My own little random celebration

I never meant to brag

2011-03-08T23:43:00.003-06:00

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

2011-03-07T23:36:00.000-06:00

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?

2011-03-06T23:49:00.001-06:00

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!

2011-03-05T22:40:00.002-06:00

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

2011-03-04T22:36:00.003-06:00

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.

2011-03-03T23:00:00.002-06:00

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

2011-03-02T23:49:00.002-06:00

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

2011-03-01T23:52:00.002-06:00

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

2011-02-28T23:27:00.002-06:00

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

2011-02-27T23:31:00.003-06:00

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

Oh, we're there.

2011-02-26T23:23:00.002-06:00

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

2011-02-25T23:26:00.000-06:00

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

2011-02-24T23:12:00.003-06:00

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

2011-02-23T23:01:00.002-06:00

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

2011-02-22T22:52:00.002-06:00

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

2011-02-21T23:59:00.002-06:00

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

2011-02-20T23:29:00.003-06:00

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.

2011-02-17T22:44:00.002-06:00

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

2011-02-16T23:49:00.002-06:00

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

2011-02-15T23:49:00.002-06:00

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.

HBDSP!

2011-02-14T23:37:00.001-06:00

BEHOLD the cherry yum yum pie in all its glory! Behold it I say!

The Unreliables

2011-02-13T23:59:00.002-06:00

We recently acquired a Jack in the Box here in KC, but it's a bit of a drive so I haven't gone yet. Jason decided to get a bite there today, however, and when he went he got an antenna topper. His antenna is bent so he gave it to me. Excited, I altered it to my own specifications and gleefully went out to put it on my antenna....only to discover that I don't have one on my car. What? Come on, Toyota, I want a whole car here! The antenna is a very important form of self-expression, equal in value to the rearview mirror! The stuff you put in your car is very informative and personal, and I like to personalize everything I have because it's much more fun that way. But alack, one thing I do not have is an antenna.

Flying to save the day

2011-02-12T23:58:00.003-06:00

I had a busy busy day today. Helped Tiffany pick out a couch for her place, had some IHOP, a rehearsal, and then I took in a rock show for my friend's band. It ended up being a really great day, even if I felt like a frazzled hamster by the end of it.

The Matriarch

2011-02-12T16:48:00.002-06:00

A group of us went to an improv show tonight. Tiffany and I met up first around the area of my school. We found out that the pastry department was having one of its legendary bake sales so we went and got some yummy treats. We dressed up and met everyone at the theater, treated ourselves to an amazing show (chock full of friends) then went out for a bite. The best part of the night was the fact that there was a group of friends from school, and my improv buddies were there! Phil is in Improv-Abilities now, so I got to sit next to people I love from both groups. Hooray! The evening itself was one of those strange events where everything just feels...weird. Strange coincidences and occurrances kept happening all night long, one right after another. Perhaps there is a mythical Midwest triangle and we happened to stumble upon it? Who knows.

Awkward Turtle

2011-02-10T23:27:00.000-06:00

So here's an awkward picture from rehearsal. I slap his hand away immediately after, FYI...*cough* It's going well, I need to work on memorizing stuff. Shoot, at this point, though, every day I don't rescue a hamster is a good day. There's a new bar, and it's a high one.

Bjork to the Future

2011-02-09T23:37:00.002-06:00

This is Marsha. She goes to our church. That is her very first corn dog. Ever. How cool is that? She was kind enough to let me capture the momentus occasion. Awesome. I had an incredibly rude awakening. Brianna came running into my room, tears streaming down her face, blubbering, "Spartacus ate Leigha's hamster!" "WHAT????" "He did! I saw him!" Ohnoohnoohnoohno....bracing myself for a gruesome scene I ran into the living room to find Spartacus running low to the floor like he knew he was being bad, when all of a sudden something fell to the floor in front of him. Rocky! I ran toward him but he scooped the hamster up again then accidentally dropped him in the kitchen, where I was JUST fast enough to grab a poor, shaken, but otherwise completely unharmed hamster off the floor. Poor little guy! Leigha had neglected to check to make sure her door was all the way shut this morning. We gave her a talk about protecting her pet and moved the cage onto a more sturdy piece of furniture in the room.

Athel337

2011-02-08T23:35:00.002-06:00

This is me post-Vball game tonight. It's kind of awkward to take pics while people are being active and whatnot. "Oh no, my BUTT is in those SHORTS are in that PICTURE!" Nah thanks. So I snapped a quick shot in the car shortly after we lost the game. (and so did you.) It was snowing a little bit on the way out of the gym and very slick on the roads. I didn't do faster than fourty-five on the way home, and yes, that's with highways. When I got home from the intense-focus drive I found out I didn't get a callback. I figured as much. Oh well.

Oh Jimmy....

2011-02-07T11:53:00.000-06:00

Wow, that *is* a horrid photo of me. Oh well. Saint, Sommer and Jacci look great! During school today I had a lunch rehearsal between classes. Do you know how hard it is to pretend to drive a car while actually eating? I don't know how people who eat behind the wheel while they are really driving can do it! Either way it was fun and I got to practice my audition monologue with them as well! The auditions tonight went okay...I don't expect a callback, though. The show is Richard III for the late Spring, and the department is totally top notch when it comes to all things Shakesperian, so I know they were looking for correct iambic pentameter and whatnot. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

A Team, but not THE A-team.

2011-02-06T23:16:00.002-06:00

We unloaded the trailer with Tiffany's worldly possessions today. I showed up and it was just Tif and her dad for a bit, then Matt Y showed up as well as one of Tiffany's dad's friends. We had a grand time pretending that the lightest objects were terrifically heavy. My favorite was the small makeup case that I needed two people to help me with as we made a big show of dragging it, taking breaks, and culminating in three imaginary hernias. When it was over Tiffany thanked us by taking us out for pizza, then (since Jason went to a party to watch some TV and the girls went along to play with friends) Tiffany and I went back to put some boxes into their proper rooms, set up her bed, and watched a movie. Olivia (her boston terrier) curled up between us and was snoring LOUDLY the whole time. That's about how we felt.

How Cats go Bowling.

2011-02-05T23:34:00.003-06:00

So busy today I didn't even take a picture until late-ish. I had a great rehearsal today for the SET play at school. I'm excited to breathe life into this role, there's so much satisfaction in taking facets of your personality and incorporating them into a character, making words come to life and creating subtext out of thin air. I drove up to Tiffany's after, to help her fix up her place in preparation for her to live there! That's right, she's finally back in town and it was so good to see her back home where she has been desperate to return for two years now! I know that feeling like an old friend. We happily scrubbed her baseboards to showtunes and danced to numbers from Hairspray and Glee as we rid the house of grime from the previous renters. I returned home this evening to find Bri up to mischief, Leigha spending the night at a friend's house, and Jason being awesome and taking care of things. They were going to come out and help at Tif's, but the carpets had just been cleaned and her dad (he helped her drive out and he's sticking around to help move her in) said, "Yeah....we probably don't want kids to be underfoot here just yet." So I decided to try and wear out the hamster a bit so he didn't run on his wheel all night and keep me and Bri awake. (Sounds like a freakin' pencil sharpener.) Spartacus was INCREDIBLY interested in the ball, but whenever Rocky ran toward him he would flip out and back off, it was hilarious. "Oh, wait, I just wanted to LOOK at it, not DO anything with it! Shoot, get it away!!!"

