Demolition Crew in the Hizzouse!

So....we got this odd thingy in the mail today. It said, "Build your very own cat." I followed the instructions step by step exactly the way it said to and this is how it came out. I think I messed up, can anyone out there help me with this one?

Moving on, Jason is doing much better today now that he can feel his face. You'd be surprised at what a nuisance it can be when you mean to say, "Hello there old chap, isn't it a lovely day? Fancy a stroll then? There's a clever lad." And it ends up coming out a glassy-eyed head-cocked tremulous smile that's all chin, teeth, and drool. Thank goodness he's past that and back to being all British again just the way we like him. Thanks, friends out there who have been asking about how he's doing and supporting me as well. It's great to have people in my life who I can play around and laugh with to help me be me. You know who you are and I appreciate you very much.

Zombie

Poor Jason had his wisdom teeth taken out. Oh, and yes, he consented to this photo. Even made a crazy face for it. Anyhow, yeah, he's doing really well. Much better than I did! Probably because mine were all sideways and cemented in my jaw and his just went 'BOOP' to the distant, tiny applauding of the tooth faerie. Also, he has me to cook for him. Not only is his food much better than what I had, but I know exactly what is and isn't impossible to eat so he doesn't have to learn it the way I did. We even rigged up a great system that injects water into his mouth so he didn't have it dribble down his chin while his lips were numb like I did.

50 million screaming fans are never wrong

I had a wonderful day. It's great coming back and resuming my regularly scheduled life. Most people aren't fans of their routines I've noticed, but mine is great because it provides hecticness and breathability and for the most part I can shuffle things around to fit what I can most productively do into any given time slot. For example, if I feel chill I can do homework or watch a movie and sew in that space. If I feel bouncity and energetic, I can cook or clean while dancing to music. Something always needs to get done and I am happy to do it, no matter how much of a freak that makes me....beyond the obvious already in progress. Either way, today I felt like seeing people and lucky me, that's exactly what I got to do! Church in the morning, rehearsal in the evening with my improv troupe. I was going to take pictures at rehearsal, but whenever it's really good and fun (like tonight was) it totally slips my mind. Not such a bad thing. As I was pulling away I remembered, however, so here's a picture of my rearview mirror faerie that I got in San Fransisco this Summer and just put up. I didn't have her up for a while because one of her wings broke off, I fixed it, it broke, fixed, broken....etc. So I fixed it again and surprise surprise, it fell off again. Time to get some heavy artillery I guess. It's a sad day when superglue fails you and your faerie is left with only one option: To fly around in sad little concentric circles because you can't steer effectively with only one wing.

It's Crazy, I know.

Today we made the trek back to Kansas City. I love car rides with my family so much. Torturing the girls, taunting cows, listening to music then butchering it by screeching the lyrics as loud as possible...we're a lot of fun if you're into that sort of thing. No? Cool. Well I love it. Anywho, on the way up the girls were teasing me about how I always have to get Starbucks when we travel, so to mess with them (and because I wanted it) I said, "STARBUCKS RUN!" the instant we got into the metro area and pulled off the highway to a known Starbucks location (they may have a point...). As we pulled into the drive through I was asking Jason for his order as he was giving it to me and both children were yelling for ice water. Somehow the guy got our items correct and we pulled forward, but when we got to the front it was a young lady who handed us our drinks. As I was reaching up to take the waters, she said, "Derrick says these are a present from him to you." I laughed and said, "Thank you!" and saw a young guy inside the shop smile in my direction. He said, "You can write me a thank you card if you'd like!" I said, "Sure!" So while we waited for my mocha he located a large piece of paper and a sharpie, then the girl handed them to me. The paper was already folded and 'Thank you' had been written on the front, so I drew a dorky smiley face, wrote a message of thanks for the water on the inside, signed it, then handed it to Jason and the girls to sign just as we got Jason's americano. I passed back the card and sharpie and we continued on our way, the girls teasing me about my fancy coffee habit the whole way home. When we got back Brianna wanted to test out her bike for the first time, and she rode it without training wheels for a short while! Yay Bri! We decorated the tree this evening, just in case there were any lingering doubts that it's almost December. The girls posed as you see in the picture and Jason said, "Are you gonna let them do that?" Well of course! Anyone can get bland posed pictures of their kids. Seriously, they're a dime a dozen and not interesting to look at. Someday my girls will look back on this picture and laugh and we'll talk about how well it captures their personalities. What on earth could be better than that?

