Jessicup of kindness

By now I'm sure you probably figured I don't exactly get my blog done before midnight every day. Nope, I fix the time and date on a regular basis, actually. However, usually when I post I'm on my way to bed shortly thereafter. Well right this second it's 3:36am, January 1st and I'm not in bed, not home, and have no plans to head that way any time soon. Hmmm...must be an epic party, right? Yup. Can you say 'lock in?' Yup. Pretty stinking fantastic, actually. Jason and I came out around three this afternoon to get in one last music practice before we went live this evening. The hour long set went really well, actually. I had at least fifty teenagers in front of me, grooving, while I stood front and center at the edge of the stage under the bright lights, singing my heart out into a microphone. Did I feel like a legit rock star? Yes. Yes, I did. Jason and I were planning on taking off after the set, doing our rounds at various friends' houses then maybe heading downtown, but we were having so much fun we decided to stick around and formed a dodgeball team with a few of our friends. Our team, The Crushinators, went all the way to the semi-finals! That's really saying something, considering the squirrely little guys and the aggressive jock types we competed against. At any rate, I don't know how long we're going to stay, but I don't intend to leave anytime soon. Just hiding out in the office with a laptop to get my fifth wind on. Aw yeah.

Resolve and Accomplishment

Today began hardcore promotion for KC Crossroads Comedy. I helped make a ton of tearoffs to stick to the posters then took off and taped a bunch of them to various windows in locations throughout downtown and the Crossroads. It took a lot of time and effort and my Chicago-worn feet were doubly sore by the time I was done, but it was worth it. The opening night shows are already well on their way to being sold out, and that's just paid for tickets. I'm not including reservations and Facebook event confirmations. It's an extreme sense of accomplishment when you can see a dream coming to fruition and knowing it's going to be every bit as incredible as you thought it would be, and then some. I'm super proud of me and everyone else on the team. It's too early for congratulations, but I can be proud, right? Nevermind your affirmation or lack thereof, I'm going to go ahead and feel proud anyhow.

Backseat drivers suck.

This is what boys look like when they wait for girls outside bathrooms! Yay! We slept in (yay for noon checkout!) then got everything packed up at our leisure, then made our way to the airport, had some lunch, and flew home. Bye, Chicago! Thanks for a good time! I came home just in time to get things together and head out for rehearsal. Since the kids are at my mother in law's this week and finding rehearsal space on Sunday evenings has been tricky during everyone and their dog's Christmas break, we decided to fall back to our Tuesday night schedule just for the week. We had a great rehearsal, too! I applied some stuff I saw in Chicago (although more like a kid dabbing her toe in a wading pool than an expert surfer off the coast of Australia. They're the surfers, btw.) during our longforms and I liked how it felt. A little more subtle and polished. Hopefully I learn how to properly utilize my shiny new improv tools hereafter, but the breaking in process is pretty great. We decided to grab a bite after rehearsal so we went to Chipotle. I totally killed Zak with a snowball. He totally deserved it.

The most epic date in the history of awesomeness.

Since the kids are at Sheila's, Jason and I debated about various things to do tonight since it's the last night of his weekend. We were going to see a show in town, but then it hit me....why stay in town? We have flight benefits! So we decided to look for a direct flight to ANYWHERE that wasn't full up and had plenty of options for getting back tomorrow, and guess what? Chicago won. Oh darn! So this morning we went to the airport and flew to The Windy City. Woo! We wandered around in the cold and had lunch at Giordano's (nice.) checked into our hotel (hey...last minute, in winter, non-peak times=uber cheap! Just sayin'.) then went out for some warm up coffee and headed out to IO to see The Armando Diaz Experience! Julia lives in Chicago so we invited her to come to the theater with us. We laughed our butts off, it was such a phenomenal show! Oddly enough I ran into a few people at the theater who I have only one degree of separation from via other improvisers I know from various cities! Sweet! We are having an absolute blast!

Vulture Mullet

Oh yeah, did I mention Sheila got a puppy? She got a puppy! This is Roxy, she's six weeks old. *squee!* She's SOOOOOOOOOOOOO cute and lovey! After tearing a second round of wrapping paper into an unrecognizable pulp, the girls tuckered out the poor pooch and she fell asleep in the midst of the maelstorm. Aww! We had a good second Christmas, complete with ham and mashed potatoes, then Jason and I said our goodbyes to everyone, including the girls, and left. That's right, Jason's mom is awesome and volunteered to watch the girls for a week! The week New Year's Eve happens in! Yeah boyeeeeeeeeee! We got back into town and unloaded things, I checked in with a couple friends, and we left again. I love being out and about with just my guy, nowhere to be, just shooting the breeze. Especially at night, a rare and lovely treat. Daytime the kids are in school and we get to go out all the time, but never at night. Sweet. We went to McCoys and giggled at each other. I love getting to be THAT couple.

Let's get it right this time.