Wonderful, wonderful day!

2011-02-04T23:48:00.002-06:00

Jason and I went out to lunch during my school day today. There's a place nearby called 'Firehouse Subs' and holy moly, it is SO good! They cater to all things manly, for the most part (20 different kinds of hot sauce? What?) so I couldn't help but be drawn to the over-the-topness of this mural on the wall. Jason said, "That's probably how Spartacus sees himself." He's right, you know. This evening I went with a few friends from school to see a show at the Living Room for some extra credit for our various theater classes. It was really good, that space puts on some seriously high-quality productions! We went to a restaurant afterward and amused the waitstaff with our normal, every day theater kid antics. I honestly wonder if my type are their favorite customers, or if they dread our comings and welcome our leave-takings?

Something fuzzy this way comes

2011-02-03T23:38:00.002-06:00

Oh, Leigha...those bangs need to be tamed. I had a great day today. Had a quick coffee/hot chocolate chat with Austin this afternoon. She hasn't quite figured out how to piece together her day so that it includes an affordable lunch option just yet, so today she improvised with a piece of bread and free condiments (PB&J) generously provided by the food court. Very Tom Hanks of you, dear. This evening Jason and I took the girls to spend some gift cards/birthday money they had burning holes into their pockets. Brianna excitedly bought three princess books while Leigha opted on a real-live, parent approved hamster named Rocky. So CUTE! But his wheel sounds like a pencil sharpener. Yuk. However, hamsters are nocturnal escape artists by nature and we have a cat. Leigha has decided it would be a good idea to start sleeping with the door all the way shut because of this. Thanks, Rocky!

How much ground would a groundhog hog?

2011-02-02T23:21:00.002-06:00

Since it was a snow day, we decided the best thing to do was drive on the nicely cleared streets to the Guitar Center 15 miles away to welcome the new addition to the family. Brianna touched the wood of Jason's new bass and declared that 'it feels like a lobster claw.' That means quality, folks. Tomorrow is a snow day for the girls, but not me. The good news is it's also Jason's day off, so he can drown them out with the sound of his new bass. Either way, our district has serious issues if they keep calling school on account of road conditions when even the neighborhood streets have been plowed. Hope the girls have always been curious to know what it's like to have school in June!

Colder than Fever

2011-02-01T23:47:00.002-06:00

This is a cat's eye view of my back deck in the midst of our 'great Midwestern blizzard.' *cough* I know 'blizzard' has more to do with visibility than snowfall (you can get a bunch blowing around, collect 1/2 and inch and it's a blizzard, technically) but the freak out was blown out of proportion in my mind, unless perhaps you were in southeastern Missouri. Either way we had a snow day and we will have one tomorrow as well. The girls spent the day constructing elaborate forts that they are now sleeping in (in Leigha's room. Fun!) and Jason shoveled the driveway so he could get to work. (He made it safely doing 35mph at best the whole way there. 4 wheel drive FTW!) I caught up on my online class and finished a small painting. As for the cat's eye view...I caught him staring at the birds in the backyard and making 'I wanna get 'em!' sounds so I sat on the floor with him by the sliding glass door and put him on my lap so he could enjoy the view from a warm seat. He purred like crazy until one jumped on the deck right by the window and stayed for a while. He cut off the purr immediately and whipped his head around to stare at it until it flew away, then turned back and resumed his 'I'll love you forever!' purring. Good day to be an indoor kitty.

Super Cereal!

2011-01-31T23:21:00.002-06:00

So this is what our weather map looked like at 9-ish in the evening. Notice the giant red bar with 'blizzard warning' on it? Yup. As I head to bed they have already cancelled school tomorrow for all of us but we still haven't had a single flake. I am hoping we come out on the extreme conservative side of the snowfall predictions, but didn't take any chances. I had Jason run to the grocery store while I went to school (the air thick with anticipation and dread of the coming storm), then on my way home I hit up the HoLo for some crafty essentials. My hands are already dotted with paint, tee hee! When Jason left for work this evening I had him pack extra food and a blanket. I really don't want to take any chances. The midwest is famous for wicked ice storms, after all, and that's a lot harder to drive in than snow. I'm going to go ahead and guess the snow will arrive early this morning, stop Wednesday, and we will be back in school Thursday. Let's see how this pans out...

Almost Human

2011-01-30T23:23:00.002-06:00

This poor kitty puts up with so much from us. I've been trying furiously to learn some lines for an audition (Shakespeare is hard. Every syllable MATTERS. You can't mess up the words because it sounds obvious!) and he's been my faithful companion for the better part of the evening. How do I repay him? By flashing a light in his face to get a picture. And that's why we keep him in catnip.

Who's Settling?

2011-01-29T23:16:00.003-06:00

I didn't realize it when I took this picture, but you can clearly see Brianna's hand on the right, there, picking up a game piece from the table. Nice. Austin moved to a new house recently, so she decided to throw a small housewarming/game party. The game in question was Settlers of Catan. I had never played it before, but I'm pretty sure I'm hooked. That sucker's fun! It's kind of like Civilization but in board game form, and I'm a Civ geek. Heck, I'm a huge Sid Meyer fan, if I'm being completely honest. It was great catching up with Austin and seeing her new digs. Plus, her new roommate has an awesome and grotesquely fuzzy kitty and a hamster. I think she's in good hands.

Maturity Schmaturity

2011-01-28T23:09:00.002-06:00

Sean Wooley's birthday happened to be the day that we put Godspell up in Iowa. Needless to say, he was a bit busy to celebrate, as were all his friends. He decided (and rightly so) to throw a belated bash tonight and only invited a select few. I gleefully accepted the invitation when I found out I had made the cut. He decided to celebrate his quiet maturity now gained from another year on this earth in the best way my generation knows how: by playing Super Smash Brothers with his best friends. Ah, adulthood.

I thawed so

2011-01-27T22:39:00.000-06:00

I've been so tired today. I woke up feeling fine, feeling over my cold, then BAM. Four o clock hit and I was completely dragon! Rawr! Even coffee didn't help. (but then, dragons don't like coffee.) We decided to go out to eat as a result, taking the kids to Chick-Fil-A: the fast food place that thinks it's too good for all the other fast food places. Not that I don't appreciate the real flowers in the vases and the wait staff that asks if you need a refill or more napkins, in fact, that's really nice. But at the same time, everything in me says, "Dude....you're still a fast food restaurant." So I kill those voices by eating the yummy chicken sandwiches they make.

No, they're not cutting me a check for this. Dragons don't get paid. Rawr.

All Covered in Cheese.

