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.

exciting and cold

This week has actually been exciting. It started out pretty much horrible but it got a lot better. On Wednesday I had to trade shifts with Solomon which left my morning open which meant I could sing at this workshop for the Elderhostel group. I was happy just to be singing. That evening I found out Alyssa had slipped a disc in her back and might have to have an understudy go on. She still was able to go on as Viola in 12th Night and her roles in Richard but she had to miss Measure and Lear. Alyssa sings a lot in the preshow/interludes of those shows so I of COURSE mentioned to Aaron if they needed someone I would love to do it. They did need someone and I got to sing and I was so happy. I mean, obviously I didn't want Alyssa to be in excruciating pain but I was happy to help out and again, just happy to be singing. Her understudies did great in the roles, too. Lesley got to go on twice as Cordelia. I love it when Lesley is in shows... I just think she is so talented.

Anyway, so ALSO on Friday Johnston and I did our "gig" at the hotel next door. We were in a small ballroom next to the bar and between the bar and the room there were probably 100 people. We were doing this strolling minstrel thing but only people right next to us could hear us because it was just SO LOUD. Rene was in the bar after the show and he didn't even know we were in there singing. Our set was about 25-30 minutes and we did it 3.5 times in 2 hours with really quick water breaks between. I have never sung that much for that long in my entire life. I could have kept singing but MAN was my speaking voice gone! I could only speak to people in my head voice after it was over. I'm a soprano and Chris is a tenor and we both have much, much weaker lower registers so obviously everything we were singing was really high. It was pretty funny. I was exhausted after it was over. My legs hurt, I couldn't speak normally and I was sooo tired, but overall I think it went pretty well. A lot of people complimented us afterwards (and some even started talking to us mid-song) and we made a nice chunk of change so it was worth it. I'd like to do more stuff like that with the hotel so hopefully they will have a need.

My t-shirts for the gift shop came in and they are AMAZING!!! I was so happy. We've already sold a bunch even though they are more expensive than any other clothing items (except hoodies). Every one in the company loves them. They just look super cool. I am very pleased with how this turned out. If I am ever able to order anything new in the gift shop I want to start with the company Immortal Longings. They sent me this AWESOME sample pack (which included a Viola card (that we gave to Alyssa as a get well card) and a Cordelia card (which we gave to Lesley as a thank you card) ) and I totally love them. The drawings are just so pretty.

I've gotten two mean comments from "Anonymous" recently. It's kind of annoying because I'm left wondering: who is this person? I really doubt that anyone I know is secretly that mean. Plus, why on earth would a STRANGER take the time to insult someone they don't know on the internet? Why NOT put your name? It's not like I'd know who it was anyway. And if I DO know the person they clearly don't want to be my friend anymore so why not let me know that so I can erase them from my memory and leave them alone? Plus, if they hate me so much, why are they reading my blog? I mean, come on. Get a life. I don't read Angelina Jolie's blog. I don't like her and therefore I do not care what is going on with her. Anyway, so I've been thinking about, you know, my ENEMIES. I've only had one real enemy and I don't think we're still enemies anymore because those events are like 7 years old. I'm pretty sure the statue of limitations has cleared us of enemy-dom. We also appologised to eachother. That helped the situation. The only person who I have offended deeply enough to want to be this mean to me is Sarah Palin. Sarah, I'm SORRY! I can't help it. I know I'm being a hypocrite, you're just... so.... not presidential material. That's the best way to put it: She's just not presidential material. You don't have the chutzpah. I don't look at her and think, "WOW! I sure respect THAT WOMAN!" I look at her and think, "WOW! You're in way over your head!" So, anyway Sarah, stop leaving me mean "anonymous" comments on my blog. The joke's getting old.

My birthday month begins on WEDNESDAY!!!! I bought some decorations at Target in the dollar section. I am so excited. I can't wait. This is gonna be ONE SSSSPPPPPPPOOOOOOOOOOKKKKYYY MONTH!!

it's finally fall

Chris is in a really bad mood because he doesn't have any money. I told him, "as long as you're an actor you're never going to have any money." I mean, it's TRUE, is it not? Acting sucks. It is so expensive. Any kind of good headshot session costs at least $250 (and that is a BARGAIN), reproductions are at least $100, joining the union costs I think $1100 (plus dues twice a year), you have to buy nice clothes for auditions, if you go to an audition out of town there's travel+hotel+food+registration fee (like UPTAs) and then there's the fact that no one will pay you any money because half the theatres are not for profit and if they're not they have really low wages because there will always be someone who is willing to act for hardly any money and horrible treatment (see: The Barn). This is assuming you take no classes of any kind and do not have a subscription to Backstage. Then there's the staying healthy because you CANNOT just call off work and having no schedule leeway to do anything else. And, if you want to have any kind of real career, you have to live in a big city with rent that is sky-high. Yes, my friends, acting sucks and I would recommend it to no one. It's a lot of fun, though..... you have a LOT of fun.

Chris Johnston and I are singing at this thing on Friday for the government of Virginia at the hotel next door and it is going to be really funny. Funny for ME, hopefully not for the people who are attending this conference. I guess, since we work at a Shakespeare theatre, they assumed we only know Renaissance music, so that's what they originally asked us to play. We, of course, don't know ANY Renaissance music so we had to use this book to find some and let me tell you... Elizabethan music is TERRIBLE! Sometimes people complain that we play modern music during our preshows and interludes but who in their right mind would want to actually listen to Renaissance music? So, anyway, we're playing a couple songs from this book (most of which are featured in at least one Shakespeare play), some original music Johnston wrote for "Midsummer", "Merchant" and "The Maid's Tragedy", one contemporary interlude song we did for "Merchant" and two random contemporary songs that we just want to do. We are going to be doing a "strolling minstrel" thing and I am just happy to be getting to sing in public instead of alone in the lobby of the theatre.

I am looking foward to winter when my face will be less oily. I've been using those oil blotting sheets because I have some serious excess oil. I don't know how I haven't been breaking out like crazy. Anyway, in the winter, a single drop of excess oil will be extremely welcome. My whole face is so dry in the winter that my nose starts bleeding.

I am so excited about my birthday coming!!! Scot told me today that if I wanted to, he and Kate would let me use their half of this house to have a two-story SPOOKY apartment party! Uh.... HECK YES I would want that!! I am totally excited. It is going to be such a SCARY time and everyone is going to have lots and lots of fun! Dollar General and Big Lots better be prepared for me to buy them out of their Halloween decorations.

It finally happened. After months of watching What Not to Wear every day on my lunch break I finally would rather wear a blouse than a t-shirt. They really do look better.

i don't have enough to blog about because nothing happens

I had to work all mornings this week. Most people would LOVE working 9-5 every day but for me it was like.... AHHHHHHH!!!! I started to get anxiety over the fact that I wouldn't be able to sleep past 8am all week which kept me awake at night. Next week is almost exactly the same. The worst part about this is that there is no one at the theatre all day now that the tour left and rehearsals for Richard II are over. Most days it's just me and one other box office person (and sometimes it's just me for hours). Hardly anyone comes in to the theatre to buy tickets in person so I see less than 10 people a day except on my walk to work. It makes me not want to wear anything even remotely nice. It's like, why should I if I'm not even going to see anyone? I could just wear what I'm wearing now (a hilary duff t-shirt, lol) and no one would know. Some days I started to sing in the lobby just because I was the only person in the theatre and no one would know. Now I'm LONELY. I just can't be happy at work, can I?

I got my hair cut on Monday again. I mainly just needed it shorter so that when it grew out really fast (as it will) it wasn't totally weird looking. And, you know, I didn't want it to grow into a mullet. I've fixed that, now.

I really want a ragdoll cat. They're such big, big kitties! Apparently they're the most dog-like of all the cats, so Chris would like it too (he likes cats a lot but he LOVES dogs). First I need to convince our landlord to let us have a cat in the first place, then I need to find a ragdoll cat in a shelter and then I will be a happy girl. Oh, and I have to somehow control the cat allergy Chris has. I just need a kitty.

The woman on What Not to Wear has naturally curly, red hair and hates it. WHAT?? Who would hate that? That's the best kind of hair in the world! I really watch this show too much. I mean, I guess there are worse things to watch (infomercials? anything on MTV?) but our TV is only on 3 channels: TLC, ESPN and Bravo.

i wish i could buy pants in bulk

I hit my head really hard on the refrigerator like an hour ago. It still hurts. You never realize how fast you're moving until you hit something in the middle of moving.

Today Chris and I met Scot and Kate at Costco where I got Fiber One bars in bulk! I had no idea there was a Costco in Harrisonburg and we go there pretty often. Tomorrow I am getting my hair cut again since it grows so fast and if I am going to keep it shirt I need to REALLY keep it short. Right now I'm afraid it will grow out into a mullet. I cannot let this happen.

Today I tried to put on a pair of jeans that used to be my "skinny" jeans. When I bought them they were just the right amount of tight and so when I would wash/dry them they'd be slightly too tight and I wouldn't want to wear them, you know, every week of the month. I haven't worn them in a while and today I put them on and they were so big that I couldn't wear them out. A belt was the only thing to keep them up but the belt made them bunch in the front. I cannot believe those jeans are too big. I had worn a size 8 pants for the last... I don't know... 6 years and now not only am I swimming in a 6 but size 4 is even a little big in some cases. I DON'T UNDERSTAND THIS. My physical activity level has decreased significantly since June, I eat all the time... so, listen up. Seriously, listen to me and Brittany Spears. If you want to lose weight and not, apparently, do anything at all (except 100 sit ups a night), eat as much fiber as you can and stop drinking regular pop. Cut that sugar down. I am going to WISH this worked for me again in 10 years.