Right. So. This morning Jason took the work truck to get a copy of the key made, but the copy didn't work. Arrgh! So he called up parts places and our friend, Richard, who is also an aircraft mechanic. Richard suggested talking to the Toyota dealership, having experienced something similar with a Toyota he used to have back in the day. So Jason went with his advice and they told him they could make a dealer copy of the key which would be more exact. It cost about $1o but it worked! Note-any friends who drive Toyotas, don't ever get a key made from Wal-Mart or Lowes or anywhere, go to the dealer. Something about their keys just doesn't copy right, apparently. But yay, they key worked! Jason left the car running until he got it home, where he proceeded to turn it off and on about twelve times to be on the safe side. Satisfied, we packed up our things and headed down to Sheila's place. We got in around five and had dinner and decorated sugar cookies (thanks, Pillsbury!) then checked out the new barn. Tim and Aaron are out here too, we're doing second Christmas tomorrow morning. Let's hope this one runs a little smoother than the last one.

Christmas misgivings

Our day started out like any typical heartland American Christmas. Kids get up early, we have a meal of waffles that no one really bothers to taste due to excitement, then everyone piles around the Christmas tree to begin shredding layers of paper from much desired objects. The resemblance ends there. Last night while Jason was at work his childhood friend, Casey, came in on the last flight. Casey is a flight attendant with the same airline Jason works for. (it's actually a really interesting story how we found out about this....ask me sometime) Casey's flight out wasn't until this afternoon at four, so Jason suggested we get together for lunch since we don't have any family close by to go to. Fast forward to today. We pile in Jason's 4 wheel drive vehicle and head into the mounting piles of snow. We made it all the way to the airport Hilton just fine, met up with Casey, and had a delicious meal. We said our goodbyes and called ahead to our next destination, Dustin and Alanna's. While standing by the glass doors in the lobby, Jason takes note of the visibly cruel weather and offers to bring the car around, which I readily agree to. The girls and I stand in the lobby and wait......and wait........five minutes go by and I get a text that says, "Having an issue, it'll be a minute." Okay then. We wait another five minutes. I take the girls to the bathroom and we come back...no Jason. We sit down in the lobby and begin watching 'A Christmas Story' on TBS. Another fifteen minutes go by. Ralphie looks about how I feel at this point, except I don't have a bar of soap in my mouth. Finally I call Jason. "Uh....what's going on?" "Erm......my key doesn't work......" Buh buh wha? "What?" "My key doesn't work. It won't turn." "Did you try moving the steering wheel?" I ask, painfully cognizant that I'm talking to an AIRCRAFT mechanic. "Yeah. I've already taken apart part of the cylinder but I can't seem to get it to go. I might need a new key or I may need a new key cylinder." Yup. Aircraft mechanic. Realizing that we're not going anywhere in our own vehicle for the foreseeable future, we call Dustin again to see if he can give us a ride to a place that makes keys. Oh yeah, did I mention it's Christmas day? 'Cause it totally is. We managed to find a CVS that was open, but the only triumph there is that Dustin and Alanna were out of milk and they sell milk at CVS. Score. We decided to just cut our losses and head back to their place. Fortunately they live North of the river so it wasn't too far. We arrived at about five (having left Casey around three) and had an amazing dinner of mashed potatoes, ham, applesauce, and baby Jesus birthday cake. We hung out, talked, laughed, and watched a Christmas special on TV. About an hour before Jason had to be at work we headed out into the blizzardy night again. The van got stuck trying to get out of their driveway...not a good sign. Fortunately we made it to the airport without a hitch and dropped Jason off, then Dustin began the trek back to my place. It took a good hour to get there, but we made it unscathed. I told him to not bother trying to get in the driveway for fear of getting stuck again, so the girls and I giggled as we bounded our way across the lawn to the front door, mid-shin deep snow for me, knee deep for Brianna. We peeled off our snow encrusted footwear and jammied up, safe at home at last.

Dustin, Alanna, I can't possibly thank you enough for your hospitality and willingness to help us out today!

Behold

Christmas Eve. The tree is up, the stockings stuffed, all presents under the tree and accounted for, and we went to a candlelight service at church. Still doesn't feel like Christmas. This year is just different, I guess. I know that on this evening, two time zones away, my family sat by my grandparent's Christmas tree and read a story, or stories. I miss them. This evening at church when I finished singing 'Silent night' and walked off the stage I sat with my girls in the darkened room and just thought about everything that's going on and how lucky I am to have them. Jason put down his bass and joined us as the rest of the congregation left and Dustin kept playing on the keyboard. It was nice to just have that moment of just being together like that. Just us, in the dark, the girls with candles, and the soft music playing. We left to find that the sleet of the day had, as predicted, given way to snow. We're in a blizzard warning, in fact. We were only at church for an hour but by the time we left there were already a couple inches on the ground. Poor Jason had to leave for work not long after we got home. He texted me to let me know he got in safe. I wrapped presents, watched some TV, took a bubble bath, and as the clock displayed midnight, I whispered to myself, "Merry Christmas."

That must be going in there!

I spent a good chunk of the day at Alanna's. It's SOOOOO nice being out of school and getting to catch up with friends! I feel like a marathon runner at a rest station. Yeah, I've got a ways to go, but hooray for ice water! Just knowing that I'm in the running at all is a good feeling. We had music practice tonight and David (one of the guitarists) is back in town over Christmas, so he brought his stepson, Garret with him. I get along well with him and his sister, Chelsea. They're pretty rad. Anyhow, Garret brought his bass along and was messing with it alongside Jason this evening. It was super cute to see Jason walking him through songs and stuff. Leigha has expressed an interest in learning guitar at some point. Hopefully she follows through with it, we could totally be the Partridge family, only with more awesome and less '60's. The lack of Shirley Jones would be made up for in cookies. And we wouldn't have a bus. Have I mentioned I really don't know much about that show beyond they were a band, Shirley Jones was in it, they had a bus and it was in the '60's? Yup. Definitely blew through the extent of my knowledge of that show TWICE in one blog posting. And the posting really had nothing to do with the show.