2011-01-26T23:21:00.002-06:00

The placid island of Tejuatanalakalulukauwee rests idly in the intense heat of another tropical day in the Tuyellow Sea. When suddenly, the peace-loving natives of the island are shocked to find that chaos has broken loose. What they thought was just a large hill (or 'Mt. Wapahunakalesh') is in fact an ACTIVE VOLCANO!!!! The villagers panic, but where do you run when you are on a small island surrounded by hundreds of miles of yellow ocean? Families gather together in thatched-roof huts to spend their remaining minutes together. Goodbyes are exchanged. But wait, what's this? Suddenly a bright green dawn of hope appears on the horizon. The people gasp then cheer as giant frosty boulders tumble down the side of their once beloved mountain. They are saved! To this day, Tejuatanalakalulukauwee and her people remain unharmed and going about their daily lives as they have for centuries. However, one important change is readily apparent: A large plastic bag altar that marks the site of the near disaster. And maybe, just maybe, if you're lucky you will run into old Madame Hakkalanai, who will whisper to you the tale of how a bag of Andes mints once cooled the wrath of Mt. Wapahunakalesh's fires, and how the combined forces of brownie mix sand, egg yolk and milk sea, and (of course) a bag of mints came together to create a delicious desert. Which was then quickly eaten.

Hey, they can't all be happy endings.

Sinusarus

2011-01-25T23:25:00.004-06:00

I'm sick at the moment,therefore kind of miserable to be around, let's be honest. However, when I came home from school, the sight of Jason helping Bri, with what was apparently an impossible to solve word search that she made, warmed my heart considerably. Bri had girl scouts tonight so Jason and I spent some time with Leigha. Jason's parents love to get the girls t-shirts from vacation destinations, and when we are with them they allow them to pick their own shirt designs. Leigha happened to be wearing one she got in Arkansas that was dark blue in color and pictured a rearing white horse and some lightning. I remarked on the shirt, saying:

Me: Wow, kiddo. That shirt totally makes me think of Napoleon Dynamite, except you're not wearing it ironically.

Leigha: *quizzical look* What's ironically?

Jason and I together: Exactly.

Ah, the simple joys of having kids. Why doesn't anyone mention THAT stuff more than being proud of them at school concerts and plays and stuff? Oh, right. 'Cause we're horrible people.

Just in time

2011-01-24T23:37:00.002-06:00

First day of Spring semester for me. I had a rough start this morning, first causing Bri to miss the bus (whoops...you really have to prod that one with an iron poker to get started. Leigha wakes up before me no matter how early my alarm is set!) then forgetting that my class started at 10:30, not 11:00 like I kept thinking. I discovered this when I was fixing my hair...at 10:12...and my school is a 20 minute drive. Somehow (and because it's a theater class) I made it within the first ten minutes of class and gave my teacher a sickly apologetic smile as I walked in late. He knows me (and because it's a theater class) so he just said, "See? Like I just said. You can communicate so much without words." and the whole class laughed. Perfect timing. I got a few syllabuses (syllabi?) and was putting them into my binder when I realized I still had my notes from a class I took last semester, which a friend of mine will be taking this semester and to whom I promised to pass the notes along to. I am a doodler, so I went back through them and found this picture of 'bacon birds.' Wow. I must have been really really SUPER bored to come up with that. Oh, and sleep tight, America! I have pell grants for part of my education, so your tax dollars directly produced these little monstrosities. *salute* U.S.A! U.S.A!

This battery is dead.

2011-01-23T22:52:00.000-06:00

Today was spent recovering. Ugh. I really don't believe I've ever had my energy sources THIS depleted in my life. No exaggeration. When I finally got up I moved at about 2mph. While driving. However, life keeps rolling along and I have my first day of spring semester tomorrow, so I grabbed my suitcase and dumped it into the wash, complete with a full load of Chucks. I decided to line them up on the washer to drain before I stuck them in the dryer...I'm just tired enough for this to be HILARIOUS.

The indomitable two

2011-01-22T23:41:00.003-06:00

The drive home was unremarkable. I-35 is pretty boring in the winter...at least in Summer you get trees. When I finally got home the girls were already in bed and this sign was on Leigha's door. The lovely depiction of fighting makes me want to see how she would interpret a few Rorschach Charts. Just sayin'. Home sweet home.

Community

2011-01-21T23:14:00.001-06:00

Sean Wooley (Blue and gray baseball tee, ginger) was unhappy to learn that I didn't post a picture of him from a couple days ago in the blog, so I promised him I'd get him on today. So, while a bunch of us were hanging in the pool area I snapped this lovely bromance shot of Phil, Graham, and of course, Sean. Good times. Today was the response for Godspell, so we got to listen to what other professionals thought of our work. Most of it was pretty good, the rest was helpful. We also got to see the finals for the Irene Ryan scholarship, which is a huge huge deal and one of our students was in the running. He didn't get it, but he put up quite a fight. And tonight at the FOUR hour long award ceremony, the Godspell cast and crew was pleased to discover that we had been presented with the 'Golden Handtruck Award,' meaning we had the safest, fastest, most professional set load in and strike of all the other shows. Buh-chinga! I think we all came back to the hotel feeling like winners.

The long climb up mount IKEA

2011-01-20T23:32:00.001-06:00

This is a picture of me. Behind me is a 2,600 seat theater. Behold it in all its glory!!! BEHOLD IT I SAY!!!!! Or not, whatever. Either way, that sucker was freaking HUGE. We spent a long day, full of shock and awe, building the set, rehearsing, and then performing. And oh what a performance it was! The cast rocked so hard that the audience whooped for anyone from our school at an awards ceremony immediately following the show (in the same theater. It was supremely funny to watch them try to give out plaques with a sense of decorum whilst surrounded by trash, leaves, and a rusted out truck under a set of train tracks.) Immediately following the ordeal was strike. Full of good energy from an amazing show, we took that whole sucker down in about two hours. Even the union workers standing by couldn't believe how fast we were. That's such a great feeling, though. We came up here for the festival with this show weighing heavy on our minds. The whole trip was leading up to this point, even with all the workshops, parties, and frooh frah, and we nailed it. We did exactly what we set out to do and it felt great. One more day of festival to go...its on.

I'm going to my room.

2011-01-19T23:22:00.003-06:00

Long day. Lots of drama. Go figure, theater department. At the end of the day (and after seeing a three hour staged version of The Odyssey) we were all exhausted, so Hilary ordered a pizza. After sitting down to grab a slice, she said, "Oh, hey, look! It looks like I got rejected by my prom date!" So we decided that's exactly what had happened.

Pool! Sharks!

2011-01-18T23:31:00.002-06:00

During one of the breaks we had today a bunch of us decided to go swimming/hot tubbing and pool playing. All conveniently located in one room (how is the humidity good for the table I wonder?) . As I was over with the group playing pool, Shelby decided she wanted to be a dolphin for everyone and she started jumping out of the water, splashing, going "E-E-E-E-E-E-EEEE!" Hilarious! Phil decided to get in on it to and fed her a goldfish cracker. Nice. We ended a long day of workshops and fun with a Rocky Horror themed party at the convention center near the college. Crazy fun.

