Quilted midwestern

My family does this thing where all the women make a square each that my aunt Wanda collects and turns into a quilt for firstborn babies. She's pretty special, that Aunt of mine! Anyhow, I got the manila envelope with the letter in the mail a while ago but due to busyness and forgetfulness, I let it sit far too long and they have to be done for this Saturday! Fortunately, due to creative knowhow (and the fact that quilt squares are relatively small) I was able to finish mine within an hour (W is for wail!) then help the girls get theirs finished. Hooray! Leigha has D and she chose to use 'dog' to represent her letter, and Bri had numbers five and six. She made a bunch of stars because stars have five points. I don't know what that circle thing is or what it represents, but let's just pretend it's her portrayal of something to do with the number six.

Because it's cute and I can.

My blog has been Bri-gocentric the last couple days. Forgive me, but A. She's cute and B. Leigha played at a friends house today and yesterday afternoon. So yeah, little one think's she's hot stuff on her princess bike and insists we watch as she proudly rides to the neighbor's mailbox and back again. Good for you, tater tot!

Daisy'd n Confused

Brianna's girl scout troupe had a badge ceremony tonight where they all received pins, badges, and a super cool secret handshake from their leader. The handshake part was probably more difficult for most of them than earning the badges was. Either way it took half an hour to do what could have been accomplished in ten, but it was super cute. Bri and I made faces at each other throughout the meeting, which made it more fun for both of us. When we got home and she was brushing her teeth, I caught her making her 'game' face in the mirror. 'That's right. I still got it.'

Backwater hick chic

Hiccups and snaffus prevented me from being home when I wanted to be. The flights that were fine when I left home became intensely oversold suddenly. And this is why I have never tried to fly out and back over a weekend during school just yet. Wait, doing it again next weekend? Yeah, I am. Great. Either way, I had to come home via the next closest non-oversold airport in order to make it back today....Branson, MO. FYI, their airport looks like Famous Dave's and Bass Pro Shop got together and made Cabela's, who quickly turned around and married a pawn shop, the union of which ultimately resulted in the creation of the Branson airport. Yikes. I hopped a shuttle downtown as soon as I got there, since I was afraid that if I stuck around longer I would hear distant banjo music coming closer....and closer......AND CLOSER! I killed time around the newly created riverwalk, which was fun, until I got picked up by my knight in shining Pegleg. Home sweet home!

14110

Altitude knowledge fail. *blush*

Beauty's only Bone Deep.

I promised Tiffany way back in July that I would fly out and visit her for her birthday, so today I made good on that promise. She met me at the airport holding a sign bearing my nickname and I put a bow on my head, pink tissue paper sticking up out of the neck of my shirt, and To:/From: stickers all over myself. Not sure if we got stared at or not, we were too busy being giggly and happy about our situation. Hooray! We spent the day doing interesting things like going to an oxogyn bar (weird.....) and negotiating a lazer maze at the mall. (think Mission Impossible or James Bond. Awesome.) I got to meet some of her friends and we had a really fun, surprisingly chill day. Glad I can be here, Tiffyfee!

Magical land of hope and wonder

I seriously can't stress enough how great it is to be a theater student.

School sanctioned hookey!

Today the theater department classes were all required to see the Kansas City Repertory Theater's production of the new musical 'Saved!' Oh shucks. Also, we had more people sign up for the trip than could physically fit into the amount of vans the school gave us to use for said outing, so Austin volunteered to drive and appointed me as her shotgun rider, with TJ and Sarah A. in the back. Double shucks! We were doing that lovely thing where there's a huge line of cars all following one another and the lights turn yellow early on.....that was fun. "Floor it! Floor it!" I think the lights knew we were coming, too, since they turned an awful lot. This is a pic of one of the other student-driven vans, featuring a lovely cameo by one Mr. Sean W. I think his face captures the very free-spirited essence of our outing, don't you? The production was absolutely fantastic, by the way, but it hit a little close to home for me. Apparently there's a movie version of it as well, but I haven't seen it. From what I heard they toned down the harshness factor big time for the musical. Probably for the best.

