Laura Miller

So I'm playing June in a local production of Gypsy. I'm an alto all the way, so doing June's higher notes is already a struggle.

Now we have a fairly large theater, but the sound equipment is ancient. A.K.A it doesn't support microphone use other than a handheld. So for all the shows people have gone without a mic.

Issue for me is that I have had chronic acid reflux for the past ten years of my life. My vocal teacher(who originally trained to be an ENT) said that my acid reflux was going to always seriously inhibit my singing.

I have been working through it and avoiding trigger foods and taking all sorts of meds, but it's worse than ever and I am having issues projecting loudly enough for the theatre I'm in. The director said she would try to figure out a mic situation but honestly, it's quite embarrassing being the only one to need a mic.

Also, I'm 17 so I'm very much at the beginning of my theatre career, so all this worries me.

Any tips on how to project even with inflammation(and possibly nodules, I'm getting an endoscopy in a month)? My vocal teacher said to open my eyes wide, over pronounce everything, and push as hard as I can from my diaphragm to project. I have been doing all that but still am not loud enough. (Yes I'm doing it all correctly, several vocal professionals have said that I am.)

So I have been dancing en pointe recreationally for two years now. I am a senior in high school but didn't have my first dance class until 8th grade so I was a bit behind. Looking back, doing pointe may have not been a smart decision because I have really weak and hypermobile joints, so they have always been floppy. I have been going to a physical therapist, however, to strengthen my joints, especially in my lower body.

Anyway, I have sprained my ankles a lot in my life because they naturally roll when I walk, the joint doesn't stay straight like they are supposed to. Usually they go away in a couple weeks and I'm fine. Sometimes they take longer and I go to the doctor and they don't do an X-ray or anything, they just look at it and move it and say that it's definitely a sprain.

So last August I was playing games outside in the dark with friends. I didn't notice a small trench in the ground and tripped on it and ended up straining a certain ligament in my knee and spraining my ankle once again. After three months of no changes, I went to my doctor who sent me to physical therapy. It took me until January to get en pointe again, but I did it.

So now all of a sudden both my ankles are swollen and painful after my pointe class. The one that was injured most recently is worse off, but the other one is bad too.

So here's the issue. Our final recital is in three weeks so I either have to quit pointe altogether or stick it out. What to do?

So, weird question. I'm a senior in high school and just got the role of June in a production of Gypsy that we are putting on in our town.

There is a huge problem in our town with high school and college males performing drunk/high. Which is pretty sad, I think.

Anyway, the boy who was cast as Tulsa is in the crowd of high school pot smokers/heavy drinkers. I was in the chorus of a production of Chess the Musical with him, and we switched off having a headset microphone.(brain fart, I can't remember exactly what they are called...). Every time we switched the mic, he was reeking of alcohol and pot. Sure enough, the last night of the show, the director caught them smoking and drinking everclear in the main cast dressing rooms.

His friends aren't in the show, so it's possible that he won't do it this time, but he tends to be an instigator of it, so I'm not convinced he won't.

Now, we haven't had the first rehearsals yet, but the director has already mentioned that she wants us actually kissing onstage.(she hates stage kisses) Here's the thing, a big reason as to why I'm not a big partier(besides the fact that I just have no interest in it or time for it) is that just the smell of smoke of any kind or and alcohol has me dry heaving almost every time.

So, the short of it is: How do I deal with a cast mate that may or may not be high during every show? Call me a prude, but I would really rather not have to deal with that. Do I tell the director?

So I actually have a couple questions. The first is how exactly do you mix chest and head voices? I asked my vocal teacher how(when I had one, we only have the money to do it in the summer, when I'm not doing dance classes) but he discouraged the use of any chest voice. He's a classical singer, so he says that women only need to use their chest voice if they are singing an angry German song.

However, I am active in musical theater, where good belts are appreciated.

Here's the thing, I have a really strong belt, but I can only nicely hit an F or G above middle C. I can hit an A or B but it starts sounding a bit shouty. But my head voice, while I have achieved a good tone, is really quiet, no matter what I do. Every vocal teacher I've had has told me that I am singing correctly, I just need to sing louder.

My last vocal teacher mentioned that he can hear inflammation in my nasal passages and around my vocal chords(he studied to be an ENT originally) that is making it difficult for me to get all of my sound out. (I have really bad GERD, despite being on medication for it)

So I need to figure out how to be able to transition between my chest voice(very loud and in your face) and my head voice(very quiet). I have a hard time pulling back my chest voice, especially near the higher part of it because I have to pubs more from my diaphragm to hit the note. Suggestions?

My other question then is if there is a way to lengthen the range of my belt?

