rocky horror

Remember those years I spent all of October immersed in one thing: The Rocky Horror Show?

That was the best. The most fun, the highest energy, the most INSANE time of my life.

Look at me in this picture, all of 19 years old and with my natural hair color.

Every time I tell someone I've done that show three times they ask who I played. I say, "Janet. I always play Janet." They reply, "Janet!?!??! I would never think to cast you as Janet! Definitely Magenta... or that other girl....uh..."
"Columbia?"

"YES!!! You'd make a PERFECT Columbia!!!"

It'd be interesting to see how I'd be cast now. I still can't imagine playing anyone else in that show. It's also one of the few shows I could do.. like... forever. I don't think I could ever get sick of it. It's too weird and funny... and since there are new audience participation lines all the time it changes often.

And it was a GREAT way to spend my birthday.

Happy Halloween to every one from those casts and to you, blog reader.

And YEEEEEHAW---only 2.5 hours until my birthday!!!!!!!!

BOO!!!!

The Halloween party was awesome!! We had a great time. On Monday morning Chris and I ran around to get the donuts and a couple other last minute things (like dinner for us later). After we got home we cleaned and set everything up and then were putting on our costumes until the very last minute when Jenny and Eliot came. Eliot was dressed as a kitty ("Succotash" to be exact) and Jenny came as that woman who carved a backwards B in her own face and blamed it on a fake attacker. Ella was REALLY excited to start bobbing her apples but I had to keep telling her to wait. We couldn't bob for apples with only 3 people there! Greg (my birthday buddy!!) and Alyssa came next since she had to go to a dance class at 8pm and soon after Doreen, JP and baby Olive followed... and then EVERYONE ELSE followed!!! I made them play the game where you eat a donut without using your hand, a pumpkin cake walk and then finally Ella was able to bob for apples. The food was in our apartment and games were in Scot and Kate's downstairs. The party only lasted about 2.5 hours but that's how I like it. My parties are like 50 minutes of extremely high energy and craziness sandwiched between regular socializing. I was EXHAUSTED when everyone left! It was great, thuough. Here is a spooooooky picture of me in my first costume, dead maid. I changed into Sexy Dinosaur halfway through the night (Sexy Dinosaur costume is now too big for me, just like all my old clothes.)

You can see all the party pictures I took (and some Alex took) at my flickr website.

SO!! What else.... we have not won the McDonald's Monopoly game although we aren't really trying as hard this year. I got addicted to that game in 2005 when I was sad over the break up, didn't own a refrigerator so I couldn't go shopping and had only $5 a day to spend on food. Chris actually won a pretty big prize one of the first years it was out so he has liked it since then. While on the road last year we played a lot since we could but this year we just never have the chance. Oh well. Even though McDonald's is now mainly trans fat free it's still not GOOD for you.

Now that my party is over I feel like Halloween is over, even though it's still 2 days away. OOOOOooooooohhhhh, two days until my BIRTHDAY!!!! YAY!!! As we all know, my birthday is the best day of the year for me and everyone else. Look how everyone celebrates it!!! Martha Stewart is CRAZY about my birthday!! She taught me how to make a paper wig today. Man, the Halloween mix I made for my party was SO AWESOME!!!! I had a ton of great classic songs (like the one featured at the bottom of this post) and some you might not be expecting (like "I Wish I Was a Girl" by Counting Crows). I was so proud of that Halloween mix.

I have to go to work tonight (I was thankful to be able to sleep in), tomorrow morning and then I have off for my birthday. On Saturday Chris and I are judging some one act play festival in Lexington or something. I have no idea what I'm going to be doing, really, but I know they're giving us $75. We HAVE to make it home for Thanksgiving!!

The Milwaukee Shakespeare Theatre closed abrupty yesterday. I guess one of their main contributors pulled out because of the financial crisis. This made me really sad. It looked like such a great theatre. Plus, you know, it's terrifying. At our theatre, and most other non-profits, tickets sales only cover 60% of the operating costs so we depend on donations.... that's not good in these rough economic times. I mean, it's probably not good to be a theatre at ALL right now. At least we have the pull that we are the world's only recreation of the Blackfriars and we're the only company in the world performing plays with all the original staging practices that Shakespeare used. That's a draw, right??? RIGHT????

Ok, go get a pumpkin and have some fun celebrating my birthday. BOOOOOO!!!!



