City of Brotherly Love... with my brothers!

My brother Peter graduated from Temple Law School in Philadelphia, and my Dad, Mom, brother Aaron, Peter's in-laws and I all took advantage of the occasion to visit Pete and his wife, Jordyn, to celebrate the achievement with them.

Mom, Dad and I got there a few days early and were thrilled to have Peter and Jordyn all to ourselves for a couple of days. Turns out, our Philadelphians have made good use of their time there (besides studying and working, of course), and made a point of learning about the city's history and the cool stuff there is to do there. As a result, they are terrific tour guides!

Aaron took a bunch of terrific photos and posted them on his blog. I encourage you to take a look -- his are much, much better quality than mine! -- and tried not to duplicate too many things here.

TUESDAY 5-15

Flight to Philly and LOVE Park

With my dad at LOVE Park

 

Peter and Jordyn treated us to dinner at El Vez restaurant.

It was outside of El Vez where Dominic Cooper walked past us. I turned around to make sure it was him, but he was walking pretty fast, and hiding underneath a beard and mustache. Pete saw him, too, and asked me, "Do you know who that is?" He knew, and was excited too. We then told the others who Dominic was, and my mom was sad she hadn't noticed. Mom and I saw him in The History Boys on Broadway several years ago and have liked him ever since. I LOVE celebrity sightings!

Late night game of Scrabble --
I didn't do too badly in spite of stiff, creative competition.
"Czar", "jilts", and "chews" are all mine;
I kept getting the hard letters! :)

WEDNESDAY 5-16

Benjamin Franklin Blvd, Boathouse Row, and The Mural Mile

 

Shakespeare statue outside the Free Library
The inscription reads:
"All the world's a stage and the men and women merely players"

The Thinker statue outside the Rodin Museum

Benjamin Franklin Blvd, with the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the background

Peter, Mom, me, and Dad in front of the Rocky statue by the Art museum
(taken by a local homeless man who, thankfully, did not steal our camera,
but did ask for a tip.... I'm not prejudiced; I've been told not to give my
camera to a homeless person in LOVE park because they have been
known to run off with them while your back is turned!)

You better believe I ran all the way up these stairs
and then jumped up and down at the top.
"Yo, Adrian!!"

Oddly enough, we didn't actually go into any of the museums, just walked around outside them :D

Dad, Mom, Jordyn and Peter eating deli sandwiches in a park near their house

Philadelphia has more outdoor art than any other city in the country.
They have a program for putting murals on the side of buildings, so we took
"The Mural Mile" walking tour -- so cool!

THURSDAY 5-17

Graduation Day

Jordyn's family and Aaron joined the rest of us on this day for the rest of the trip. Kinda cool to celebrate and sight-see with such a big group!

Aaron and I on the steps of Temple's James A. Beasley School of Law building between graduation ceremonies

My mom is 5' 8"... she was the second shortest in the group after me!

FRIDAY 5-18

Historical Sight-seeing

Benjamin and Deborah Franklin's grave in the Christ Church graveyard.
People threw pennies at the grave, in remembrance of his
"A penny saved is a penny earned" quote.
Mom thought this was silly. In her words:
"A penny tossed is a penny lost!"

I have no idea why there is a cat-statue fountain in the courtyard at Betsy Ross's house

.

My first -- and definitely not last -- Philly cheesesteak from Sonny's. Peter assured me it would still
be authentic if I had American cheese (instead of cheese whiz) along with the sweet peppers and
mushrooms. That was nice, because I wasn't as big a fan of his with the 'whiz as I was of mine!

The room in Independence Hall where independence was born.
(This is my "I'm taking my own photo" face)

Hilarious typo on a marquis inside the Independence Park Visitor's Center.
I "aplologize" for laughing as hard as I did when I saw it!

Dad and I on the train after a long day of sight-seeing.

SATURDAY 5-19

Amish Country

Aaron, Jordyn, Pete and I at the Kitchen Kettle Village
Rhubarb Festival in Lancaster County

Sometimes I forget how funny Peter is. While driving around and exploring bridges in Lancaster County, he and our parents had the following exchange:

Dad: There's something on my shoe.
Peter: Did you step on a "horse cookie?"
Mom: As opposed to a "cow pie?"
Peter: Yep!

