is the way to go!

Anyhoo...  Here is Christmas Letter 2001:

A Christmas Letter
 from Angela!
Aren’t you excited?

    Hello, my dear friends!  I just wanted to give you a quick update on my life!  I don’t e-mail quite as much as I used to, so a lot of people don’t know what’s going on with me!  So here is your update of my year 2001!
    In February and March, I played the role of Florinda, Cinderella’s step sister in the Jesters Dinner Theater production of Into the Woods.  I had SO MUCH FUN!!  That is such a great show to do!  Very difficult, but a wonderful challenge!  I was exhausted after the two month run and went into theater hiatus.  Haven’t done a thing since, but I’m just getting started on a new theater project.  I’ll explain that later.
    At the end of May, I lost my job of 9 months at The Music Maker.  The store went out of business.  The store closing was a good thing...trust me.  But being out of a job wasn’t.  I’d only started paying on my student loans the previous November.  I had known for a few months that the end of the store was near, so I was able to plan ahead financially.  (The $2/hour raise they gave me to keep me from quitting didn’t hurt.)  I paid ahead on my loans and saved a lot.  So, I was okay until I finally got a new job at the end of August.  (Ah...what a great summer it was.  Got to be lazy!!!)
    I am currently employed at American Bank here in Loveland.  I’m a full time teller.  It’s been so much fun!  I actually like my job!  Now when has that ever happened?! ☺ I work from 7 am to 4 pm Monday through Friday with an occasional Saturday.  (So occasional, that I’ve worked at the bank for 3 months and never worked a Saturday!)  It’s really great!  The people are nice and it’s a good place to work. 
    So...what’s in store for me during 2002?  Well, for starters...here’s my new theater project.  I’m going to be the Technical Director for Loveland High School’s production of The Sound of Music.   My sister Shauna is the Assistant Director/Stage Manager.  I’m pretty much just  being paid to be at the school on Saturdays during work calls, but I’ll be at rehearsals during the week to offer my assistance.  I know that show like the back of my hand. ☺   The show is going to be really good!  I’m excited!!!!
    Other than the show, my year is pretty much open.  My brother Craig will be coming home from his mission (Austria Vienna Mission) at the end of July.  We’re hoping to take a family trip out to Nauvoo and Missouri at the beginning of August.  That’s still in the planning stages, though. 
    Well, I hope that the year has been kind to you, and that you are having a great Christmas Season.   God bless us, everyone! ☺
                                                                                        Your friend,
                                                                                        Angela

Funny...I liked my job at the bank.  Wow, it SO did not end up like that in the end!

I'll share a few more of these over the next couple of days before I post this year's letter!  ENJOY!!

And remember:  The 12 Absurd Days of Christmas starts on December 13th!  DON'T MISS IT!

My Film Debut!

Don't get excited.  I'm not up for any Oscars or Golden Globes...yet.  All in good time.

No, last night I helped out a friend with a film shoot for the Acting for Film class at Up in Lights.  First I made the basement of UIL look like a basement of a house where a sleepover would take place.  This involved combing the room for anything to make it look less like a storage area and more like a house.  It ended up looking pretty good.  We only had to hold up a sheet a couple of times to block certain things.  So, I was the "Art Director."  I kept thinking I was the Set Dresser, but that's a theatre term.  I remembered Art Director in the middle of the night!  Wait, maybe I was the Set Decorator.  Whatever.

So what's it called when you are holding up a light?  Rigger?  Best boy grip?  I have no idea. But I did that, too.  I know I looked funny, because the kids were laughing at me.  I was standing on a chair, holding up the light against a furnace pipe (or whatever that was).  The cord kept coming out of the extension cord, so I had to hold that between my knees to keep it plugged in.  Then the cord was in the shot, so I was holding it with my teeth until I could maneuver enough to get the cord over my shoulder.  Then I held it like that for awhile.  Not sure how long, but it felt like hours.  It was a good work out for my biceps.

During the dancing scene, I pushed play on the iPhone so they had something to dance to.  Does that make me the Music Supervisor?  It wasn't my phone, and I didn't pick the song.  So probably not.

In the end, I got to have a short cameo in the film.  I played the mom.  I came in and discovered what they were doing to the poor nerdy girl and angrily made my "daughter" go upstairs for a whuppin'.

It was a fun night!  I've never done anything like that before, even doing videos and stuff in school.  Theatre is still my one true love, but film is FUN!!  I'd like to do more.  HINT HINT!!!  It seriously was the funnest 6 hours I've spent in a long time!

William Benjamin Linus Hinks

Ode to a cool actor...

