I never meant to brag

Long long long day. Oy. I'm exhausted. Went to class then ran lines until it was time for rehearsal. Jason brought the girls by for their parts then took them home and Tiffany was amazing enough to watch them until I was done with my part, so they were able to get sleep. Meanwhile, I was at the school until 11pm. *zonkered* The good news is I was able to have a little bit of fun backstage with some friends. Here's a fun pic of Austin, Graham and I holding up a literal interpretation of ourselves. Yay!

...And back again

Today was just insane. Seriously. We barely made our flight due to limited seats (a guy got irate and cussed out a flight attendant so we were both able to make it on...classy!) and returned home at noon. I grabbed my school bag and left immediately, Tokyo drifting into an available parking space to arrive at school just in time to take my 1pm psych test. *phew!* Tonight was also our first tech rehearsal for the show, so I stayed after, rehearsed, and came home. The girls were very excited to see us back, especially considering we had brought them candy from Nevada. Specifically Unicorn Pops. Bri stuck that on her head exactly as Leigha said, "Whoa, they're called Unicorn Pops!" Funny how some things need no explanation.

What happens in Vegas?

We visited my dad at the hospital today. Got to see his head unwrapped, too. Looks like he's going to have a pretty cool question-mark shaped scar on the side of his head. I still say they should have thrown in the Harry Potter lightning bolt for good measure. Jason and I had to leave today, however, so we left for the airport. Twice, actually. Flying home on Sundays is rough. We finally got a flight into Vegas but due to the late hour of the flight (that ended up also taking a delay...groan) we didn't end up getting there until eleven, so we booked a room at the Stratosphere in order to make the 7am flight bearable. We were going to do some Vegas-ey things while we were there, but because it ended up being so late the only thing we managed to do was ride the elevator up the tower, check out a gift shop, and go to bed at a reasonable-ish hour.

Hurry, hurry, hurry, before I go insane!

Today was the surgery. As they were taking my dad back, I gave him a hug. The place where the doctor had signed his initials (so they could be sure of which side the tumor was on) happened to brush my cheek and it transferred. I decided to leave it on my face the whole time. The waiting room was like a big party, everyone talking and laughing, and Janina and I colored a big poster for my mom's library. Finally, finally they came back and told us they got it. A tumor the size of a freaking orange. Wowza. By the time he came out of recovery (only an hour and a half or so) he was already cracking jokes, even if he wasn't completely lucid. By any stretch of the imagination. I took some pics of him, but promised him I wouldn't post them anywhere, so here's a lovely picture of me with ink on my face. I am so very, very relieved.

Flight for life

Today we left the girls with Sheila while we flew out to Reno, just barely making it on. Seriously, they closed the boarding process five minutes early so Jason and I could have the last two seats. We went from KC to Denver, Denver to Reno, Reno to sleep. My parents booked us a room at Circus Circus, which is across the street from the hospital. Tomorrow's the surgery. There are no words.

Must Go Faster.

In an effort to get my mind off things, and score extra credit in the process, I went to see the musical HONK! tonight at Baker University with some friends from school. One of our professors directed the show that is the musical adaptation of The Ugly Duckling. It was so very very cute! I wish I had brought the girls with me. We are trying to make arrangements to get out to Nevada and see my family but it's not looking at all good. Every time we check the number of seats available on the flight we want it gets progressively worse...and they were all bad to begin with. One way or another they operate on Saturday morning at 9am. Let's hope we can get out tomorrow.

Unmerry unmerry real birthday to me

Today was my 29th birthday. I came to school to find that Austin had procured a balloon shaped like a potato for me. I decided it would be a good idea to have everyone in the theater department sign it for me. We had a blast trying to see who could outdo each other with well-wishes and elaborate pictoral additions to his grinning face. At one point he even walked hand in hand down the hallway with Macey and Carley. I had a great time....until I got a call from my mom. "Are you sitting? You should be sitting." My dad has been complaining of bad headaches recently. Today he went to work and wasn't doing so well so his boss asked if he wanted to go to the emergency room, and my dad said that yes, he would. They went to the hospital (calling my mom on the way) and got an MRI done. Turns out he has a large brain tumor. Yeah. I got the call at 4:30, called Jason, then sat down on the floor of the hallway for a bit. The next time I looked up it was 6 and I hadn't even noticed. I'm in shock and honestly don't know what to do right now. You win again, sucky birthdays.