Haha! You better believe I wrote that down in my journal. And, fortunately, that wasn't what was on Dad's shoe!

I was by far the shortest person in our group (Jordyn's family is TALL), so Peter and Aaron humored
me by picking me up between them for this shot. I may not have gotten a photo with them at the
LOVE statue (cue clever "brotherly love" quip here), but I sure do love my brothers!!

Mom, Pete, Jordyn, me, Aaron, and Dad eating dessert at the Stoltzfus farm in Amish Country.
This is the only photo I got of the six Smyths in PA!

Thank you so much, Peter and Jordyn, for being such fantastic hosts! I had an awesome time during our visit. I am so very proud of your accomplishments, and can't wait to see where you go and what you do next. I love you!

Peter and Jordyn at Peter's graduation from Temple Law School

Sparring

On a whim, I decided to audition with my friend Allyson for The Three Musketeers. As luck would have it, we were both asked to learn a little fencing choreography!

Neither of us had fenced before, but our friend Justin was the choreographer, and was patient with us. I'm proud to say I learned my stuff right-handed, and even got to be the aggressor in the routine -- haha! Probably the only time in my life I'll get to be Milady de Winter.

I should mention that Justin and Allyson were both in my cast for The Importance of Being Earnest -- Allyson was my Cecily, and Justin was our Algernon. Being our first fencing experience, Allyson and I started off really stiff and nervous. We flailed about with enthusiasm and terror, worried we were actually going to hurt one another. Justin gave us the choreography in chunks and was very encouraging -- I think everyone should learn to fence while surrounded by friends!

After a little bit, Justin needed to go inside for some reason... and that's when Allyson suggested it might be funny if we did some of the lines from the "Tea Scene" in Earnest while fighting. We felt silly at first, but gave it a shot anyway.

"Mr. Ernest Worthing and I are engaged to be married!"

"My darling Cecily," Swing and miss. "I think there must be some slight error." Jab. "Mr. Ernest Worthing is engaged to me." Swing over the head and go at her right. "The announcement will appear in the Morning Post on Saturday at the latest."

"...Since Ernest proposed to you, he has CLEARLY changed his mind!" Comes at me from above, I block, and we grapple.

"If the poor fellow has been entrapped into any foolish promise, I shall consider it my duty to rescue him at once," kick her off; she falls to the ground, I point my sword at her throat. "And with a firm hand."

Justin came back and asked incredulously, "Are you quoting the Tea Scene?!"

We laughed and said Yes, and he shook his head and replied, "Well, it seems to be working, 'cause you're a LOT less stiff than you were when I left!"

I wasn't cast in the play, but Allyson was. I can't wait to see her fight for real, and I take pride in the fact that we helped each other do and look our best. All callbacks should be that fun!

Now I'm considering fencing lessons... I have swordplay in the blood! Anyone want to do it with me? Ha ha!

Cellists win!

Is it just me, or are the cellists the true victors in this dueling number?


I confess, in spite of my big rant about being "over" Glee, my resolve not to watch only lasted a few weeks. I watched the "Prom", "Nationals", and "Goodbye" episodes. They were better than some before had been, though I'm annoyed that they continued to center on Rachel. Whatever.

It didn't keep me from downloading about 15 songs the other night, though only 3 were from the Graduation album. Most of the songs featured Naya Rivera or Amber Riley, of course. Man, I wish I could sell a song like they do! It's been fun rocking out to them while I worked yesterday and today.

Happy Friday, all!

A Princess movie night

Last night, my mom was tending my nieces, so my brother Dave and I went over to help and keep her company. Since I've been tasked with their Disney education, I brought over a few of my DVDs in case they were interested in sitting still long enough for a movie.

It didn't take long for Zonks to pick out the "princess" movie, and I was delighted to see it was Sleeping Beauty! Since she was more excited about it than Breezy was for her choice, The Little Mermaid (I noticed a Dora and the Mermaid DVD nearby, so she might have had mermaids on the brain), we all watched Sleeping Beauty. (For the record, the other movies I took were Aladdin, Robin Hood, and Beauty and the Beast... but to Zonks, the cover for Sleeping Beauty looked the most princessy.)

