2012!

This has to be one of the best New Year'ses (is that the plural of New Year's?) ever. Granted, a lot of my New Year'ses have really sucked so, much like my birthdays, this didn't even have to be THAT great to win. But it was.

I'm working on another show so I've been in rehearsal from 10-4 all week and then running to my day job immediately after to work until 8:30. It's been a LONG week. In addition to the long hours, the actors and other people in the rehearsals all speak Spanish to each other and I do not understand much more than "donde es...chalk?" and "hola". Also at the day job we went from super busy and stressed to painfully slow and ohmygod I still have 3 more hours alone in this office?! Anyway, that's the mindset I was in at the end of this week.

My friend Angela was in town with her students on a trip. Friday, she texted and said they had an extra ticket to War Horse (the play, NOT the film) and did I want it. Uh...do penguins wish they could fly? Yes. So stoked.

IT WAS STUNNING.

Visually, it is probably the most beautiful show I've ever seen. The story is great and it's presented really well, but OH MY GOD it was gorgeous. Really fantastic lighting. The projections were done well. Transitions were good. Loved. It.

After we went to a pub with two of the students (I know, I know...I took high school kids to a pub) for dinner and beer (for us) and they eagerly asked me questions about stage managing and theatre and college and professional theatre. I'd kind of forgotten what it was like to have a dream like that. I didn't know any stage managers or even what they were before I went to college.

Then last night, New Year's Eve, after a particularly frustrating rehearsal, I went to the Lower East Side to watch my friend Bambi (a nickname, of course) in class. She's at the Paul Taylor intensive and I haven't seen her since July 2010 and REALLY missed her. It was really fun to watch dancers just...dance. Not rehearsing a show, not auditioning. Just dancing.

Afterwards, she, her sister, and I went to La Follia to see ML and eat dinner and have wine. Then we felt like going to a pub to drink. I took them to Barrow St. Ale House, where I always end up. We decided to skip all other NYE options I had and just rang in the New Year together. Afterwards, a group of awkward guys started buying us drinks and of course, that's always nice. I got to talk to Rusty on the phone, got some random mass texts, and stumbled home at 3:30 remembering why I don't like tequila. Today we slept in super late, had brunch at Cafe Orlin at 3:30, I showed them Times Square and Rock Center, and we had sushi at Mikado. Great. Weekend.


I've got some goals for the year: join a gym, learn Spanish, etc. So we'll see. Also...blog more.

30 Days of Thankful 2011 edition

Last month (via my Facebook statuses) I did the 30 days of thankful thing where each day you say one thing you're thankful for.

Rachel's 30 Days of Thankful:

Nov 1: Thankful for having a job to be stressed about.
Nov 2: Thankful for leftover Halloween candy - the breakfast, lunch, and dinner of champions.
Nov 3: Thankful for Amy Davis for her inspiring yet "ha! glad it's not me!" advice.
Nov 4: Thankful for a very cozy bed.
Nov 5: Thankful for an extra hour of sleep tonight!
Nov 6: Thankful for the number of performances allowed under NYC Showcase code.
Nov 7: Thankful for her bed.
Nov 8: Thankful for laughter and long running inside jokes with good friends.
Nov 9: Thankful for the amazing weather today. Also for Baskin Robbins.
Nov 10: Thankful for Emergen-C.
Nov 11: Thankful for veterans. And future veterans.
Nov 12: Thankful that Kristen Evensen introduced her to Food Should Taste Good multi-grain chips.
Nov 13: Thankful for AraBella, scotch, and new skirts.
Nov 14: Thankful for having time alone to wander the city.
Nov 15: Thankful for Jack Daniels and that is all.
Nov 16: Thankful for April Leonhard and post show shots. Also her hard working cast and crew.
Nov 17: Thankful for 3 am cabs and Jack Daniels (again) on the rocks or straight up.
Nov 18: Thankful for Swedish Fish.
Nov 19: Thankful for Sarah Corey and this cupcake. Both are divine.
Nov 20: Thankful her show had a great closing performance.
Nov 21: Thankful for clever friends in so many different cities and Facebook for keeping them laughing at the same things.
Nov 22: Thankful for knitting.
Nov 23: Thankful she didn't have to set an alarm this morning.
Nov 24: Thankful for Nolan, Brit, Raisa, and Daniel for the food prep, amazing all day feast, and wine.
Nov 25: Thankful for 11 hours of hanging out with Kira and reflecting on other 20-ish year friendships.
Nov 26: Thankful to be sitting on this balcony drinking Lager with Paul Bratcher and Kevin Gift...wait. KG is drinking Miller Lite. Less thankful for that.
Nov 27: Thankful for her ability to instantly sleep on buses.
Nov 28: Thankful for Trader Joes.
Nov 29: Thankful to have found the cake baked in a pumpkin link.
Nov 30: Thankful for the highs and lows of the month, Racheliffic shenanigans, Maoz dates with Andy, and the Muppets.

