Talks in church

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Gave talks in church today, the topic was "The Atonement and how I personally relate to it", or something along those lines. It was a very flexible thing we were given, and Eric and I joked that it sounded a bit like "The Atonement, and how it worked for this grievous sin, and this sin, and this sin..."  We were given the assignment 2 weeks in advance (woo!), and so it was bubbling around in my head for a lovely bit of time. We've realized that my and Eric's way of getting inspiration are a bit different-- my thoughts have to simmer for a while, and I get flashes of insight when I'm not actively thinking about it, and Eric likes to sit down all at once and think it out. Sometimes he'll lay down on the floor and just meditate with his eyes closed, and then suddenly sit up and scribble away. I love that we're not all the same, and both talks turned out well.

I found it easiest and most relevant for me to talk about the Atonement and perfectionism in terms of ballroom metaphors, and Eric talked about the theme from the movie Meet the Robinsons, "Keep moving forward." Our talks actually dovetailed quite nicely, and we had a horde of people come up afterward to say how much they liked our talks and what powerful/engaging speakers we were. I was absolutely relieved that the congregation understood the dance terms I used, and to be honest, I was actually quite nervous to give my talk. It was a bit strange, in the past I would be pretty calm right up until I stood up at the podium, and then be nervous and talk too fast. Today though, I was steadily growing more nervous throughout the morning, and my stomach was flip-flopping, until about 10 minutes before my talk. Then I got up and gave probably the smoothest delivery ever. I wasn't even as practiced with the words as I normally am... I wonder if it was because I was giving a lesson on letting go of perfectionism and I gave myself permission to goof up that I wasn't so worried about actually goofing up :)

Anyway, I'll probably post my talk here or provide some sort of link to it. Have a beautiful Sabbath, everyone!

Senior Portraits!

 Wooo! So, you remember the photographer I met at church, who owns her own business and wanted a makeup artist for her seniors?

Voila.

I have successfully done 3 makeups last week, with another one already booked for this week. It's great! I'll be putting these pictures on my website, but I wanted you to get a sneak peek because it might not be up for a while.

The girls were soo fun and so cute. I have to say, I am super impressed by the teens I have met thus far in SLO. They're so.... level headed. Real, and still fun and goofy. The girls were actually really worried that by getting their makeup done, they would look fake.
I had never heard a Utah girl be worried that she would look too done up and unnatural, but so far that's been almost everyone's main focus. They all just want to be real, and I admire that a lot.

Granted, it helps that the lovely California weather helps with skin problems and acne quite a bit. However, I know that that doesn't account for 100% of it.
There's just something in the water.....

Update on Harry Potter events:
I went back for the "2nd wave" of HP Mania at the Fremont Theater, per the manager's request. It wasn't nearly as crowded as the first night-- on Thursday, the line stretched around 3 sides of the building, and on Friday [gotta get down on Friiiidaaay.... =D ] the people were in the theater before I got there, and trickled in even a little bit after the movie started. There were a few in medium-squee costumes, but on the whole, they were more toned down. The employees said they were actually quite surprised at how few people there were in attendance, compared to last years' numbers.
Anyway, I offered the free facepainting again, set up in my little corner on my little table with my little charming broken chair. (I am normally not one for dinky places, but this theater isn't run-down...it's just... quaint. Very charming.) The theme of Thursday night seemed to be "Get cards and put it on Facebook, advertise advertise advertise", but Friday night was, "Wander over, get a cool painting, and tip Marie really well."