Wow.

It's not what you think

Gwahrrr! It's ZOMBIE PICKLE! Accidentally created in a lab by scientists when they switched vinegar with worcestershire sauce! I had to fight for my lunch, stabbing him with two toothpick stakes just to be able to finish my sammich! ZOMBIE PICKLE, GWAHRRRR!!!!!!

Yeah. So today was the last day of school for the girls before break so Jason and I had a daytime date to celebrate the fleeting quiet of our house. We went downtown, had awesome deli sandwiches then went to a coffee shop. Perfect. This evening I took the girls to the Exit 16 Alumni show. (Tommy Todd, yay!) Every time I see them I'm really impressed by what they can do and have to keep reminding myself that they're high schoolers. I do wish I'd had that kind of outlet when I was that age.

All the king's men

My poor laptop. It's having 'fan issues.' Hans came over tonight (ironically when he was frustrated when installing a bathroom fan) to help Jason with it. I sat there, nervous, the whole time. They kept making jokes about 'Hey, go get me a hammer, would ya?' Not funny, guys, that's open heart surgery on my baby we're talking about!

Don't you point that gun at me unless you're gonna marry me!

Aren't the dresses amazing? My mom did a great job with the girls' Christmas dresses this year! Every year, in fact, but look how pretty they are this year! My mom is super! Today while I was singing (it was the first song, in fact) I saw something fall from the ceiling and felt it go down my dress. I was holding the mike and couldn't very well squirm so I thought to myself, "I'll get to it later." A song and a half later I felt something on my chest so I nonchalantly brushed it away, only to see the thing fly onto the music stand and start crawling around. It was a lady bug! A lady bug flew down my dress during worship! *squirm, squirm* Thank goodness it wasn't a spider or something. Project Improv didn't meet today due to it being Winter break and all, but AO had a great rehearsal! We had a blast running through our format 'The Office,' which is the one we premiered at the Imp last week and we intend to run again at KC Crossroads Comedy (on it's opening night! Whee!) and then we did a little workshopping of a new format that popped into my head today. It ended up being really interesting. Hopefully we can flesh it out. I seem to be full of new ideas lately as far as formats go. Go go Gadget improv brain! Since I only had the one rehearsal (instead of two back to back, yay!) I was home all evening long! It was great. Jason and I watched a few episodes of Kids in the Hall and treated ourselves to a little Taco Bueno after the kids went to bed. Sweeeeeeeeet.

I'M a horse!!!!!

Jess is part bee! She flits about the sky hopping from this activity to that, prancing and buzzing as only a bee can do. A busy, busy little bee! Today our little bee had meetings and band practice and happy fun times. Just another day in the life of a bee!

For the record....she is also a tired bee who is running out of Mountain Dew steam. Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz........

Your dad

I had lots of potential pictures for today that I could have posted, but this one is great 'cause everyone just looks so gosh darned happy to be doing exactly what they were doing in this moment. I love pictures that capture a moment like that. The Project Improv show was tonight. It was really, really good too! We did have one casualty, in the form of a chair destroyed during an unfortunate incident during 'Sit/Stand/Lean.' At least it died for a good cause. *salutes* A few theater kids were there and asked how they could get involved...I consider that to be a major complement to the show tonight. Better yet, some of the members of PI asked how they could get more improv into their lives! Mua ha ha! The bug is taking hold! I have done my job, and done it well.

I'll be in my bunk.

I could not have chosen a more perfect day to go Christmas shopping on the Plaza. It was nearly 50 degrees today! Gorgeous! And uncharacteristically sunny for the Midwest in December. I did pretty good, too. Yay! I met up with Eric and Dustin for lunch so we could talk about the setlist for New Year's. We had fun discussing the hypothetical possibility of replacing us with 'Rock Band' and playing 'Sweet Child of Mine' at the Christmas service. Nice. Brianna got to celebrate her half birthday at school today. Quite an ingenious setup to deal with all the kids who have Summer birthdays.....although in Bri's case her half birthday would fall on the day after Christmas, so she'll never be able to celebrate her real HALF birthday in school either! We got to send treats to school. Bri demanded cupcakes. We sent cupcakes. She came home with a 'It's my 1/2 Birthday!' sticker on her chest. (the '1/2' written in with sharpie) She walked in the kitchen and nonchalantly ripped it off and started to throw it away. Jason said, "Whoa, Bri....don't you want to save that?" She rolled her eyes and said, "Daaaaaaaaaad, I wore it all day and it's ripped. Right there." And then she threw it away. Not sentimental, that one.

Cyclicality

History repeats itself in incredibly predictable and short term ways sometimes. Just check out this picture from last year for proof. I spent the day making eight (eight!) shepherd costumes for the children's program. I was asked to do so last week but with finals and such I didn't have any time at all until today. It went pretty fast but I did have to switch machines halfway through due to a broken needle. I'm hardcore, yo. "Man down? Bah! We keep going." The program went well this year, only three crying shepherds! Leigha and Cora got to sing a duet of 'We Three Kings' and Brianna spent more time waving than singing. Too cute. Oh, funny story, my mom sent me a package via UPS and it arrived today...in a Budget rental truck piloted by a UPS guy. Are they seriously that busy out there? It was fantastic.