Lame Street USA

2011-01-17T23:53:00.003-06:00

Behold. A sculpture in downtown Ames, Iowa. I don't quite know what to think of these things, and they're everywhere. Seriously, not just downtown. Either way, day one of the festival. Woo! Somehow between food procurement and workshops I managed to get to the downtown area with Phil and Graham, and we checked out the sights, got some coffee, and figured out that, yeah, this isn't like every other college town. Their main street is dying. Incredibly sad. On the way back to the college campus for an award ceremony, we got really lost out in the country. We turned around to head back into town when the train crossing came to life and did its whole "WATCHOUTTHERE'SATRAINCOMING!!!!!" routine. We sat in the car laughing about how typical this is of the Midwest and how we shouldn't be surprised. We anxiously waited for the last car and just as it slid past our intersection, BOOM!!! Another train came on the other tracks, having been out of our viewpoint until exactly that moment. We erupted with laughter and ultimately waited at that train crossing for about 20 minutes.

Godspeed, Godspell.

2011-01-16T23:17:00.002-06:00

Today begins the Kennedy Center American College Festival. All of us theater kids piled into the various vehicles assembled to take us to Iowa. On the way there I spotted a Volkswagon Scirocco, so I had to take a picture. That car is pretty scenic, considering the bleak winter Midwestern landscape. We made it safely to Ames, aired out, then went to a freakishly long orientation. This week is going to be just amazing. Yay!

At least I have a good story now.

2011-01-15T23:41:00.002-06:00

Holy carp....okay, so I got up and went to the school at 6am today to begin the neverending Godspell rehearsal/performance. My day consisted of frantically working with the rest of the cast to load the set, costumes, makeup, and everything (EVERYTHING) that goes into making a show happen, and moving it from one theater to another. In one day, we rebuilt the set, refocused the lights, moved the actors to new dressing rooms, mended costumes, set up a makeup room, ran a music rehearsal, then performed the show. *Phew!* My family got to come see it, and Austin was gracious enough to take this picture. And then things got really crazy. We are practicing this heinous process for taking the show to the festival this week in Iowa, so immediately following the performance, we started breaking down the set with the purpose of putting it onto trucks so we can repeat the process Thursday, this time for an audience of 2600 strangers. I began my portion of strike by dumping a ton of costumes into the laundry. Considering how tired I was, it amazes me that I managed to get it there at all...but not too long after I got a rude awakening when I found out that one of the other girls had chosen tonight as the night she just had to dye her shirt green...guess I should have checked the washer first. Whoops. The good news is she was already through the rinsing process and it had been maybe two minutes with the costumes in the washer, so there was no harm done. Barely. I fixed it and restarted the laundry process, then went downstairs to get a drink of water. On the way I saw a friend and decided to tell them about my brilliance, when out of nowhere *WHAP* I got beaned across the temple with the corner of a 2x4. Again, the guy who plays Jesus is a paramedic, so he took me outside (along with a small crowd of concerned friends) to get some snow to put in a bag and hold against the side of my head for the swelling to go down. While we were outside the doors locked automatically (at 11pm when the campus closes) and we were trapped outside, most of us without our coats. After we were let back inside I was examined, given a prognosis of 'Well, you're gonna live." and scuttled back to our jobs, eager to complete the process. When the set was finally broken down and the costumes and makeup and lights all ready to load onto the trucks, we hit a snag. One of the trucks broke down. Are you kidding???? So we ended up sitting around until they finally said, "Okay, it's one am. You guys are cleared to go, we will finish load in tomorrow before we leave." *sigh* So we headed out to our cars, eager for some sleep after a grueling 19 hours at the theater. I got into my car and turned it on...just in time to see the truck (now running fine) pull up. Everyone was already gone, so I watched the driver back it onto the dock and jump into his car and leave, but oh man. What a finishing touch on a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong day.

Elevensies

2011-01-14T23:00:00.002-06:00

Leigha turned eleven today. On a Friday. How lucky is that? Her entrance to tweenagerhood was celebrated with much fanfare and hooplah, with two friends joining us for a pizza dinner, ice skating, and a slumber party. We were disappointed to find out that her owl from Hogwarts seems to be running late, but oh well. Hagrid can't be everywhere at once, I suppose.

Dy-no-MYTE!

2011-01-13T22:56:00.002-06:00

Working diligently, I was able to finish another animal hoodie, this one for my friend Angie Gee. She decided to name the lion 'LeStat.' Nice. The kids finally went back to school today. They were relieved as well, I think, having figured out that school means seeing friends. It's great when you're on break and on occasional days off, but when you expect to go three days in a row and end up not...it makes it not as easy to deal with for whatever reason. It was Jason's day off, too, so we ran a ton of errands that had been stacking up the past few days. Felt good to get them crossed off the list. This evening was the final rehearsal for Godspell before the festival. We will be performing again this weekend before we go and then that's it. The performers were all feeling it too, and unfortunately got reamed in notes afterward. The good news is that a bad dress rehearsal means a good show, so let's hope the old adage holds this time.

I felt that...

2011-01-12T23:31:00.002-06:00

We had a read through for the scene I'm doing in the play this spring. Lucky me, Austin is my director! We read the scene, talked about our characters, and coordinated schedules. While I was on campus I was lucky enough to find out that today was the first day we could pick up books, so I got that out of the way as well. Yay! I also met up with Angie and Nate. Angie wants one of my increasingly popular animal hoodies (catchphrase of the week from other people: "You need a store on Etsy!") so she gave me the hoodie that she wanted me to sew her lion onto. We also took the opportunity to get coffee together as a trio. I came home after that and began the grueling task of composing a to do list of things to be done before Iowa (we leave Sunday morning) and started the process of knocking them off one by one. Done already: Laundry, make hoodie (oh yes, it's finished. And so cute!), make road trip CD, and finish iPod case (I finally determined that no company had made one as cool as I would like it to be, so I made my own.) I also managed to make dinner, spend time with the kids, and watch a movie with Jason. *Sparkle Faerie Power!!!*

Evil Waffle Face Minions

2011-01-11T23:11:00.003-06:00

Another snow day. My kids haven't even gone back to school from Christmas break yet, sheesh. But my life keeps rolling on, so today I stepped out for a bit to drop Tiffany off at the airport and go grocery shopping with Alanna because we're making dinner for church tomorrow. Her kids had a snow day as well so they all came with while my girls stayed behind with Jason (watching a movie while he slept) because, yeah, six kids and two adults in one car? Not unless we had a weird 15 passenger van or whatever, and neither of us have a need for one. We had a great time buying hordes of food while the kids played tic tac toe on a box and looked like a small band of blonde gypsies. I came home and made hot chocolate for the girls (who gave up on making me a snow man and settled on a giant smiley face in the front yard instead) then went to the school for a costume fitting session for the Godspell cast. We want to make sure nobody overindulged during the holidays and nothing went missing or fell apart. Hooray! Nobody did and nothing had!