The New Leftovers

Today we celebrated Thanksgiving. There were 18 people at the house...only seven of us were family. Yikes. I'm surprised the house didn't explode! We did the meal thing and after everyone left we opened a few Christmas presents since Bob won't be back before then. Bri got the best deal, though. We took her to Wal-Mart where she was allowed to choose a bike! Leigha got an ipod/CD/radio thing, Jason got a book and a hitch for his vehicle, and I got my favorite thing of all. Gift cards! The gift of shopping! I can dig it. Now that the actual meal is behind us it is full tilt Christmas time. Here goes nothin'...

What's his last name?

Happy Thanksgiving, all. We did not celebrate today because Aaron has to work, so our Thanksgiving dinner consisted of frozen pizza and the Spongebob movie. Hoping yours was better and ours will be better tomorrow. This year, I am thankful for:

-The standard issue items such as family, food, friends, etc.

-My new car

-All the fantastic people I have befriended this year

-Losing people in my life who were not fantastic

-The reaffirmation that there is always, ALWAYS a way

-My magical sewing machine of magicalness

-Flight benefits

-My purple sharpie

-Chuck Taylors

-And always, always for my sense of humor that can get me through ANYTHING.

Merry Thanksmas, everyone!

QT hearts U!

Travel day, travel day, la la la la laaaaaa! The girls and I hung out and packed today, then when Jason got up we headed down to Sheila's. We stopped at the QT on the way and surprise, surprise, they have pumpkin pie and whipped cream in their fridge! Hilarious! But hey, if you forget your dessert you know where to go now. We drove down, had dinner, watched a movie, then the girls went to bed...so Jason and I snuck out and went to Wal-Mart, dredging up a multitude of memories from when we were in high school and the only place to hang out was Wal-Mart. Ugh. The best thing about going to small-town Wal-Marts now is that even when I don't have purple hair people stare at me. It's readily apparent that I don't belong, so I welcome the staring. Exotic flowers like me don't blossom in small cages.

You don't mean it.

Last day of school for all of us before Thanksgiving break starts! My day flew by quickly and before I knew it I was out of class and basking in the company of my friends one last time before we all dispersed to the loving arms of our families. Leigha took full advantage of the no school tomorrow thing by spending the night at a friend's, Bri got to go to a tea party with her girl scout troupe, and Netflix kicked out a Dexter disc for Jason to get to catch up on today. I'd say we're all doing pretty good and have a ton to be thankful for. I'll have to remember that when it's a week before Christmas and I'm running around like a rabid ferret who knows how to cure rabies but when she got to the pharmacy she realized she didn't speak English so she's having to do charades but lacks a few pieces of basic human anatomy such as thumbs so she's just frantically running around waving her arms emphatically. So pretty busy then.

Dude, I totally won.

Holy salmon eggs today went by so fast! Went to classes then to the Godspell 'post mortem' talk for some extra credit for my Acting 2 class. It went well, lots of positive things were said about the show. When I got home the delicious pair of vintage heels I ordered were waiting for me! *SQUEE!* It's been a while since I've posted a picture of my feet, but THIS time I had a reason for it other than boredom! I still like my bored feet pics, btw. No, I don't know why.

Clean Shaven, Brah!

Closing day of Godspell! Due to the gritty nature of the show a lot of the guys had to grow a substantial amount of facial scruff to give it an authentic feel (and also because spirit gum sucks) so all week long we kept hearing, "Arrgh, I can't wait to get this thing off me!" *beard scratch* So today immediately following the show (before we even started striking the set) Graham and Erik disappeared into the men's dressing room and came out looking all shiny and new. Much high fiving ensued. The best part, though, was watching people react upon seeing their faces, some of them for the first time sans beardage. It was like we suddenly had a gang of strangers running around that looked vaguely like the cast members we have all grown to love. The cast party was supposed to take place at the director's house, but that fell through so I offered up my place instead and we had a great time hanging out one last time (For now. The show may get to perform at a festival in January) and bonding as friends. Fare thee well, Godspell. It was wonderful while it lasted. I'm really looking forward to some free time.

No, wait, Thanksgiving is this week. Nerp! Scratch that idea...

Lightsabers and Lollypops

After Godspell tonight Charlotte hosted a 'continuation of Halloween' costume party at her house. It was amazing, she lives with her parents and they have a huge beautiful house that they filled with amazing little details like severed hands on side tables and spiderweb curtains, not to mention a portrait of Medusa that changed from a regular looking girl into a full on snakes-a-blazin' attack picture if you got too close to it. Nice. My favorite part, however, was when she took us down their hallway (which had been lined in black plastic trash bags and was filled with cobwebs and black lights) into her room, where she had a bunch of decorations, spider webs, and animatronic figures that moved about in the fog-machine enhanced room as Thriller played in the background. Seriously, they went all out, it was great! This being a theater party, we all adjourned to the lawn for a lightsaber battle (that came out blurry but cool looking. Sorry.) then came back inside to perform our monologues for one another. Too fun!