Sparkly and productive, that's me!

My final final was this afternoon. Hooray! I celebrated by selling my books back to the school, taking advantage of the free H1N1 shot clinic the school offered, making sure I was good for Spring with the financial aid department, then pre-ordering all my books. Aw yeah! There's no stopping butter when it's on a roll! (Yeah, I dunno. Shaddup.) This afternevening (it was five-ish. You tell me what time of day that is!) we had a bonus Project Improv rehearsal in preparation for our show this Friday. Everyone's getting excited and the energy in the room was palpable! We ended up having a fantastic rehearsal and everyone played for keeps! Hooray! I love that we instilled the improv bug in people who have previously never even tried it, and it's taking hold! They have come so far in the short time we've been doing this, and this is my first time trying to teach..............anything! (Formally, that is) For a task I feel so ill-fitted to it has really been a treat to watch them grow and come to love the art form, knowing I was one of the hands that guided them there.

You should have gone with the bullhorn.

Brianna is not a phone person. Not at all. There have been times when my older sister, Lynette, is on the phone with her and Brianna will describe what the cat is doing for ten minutes, mumble something, then say, "My dad wants to talk to you." and shove the phone at someone and walk off. Tonight I called my parents to catch up and talk about Christmas plans and I handed the phone to Bri. She literally sat there for a good solid minute with us going, "Brianna, say hi. Say ANYTHING." Rotten stinker. I get the feeling that ten years from today I'm going to take a nearly identical picture to this one, except I'll be complaining about how I can't seem to ever get her OFF the phone.

Three more wise guys

We had a band practice this afternoon for New Year's. Everything is coming together really nicely! I love singing and it's super cool when you get to do so with a live band behind you! Can't wait for the show! Project Improv rehearsal was this evening. We have our first show coming up this Friday, it's going to be sweet! We timed the show well, as it falls on the last night of the semester. Everyone will be done with finals and looking for an excuse to cut loose. Plus, it's on campus and free. Win to the win to the win! After AO rehearsal I went out to my car to, you know, drive home, and found out that I had locked my keys in the car. Brilliant. Fortunately Jen and Tom were still there so we called a locksmith to come out and save my sorry self and I didn't have to wait out alone in the cold by myself. Hooray for friends!

Larry, Curly, Moe, and Jess

Anomaly Orange had a show tonight. And apparently my face had a seizure which it shows no sign of recovering from. *Yucch.* I had an incredibly busy day that was awesome for the most part. The show went well, especially the longform. I was super nervous about it because it's a brand new format that was my very own brain baby. I think it went well. It's always scary when you invent something new artistically and present it for a crowd, but then that's what improv is, so......yeah. Kind of in the job description I guess. I came home with a stomach ache, unfortunately. I think it was caused in part by this week being so RAWR! Among other things. Blah.

What a big shadow you have...

Every so often I have a picture that just doesn't need explanation. Just a short one or two line caption to sum it up and call it a day. I feel if I did that with this picture, I just might leave a good percentage of my readership with indigestion. So here's the backstory: Today I decided that instead of staying in when Jason went to work, I would take the girls to the 7pm family friendly show at the Imp. John has recently implemented the use of his projector to put announcements up on the wall of the theater before (and between) shows. I was talking with my crew after the evening's show when Tom came over to say hi, standing directly in the beam of light. I started laughing because he looked like he was trying to be Godzilla or something, so he started posing his shadow to look increasingly more like a monster until Hans suggested, "Hey....what if I hold up Brianna and we make it look like you're eating her?" So we did. It's not as crazy as it sounds, is it? Oh well. For the record, Brianna was very pleased with herself. She took my camera and was showing the picture off to anyone who would look.

I live in the basement so I have all the nails

She's not being surly, she's being nervous, I swear. But first things first, I got an A in Western Civ, woo! The other final I took today was for Voice and Speech, but I don't know my grade in that class yet, so I can't report in. It went all right. At any rate, the important thing is that it's FINISHED now and I'm half done with finals. Whew! There was a Christmas thing at the school tonight. They did a 'holidays around the world' celebration. God bless 'em...........they tried. But come on, a table of international goodies and they had a sign up that said "Japan" right next to the FORTUNE COOKIES. For the record, China was not represented. Unless you count the fortune cookies. Which are probably from American culture more than anything. Leigha's class sang a couple songs, but it was really informal, so she opted to wear jeans and reindeer ears. I applaud her choice and think it was just right.

Brotherly love

Hectic day. Crazy day. Seriously. Not bad, though. First of all, the girls lost the snow day plea, and in fact our school district was one of the ONLY in the area to not cancel, ironically. I found out that I AM getting an A in German, woo! I'm super proud of myself for that. I stayed at the school for a couple hours after class to finish my remaining projects from other classes, I'm finding myself horribly distracted and running out of steam. Thank goodness all that's left now is my finals. Wait........ Yeah. Ick. The good news is that by this time tomorrow I will have half of my finals completed. The bad news is that I have two finals tomorrow. Yeek! Can't wait for tomorrow late afternoon. This evening I went to church and found out I have to complete six shepherd costumes for the Christmas pageant......by next Wednesday. In fact, that's what the above picture is-unassembled shepherd costumes. *cracks her knuckles* Okay, sewing machine, let's BRING it.

