Thursday, March 25, 2010

So Stressed Out That It's Soothing

Remember how I was talking about the drama I was working on?

Well, after much searching, I could not find a song that fit the idea I was going for so I decided to write a song for it. Knowing I couldn't do it alone, I asked Kenny if he would help. So I started to write the lyrics, then set it down for a while. Two days ago, I started to get super stressed about this whole Amp'd thing because it was a little over two weeks away, and the song still wasn't done, let alone choreographed. So I did what I should've done from the beginning...

I prayed.

Not ten minutes later, ideas for choreography were flooding my brain so I quickly jotted them down on paper. Then I read it over, and made some changes. Then I flipped over to where I had started writing the lyrics, and words just started pouring out of my hand that was controlling the pen. Soon enough, the lyrics were finished.

Later, I gave it all to Kenny and he worked on the music portion of it. I went over to his house yesterday to hear it, and honestly, this whole thing has been a work of God.

God just brought the whole thing together so nicely, and yes there are still a few small kinks to work out, but God was really teaching me not to get so worked up over everything.

I guess I'll leave you with a little bit of shameless advertising:
Friday April 9th at 6pm, the doors open for our night of worship at Feather Sound called Amp'd. There will be music, and of course, the drama. I think it will be an awesome night and would absolutely love it if you were there. Start spreading the news (or if your pet isn't housebroken, start spreading the newspaper).

peace, love, and rockets.
kaeli

Friday, March 12, 2010

The List

What do you want to do before you die?

1. Form a band and make it big
2. Sing onstage with Paramore
3. Visit all 50 States
4. Hike the Appalachian Trail
5. Learn to surf
6. Swim with dolphins
7. Read the entire Bible in under a year
8. Get straight A's
9. Meet the Queen of England
10. Get a poem published
11. Pay for someone's groceries
12. Adopt a child
13. Play onstage at Cornerstone
14. Learn how to fix cars
15. Be fluent in another language
16. Lead someone to Christ
17. Build a house
18. See all my friends from Holsby together again
19. Be a vegetarian for at least a year
20. Participate in a protest
21. Eat sushi with Andy Samberg
22. Get a story published on MLIA
23. Attend Comic-Con
24. Smash a guitar onstage
25. Go on a date with Zachary Levi
26. Go as long as I can without sleep
27. Work on the A-Team at Holsby for a summer
28. Compete in a swing dancing competition
29. Break out into a choreographed dance routine in a public place
30. Sing the national anthem at a Lightning Game
31. Fall in love
32. Ride a horse again
33. Go cliff jumping
34. Write a song with Matt Thiessen
35. Act on an SNL Digital Short with The Lonely Island Dudes
36. Make a huge donation to charity
37. Get something named after me
38. Street perform and make $100
39. Do a back flip
40. Help The Buried Life accomplish something on their list
41. Take a ride in a hot air balloon
42. Visit the set of Psych and hang with the actors

This is it so far. The list is still growing, but I thought I'd share what I have so far.

peace, love, and rockets.
kaeli

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

The Buried Life


There is a new documentary that just aired its season finale last night called The Buried Life. It is a group of four (college-age) guys who got together and made a list of 100 things to do before they die and tour around North America in a big purple bus to cross off as many items on their list as possible. Anything from learn how to surf, all the way to play basketball with Obama. So far they have crossed 73 things off the list, and watching them accomplish six of them in the documentary was really cool.

But for every one thing they cross off on their list, they help a stranger accomplish something on theirs. It's really quite incredible, actually. They have reunited a father and son, helped a blind man get back on a horse after 21 years (before he became blind), and helped a ten-year-old girl get over her fear of heights.

Not only have they inspired me to start my own list, but it also has given me the motivation to do something incredible with my life. My list only extends to 42 so far, but I'm adding more and more every day, with full intent on crossing them off.

So now I'm asking you: what do you want to do before you die?

peace, love, and rockets.
kaeli

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Amped for Amp'd

On April 9, 2010 there will be a night of worship type thing at Feather Sound. The A-Team is taking a bunch of responsibility to make this night awesome, and let me tell you, I am stoked. Nevaeh's Call is going to be the worship band for the evening, and I'm heading up a drama that I am currently sitting here, trying to write. I don't want to give too much away, in case some of the students read this, but anyone and everyone is invited to this, so I hope you can make it.