Oh holy jeans!

Today we had TWO showings of Godspell. The morning show was for a bunch of high school theater kids. We have a great program called 'In the Wings' in which several local high schools bring their theater kiddos to our school and starting at 9am we have workshops. They range from costuming to singing to stage combat. Pretty sweet! Lucky me, I got to be the timekeeper for the improv workshop! As soon as that concluded I went backstage and got the costumes down and we put on a great show for them. After, we all went to a great mexican restaurant that's across the street from the school. When theater people get together outside of our typical thesbian haunts, we don't respect the rules of societal norms and (especially if we're in a restaurant) we sing in public. A lot. And very loudly. So while we were at the restaurant going through a few songs, I started singing Bohemian Rhapsody....and it kept going and going. Everyone knows at least a few parts of that song and we were fortunate enough for our knowledge to overlap so everyone sang their bit until we all united for "Mammaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Oooh-ooh-ooh ooooooooooooh!" when Tony yelled out, "Come see Godspell!" Awesome. And we got a few laughs too! We all rolled back to the theater after that and chilled until our respective call times, which for me wasn't very long at all. Since the costumes were still out from the earlier show, however, I did have extra time, which is great because this far into the run everybody's costume is starting to show more wear and tear. The show's concept is not the traditional Godspell with Jesus in a Superman shirt, it's set under some train tracks with a bunch of homeless and bottom of the society barrel people, so the costumes were distressed and dirtied to a great extent. However, the holes in several of the pants were getting just a little too big, so I spent a good portion of the evening sewing up the corners of knees. We want them to have holes, but not to the extent that we can see your knee cleavage (or 'kneavage' as I called it). The lucky victim in the picture is Graham. He's the drummer in the show's band and the band stays onstage the entire time (in fact, the drum set is in the bed of a rusty old truck. It's very cool.) Everyone else I managed to catch and fix before they were wearing them, and then I caught Graham trying to safety pin his knees together and I said, "Oh no you don't!" Drummers are trouble, man. You gotta watch out for them. Fortunately he was a very good sport about the whole thing, even telling me, "You do good work." Before we all headed backstage into the dark.

Which hair?

Boy I look tired and unhappy in this picture! I'm tired in it, yes, but very happy. Today was a great day. I did my monologue in my acting class, this time for a grade, and guess what? This time I nailed it. Hooray! Also, in my world music class we got to learn about Bob Marley (yes.) and ska (YES!) So happy! Then I got to see Austin for a bit and have lunch with Jason before getting my hair re-purpled (yeah!) and heading back to the theater for the brush up rehearsal for Godspell. When that got out, it was Harry Potter time. Yup, that's right, I went to my very first midnight movie premier! Some of my friends were going but I bought my ticket seperately from theirs so the AMC (who assigns seats........lame) not only had me sitting all by myself, but in a different theater! I was super bummed about that so I went to get my money back and they said, "Oh....well, which theater are your friends in?" Luckily the theater they were in had a few extra seats so I got to sit with them. Yay! Take note: AMC....stop assigning seats. We don't always buy our tickets at the same time and we'd like to sit with our friends. Southwest Airlines...assign seats. I hate having to go through a slapfight every time just to make sure I get to sit next to my six year old and not have her in the last seat which is always across the plane next to two creepy old men.

Thank you very much

We had our Thanksgiving dinner at church tonight. Alisa did the decorating and she made a huge banner with a verse on it, then at every place setting she put these little pieces of paper with a sticky tab on the back and instructed everyone to write what they were thankful for and stick it on the board. This was mine. Not that I'm not also thankful for my family and stuff, 'cause I totally am, it's just that I am also thankful for shiny distractions (realio trulio) and figured they needed representation on the board as well. Brianna wrote that she was thankful for food.

Know your place.

Brianna sure was a firecracker today. She lectured the cat for a while about his behavior, then had a chat with the computer about the dolls she was thinking about making on Barbie's website. Also, she does this thing sometimes where she randomly talks in a southern accent, so when I decided to order pizza for dinner she solemnly declared that our pepperoni thick crust was named 'Billuh Bawb Jownz.' Strange, strange duck. Leigha had girl scouts this evening. It really does amaze me how apparent it is lately that she's growing up. Even in little things. Like this evening when Jason went to get the pizza they made it wrong and had to get a new one for us so he didn't get back until it was just about time to take her. Without having been prompted to get ready by anyone she came downstairs already decked out in sneakers and a hoodie saying, "Where's dad?" I guarantee you if it was two minutes to time for Bri to ride a magical pink glittery unicorn through a cotton candy meadow while listening to merry go round and Christmas music and eating ice cream sprinkled with candy bars, she would still be upstairs, in her room, coloring. Completely oblivious. Possibly naming a toy Billy Bob Jones, for that matter.