The white stuff

The girls are hoping for a snow day tomorrow, so they went to bed with their pj's on inside out (and Brianna's are backward........for good measure?) and a spoon under their pillows. I am hoping for a not snow day. I'm taking no special precautions unless you count the fact that I'm doing homework in bed. We'll see who comes out ahead tomorrow, I guess.

Stresstacular!

If I had my choice, this picture would have been exactly what I did today and nothing more. Unfortunately, it would be a lie to tell you that it's an accurate depiction of Jessica's Monday, so allow me to have a picture of my wishful thinking if nothing else. I felt awful today. I didn't sleep well at all last night and woke up feeling sick and sore, but as mentioned previously.....several times.......we're coming into finals week now. I can't afford a break just yet. One last push and I'll be fine. Today would have been just great if I hadn't been feeling so ickable, in fact. We got to watch a movie in German class today, which was great! I have the choice whether or not to opt out of the final, but I haven't made up my mind yet. We'll see what my grade is I guess. I also did some studying for a Western Civ test (tomorrow morning) and I feel pretty good about it. These last few readings were pretty easy compared to some of the stuff we'd been reading, so it should be a pretty simple thing to knock this one out of the park. I did some homework this evening, like a good girl, before finally indulging myself in watching some episodes of The Office with Jason. Thank you, Netflix, for being an enabler.

Eat dirt

Improv today had an incredibly playful atmosphere surrounding it. Zak spent an entire scene wrapped around a chair (pictured) doing the most amazing contortions and acrobatics around it as he flipped over it on the floor and back up to a standing position. During our break time we broke out into a spontaneous wrestling match fueled by Sweet Tarts that ended in a ton of giggling and bruises for all. At one point during AO rehearsal I noticed our energy was starting to flag, so, inspired by the evening's mischevious nature, I suggested a game of tag to get us back up and, quite literally, running. It worked! We leapt over chairs and tables trying to get away from each other, completely forgetting that we are all over the age of twenty five. Sweet. I came home zonked and coughing from a slight asthma attack, but it was totally worth it. Finals start this week, and I can't think of a better stress reliever than playing with my friends.

I'm a rock star!

Interesting, hectic, breathless with exhilaration kind of day. Love it! I started out by caroling with Shannon at a craft fair. She asked if I wouldn't mind partnering up and singing with her for four hours, which I was all over even before she said it was a paying gig! So for four hours we wandered around singing, getting applauded, treated to a delicious lunch, and then we got PAID. Nice. From there I came home and had about an hour to chill before we all left for band practice for New Year's Eve. We worked on some songs and fleshed out the set list a little better. I can't wait, this is going to be a blast! Jason usually plays bass but for New Year's he's playing rhythmic guitar, which takes an entirely different skill set. We got a lot of good work in and called it quits around six. During my hour of resting up time I checked my Facebook and found out that my friend Clay (AKA 'DJ Clay) was doing a Radio Disney promotion thing really close to our house, so we decided to take the girls. We showed up and he was surprised to see us, but then said, "Oh! Here, let me get stuff for you guys!" And gave the girls reindeer antler headbands, stickers, buttons, etc. The event was neat, basically a little dance party for the under tween set. Leigha and I won a game and she got a Christmas CD and goody bag out of the deal. Nice! It pays to have incredibly cool friends.

Editing the scene

This evening Leigha spent the night at a friend's house and Jason went to work, so Bri and I had a very Christmas-ey themed girl's night out! The new performance space we've booked for improv had a live reading of 'A Christmas Carol.' It was really cool! The Repertory Theater here in Kansas City does 'A Christmas Carol' every year, so the cast of the reader's theater was done by former members of the cast who happen to be taking a break from the show this year for one reason or another. It was neat getting to hear new life breathed into Dickens' brilliance without the angle of a playwright or movie producer. There's something to be said for the pure work without the watered down influence of others. (Hence the slogan 'don't judge a book by it's movie.' It's true.) Bri seemed to have a good time, especially after she discovered the cookies and cider. You can always count on the five year old mind to have one track, and it's usually directly correspondant to sweets in some way.

Studious expressions

Our house is being run by the homework monster. Leigha is studying states and capitals, Brianna is studying numbers 1-100, I am studying German. My homework is all on the computer, which is pretty cool (we get to hear snippets of speech from native speakers and stuff. It's pretty sweet!) but I have a test tomorrow, which makes it REAL. You know? It's more urgent so I don't get to take the time to enjoy the different qualities in their voices. Oh well. Jason kind of hung out and waited for the inevitable call of "Daaaaaaaaad?" And helped them when they needed it. He's a classy guy like that.

Dream a little dream of me

I take my voice for granted. Seriously. I pin so much on it, with my chosen major being theater, with my massive quantities of improv, and the huge chunk of time I spend singing, and I just don't take care of it near as well as I should considering how much I use it and what I use it for. Shame on me! I need to do better in the future. At any rate, we didn't talk about finals so much today because my only class was German and I haven't missed a single class and have the choice to opt out of the final. Hmmmm.......I'll have to see what grade I'm getting before I decide, but what a luxury! I did spend some time working for my voice and speech final, however. That one will be tricky. I have to adopt another person's accent and deliver a monologue in it. Yikes! I already know the monologue, though, so hopefully I can work the rest into place. I had music practice at church tonight. Funny how microphones are so intimidating if you're not used to them.....it feels like a natural extension of my hand at this point. After church I went to Shannon's and practiced music with her. We have a paid caroling gig this Saturday (YES.) which is just too much magic sauce for me to contemplate. I love being paid to do what I love! Lucky me!