People are COOL. I had set out no tip jar of any kind, didn't suggest anything, told everyone from the get-go that it was totally free... and people were lavishing their little monetary gifts on the newcomer. And it wasn't in a showy way, it was simply, "Hey, thank you, this is cool. This is for you."
[The generous feel is there at church as well. When one sister stood up with a clipboard, only half-full of volunteers to make food for a Soup Kitchen-type event, she said, "Hey, we need some spots filled. Can anyone help?" There was an immediate chorus of, "I can do that." "I can bring this." "I'll do double vegetables."  Something in the water!!] 
I didn't notice until the end, but one person even tipped me with a $20 bill. (Most of the other tips were just $1 bills, but, holy cow!) I wasn't even doing super intricate faces, just 3-line Scar zigzags and some Deatheater marks. I love people :) :) :)

Results of the "Superpower" Poll:

Super Speed	2 (66%)
Eagle Eyes	1 (33%)
Fending Off with Flatulence	0 (0%)
Irritating Interdigitation with Infidels	0 (0%)
None of the above, I'll explain in a comment -0% As a result of this poll, I have concluded that I have an IncrediFamily with excellent legs, excellent vision, and no body odor. ....on second thought, I just realized that the family dogs more than likely didn't vote, so my 3rd conclusion may actually be erroneous.   Thanks for playing and I'll have some more fun polls  in the future! I'm glad you guys play along :)

Potter Mania

Went to the HP midnight premier. Felt the rumblings of the audio system. Heard the screams of possessed fans. Didn't see the movie. Went home happy and went right to bed :)

How the Harry Potter thing came about:

 I was talking to the 3rd senior girl's mom, and when she heard I was new to the area, she said she would definitely tell her friends and get some word-of-mouth advertising going. That was so nice of her. Then she said, "You know, you could go to the Harry Potter premier tonight (her daughter was going), and hand out business cards. That would definitely get some more word-of-mouth out there." Genius idea! Go to a place where people already enjoy dressing up, and advertise for more parties where you can dress up and get fun makeup done.

I didn't actually have any business cards, so I grabbed some cardstock from Staples on the way home from the photoshoot, slapped together a design, printed them off, changed into a HP-esque outfit, and went to the theater.

I took the mom's idea of card-advertising one step further. I brought my face paints, and just started painting for free.  I wasn't sure how the crowd would take it, if they'd be too old or too cautious to be interested in facepainting. I talked to a group of teens near the front of the line, and though they were slightly hesitant at first, I showed them my card, and one guy said, "Can you do the Voldemort Deatheater symbol?" I pulled out my paints, which attracted a lot of attention, and soon I had a whole crowd around me, taking pictures and talking about how cool it was. I really love teenagers, they're so much fun to goof off with. (Kindof funny to be painting mobile, I was using people as my table to hold my paints and tupperware-water :D ) I told them the deal was that since I was painting for free, they had to put the pictures on their facebook and tell all their friends where they got it done, who did it, and how cool it was. Everyone I talked to was more than delighted to do that.

I didn't realize that the theater would let the line into the building so early (at 10:30, I had just gotten there at like 9:45 and thought I had until 11 or midnight to paint). The line moved, and suddenly my audience was diverted. I had this crazy idea to ask the theater management if I could keep painting inside the lobby. I figured there was no way on earth they would let me do that without a ticket, but that it couldn't hurt to try. Youbanfa, right? So I made my way to one of the ticket takers, and nicely and straightforwardly explained my request, and he said,     ......"Sure."

I was shocked. Literally quite shocked. He even gestured toward a little table-and-chair set in the corner of the lobby and said I could use them. I made one announcement to the girls' bathroom (of all places, haha) that I was doing free painting, and had worked the line outside earlier, and after about 5 minutes I had a long line that didn't end until 11:59. Everyone loved it. Furthermore, after the movie started and I was cleaning up, the two ticket-takers were also cleaning up, and both thanked me for what I was doing. They said it was really fun for the guests, and added a lot to the atmosphere. I gave them my card, and asked if the theater ever does any partnerships or special events. It turns out that one of them was actually the manager of the theater, and he said that the company isn't given a budget for hiring out, but that they DO have ways of swapping services. He said they were actually having their second wave of Potter fans the next night, and that I was invited to go back and keep promoting my business if I would like. They would be delighted to have that extra element of fun again.