Blatant Easter Egg

2011-01-10T23:04:00.003-06:00

Tiffany says I make her feel normal. I have no clue why someone would find relief in such a horrid title. Guess that's what makes me me. This morning school was cancelled due to the awful snow piling up in the yard. The girls happily declared today 'Harry Potter Day.' I laughed and headed out the door with Tiff to drive across town where she totally nailed her job interview, and was presented with a job offer! She accepted and we enjoyed celebratory sandwiches. We came back to the house and played a few games with the girls and when Jason got up we talked for a bit before he had to head out to work on the crappy roads. We then enjoyed ourselves a girls' night in, complete with a movie and chocolate.

Don't Jump!

2011-01-09T23:30:00.002-06:00

I felt like someone decided to viciously twist my innards and squeeze today. Ugh. Fortunately Tiffany went to visit her brother and soon-to-be sister-in-law. (that's a LOT of hyphens. Wow.) I got some good quality food in me and rested a bit this afternoon then went for an abbreviated improv rehearsal. After that concluded I went down to the theater department to check in with the Godspell crew, working furiously to brush it up for the festival next week. I'm glad I went because apparently there's a bunch of costuming stuff happening this week that was never communicated to me! Yeep! So I got a few things done in preparation and came home to watch a few episodes of Daria with Tiffany. We are both exhausted from the past couple days, so, wild things that we are, early bedtime! Hooraisin! She interviews tomorrow morning, so extra sleep will do us both good I think. Jason is also interviewing tomorrow, for a supervisor position at his work. Guess we'll see what comes of it.

Tastykake Queendom

2011-01-08T23:21:00.004-06:00

This morning I got up early and picked up Tiffany from the airport! She is here for a job interview, so hopefully this will become a permanent thing. (Yay!) We spent a lovely day shopping and hanging out with my family. Tiffany was super excited to give me a whole slew of presents, including a Tastykake sword, tiara, and breastplate. Oh yes. This evening we messed around with the new Xbox Kinect. I honestly have no idea how long we played but Tiffany and I beat about half of the game together. We were sweaty, sore, and out of breath. Nothing a little sleep can't fix!

Suburban Decay

2011-01-07T23:17:00.002-06:00

This is how we always see Vegas. From the air. In my mind, that's the preferable way TO see it, in fact. So obviously today was the day we came home. We left early early early, too. I hate that. But the girls had their huge annual Girl Scout sleepover at Great Wolf Lodge, so we wanted to get back in time for them to go. We made it and Jason deposited two very giddy little ones at the event. We went out for about an hour, just out of principal, but we are utterly spent at this point, so we came home early. I missed my bed. Zzzzzzz...........

The things that make you happy

2011-01-06T23:31:00.002-06:00

Lynette took the day off work to spend with us, so we met up this morning and went in to Reno. We went down by the riverwalk and explored a few of the shops down there, then took a walk and chased some pigeons. We also went to Circus Circus and played a bunch of arcade games with the girls, who won several tickets that the spent on fuzzy dice and candy. Perfect souvenirs from Reno if you ask me. After a few more stops (including a trip to In-N-Out Burger...yeah!) we came back and met up with my parents so we could go visit Grandma and Grandpa Smith, who I haven't seen in forever and a day. We had a lovely evening in their new apartment sharing stories about people who had hit, or almost hit, various animals with their cars.

Ready, Freddy

2011-01-05T23:08:00.002-06:00

The girls enjoyed playing with their gifts this morning while Jason and my dad stayed in and played with the Kinect as my mom and I headed into Reno. My mom's knee has been bugging her for a while so she decided to try accupuncture. It was fascinating to watch as they inserted eighteen tiny needles into strategic locations. My mom later informed me there were red dots in each spot, at which point I told her to connect the dots. I bet it makes a dinosaur. Rawr. Anyhow, after the doctor appointment we did a bit of shopping and met up with everyone else (boys, kids, and Lynette) and we went to see Tangled. Holy cow, hilarious, cute, and so very watchable. Go see it. We went to dinner after that then came back to the house and wished my grandpa a happy birthday via webcam after opening Leigha's birthday presents. It's his actual birthdate, hers is next week. But hey, when you're only together a few times a year, close enough is good enough.

Just one more

2011-01-04T23:42:00.002-06:00

Long long long day. We got up early and went to the airport to fight our way through security and dodge full flights, eventually ending up flying through Phoenix to Reno where my dad picked us up. Yay! 'Bout time we got to get out here and see them. I love getting to see my family, but the way air travel has been (and the fact that Reno is insanely underserviced) getting out to see them has become an exercise in spontenaety and luck. Any type A personalitied person would be weeping in a corner if they heard what we have to do to make it out sometimes. We met up with my mom and Lynette at a pizza place for dinner before coming back to the house and doing the Christmas thing. We got lots of cool stuff, but the real cherry on the sundae was the Xbox Kinect that we got! Woot! Can't wait to make an idiot of myself on yet another gaming platform!

Nice Play, Shakespeare...

2011-01-03T23:56:00.002-06:00

Austin is moving! She wants to be closer to the school among other things, so today I helped her pack up some stuff to take to storage. We found this in her tea cupboard so we decided to leave it. Pretty funny, I think. We had a blast loading boxes and pretending to fix up her storage space with a garden and welcome mat as we ran through the hallways with the trolleys, alternating between playing we were being hunted and the elevator was some kind of time machine that took us into a post-apocalyptic world where humankind had been reduced to living in bins like an animal shelter. Hooray! I came home and did a ton of laundry and packing stuff for our trip to visit my family before our break ends. I did lots and lots of packing is what I'm getting at.

Banksy

2011-01-02T23:13:00.002-06:00

We had improv rehearsal at our house today. Our regular venue is closed for Christmas break and getting a hold of anyone else this time of year proved impossible (gahhhh...) so I rearranged some furniture and we went to town. Among things I moved, that lamp came downstairs. I think I'm gonna leave it, it looks better here. Hooray for change!

I can see the Sheraton from here.

2011-01-01T23:04:00.002-06:00

Hooray for sleeping in! It allowed me to have enough energy to go with a bunch of theater kids to see our fellow thesbian (Graham, the drummer from Godspell) with his band, Adam Evolving, in concert! They were really quite fantastic. It was one of those deals where the venue had booked just a ton of acts slated to perform in a pretty tight window, so we only got to see about four or five songs from each band, but from most of them, that was more than enough. AE was absolutely superb, I am pleased to say. That's not even my own bias, a lot of the crowd came forward as they started playing and increased in energy and size as the show went on. Sweet. We had a little group of theater kids there to begin with, but as the show continued a few more trickled in. It was so great to see everyone! After it was over we all went out to IHOP and annoyed a waiter. Good times, good times.

Old Acquaintance

2010-12-31T23:53:00.002-06:00

Three out of the past four new year's I've had this same picture set up. Seriously, '08, '09, and now '11. Here's to good friends and a bright future! No resolutions other than to be resolved. Try and figger that one out!