I need you

We put the tree up today, which prompted the annual 'pretend you love your sister for five seconds' picture. Isn't it cute, if not sincere? Aww! All day long at school talk was of finals. Finals, finals, finals. Gnuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrgghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh......I can do this. Like my dad said, if I don't know the material by now, it's not going to matter. I know the material. I'm getting good grades. I have already passed all of my classes by now, in fact. At this point, it's just about bumping the grade up as high as it can possibly go! It's just about the follow through now. But oh man.......my first college finals! *deep breath* I got this.

P.S.-To my mother: yes, Brianna is still wearing those dresses. However, it really hasn't been cold yet here except a couple weeks in October. Plus, I make her wear long sleeves and tights underneath when she goes to school. As long as we're around the house I don't mind if she takes them off. You may now sleep easy.

My boat.......

No, I didn't have an uninteresting day. I chose to post a picture of my cat. Why? I was super busy and nothing I did was super picture op-ey. Unless perchance you wanted to see me get my eyes examined, or perhaps the annoyed face I was making every time Jason and I went into yet another store playing bad Christmas music. (It's not the Christmas music I mind.....it's that the yuck songs and renditions of songs far outweigh the good ones but everyone just throws it all into the same melting pot. Can we at least maintain a level of artistic integrity on the SURFACE if nothing else?) Or perhaps you'd like to see a picture of me eating a super light lunch 'cause I wasn't hungry at all then starving in German class because today was the day we learned FOOD words and I remembered how the yummy breads tasted when they were fresh von der backerei..........mmmm........sehr lecker! Nope, lots of stuff to do, lots of stuff accomplished, all interesting, none photo worthy. So, ladies and gentlemen, here's Spartacus.

Excuse you.

This afternoon Jason called up Dustin for something or other, and it just so happened that Dustin was in the area. His family was out of town until this evening and we were just about to sit down to lunch, so Jason invited him over. We had a great time and we were all sitting around talking when, inevitably, the subject of where some town or other was came up. I got out the map and was showing him, and then we we started talking about towns with weird names, and then we started talking about where we've been and such, so I pointed out my hometown and then showed him where my parents live. He saw that Lake Tahoe is right there so we started talking about Lake Tahoe and how deep it is, and before you know it, Dustin was so fascinated that he pulled out his iPhone to look up the facts, and Jason pulled out his iPod to see who could win the race of who can look stuff up faster. The air was heavy with the sound of implied lightsaber duelings. I don't remember (or care) who won, but it always amuses me when, in this day and age, people choose artificial interaction over face to face stuff, even when they're right there in the same room.

Sleeping EZ

This is a picture of one of my favorite streets in Kansas City. It's in the Crossroads District. I love it because not only is it picturesque, it has great shops and a sweet art space. My only lament is that this level of intense coolness is maintained for a scant block. Oh well, at least it exists, right? I had a meeting and photo shoot for the KC Crossroads Comedy project today. It went well, I got some good shots in. The space (The Fishtank) is really great for taking pictures in. I love it. Jason and I had band practice for New Year's this afternoon and then we went out to eat one last time with Tiffany and Thomas. They leave tomorrow, which is a bummer. It was great to see her. Speaking of seeing people and things, I'm going to shut my eyes for several hours now so the only things I see are in my dreams. I'm super zonked. Good night, all!

It's a chicken drawing kind of day.....

Today was the best! I spent the whole day with the family, we played Wii and I read non-school related books and magazines for the first time since September. It was wonderful! As evening was coming on I grabbed my things and headed out for some yoga with Tom and Julia, then we met up with Tiffany, Thomas and Joe and saw The Union, a sketch group out of Chicago with ties to Kansas City. Jason and I saw them last year when they were here around Thanksgiving and they were tremendous! This year he was working so the girls spent the night at a friend's house and I went with the crew. Loaded Dice and Spite did a couple thirty minute sets as an opener, and they were just fantastic. The Union, of course, was phenomenal! They did a couples therapy sketch and pulled a random member of the audience up on stage....it just so happened they picked Julia! It was too funny. One of the reasons they picked Julia is because we were sitting in the front row. We sat in the front row because when we showed up Dennis DuPont said, "We're going to have you go ahead and sit in the front row." Uh......okay. So we did. After the show was over, I was told by him and a few other members of the improv groups that I should sit in the front row for every show. Charley Bell said, "Yeah, in fact, we should pay you to sit in the front." I laughed at this point and he said, "Yeah, and that's why. You have this great laugh and it just trickles back like a tidal wave all through the audience." Too sweet! We went to Mc Coy's afterward and Cristela from Oklahoma City (see the entries from July 16-18th, that's when I met her) and her hubby were in town for Thanksgiving, so they met up with us! It was great to see her and introduce her to the Kansas City improv scene. I've been looking forward to today for several weeks now. Glad it exceeded my expectations so thoroughly!