Jessie one note

Austin and I had coffee today between my classes and her going to work. I mentioned to her that I keep seeing her car on campus and she said, "Yeah, I keep expecting to see a note on my car some day when I'm leaving the school." So today....I left a note on her car. (Tee hee!)

Here again

Lookie, my eyes are open and I'm not chained to papers or running around backstage at a theater! My feet don't even ache! If I do happen to look a little worse for the wear, it's because I just now realized I've been wearing an apron since 5pm, when I started making a transcendantly tasty dish for my family's dinner. That and because I made the dinner. Either way, I love my vintage dress/cute apron combos when I get to wear them around. Lovelovelove! School, dinner, family stuff, just a well-balanced and relaxing day for me. Probably the most 'normal' day I've had in a few weeks. I do love that normal in my schedule is an abnormal thing. Keeps me entertained and on my toes. My favorite!

Fancy Catchup

Sorry if yesterday and today were boring for you, but yesterday I caught up on sleep and today I caught up on homework. That's not the only thing I did today, it's just the only one I got a picture of. This afternoon I went to an estate sale and found some cool old maps and two books (including a 1958 hardback copy of Breakfast at Tiffany's!) for just $3. Woot! I love me some sales!

Exhaust is delivered by trains.

Festival is over, time to catch up on that sleep thing I've been not getting much of. Thanks, Sunday, for being Sunday and not having classes scheduled on you!

Live from Kansas City!

Tonight was Jason Sudeikis's birthday! How fortunate for us that we got to celebrate with him! His mom was so sweet, she came backstage and set up cupcakes for him, along with the sign that reads "Happy birthday, Jason!" (He's 35, FYI.) We had a wonderful closing night of the festival all around, and a fantastic show was put on by all. Well done, everyone!

Jokyr and Jesster and Jesster

I had the good fortune to pick up Jesse Parent and Joe Rogan of Salt Lake City's improv scene up this afternoon. Great guys! I took Jesse to Oklahoma Joe's since he landed first and he wanted to go to a good bbq place. I also picked up Ed Goodman at the same time as Joe, so the three of us made a gleeful beeline across town to the festival! Everything operates like a well-oiled machine at this point in the game, and the night went off without much of a hiccup. You know it's going well when the only noticeable glitch is a very loud cricket backstage that made lots of noise unless Trish waved the curtain back and forth to shut it up. Poor Trish, her arm was sore at the end of the evening! Is curtain elbow a thing? It is now.

Back in the action zone

And with that, it's back to KCIF fun-age. Tonight's show was unofficially known as 'phone-it-in' night backstage, meaning we didn't have to do quite so much since our local talent is so great that we don't have to worry too much about the show having hiccups. Plus, we don't have to worry about who goes where when and how to ferry people around town since we all have our own cars and such. Less work, high quality product. Woo hoo! I can get on board with that! I chose a picture with Zak playing a janitor. That was fun. I hit a few estate sales after school (I get out at noon, Jason sleeps during the day. I hate to wake him. That's not me pretending my arm is being twisted, I really do hate to wake him.) and got me an ARMLOAD of great vintage clothing for seven dollars! When I got home this evening at ten, I was talking to Aimee (who is both my babysitter AND friend) and it suddenly occurred to me that she might be interested in looking at them. I pulled out a few examples and she fell in love with a cute blue A-line sundress with red flowers on it (circa 1960's) so I encouraged her to try it on. It fit her LIKE A GLOVE. As soon as I saw it on her, I said, "Oh! Take it, it's yours. I insist!" How fortuitous for both of us, because her birthday is Tuesday and she needed a dress! Glad I could help out!

Crack, pop, oh snap!

Yup. This happened today. I was on my way out the door heading to my classes. It's a rainy day (and how!) and I was walking down the stairs. I slipped and caught myself on the banister, but I had my iPod in my hand and I dropped it, causing it to land perfectly flat face down on the concrete. I winced inwardly, saying, 'Please don't be broken, please don't be broken, please.... Aw, man!" The good news is that it still works and Jason can fix it. He has fixed other iPods with broken screens (same model) for other people before, so I know he can fix it. But yeah, such a bummer. I love rain, though, so I can't stay upset for too long.

