A Night in Emerald City

Last Saturday, I attended my high school's prom. I for one particularly loved the theme, "A Night in Emerald City" since I never get tired of watching Wizard of Oz and I could probably quote the entire movie by heart.

Beforehand, one of my dude friend's asked me to go with him as friends. Prom is still fun even if you're just going with friends but it's even better when you have a date so of course I said yes! I may add, my dude friend moved to Oregon after I met him so he literally flew down from Oregon just to go to Prom.

The day of Prom started when I went to my salon appointment to be have my nails, hair and makeup done.

Total Pamperage.

Immediately after my appointment, my chauffeur (my parents) drove me to pick up my date to take pictures with my friends.

Leading to another photo shoot with a completely different group of friends.

Once we were done being FaBuLoUs and such we carpooled together to dinner. Instead of dining together, my date and I ate solo and went to Benihana. For those of you who haven't been to Benihana before, it's like dinner and a show! We were seated with six other people (two of which were also going to Prom) and the chefs literally cook your food in front of you while twirling spatulas in one hand and lighting things on fire while doing cartwheels...

Dinner took a little longer than expected so we showed up to Prom fashionably late. Prom was held at The Castle at Ashley Manor.

Super fancy.

I was afraid I was going to end up a lost, awkward penguin sitting by myself after giving up on finding anyone I know, but oh no, no that was not the case! I spotted friends almost immediately and I seemed to know someone every where I went!

The dance floor was crowded, sweaty and hot! I think I entered the middle of the dance floor once of twice but left due to the fear of being butt raped... Yeah, I stayed mostly near the outskirts of the dance floor or outside.

I'm also pretty sure I scared several people with my sweet moves. I even recall accidentally slapping someone in the face when attempting my sprinkler... I can't help it! If my jam starts playing, I just can't control myself (and I have a lot of jams).

Oh, and there were fireworks.

By the end of the night, my date and I were ready to pass out! Surprisingly, we even left early! Even bigger of a surprise, when we returned home my family built us a tent-- nay my family built us a FORTRESS to sleep in.

How do you end prom night? Watch Harry Potter, what else?

"Shelby Cooper: Three of Hearts" Documentary

I think it was about Mid-March when I was friend request and messaged by a guy who went to my school about the possibility of producing a documentary about me and my life as a double heart transplant recipient. He told me he's an independent filmmaker and he stumbled upon my blog and found my story inspiring enough to make into a documentary. I was astounded for one, my life is as ordinary and normal as everybody else's (but my past sure isn't!) and second, I've always wanted to raise awareness for organ donation and heart disease through a video production which is exactly what we did!

We first met up to outline what the documentary would be about. I had oodles of ideas but the hard part was deciding what the main focus of the film was going to be about. I was thinking of aiming it towards awaiting or struggling heart transplant recipients to simply conceive the message my blog embody's; you're not alone and there is life after transplant. On the other hand, there are so many uneducated people out there about organ donation or heart disease and this would be a great opportunity to share some enlightenment on the subject. But then when I think about my past with bullies and how I used to be known as the weird girl with a scar or who spent time in the hospital, I really wanted to change their perspective.

After it was all finalized, I think we managed to exemplify all these factors into one fabulous documentary and we entered it into a local film festival and what do you know? We won the title, "Best Technical Expertise"! Now, I'm finally sharing with you the film-festival cut of our documentary, "Three of Hearts". We had thirty minutes of solid footage which was edited down to five minutes for the festival requirements so there may be an extended version available later.

For now, check it out here on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPWnFkb98_M

Please share this with your friends, family or whoever. I'm not asking for personal publicity or attention, I just want to spread the word and break the stereotype!