Successful succulence

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! I successfully pulled mine off without a single hitch. I'm actually really proud of myself for that. Seriously, it was a huge undertaking and I loved every minute of it. Here is the spread just before we dove in. At the table are me, Jason, the girls, Bob (Jason's dad), Tiffany, and Tiffany's boyfriend Thomas. He's from Germany and this was his first time EVER celebrating Thanksgiving! I feel honored to have been the one to provide the meal for him. Later in the evening Bob left and we had some pie and played massive amounts of Guitar Hero. It's what you do on Thanksgiving, like, seriously. After the girls went to bed we were joined by Tom and his sister, Julia. We had MORE pie and watched a couple episodes of Firefly. Great series, I'm really getting into it. A perfect Thanksgiving all around.

I'm creating! A mess!

Day before Thanksgiving! I made a few things today in preparation for the big meal tomorrow. The covered dish there is cornbread which is the basis of my family's heirloom cornbread dressing recipie (if I never get any other inheritance but that, I am beyond okay with that. Yeah, it's that good.) and the eggs are for deviling tomorrow. I had a request for them. Today was all about cleaning the house and preparing dishes that need a little advance prep. I also made sure the turkey is thawed and then began soaking it in broth and herbs to make it super juicy. Mmmmmm! Can't wait for tomorrow afternoon!

My little pilgrim, now in four colors!

'Tis the season.....Brianna came home today as an 'Indian.' The back of her FABRIC tunic (we had paper sacks when I was in kindergarten! We must belong to a really rich school district!) has her 'Indian' name on it, "Little Cloud." Awwww! So answer me this, if you can remember, dear reader: When you were in kindergarten (or whenever) were you a Pilgrim or an 'Indian?' I am pretty sure I was an 'Indian.' I was certainly fascinated with their way of life for the longest time! This evening the girls and I went to an improv show. Jason has to work at nights now, so it was just us girls at the Exit 16 show. They're high schoolers and it's at the school so it's family friendly, and Trish coaches them. I've been meaning to get to one of their shows for quite a while now, so I'm glad I got the opportunity. I guess that's one advantage to not having rehearsals on Tuesday nights any more. The show was fantastic, those kids really know their stuff! I wish I had known what improv was when I was in high school. I would have had SO much fun!

Security

Y2K10 is coming!!!! No, really, it is! In two months! In preparation for it's rapidly impending arrival, I have stored up supplies to last a while. Either that or I'm hosting Thanksgiving and wrangled up the necessary items today. Take your pick. Either way be creative and have fun with the story you envision of why I decided to stock up. (*rolls eyes* You picked Thanksgiving, didn't you? You're boring. Accurate, yes.............but boring.) The cool thing about knowing how to cook is that I went ahead and allowed myself to go a tad over the top when it came to buying such supplies. Why is that a good thing? Because this time of the year they're on sale, and whatever I don't use this Thursday can be made into all sorts of amazing yummy awesomeness in the coming months........before Y2K10!!!!!! Ahhhh! It all ties in, it must be fate! Either that or I'm creative. See how much more fun that is?

I'm already convinced that you're mad at me.

In no particular order, those three cars belong to Tom, Jen, and myself. Kind of fun to see them all lined up like that. It's like, "Hey, our cars are best friends too!" I had a very full day of stuff. I went to the school play production (Almost, Maine) because I had to critique it for my theater class, and I stayed on campus after that for Project Improv and Anomaly Orange rehearsal. I'm zonkered and tired and exhausted. Did I mention I could use some sleep because I'm out of energy? It's true. The good news is I have only a small amount of homework to finish. Yay to me for staying on top of things!

Ladies' night

Brianna had a girl scout sleepover tonight. One of the activities they did was swimming and they needed a parent to be there for that portion of the evening, so Jason elected to go. Since Leigha and I were then freed up to do as we pleased, we decided it would be fun to go down to the theater and see this evening's 7pm show. During intermission we felt the need to do some hand stands against the wall............yup. We're crazy like that. The show was fun and there was Dairy Queen to be had afterward, which is always good. I love getting to have time with her all to myself. Leigha is going to be ten in January, she's growing up so fast! It's nice to just take time and enjoy moments like this together. Even if they're upside down.

Alactric blue

I had a great day. *contented sigh* Everything about today was pretty great, honestly. I had a tremendous yoga session, a yummy pizza for lunch, coffee, and then I went to German class and found out that I had not, as I feared, skipped over a whole section of the test when I went up to answer my verbal questions. Ausgeseichnet! This evening we took the girls to the school to get them vaccinated against the H1N1 virus (which I have affectionately named the 'Heinie') it's not that we're paranoid.........or even worried, but if offered a free shot for the kiddos to keep them safe, we'll take it. Fortunately for them, the school had the shot AND the nasal mist, so they escaped puncture-free! Yay!

Nonderstanding

I kept thinking, "I'm going to take a picture later......." Then later came. Oh well. There wasn't a lot of interesting photographic moments earlier anyhow. But hey, check out my guinea pig, Terwilliger! Isn't he cuuuuuuuuuuute? Yeah. Nothing much to say about today, really. A full day of classes, I gave a speech and delivered a monologue at school today. *shrug* It was an okay day.

What guilt?