I have to say, it was awesome being there for their first viewing. They were nervous about the good fairies' spells, and Malificent, and Malificent's minions, but on the whole they loved it! They even debated about whether Aurora's dress should be pink or blue -- to no one's surprise, Breezy was firmly in the "pink" camp.

Zonks was excited about the purple dragon on the cover, and when it appeared, I said, "Maybe that's what you can be for Halloween!" This promptly sparked a very excited little girl to declare she was going to be a princess, and have a princess party for her birthday (in a year), and wear pink and blue for her princess party.

Seriously adorable.

I had forgotten how much work it is to watch a movie with a 3 year old, not to mention two 3 year olds! They had questions about everything. Fortunately, between Dave, my mom and I, we could satisfy them. I'm still a little amazed they didn't move around more than they did. We really aren't sure where Breezy and Zonks learned about princesses, but it's hilarious how much they seem to know about them!

After the movie it was bedtime. Once they were tucked into my mom's bed, Mom, Dave and I decided to watch The Little Mermaid after all. I had fun pausing and slowing down certain sections -- the animation is so funny and clever. David wished for GIF of the dancing turtle in "Under the Sea" (at 2:09 in the video below). I think we could watch just those 3 seconds all day long:


If anyone wants to make a GIF of the turtle and point me to it, I'd be forever grateful!

(Note: Twenty years later, this song still makes me want to get up and dance.)

It was so fun to introduce my nieces to Sleeping Beauty. Maybe someday I'll wear my costume for them... then again, since they are convinced I am a "queen" and not a "princess", maybe I should just let the professionals at Disneyland handle that for me.... nah! If Zonks can be a princess for Halloween, so can I! Even if the costume will be 15 years old this year :)

The Hulk?

This morning, I clicked on a Facebook app to find out which Avengers character I am. I expected a quiz, but there was none. Instead, they just assigned me a character:

Are you surprised? I was. Although the more I think about it, the more I can see how this randomly-generated result is probably accurate. After all, I go to great lengths not to get mad, 'cause I don't like how out-of-control I get... and I am freakishly smart, and I know Tony Stark and I would probably be best friends-- ha ha!

...Then again, since this is randomly generated, I could probably have made an argument for any of the characters.

Did you try the app? Which character did it give you?

On a related note: Go see the Avengers movie (you might have heard of it, it's pretty popular right now ;^P). It's a hilarious, exciting action flick, and Joss Whedon is genius when it comes to creating chemistry between his characters. Now I want to see a buddy flick starring Tony Stark and Bruce Banner. Or I'll just go see this one again. Either way, it's a win!

You give a little love and it all comes back to you!

I've liked this song ever since I first saw the movie Bugsy Malone. When it came up in this commercial, I think I may have cheered. So unexpected and yet it works!


The commercial may be old, but it makes me smile every time.

Happy Friday, my friends! Hope today YOU find something to sing about, and spread some of your own love around!

Graduation Day!

Couldn't be more proud of this handsome kid!

Never would have guessed this sunny trouble maker would become a lawyer - look out world. He's coming!

Thank you, Desperate Housewives

Gabby (Eva Longoria), Bree (Marcia Cross), Lynette (Felicity Huffman), and Susan (Teri Hatcher)

Dear Desperate Housewives,

You couldn't have picked a better day for your series finale than Mother's Day. My Mom and I have been watching your show together nearly every week since the first episode eight years ago. It's been one of our favorite, most enduring bonding opportunities, and you've meant a lot to us. True, not every episode was golden, and we have never quite been able to admit it just might be our favorite show (which it probably is), but you always managed to charm us with your humor, gorgeous clothes, and relatable women.

Oh, and the fact that a lot of your episodes are named after Stephen Sondheim lyrics is just plain awesome.

The commercials for that first season advertised a show was about sex, betrayal, arson, adultery, and some other horrifying things... I guess it was, but it wasn't nearly as salacious as it sounded. Mom and I fell in love with a sweet little show full of characters to root for, insane situations, memorable moments, tragic deaths, unexpected lessons, and a whole lot of fun. Many people have fallen in love since, but we've liked it since episode 1.