Some businesses will let you do free advertising, because it benefits them quite a lot, and sometimes you get taken advantage of that in some regards, but these guys were really cool. We talked about how they like to keep their theater small, and being personable is really important to them. The manager was totally unassuming and a mild, cool guy. His office was decorated with movie posters and had a down-to-earth feel to it, not like the business-mogul of Utah's Jordan Commons with steel desks and impersonal everything. They were making no profit whatsoever off of my presence except a fun atmosphere, and I really liked that.  The young ticket taker had told me he'd check the movie times for the 2nd wave, and when I went to the office to see what those times were, the manager handed me 4 free movie tickets. I was delighted. They didn't have to do that at all. And, they want me to come back, and will keep giving me free movie tickets.

People are so cool here!

*Happy sigh*

Two weeks and heavenly choirs:
So, the first two weeks I was here were.... shall we say, not fun. I was sick, I was friendless, and bored out of my mind. I went from designing and directing full-on shows, totally loving it, to being surrounded with cardboard boxes and no incentive to do much of anything. I knew that I would get involved in things in time, eventually make friends, etc, but sloshing through the empty time was not enjoyable.

Then the heavens opened.

That first weekend I was dying to go to church-- to have that structure I've always had (even when I was 6,000 miles away and speaking Chinese). We had sacrament meeting first, and when it was over, a whole family immediately walked over to meet "Eric's darling wife". I'm so happy that Eric is a nice person, because everyone treated me the same way he treats them. They were so kind, so super friendly, and so cool, and I felt at home. After chatting for a bit, Eric and I went to find the bishop to make sure our records had transferred correctly. As we were standing in the bishop's office and doing paperwork, one of the bishopric asked me what my plans were, if I was going to school, working, etc. I answered that I was finishing up school and looking for a job, so if anyone knew of a group that needed an ASL interpreter or a makeup artist, I'd be grateful for any leads. A guy standing in the room perked up and said, "Wait, makeup artist?  My wife's a photographer, she's looking for one."

*Haaaaaaalelujaaaaaahhhh!*

When I got to Relief Society, aforementioned wife walked right up and said, "You must be the makeup artist my husband told me about." We sat next to each other for the lesson, she pointed out who people were and explained when the teacher made references to members' backgrounds or attributes that I didn't understand. At the end of the lesson, her two daughters ran in and climbed on her lap, and she invited me and Eric to dinner at their house the following week.

I was so happy. It was a cautious hope about the venture being successful, because a lot of the time things never seem to get off the ground, or something doesn't work, but I had a glimmer. The rest of the week was still pretty boring, although Eric and I made some really good progress unpacking the house and getting the kitchen, bedroom, and study set up. Nothing much happened with the photography stuff that week, since the photographer (named Kiwi Ashby) was really busy, so I set about finding other things to do on my own. I contacted a few local theaters, photographers, talent indrustries, etc. and found a photographer who was willing to trade his photographs for my portfolio in exchange for a session of free makeup for his subject. (That's actually still in the works, we're going to try to do a photo shoot next week if I can find a couple to be our models.)

We had dinner together the following Sunday, and BAM, things started happening. After dinner we chatted about her business, and talked about how she booked sessions and what kind of people she usually works with. She does mainly high school seniors' pictures, as well as newborn & mom photos. I volunteered to do a free trial-type makeup for one of her sessions, and she had an idea to ask 2 girls who had already booked a session that coming week if they would like their makeup done then. Soon after, she found another client who was interested in having a makeup artist, and willing to pay for one! So this week, I did 3 girls' makeup for their Senior Portraits, and it turned out beautifully. *happy grin *  I was actually really nervous the day of, because I didn't want to goof it up, and I didn't have the regular makeup supplies from Janet's class closet that I normally used. Matching foundation to skin tones can be really tricky, and if that doesn't match, it doesn't matter what you do to the rest of the face, because the whole thing will look weird. I had 3 bottles of foundation, and a couple cakes of creme foundation, and that was it.  After I tried one mixture for the first girl, I realized the color was wrong, and I tried something else, and after that everything went smoothly. Yayyy! The girls are cute, absolutely adorable, and super nice, and their pictures looked great. I'll be posting stuff for you guys to see when I get the final pictures back.