Solstice!

Shortest day of the year also happens to be rather long in the Rachel sector of life. For the last time, I was up at 5:30 am to catch the train to catch the ferry to catch the shuttle to stage manage the show. Staten Island is a lovely, far away place that I will not miss traveling to every day. I will miss my cast. Really. We were 7 people in a wacky situation and I actually believe we made the best of it. We had a show interrupted by a crazy Russian woman. We had more travel time than rehearsal and performance combined. We rehearsed at a rec center with children/teens literally walking in and out of scenes. It was actually pretty awesome and if I lived closer, I'd totally work with Sundog again.

HOWEVER now that it's done, I can focus on some other things. I've got the crazy 3 days before Christmas stuff to deal with (wrapping, mailing, shopping, swearing) and then I get to pack and head to Hershey! I have 2 days of work and a few friend dates between me and my first trip via Megabus. I'm so excited. Then, before you know it, I'll be sad and back on the bus and then back at work and then at a New Year's Eve party and then it'll be 20-fuckin'-11! Holy god. I better get ready!

Christmastime Approaches!

I just got back from an overnight in Maryland. I'm running performances of "A Christmas Carol" with the Sundog Theatre. It's an interesting thing. When I did FoodPlay, everything was very specifically laid out. I had very little set up and there weren't many outside factors to worry about. If we had a table and a chair and a power outlet, we were good to go. Not so with this show. I have wireless mics and a sound board I bring, but I need to use the venue's system and I have to try to put together some semblance of lights. That's new. I've got a pretty good group of people though. I think I might even stay friends with a few after this is all over next week.

It's funny how with just a small show and a simple day job with steady hours, I'm crazy busy and feel way behind. I guess that means my life is going well and I'm in a good place, right? Let's try to stay on the positive, for once. And...go!

I'm going to spend Christmas with friends in Hershey, PA. It's my first year not going to Iowa for Christmas. It's a tough thing...I don't want to go there, but it seems so taboo to not go home for the holidays. I keep getting pity and I don't want that. I made a choice. It is the right choice for me. I'm going to spend more time with people who will make me happier and I will only have spent $55 on bus tickets versus $400+ on airfare.

10 days til Christmas folks...are you ready?

Thanks and Such

So I've been at my day job only 26 days so far and I'm already moved to a new department. It's neat. I'm in a call center taking orders and customer service calls. It's much more suited to me so I like it. Also-no uniform. That's a plus.

I ordered the most awesome present for SMB today. I doubt he still checks this, but just in case, no spoilers here. Suffice to say it really does feel good to get someone something you KNOW will make them smile. That's right: I was just sentimental. Almost. I really do have emotions sometimes. Even though I fight it.

I was waiting for the train today and looked up and there was Emmeline. I like how the big city can also be a small city. I like randomly running into friends on the street (or in the station) and I like that people visit all the time. I also like that people move here all the time.

I still don't know if I want to stay though. I am really having a hard time accepting this as any kind of permanence. If I let myself think about it for too long, I can feel my heart rate accelerate and my breathing gets a little shallower. Then I have to plot out my escape plan and distract myself before real panic sets in.

Lately EVERYONE keeps asking if I'm dating anyone. Is that just something that happens when you're in your (gulp) mid-twenties? You should be coupled up by now? I guess. Well, I'm not. I don't even know how to do that anymore. My life has been dictated by contracts and schedules for so long, real life seems strange and unattainable. Dating? Pshaw. Guess I could work on that.

I had an awesome Thanksgiving, by the way. I spent the afternoon/evening/night with a few college friends and their family and close friends. 9 of us altogether. The one kid there who didn't have a Viterbo connection kept double checking: "You're ALL from the same place? You ALL know each other?" Anyway-it was great. Nolan made the most amazing food, Brit (and her cousin) coordinated a wonderful gathering, and we played one of the best games of Celebrity ever. Oh-and we had cherpumple. That's a cherry pie in a chocolate cake, a pumpkin pie in a spice cake, and an apple pie in a yellow cake-layered together in something sinful and strange.