It's above 90 degrees again today which equals horrible in our apartment. This is the only day for the next 10 that is anywhere near this hot and we haven't felt like this in about a month. Tomorrow it's supposed to drop like 10 degrees and another 10 the day after that and just hover around 70 for the foreseeable future. That will be nice. Today it's just sweat city.

Ginna's boyfriend Sheffield just got cast in White Christmas on Broadway. I was talking to him on Friday night after the Richard II opening. I told him he needs to change his name to "Broadway Sheffield." Change his resume and everything. I laughed a lot because he said something like, "Yes... I'll be the most presumptuous fuck in the world. 'Hi, my name is Broadway Sheffield and I'm here to audition for your show'." Speaking of Broadway, John is closing Hair at the Public Theatre... but the show announced on Wednesday that it's moving to Broadway in January! They said they'd take everyone, but John doesn't want to count his Broadway chickens before they hatch, so right now I'm just keeping my fingers crossed for him. I talked to him on Thursday for a long time and everytime I do it makes me want to move to NYC. So, then I was talking to Chris about it and he said he didn't think Broadway was an impossible dream for him and I'm thinking, "THAN WHY DO YOU WANT TO MOVE TO DC!?!?!?" Anyway, since most of my friends moved to New York and I have three friends who have worked on (or are about to work on) Broadway and a fiance who thinks it would be easy for him to be on Broadway, I decided in the shower that we are going to move to New York when Chris is done in like.... a year. I'm going to UPTAs in February and I'll either get a job there or be sad in the B.O. but we totally have to save the money to do this somehow.

As I said, Richard II opened and it is a good show! I didn't know if I would like it because it's a history play that's not funny and there's no REAL conflict but I did. When I was bartending two nights this last week other people seemed to be liking it, too. Well, these rude kids on Wednesday did not like it, but I don't care what they think because they were forced to go by their teacher at the community college. The touring troupe left yesterday and Dennis is letting us borrow his car the whole time they're gone which is AWESOME.

Man, my head really hurts and it's making me sleepy. I don't like this.

Tina Fey looked, sounded and acted just like Sarah Palin last night on SNL and it was hilarious. I'm sure she just loathes her. Sarah Palin freaks me out, mainly. I think it's more the Alaska thing than the woman republican thing. I guess I'll never understand killing an animal and then posing with the bloody carcas for a picture. That's just gross. And I know, the meat I'm eating was alive once, but whenever I think about that it's really disturbing. I could never kill animals for a job let alone do it for FUN. I can't even handle raw meat to put it on the George Foreman grill. I just don't know what the "American values" are. I've heard people (Republicans) say that Barack Obama is just too liberal and that most Americans are somewhere in the middle of the political spectrum. But why? Every other big country is WAY more liberal than we are. Is it because American was founded by Pilgrims and Puritans? And why are "European ideas" put in quotation marks? I LOVE European ideas! The Beatles, IKEA, mass transportation, cars with really high MPG, marriage for all... why are we the last ones to get on board? And then, when we finally do, we act like we invented said "ideas" in the first place. How can the country that brought you the ipod be so behind in everything else? America was also founded by EXPLORERS (like my relative, John Ledyard and, you know, Christopher Columbus) who were looking for something new and exciting. Let's take THEIR example! No, not the native killing and gold stealing (which I am sure the Puritans and Pilgrims did, also) but the NEW and EXCITING example! Let's harness the WIND and let it blow us to freedom from oil!*†

*Amerigo Vespucci harnessed the wind and look what happened to him----he's got two continents named after him!!

†Also, after reading this paragraph to him, Chris said, "You should end with, 'So in conclusion, the wind and the republicans can blow me'." I chose not to say it myself but it was too funny to not include at all.

not my dream job. not so much, dennis.

A guy buying tickets just asked Nash and I if either one of us had been involved in shows here in the past. He pointed at me and I told him what season I was in. The man buying tickets said, "So you've given up your life's dream to work in the box office!" I sighed and said no and then died inside.

This week has been really boring. SMALL houses (like under 50 every night) and, of course since I mentioned how well it was doing before, low gift shop sales. Chris and I went to IKEA on Monday and it was fun. He bought the wardrobe (I bought.... measuring spoons) and put it together when we got home that night. It looks good and our room is already so much cleaner after hiding everything we own in the closet. Well, at least all the guitar cases, amps and plastic storage bins.

I was sad to see Stella get voted off Project Runway. She was so funny! I was happy that Leanne won for the second week in a row. She's funny, too, but in a completely different way.

Tropical storm (née Hurricane) Hanna is coming tomorrow! That'll will be.... wet and rainy. I guess I won't be going to the farmer's market again. I'll miss those magic cookies.

I'm so down on myself lately. My confidence is falling... ugh... and it took so long to come back! This is gonna be a long lifetime if I get this depressed every time I'm not performing. Maybe it's like a break up and I'm just not over it, yet. I bet that's what it is, for real. I spent a year with the same 11 people doing one of 3 different things every day and then all of a sudden they're ripped away from me and I'm doing something I'm not interested in. I bet if I were in another show it wouldn't be so bad---just like in a break up. I mean, this would explain how the three people from our troupe that went straight to the next tour cried at the company meeting... it's because they were sad about our troupe breaking up. I have to say, this revelation is actually amazing for me because I was afraid I was JUST SAD. Having found the similarities to a break up gives me hope that I will only be sad for around 6 months (it takes half the time you were with them to get over them) and that maybe after that I won't be sad anymore. God, I hope I won't be sad anymore. It's getting depressing.

Chris wants to cure my sadness by taking me to Ohio for a couple days at some point. I want to do it. I don't know if we can AFFORD to do it but I'd really like to. I always feel better when I see the lake.

i went to work this week, too

EDIT:
I forgot this anecdotal story:
The other day this woman and her daughter came to exchange a t-shirt that was too small. She had the "Top Ten Shakespeare Insults" shirt in medium and wanted large but there were no larges left. I said we had the top 10 pick up lines shirts and the "We Do it With the Lights On" (the HOUSE LIGHTS!) shirt in large but she said they were from a very Christian community and that she wouldn't be able to wear either one of those shirts. I looked at the insults shirt (the first insult being "You are an ass") and said, "You're allowed to wear shirts that insult people but not shirts with Shakespearean pick up lines?" She said, "You just have to understand where we come from." I let her exchange the shirt for a more expensive book without charging the difference.

Today we had a company picnic. There was almost nothing I wanted to eat there. If only I made the choice to try more foods I wouldn't have that problem. There was some REALLY AWESOME cornbread, though. Chris and I brought 3lbs of cole slaw. Neither one of us eat cole slaw but it was at Kroger and we didn't have to put any effort into it. It's not like we can make anything anyway, neither one of us is skilled enough and we didn't have 8 hours for a crock pot chicken. I told him we should have brought Taco Bell.

The Virginia temperature has gone back to normal. I think it's supposed to get hot again later this week. Bleah. I enjoyed not having to run the AC at night.

So, as anyone following me on Twitter knows, I was watching the streamed Radiohead concert on Thursday and it was fantastic. I love everything they do. I've been listening to them all weekend because of the concert and I learned "Karma Police" on the guitar on Friday. I think I've gotten better despite taking an enitre month off from playing. Strumming is still hard but it's coming along. Strumming is like tap dancing to me: it sounds right in my head and I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong but I know I MUST be doing something wrong. Especially with tap. That's why I don't tap and never will.

So, yes, we're all puzzled by Sarah Palin. I mean, basically, what John McCain seems to be saying to me is, "You are not pretty enough for me. I only want to be surrounded by beauty queens." My first reaction was, "HE picked a WOMAN!?!?!??!?!" It's just... puzzling. I mean, I can see why he did it for the election (and the only person who will NOT suffer from this pick is Hillary Clinton. She's going to come out of this situation looking amazing), but... I mean... HUH? John McCain reminds me of Grandpa Time.

The other night Chris and I went to Target, like we do whenever we're bored, and I found the EXACT SAME STYLE of shoes that I got at the Ross in the cheapo Target brand. I found the shoes that I bought on Zappos and they retail at $80 original price. YIKES. I mean, the real Steve Madden shoes that I got from Ross were cheaper than the Target brand, but you can bet I thought about getting the brown ones to go along with my teal ones. I didn't... but I thought about it.

My little gift shop has been selling really well lately (Knock on wood). Hopefully by announcing this to the world the sales don't plummet forever. The better the sales are the better I look, being the gift shop manager, and the more likely it is that my bosses will let me continue to order new things. I am going to get the final t-shirt designs this week and send them off to the printing guy. I can't WAIT until they get back.

I want to go on a trip. I wish I had money to go on a trip. I really wish I could take a trip to LA, actually. When I moved away everyone told me to visit and I said, "Oh, I definitely will." I clearly have not and it's about to be 3 years since I left. I wonder if my LA friends would remember who I am by now. Probably not, but there's still a lot of PLACES in LA that I miss. Like, lol, Koo-Koo Roo and Johnnie's Pizzeria.

time of the season

It's freezing today! I'm exaggerating. It's not freezing. It is, in fact, 57 degrees which is not freezing... but that's HELLA COLD for August in Virginia! I like it right now. I'm sure I won't like it after a couple more weeks. It's raining and gray and messy outside. I wore my jacket and thank God I did. I could have worn a hat and gloves!

Well, I'm sure it'll go up to like 90 degrees again before fall is really here for good.