Snow? No. Flakes? Yes.

2010-12-30T23:12:00.002-06:00

I did a bit of shopping and sewing today, and the girls came home from Sheila's. That's about it.

Good sidekicks usually have thumbs

2010-12-29T23:45:00.003-06:00

Jason's weekend is finally here, so we decided to celebrate in style, by going out to a place that makes you take your onion rings for a walk before you eat them. But on the plus side, my hands kind of look like fighting elephants in this picture. See, 'cause elephants don't fight aggressively, they just turn away and refuse to talk to one another ever again. 'Cause they never forget. *cough* We went for a little walk around the plaza and hit up the Starbucks when all of a sudden my stomach did one of those "Oh yeah, I forgot that I hated you..." things. (Stomachs and elephants have very little in common.) I tried to suck it up as we drove to Westport to continue the date, but after half an hour or so I just couldn't take it any more. Ughhhhh....so we were headed home by 10pm. How disappointing. But we had fun while it lasted, and on the plus side, I got to spend a little more quality time with not just Jason, but Spartacus. With the girls gone, he's been extra clingy this week. I'm okay with that. (Mmmm.......fuzzy)

Home

2010-12-28T23:42:00.003-06:00

I had a friend-filled day today. My favorite! I went to the movies with Chez and Matt, spent the afternoon and evening with Jason, then hosted a small but mighty get together with some friends from school. Wonderful, but exhausting. I will be sleeping in tomorrow, and then I am going to exfoliate my forehead.

Running and Sparkling again

2010-12-27T23:00:00.002-06:00

It's funny how much easier it is to get things done when you have the entire house to yourself. Jason did more overtime today so he slept late, and during that time I got a lot of my 'do this during Christmas break' list done. I had a few plans just in case I got bored, but didn't end up needing them. I did make him take me to Chick-Fil-A for dinner, though. They're not open Christmas or Sundays and I've been craving one since Christmas Eve. Mmmm...a well-won prize for a hard day's work. THIS IS SANDWICH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I Know You.

2010-12-26T23:57:00.002-06:00

Today was rather low key. Jason worked some overtime so he slept pretty much all day, so I used my me time to do a little grocery shopping and catch up with Dr. Who. Win.

Heart's Desire

2010-12-25T23:44:00.003-06:00

Merry Christmas, everyone. We opened presents and watched Star Wars and had dinner with the fam before Jason and I drove home sans chilluns. They are going to spend the week with Sheila since our original plans for the week fell through. I got home to find I had left my phone on the bed (no reception down there anyhow...didn't need it) and I had a whole slew of texts wishing me and mine a merry Christmas. I fully and freely return the sentiment and any and all accompanying kindness and/or love with which it was sent to each and every one of you.

All About the Eve

2010-12-24T23:12:00.002-06:00

Christmas Eve at our house was pretty low key this year. We opened our presents (I got a new car stereo! Rawk!) and giggled as Spartacus opened his own present, a catnip mouse. He shredded that package. Once I got the mouse set up he spent a good hour rolling around and flipping it in the air then catching it with eager paws and blazing claws. Jason tried to take part of the wrapper off his body at one point and Spartacus actually HISSED at him! We've never heard him do that! We went to the church in the afternoon to rehearse for the service at 6pm, then spent a lovely evening with Jason and I onstage bringing the musics while the girls sat with friends. Brianna was given a candle this year and the whole time she had it I was watching her from afar. "Aww....look how cute her face looks when it's lit up like that....don't catch on fire, don't catch on fire, don't catch on fire. Hmmm....if I pole vault the altar with my music stand and jump over that family there I could probably reach her in about eight seconds...." After the service we got into the car and drove straight to Jason's mom's house, where we visited for a bit then promptly crashed. Bring on the Christmasness!

Reach out, smack down

2010-12-23T23:32:00.002-06:00

Sommer came over today and we did some sewing. Much fun was had. She made a friend in Spartacus, too, they booped noses. A lot. Missing my extended family today. I kept reading statuses on Facebook from Janina's friends about how they were all going to see her sing at the coffee shop she works at. I would have given quite a lot to have been there tonight. I love Kansas City, but it does get hard living so far from them sometimes. And hey, on a less somber note, merry Christmas eve eve, all!

Wallaby, a Monkey's Uncle.

2010-12-22T23:26:00.002-06:00

One of Jason's co-workers has a pet wallaby, and he invited us out to see it. Isn't Noah adorable? And wow, they look so cute when they hop around like kangaroos! We all had a great time petting him. He licked the girls all over their hands and arms, too. Nice. This evening we went to church and practiced songs for Christmas Eve. After the usual 'which songs do we do and when' argument, we played some stuff and it ended up sounding pretty decent, which is great since we have two days and we only do this stuff once a year. If that. Blergh.

Everything's Okay

2010-12-21T23:08:00.002-06:00

Today was the girls' last day of school before break, and Jason was sleeping after a long night of work. I decided to take advantage of the day by going on a little adventure all by myself. I drove to Lawrence where I walked around listening to my music and snapping pictures everywhere I went. Got some cool shots at one of the parks there. It's just warm enough to be nice outside but with everyone knowing it's cold-ish and it's not going to really be warmer for a long while, so they mostly stay inside. A lot of my pictures have zero people in them, which was a pretty cool effect. I also managed to snag a super cute vintage wrap skirt (denim with huge strawberries!) for four dollars. How could everyone let such a gem work its way to the clearance rack? I'll never know. I came home and made dinner for everyone and spilled a pretty good amount of boiling hot potato water on myself, which was fun...nawt. Par for the course, I suppose. Both girls got to go to Girl Scout Christmas parties this evening as well, so Jason left for work leaving me to deal with their sugar-buzzed little selves. It sure was amusing eavesdropping at Leigha's door where they held a sisterly sleep-over tonight.

How to ride a Unicorn

2010-12-20T23:24:00.002-06:00

I finished the girls' hoodies tonight. Finishing touch: putting the thumbs on the built in mittens. And no more finger injuries, hooraisin! Today was just as good as yesterday was bad, too. I got to spend time with my two best friends in the world, began choosing music to go on a mixed cd for an upcoming road trip, had a couple long-distance conversations (even though one was to convey disappointing news, it was nice to talk), and witnessed the full moon slowly sliding behind the shadow of the earth as Winter solstice reached its apex. Beauty.

Chin up, Girlypants.

2010-12-19T23:44:00.002-06:00

You'll have to excuse the rain check on my picture*, I left my camera at church today where I was taking pics of the girls singing in the children's Christmas program. I'm on quite a roll today, actually. All my plans for the day fell through, the kids were just not at all well behaved, (Spartacus and Jason were a'ight.) I went to a meeting at my acting teacher's house (a woman I admire and respect greatly) and the first thing I did was trip and spill apple cider on her couch, then when I came home to work on the girls' jackets for Christmas, I totally sewed my index finger into Brianna's. OW. There's a noticeable divet in my finger pad. I give up on today. You win, stupid bad day.