(I promise: someday I will try to blog about one subject at a time. I mean...I promise I'll try.)

Lazy Day

I want to blog more. Today, a friend told me he was blogging for the first time in months. I stumbled across another friend's blog and it's clear she updates daily, always with insightful things. (Presumably...I only read 2 entries.) So here I am.

I did nothing today. The only reason I put on clothes that weren't my pajamas was to walk downstairs and 3 doors over to order Chinese food. It's the end of Week 2 of the Steady Day Job and I'm feeling it. Though I was also fighting a losing battle with a cold the last few days, which could explain my fatigue.

I was semi-productive though. I figured out what to get a friend for Christmas. I finished a hat (a gift for someone, not an Etsy item). I started a hat for myself since I'm constantly jealous of other knit hats and never make anything for myself.

Nope...that was it. Oh, I guess I did continue to drink copious amounts of green tea in an effort to rid my body of this cold. Bah. Emergen-C for breakfast tomorrow. And maybe a bedtime snack tonight. I'm so adventurous.

Really though...maybe I should challenge myself to blog daily. Nah, that'll never happen. Maybe at least 4 times a week? A sizeable goal. Maybe just once a week to start. Yeah. That's safe.

Worst Blogger Ever (or, an Octoberly update)

It's November...surprise! It's starting off pretty well. Highlights of October:

-Hung out a LOT with friend AraBella. We painted her room, ate a ton of Pinkberry, and made a few trips to Home Depot.

-Finished up the run of TESS: A New Rock Opera. (I was a Production Assistant, if you remember.) It was lots of fun and I was really sad to have missed the last performance, which was an added performance, because I was in Iowa.-Went to the best wedding ever in Minnesota. My good friends from college got married in an "Up" themed wedding and I flew across the country to go.

-Fetched my furniture and other miscellaneous possessions from Iowa and journeyed them cross-country to NYC. Now I feel vaguely trapped, but I like hanging things on the walls.

-Saw "A Life in the Theatre" (twice), "American Idiot", and "The Scottsboro Boys".

-Made a website for my SM side of life. Updated the Etsy site. Ordered some business cards. Y'know...in 48 hours.

-Went to the Great FoodPlay Reunion of 2010 (sans one Carlton Hall) and had a great time. You know it's a good night when a 4 hour dinner goes by like nothin'.

-Had SEVERAL random "small world" run ins all over the city. The guy from UCF who was at TESS strike, the former TSF co-worker who lives downstairs, and the girl at callbacks who is from Des Moines...to name a few.

-And one of the best parts: a surprise visit to Hershey! I tagged along and surprised some of my Chocolate Town favorites. Spent Halloween with them and even got to look for Sasquatch at the zoo.

So...November. It's shaping up rather well. My new show had callbacks yesterday so we should have a cast...like now. Rehearsals start soonly. Started a day job. Made an Etsy sale. Got together with some college friends, one of whom is visiting on his latest epic road trip. Of course, it's only a week in. Anything can happen. And I'm ready.

NYMF!

Remember how I talked about a whirlwind previously? SO true. Wednesday morning I reported to the rehearsal space, helped another gal gather all the props (about 5 loads total), hailed a taxi, got everything to the venue, helped finish the set, helped with props during Q to Q, arranged dinner, and helped run backstage during the show...having never seen/heard a run. It was GREAT! Tonight is another performance and I'm excited. I didn't realize how big NYMF was until some good friends pointed it out. Yay for friends who throw your name around in the world.

Also, I've been working more on Etsy items. I'm going to get a few more ready, redo some photos and get it all posted. Should keep me a bit busy. The day job thing still needs to happen, but in its own time. Like...in the next couple weeks. Thank goodness for planning and frugality.

Lots of people are starting to pop up around the city. Mostly new arrivals from this past summer. Some old friends from summers past. Look at how poetical I can be. Poetry aside, it's nice to be in a new city with old friends. Probably the way I should have been doing it all along.

Crazy Whirlwind

Yesterday I was at IKEA with a friend. We were in the checkout line and my phone went berserk. First was a notification from Etsy that one of my items was listed in a treasury. Pretty cool. Second time it's happened. First time was for some gloves I made.