I have failed my driver's test three times. The two testers are infamous for being cranky, but they are the testers at every DMV anywhere near to us. Now, the first two times I did do a lot wrong, so I won't question those too much. But the last time he said that I fixed everything except for two left turns and I barely touched the curb when I was almost done with my parallel park(my stepmom was watching, she says it looked like a perfect park to her) so I got a 1 on that(which is the lowest score you can get). Otherwise, he said everything was good. My stepsister got docked on all of her left turns and all but two of her right and completely failed both parking jobs but she passed her first time with the same guy.

I have talked to other people and they agree that it all depends on what mood they're in. The one nice guy at our DMV(who doesn't give tests, just works at the counter) gave me a weird look when I said that I needed to schedule another test. He just stared at the sheet of paper that the tester gave him and then finally said okay. My stepmom caught it too.

I'm really frustrated with being at the mercy of what mood they're in. I'm a few months from my 18th birthday and from graduating high school, and I'm just really tired of having to beg, borrow, and steal to get rides everywhere. There isn't any way to appeal the decision of the tester, is there? I calculated the points and there wasn't nearly enough points to fail me, but he did. Like I said, going somewhere else isn't an option because I live in the middle of nowhere and the closest place that has different testers is 2 hours away in our state Capitol.

Forever I have wanted to be a fashion designer. Problem is, I grew up and discovered that I can't draw or sew at all. I have all these great ideas in my head, but I can never transfer them into paper or an actual project. I have a good fashion sense, I just have really awful depth perception, despite wearing my glasses, and because of it I have horrible hand-eye coordination.

English is my favorite subject, and I love photography(although it seems that everyone does nowadays) so my mom suggested that I should become an editor for a fashion magazine.

So I was wondering if that would be possible for me to do without being able to draw or sew very well?

Every year at my studio the seniors do a solo. I wanted it to be a lyrical solo with a bit of modern because that's what I'm best at. So I gave my dance teacher a couple songs, and apparently they were too "obscure" and didn't have enough build. (Mad World by Gary Jules and Raindrops by Regina Spektor)

So I need a song to fit a lyrical dance that is uplifting/upbeat and that the audience would know. Evidently I'm not dancing for myself, I'm dancing for the audience. As much as that makes sense, I'm having a tough time meeting those requirements while still finding a song I like.(I hate cliche, overdone songs.)

My dance teacher said to ask my mother what her favorite song is, so I did, and evidently it's My Immortal by Evanescence.(DEFINITELY in the wrong direction. Too sad/slow. But my mother is in several rock bands, so she likes things that a lot of people her age wouldn't normally like.)

I suggested Hey Jude by the Beatles, but my dance teacher isn't sure about it, and my parents are both iffy on it. It also doesn't inspire me much. I'm choreographing this, so I'm going to need a song that will help me.

The other girl is doing a dance to a song that was on Degrassi(not sure which), for reference.

So for a while now, I've been waffling between different careers in the medical field. It's all so very interesting to me. I wanted forever to be a neonatal nurse, but then I realized that with my chronic illnesses(dysautonomia/POTS and "more than likely" Ehlers Danlos Syndrome III, IBS, GERD, and "more than likely" gastroparesis((several doctors have said that I more than likely have those two, but I haven't been formally diagnosed))) that going into a field that requires long shifts on your feet doesn't make much sense. However, pregnancy, birth, and newborns have always fascinated me. While watching "Call the Midwife" on BBC, I thought about how awesome being a midwife would be. I've been researching it, and I just now came to the realization that I may have just as much troubles being a midwife as I would have had being a neonatal nurse.

My illnesses at this point are pretty well controlled, I'm symptomatic but to the point where I can deal with day-to-day life and I've been in my highschool's musical and take dance classes twice a week. But I have no idea whether or not I will get worse or better when I get older. Either way, they're chronic illnesses and I'm probably not going to ever completely get rid of them.

So here's my question, would even dreaming about pursuing a career in midwifery be an option for me? I don't want to let my illnesses get the best of me, but I have to be realistic at the same time. Basically I just can't stand still for long periods of time, because my heart rate skyrockets when I stand and my blood pressure drops way low and while I don't usually pass out, I have a high risk of it.

I know that this is ultimately a personal decision, but I need to hear from a non-biased party as to if I should go for it or not. I'm a senior in high school taking the majority of my classes at our local community college and I plan on finishing out my associates degree in liberal arts at the same college after I graduate then go on to somewhere else. But as of now I'm lost as to what to do with my life.

Can be in any language. My vocal teacher wants me to find one contemporary song, one classical song(he called it "artsy fartsy"), and one broadway song. I've got a pretty good idea of what to do for the other two, but I'm not sure on the classical song. I love Italian Arias but I'm having trouble finding a song low enough. I actually sing second alto in choir, and I can hit all the notes, but I have to switch to my chest voice to do it, and my vocal teacher doesn't like me singing in my chest voice. Also, middle C and the D just above it are a little bit airy and quiet if I don't switch to my chest voice, which we're working on, but still, a song that doesn't sit in those two notes for too long would be awesome.