So, there's this new Ross in the town right next to ours and it's still clean and nice so it's, you know, a disount retail dream. Chris took me there last night to cure my sadness and they had these Steve Madden teal heels for $16. These shoes are amazing. Really. They are mary-jane and (as I said) teal and they fit perfectly and I can wear them with anything and everything. Steve Madden is an expensive brand. More expensive than *I* can afford. Oh, Ross. You're so good to me. Anyway, well made shoes are awesome. You never realize exactly how awesome until you have a pair. They don't hurt your feet like crappy shoes, they don't fall apart the next day.... it's a whole new world out there. A world with great shoes that didn't sell well and were sent to Ross. I love these shoes.

On Sunday Chris and I cooked a chicken in the crock pot and it was AMAZING! Just put a bunch of spices on a chicken, stick it in the crock pot, turn it on Low and 8 hours later you have the best, most incredible chicken ever. Chris tried to lift it out of the crock pot to put it on the broiler in the oven and it completely fell apart, that's how tender it was. We didn't even need a knife to get the meat off. CROCK POT CHICKEN WINS!!

Scot, Kate and Ella might move in to the apartment below ours and I really hope they do because that would be so much fun. It's a great apartment; there's a lot of rooms in it. Who wouldn't want to live there? No one. It's the best. Ever.

And this is for Phil: I went to school with a lot of goblins and elves. I work with a lot of elves and two goblins. Sometimes I get sick of the whole goblin/elf world but only because it's a tough life out there for a girl.

seriously

This is the cutest little kid thing I've ever seen in my life. I couldn't help but post it.

Rylie Cate, daughter of United States' Christie Rampone, jumps from the podium in joy after her mom's team won the gold over Brazil in the women's soccer final at the Beijing 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Thursday, Aug. 21, 2008.

(AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

i coulda been!

This morning I woke up to find out I had not been chosen to be Obama's running mate and I was SO DISAPPOINTED! I like Joe Biden---he is REALLY funny---but come on. It's ME! I say all the right things. I, too, am funny. I'm young and enthusiastic about life. I buy flowers on Saturdays. I get things pierced and change my hair color/cut on a whim. I can SING! Come on, Mr. Obama, with those kind of qualifications how could you say no? Man.

My hair is not cooperating today but other than today I have had a great hair week. It's weird having short hair again. I feel like I don't have ANY hair in the shower. Everyone says they like it and unless they're lying, that's a pretty good consensus. I like it, too.

Isn't it weird when things you're waiting for are over? You spend so much time thinking about it and then it's like... oh. Well, that's done. Oh man. I just quoted Shakespeare. Jen was saying how someone didn't want to vote for Obama because of his name and I said, "What's in a name? that which we call a rose/By any other name would smell as sweet." That should totally be his campaign slogan for people who are racist and don't want to vote for him because of his name. SEE???? I am TOTALLY vice president material!

maybe i can use my old headshots again

Ok, so I got my hair all cut off and here it is. I hope I don't look too much like a Swiss girl. This is basically the same haircut I had when I lived in Los Angeles... except... now I'm 25 instead of 22. Oh, and now my hair is red. I'm not wearing any makeup in this picture so don't judge me. Carmandy would not approve.

My massage was great. I love getting a massage. She also gave me three referral cards and the people who get them get 50% off and if everyone turns them in then I get 50% another massage. Since I got 50% off the massage I got the other day it would be great doubly great. I had so many knots in my shoulders and neck. It was really bad. I blame that mean guy. The girl who did my hair was really nice and I liked the salon and their incredibly reasonable prices.

Chris is giving a tour with Stephen and he just said (after naming himself and Stephen) "...and we are a couple--" (opens door for Jasmine) "a couple of actors. Not a couple...." and then I laughed a lot and some man on the tour said "Congratulations!" It was really funny. It was probably funnier to me than it is to you, dear reader, but seriously... if you would have been here you would have laughed a lot.

I was so happy that Shawn Johnson finally won a gold medal. She is just so adorable. She could win a gold medal in the adorable routine every day.

The phone has not rung in over 2 hours. Although I am sure it's going to ring any second now that I said that, that is a really long time for no one to call the box office. This is our slow season, though. August and September are worse than the winter, apparently.

We finally got our crock pot!! I am so excited! We also finally purchased a toaster! Wow, what simple kitchen equipment we've been living without. I still don't own a cook book but, you know, one thing at a time.

Yesterday I bartended and the bar had a GREAT night. $206 and there were less than 60 people in the audience. I, however, did not have a great night with tips: I made $8. I was happy that it was more then $5 but man... when you think about that it's crazy. That's less than 5%. Like I have said before, I don't mind if someone orders one thing and doesn't tip... it's when it's multiple alcohol drinks that it gets annoying and almost everyone who came up ordered mulitple glasses of wine or beer. Annoying. That's all... it's just annoying.

Someone finally called. It had been nearly 3 hours but someone finally called. Hooray for $80!

the full moon was waning

Last night at work a man yelled at me because he was disgusted by the ladies next to him, with open toed shoes, who had put their feet up on the wall in front of their seats in the Lords Chair section. He refused to say anything to the ladies, he didn't want US to say anything to them, he just wanted to yell at me. I was more stunned than anything. It was like I was a cat and he picked me up by the nape of my neck---I just hung there and stared at him. This is, of course, without the soothing chemicals that get released in cats when they get picked up by the nape of the neck. In fact, since I obsess over everything, as Chris and I were at the grocery store later my shoulders started to hurt so bad that I wanted to cry. I'm getting a massage on Monday (I had a coupon!) and there couldn't have been better timing. Well, maybe, but this is really good timing.

The most redeeming part of last night was that my friend Chris Johnston had his first day in the box office and it was so good to see him. He told me all about the modernized production of Twelfth Night he just did in Utah... where the soliloquies were done with CELL PHONES. This is apparently the "new" thing for Shakespeare--- soliloquies said to an imaginary person on a cell phone. Someone called us once telling us about this Othello she saw in Norfolk or something where it was set in South Africa and they used cell phones for the soliloquies. She said she LOVED it. That poor woman. These poor PEOPLE. I mean, what are they THINKING??? Ugh. It's so easy... and yet, so easy to completely screw up.

Oh.... anyway... oh. So this massage. I'm really excited. I'm also getting my hair cut which is also exciting. I don't know what I want to do with it... I just want it to be cool. I haven't had COOL hair in a while. I think a lot is going to have to come off since dyeing your hair every month is not the best thing to do to hair. I'm going to research hair when I get done blogging.

So. Michael Phelps, eh? It was just meant to be for him. Everything fell into place for him exactly as he needed it to. Sometimes things are meant to be and sometimes things are not; this was meant to be. No silver medalists should feel bad that they lost to him; IT WAS MEANT TO BE FOR MICHAEL PHELPS. It's not their fault. I'm sad the swimming is over. It was exciting. It was also exciting watching the women's individual gymnastics. I cried a lot. I was watching those two American girls doing their floor routines, heat swelling inside my chest as if I could send them positive thoughts over the TV and half the length of the earth.

I have to do dishes and I do not want to.

multiple choice

Today has been long and pretty boring. I've been watching a lot of Olympics for the first time in years. I felt so bad for that girl gymnast last night. I completely know how she feels. Ok, well, I've never lost a gold medal in a sporting event (I've never participated in a sporting event) but I know what it feels like to have one thing go wrong and then have everything else fall apart around you. That girl needed a hug and a friend.

My advice to actors is this: don't get a non-acting job at a company you used to be an actor for unless you plan on changing careers. It's too sad. What I mean by that is: it will make you sad. Especially if you're around the performing all the time. Maybe if you're never around it it would be okay because you can pretend it doesn't exist but if you're around it all the time it will just make you sad that you're not acting. You will be sad. Don't do it. I like my job enough. The gift shop shop is fun and I like the people.... it just makes me sad.

I think about moving to Toronto every day. I actually could probably move to any city, it's just that Toronto has this mystique about it. I don't know why. I've been there more than any other major city. Maybe because it's Canada. Good old, mysterious Canada. Maybe they'd let us get a kitty there.

Now that I've been to the farmer's market I think about it and look forward to it every day. Chris and I are definitely going to get a crock pot. I saw this crock pot cookbook and everything in it was like "mix ingredients together, put in crock pot, turn on crock pot." That's right up my alley.

Here's a picture of the
beeaaautiful wildflowers that I got at the farmer's market.

On Sunday the final group of the kids' camp performed and they did such a great job. They did all of Hamlet with three different groups and now I think I may have seen Hamlet more than any other play. The girl from the first group who played Ophelia was from Toledo and she had such a nice voice. She should be a recording artist. I wanted to tell her that but she kept getting taken away. Little girl, if you're reading my blog, become a singer on an independent label.

Last week when we were doing laundry Chris found a rawhide dog bone in the dryer amongst all his clean clothes. We don't have a dog. I have to wonder..

A. Was it left in the dryer or the washing machine?

a. What? Why?