Second email was from a PSM asking if I was free to be a production assistant (PA) for New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) which starts this week. Turns out, I'm free so I emailed back and talked to the General Manager. Thanks Blackberry for providing me with constant contact with the world. So I'm off to rehearsal today to meet everyone and load out the set. Gulp. What's up, first NYC gig?

Because of the dates of this gig, I am going to have to rush to make it to Jenna and Troy's wedding. I'm flying into Minneapolis the day of the darn thing. It'll be fine...even though I have the sneaking suspicion that this is very similar to the start of a sitcom episode. I'm still going though!

Also, I've launched myself back into Etsy item making. Soon I should have enough baby items to post. I'm thinking of re-doing all my photos and even coming up with a new logo and more aggressive marketing. All in good time.

Ah...Panera Wi-Fi

The joys of moving...packing all your things haphazardly, praying you get a parking spot in front of your building, and realizing the stolen wireless from the neighbors isn't good enough for your chronic Facebooking so you go to the local Panera for hours with a lone cup of coffee to make you seem slightly welcome.

That all happened.

So here I am...New York City. Technically, I'm in Queens, but who's really keeping track? I'm unloaded, semi-unpacked, furniture-less, jobless, and thrilled. I applied for a few retail jobs today. I'm planning on a few theatre jobs apps in the near future too. Probably tomorrow since I bet I have outstayed my Paneriffic welcome here.

Things are good. I saw Natasha today for lunch. I have (tentative) plans to see Kira tomorrow. Other folks are in the wings waiting to jump back into my life, and me into theirs. It's a glorious time to be carefree in the city.

This cookie is delicious.

Pics to come. (Of the apartment...not the cookie.)

Take Your Own Advice

I keep telling my cast and crew that it's all about perception. It doesn't really matter what your intentions were, but how they were interpreted does. For instance: if you're in the audience talking to your friend the entire time you watch the show, it says to the performers that you don't care about them and the work they're doing. Even if you were just raving to your friend about the greatness of the 3rd dancer on the left.

I should take my own advice. Sometimes I get caught up in things and I forget to take a step back and look at the big picture. Sometimes I over analyze and over justify things when I should just take them as they are and shut up. Sometimes I'm just a pretentious so and so.

I hate apologizing because it means I did something wrong.

I Love When I Fail

I'm on a baking spree. Again. Tonight it was rice krispie treats (not baking, I know), chocolate chip cookies, and a shoofly pie. Well...the pie FAILED. The crust, to be more specific. I made an awesome pie crust for the Key Lime Pie experiment of 2 weeks ago and saved half the dough. The dough did not want to be saved and refused to become the shoofly pie I know it could have been. So...I'll have to make more pie crust on a day that isn't today.

I am drinking a lovely Jack Daniels and ginger ale right now. So tasty.

My dresser has gotten me reading vampire books. I read the first two of the Anita Blake series, which is nice and gory, just like I like it. Now I'm on the True Blood books. I've seen the first season, so the book is just taking me down that path again, but E says that it gets different around the 4th book. I think she has them all. Yay!

Work has been a little bleah lately. I succumbed to stress. I didn't realize how draining it's been lately until I imploded on Tuesday night. Thank goodness I had friends to escape to. B and S are the best. So is Epic Scrabble. And fire.

Fast Forward

Apparently I spent the last 2.5 weeks at the Pantry. Gosh that'd be amazing. And expensive. And delicious.

Really I just had tech for my show and 3 separate visitors on 2 separate occasions. It sounds simple. It wasn't. There were some long hours and some random errands to run. Shows have been open since May 29 though and so far it's been going pretty well.

The best part of my 2.5 week hiatus was Venezuelan Surprise. My friends Erin, AraBella, and I were all apprentices at Orlando Shakespeare Theater in 2007/2008 and we all parted ways that spring. I've seen them both since, but they have remained apart. Sad. Luckily, AraBella and I planned an epic surprise. Erin was visiting and was unaware AraBella had arrived 5 hours before she did. Since it's not abnormal for me to ask my friends to look in closets for their birthday presents, she didn't think anything was amiss when I sent her on such an errand.

And that's about it. OH! No. Lies. Steven and I are doing this diet thing. It's the Fat Smash diet. It seems less insane than other diets. I mean, it has a book to guide you. Anyway. We're in day 2 of 9 of the Phase 1: Detox period. So far...I'm really, really hungry and CRAVE bread, but I have also lost 5 lbs in 2 days. So...yay? The WORST part of it all is I'm supposed to avoid caffeine. It's impossible. My caffeine headache is RAGING along with my bread CRAVING. 5 lbs in 2 days is mega incentive though. I suppose I could keep you posted.