*edited to add picture, 12/22/2010

This is my formal face!

2010-12-18T23:23:00.002-06:00

Austin's roomie decided to throw a formal Christmas party tonight. So I dug out my pretty dress from when I was in Anika's wedding, then added a long sleeved shirt underneath because, yeah, it's December. I also added my green boots underneath because I felt like being that much more quirky, and they were only seen by those I chose show them to. It's fun having secrets. I was unable to stay very long but I had Chad take this great picture of me, Austin, Hillary and Sarah, and every one of us on our best behavior.

Taking the hint

2010-12-17T23:09:00.002-06:00

Today was my first day of Christmas break, and what better way to celebrate than by going to Sarah C's house and burning our notes from this semester? Woo! I kept the ones I thought would come in handy in the future and showed up with a huge stack of papers. We had a blast roasting marshmallows and finding old scripts to read to one another. The night was cold, but not too too cold, so we kept rotiserrie-ing ourselves around the fire to keep warm evenly. Awesome. I'm so tired and drained now, I think I'm finally aware that the semester is over. I am so sleeping in tomorrow.

And I feel fine

2010-12-16T23:55:00.001-06:00

Before anyone asks, yes, yes I was wearing a long sleeve shirt today. It was a vintage wool sweater and it got very itchy. But not too long after completing my acting final (which is the reason I wore an itchy shirt to begin with. We have to treat it like an audition, which means looking purdy.) Jason texted me and asked if I wanted to go out for some lunch. Uh, yeah! So we decided to hit up Cracker Barrel for my victory lunch, 'cause I like their biscuits. They have that cool triangle game with the tees in it (because the name 'Monopoly' was already taken) on every table, and every time I go there I gotta play. So while we waited to order, waited on our drinks, and then again while waiting on our food, I was playing this game. Jason even grabbed the one off the table next to us so he could play as well. I was waiting for him to finish eating so I tried it one last time...and bam. Got it down to only one tee remaining. According to the board, I'm GEENius! Booya.

Never as cool as Christopher Walken.

2010-12-15T23:21:00.003-06:00

Okay, so I know that Shelby looks uncomfortable in this picture and Jeremy looks almost predatory, and there was a very funny and specific reason for that...But for some reason my brain is going, "Oh come on, I gave you the clues, now connect the dots!" And my memories are going, "WE LIKE CRAYONS!!!!!!!!!!!!" So there's that..... Oh well. Either way I am now 3/4 of the way finished with my finals. Woot! I had a great day. Mostly because I came into it with lowered expectations (Science final. Yuk.) but then when that part of the day was over everything just got better. Funny how that works. One more final tomorrow. It's my acting final. The final consists of a one on one monologue, audition style, and talk about my future goals with Beate. Yeep!

Ostracized

2010-12-14T23:34:00.002-06:00

Brianna drew a picture of herself as the trick or treating lemon today. I think she's excited. This is going to be great. I'm beginning to run out of steam, myself. Finals week is rough. The good news is that I'm certain I got 100% on my music final today. The answers came far too fluidly and I provided more information than the teacher asked for. It's in the bag. *whew* Today down. Ready to go, tomorrow?

Sweet talk, sweet talk.

2010-12-13T23:39:00.000-06:00

Because I had a lot of super great stuff happen today and I didn't get a picture of any of it, I decided to punish myself by taking a 'duck face' picture. I solemnly swear to never do that again. Duck face, that is. No guarantees about the bad non-picture stuff on my part, especially right now during FINALS WEEK. (Ker-pow-ow-wow!) Yup, it's that time of the semester again. I had one final today, which I think I did well on. I had a meeting this afternevening for Godspell, since it's going to Iowa, so to kill time I accompanied a friend of mine on an outing. I got to see Johnson County the way a born and raised townie sees it! That was enlightening, to say the least. Also........there's a ton of rich people down there, did you know that? I mean filthy stinkin' rich! I knew that before, but I didn't KNOW. Now I do for sure, wowza. At any rate, this festival is going to be a blast and a half topped with awesomesauce and I can't wait. We are going to have an ubermonster of a rehearsal, though. We will only have one day to set up before the show goes live on a stage we've never seen before, so we're going to practice by taking our (altered) set, setting it up in one of the other theaters on campus, rehearsing, then tearing it down and putting it in the truck for the trip to Iowa. The scheduled time for this rehearsal is 6 AM TO MIDNIGHT. Augh!!!! Insanity. But hey, the show must go on. Thank goodness that's not until next month, I'll have plenty of time to rest and drink lots of fluids first.

Oh wait, Christmas is coming up. Scratch that.

Weezer was right.

2010-12-12T23:30:00.002-06:00

We had our first snow of the season, about a 1/2 inch of white dust. Leigha got all geared up to go play in it then opened the door with a huge smile on her face....only to come in about five minutes later. "*sigh* Bri, don't worry about it. You can't even make a snowball out there." So I suggested they do snow angels. Bri was only interested in making tracks across the driveway (which surprised me considering the word 'angel' is part of 'snow angel.') but Leigha decided to give it a shot. She lay down in the yard, flapped and kicked furiously, stood up carefully, then sighed while admiring her work. Finally, she decided to follow Bri around for a bit. Not enjoying the making tracks in the snow thing as much as her little sister, she returned (a little less dejected, but still dejected) into the warmth of the house once more. Bri was right behind. They both asked for hot chocolate, which I did not produce (five minutes? Please. You gotta earn your marshmallows around here!) so they sighed and went to color. Oh well, I tried.

Anti-popular

2010-12-11T23:04:00.002-06:00

Today was one of those lovely, "Hey...wait, wasn't it fourty degrees warmer yesterday?" kind of days. Also known as completely worthless weather. Yuk. I think cold fronts this mean should take a very convenient trip and fall down a flight of stairs. Fortunately, I had insidey things to do today! My friend Amanda hosted a 'cookie exchange' party this afternoon, so a bunch of us gals from the theater department gathered together with our various sugary offerings and exchanged first tastes, then the recipies. I made my 'party tea cookies' that Selena gave me a recipie for back in Denver. Thanks, friend! They were a hit, of course. Amanda told us that a ton of the guys from the department had wanted to get in on the party as well. Heh heh heh. Late tonight I got an e-mail from Beate stating that Godspell has officially been accepted into KCATCF. (what does that mean?) What that means is we are going to be taking the show to our region's Kennedy Center sponsored theater festival and performing it! I will be performing with needle and thread, of course. If the show does well at regionals it stands a chance at going to nationals! Woo hoo!

TGILame.

2010-12-10T23:17:00.002-06:00

Spartacus has had trouble in the past controlling his 'climbing' urges when we dig out the tree. Last year he actually broke the stand. This year he hasn't even tried to climb it, preferring instead to pretend he's a present and lick the underside of the branches....you got me. I attended my last formal classes of the semester today and sold some of my books back. I have one still that the guy said was 'liquid damaged' so I'll just go back and sell it when someone else is working. The guy was brand spanking new. He asked for help so many times his boss finally said, "Okay, just finish this, you're in the middle of a transaction!" So yeah. I'll just be selling it back later, there's totally no liquid damage of any kind. I did an awful lot of sewing this evening too. A few Christmas projects I'm working on. I started and completed one, in fact, so that felt good. Now the problem is waiting until closer to Christmas to give them to their rightful owners!