B. Was it planted there by a stranger when we went to look at sheet music next door?

C. If it was there before he put his clothes in, how did he not notice it?

D. Is Chris secretly chewing on rawhide dog bones and doesn't want to admit it?

PS - I wrote this post at different times during the day but now after watching Project Runway let me just say that I am SHOCKED Kelli went home. She was my favorite one! Man, those early leads can get you every time.

a beautiful day in the neighborhood

I said I'd do it and I did it: I woke up (ie, I got out of bed. I don't know if I can technically be described as "awake") and went to the farmer's market. I had the added incentive that downtown was having a sidewalk sale so I wanted to see if there was anything good. This beautiful little clothing boutique that I can never, ever buy anything from had a couple little sales out front and this one weird store that sells literally anything you can imagine (make up, faucets, furniture, unicorns, inspirational books... it's so random) had everything 10% off and everything out front was only a dollar INCLUDING a huge basket of contact solution! I don't know where this store get its stuff. The boxes had all been opened before but the solution was still sealed and they didn't expire for a year or so. I wouldn't buy that at Target for the $5 returned box of contact solution but for ninety cents? Yes. Contact solution is really expensive, especially for me since I can't use generic solution (it burns my eyes). Anyway, all told, I spent $12 this morning and got a loaf of whole wheat sour dough bread, a bouquet of wild flowers, two things of contact solution (one had a case and rewetting drops, too!) and 2 big cookies. My bouquet is so pretty. It smells like my grandma's farm.

We also saw all the dogs in the world. Duke barked at a car's breaks while we were walking down the hill, there was a dog which I named "Duke's sister" because it looked like a smaller Duke, a cockerspaniel, a miniature poodle, a chocolate lab puppy, a regular chocolate lab, a big, black lab, and a bunch of other dogs that I couldn't tell the breed of, including one which I said, "That dog is the perfect dog." It looked like the dog in that one commercial for dog food that cocks its ear up. I don't know what the dog food is or what the dog is, but I love that shaggy dog. Our neighborhood kitty, Choxie, was also in the front garden this morning watching cardinals and then she came up to us and rubbed her face all over the front steps. I love that kitty. I wish she was ours.

Today is my sister's birthday! She is 23 which is CRAZY. I guess I didn't realize she was that old. I was 23 when Chris and I started dating. Jim was 23 when we started dating a million years ago. God that's weird. 23. What a weird age. None of these things seem that long ago but if my SISTER is now 23 they must be. TWENTY THREE!!! Wow. Anyway, happy birthday to Jen!! I wish you better health in the new year.

The other day Aaron told me and Chris to come with him and then he gave us all this free stuff that the NEH people had left behind in their living arrangements, where ever those may have been. It was great. We got two couch pillows (that match the couch and rug perfectly), a chair cushion, a bunch of silverware and cooking spoons and uh... probably something else, I just can't think of what it is. I love free stuff so I loved this. Now if only I knew how to cook. I need someone to give me a free cook book. A free, low fat cook book. I can't even think of things that I COULD cook. I'm pretty sure everything I eat can fit into a list of 10. Perhaps a cook book would give me ideas. I can't eat microwavable weight watchers Smart Ones forever and Chris REALLY needs to expand his horizons from lean pockets and lean cuisine pizza. The only thing we cook is spaghetti once in a while (and even that is annoying) and Chris will sometimes make a steak. Everything else except vegetables is microwaved. Gross. I'm going to get salt poisoning.

The Olympic opening ceremonies were pretty cool, huh? Did anyone watch the Puppy Olympics afterwards on Animal Planet? I liked the kitten opening ceremonies. Thank you, Animal Planet.

Oh, so in the Project Runway pool I ended up drawing 9th and I had to choose between Leanne and Stella (everyone else was worse). I like Stella enough but there's NO WAY she can win so I chose Leanne. Chris got Suede which was a pretty good grab for 8th pick. He's annoying as hell but he's okay at designing and least he's not that idiotic, disgraceful BLAYNE who had never heard of The Beatles outside of Across the Universe which was the worst movie I've ever seen. Yes, I am putting that on record: I HATED Across the Universe. Everyone I know said I'd like it. Most people I know DID like it... and I think they must just have absolutely no taste because that movie was HORRENDOUS. It was so cheesy and lame and it was NOT a good representation of Vietnam, or hippies or The Beatles or SINGERS! If they really wanted to make a statement someone should have DIED. It was not Hair, it was not the 60s, it was not anything except CRAP.

I'm sorry, I just really hated that movie and I am ANGRY that I paid $20 for me and Chris to see it and drove 45 minutes to Charlottesville because that was the only place it was playing. It was not worth my time or money and if you liked that movie then... that's just unfortunate for you. It was a bastardized version of the greatest band of all time.

Ok. So..... moving on.... it's really nice out, so far, today! :) It's only supposed to be about 79 degrees and tomorrow there might be THUNDERSTORMS which would be great.

The other day at work I got half my t-shirt order in and I was so happy. The guy came at about 6pm, right when we were setting up for the show and I was a crazy person trying to get 3 or so of each size and type folded, on the shelves and in the computer before we reopened at 6:30pm. The next day I spent about 5 hours folding. It was.... I don't know what it was. He said he might be able to get the other half in by yesterday, but unfortunately he didn't have time to bring them down and we had no one to go get them. It's not a BIG deal, I would have liked to have had them for the YCTC crowd, but oh well. I'll live. I am looking forward to getting them, though... and our graphic design people are working on the new womens' t-shirts! I can't wait until we start doing those. They're going to be so cool. ACTUALLY cool, too, I hope.

vote for meeee!!

I entered this contest on Jason Robert Brown's website. No one knows what the prize is. It's probably nothing but to enter I had to sing "I'm Not Afraid of Anything" and it was a lot of fun. I like singing. Chris and his recorder thing recorded it for me. You can vote until August 10th at 12:01am. Please vote for me. Like I said, I don't know what the prize is, but I want to win it.

Just email "jrbkaraoke2008@yahoo.com" and put "Alisa Ledyard" in the subject line. It will take you less than a minute. Thanks!! YAY!

alisa and tipping

Remember when I used to work at the Olive Garden and I hated my life because no one on the UCLA campus ever tipped more than 10%? I am having flashbacks of that terrible time.

The normal bartenders are both out of town and Nash just left yesterday for Hawaii so I was scheduled 5 bar shifts this week. I was all about it. For some reason I kept thinking I'd make like $20 in tips a performance. WRONG. Try $10 on a $120+ bar total or less. I mean, I really can't complain (but I will). It's more than I'd make sitting in the lobby, I get to watch half the show and it's a more social job than the box office... but MAN. Today no one tipped me until halfway through the first intermission and it was a QUARTER. He did it yesterday, too. I made $5.51 today. You have to really wonder about that 51 cents, don't you? None of the bar prices include change, everything is either $2, $3 or $5. Where did the penny come from? The thing is, if you just want a bag of candy or a bottle of water I'm SHOCKED if you tip me. Even if it's just a coke or something I'm surprised. But if it's $20 worth of alcohol... I mean, come on. I can pour two cups at once!! I had a foam problem on Wednesday but by the end of the night I had learned how to pour beer correctly and there was hardly ANY foam (it takes someone who has never drank beer before longer to learn about preventing foam). I made less than $50 for five shows. I asked Jen if this was normal and she said yes, for the time of the year. That's lame.

There must be a correlation between people tipping and a good audience. Today's audience was awful. It was Twelfth Night and they hardly laughed at anything yet the performance is hysterical. It was the same yesterday morning for Measure... but last night for Lear it was a GREAT audience and they were also very generous tippers. Hmmm.. someone should do research into this.

Ok, that's my tipping complaint blog. I haven't been able to do that for over 2 years. I've enjoyed the two years.

In other news, since everyone went on vacation, I was scheduled 6 days this week but it's ok because I only have to work 4 days next week. Ah, salaried job. I signed up for some Aflac insurance on Tuesday. I'm getting vision insurance. YAY. They will just GIVE YOU MONEY after a year of having the insurance! That's almost as good as Canada!

A Barack Obama canvassing headquarters just opened up on my wlk to work. I haven't stopped in yet, but they've got all kinds of buttons and stuff so I'm sure I will. I DID, however, stop into the bakery yesterday. They're closed today and I didn't get in until one hour before they closed yesterday so I am sure at, say, the beginning of their work week there is more to choose from, but I enjoyed myself nonetheless. I got a big piece of cookie from a pie pan for only TWO DOLLARS! That's awesome. Also, I am making a pledge to go to the farmer's market next Saturday. It's always hard for me to wake up in the morning but on my way to work yesterday I caught the tail end of it and it looked GREAT! There's food and flowers and probably some kind of.. craft work... somewhere. There's also all the dogs. Everyone walks their dog to the farmer's market on Saturday.

Chris has decided to start a Project Runway pool at the theatre. We have a list of 13 people involved, we'll draw numbers and based on your number you'll get to pick your designer. If I was first right now I'd choose either Kenley or Kelli. I'm okay with Stella, but there's no WAY she could win, I like Terri and I hate Blaine, Suede and Keith. Everyone else... I don't know enough about them, yet.

Ok, that's all for now.

homemade cookies would be good

Today I actually liked Staunton. We had today off but don't get paid until Thursday so we went to Target and Lowe's to LOOK at curtains but not buy them. It's just been sooo hot in our living room. We put a sheet over one window and it helped so it was clear that curtains would really make a difference. I found what I was looking for at Target but they could only hold things for 24 hours. Chris decided to just buy the curtains then and now our living room might stay slightly cooler. HOORAY!!!!

Anyway, I'm thinking about getting a bike and we were also looking at them at Target. After we got home and put up one window's curtains we decided to go to the bike shop that is literally about a block and a half away from our apartment. Then we went to the outdoorsy shop right next to that. THEN we went to the glass shop and watched some glass blowing happen. After that we went to the train station and found this place called "weddings and things" that has catering for NINE DOLLARS PER PERSON. I was carrying around a brochure from the glass store and I felt like a tourist in my own town. I can't believe I've lived here for a year and never been to these places. The glass shop was really cool. They had expensive stuff but a lot of it was actually affordable by me. I walk by that place every single day. It's practically in my back yard and I had never been there. I guess we'll have to go to the bakery and the butcher I pass every day next! And then maybe I'll make an appearance at the farmer's market! Staunton has so much to offer me right now!