Photobomb IRL

Oh the things you find backstage. I had a rather abbreviated day at school due to the fact that both of my classes let out early. I have class from eleven to noon which was shortened by half an hour, a break, then from one to two which today went only until one twenty-five. Sweet! Maybe this is to make up for all the extra time I've been at the school lately. At any rate the evening was spent torturing the girls, which was a lot of fun for Jason and I. Oh, and PS- I lost my camera charger but couldn't find one at Target or Best Buy for under $25, so I came home and found one on Amazon for less than $5.....with shipping. I'm never buying another stupid cord from a store again unless it's an emergency.

Poppa, wheelie?

We had some excitement at church this morning...while I was singing during worship Dustin suddenly started swatting at something, taking one and sometimes both hands off the piano. Very odd, I thought...but didn't want to draw more attention to it than was already being drawn, so I ignored it and carried on. When we left the stage I asked him what was going on and he said, "Oh, yeah, so there was a spider on the microphone..." Yeah. What's more, the guy is an arachnaphobe. I laughed so hard! Poor Dustin! After church we stayed and had pizza with Dustin and Alanna. The kids took the whole playing together pretty seriously too. Besides messing around with the wheelchair they turned the tables (which had been pre-set for our Thanksgiving dinner this Wednesday) into forts with blankets and pillows. I was genuinely impressed at the scope of it!

Healing touch

Saturday! Yay! I had a really great day, too. I got to sleep in and chill with the fam then I joined some friends for dinner before the show. I didn't stay all night tonight because Jason works, but at least I got to be there for the flurry of activity that is costuming the cast. During all the rushing about one of the actors twisted his ankle pretty bad and we were trying to figure out the best way to help him when around the corner comes Jeremy, the actor who is playing Jesus. He happens to be a paramedic in his 'real life' job, so he checked it out and wrapped it up nicely. I thought that was great, especially considering 'Jesus' was healing the guy who plays Judas's homeboy! I forgive you, my son, now go forth and twist your ankle no more!

No Cars Go

So this is me in my backstage costuming emergency apron. Thank goodness I had it on, too, because we had a skirt that failed to stay up during the first act! Luckily the actress was completely hidden from the audience so nobody noticed. I pinned it up like a ninja and we were good to go! After the show I got to hang out for a bit with a few cast and crew members and it was a blast! Absolutely lovely evening.

Opening night and everything is all right

Today was one of Jason's days off so when I was finished with school he came down and took me out for lunch. Very sweet of him! Tonight was opening night for Godspell. After the audience left we had to do production pictures which took forever, but look how pretty everything looks! Austin came to the show tonight and ran around taking pictures of the cast along with the photographer. She even got one from the train tracks looking down. Very nice! Well done, cast and crew!

Gotta go. Band practice.

Sarah and I had coffee this afternoon. We drove through the.........drive through (shut up, I'm sick.) and had a very interesting barista. Seriously, he was a hoot! "Hey, welcome to Starbucks, what can I get you?" "He-yee-ay! I'd like a..." "Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeey!" "(laugh) I'd like a grande nonfat peppermint mocha, no whip and...." "No and then!" "Ha ha! A java chippy frappy thingy." "Okay, so that's a grande nonfat peppermint mocha no whip and a java chippy thingy?" "Yup." "Word. I gotcha at the window." Too funny. As we pulled up he actually leaned out the window and threw us the 'rock' sign then we had an interesting conversation at the window as well and he gave us his band's Facebook page. I gave it to Sarah. The rest of the evening was spent at home and at church, lost (like my time at school today) to a haze of sickness. In fact, here's a delightful list of the stupid things I've done while sick (as posted on my Facebook status):

1. I got a text from a friend during a nap and I woke up to find that I had a half written response.

2. I called pencils 'graphite sticks with pinkies on the end'

3. Spilled my coffee all over me while standing still.

4. Accidentally posted the above list into someone else's post about recipies. I'm doing GREAT here....

‎5. Put on mah pants backward and didn't notice for an hour.