Lemon Squeezy

2010-12-09T23:13:00.001-06:00

Even better day than yesterday! We had callbacks tonight for Marcus is Walking at school and not only did I get a part (YES!!!), Brianna got one too! She's going to be playing a trick or treating lemon with 'Sunkist' across her forehead. Her role involves making noises to make the other kid laugh! She's going to have a blast! After callbacks we all went to celebrate at a coffee shop near the school. It has a bunch of couches and games and sometimes live music. No band or anything tonight, though. But we did play Texas Hold 'Em. I took out three players in the first round! Didn't win, but no matter, it was a blast. Love my friends, love my life!

It's like the 'Inception' of zits!

2010-12-08T23:12:00.003-06:00

Phenomenal day, truly. I wasn't in a great mood this morning at all when I got up, but everything about today was utter and complete 'winner winner chicken dinner'age. The above picture was, um, mysteriously found on the call board today. No clue who did it. *cough* Brianna and the cat have been seriously amusing me today. Spartacus has taken a liking to licking (hehehhehehe....) the Christmas tree for some odd reason. This is the first year he's done that out of three. It's also the first year he hasn't tried to climb the tree at all. Last year he climbed and broke it. I was so busy laughing at his "Aw no..............." face as it fell to be mad that he broke the stand. Jason made a new one out of wood, though, so this year we were like, "Yeah, we're good. He can't break that." Maybe that's why he hasn't tried. Bri, on the other hand, decided that life is more fun when your bellybutton has the capacity for speech. My kid has a sentient navel. I'M going to sleep well tonight....

Helena Bonham Carter to your Tim Burton

2010-12-07T23:47:00.002-06:00

Auditions tonight. This is a great action shot from the hallway during the process. I love the atmosphere in this picture, the theater kid love shines through as does the fact that we are all NERVOUS! I didn't do my best...but I did well enough. As in, I didn't set the panel of director's aflame with sheer lack of talent, which is good, and I had some friends text me with results. Apparently I got a callback! Cool. Guess we'll see how this shakes out....

Vending machine rock paper scissors!

2010-12-06T23:46:00.002-06:00

Pouty Jessica is pouty because she doesn't like the cold, and the basement is COLD. Not cool. (ah ha ha, irony. Plplplpl...>:-P) Had a great time at school today working monologues with some of the other acting students. Tonight and tomorrow are the auditions for the spring shows. We all bogarded the black box theater on campus and performed our pieces for one another then gave each other feedback. I have a lo-HOT of work to do. (ROCKZOR, the irony! *pleh.*) This evening I made the brillllllllliant decision to watch the Hitchcock thriller 'Stage Fright' while eating my awesome homemade potato soup (pictured) and working on some Christmas presents. Oh cool, murderers at the theater? I'll be able to sleep well now AND do my in-theater classwork and auditions just swell after that! *bleh.*

/sarcasm and ranting.

Pour coffee on her. POUR COFFEE ON HER!

2010-12-05T23:48:00.002-06:00

Today in church our youth pastor's son (redhead with the thumbs up) was in the kitchen before the service. I came in to pour myself and Jason some coffee and he came up to me and said, "Miss Jessica! This is VERY important!" He pointed at the sign on the door and said, "What does that say?" "It says 'not an exit.' I replied. He said, "Not an exit? Okay, thank you!" and ran out the door. Ha ha ha! I love little kids! This evening we had a freaky fun improv rehearsal, but I tell you what, I contracted some pretty awesome bruises! Seriously, there's a big one above a scrape on my ankle, a few up my arms, and a mysterious tiny deep purple one on my thumb knuckle. I have no idea how I got a couple of them. I know my back will probably be sore from being flung to the ground via my own momentum (that was one entertaining squawk I let out when I fell....) and the ankle is from being dragged around while clinging to somebody's leg. (THAT was a fun scene!) Fantastic. But boy, out of context, improv scenes sure are weird! Even in context! I love what I do.

I'm never wearing THAT dress again....

2010-12-04T23:29:00.000-06:00

Got paid for this today. Yay!

Wrapped in a box

2010-12-03T23:58:00.002-06:00

Had a blah day today. Not fun. School was blah, then I got to have coffee with Jason which was nice, and then a music rehearsal for a paid caroling gig tomorrow which was also nice, and then I did some Christmas shopping...which was blah. There's not much good stuff out there this year. Oh well, my girls will have cool presents and blah stocking stuffers. They're luckier than most children in the world either way.

Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires.

2010-12-02T23:33:00.002-06:00

Odd day. I went to an improv show with some friends. The show was a smaller group unconnected to the Kansas City Improv scene and I had met one of the people in the group before but hadn't seen them yet. I showed up with a bunch of friends from school and we were sitting near the back, couldn't see, weren't that engaged, so we went to the front part of the venue and played Cranium (I was on a team with Nate and we totally won. Bam.) During the time we were out front the guy I had met came up to me (I can't believe he remembered me, it was like May when I met him) and invited me to join the troupe. I said I'd think about it. It could be fun to play a few shows with them, so I guess we'll see. As we were leaving I walked out onto the sidewalk and saw this pretty girl painted in front of a salon. Very pretty!

Ill Advised Awesomesauce

2010-12-01T23:44:00.002-06:00

The above picture shows all the people (plus myself...taking the picture...see mah shadow? Word.) that we managed to cram into the cab of that teeny weeny truck. Not only did we all fit, we got the doors shut. They never told me college would teach me such practical life skills on top of the academic stuff we learn and immediately discard! I feel very fulfilled! (ow, my tongue. It's stuck in my cheek.) Either way, it was a blast and I only have a little bit of internal bleeding so it's all good. Oh yeah, and I managed to whack the crap outta my funny bone and have a nice bruise to show for it. Yay! Tonight was my friend Sarah C's birthday and she invited a bunch of people over to her house for homemade sushi! Yum yum yum, it was so amazingly fantastic! We had a blast, played monopoly, ate cake, etc. At the end of the evening Sarah offered me a piece of cake to take home so I said, "Well, I don't want any but maybe I could take a piece for Jas..........you know what? Nevermind. I don't think I'll be taking any, thanks just the same."

Speaking of my peglegged wonder, he is doing really, really fantastically well. I swelled up like a chipmunk...the boy has none at all. Lucky. Hopefully he'll be back on solids for good before he goes back to work on Saturday.

Demolition Crew in the Hizzouse!

2010-11-30T23:35:00.002-06:00

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

2010-11-29T23:28:00.002-06:00

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

2010-11-28T23:05:00.002-06:00

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.

2010-11-27T23:21:00.002-06:00

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?