Sick Cat Face

Beautiful sunset this evening. I had a pretty decent day, too. Won my volleyball games, even with an incredibly sore left ring finger. That was pretty cool, although a REAL athlete gets injured DURING the game. *pssht* I opened a door is what I did. Oh, and speaking of which, we sent my ring to the jeweler and they're backlogged with Valentine's day crap so it's going to be a few weeks. Hello, I think an eleven year old ring is way more urgent than a 'happy two months since I worked up the courage to start thinking about maybe asking you to coffee' bracelet! Aw well. At least by then the bruising will be gone.

Tomorrow will be better

The girls really are growing up so fast. Most of the time. Brianna DID wear an oversized Target plastic bag this evening and insisted it was her 'magic bag.' I let her hop around in it like a potato sack until she tried putting it on her head then said, "Okay, no no, that's dangerous." I explained to her why that was the case before ripping it in half and putting it in the trash. Yikes. Had a brief but incredibly productive rehearsal this afternoon. This scene is really coming together! I hate memorizing lines, but after they're down, it's purely playtime. Aw yeah!

Care Bear Stare

Saw this advertisement at Target tonight. All I could think was OM NOM NOM NOM NOMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, we're there.

Busy, busy day. I had a rehearsal, then went to the girls' Girl Scout 'World Thinking Day' event, then drove THEM to a rehearsal. Here they are in the back seat of a 'car' being driven around by Gus, the other kiddo in their scene. We're working around the set of 'The Odd Couple' for the next week while it runs, so it's kind of a pain. It sure was entertaining, though. Bri is supposed to make funny noises during the scene and my friend Graham is the driver (though Gus tried hard to usurp him) and at one point he turns around to say something to her while she's making the noises and she hissed at him like a cat! It was too too funny. "Yup. That's your kid all right..."

The Fix is in

Today was our eleventh wedding anniversary. Wah-how. Wow. The day was kind of like a play in that it had two acts and an intermission. In act one, Jason drove my clothes to me and got me to the school in time for class. He left to go fix my car. Dreading a dead engine I was pleased by the text that informed me it was just the compressor. (Dude, it BLEW UP! Like, really, literally blew up!) which is a $250 easily accessible part. *whew!* He's totally like Superman, I swear. He fixed that car so fast I wasn't even finish with my classes for the day yet! So I thanked him profusely and told him to go on with his day while I bummed a ride from the school with one of my friends. When I got to the car I found roses waiting for me on the front seat! (Awwwww!) I drove home and got ready for the evening (intermission.) while Jason dropped off the kids to spend the night with some friends. We went to a swanky place in Union Station. A lot of people must have ordered martinis or something because the waitstaff kept walking through with shakers. The ice inside tumbled around loudly, so every time it happened I'd yell out (quietly) "YAHTZEE!"

No bad days, just good stories

Yeah, so I gakked my finger pretty good today. I was walking through the scene shop and I went to close the heavy sound door when my ring got caught on the door handle and PULLED. Pain shot up my arm and it instantly began to bruise and swell. The ring itself bent into an ungodly shape and has a divet in the metal. Great. We got ice and someone made the point "Well at least you didn't pull your finger off. They can't take a lot of force, you know." No, I didn't. Cool. Now I get to have nightmares. Tiffany came out to the school to see The Odd Couple with me tonight and I had just finished telling her this story when she said, "Well....uh, you may not want it now, but I got you something." She instructed me to hold out my hand and close my eyes and I couldn't help but laugh my head off when I felt her sliding a very pretty antique ring onto my right hand. How sweet! How ironic! After the show we came out to find that it had snowed heavily and the roads were all slick. We tested the roads by getting a group together and hitting the IHOP. We had a blast, but when we went to leave I turned my car on and black, stinky smoke filled the cab of the car. I was the last person leaving the parking lot so I called Matt Yale and asked him to come back (he was the next to last to leave) and Jason to see what I should do. It was late, the girls were asleep and driving conditions were very dangerous. It was decided that I would go to Matt's grandma's place and sleep in the guest room and the car would be dealt with in the morning. What a horrendously long day. But hey, what a story, right?