Also, I played poker tonight.

Also, last week I invented cookie cake.

The Ball Gets Rollin'

I figured I'd better update before people get snippy about how many days since the last one. Especially since it's about to get busy here in Chocolate Town.

My boss got to town today. He was a bit delayed because of the flooding in Tennessee, which is RIDICULOUS. Anyway, things are off to a good start here. Costumes and props and uniforms arrived. The sets arrived. Load in is partially underway in one venue and further along in the other. Today the TD mentioned how strange it is to have two venues in one park to deal with. Agreed. We have a meetin' tomorrow to talk over ALL the things that need to get done. It's a lot of things. I'm excited.

A lot more of the cast arrives tomorrow. That will be nice. We're only 3 days from orientation and read thrus. I should actually go to bed since I have to be functional much earlier tomorrow than I have been lately.

Oh, one thing to note: today I set up my own wireless network. I even had to troubleshoot. I'm all colors of impressed with myself. It was a great piece of work too since I had to go buy a new router and such. It was an adventure!

So...bed now. And I'll take and post some pics of the set tomorrow. Consider this my last push of laziness before I turn into Productivity Girl. Hm...sounds like I've been watching Buffy lately. Oh wait, I have. Good night, World.

Awesomeness

I did some awesome things lately. Here is a list. Be jealous.

Friday:
-Had a 2 am Etsy sale.
-Went to Hershey Pantry for breakfast with Scoot, Karyn, Lydia, Tammy, and Katie.
-Went to Yarn-Love.
-Got my Etsy item shipped.
-Scheduled internet installation.
-Went to Tap preview.
-Applied for a job.

Saturday:
-Went to Philly for lunch with Kailee (who was my pen pal when we were 12...that's longevity, folks).
-Bought 5 shirts, a dress, sandals, a bottle of lotion, and some fancy greeting cards for approximately $110 total.
-Told myself NO at Target several times.
-Had dinner at Houli's with Kristina and Tony (and Kristina's mama).
-Updated blog.

AWESOMENESS!!!

It's All in the Timing

Don't you hate it when your timing is off? You walk into a room at the exact WRONG moment. You send an email and realize too late that the recipient is completely swamped and you just added to the pile. You get a death row pardon two minutes too late. Oh wait...that's ironic...

Pause for laughter.

Silence.

Damn.

Ahem.

I've just been thinking about timing a lot in general. I applied to some jobs for after September and I can't help but hope my timing was good and that someone sees my delightful little resume and thinks my cover letter is charming and wants to talk to me. Or it's lost in an inbox of fury and will never see the light of day.

I have lots of mid-day downtime lately so I've been texting people things as they come to me and THEN I remember they have tech/finals/load in/etc. and I seem callous and rude and uncaring. In my personal life, I find myself being inconsistent and it irritates me. It's much easier when I work so much that I have no personal life and I don't have to worry about it.

It's tough when you NEED information from someone who is insane busy and can't respond to you. It's tough when you just want to make someone aware of something, but they are insane busy and you KNOW you're making it worse.

I've also been on a "what might have been" train of thought lately. Cause-and-effect style. Like...WHAT IF I had stayed in Houston? A whole mess of events wouldn't have happened. But what WOULD have happened? What if I hadn't said what I said or had done what I didn't?

I should not have idle time to think so much. Leads to dreadful results.

Vindication for My Laziness

I did not go to the gym today. I went on Tuesday and Wednesday and fully intended to go today. Instead, I was a gym failure. I was going to feel bad about myself because of this, but instead I got all self-righteous as the day went on about all the awesome things I've done in the past 36 hours that should make me feel good about myself.

I acquired tickets to the Hershey Bears game without bribing someone else to get them for me.

I walked to the grocery store AND used a reusable bag. (Yay Earth Day.)

I went to Yarn-Love and only bought 2 skeins of yarn that are already promised to a project.
I made all my meals today AND they were all healthy.

I have made good progress on Sally's second hat.

I got Karyn's approval on my current Etsy pricing and projects, as well as Sally's finished hat and gloves.

I got lots of Hershey related work done today...lots of questions answered.

I looked up some post-Hershey employment options. Even made a spreadsheet.

I updated my resume.