So, a bike. I want one. I wanted one last summer but it never happened. I figure a bike is pretty useful. I could take it to the grocery store and get a little basket to brings things home in. Plus, I can't think of a single place where a bike wouldn't be great to have. I mean, maybe THE MOON, but my immediate plans do not include a trip to the moon. Everywhere on earth would work really well with a bike.

We have absolutely no storage space in our apartment (except our clothes closet) and at least 6 storage bins, 3 amps, 2 guitar cases (and some other instruments under our bed) and lots of other crap. We're considering getting a wardrobe from IKEA and just putting everything in the closet and closing the doors on our dark secrets. Our room is such a mess right now I don't see how this could be a bad idea (except the cost of the wardrobe). The room is so huge and we don't have enough to fill it but filling it with storage bins seems... strange. Maybe a rug would help.

yeah yeah yeah!

Whenever I'm sitting on the couch watching TV or using the internet I tend to stand up too fast and start blacking out on my way to where ever I'm going. Yes, yes, blood rushing to my head... but really, EVERY SINGLE TIME?? Is this normal? Is this going to effect my brain?

I just keep going, though. I just keep walking through the blackness and doing what I need to do. Hahahaha, that sounds like an inspirational message. Remember that when you're distressed. Remember to walk through the blackness and do what you need to do.

I hope everyone knows about Etsy which is like Ebay for homemade items. Oh, it's so great. I haven't actually bought anything from it but I browse it every day. Next time I need a purse.... Etsy, here I come.

I get recognized a lot in the box office from people who saw either A Christmas Carol or any of our touring shows and it makes me feel so.... lame. Yesterday two ladies argued on their way out the door over who remembered me from what. I hate explaining why I'm working in the box office ("uhh... my fiance is in the resident troupe and we wanted to stay together...") and I hate saying "I hope so" when they ask if they can see me in a show again here. Non-actory people generally don't understand the actory life since they have more steady jobs and they're like, "huh?" I think being complimented when you're feeling relatively defeated isn't as much fun as it should be.

I used to hate poodles but now I love them. If I had a poodle I would never shave it and groom it to look like a nightmare show dog, I would let it stay furry and adorable. They are also hypoallergenic! This is good for animal lover Chris, who is allergic to cats, dogs and goats and also suffers from asthma. Poor guy. I have no KNOWN allergies (although I know I must be slightly allergic to something here, and in California, in the air during the spring) and he's allergic to everything he loves the most (ie, goats). I would LOVE a labradoodle but they're too big. A cock-a-poo (God, what an awful name) would be awesome, though.

A hot breeze keeps blowing through the windows. That's nice when it's already hot in here. I love the second floor. Actually, the biggest perk of the second floor is the fact that we can watch squirrels on the roof next door. I want to lure them over to our roof with nuts.

I had a dream last night that I had failed a science class during my last semester of college and had to take classes this fall at Kent. This dream was so realistic (for that part of it. there was a lot of other, weird stuff that happened) that I had to reassure myself upon waking up that I had actually graduated and received a diploma. Thank God that dream's not true. I think, if I suddenly found out I had failed something and hadn't ACTUALLY graduated, at this point I would just forgo the degree. I don't think I can ever go back to school. College is a NIGHTMARE!! AHHHHHH!!!! Chris is thinking about getting an MLitt (master of letters) degree from the school associated with the ASC and I think he's crazy. I mean, not really, it couldn't hurt him, especially since it'd be free for him to go here and it's the only advanced degree in Shakespeare in the world, but like I said, "COLLEGE IS A NIGHTMARE!!!!!"

Do you remember when you first fell in love with Paul Rudd? Was it during "Clueless"? Was it when he played Pheobe's husband, Mike, on "Friends"? During "Anchorman", "40-Year-Old Virgin", "Knocked Up"? You know you're in love with him. You can't NOT BE. Even if it's man-love, you know you've got it. For me, it was during "Clueless." He's my only lasting celebrity crush.

I get really annoyed with improper spelling of the informal version of "yes" which is "yeah." THAT is how it's spelled. ("Yeah, I got stung by a bee. Why did you provoke them?") The word "yah" is not a real word. It's like what you say to a horse to get him to move when you're sitting in a buggy. "Ya" is not "yeah", it's the informal version of "you." ("Don't worry--I got 'ya!!") And "yea" is a version of "yes", but only if you lived 100 years ago or more. It's used like in saying yea or nay. ("Dost thou vote yea or nay for independence?") There is also "YAY" which is an exclamation of excitement. Let's review:

"Yeah" (ye-ah): yes
"Yah" (yaw): horse command
"Ya" (yuh): you
"Yea" (yay): yes, 100+ years ago
"Yay" (yay): hooray

how unfortunate

Chris and I have never been to a concert together. Ok, well, we've been at the same concert at the same time (The Monkees played at Blossom in 1986 and I was there. I was three and a half years old at my first concert. Chris was also there. He was 15. I wonder if he saw the baby in the audience that he'd grow up to marry. Weird/creepy) but never together, which is strange because we both like music A LOT. I've made it my life's work to sing and Chris is quite musically gifted, too, if you didn't know.

When we actually realized we had never been to a concert together we were surprised. Ok, CHRIS was surprised, I've only been to 2 concerts since the Monkees so I was like, "Whatever." Chris has been to a million concerts, including "Mr. Big." He's got this whole, amazing past. It's so funny. ANYWAY, we've been looking, despite our extreme poverty, for concerts. As many of you know, a lot of my favorite artists released CDs this year and are now on tour, so it's been relatively easy. Aimee Mann is coming to Richmond on a Monday in September, Alanis will be in Charlottesville later in the month and the Avett Brothers will be there two days later. Who knows if we'll actually be able to go to these, but it's nice to know they're there.

And then there's Radiohead.

Radiohead is going a lot of places on tour, none of which are near me. They ARE going to Blossom, in Cuyahoga Falls, next Monday (which is actor day off) and the worst part is that Porthouse employees get in to all Blossom concerts for free. So if I had been working there this summer rather than 2 years ago I could have actually gone to the show and for FREE. That sucks. I'd love to see them. They're my favorite band (other than the Beatles, but most of the time I think that's a given).

In other music news, another person who is going to be at Blossom that I can't see is Ingrid Michaelson (and playing there with DMB. Killer) whose voice you probably heard on those Old Navy commercials ("if you are chilly/here take my sweater") or on that Grey's Anatomy show that I refuse to watch. I discovered her after reading Bethany's blog and it was nearly love at first listen. I'm always looking for new music so I look up nearly everyone I hear about. I downloaded her 2005 album and her voice is so sweet and pure and she just seems awesome. I actually got a little upset and thought that she made the album *I* would have made if I could play the piano well... or write a good song. A song that wasn't about vampires. Regardless, anyone who write a song about Charlie Brown wins by me and anyone who is a GREAT singer wins by me, too. She did both!

I have this one vendor for the gift shop who keeps bringing me free stuff. It is so AWESOME. :) She brings them to me for examples of products we could personalize for the ASC but after I show them to people their job is done... and if I didn't take them they'd just sit in the desk (since they're left overs from the other clients). I have gotten a really NICE water bottle, a travel mug, 3 reusable grocery bags, a sling back pack thing, a mouse pad, a flashlight, and some really nice magnets. It's pretty great. I love running the gift shop. I'm like a crazy person with the sales and inventory. I mean, I'd OBVIOUSLY rather be acting, but running the gift shop is a pretty okay consolation.

virginia is for... someone

Yesterday was Chris and my anniversary!!!! Awwwwww. Two years ago on the 19th I had Jessie tell him I liked him (what is wrong with me?) on the drive to Porthouse, the next day we hung out for Dan's birthday and on the 21st we went on our first real date, lunch at Rockne's where several of my friends sat a couple tables away and made fun of us before the directors for the shows we were in saw us and looked... confused. Two years ago TODAY I had rehearsal and Chris closed Our Town and I went to the cast party with him. Two years ago tomorrow we went out to eat at the Macaroni Grill and then to see "An Inconvienent Truth." Chris is amazed that I remember the exact "Timeline of Our Love" (as I call it) but I'm not. I have a good memory (most of the time) and it was such a great time for me that I'm surprised I don't remember MORE about it. It's crazy that we've only been together for two years. It really feel like forever. In a good way.

So, it's a million degrees in our living room. You might think I'm exaggerating. I can't even sit and watch TV without sweating. Oh, MAN is it hot!! It's supposed to rain tomorrow and the temperature should go down but right now it's killer. It actually makes me miss the freezing cold box office.

Stacy London reacts the same way to people during their "big reveal" on What Not to Wear as I do to everyone. All the time. I think we'd be friends.

Man, I really want to take a walk or run but I'm too effing HOT. I can't imagine going out in 90 degrees, sweating MORE and not even getting too cool down. I also need to vacuum the floor and do the dishes but I'll be too roasting before night. See, this is the problem with Virginia. It's got all the bad parts of the south AND the north. It's ridiculously hot in the summer and filled with more bugs than I've ever seen but it still snows and stays cold in winter for a long time. And to top it all off there aren't any palm trees to redeem it. I'm sorry. I shouldn't complain so much. It's the heat. It's going to my head.