- - - - - - If you're on a time crunch, you can pause here - - - - - - -

Posting:

Speaking of posting..... They'll be posted on my new website! Eric has been working tirelessly to help me build a website to feature my portfolio, and he's done amazing work. It's SO awesome to be married to such a smart guy. He's really dug in and worked out what needs to be done, and how to do it in an organized way. If he doesn't know something, he's super good at finding documentation and teaching himself how to do it. I love my hubby :) . 

Thus, MarieSteckJohnson.com is in the process of being built. Eric is working on the behind-the-scenes programming, and I'll be designing the front end. When it's all done, you'll be able to see the artistic mischief that I've been up to :). (As I was talking to various artists and photographers, everyone kept asking to see my website, so I finally decided I should get one. I started using one of those free template-sites, but the elements they had weren't robust enough for the format I wanted and the amount of pictures I needed.)

In other slightly related news, I have decided upon a mantra: "Good things come to those who volunteer." It's amazing. I've been volunteering to do lots of various kinds of things, and every time I have, good things have happened without me doing anything. Volunteered to do the makeup for the 2 senior girls: Their moms both tipped me. Did another senior's makeup for a reduced price: her mom gave me an incredible idea. Took that idea and volunteered facepainting at the Harry Potter midnight premier: Got 4 free movie tickets and an invitation to come back. So awesome! Eric and I had really been wanting to go see Cars, but decided that we should wait so that we wouldn't push our budget after moving so soon.... and now we can see it for free!

Story continues in the next post "Potter Mania"

There's More to Oz?

I suppose first thing's first, I should explain what the title of our blog means. Word of warning, I sometimes write in a stream-of-consciousness sort of way, so just go with it :)

Backstory:
Most people probably aren't aware of the special connection Eric and I have to The Wizard of Oz and Wicked. When he was in the 6th grade, Eric landed the part of the Scarecrow (beating out the local snottykid in the process, heehee). He loved that role, and to the surprise of his parents, was an absolute natural, a totally charismatic actor, which he had never let on before. That all launched him on his beloved path to theater and all things wonderful. Theater opened up all sorts of doors, molded him into who he is now, and (much to my delight) helped quite a bit in our dating adventure.

Enter Marie. In the process of getting acquainted with Eric, he totally blew my mind by suggesting the improbable: Make plans, take off to LA, and with an utter gamble on luck, go see the Broadway musical Wicked. Such a thing had never been remotely conceivable, financially or otherwise, so when it happened you can imagine my absolute delight. I completely identified with the character Elphaba,  later took on the nickname Elfie, and ended up with a signed copy of the program from Glinda herself. The most salient thing was the fact that Eric had showed me that far-fetched dreams could actually come to fruition... something I'd sorta believed but was usually discouraged from by hard doses of reality.

It conveniently happens that in the musical, Scarecrow and Elfie get together, after a whole lot of finangling. That was us too.

What Oz Means:
Oz is a magical place. Sparkly, wonderful, ethereal. Seems like everybody's trying to get there. For me, meeting Eric is the little Yellow Brick Road: that was my journey with my Scarecrow, that whole dreamy business of going through a bunch of munchkins and apple-throwing trees to find someone to make the journey with, and dodge all sorts of hazards to arrive safely there (meddling ward members, breakups, other guys, 6,000+ miles...). Arriving at marriage was like arriving at Oz-- aforementioned journey complete, we have arrived at that gleaming city of beauty and happiness. And it is happy.

The thing, though, is that the story plunks you back into bleary Kansas, and doesn't tell you what happens afterward-- the place Beyond Oz.
That's what we're here for. We've not only made it to our eternal-ephemeral castle, but we're adventuring past that. We're walking arm in arm, strolling past the cornfields and daisies, fending off chucked apples and haunted woods. The best part is that I get to do it all with my best friend and co-star. We'll chronicle it all for ya. Welcome to the land beyond Oz.


Eric's Take:
Eric says 'Oz' is the English-language first-person collective, spoken with an accent. His version of what "Oz is" might be a bit shorter and more grammatically complex than mine :). I'll let him tell his side of the story.