I wish I could say that I'm not a Susan, but I totally am. Clumsy? Sweet and goofy? Well-intentioned? A little disorganized? ... I wish I didn't find her so irritating, but I guess it's true that we are harder on ourselves than others... at any rate, she actually married the man of her dreams, so in that way I hope we're the same!

I have never asked her about this, but I think my mom is a mix of Bree and Lynette. She's like Bree in that she's a fantastic homemaker, with fantastic style, who can whip up practically anything, from a wedding dress to a decorative-and-functional toy chest to a multi-course meal. But when it comes to family, my mom can identify with Lynette's crazy clan. Poor Mom had five of us wackos to deal with, plus the husband with a silly sense of humor and long hours at work. Hope we've turned out okay, and she doesn't feel quite so long-suffering now!

Tonight's finale was definitely worthy of all the zany will-they-or-won't-they and Happy-Ever-After-until-the-next-problem-comes-along antics typical of our heroines. I laughed a ton. I cried a little. We may or may not have yelled at the screen once or twice. And they may have left us with one more unsolved mystery... I am content. I loved our ladies. Nice to know their fictional futures are in good hands!

Here are a few of Desperate Housewives's Top Moments (including awesome cameos by people like Nathan Fillion and Scott Bakula). Beware, there are spoilers!

Thank you, Desperate Housewives, for eight awesome years. My mom and I are going to miss you -- nothing else will ever quite take your place.

Sincerely,
Miss Megan

Happy Mother's Day! Definitely a memorable one for me!

My own "Desperate Housewife" mom, and baby me...
ignore my ears if you can!

Time to find an audition song!

Even before Earnest closed, people started to ask me what I'm going to do next. I'm glad that I didn't go directly from one show to another, and I'd like a few more weeks break. Then again, when all that most people know about me is that I do theater and my last show just closed, what else is there to talk about but what I'm going to do next?

I admit, I would really, really like to do a musical this summer. I've done two straight plays in a row, flexed my acting muscles quite a bit, and now I want a frothy, dancey summer show. I'm nervous about the state of my voice after the whooping cough fiasco, but I love to sing so very much. Lucky me, there are several shows coming up that I'm interested in...

Which leads to my conundrum: What should I sing at auditions?

Nearly every announcement requests that actors sing a song "in the style of the show." For example, for The Scarlet Pimpernel, you might pick another song from a Frank Wildhorn musical (but somehow not the same song every other woman is likely to choose). Or, for Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, it would be smart to consider something from Annie Get Your Gun or Oklahoma.

If that's not stressful and vague enough already, I've heard you can get rejected for straying too far. When I auditioned for Hairspray last year, I thought "Not for the Life of Me" from Thoroughly Modern Millie would do the trick; it's light, it's peppy, it's belty, and the fact that I totally ROCK that song every time made it seem a good choice (this was important because I've been trying to get in good with that particular director for awhile). Well... I did NOT get a callback. I learned later that the director wanted a song from the 60s. Well.. why didn't he just SAY so?!! I don't read minds! Gah!

Then there's the fact that I'm looking at auditioning for three* very different shows: Little Women the Musical, 9 to 5 the Musical, and The Marvelous Wonderettes. Do I work really, really hard on one song that miraculously somehow covers all three? Or do I pick three different songs and hope my voice can cope with learning them all within just a few weeks/days of each other?

I know one thing: I really want to sing this for 9 to 5... for no other reason than it's pure fun:

(Thank you, Sassy, for bringing this song into my life!)

Theater people, what would you suggest? One song or multiple? Which songs?

What are your go-to songs**? Ones you know you show you off terrifically and use as a default when you can't think of anything else (or don't have time to find something else).

Non-theater people, what songs do you love?

All help is welcome!!

*Maybe four... I'm back-and-forth about auditioning for Into the Woods again... I love, love, love it, but I just did it last year and it might be too soon.
**Mine are "I Could Have Danced All Night", "Not for the Life of Me", and "I Cain't Say No."

Second oldest

At the family dinner on Sunday, my nephew asked my mom who her second oldest child is. He knows his dad is the oldest, but who came next? (It should be said that I was sitting across the table, and he was looking either at me or in my direction for most of this.)

"Grammy, who is the second oldest? Is it Aaron?"

"No..."

"...Peter...?"

"No..."

"Well, I know it isn't David."

Pause. While he continues to stare pensively past me.