I hemmed my pants today. I wish I could take the pants in by myself but I don't know how. I also think I might need a sewing machine for that.

I had a chocolate melting accident in my purse yesterday. We went to Charlottesville and it was hot (obviously) and I had one piece of mini chocolate in my purse... and halfway through the day it was all over half of my purse. We also went to Boston Market and they ran out of chicken. It was a great anniversary. :) Hahaha, it doesn't matter. I was just happy to get to spend the day with Chris. I'm ALWAYS happy when I'm with him and we always laugh and have such a good time, even when we're on fire, and I'm glad we're engaged. It makes more sense than anything that's ever happened to me before.

i want to be a former governor.

I like blogger a lot better than tripod. First of all, it doesn't suck like tripod did. Second, it makes sense unlike tripod. Third, blogger is the FUTURE whereas tripod sucks.

I just joined Twitter. I'm having problems getting it to work for me over the phone right now but once it gets worked out I think it's going to be hilarious. If only it were there on Thursday. The former VA governor was in town and stopped at the theatre and everyone was freaking out. Jen and Jasmine were "asked" to scrub the bird crap off the sidewalks out front. I have no idea how I was able to get out of that one. At first I thought he was a republican and I didn't know why he'd want to visit a non-profit theatre but after he left I found out he was a democrat. There was a marching band playing in downtown for his arrival. It was like a visitor from space was coming and we had to dress to impress. I don't think he noticed the lack of bird crap on the sidewalks. I don't think anyone in the world would notice that.

Also, yesterday, a bug flew right in my eye! I'm not talking like, it flew near my eye, this bug practically landed on my contact lens. It was right as this lady came up to the desk to ask me a question and I flailed my arms about like a crazy person and then said, "Sorry. A bug flew into my eyeball." A couple of weeks ago a little bug flew into my eye as I was walking home and talking to my dad on the phone. It died in my eye and when I got inside I had to remove it from the corner of my eye. Wow. There was a lot of assonance in that sentence.

Yes, twitter will be fun if I can ever get it to work properly.

Chris and I taught a master class on music for the Midsummer Day Camp on Wednesday and it was SO MUCH FUN. They did this little production of The Tempest yesterday (which was so great) so we talked to them about music that we'd want to play if we were in that show based on the play's themes ("Abracadabra" by the Steve Miller Band, "Magic Man" by Heart, "Rain" by the Beatles, "It's Magic" by Pilot and even "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid) and then we taught them a round using the last two lines of the epilogue. The group was huge--46 kids aged 9-12. They split them up into two groups for our classes. God, they were so great. Chris was a pro at working with them, too. People tend to like Chris a lot. He has that ability to make fun of people that don't know him and they think it's funny, not mean. I do not have that ability. People always think I'm mean instead of just joking at first. I have to win them over with my ways. The WAYS of ALISA.

I also had my second go at house managing on Wednesday and it went a lot better. I had great ushers (not that my first ushers were bad---not by ANY means---I just had a lot of them on Wednesday so I was able to get more done) and Solomon was my assistant so he was able to help me. I have to house manage again tonight. I'm a little nervous but I think it will go okay. I HOPE it will go okay!!

I had a merchandise meeting on Wednesday about getting new stuff. I think it's going to be great. We're going to design new women's t-shirts that are more modern and feminine. Right now we have the list of Shakespeare's Pick-up lines or Insults but what I want to do is get Mary to make some pretty background design and get a great quote about Shakespeare's best female characters. Something the ladies can relate to. Something *I* can relate to, as a lady. Girls like things.

So, that Sara Bareilles isn't just a one-hit wonder, huh?

I should probably go shower so that I can go to work. Tomorrow I will get free pizza!!

Oh my God. Being home from work is like the best thing ever. The second half of my shift today was alright---actually, I felt a lot better when I left than when I got back from lunch. But this morning and last night.... ugggggggghhhhhhh. First, last night was my first official real house managing. This might have been exciting except there was the small fact that I was not ready at all to house manage on my own. Katie was my assistant and Katie is ONLY a bartender so she didn't know how to help me at all. It was a mess. I got through most of the stuff okay but all the reports were wrong... I just hated my life so much. I just hated waking up this morning and getting the corrected reports. I felt like such a loser. And then, work just sucked this morning and I felt really bad about my life. I also blew a fuse while drying my hair so when I got to work it was completely soaked. I was hot and sad and wet and angry and when I went home on my lunch break I dropped an entire glass of iced tea on the floor, shattering the glass and soaking my clothes.

The only good thing that happened to me this morning was that 3 people bought the lanyards we have 245 of. That's it. This was only good because we have SO MANY and they cost a ton so I want them to sell. My boss boss was at the show tonight and I told him how all 3 copies of this test book we bought (it's called Coined by Shakespeare) had been bought in less than a week and he told me to order 10 more. We need so much stuff in the gift shop. We're running low on all t-shirts (but i think we're going to redesign some of them so we just need to order the stuff we're keeping) and every time I order stuff we've always had we run out within a week and a half. I mean, this is GOOD, but I have this whole BUDGET to think about and it's driving me insane. I just want to order what I want to order, before we're out of it and in huge bulk so people can buy whatever they want.

I saw this "life size" Shakespeare puppet today on amazon. We will not be ordering this for our gift shop. Hahahaha. It doesn't even look like Shakespeare. It looks more like Kevin Kline.

Ginna gave me a whole bag of clothes today and then as I was leaving the theatre Alyssa asked me if she and Alli could give me clothes, too. I will always take clothes from people. I even took some of Jessie's clothes, the last of which I think I took to Goodwill recently. I don't even know why Jessie had them in all honesty. They couldn't have possibly fit her.

Speaking of clothes that fit you, I went to Steve and Barry's the other day and bought pants that fit me for $9 from the SJP BITTEN collection. Everything in the store is like $8.95. No wonder they are bankrupt.

Virginia is hot. Not in the good way.

a magical day

Last night was Aaron and Emily's wedding. It was supposed to be outside but the weather did not cooperate. It still turned out really nice, though. I wish I would have had a better viewing spot but that was my fault. As it is I got a lot of pictures of Emily's face and the back of Aaron's head. It was a really sweet ceremony and very memorable. Her dad's reading almost made me cry... wait, no, it DID make me cry. Rene and Emily's brother made really nice speeches during the reception, too. They had chicken, steak AND salmon!! I was all hopped up on Dr. Pepper all night and not tired at all when we got home at midnight. I didn't fall asleep until after 2:30am but woke up about an hour later and then continued to wake up all night long. I am SO TIRED today!!! I guess it's good that I'm not in a show right now because I probably yelled a little too much last night... either that or the lack of sleep is making my throat sore.

Chris and I decided to take our engagement photo last night while waiting for the reception to start. Dan took it while Amy, Brent's wife, held my bag. It was funny. Everyone kept asking me if I was going to take notes but I could never afford a big, fancy wedding like that. The only thing I could take notes on was Emily's AMAZING DRESS!!! Oh my God. Erin, one of our costumers, made it and it was just AWESOME. It was exactly like something I would want. So much so that if my dress ends up looking really similar to that I hope no one notices. Speaking of that, Jenny, our other resident costume designer, said she would make my dress and "design" Chris. After she told Chris that he start trying to convince me to have the wedding here, at the theatre, rather than in Ohio. I don't know. I mean, the theatre is the OBVIOUS place. It's naturally beautiful, we'd probably already be here and it would be... not expensive. Plus, we got engaged here and both worked here... we already played a married couple (the king and queen of france!) on the stage so it'd have some kind of sentimental attachment or something. But, both our families live in Ohio and I'd worry about my Grandma making it down here. She'll be almost 87 years old and she doesn't like to travel, let alone travel in winter.... I just don't know. I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. Ugh.

Shaina got engaged! I was really excited for her. Her boyfriend came to visit her in Toronto, where she's rehearsing for the Disney Cruise Line, and he totally surprised her. Hooray for them!

Man... I want to move to Toronto SO BAD. That'd be great...

Dennis and I are now officially best buddies. He doesn't know yet.

Happy Birthday to Rick Blunt!!!!!!

Chris's dad drove down here today with his friend and brought the rest of the furniture we needed. A table and chair for our dining... area, a "breakfast nook"/extra counter space in the kitchen and a bigger TV. It was so nice of him. He took us out to dinner at the Depot afterwards. I was exhausted the whole time but it was nice.

Last night I dreamt about the gift shop the whole time when I was actually asleep. I wish I would have been asleep longer. Dreaming about the gift shop is better than not dreaming at all.

You can, of course, see the rest of the wedding pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/alisaledyard/

curtains, pants and babies

Today is the 4th of July. It's going to rain (I KNOW it is this time... if I was wearing my rain boots no one would be laughing today!) and the attendance for tonight's Lear has gone from 66 last night to 101 today. For some reason I had thought/hoped it wouldn't be as cold in here today as it normally is, but I was wrong. Chris and I just had lunch at KFC. It is our yearly tradition. We don't eat there very often (I think we've been there 3 other times since last 4th) so I feel like it's not completely horrible. Plus, it's trans fat free (otherwise we wouldn't ever go there) so it's still better than Burger King. I get a random paid day off for having to work today which is awesome. I wonder when I'll use it... maybe for some beautiful three day weekend sometime...

Our wireless at home keeps going in and out. Of course. See?? Comcast. I knew you'd suck. Anyway, it's not a big deal since there's a USB cord that we can still get online with but for some reason it's really bugging Chris. Perhaps because we're paying for it.