Shadrach, Meeschach, and Tabedyago

My dearest Jessica,

Was it something I said? We don't spend enough time together, darling. I miss the press of your cheek against mine. Listening to the rise and fall of your breath at close range. The chance of you sucking an errant feather into your lungs as you softly snore. I fear we are growing apart and can only hope that my desperate plea will allow me to find myself once again in your embrace. For both of our sakes, come back to me my dear, and hold me as you once did.

With sincerest heartfelt love,

Your Pillow

Mindblowing force

Had a volleyball game tonight. Wore this shirt. I like this shirt. I think my favorite part of it is the fact that her hair is blue. They drew an outline and stuck it on a blue shirt instead of choosing to color it a 'normal' shade. 'Normal' hair color. Right, like most of the people I know have their natural hair color. At least I choose to be honest about it.

Hello Raisin

Pretty sure this was inspired by Valentines day....either way Brianna is an odd duck. As soon as I snapped this picture she said, "I wanna see what it looks like!" I pointed to the altered poster. "Just like that, Bri." Silly girl. Busy day for me. The girls didn't have school but I did, so this morning was rather hectic. I fueled myself with coffee when I had time...at three...

Weekend Update

So I got a bit behind on the blog and had a bit of an epic weekend. The girls were gone, Jason was gone, so I took advantage of the alone time to sort out thoughts, relax and enjoy myself. The details and events are mine to keep, however, because I want to keep my special time close to my heart, as lame and squishy as that sounds. So instead of the typical 'one post a day, one picture per day,' here is a collection of images from my weekend, no explanations. Enjoy! Regularly scheduled program resumes tomorrow, same bat channel.

Me or them.

I treated myself to a pair of insanely cute shoes the other day. I ordered them online and waited in anticipation as they went out of stock, back into stock, shipped, no answer at the door so no signature so UPS left us a note...and finally here. I put them on this morning with the though, "Kitty shoes. It's gonna be a good day. It's GOTTA be a good day." Then stumbled as I realized I haven't worn clunky mary janes since the '90's and holy cow they are very heavy. I had forgotten that. But you know what? It was a good day. Spent some time with a few good friends, didn't have anything due, no tests, just a nice chill day. This afternoon Jason took the girls down to meet Sheila halfway so she could take them for the weekend. He is leaving tomorrow morning to go skiing with his brother and I have a few rehearsals this weekend, so she was fantastic enough to take them for us, so Jason and I went out. Not too late, though, his plane leaves way way early. So happy I get to wake at my regular time.

Tooters who toot flutes

Poorly lit gyms are not the best place to capture distance shots. At least they weren't moving much. Leigha had a band concert at 8am today (????) so we frantically scrambled to get ready for the day as we figured out how to get Jason there (as he comes home at 8am) and how to get Bri to school (as it went until 8:30 and her bus comes by at 8:15) what a mess. Somehow we made it work and caught a roomfull of fifth graders frantically blowing into instruments. The baritone player was out for blood, it was great. Oh, and the conductor made the bold decision to not showcase the crowd-pleaser 'hot cross buns' which blew my mind and upset some of the more hardcore fans. I held up my lit cell phone in appreciation for their work, however, as they were actually pretty good considering their amateur status.

I need a suggestion

I'm a doodler in class. It helps me pay attention, actually. However, I find that the intro to theater class I'm taking (because it's a prerequisite for the class I REALLY want to take next fall) is not one I have to jot down a lot of notes for because I already know the bulk of the material during this introductory phase. Not that it's not interesting, it's just that I don't need to keep notes about a lot of it. This has been causing an excess in doodlage for me, as seen above. Meet the 'Good Omen Guinea Pig.' Because bean bags with feet need heroes too.