stupid smarch weather

I call my parents every Sunday night and half the time the conversation is like this:
"So, anything new?"
"No. Just working all the time."
That is what this blog post today will be like. I feel like I SHOULD update because it's unlikely that more will happen but I also don't have too much to say. Mostly wedding stuff has been happening and if you want to read about that, you can go to seilard.blogspot.com.

The weather this week has sucked. You keep thinking it's going to get warmer in the afternoon but then it doesn't. Every morning it's like 30 degrees and then it's like 49 in the afternoon. Yes, that is, technically, warmer but 49 degrees is the worst temperature it could be. The last two days it has been raining which makes it even worse. I want to be able to turn the heater off. I'm not even asking to turn the fan on, just the heater off! I thought March went in like a lion and came out like a lamb. This is more like a wet fish from the north pacific than a lamb. I want real spring. It will start sooner here than in Ohio. Spring always makes me so environmentally aware.

I really have been working a lot. When I was paid salary and only had to work 40 hours a week I felt like I had the easiest job ever! I'd always have half a day off and I had so much time to relax. Since they eliminated my full time job and I have to work hourly in the box office PLUS the job in the costume shop that I HAD to get to make up for the pay cut, I feel like I live at the theatre. Usually I just work at night but since I have to come in at 2:30pm it's hard to describe it as "a night shift." I am just always there. I'm way more tired than I was in the summer and fall and even though I am bringing home about the same amount of money, before I had insurance. So, actually, I'm NOT making as much money, I just don't have any health coverage so it seems like I am.

Speaking of health insurance I think I am getting sick. Everyone I know got sick before me. Chris had that horrible flu at the end of January and I managed to avoid it. I BABYSIT and I managed to avoid their super baby illnesses. However, today I woke up and I don't feel so good. Step one, vitamin C pill. Step two, Zicam. Zicam really works (knock on wood). I bet it's because I worked 13.5 hours yesterday, many of which were spent running up and down 5 flights of stairs and pulling garbage cans and recycling up a really steep hill in the 40 degree rainy weather. YUM.

I did sleep like a rock last night, though.

Oh yeah, I mentioned it on twitter but this summer I will be working at the Heritage Repertory Theatre in Charlottesville doing "Oliver!" They are giving me housing, which is great since I don't have a car, and the pay is pretty decent, too. It's really nice that it is so close to Staunton so when I leave for a month as a newlywed, I can still see Chris pretty regularly. I am happy to have an actng job, happy that I don't know anyone who works at the theatre and got the job all myself and happy that they are letting me take off a month of work to do this show and come back in July.

Tomorrow is Chris's birthday! The next day is the anniversary of our engagement. Yes, yes... awwwwww. I don't think we'll have time to actually do anything on any of those days but hooray for them anyway!

what happens in two weeks

The last two weeks have been seriously crazy. The worst thing to happen in a very, very long time was news we received on March 8th. The 3 1/2 year old daughter of our artistic director died that day. He sent out an email that evening to let everyone know and ask for prayers, etc.... I read the message in disbelief. The first thing I thought was something along the lines of "there must still be a way to save her!" She was born premature and had a lot of problems when she was a baby but for the last year things had been great. I guess she had her first asthma attack and her heart stopped and was unable to be restarted. It was horrible. Chris and I just sat on the couch crying for half an hour. I had a lot of trouble getting through the week without thinking about it and suddenly crying... and what is worse is that what I was feeling is NOTHING to what her family was feeling. We just all felt so bad. There was a memorial on Sunday (the 15th) evening. Jim and Margo gave wonderful speeches. We cried the whole time. I started crying basically as soon as I walked into the building. There were so many people there, some who worked at the theatre a long time ago who I've never met but always wondered when I would. I would have preferred to never meet them if that situation could have been avoided. It is just so sad.

In other news, on Monday the 9th we got our wedding invitations printed at Staples for $20 and they are awesome. We spent the next week trying to print on the envelopes. We borrowed Christina's printer, a work printer, Staples and Minute Man printing and NONE of them could print on this specific size envelope. It was so crazy annoying. We finally just wrote on them ourselves and sent them out today. They do not look nice. Deal with it.

Last Sunday I was supposed to go on the train at 1:30 to go to NYC. Because of the memorial I canceled my ticket and got a ride with Greg, Alyssa and Miriam who just happened to also be going that day. We got in at about 3am and I met John Moauro and some of his Hair cast at a diner. The next day I went to see the KSU showcase. It was actually a really great time. The kids did a good job and I got to see SO MANY PEOPLE, most of whom I didn't realize how much I missed them until I saw them again. TK took John and I out to eat dinner with some people which was super nice and Haven invited me to her restaurant the next day. I was supposed to go with Justin and Griffin but Justin... uh... forgot... mainly, I think, because he was drunk when the conversation was going on. I did go with Griffin though and we had such a GREAT time!!! Haven gave us so much free stuff and the restaurant was ADORABLE. She gave us 3 pots of tea, 4 scones, 2 cupcakes for free (plus a discount on our regular food) and then said "what would you like to go?" I didn't take anything but Griffin got some more stuff (fresh) to take home. She also tried to refuse a tip from us saying she doesn't take money from friends. She scratched Griffin's out on the receipt and I finally had to stick a $10 bill into the back on her shirt and run away. I just loved seeing them so much. It was such a wonderful day for me.