Michael Emerson scared the CRAP out of me during his 4 episode arc as William Hinks on The Practice (late 2000, early 2001).  He was a creepy, CREEPY serial killer that stalked Lindsey.  We talked about him for YEARS afterwards.

Fast forward 5 years and this creepy guy turns up on Lost, playing Benjamin Linus.  I looked him up on www.imdb.com and almost peed my pants when I realized that IT WAS THE SAME GUY!!!!

That's when I realized.  Wow!  This guy is a really good actor!  He's amazing on Lost.  Love him!  And he won an Emmy for it!  (And he won an Emmy for William Hinks, too!)

Here's the kicker:  before he played creepy serial killers and tormented leaders on TV, he did theatre.  Specifically, Shakespeare COMEDIES!  HA!  That's awesome!

Some people pick their favorite actors based on look.  I pick my favorite actors based on acting abilities and range.  Michael Emerson is now one of my favorite actors!

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0256237/

The 12 Absurd Days of Christmas

Christmas is a funny thing at my house.  We have tons of decorations, and we rarely decorate the same 2 years in a row.  Somethings we only do once (like put the nativity scene on top of our closed grand piano.  We never allow that anymore, because the poor piano sounded like a caged animal for the entire month!)  Somethings remain the same, and some things move around.  I think our tree has been in every part of the living room.  It's really fun, because Christmas never gets boring!  (Not that it would, but...you know what I mean!)  We love Christmas at our house!  And we are also very strange. Christmas is fun and FUNNY!!!!!

So, to share with you the silliness and joy of Christmas Johnson Style, I will be doing the 12 Absurd Days of Christmas.  I'll start on the 13th and do one a day through Christmas Eve!  I would start today and do them all at once, but I think it will be fun to stretch it out!  (Plus, it will give me time to find the infamous photo of the Baby Jesus' Bodyguard.  See...there's a hint of what's to come!  Are you excited?!  I am!!!)

Look for Angela's 12 Absurd Days of Christmas starting December 13, 2009.  Coming a blog near you!!

There will be no documentary made

...called "A Day in the Life of Angela".  Why not?  Because my life is so boring!!!  Imagine if you will, a documentary filmed today.  You would fall asleep.

• Got up at 6:45
• Ate breakfast
• Got ready
• Went to work
• Worked (mixed with a lot of Facebook) until noon
• Went home for lunch
• Ate lunch
• Helped my dad carry a box down the stairs (and almost dropped it.  Okay...that was funny!)
• Played Sleigh Ride on the piano (badly)
• Went back to work at 1:00
  
• Worked (mixed with a lot of Facebook) until 4:25 pm
• Went to the post office and mailed a stack of mail
• Went to the bank and dropped off a deposit
• Went home
• Played around on the computer for awhile
• Read People Magazine
• Ate dinner
• Went to a short rehearsal
• Came home
• Played around on the computer
  
• Watched Night at the Museum 2
• Worked on my cross stitch
• Enjoyed a nice cup of hot cocoa & a nice bowl of popcorn
• Watched the bonus features on Night at the Museum 2 (NOTE:  the gag reel for that movie is the funniest gag reel EVER!!!!)
• Played around on the computer
• Wrote this incredibly boring blog
• It's now 10:30, and unless something exciting is going down on Facebook in the next few minutes, I will probably be in bed by 11:00 pm.

See?  Boring day!!!  If someone wanted to make a documentary about my day, they should have done it on September 19th.  I had a rehearsal, an audition, a photo shoot, and a pirate party that day!  It was awesome!

I need something to spice up my life.  I'm really, really bored. 

Apples vs. Ashes: The Mystery of the Random Word Change

Don't you hate it when you forget the words to a song you know backwards and forwards?  Seriously, it's one of the most annoying things about singing.  Instrumentalists don't have to remember words as well as notes!  I remember one jury in college, they asked me to sing my French song (I can't remember now what it was) and I totally forgot the words in the middle.  I just sang whatever French sounding words & syllables I could think of until I got back on track.  The professors were looking at me like "What?!"  I could see my voice teacher chuckling a little.  I got through the song and made a hasty retreat.  My friend was in the hall and had heard the whole thing.  "That was interesting," she said.  I just smiled.  I had survived the song, whether the words made sense or not!

I've learned all kinds of tricks over the years to remember certain words and phrases in songs.  Heck, not just songs.  My lines in shows, too.  I recently did my first play in many years (I primarily do musicals), and I had a ton of lines to memorize.  I figured out clues in other actors' lines and clues in my own lines to remember what came next.  And I made it through!  I never dropped a line!