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Now playing: DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince - A Nightmare on My Street
via FoxyTunes

lobsters are messed up, too

Chris has been working out like a maniac to get into "Talbot shape." He's playing this character in 1Henry6 that's all... a warrior. From what the scholars say the character of Henry V may have been based on Talbot (the Henry 6's were written first). So, you know, he must be some kind of great speaker and totally bad-ass. Anyway, that's obviously Chris to a T but that cuddly bear still wants to become super buff so he works out all the time. He'd already lost a bunch of weight because I make him eat so much fiber. The other day he started to look sick and I can only assume it's because his immune system was too tired.

I'm watching I Love the 80s 3D: 1989 right now. They just showed The Little Mermaid and I realized something. You know how she dies in the original version? That's a story that was REALLY ahead of it's time. She gives up her voice for a man and then she DIES. I always found the story of Jessica in Merchant to be very similar to that of Ariel... not the Disney Ariel, but the other one. I still do love that movie, though. You know it will probably always be my favorite movie. She taught me how to SING!

We got a new desk at work and it's nice. I stress out in this job a lot. I don't remember EVER stressing out while on tour. The only time I DON'T stress out is when I'm bartending but even then, if I haven't eaten enough I get the shakies. So, anyway, I stressed out today when we finally were able to turn the phones back on (we had to get all the messages, put everything BACK in the desk, people were coming in and calling on both phone lines), I stress out if I feel like I've bothered anyone, I stress out about money, the size of the audience, having enough time to set up... I hate it. I wish I had a hot tub so I could just relax after work and forget I went there all day. Man, is THIS why people drink? I won't start drinking. I'll just start twittering more or something.

My birthday is only 9 days away!!! Ooooooh!! Or should I say BOOOOOOOO. I'm excited. I think we're going to Roanoke. My party is on Monday and I am also totally excited about that. Our apartment is the coolest Halloween apartment EVER!!! When I was little I was deathly afraid of the song "Thriller." Apparently once my dad played the song when we were going through a car wash and both things freaked me out a lot. I used to call the car wash "Thriller." Anyway, now I think it is the greatest song ever written.

What is UP with those Burger King Steak House Shroom and Swiss commercials? God, they're so weird. Burger King has definitely gotten funnier over the years but they also don't make any sense. Maybe that's the point.

I watched part of Signs the other day and was simultaneously freaked out and totally crying my face off. I always liked that movie... I really like movies where things mean something (like why Culkin boy has asthma or why tiny Abigail Breslin left glasses of water everywhere). I am also terrfied of aliens. Well, I used to be a lot more terrified of them. Recently I have truly seen how things on this earth are FAR WEIRDER than anyone's image of an alien. Even a regular FISH is weird looking than a movie alien. Anything from the sea is so messed up and freaky that I almost wonder how much weirder real aliens could be. Regardless, I don't want them to come here and kill me. There's no way we're the only planet with living organisms on it in the universe... but I sure don't wat to meet any other ones. Spooky.

debate schmeschmate

I was angry at work on Saturday for a couple of reasons but it made me not a very nice person. One person's tickets were completely just... LOST. They'd been paid for, it was clear a reservation had been made, just not for the performance he was supposed to attend. I was nice to him. I was also nice to the school group who wanted to change every thing at the last minute. I started to get really irritated by the old lady taking advantage of the student rush ticket (you can get 2 tickets for one student ID) who demanded to be put in the best seats even though we had a bunch of walk up ticket buyers (we had 50 that night) behind her in line who were actually paying full price. We were running out of reserved seats. If it had been a small house I wouldn't have cared if they had good seats, but why should we sell a seat for$11 if we can sell the same seat for $35 when there are only a couple seats left? Ugh. Anyway. I was mad.

Last night Chris and I ventured out to karaoke with Nash and Pasha. It was pretty funny. Chris Nash did "air fiddle" to "Ants Go Marching" by DMB. There was a lot of interpretive dance going on in front of the stage. There were only like 20 people there and they all wanted to interpretive dance. Or rap. God, it was funny. Their song list was GREAT, too. They not only had every Pat Benatar and Heart song I could ever want to sing, they had the entire soundtrack to Hair!! I sang "Invincible" by Ms. Benatar and Chris did not sing... although he said he might next time. Pasha sang his apparent standard, "Brown Eyed Girl." It was fun.