Relax. It's a hookah.

After school today I went to QT to get gas, only to find all twelve of the pumps were shut down and wrapped in caution tape. Thinking that this was a story I had to hear I decided to run in and get sodas for Jason and I. I got up to the counter and asked the lady what was going on, and apparently it was struck by lightning last night! Yeep! Fried all the computers. As I was just entering my neighborhood Corin texted me and said, "Hey, let's hang out." So I stopped off at the house, dumped my books, and grabbed Jason. She was at a friend's coffee shop/hookah bar and we all had a blast playing Sorry and listening to Moroccan music on one as it unintentionally mashed up with the 90's radio station playing on the other side of the room. Pretty sweet, actually. Brianna had her first girl scouts meeting of the year and she was sooooo excited to put her gear on. Leigha took advantage of her absence by riding her bike up and down the street as fast as she could.

This is ladies night!

This morning I drove to the airport before school to send Tiffany home. It was fun, it flew by, and I'm so sad to see her go. Until we meet again! (which is soon....) I did the school thing, getting out at 2, and this evening I went out to dinner with a crew of gals from church! We'd been talking about getting together for so long and we had so much fun we wondered why we didn't do it a long time ago! We met up at Stix and went to the hibachi section, which a couple of the girls had never done! We ooh'ed and ah'ed at the chef's tricks as he assured us that it was his first time and he was really nervous. (nice.) Later after the kids were put to bed Jason and I sat out on the back deck and watched a massive thunderstorm roll in. Fall's a-comin'!

Don't worry, he purred the entire time.

No festival fun today (boo) but we did have a great day! After church we took Tiffany to D'Bronx for some deli sandwich love. Matt F. met us there and we had a blast as he took my iPod's German Tutor and quizzed us on German vocab. We came back home after a bit and bid Jason and the girls auf wiedersehen as we headed to rehearsal (yes, Tiffany got to come play for the first time since before she moved to Germany!) which was a blast as we all tried out our new toys that we gained at workshops. When we got home we put the girls to bed then Tiffany and I decided to dye our hair. Me purple, her red. Since she had the dye and it was non-toxic and all, we decided to give Spartacus a nice red heart on his tummy. He purred the entire time I held him and she painted. Good news, he needed a bath anyhow and now he's emo!

And the win continues

Dang flash didn't go off! Another amazing day. I drove to the workshops this morning, then handed Tiffany the keys to my car so she could visit her brother. I took one from Susan and one from TJ, both were INTENSELY helpful. Woo! I love workshops! Tiffany picked me up after the second (and last) class of the day and we went to hang out with Zak and Matt Y., grabbing coffee to fuel us for the evening's fun-ness. The show tonight was great as well, and TJ and Susan left us rolling in the aisles! The afterparty tonight was at The Drop, which I've never been to....we needed a bigger space, that much is for sure. I think TJ and Susan were feeling that because they started suggesting going to get food, so we suggested Chubby's. Chubby's is kind of a greasy spoon diner kind of place that's a Kansas City institution. They thought that sounded good, so I offered them a ride. (Squee!) We had a great conversation and a lot of laughs before I took them back to the hotel and Matt Y. to his car, since he had hitched a ride over from the theater. Tiffany and I headed back to my place, exhausted out of our minds. Thankfully I get nearly a week to rest up for round 2 of festival. Yay!

Sehr gut Freitag!

Epic win of a day. Seriously. I had talked with Tiffany Wednesday evening and she seemed so sad and lonely, so I told her to pick a weekend. "For what." "Come out here." "(unenthusiastically) I'm not busy this weekend." "Okay." "Wait, what? Seriously?" "Yeah...can you think of a reason not to?" "What? I love you! I'm gonna go pack!" Two days later and here she is. I love getting to be a travel superhero! So she landed and we went back to the house, got ready, then headed out to the opening night of the Kansas City Improv Festival! This is the tenth year of KCIF, and its maiden voyage was spectacular. Among national performers in the festival, this year features Susan Messing and TJ Jagadowski, as made famous by the Sonic commercials. The afterparty was held on the plaza and I got to hang out with Tiffany, Matt F. and Zak, which made for a supremely fun evening!