Well, nothing could have prepared me for what happened at my voice lesson last night.  I am singing "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" for the recital this Sunday, and I know that song backwards and forwards.  I've obviously known the poem for even longer.  Well, I was singing away and this is what came out of my mouth:

All bundled in fur from his head to his foot
His clothes were all tarnished with apples and soot.

What?  Apples?  I started laughing.  Where did THAT come from?  It just came out.  Ashes.  ASHES!!!!

I can be a fairly random person, but even this took me by surprise.  Ah, the joy and silliness of singing!

The Apple-Cherry Pie Saga

So, when it comes to pies on Thanksgiving, we always end up with Pumpkin and Mincemeat.  I'm not a huge fan of either, so I generally make a Chocolate Dream pie if I have time.  Well, this year I decided to branch out and make an Apple-Cherry pie.  Now, you must understand...I have never made a REAL pie in my entire life.  So the events that followed were slightly traumatizing.  I had no problems with the filling.  Cut the apples, layer with the cherries and the sugar mixture.  It was the crust that was my undoing!  I used my Grandma Johnson's recipe for "Never Fail Pie Crust."  However, following any of Grandma's recipes for anything is kind of a crapshoot.  She never measured anything.  She just knew what it was supposed to look like.  I'm not kidding.  (I have tried to make her famous chocolate cake a couple of times, and it's just not the same!!!!)  Anyway, I don't think I put enough flour in, because the dough was not cooperating.  I finally managed to tame it and got it into the pie plate.  The rest was pretty easy.  I just layered everything in.  Then I had to put the top crust on.  More trauma.  It was also uncooperative, but I finally got it on the pie.  Here is the pie prior to baking:

In the oven it went!  And boy, did it smell GOOD!!!!  There's just something about apples and cinnamon baking in the oven.  Mmmmmmmm......

When I took it out of the oven, I set it on the stove.  Almost instantly, it started to bleed!  I'm serious!  It leaked cinnamony sweet juice for about 5 minutes!  All over the stove!!!  I finally got it to stop without destroying the pie, but not before it made a big mess.  (But a yummy tasting mess it was!!)  Here is the pie, all finished:

 

You can see the leaking point in that picture!!

The word on the street at Thanksgiving dinner was that the pie was good!  I definitely enjoyed my piece!  I will probably make it again, but I'm going to have to figure out an easier way to do the crust.  HAHA!!  The TV is on in the other room and a commercial just came on for Pilsbury pie crust.  I think it's a sign.

And for those interested, here's the recipe:

Swiss Apple-Cherry Pie
4 large cooking apples
6 tablespoons butter
2 1/2 cups pitted sour red pie cherries, fresh or canned
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg

Make pastry for two-crust pie.  Pare apples, core, and slice.  Melt 2 tablespoons butter and brush on bottom of pastry shell.  Arrange a layer of apples on bottow of shell.  Mix dry ingredients and sprinkle portion over layer of apples.  Arrange layer of red cherries, then sprinkle with some dry ingredients; then layer of apples and dry ingredients; layer of cherries, dry ingredients; and end with layer of apples.  Top with dots of remaining butter,.  After top crust is added to pie, rub crust with cream or evaporated milk and sprinkle with mixture of 1/4 teaspoon sugar and 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon.  Bake at 425 degrees F. oven for 30 to 40 minutes.

Never Fail Pie Crust (from LaReta Johnson)
2 1/2 cups sifted flour
1 cup shortning
1 teaspoon salt
1 whole egg
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon vinegar

Sift flour and salt together.  Cut in shortning until it resembles coarse meal.  Beat egg and combine with vinegar and water.  Add to flour and mix well.

Another AMAZING song!

This song is called "Lion Tamer" and it's from a show called The Magic Show by Stephen Schwartz.  I had never heard the song (or even heard of the show!) before I got Susan Egan's Live CD.  This song is so wonderful!  It now holds a very special place in my heart, because I totally identify with it!  I have the music for it, and I will eventually find somewhere to sing it!  Enjoy!

I'd like to be a lion tamer,
Sequins and tights and silk top hats.
I know I could be a lion tamer,
I've always gotten along with cats.
I'd have a whip but never use it,
I'd simply hold it in my hand.
I'd like to be a lion tamer.
If I could be a lion tamer
I would be someone grand.
I couldn't be a ballerina,
I never could stand on my toes.
I couldn't be a Spanish dancer,
I'd look ridiculous with a rose.
But ev'ryone has a special calling,
Something that only she can do.
I could be such a lion tamer.
If I could be lion tamer
I would be special too.
I could begin with baby leopards,
Move on to tiger cubs and then,
After I learned to handle lions,
Maybe I could work up to men.
I never wanted fancy mansions,
Butlers and footmen liveried.
I never wanted lots of money,
Money can't buy what you really need.
I never prayed for any favors,
But here I am on knobby knee.
Please let me be a lion tamer.
If I could be a lion tamer,
Wouldn't he have to finally notice me?