None of my pants fit me anymore because I've mysteriously lost weight. I think it's all the fiber. Since we got back from tour in March I've lost like 8 pounds without doing ANYTHING (except not eating fast food every day and eating 26-30 grams of fiber a day) and now I need new pants. I NEVER buy pants. I have like a million shirts and maybe 10 pairs of pants. Maybe.

The other Chris, Chris Nash, switched shifts with me tomorrow morning so luckily I don't have to house manage the night show because I am NOT ready. I am okay with house managing the morning--- there's no reports in the morning. But man... the night is scary. Reports are scary. I just don't want to screw up and break the playhouse. Hopefully when I do have to house manage at night and do reports it'll be a lot less scary than I am imagining it to be. I tend to overreact to things that haven't happened yet. It's actually pretty good because when I do and they turn out okay I am just relieved and happy. If I think everything is going to be fine and great and it falls apart I'm like "ahhhhh! This is the WORST THING EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I don't like that feeling... so pre-overreacting is better.

Last night we had nothing left in snacks for the bar so when Nash got back he and I spent 20 minutes bagging for Emily and somehow we were able to get 10 of everything with ten minutes to go before the house opened. I should be a professional candy-bagger.

Oh, ok, so on Monday Chris and I went all around getting things we needed for the aprtment. We got the kitchen cart which has been GREAT-- it's exactly what we needed. I also found curtains at Lowe's for LESS THAN $7!!!! This is amazing because every curtain I've looked at costs like $20 for one panel. I'm not crazy about them but we HAD to get curtains for our room (it's soooo bright in the mornings) and they were so cheap I didn't care. We got a rug for the living room to keep the floor from continuing to peel off and the couch from staying in place. Chris slept on the rug for like an hour and a half the other night like a cat while I watched "Jon and Kate Plus Eight."

My friends Dan (from my tour) and Alex (his wife) are pregnant and I am SO HAPPY FOR THEM!!!! Dan first announced it on his facebook profile on Monday or something and I immediately threw the computer down and called him. I didn't get to see him until yesterday when I finally got to ask questions. She's three months in and the baby's due in January.. hopefully when Dan's still home in the two week vacation from tour. If not...uh... I guess they'll have to get an understudy for a while. They've been trying to get pregnant for the last year and they just bought a house and a dog so this is just really, really great. It's also kind of funny because I had a feeling they were pregnant. I don't think it was based on anything they said.. I just started to have the feeling.. and it's TRUE! Yayayayay!

i love peter gabriel, too!

Chris and I just got back from seeing WALL-E with our friend John Pasha, who is in the resident troupe, and it was SO GOOD. I mean, it was just so, so good. I cried like a little baby at the end and I cried for no real reason at the beginning. I don't think I closed my mouth the entire movie. It's not news that I love kids' books and/or movies (especially Pixar) but I don't even think this should be classified as a "kids' movie." I don't know what could be more appealing to children than adults. It was wonderful. Really, just beautiful and wonderful and everyone should go see it.

We've been fed for free a couple of times this week. Today was the NEH welcome picnic at the MBC campus so we had dinner and cake there. Last night was Ginna's birthday party and I had way too much sugar. I was house assisting with Solomon and we both got these iced mochas before the show... holy crap did it go right to my head. I wasn't so much hyper as I was dizzy and extra scatterbrained. It's 100% because I didn't eat dinner until 10pm. Too much caffeine and sugar, nothing to balance it out. After the show I ate dinner but then I had two mini Twix, two s'mores and half a piece of cake at Ginna's. It was a lot of fun, though. She had hula hoops. Oh, and, the funniest part of the night was when we looked over at Matt, who was sitting on the blanket where all the candy from the piñata had fallen, and eating it (licking candy wrappers and everything) all by himself. It was hilarious. On Friday the a group from UVA was here and they threw an opening night party for the resident troupe at a restaurant in downtown. I ended up making friends with Dennis and singing the last scene of Rent for Rene. I also told everyone about Shakespeare's inside joke in Shrew (it's a throw back to Two Gents), including Ralph, who founded the theatre, and everyone agreed that it HAS to be an inside joke. Someday, if you're lucky, maybe I'll tell you, too, of my discovery.

The box office was a pretty stressful place Thursday, Friday and Saturday. On Thursday it was supposed to rain so I wore my rain boots and then everyone made fun of me. By "everyone" I am also including patrons of the theatre because someone said something along the lines of, "Well THERE'S a fashion statement!" as I was wheeling the bar cart through the lobby (I was also wearing a dress... but the rain boots MATCHED the dress so it was nothing but practical). I kept saying they wouldn't be laughing when it started to rain... which it of course never did. Everyone laughed at me and I didn't even get to rub it in their faces when I had dry feet and they did not. It was just a bad night. Plus, in the summer the boots get really hot.

Tomorrow we are getting paid and I can't wait. We HAVE to get the kitchen cart this week... we only have enough counter to hold the dish drainer and that's not enough. Perhaps we'll also buy another fan. I am going to get my hair cut, hopefully tomorrow. I haven't gotten it cut since we were in Jefferson City, MO in March. Now that I have no hair requirements I think I might bring back my bangs.

I love having days off. It's really good. I also love having internet access. Thanks for joining me at this, the new blog location.

Start coming here again!!

After thinking about it for... TENS of minutes, I have decided to come back to blogger for my regular blogging. Why? Because tripod really sucks. People haven't been able to comment for YEARS and I might as well combine my blogging efforts into one hosting network. So, this is it. I am even going to change the link on my stupid homepage that no one ever goes to. It's DONE. I am now owned by google.

I don't have to work until 6pm today and that is AWESOME. I slept for like 11 hours last night just because I COULD. This morning Chris got up and ran at like 7am and at 2pm I jumped rope in my room which was just... really sweaty. I thought about running for a couple of minutes but... hahahaha... that didn't happen. I DO want to run again, though... mainly because I have a place to run at. I'm no longer getting exercise at work so I should do SOMETHING other than my 10 minute walk 2-4 times a day. I like walking to work... I'd like to be able to walk to the grocery store, too.

This old blogger blog is funny. I stopped posting in the summer of 2006 right after I started dating Chris. Apparently when I started dating him I stopped copying my posts from tripod over here... so there's this big gap of blogger history. If you were to read this blog you'd see the waning days of my sadness turn into sudden normal-ness. That was a good summer... the summer of '06. Actually, it wasn't just good, it was the BEST summer ever. I was so tan, I got in to the rec center for FREE, and I was living and working with my best friends and we were all performing in Jesus Christ Superstar!!!! I'm telling you, life couldn't have been better. I miss them all except Chris, who I still live with. And I'm not sad, I'm engaged. Hahahaha. Life is weird. And what's even weirder is that I'm forcing myself to start drinking and liking DIET COKE!!!! Right now operation Diet Coke seems pointless, like it will never succeed... but clearly anything can happen in one lifetime.

So, my poor sister has a parasite living in her intestines. I hope she doesn't give it to my grandma. My dad is also sick (hopefully not with a parasite) and is getting his heart shocked on July 3rd. The hotel is open but they thought more rooms would be open by this weekend, so they booked them... but the new rooms won't be ready yet. This is a problem. I think opening a new hotel must be really stressful and my dad has only had one day off in the last month and a half. This can't be good for a man with heart problems.

After I jumped rope today I made some iced tea and as I was about to take my first, delightful sip I noticed that the glass had a big crack on it. I threw out the tea (and the glass) but it really upset me because I had used all the ice and can't have any tea until the ice is ready, which won't be for a while. What a stupid reason to be upset. My sister has a PARASITE and I'm upset about iced tea.

I want to go to the beach REALLY bad. I knew listening to the Beach Boys would do this to me.

Ok, that's it for right now... I'm going to see if I can move the last post from my old blog over here to even things out a little bit....

This is week two at the box office. Luckily I have more of an idea of how to do my job. I still ask a lot of questions, but that's just me. I'm really looking forward to doing stuff with the gift shop. We're out of like... everything. And *I* want to get some new t-shirts or something. The "baby doll" tees are too short unless you get a large or extra large and then they're too boxy.

I've had to wake up at 8am almost every day. Those of you who know me know that this is.... not my favorite thing to do. I better get used to it, though. I went to bed at 11:30pm last night and still woke up tired. I'm one of those creepy night people who get everything done at night (even exercise) and now I CAN'T. Oh well.

I saw Measure for Measure last Thursday and I was so surprised by... everything. I saw this play at Kent in 2002 but I didn't care then and had no idea what happened other than someone fell in love with a nun. I REALLY liked it here! The scene where Angelo was threatening Isabella and trying to BE with her was AWESOME! I was so proud of Rene and Sarah... I mean, it's not every day when you turn to your fiance next to you and say, "this scene is AMAZING!" while it's going on. Or maybe YOU do. I don't know. What I DO know is that I really ended up liking the play a lot. It's really messed up. I mean, it's like the most messed up play ever. The messed up-ness makes it really interesting, though. It's funny and WEIRD and still relates to very current issues. Good job, Shakespeare. Good job making your plays relevant FOREVER.

Yesterday the cable man came and now we have TV AND INTERNET!!!! It's so exciting! We were going to get Verizon but the satellite couldn't be installed because of the trees across the street. We called comcast that day and they came the next. Verizon was going to take over a WEEK to install everything. Hooray comcast... although I've heard they suck in other areas. We will see. Actually, I'm SURE they're going to suck all the time but at least they came to install the stuff really fast.