A Royal Affair

Today was a fast and furious whirlwind of activities. I woke up late, just in time to hear Bri's bus roar by. Oh great...I got her up and together we made her presentable and well fed just in time for me to drive her to school in the nick of time. Annoying fact: When your kid is a car rider in the morning, a teacher comes up to the car to open the door for them. Worse yet: I was wearing a bathrobe. Grahhh! I drove home quickly and took a turbo shower, then got back into the car to drive myself to school, also arriving just in the nick of time. After classes I drove to Kemper Arena, where Leigha was with Sheila, both of them competing in the horseback riding portion of the American Royal! Leigha did good, got a few thirds and a couple second places. Lucky duck got to get out of school for this, so I'm glad she gave it her all and was well rewarded for it! I left the show after a while to run to the airport and pick up our first guest improviser for the Kansas City Improv Festival! Yup, it starts tomorrow, folks! I came home after that (swinging by a shop to pick up a cute dress I had ordered...this particular shop never orders enough of the REALLY cute stuff and they sell out FAST.) and collapsed in a tired little heap, fully cognizant that this is probably the most restful day I'm going to have in a while. Glad I could make the most of it!

Everybody was salsa dancing

Campus Craze was today, which basically translates into free snowcones and loud music that makes it impossible to understand which biomes we discussed in Environmental Science. I got a text from Austin while I was in class, wanting to know where I was. I met up with her after we got out and we went to have some lunch, but due to the hip-shaking salsa music we decided it would be much more fun to set our pizza down and dance. Shortly thereafter we were joined by Sarah M. and Hillary. Woot! We spent a good twenty minutes grooving until somebody realized it was nearly one o clock, the time at which three of us had classes and Austin has to work. Grabbing our pizza slices and hastily wolfing them down, we quickly scattered as if we had never buddied up to begin with, one by one disappearing into the crowd of other students. I love random flash mob type meetups with my beautiful girlfriends!

It's the little things.

I don't care if it's a lame picture, the Google logo was fun today! Seriously! When you moved your mouse around, the dots composing the words scattered and you could chase them with your cursor. Fun! Today was Leigha's first Girl Scout meeting of the season. Those of you in need of cookies, hit me up now, we'll catch you at cookie time!

Huzzah!

Austin and I had planned on going to the Renaisance Festival this year at some point. Lucky for us, today was that day! Jason didn't dress up, so he doesn't get to be in the blog picture....but that's really more because he took the picture than anything. We got all dressed up and took the Faire by force! Lots of fun was had. Leigha tried on Cinderella's slipper, Brianna flipped out about the faeries, Jason and Austin had a sword fight with their turkey legs, and I became further and further pulled into the festivities as the day went along...seriously, I wish I could post a picture of 'after' as well, since this is my 'before' pic, but if I kept posting as many pics as I wanted, this blog would be pure pictures and very few words. Not that I assume you'd mind (Yeah, yeah, you read this blog for the articles......) it's just that would take a LONG time to upload every day. Time I'm not willing to give up for such things. We ran into Corin as the day went along, so when Austin split off to go see Chad I hung out with Corin for a couple hours. I haven't seen her in forever! Any way you slice it, I can't wait to go back. Ren fest is a blast!

Rest up, then keep running!

Today was a sleepy Sunday. Jason left after church to get the girls, I caught up on some homework then went to rehearsal. A nice little break in the frantic activities of the last few days.