After lunch Griffin walked me to the Al Hirschfeld Theatre and I went to see John in Hair. It was amazing and wonderful. For some reason I didn't realize until I sat down in my awesome seat (thanks, John!) that not only was it my friend making his broadway debut, it was the show I love most in this world. Their Woof had one of the most incredible voices I've ever heard. One of the times he was in the audience he went right up to me and was caressing my hair and I just looked at him and said, "you're an awesome singer." He kissed my cheek. Later he gave me a flower. I felt like such a fangirl. Everyone was great, though, and I cried through like half the show out of happiness. Apparently freaking James Rado (co-creator/ original Claude) was there, in the audience. I told John after the show that he's the one person I would be crazy star-struck to meet (but would LOVE to meet) and he told me he was there and that I could have met him. I was... disappointed that I didn't. That would have been amazing. I did meet the girl playing Ariel in The Little Mermaid on broadway at showcase, though. I told her all about the ASC (which she asked a bunch of questions about and said "that sounds like so much fun!!!") and all about etsy. I ALSO told her that Jodi Benson (the voice of the original Ariel) was the reason I started singing. She said the same thing happened to her. She was super nice.

On Wednesday I woke up after 2.5 hours of sleep (at 3:30am), said goodbye to John and walked to the subway station on the streets of Inwood at 4am. I was pretty nervous but it obviously was fine. I only had to wait about 25 minutes for the A train and I got to Penn Station a little after 5am. At 6:40 I boarded my Amtrak train to come home. I had never ridden a train and didn't know what to expect but it was easier than I thought and kind of fun. Since I was the first person in the car I got to pick my seat (I chose the only window seat with a plug). I didn't have to sit with anyone else until after 1pm, I think. The seats and bathrooms are huge, there is a ton of legroom, there are footstools.. it's great. Although..... it did get pretty old by the end of the trip. I was definitely like "I need to get off this train" even though I slept some of the time and was so tired that I was delirious the rest of the time. The snack car was pretty disappointing... in my mind it was going to have a real restaurant or something. I don't know why I thought that. (However, I did have a GREAT turkey sandwhich from a Starbucks on Monday. I told Chris about this amazing sandwich later and he said, "boy, you sure are livin' it up in New York with your Starbucks food!")

Now I am just working forever and forever. I may be going to an audition on Monday in Arlington. We shall see.

the judges drink san pellegrino in those coke cups

Sometimes I forget that I was at that taping of American Idol back in 2005 and when I remember I'm like, "Holy crap. I was really close to the judges." Here is photographic proof of this. I was in the 3rd row back; you can see me looking off to the side, behind Paula. What was I looking at? Bo Bice. LOL. It's totally true. Bo was my faaaaavorite that year. Someone in the audience asked him where he got this pair of leather pants. The store was this vintage shop on Melrose (called Wasteland)... I started going there all the time. Not really to try to run in to Bo Bice (although that would have been awesome!) but because this store was so effing cool. They had the BEST vintage clothes, shoes and accessories I have ever come across. As we have nothing cool in Staunton, VA, I often think about Melrose Avenue and how much I loved everything about that road.

I've been watching AI on and off this year. I keep forgetting that it is on. I hope the contestants are good. I haven't been that impressed so far. I really want to like the two blonde girls.

I haven't updated either of my blogs in a long time because I haven't had that much to talk about. I work all the time and since they're mainly night shifts I don't get to just surf the web as much. On top of the box office and costume shop, I've also been babysitting a couple of times a week for the Harrells. It's been fun. Martha Jane still cries when mom or dad leave but she feels better not too long after. I changed my first diaper the other day (her's, not mine). I was scared. I still don't know if I did it right. I always thought the tape would be way stickier. Eliot and I listen to the Spoon album, "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga" a lot and play with Google Earth. The kittens are the cutest little cats ever! The last time I was over Murry crawled into my jacket (that I was wearing) and went to sleep. Shortly after, Titus followed him. It was so cute. I wish someone would have been there with a camera.

The weather was beautiful today! It should be pretty nice all weekend. I like to hope that it won't be below 50 again until October but that's just silly. On Monday the 2nd there was so much snow (2 inches or so) that they cancelled all the schools and closed a bunch of stores (because they are WIMPS. The roads were DRY and it was sunny all day!). On Friday the 6th it was above 60 degrees. Winter doesn't make any sense. As much as I love days like today, I would prefer not to have them if the weather will get bad again. Getting teased with nice weather is worse than it being cold for 4 months.

I will probably have some real news soon. If nothing else, I'm going to NYC in a week to see John in "Hair." I'll have other news, though... just wait and seeee!