Me: "What am I? Chopped liver?"

Smyth family circa 1999

He smiles like he knows he should be embarrassed, but isn't. "Oh... okay!"

I know I look young, but sheesh! I wasn't even part of the list!

Although, it's not the first time someone thought my younger brothers are older than I. Based on the family photo I carried around on my mission (shown at right), most people guessed I was the second youngest, and that the actual second youngest, Peter (with the Greg Brady haircut), was the oldest. Guess those of us who look more like my mom got the "slightly younger-looking" genes!

At least my nephew acknowledges that we're all family, instead of just people put on the world to entertain him. You wouldn't believe how long that took for him to learn. Then again, being an only child (and grandchild) for as long as he was, I guess he didn't have any frame of reference. It all makes more sense now with sisters of his own to put things in perspective.

Golly, I love that kid!

*Updated* May the 4th be with you

In honor of Star Wars Day ("May the fourth" is like "May the force" - get it?), I'd like to post a clip from The Empire Strikes Back that I've probably watched no less than 200 times (yes, I'm a sappy, science-fiction-loving girl):

(Please forgive me for this weird voiced-over clip. I couldn't find an original that wasn't in Spanish.)

Imagine my surprise, then, when I found this exchange in the middle of a classic novel:

"...You like me, don't you?"
"Well, sometimes," she answered cautiously. "When you aren't acting like a varmint."
"I think you like me because I am a varmint. You've known so few dyed-in-the-wool varmints in your sheltered life that my very difference holds a quaint charm for you."
This was not the turn she had anticipated and she tried again without success to pull her hand free.
"That's not true! I like nice men..."

Any guesses what book that particular conversation is from? I know it's obscure, but you have to admit, the similarities are striking. I wonder if the writers happened to have that in the back of their minds when they wrote the screenplay for Empire Strikes Back...

I'll post the correct novel in an updated version of this post either later this afternoon or tomorrow, just in case no one has any guesses. You might be surprised!!

Happy Star Wars Day, and may the fourth be with you!

**UPDATED Saturday, May 5**

Karl guessed correctly in the comments: That conversation is from Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind! Scarlett and Rhett... yeah, I can see the resemblance to Leia and Han (actually, typing out that sentence felt just a hair blasphemous to both franchises). If you haven't read it, you should -- it's a fantastic read. Definitely one of my favorites, and a lot more thought-provoking than the movie (although they did a pretty good job telling Scarlett's story in the movie).

Happy Cinco de Mayo, my friends! Thanks for reading!

New headshots

My last headshot has lasted me 9 years. Granted, I haven't changed much in those 9 years (I really think I look much the same), but I felt it was time for a change. Plus, the photographer who took the previous headshot had photoshopped out the mole on my chin. Call me sentimental, but I've missed it all these years.

This has been a good headshot for me for all these years.
I'm just a smidgen sad to retire it. 

My friend Mandie from Illumine Photography offered a terrific deal. Since I'm no fool, and I really wanted to see her anyway, I jumped on the chance. I'm so glad I did! Look how well they turned out! Much as I liked my last headshot, I love these a billion times more!

I honestly can't decide which I like better.  Mandie and I agreed the black-and-white one is a bit more Megan-y, so that's probably the one I'll use the most. I have both of these in color and black-and-white.

Mandie was so easy to work with. She asked me for my input and made changes when I asked. I even loved that she explained what she was doing with lighting and stuff. As someone who is interested in good photography (even if I can't reproduce it) I was grateful for the tips.

Also funny was when Mandie took a look at my face to see which was the "short side" -- most faces are asymmetrical, and Mandie was trying to figure out which was my better side. Funny enough, my face IS pretty symmetrical... until I smile, that is! I have a crooked smile. This was not new information for me, but the fact that my face is otherwise symmetrical was! Weird. As much as I look at myself in the mirror, I thought I would have noticed that before now. Whateves.

And now I'll stop being totally vain and talking about my face.

Instead, I'll tell you all that if you're in need of a great headshot, contact Mandie on her web site. She is a joy to work with, and produces marvelous results. I wish I could have stayed and chatted with her longer -- I love her madly!

Thanks again, Mandie!

Now to find a show I'm excited about auditioning for so I can start using these bad boys...