Chris and I went to Daniel's house on Monday and visited his new dog, GOBBO (awwwww!) and also did laundry. I miss Daniel. I miss everyone. I uploaded my pictures from the last two days, you can view them at flickr.com/photos/alisaledyard. Here's a pretty one...

uhhh... don't go here anymore

I started c&ping my posts to myspace instead of here.... and I don't even think anyone went here anyway... but if you DID you have a lot of catching up to do, my lovelies.

slceostyle.tripod.com/blog

Apparently it's too much work to copy and paste to TWO different blogs. So, goodbye blogspot. The year I spent with you was.... fine.

I woke up feeling pretty crappy this morning. I started sneezing a LOT yesterday (more than I have since I came back from LA) and my throat was on fire. I drank a lot of tea and some of that Airborne stuff (which is disgusting, by the way) and I feel a little better... but I also feel like a mess because

A. We were at rehearsal for 6 hours

B. We had to sing through the equivalent of the entire show like a million times

C. We (re)staged the lashes/crucifixion and then ran all of act 2 and I may or may not need to tell you how emotionally difficult it is.

I don't think I've ever acted more in a crowd scene in my life. I am acting my ass off. I had to take a time out after we staged and ran the 39 lashes scene because I was just a mess. I HATE IT. I hate that scene because I DON'T have that desire to see people or things tortured that TK was talking about (running of the bulls/violent video games/whatever). I just feel.... evil.... and sad. And we're just so angry and we're "beating" this guy and screaming and it's all so twisted and messed up and most people either start or are about to cry in that scene because it is SO intense. So, that was hard.... but I like Act 2 a lot. Way better than act 1. Mainly because act 2 doesn't have any lepers. My favorite scenes right now are the trial before Pilate (because Allison and I are the only girls in it) and "Superstar" where I can "forgive" myself for the horror that's just happened in the lashes scene. I know this is a play, guys.... but I for some reason feel like doing the situation justice.

Anyway, so the massive amount of work we did during rehearsal did NOT help me feel any better (go figure) and now I am just.... conflicted. I know staying home to rest would be the SMART thing to do when I'm not feeling great and I definitely would during any other day off.... but its tomorrow. It's the 17th of July. And if all my friends are at Geauga Lake and I am home alone (although I already know that scenario won't happen as Ali is amazing and said she could never leave me alone on a day like that) because I am sick and have to think about it ALL DAY..... I just... obviously... will not be happy. I think I'd rather take my mind off it. And I know it's STUPID and I shouldn't even feel this way at all and it's probably really pathetic and disgusting... but I can't help it. I can't help the way I feel about this... and I think I have the right to be dreading tomorrow and even the right to be sad about it. I do not, however, think a lot of people that I know understand the extent of how hard this is for me and how part of me secretly DOES want to stay home and just cry. It's just that I only have so many days off and Jessie, Griffin and Dan will be going away in a couple of weeks and we will never get this time together back so I want to enjoy it as much as possible and I would definitely not enjoy staying at home to cry. But I also want to get better and more importantly at the moment, not get WORSE but I really don't see how I can have it both ways right now. I mean, MAYBE I'll wake up tomorrow and feel amazing and be able to go and have fun and not think about anything and not get more sick.... but what are the chances of THAT happening? Especially because everything has already been SO hard with this whole situation... it seems like destiny will make it hard. Like there's no other choice.

Anyway, don't follow this link unless you want to see the epitome of being pathetic.....

I love my roommates.

Griffin is in NYC right now for a callback with Theatreworks so the best of luck to him!

I am so excited about our day off tomorrow. I don't even have anything planned but it will be nice to just not have to do anything.

I wish it were possible for people to comment on here. I hate that fact that the flash comments haven't worked for weeks and that they haven't tried AT ALL to fix it.

I'm at the rec as usual... when we first got here Allison started filling her bottle of water up and this weird, old guy was like "That's the spittoon! You're probably going to die, now!" I am cherishing my final moments with her before she passes away from the water that flowed INTO the "spittoon."

We got to come in an hour late to rehearsal today.... although some of us could have come in 2 hours late and it wouldn't have mattered since we sat there for an hour not doing anything. I can't argue with not doing anything, but when you could be in bed instead... it's better. We worked a lot with moving the stairs and getting acquainted with the set.

Now, to elaborate on "Our Town." Like I said, I KNEW what was going to happen so it's not like it was a surprise or anything... but the direction was just UNBELIEVABLE. The part when Emily went back to her 12th birthday completely blew my freaking mind. I never could have imagined it like that. Oh God, and George running through the gravestones and falling at Emily's feet completely killed me because of the WAY that he did it. Every single person in the cast was amazing... it seemed like the opportunity of a lifetime for those people. I'm jealous. And the "town" choir sounded so good that I was afraid when we started singing at their after party that we were going to look like complete idiots. I'm pretty sure we did, but it wasn't completely terrible. I've been thinking about this production all day... I just can't wait to see it again. I have also never cried that hard during a play ever, I think. I was on the verge of just breaking down completely and sobbing. I had to literally run out of the theatre to blow my nose because my whole face was just... covered in snot. I know that's gross, but that's how good this show was. I even cried while talking to Emily, Ryan and the director, Matt, because I was reliving it. It was just so outstanding.

Tomorrow is my last day as the surrogate Mary. I should be happy since I won't have the opportunity to become even more attached to the role... but, you know... I'm not. It just sucks.

I'm too tired to elaborate right now, but I just got back from the "Our Town" opening and I just need to say that this play was incredible. I've read it a million times and have never really been THAT impressed with the script, but my God, this production blew me away.

Yesterday was so much fun. I adore all of my roommates (and Dan and Griffin) so much. After a trip to Gabe's and Ali's hometown of Wadsworth, we went to the Waffle House (because it's pretty much the cheapest restaurant anyone can go to) and had such a nice time. We don't even have to do anything spectacular; I just love them all so much.

Jessie had to go see "Our Town" for the box office last night and she said it was incredible. I can't wait to see it tomorrow night. We're performing at their opening night reception, which most of us feel really bad about because we feel like we're taking away from THEIR party. It's also going to be... difficult tomorrow. Rehearsal ends at 2 and since none of us want to be sweaty and disgusting since we're performing we need to shower AND eat AND drive to P-house in an hour and a half (and driving there will take half an hour). It also wouldn't make any sense to go home between the cabaret rehearsal there and the show because the drive is too long and gas is so expensive and we make... you know... not a ton of money and haven't gotten paid yet. Jessie got the time pushed back half an hour because before we only had ONE HOUR to do all three things which is, frankly, impossible. I hope it works out... some people made fun of us behind our backs when we expressed this concern to them.

Meg was at rehearsal to watch today. In the "surrogate mother" analogy, it was like she was receiving a picture of the baby via sonogram for the first time. It's not like I didn't know this was coming--I obviously always knew I was the understudy--but the more I have to rehearse it, the more I get attached to it and the harder it's going to be sitting in the back instead. I love Meg and I KNOW she is going to be brilliant, but it's so sad for me. (Because I am a girl and I have a lot of emotions.)

Everyone I know in Kent was or IS at the rec right now. It's so much more entertaining this way. "Next" is on MTV every time we are here and that show is so stupid but so funny.

PS - the Leper scene in JCS is so scary!

God, I don't even know where to begin. So much happens in my life anymore. Well, I suppose Happy Independence Day, everyone! This is my least favorite day of the entire year to have to go to work, but it's not AS bad when it's rehearsal. Although... it's still bad. Especially when they don't have the AC on in the building because they assumed no one would be there (since it's a holiday) and you're dancing like crazy. And then you get home to eat lunch and the power in the building is off. I'm pretty sure it's going to rain more tonight and even if it doesn't it rained so much in the afternoon that any fireworks are pretty much ruined. Oh well, like I've said before, fireworks never really thrill me since they don't write "Annie" in the sky...

Meg doesn't start until next week to play Mary and I've been having a lot of fun as her understudy. It sucks. You know why it sucks? Because I will NEVER get to go on. I'm doing all her blocking and I will know the role completely for nothing. This must be what being a surrogate mother is like.

Yesterday we went to Huron to go to the beach but it started to rain. We still went in the lake and most of us still had fun but it was also kind of disappointing. When it started to rain pretty hard we went back to the cars and I listened to a voice mail from my dad who suggested we go swim in the indoor pool at his hotel. Everyone loved this idea and then we had SO MUCH FUN in the pool and hot tub. After that we had dinner and one group of people left while me, Ali and the boys stopped at my parents' house and then went to see "1776" at the HP (I'm sorry Cleric---it was a last minute trip and it made more sense than to go BACK to Huron another day this week). I'm really glad we went. The pace was a little... very.... slow but most of the performances were great. Actually, there was only one I didn't really like... but I'll be nice and not say who he was. Although, if I talked to you after the show I'm sure I told you who it was. We also went to the thrift store where they were having this amazing sale where any item of clothing with red, white or blue was only 99 cents and if you knew the year that America was founded you got ANOTHER 25% off. So, I got three really cute things for only $2.36. I was so excited.

People had a couple of parties this weekend, so that was fun. We're also working out pretty much every day (except today since the rec is closed), and that's good. I had this amazing idea about these plastic horse figurines which I need to take into effect... but it won't make a ton of sense if I talk about it just yet.

I LOVE rehearsing the cabaret. Dan and I do this ridiculous lift for absolutely no reason at the end of "Magic to Do" (which is our opening number). I also dance like a moron which everyone loves. Of course. Speaking of lifts, Dan and I played the "dirty dancing" lake lift game yesterday.... I've always wanted to do that but I never had a friend who was willing or able to lift me. And now I do. And I love it. Thank you, Dan, for making my dreams come true.