Another Blessing

Jake, Jane, and baby Bowen

My cousin Jane and her husband Jake had their first child in July. Since Jake's whole family is here, they came to Salt Lake for the blessing. I missed the blessing itself because I volunteered to watch my nieces and nephew so that Adam and Lindsey could go. I was happy to do it. Jane introduced Adam and Lindsey and they were there for Jane and Jake's courtship, so I knew how much going to the blessing would mean to them. Plus, more baby and G-unit time for me!

After the blessing we had a little party at my mom's house. Jake's family came, Jane's parents were in town, and a bunch of our Craven cousins came, too. We ate Cafe Rio-type salad, many different kinds of Halloween cookies, and leftover Halloween candy. We talked and held babies and played with the bigger kids. Any day I get to spend time with these people is a good, good day!*

above: Gram and me with Bowen
below: Jesse, Darin, Charlie, Emily, and Jake

above: Bowen with maternal grandmother (my aunt) Stephanie

And, of course, no blog post about my family or cute babies is complete without a photo of my own adorable nieces. They're getting big, but they're still so little!

*If you and I are Facebook friends, you can see a few more photos in the "Fun with Fambly" folder on my Facebook page.

Narcolepsy is Catching

My current play Sleeping Beauty opens at the Children's Theatre tomorrow. Please come! I would very much love to see you, your kids, and your significant others there. It's a children's theatre, but we've worked really hard to make the show fun for adults, too.

For information on performance times and ticket prices, please click here.

Hope to see you all there. Let's be honest, I don't get to see any of you nearly enough!

A Happy Halloween

Halloween this year was a great day! It started waaaay too early, with an 8am rehearsal. (We had to rehearse at 8am, because the show playing that day had a 10am call time, but more on that later.) Now, if I hadn't had rehearsal that morning, I would have worn my Sleeping Beauty costume all day. But, I did have rehearsal, so I just wore my thermal shirt with the crowns on it, and the "Miss Amazing 2008" crown that Emily H gave me for my birthday last year. (If I had thought of it in time, I would have worn the "Miss Amazing" sash too. Oh, well. I can bask in the faded glory next year!) At rehearsal, we ran a bunch of scenes, fixed some dances, and I got to try on my costume. My costume is gorgeous, by the way. I love it! Rehearsal was over at 10am, at which point I ate a banana and took a walk downtown.

My darling friends, Dot, Yakko and Wakko had graciously agreed to join me and see the show playing at the Children's Theatre that day. I was worried that something called Ghost Stories might be too scary for Wakko, but he and his older brother assured me they were never too scared. On the contrary, we all laughed hysterically. The play was awesome! I am so, so glad I went and even more glad I took those particular kids, because we had a ton of fun. The kids bought sodas and Swedish fish to share during intermission. After the play was over, I introduced them to my friend and the director of the play, Joanne, and the kids started talking about wanting to do a show there sometime which I think is a marvelous idea.

We swung past the kids' house on the way to lunch, just in case their parents might want to join us. We were a bit early, and Stephanie and Troy were still out, so we made our way to McDonalds where the boys played and we all ate and quoted some of the funnier lines from the play. We decided it was necessary to perform at least two of the stories for their mom as soon as we got home. We did so, and she laughed, though I'm sure our retelling was a little jumbled. Really, it was just funny watching Yakko, Wakko and Dot dance around. Ah... good times.

I would have liked to spend more time with their family. However, I was exhausted and needed a nap, so that's what I did before getting ready for the evening's festivities.

My friends Krista, Nancy, Arwen and I had tickets for the Thriller dance concert at Kingsbury Hall. We took Trax down, chatted with another passenger/theatre person who I run into every once in awhile, were invited to an inappropriate club by a toothless older man, and laughed at the drunk guys who couldn't figure out what our costumes were. (They "guessed" I was a Princess. Really? They weren't sure I was some kind of princess in spite of the crown and huge, puffy dress? And they weren't sure that Nancy was a cat even though she had whiskers, ears and a tail? That would be about the point I'd lay off the beer, but whatever...)

Arwen (a flapper), Krista (a little girl zombie), me (Sleeping Beauty), and Nancy (a kitty)

Before the show, some of the dancers wandered around and terrorized people outside Kingsbury Hall. Nancy wasn't terribly amused when one male zombie chased her around. It did add to the atmosphere, though.