I only screwed with Pat Shiner's mind for 10 minutes last night.

I went to Chocolate World and only spent $7.00 (with discount).

I only ate 20 Jelly Belly brand jelly beans for my snack today.

I gave Stefanie some Mucinex and now she feels better.

I planned a lasagna for my tired roommates' dinner tomorrow.

So in short, screw you gym guilt! I'll go tomorrow.

Also...completely unrelated: Janelle brought home goldfish. Now we have herbs and pets. We're SO domestic.
(Photos from top: Hershey Bears in action, Sally's earflap hat, Hershey's Extra Dark chocolate with Pomegranate flavored pieces, Goldy and somethingorother our new fish)

A Week in the Life

So here we are. A new blog. Sounds exciting. This blog is partially so friends can keep up with me, though things like Facebook and text messages do a decent job of that. This is also partially to show off my knitting prowess and culinary skills. I considered a specialized blog for the knitting and the food and decided that while the knitting one may still happen, I don't cook enough for an entire food related blog. Essentially, this blog is going to be real random, but all me. Cliche, right? Too bad. My blog, my randomosity. (Warning: I apologize in advance for the scatter-brained-ness of this post.)

I just finished one of those 1000 mile, multiple-day-long road trips. I say "one of those" because this is the sixth I've been on since 2008. This time it was Iowa to Pennsylvania. Thankfully I have friends dispersed around the country and they let me crash on couches and in spare rooms. It's normally an 18 hour trip and at one point I could have done it in 2 days, but I am too old to do that sort of thing anymore. I get sick of my own company after a while and there are only so many times you can listen to the Harry Potter 7 audio book (which is, incidentally, 21 hours long). Here's what I did this time 'round.

Tuesday: I left Iowa at an easy mid-day time. I met up with the FoodPlay National Troupe in Watseka, IL and got some quality hanging out time with Carlton and even better than that...

Wednesday: I got to see a performance! It was a lot of fun to see the set-up, warm-up, and show as a regular, non-troupe member. After the show, which was somewhere between pretty good and great in my opinion, I drove a leisurely hour to West Lafayette, IN where I was entertained by a friend I met at the Texas Shakespeare Festival back in 2007. Oddly for a theatre person, most of his friends are NOT theatre people. They were pretty awesome though. A good time was had. There were beers, $1.50 wells, and maybe a phone call or four.

Thursday: It was on to Columbus, OH to stay with a friend from high school. She pulled out a bunch of yearbooks and it was crazy to remember things from an entire decade ago. Then I felt really old.

Friday: The last leg took me across the rest of Ohio and the western half of Pennsylvania to lovely Hershey, PA. After only 2 hours in town, friends stopped by with my ticket to the Hershey Bears game and we set off for dinner. My first hockey game was awesome. Bears won, 3-2. Karyn then had the less awesome idea to trek from the Giant Center across the extensive parking lots to a bar on the other side of the park. Her theory was we'd get there before those who had to fight the 10,000 people leaving the game. It would have been great if not for the rain that plagued us. By the time we got there we were soaked through. Great time though. As Lydia put it, we are now "intrepid". Really? I thought I was just cold.

So that brings me to today. There was some grocery shopping, a little more unpacking, and the best part: a little bit of lunch-having. I created a pasta dish: whole wheat penne with canned diced tomatoes, asparagus steamed with garlic and basil, and a little extra-virgin olive oil, black pepper, and red pepper flakes. Super easy, super tasty. I'm on a healthy cooking kick. It's too easy in this kind of environment to go out to eat with people all the time. It gets pretty costly AND not always healthy. So there's a goal. Work on that. Easier said than done. I have a friend coming back this year who does horrendous things to my diet. So many indulgences...

I'm back at Hersheypark for the summer, stage managing two shows and (hopefully) having another fantastic summer here in Chocolate Town. Even though I am REALLY going to miss my cast and crew from last summer, I think we've got some good things in store. There are several people returning, a few friends of friends, and lots of new folks. That's one thing I really love about the nomadic theatre thing. I meet more people at each new job than I ever could in another career.

Also, there are sea lions in one of my shows this year. Does your job have sea lions? I didn't think so.

(Photos from top: I-65 in Indiana, the FoodPlay performers juggling around their stage manager, the "intrepid" and thoroughly soaked group at Parkside, penne with olive oil and asparagus, some of the cast and crew from "Beyond the Dragon Gate" 2009.)