Music & Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz

Mashed Potatoes: A Tradition Worth Fighting For

A conversation that took place at my house last night:

Mom:  Do you know what you want to bring for Thanksgiving?
Me:  I haven't really thought about it yet.
Mom:  Well, it's this week.
Me:  I know.  It's usually better if you just give me an assignment.
Mom:  We're just telling everyone to bring whatever they want.
Me:  Oh, so we're going to get a lot of the same things then?
Mom:  Maybe.
Me:  Just tell me what everyone else is bringing and I'll pick something else.
Mom:  No one has said what they're bringing yet.
Me:  Well, I'd say mashed potatoes, but I'm hoping Randy will make those because his are amazing.
Mom:  We aren't having mashed potatoes this year.
>>>pause<<<
Me:  WHAT?!
Mom:  We're having a bean soup instead of mashed potatoes.
Me:  WHAT?!?!  Mom, we can't have Thanksgiving without mashed potatoes.  It's a tradition!!!
Mom:  Someone told me today that they can't get their family to break with tradition.
Me:  Mom, traditions are traditions for a reason!  That's why we call them TRADITIONS!!
Mom:  Traditions got the Lamanites in a lot of trouble.
Me:  True, but I doubt it was over mashed potatoes.
Mom:  How do you know?
Me:  I don't think that was it.  Mom, we have to have mashed potatoes.  I am bringing mashed potatoes.  Seriously, if we don't have mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner, then I'm not coming.
Mom:  So you're bringing mashed potatoes.
Me:  Yes.  Mom, without our traditions, our lives would be as shaky as...as a fiddler on the roof!!

And THAT is why you should hang out at my house more.  The floor show is hilarious!  And the mashed potatoes are worth fighting for!

The Roles I was Born to Play list

I've told some people recently a role or two that I was absolutely born to play.  I thought I might put together a list.  This is kind of a dream role list, but not completely.  I have some roles on my actual list of dream roles that would be a huge challenge for me.  The roles on this list, while they would require a lot of effort, would be amazing to play:

Miss Hannigan in Annie:
It's inevitable that I will eventually be cast in this show and in this role.  She's a classic character role and so deliciously evil!

Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun:
A lead that's a mezzo.  A character part that's a lead.  What more can a mezzo soprano, character actress ask for?

Madame de la Grande Bouche in Beauty and the Beast:
Opera in Musical Theatre.  Helloooooooooo!!!!

Mae Peterson in Bye Bye Birdie:
She's just all around hilarious!

Carrie Pipperidge in Carousel:
Have you heard me sing Mister Snow?  I'll sing it for you. Then you'll know.

Mrs. Tottendale in The Drowsy Chaperone
Daffy, goofy, silly...nuff said!

Adelaide in Guys and Dolls:
I love her!  Allow me to sing Adelaide's Lament for you.  It's one of my most favorite songs I've ever done.  And the last time I saw this show, I sat there thinking of all the ways I would play Adelaide different from the girl I was seeing!  A problem would be the dancing, but a creative and patient choreographer could make it work!

The Witch in Into the Woods:
Just an amazing role.  I'd love to do it!

Miss Andrews in Mary Poppins:
Have you heard the song Brimstone and Treacle?  Yeah...I could own that song.  :)

Eulalie McKecknie Shinn in The Music Man:
If you know me and have seen me perform, you are laughing right now.  I am destined for this role.  No question!

Sister Amnesia in Nunsense
Of all the nuns, she's the one I could play the best (I think!)

Winnifred in Once Upon a Mattress:
I've always wondered how Mary Rodgers could create a character based on me when I wasn't even born yet!  The first time I saw this show, I sat there in shock.  Winnifred is me.  I am Winnifred.  I could do this role, be myself on stage, and totally pull it off.  This is my #1 Dream Role!!!!

Mother Abbess in The Sound of Music:
I just want to sing Climb Ev'ry Mountain.  Is that so wrong?

Mrs. Meers in Thoroughly Modern Millie:
I knew I wanted this role from the first (and second) time I saw this show.  Classic character part, SO FUNNY!

Lizzie Curry in 110 in the Shade:
I am very painfully in tune with this character.  I'd like to NOT be.  If you don't know this show, look it up.  Or ask me about it.