So for all purposes I would need a song that is between B below middle C to a high E. My range does go further both ways, but I'm most comfortable in that range.

So I've gotten what the person hiring said was "a kind of sort of interview" at a small boutique in my area. It's tomorrow, and I have changed my outfit a hundred times.

My first thought was a casual dress, but then I went shopping with my family and they all liked a really business-like audrey-hepburn-esque dress that I ended up getting but then I panicked and decided that it was too much after all. So then I decided on skinny jeans and a grey and white striped blazer with black heeled booties.

But then I was looking at the website for the store (www.alijboutique.com/aboutus) and I was looking at the employees' fashion in the pictures, and it looks a little more formal than a blazer and dressy skinny jeans. But at the same time, when I went into the store to pick up the application and to answer a few questions, the person hiring was wearing shorts, a tank top, and a cardigan.

I saw this dress at the store a couple days ago: http://www.evanity.com/dresses/sale-dresses/braide... and I thought maybe I could wear it with a black blazer.

This is the dress that I bought, and I really do think that it is too much for this: http://www.maurices.com/product/index.jsp?expcsl=1...

Help! I really don't know what to do!

So I have a chronic illness that I'm dealing with. My one problem is the fact that without makeup, I do look sick.

So I have really big dark circles underneath my eyes, no matter how much sleep or water I get. I have tried the tea bags and frozen tea on makeup pads and almond oil and pretty much anything, and nothing has helped. They're not puffy in the first place though, kind of the opposite, like concave. My skin is just really thin and they're dark.

Usually I use foundation, three different types of concealers, and powder underneath my eyes, but it still doesn't cover them all the way. It helps a lot, but like I said, they actually go in a little bit from the rest of my face, and the makeup isn't quite thick enough to cover the darkness fully.

So is there any specific type of makeup I should be looking for, any tips for applying it? Any tips on how to diminish the dark circles? My friend is a photographer, and we go out and do random photo shoots all the time, and the circles bother me every time. I always end up editing pictures and airbrushing them to try and hide the dark circles, but it ends up looking kind of fake. My friend's camera seems to make everyone else look better than normal(Brightens and smooths the face) but whenever she takes a picture of me, I look really sick, even more so than what I see in the mirror without makeup. I'm about to have my senior pictures taken, and I really would like to fix them somehow.

We took another friend's senior pictures today, and every picture of her turned out making her look awesome. My photographer friend took a picture of me in the same light and I looked awful. I really just want to look semi-normal!

So I was at JCPenney's with my mom one day, because she was looking for a maxi dress. I happened to see a kind of Audrey Hepburn inspired dress on a clearance rack, so I went and tried it on "just for fun". It fit me perfectly, and because it was on clearance, it was only $15! My mom told me that we would go to a couple more stores, then come back for it. Then, when we were done shopping, I asked about the dress, and she said that she bought me "too many dresses, so no." (For the record, I have three sundresses and two dressier dresses and she bought me none of them.) If I had brought my wallet with me, I would have just bought it myself, but I did not have my wallet because we went out shopping to find her something.

SO, I went without the dress. It was the last one on the clearance racks, but I checked online and at my local JCPenney's(This was in a store in a bigger city almost 2 hours away). But I keep thinking about it and I keep thinking about how perfect it was for me. I didn't happen to look at the brand either.

I'm on my school's speech team, so we need a lot of dressy things, so I was planning on getting this dress then maybe do an Audrey Hepburn speech of sorts. Or just wearing the dress because it was beautiful.

Now it was a sleeveless dress in this shape: http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Womens-50s-Audrey-Slee...

Except it was shorter and it was entirely covered in lace.

I've done a couple Ebay and Amazon searches, and I cannot find it anywhere. Anybody know what I'm talking about/where I could find it? I know it is just a dress at the end of the day, but I really did love it. :/

On the inner part of under my right eye, I just noticed it was a little bit tender, like a bruise. So I felt it and it didn't feel too out of normal, but then when I felt the other eye in the same spot, it's definitely a little bigger. However, I looked at my phone's camera(don't have very good light) and I saw nothing different between the two eyes.

Should I be worried? I keep finding random bruises and scratches and my hair is coming out a lot faster than normal. I have an illness called dysautonomia, so I'm not entirely sure whether it's related to that or not. Also, last time I got my blood drawn, I had really low vitamin D, and I just had it tested again today.

My niece was at my house earlier, and she was scratching/grabbing at my face, so I suppose it's possible she hurt my eye somehow... It's not watery or itchy, just hurts a little when I blink. I literally just noticed it a half an hour ago, it wasn't there earlier.

I'm in the US, so I'm talking about schools here. Somebody told me that because I have so many interests I should become a teacher. I realized that theatre, dance, and music are what I really love to do, but I couldn't think of a way to turn that into a career. So then I realized that I should just become a teacher at a performing arts school.