Hot time in the old town

My day consisted of a cast of two today. For act one, it was a one woman show. Jason's co-worker invited him to come over and shoot guns (um.....whoop.) during the afternoon, so he was gone pretty much all day after he woke up from his after-work nap. I decided to do Jessica things and just enjoy myself, so that's what I did. Things Jessica likes to do: FINALLY BUY A NEW CAMERA. Yes!!! I had Jason text me when he was on his way, so during intermission, I got myself all prettied up. For act 2, Jason and I went to a fancy schmancy restaurant downtown, the climbed the hill to the World War One memorial. It boasts a fantastic view of downtown Kansas City, so we both snapped several shots. First of the city, then increasingly closer shots of the memorial itself. As the evening drew to a close we finished off the night in Westport. A perfect finish.

Schöne Nacht!

I had the most wonderful start to my labor day weekend. School went by fast and I had an extra long break between my classes that I used for homework and hanging out with theater kids. When I got done with school, Jason was in the process of taking the girls down to meet his mom halfway so they could go horseback riding this weekend (and he was going to be heading straight to work when he got back into town), so I decided to do a little shopping (woot! Garage sales!) then treated myself to a latte on the plaza, which is one of my favorite spots in the city. To be fair, though, it's on an awful lot of people's 'favorites' lists. The weather was simply gorgeous, the first 'fall feeling' day we've had. I caught up on some more homework while I sipped then headed to the crossroads district to meet up with my First Fridays flyer handing-out crew. Festival is next week! Among the people in my little gang were Zak and Matt F., which was a lot of fun! We met back up with everyone at JP's Wine Bar, eating and talking and laughing until it was time for me to split. I headed back down to the vicinity of the school for my friend, and fellow theater kid, Hillary's party. I missed getting to see Austin by like 20 minutes, so I was bumming about that bigtime, but when I got there everyone was in the pool so I took off my shoes and waded around for a bit, which was fun. We went back to the apartment and watched a couple funny movies before dispersing, at which point I was glad to get home to my own comfy bed.

Chocolate Rain!!!

School, schoolwork, back to school night, Leigha's softball awards night. Busy, busy day! Something incredibly interesting did happen to me today, though....in my acting 2 class there is a guy named TJ who takes REALLY bold risks with his acting...Our teacher had told him to take up the entire theater with his monologue, so he came back today to do it for the class. He started setting up things (piano moved over there, backpack over here, then he put out a tarp and threw a giant wooden die (as in unplural of 'dice') out. He started out on the piano, talking, playing, talking, etc. Then he got up and continued speaking while he kicked the die around for a bit. After a while of going back and forth between the two things, he reached into his bag and sat down on the tarp as he reached into the bag and pulled out.....a whole bottle of Hershey's chocolate syrup. Oh..........no........... Alternately continuing his monologue and pouring syrup into his mouth until it ran down his front and onto the tarp, he downed the entire bottle then proceeded to FINGER PAINT it all over his body! I mean he literally smeared it up and down his face and between his toes, then drew a smiley face on his leg!!!!! The entire class watched in silent, stifled laughter until he finished and said, "Thank you." And took a bow, slipping slightly on the slickness of the tarp as the class erupted into hilarity. It was amazing. I wish I had gotten a picture of the teacher's face, and I know anyone reading this who knows her is dying of curiosity and wishing they could have seen it too.

A much more different S

Produced another show tonight (Wednesday? Wednesday.....) for a group that wanted to get in a show before the festival to try out their new format. Due to high demand by troupes, it ended up being a looooooooooong night. Yurgh. Fortunately I was in charge of the box office, so I had time to get some homework done and draw amusing pictures with which to enjoy myself. My friend Matt F. came to the show and I showed it to him and he said, "Wait.....why Seattle?" So I explained my thought process. 1. I wanted to draw a fire breathing lizard dragon thing. 2. Logically, a fire breathing lizard dragon thing needs to burn down cities. This is the entire point of their existence. 3. After drawing the skyline, I realized it needed a space needle, which leads me to 4. Calling it out as Seattle. Which rhythmically fits right into the Trogdor song. Yesssss! After the show I was starving so I grabbed a burger from Town Topic before heading home to liberate my amazing friend Aimee, who was babysitting the girls for me. What a lovely woman she is!