I am, of course, not watching tonight's debate. Why on earth would they schedule a debate during the same time as the FINALE of Project Runway?? I don't like debates anyway. They make me uncomfortable. It's not like I would ever change my opinion by watching one, anyway. As long as you're a republican I'm not voting for you. Anyway, I am so excited for the finale!! I hope Leanne wins (obviously). I do like her collection the best. I liked Kenley's too (and Jerrell's but that's a lost cause) but she is just too mean to win. If Korto won I would only be disappointed that I didn't win $65 from the work pool. I really love Korto. She is awesome. But GO LEANNE!!!!

teena brought me candy called "creepy peepers"

I'm house managing tonight which sucks because A. It's the longest of the 4 shows AND there is a talk back and B. I am going to have to watch the late episode of Project Runway. I'm also going to be totally alone in this lobby for the better part of 2.5 hours.

My throat is starting to feel swelly. I hope I'm not getting sick. It wouldn't really matter if I was but no one WANTS to be sick. My body hurt all last night for no reason but I attributed that to paper-cutting fatigue (which is what I did ALL DAY at work yesterday, making invitations to the Halloween party). I have been doing a lot of physical work today.... so much so that I didn't sit down until I had been here for over an hour and a half and then I forgot to print the will call until 10 minutes before the lobby re-opened.

On Monday Chris and I went to Charlottesville to go to the Halloween store. It was great. I twittered about this but I did a search for Halloween stores in Virginia and there are only 15. In Ohio there are over 60! That's ridiculous. There's also about 7 times the amount of Haunted Houses in Ohio. Why does Viriginia HATE FUN? I'll tell you what Virginia does not hate... potato donuts. We finally made it to Spudnut in time (they close at 2pm) and got to try a potato flour donut. Man are they good. And it was only $1.80 for two. PLUS... you know... I'm sure there's more of a nutritional value because it's made from a POTATO. Yes... that's how I justified it to myself.

I got to sing for the old folks again today in a workshop (PS- "old" is not someone is his mid-30s as a certain anonymous jackass commentor likes to think. "Old" is 70-80.). I like singing. I especially like singing Johnston's version of the "lullaby" from Midsummer. We sound GREAT and that song is awesome. I was so proud of myself for coming up with my harmonies on the spot because they are... very contemporary and complex. I am really good at coming up with contemporary melody lines, though. If I could use someone else's words and someone else's chord progressions I could be a killer melody-line song writer. I don't think that job exists, though. I think too many people can already do all three a lot better.

Sometimes I think about writing a book about how much working at the OG sucked. I mean, yeah, most jobs suck... but that job REALLY sucked. Especially when I moved back to Ohio. In California I didn't get tipped more than 15% but at least I wasn't completely freaked out by all the customers AND my coworkers. I was like the only person who worked there who wasn't drunk and on drugs all the time. I still really like that restaurant, though. If there was one closer than Roanoke I might actually go once in a while. I haven't been to the OG since Duluth in March!

i'm using bad language to make a point

So, anonymous comments had continued so I had to stop letting anonymous people make comments. Great job, you ruined it for everyone. Also, let me just say one thing: I don't care if you make fun of me (well, I DO care but I'm not going to delete the comment. I'll just stoop to your level and insult you back) but when you insult my loved ones there is a BIG PROBLEM. This is why I am a hitter--- because when I get mad I get REALLY, REALLY mad. Not once, but twice? Come on, dickweed. Grow some fucking balls and get over yourself.

etc etc etc

I got to sing once more this week for Alyssa but otherwise it's been a pretty boring week. They started renovating the lobby. The painters were there on Tuesday (and every night after the shows were over) and on Wednesday we got new shelves in the gift shop. They are really nice and they'll be even nicer when they have handles on them. My new shirts are selling really well which is good and bad. I obviously want them to sell but I do not want to run out of them right away.

I started decorating for Halloween and it is very SPOOKY in our apartment. Kate has done some very scary lights outside, too, which is awesome. I just want Halloween to last forever!

I did not watch the debate on Thursday because it would just make me angry. I did watch the SNL debate which was of course hilarious. Right now I am watching The King and I which is also hilarious. I mean, maybe I'm not laughing outright per se, but I am feeling the humor inside me, and isn't that good enough? I really do want to play Anna some day when I'm older. No one seems to do these shows, anymore. Rogers and Hammerstein shows. I mean, except for the racism and/or sexism that is in them they're really very good. Smart and funny scripts, great songs... I don't know why I am trying to justify Rogers and Hammerstein to the world. I think they've proven themselves already.

Project Runway was really disappointing this week. I HATE that they did not just get rid of Kenley. I mean, come on. It's just going to make the eventual elimination worse for whoever it is. I am getting excited about the finale. I am especially excited because I have Leanne in the work pool and if she wins I win... you know... $5 from the other 12 people. Considering I was 9th to choose I think I got a really good contestant.