The concert itself was amazing. They did some scary stuff, but turned most of it funny by the end of each dance. There was a dance about mummies, a ballet starring Frankenstein and his bride, a music video with the opening song from Nightmare Before Christmas, a dance about the Salem Witch Trials, a trio of Jasons, a depressed clown, and more. It was at least 2 1/2 hours long, but very entertaining all the way through. A great way to spend Halloween. The dancers even chose me to enter the costume contest at intermission. I didn't win, but was still flattered, and it gave me an excuse to take a walk to the orchestra seats from the upper balcony.

One of the many highlights of the night was meeting a lady dressed as Maleficent, the evil fairy from Sleeping Beauty. Awesome! Since I was dressed as Sleeping Beauty, I asked her for a photo:


Our ride home wasn't as eventful as the ride there, but I practiced my flirting skills and was pleased to have them reciprocated somewhat with plenty of mutual eye contact. I finally arrived home about 11:30pm. Completely exhausted, I nevertheless wasn't ready to go to bed, so I sat around in the costume a little longer and watched the Vampire Diaries and Monk. Maybe it's a little anticlimactic, but it was a nice way to end a great day!

Sick Again

Sunday night my throat started feeling a little scratchy and as the evening progressed, it hurt more and more. By Monday morning it was so bad I couldn't swallow. So, I called in sick to work and went to the Instacare where I wore a mask in the waiting room. I was assisted by tall, blond, handsome male nurse who gave me a strep test for the second time in 30 days... which was negative again. The doctor diagnosed me with a nasty virus and recommended ibuprofen and salt water gargle. I slept the entire rest of the day.

Today I worked from home all morning, which wiped me out for the afternoon. I feel compelled to go into work tomorrow, even though I am worried about working the whole day and then going to rehearsal. We're teching the show -- we open on Friday! I can't not go! And I have so much to do at work I loathe to stay home. Maybe I'll work from 9 to 3 and then sleep in my car for a couple of hours... Maybe I'll work from home again. I don't know.

Hand sanitizer, herbal lemon tea, ibuprophen, ricola, sitting down, and snatches of sleep have become a must.

Fortunately, I actually have food this time. When I was sick last month it was something of a joke. I should never let my cupboards get so bare. Or, I should just be less afraid to dig into my food storage. Fooood! Glorious food!

Too Darn Hot!

No, the title is not in reference to the weather outside (though it was a pleasant day today). It's in reference to the only song I know in the next show I'm doing.

Remember last week when I posted that I wasn't called back for Kiss Me Kate? Apparently, it was because they'd seen all they needed... to decide they wanted me in their show! I got an email on Saturday asking if I would accept a part in the ensemble (They had to send an email because it seems I gave them a bad phone number - ack!). I called the stage manager this morning and accepted the role. It was such a rush!

When I looked at the cast list, I realized I am one of only 14 girls in the show - 7 in each cast! Crazy, eh? I am totally flattered, and totally, totally excited. I loved the dancing at the callback and can't wait to get to know the show and the cast and become reacquainted with the theatre. I haven't done a show at Rodgers in 5 years, and I only did the one. I'm not thrilled about the commute in the worst months of winter, but maybe there will be people I can carpool with... I hope the other three people I know are in my cast -- or that at least one of them is!

Rehearsals start after Thanksgiving which gives me a chance to close my current show before I start another. That will be nice. Not really a break, but at least they don't overlap, and I already had a 9 month break from theatre earlier this year.

Yaaaaaaaaay!

(If the dancing is anything like indicated at the callback, or like that in this clip, it may kick my butt. That's worth seeing, isn't it?)

Coming Up:

I have one old computer that gets internet that doesn't accept new photos, and another that I can download photos on that doesn't connect to the internet. This means that I cannot add the photos I took this weekend to my blog posts until I find a functioning computer. The plan is to throw them online tomorrow during lunch, so I can write my blog posts around them.

Included will be posts about:

Halloween
My cousin Bowen's baby blessing
and Sleeping Beauty (which opens on Friday!)


I will be buying a new computer shortly... I will be really excited when I don't have these weird problems anymore!

Stay tuned!