But of course I still have to think about the money. So about how much does a performing arts school teacher make per hour or per year in the US?

So this is way TMI, you've been warned.

Anyways, I've had issues with my stools all my life, but lately, I'm having weird issues. Blood and mucous in my stools has become normal for me. So far, I have not had any tests(other than a blood test for inflammation markers) I am going to have a consultation with a GI this Wednesday(been waiting a month) but won't have any tests for 3-8 weeks after that. A week or so ago, I had chunks of what I think is mucous(looks like thick tissue) with pink and brown pieces and a little bit of blood. After eating very blandly for a couple days, it went away. But then today, I had a bowel movement that looked normal at first, but then I looked in the toilet and saw like these yellow/orange globs floating... Kinda looked like(ew) those bubbles floating around in chicken broth. (Like the oil filled bubble things in this picture http://avocadopesto.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/ch... Kind of like oil floating in water? And it stunk, really badly.

Now, last night I had a bit of a gurgly stomach, so I took an acidophilus probiotic. I also don't have the greatest diet, because I'm trying to keep my weight up, so people always force a lot of fat and sugar on me. So so far today I've had oreo poptarts, cheez-its, and a spoonful of Nutella.(Bad, I know.) Could this possibly be just too much fat in my diet? Or does it sound more serious? It's really hard to explain what it really looked like, but I did take pictures for the GI.(Again, gross, I know)

So my mom and I make lip balms and have in the past just had my dad make the labels with the CorelDraw program on his computer. The problem now though is that my parents split up and so my mom downloaded a free demo version of CorelDraw X6 on her computer, and made new labels that way. This worked just fine at first, but then the demo expired and now, even though we can still look at and edit the labels, we can't save or print them, so it's useless. So she recently just gave me a CD for CorelDraw X3. When I opened up the installation process, it asked for a serial number, and I asked where that was. My mom said "I don't have one." and sure enough, it came in a paper sleeve. I have no idea where she bought it from, but there is definitely no serial number anywhere visible.

Any ideas to make it work, or are we just going to have to buy a new program?

I feel like half of my questions are about food going bad... anyways.

We have a bottle of ranch dressing in our fridge that expired(and it did say expire) March 1, 2013. Do you think it will still be okay to use? It smells mostly like ranch dressing, and looks fine. Risk it or no?

So, I had a stomachache earlier, so I went to the bathroom, and because I have IBS, I typically check my bowel movements. Well, it was, in the best way I can describe it,(TMI!!!) a greenish bluish grey color. My stomach got worse after that, and I barely made it to the end of my class before running to the bathroom and having explosive diarrhea(which was now dark green).

I wouldn't be worried if I had eaten something colored, but I haven't, and I have the horrible stomach cramps to go along with it.

As to possible causes, I did eat some questionable pizza last night from our local Little Caesars. I think the cheese was just burnt, but there was like a black and grey part underneath the top layer of cheese. Also, I just babysat for somebody yesterday who, when I got there, I found out the baby had been sick. Then just as the mom was leaving, she mentioned that she had been throwing up so she didn't really want to leave, but she had to. Today both she and her husband have the stomach flu. The only other thing I can think of is that two weeks ago my niece had a stomach bug, and a week ago I figured she was better and was sharing ice cream with her. But she never had a fever, so that very well could have been some sort of food poisoning.

No, like I said, I have not eaten anything colored. I eat a mostly white diet anyways, but I literally have not had anything that's of an extreme color lately. I had some blueberries three days ago, but only about half a cup, so that shouldn't be the cause.

So for about 5 years, I went to this dance studio. The teacher/owner really liked me, but since I started late, I was never really in the "in-crowd" of the studio, as opposed to the girls who had been there their whole lives.

Well, long story short, the owner isn't very well trained, she only took a few dance classes in high school, but then when she graduated from college the old owner handed her the studio because she had the same name as the original owner and the studio's name has the original owner's name in it. So I was starting to want more technique and more of a proper training. So this year I moved to a new studio in town(Old studio, but she moved from a town half an hour away to here) where I have a teacher who was professionally trained and danced professionally.

So let's just say that I'm not on the greatest terms with the old teacher/owner, because I kind of left without explanation. She apparently kept asking about me at the beginning of the year. Well I just found out that she so happens to be the choreographer for a musical I'm trying out for next week. This shouldn't be a problem, and might even work in my favor, but how do I avoid any awkward tension? Have any of you been in a situation like this? Maybe I'm worrying too much, but this is the first musical I've done where I've got an actual shot at a main part.

So I'm lactose intolerant, and there are these truffles I want to make that actually use almond milk. My problem is that I hardly ever use almond milk, so the stuff we have has a use by date of November 12. It's never been opened though. Safe to use?