I am in charge of some of the decorating/painting, the drama, and possibly forming a band to open for Nevaeh's Call. And I have a month and five days to do this. Hahahaha.

The type of drama I chose to do is a drama without words - basically, choreography to a song. The hardest part so far has been trying to find a song with the right music and the right message. I've tossed the idea around of doing The Everything Skit and asking the original people to be involved, but with Kaydee in and out of the doctors lately, Brent not around this area as much, and some other reasons, I don't think it will be a good idea this time. Plus I think it'd be cool do something new.

I've been trying to find a song similar to "Everything" by Lifehouse because I love the soft, yet intense beginning that just continuously builds throughout the song, and then resolves powerfully at the end. I have had no luck thus far. Some songs are just too upbeat, don't have the right message, or I just don't like. Therefore, I have decided to at least start to write the song for the drama. I probably won't actually sing on it (and if I do, it would just be background stuff), but this way, I have complete control over the message, the sound, blah blah blah.

So if you get the chance, or have some free time on that Friday in April, we'd love to see you there. It's gonna be pretty sweet.

peace, love, and creative license.
kaeli kaeli bo-bailey banananana mo-mailey fee fi fo-failey... KAELI

Monday, March 1, 2010

Weekend winner

Instead of giving you all some insight into what I've recently learned, I'm just going to fill you in on what I did this past weekend.

Friday:
I wasn't feeling well earlier that week so I ended up skipping class today. At 5pm, I went to work for a few hours, then started my 50 minute drive to the long-awaited trip to Beth and JJ's for the weekend. It was around 11 or 11:30 when I got there, so we just hung out and watched some TV. We all caught up a little, then went to bed.

Saturday:
JJ, Beth, and Kaydee went to a meeting at RPC, so I was able to sleep in and just relax. Eventually I got ready and watched a few episodes of Psych with my lil sis (Karam), while Hamee played COD. Jahid slept until at least 1pm. Then Beth and JJ got home and the three of us, plus Hamee, played a game of Dutch Blitz. In the end, I ended up being the champion, but that was to be expected considering they hadn't played it in years. Later we somehow got into watching the cross country skiing, which, as we now know, isn't exciting until the end. After that we went and bought some strawberries and stuff to make homemade jelly and strawberry shortcake. The Gawlowicz's have been looking for houses recently, and they finally made an offer on one (after giving up on their first choice) so we went and checked it out. It was a pretty nice house with a MASSIVE backyard. You have no idea. Then we went home and devoured some vegetarian lasagna (thank you!), made the jelly, and then ate some shortcake. Delicious. At some point in there we played another game of DB, but JJ was in the lead this time. We were just getting ready to leave, when I begged for two more hands of it, to which JJ complied. The first-to-last hand, I ended up being three cards behind JJ. But then, minus all the suspense, after the last hand I pulled through and ended up winning the second game.

Sunday:
Went to church at RPC this morning and saw JP and Mel there, along with Dubz (Jordan Wilkins) who is filling in for RPC's worship leader for a few weeks. Afterwards, we all went out to lunch at CiCi's, along with some of the students from Merge. Later all of us headed over to Beth and JJ's and hung out and played Dutch Blitz. Long story short, I was behind JJ again, but caught up and ended up winning for the third game in a row. Then I drove back home and invited some girls over to help out Ashley who sells Mary Kay and we did facials. Later I went over to Kenny's and watched while he cleaned his room (hey, I offered to help) and then we went to Taco Bell to get some food. Then he helped me finish some homework, and we just hung out until Nick came home. I watched them argue over something, which, in the end, was pretty hilarious. Then I went home and went to bed.

All in all, I'd say it was a great weekend. I got to hang out with family and some other cool people, and just kick it for a bit. Later dudes.

peace, love, and rockets.
kaeli

Ps. I remain undefeated in Dutch Blitz as of now. No shame.