Today I decided to have lunch on campus, since I was in the area early anyhow and have a 2 o clock class. The restaurant they have downstairs was serving a Thanksgiving meal. Mmmm! Good stuff! And cheap! I love the cafeteria at school! Anyhow, I came home after school and did some homework, then Jason and I saddled up the girls and took them to church......for the Thanksgiving dinner. Hey, guess what I forgot was tonight? Dinner? Turkey? You betcha! So I ended up having two turkey dinners with mashed potatoes and stuffing today. Children of divorced parents...........I feel so bad for you right about now. This tryptophan overload thing is a killer!

If only it were Tuesday

I forgot it was Tuesday until Jason said, 'Okay girls, time to get your shoes on, we have to get to girl scouts!' Oh yeah. Tuesday. How odd to not have rehearsal tonight. Fortunately for you, I had plenty of exciting adventures to take pictures of today...............erm.........either that or the highlight of my day was when Jason and I went to pick Leigha up from the school when her meeting was over and found a piece of artwork by a kid whose first name was Eminem (seriously? SERIOUSLY?) Yeah. Fun to laugh about, not so much with the picture taking opportunityness. The day was just fine, honestly, but it's amazing how no rehearsal makes Tuesday kind of a wash in the 'interesting things to take pictures of' spectrum. Enjoy this picture of me looking bored and lonely without the benefit of a hipster outfit to at least make me retain a semblance of coolness. Think of it as a study in irony.

P.S.-I am feeling SUPER duper snarky at the moment. It happens. Enjoy!

Putting on chapstick is different now...

I woke up this morning to an e-mail from my German teacher saying there was no class today. German being my only class on Mondays, I felt like I was getting away with something! Since it's also Jason's day off but the girls were at school, we behaved like two children playing hooky. Jason said, "You know what...I want a sandwich and a beer." So we went downtown to Grinder's and giggled at each other across a philly cheesesteak. We tooled around in the Westport area for an hour or so, then got a coffee and headed back to the house, where the kids had just gotten home from school. Insult to injury, we made them clean their rooms tonight. Yup, we acted like a couple of kids all day then made the girls work like responsible adults. I love my life. The above picture is a hand drawn rendition of Daria from the bathroom wall of the lady's room at Grinders. Sweet.

Uncle Jessie's ice cream stand

One of the problems with having a busier lifestyle is that I have a lot going on that I could write about but it just isn't interesting to anyone but myself. You know? I do a lot, but it's mostly business any more (lolz, did homework today. Wester Civ is, like, so hard and stuff!) and I have less motivation to fill in the gaps with fun wordplay. (Today I changed my socks and went to class, then I drove my car to places with people doing things.) This is something I have to work on if I'm going to continue this daily picture thing. Bear with me if I get a little ugh now and then, this is meant to be a huge 'every day is special' kind of thing. (it's true.) So here's the whatnot for this day: We had a great afternoon downtown, eating lunch, having coffee and chasing the kids around just for the pure pleasure of torturing them. I gave them each a huge lipsticky kiss on the forehead as one of my torturous acts. Mua ha ha! As evening was coming on I went and coached a great Project Improv rehearsal, which was immediately followed by AO rehearsal. Jason's schedule is changing, so in order to keep me on as a member they all accomodated me by switching nights so I didn't have to find a regular babysitter. Seriously, they are the best friends a gal could ask for. We continued working our new format and it was SUPER cohesive tonight! All we focused on was character and relationships, and the whole thing played out like a wonderful movie. It was an absolute blast! We also played some short form games to flesh out our next show, which is a longer one. I am super bummed about having to rehearse on not Tuesdays, though. I love that everyone is willing to help a sistah out, but I'm totally bumming that they had to. Plus, I liked that rehearsal was in the middle of the week. Gave me a happy island to look forward to. Oh well. It is what it is and I'm happy to have it one way or another.

Bizarre baazar

Today was SOOOOOOOOOOOO WEIRD!!!! I mean we're talking freaky weird here, people! Here are a few of the odd things that happened to me today:

*I woke up BURSTING with energy and crashed shortly after my first cup of coffee

*Drew red hearts on two hundred and sixty small pieces of paper

*Had breakfast for lunch....at two

*Played on a bouncy slide for an hour

*Hugged my best friend because we were both incredibly pissed with each other

*Had a snow cone in one hand and cotton candy in the other

*Walked past a group of about six ladies in white tights, white shorts, and white hoodies that had pink patches on them and were stuffed to make themselves look fat (I think they were supposed to be bunnies?) and didn't bat an eye about it.

*Had lunch for dinner

*Went to bed by eleven

There's more, but I'm tired and finished trying to think about it. Needless to say, I'm going to seek theraputic care of some kind. Probably by making it all into improv scenes. :-D

A matter of time

Friday the 13th was good to me. A few things got jostled and sloshed around, but at the end of the day I got everything done that I needed to get done, AND got to do several things that I wanted to do! How lucky am I? Triskdeccaphobia is one thing I certainly don't have. It's nice to feel both productive (in the doing that which needs done) and complete (in the doing things I like.) This is a good place to be.

Get well soon

My husband, the gangsta. Aw yeah, that lollypop is off the CHAIN, dawg! You put the 'hood' in 'hoodie!' Things turned around pretty much entirely today, and the world is once again shiny. Just in time for the weekend, yay! We went to Dustin and Alanna's this evening. Mikey was there too and we played a monster game of Taboo that only resulted in one piece of stemware breaking. Bonus: It wasn't me that broke it this time! Yay!