Masquerade

I'm one sick puppy. Seriously. We did some Shakespeare monologues in class today and I couldn't seem to remember diddly squat despite having poured over the script continuously for a week. Fortunately for me I had a nice window of time between classes and Godspell rehearsal (costuming sure is interesting! <----truly not sarcasm. It's pretty rad!) so I came home and took a nap. Sometime during the nap I got a text and when I woke up I had a half written reply on my phone. 'Oh it's the........' *shrug* I wonder.

Techno Phantom

I took a very similar picture to this almost to the day one year ago, from just a couple feet away from this one, actually. Last year when I took it I was by myself at the time, it was freezing, and I ended up having a really awful day. This year I was with a friend, it was nice and warm, and my day was superb! I can get on board with that. Speaking of which, somehow I got talked into helping out with the costumes for Godspell at my school. The good news is I don't have to be there alllllllllllllllll night long. In fact, it went by pretty quick tonight, and this was the first dress rehearsal. That's a good sign. I was home with plenty of time to see the girls and Jason before they went to bed and/or work. (guess which went where...) After he left I called a friend back, having gathered from Facebook that she had had a pretty rough day and needed someone to talk to. Maybe I should go ahead and stop taking perspective shots of these trees.....

Mattster

During rehearsal this afternoon Matt Yale decided to utilize the water bottle refill station as a water fountain. You look like a hamster, dude. It's a good thing. Jason has been sleeping since he got back...apparently there was a LOT of snoring at the retreat and he was unable to sleep well there, so he slept, went to work last night, then slept again today before we got the girls back (to their reluctance) from the ranch. Oh yeah...that must mean tomorrow's Monday...which means I had some homework piled up for me. Only about a month now until finals...gulp! (Hey, look, my blog entry came full circle!)

Magic and Whimsy

I got up early(ish) this morning, got purdy, then drove to Westport Coffeehouse to spend the day doing and watching improv with the College Improv Tournament! Apparently I need to get glasses to match the rest of my buddies... At any rate, we didn't place or anything but we had a lot of fun (and we got a lot of complements, particularly on one scene involving Matt protesting in a Pottery Barn and me poking at him with a broom to get him to leave the store while Zak played my manager). The winners ended up being a pretty local troupe called Zoiks! So stinkin' happy about that. A few of them are friends of mine and they really brought it! Snaps to Girlprov as well for putting up a great fight and hanging in there for a loooooooooong day. Next year hopefully we will be able to spring Joey from work and get more people involved before the deadline to sign up. No worries, though, we were a mighty trio of whirlwind energy and fun and the entire evening turned out exactly the way I had hoped it would, even exceeding my best estimates.

Freitag

Forgive me, dear reader, I forgot to take a picture today. (Le gasp.) Sorry about that. My day was fabulous, though. It was beautiful and sunny out and I got to spend some one on one time with Jason before he took off for the church's men's retreat this weekend. When the girls got done with school I drove them down to meet Sheila halfway so they could go ride horses and spend some quality time with Grandma. I had a lovely evening doing a little shopping by myself and then going to Hilary's and watching Harry Potter. Very chill and just what I needed.

Prepare Ye!

I had an improv practice this afternoon to prepare for the College Improv Tournament this weekend. We had a blast and I can't wait to play! After we dispersed I went to the theater department to look for one of the teachers who had called me while I was busy and wandered in to find her working at the rehearsals for Godspell. I sat in on some of the rehearsal and wow, it's going to be a great production! I act with a lot of the cast in my classes, but there are some of them that can sing like wow! I never would have known. This is obviously not a dress rehearsal and not all of the set is built, but I was pretty impressed with it nonetheless. Looking forward to seeing it for realsies!

Empty

...........................Right. So now that you're done staring and/or guffawing, that's my friend Tony. I was in the theater department today, hanging out between classes when a costuming department lady came out and said, "Hey, Tony, I have a dress for you." Yes, Tony is in a play. Even in context that sentence is highly amusing. In fact, with the full context (it was spoken by a middle aged woman who was dressed quite conservatively and sporting a mom haircut, and spoken like she did this every day. I'd say maybe she does, but our costuming department has no need to be that extensive, so unless she works elsewhere as well, I dunno what to tell you.) makes it even more so. Either way, he is WEARING that dress, and much better than I could, let me tell you!

This picture=not the least bit passive aggressive.

So I totally voted today. Did you? There's no excuse not to if you are eligible. Even people like me who get bored and distracted easily can find a way to make it fun. For instance: by the time I got to the judges and didn't know who everyone was, I decided to give a write-in vote to Sponge Bob. True story.

Utter Misplacement

RIDE ON SHOOTING STAR!!