Pink, pink, everywhere!

Today was my "niece" Aubrie's 1st Birthday Party...she turned 1 year old on June 26, and I can't believe time has flown that quickly! I can remember listening to my voicemail at work and hearing, "Hi, Aunt Stacey...Aubrie Caroline was born after midnight..."

And now she's 1. WOW. She was SOO good, even after getting passed continuously from person to person to person. She was a little frightened of Dustin and would tear up if he looked at her too long - we couldn't tell if it was the goatee or the baseball cap. It was slightly amusing, but I could tell he felt bad and had hoped she'd eventually warm up to him. In time, maybe. ha ha

Seeing as I haven't colorblogged in a LONG time, I figured Aubrie's birthday party was the perfect way to "kill 2 birds with 1 stone", so to speak. There was pink wrapping paper, pink on the cake, pink dresses, SO MUCH PINK! Aubrie seemed to enjoy unwrapping her gifts, but eventually had had enough. Not to mention, she seemed more interested in the paper than the actual gifts!

She got her very own piece of birthday cake, and managed to NOT get as messy as we'd all suspected she would...

All in all, it was a really fun day - the weather cooperated, and I'm sure Denise was happy with the turnout - both number of guests, and the how the party itself turned out.

So happy birthday to Aubrie!! I just absolutely love that little girl!

Summing Up...

It took me nearly a week to gather my thoughts, but here they finally are. Maybe not so eloquent, but y'all get the point...

Saturday was the final (and, in my opinion, by far the best) performance of “The Baker’s Wife”. Before the show, and even before warm ups, Leibrecht gathered all of us on stage for the usual closing night speech. No matter how many times I’ve done a show with / for him, that speech is always special and just plain neat to hear. (I’ve even been known to tear up…once or twice…) He & Sandy both said some very nice things about all of us in the cast, and praised the show & our collective efforts. Teri & Debi also presented gifts (from the cast) to the crew heads, Christian, and the Leibrechts.

Sunday was the strike and potluck supper. Leibrecht had requested all of us be there between 3 and 3:30. Strike was estimated to take 2 to 2 ½ hours to complete, and then it would be time for supper. To be honest, I think strike itself took all of an hour and a half. It was relatively simple, and things seemed to go smoothly. The potluck had anything and everything you could imagine, from sandwiches to pizza, chips and dip, to cookies, ice cream, and cake. Thinking back, I wish I would have taken a picture of the spread. It was incredible, the amount of food! I hung around as long as I could, until I was ready to literally drop from exhaustion. Finally, about 7 p.m., Jeremy & I said our goodbyes and headed out.

With all that being said, I have to admit, this show was somewhat difficult for me. There were even times I thought about giving up.

I had surgery 4 weeks before the show and, in turn, missed a lot of rehearsals. That didn’t throw me off, necessarily, but made me feel disconnected more than anything. Being in the chorus, I didn’t have a lot to learn / remember – we had learned songs months before hand, and the blocking was very simple. I can’t even really explain it. It was just “different”. Maybe because I worked the entire week of tech / performances and dragged ass all day, or maybe because we didn’t have much “going out” time as a group during the rehearsal process. Or maybe a combination of both, I’m not sure.

Now that’s not to say this experience was different bad. Just. Different. Hard to explain, really. Trust me on this one, though.

My mom, as usual, was right. “By the end, you’ll be in tears and not wanting it to end…” In tears? Check. (By the beginning of the final song Saturday night!) Not wanting it to end? Not so check. I’m glad it’s over, in a sense – it’s nice not to have to rush rush rush somewhere every night straight after work, and it’s nice to get to bed before 1 or 1:30 a.m. on a work night. But, of course, there’s always that sense of, “NOW what do I do???” once a show is over.

Dad came to the show Saturday night, which floored me. You see, my dad is NOT the theatre type. Total opposite, really. In turn, he's not one to very willingly come see my shows. That's not to say he hasn't been to any, because he has been to lots of them. But still, just knowing how NOT into theatre he is, his presence at my shows means more to me than I could EVER possibly begin to explain. And Monday morning, when I emailed him and thanked him for coming, his response made me cry. "sorry i wasn't more enthusiastic, pretty worn out by the end of the show. i am proud of you for being able to get up on stage, not something i could do. luv, dad." The man doesn't give out "I'm proud of you" or "I love you" very often (which I've FINALLY grown to accept), but when he does, damnit, I know he MEANS IT.

So all in all, I am (of course) sad to see it all come to an end. I do have to say that getting back to a "normal" schedule / life has actually been kind of boring for me. I live for the rush rush rush - as much as I may bitch about it at times.

Congrats to the cast & crew of "The Baker's Wife"!!! Good show!!!

Another opening, another show...

Opening night for “The Baker’s Wife” went well last night. That’s not to say there weren’t snafus – a few dropped lines, missed song lyrics, oh, and the set piece that broke and almost knocked over & out our director – but on the whole it wasn’t bad. Audience was about 70-75 people, from what I heard at intermission, and they were a good audience – laughs in the right spots & the most important thing: APPLAUSE.

After we took our bows at curtain call, Leibrecht stopped the band for an important announcement. He invited the president of the school, Kirk Boschert, up on to the stage. Kirk said a few words, then presented Mark with the check for the Cathy Brickey scholarship. Cathy was a student (and Guild player) in the 1970’s. In the 80’s, her life was cut short too soon when she was killed in a car accident. Her parents set up a scholarship fund in her name for select students who are planning on pursuing a college degree in the Arts. In 1999, I received the same honor as Mark, when I was selected to be the recipient of the scholarship. It’s such a neat thing, and such an honor.

Once the applause died down, we picked up where we’d left off. The bows had been taken, but there was a bit of singing still to be done. I have to admit. I became really sappy during the curtain call singing. My eyes teared up, and there was a lump in my throat that I had a hard time swallowing. The lyrics made me think of this thing we call “The Guild” and “The SAT”…this FAMILY:

“Every day as you do
What you do every day
You see the same faces
That fill the café
And if some of those faces
Have new things to say
Now your whole life
Now your whole life
Is new”

No matter how many shows I’ve done there, no matter how many repeat cast members we’ve had / have / continue to have, every experience is new. No matter how many times I see the same faces, every experience enriches my life in a new and different way. I have made memories and friends through this place – some have come and gone, while others I know will last a lifetime. I can’t express how full my heart feels when I’m on that stage, with those people, smiling, sharing our lives with each other. It’s an experience that just simply cannot be duplicated elsewhere.

From an email...

"Life is too short to wake up with regrets.

Love the people who treat you right. Love the ones who don't just because you can.

Believe everything happens for a reason. If you get a second
chance, grab it with both hands. If it changes your life, let it.

Kiss slowly. Forgive quickly.

God never said life would be easy. He just promised it would be worth it."

California got a clue...

...And I personally think other states should, as well.

(From KSDK.com: "...today is the first day that most gay couples in California can legally marry their partner...The law banning gay marriage was officially voided at 5:01 p.m. Pacific time yesterday, when most county offices were closed. A UCLA study predicts that the next three years could see more than 100,000 gay couples from around the country get married there.)

Congrats!

This isn't a pleasant one.

You know the answer to the question before it even leaves your lips. It’s the same answer, to the same question, that you’ve been getting for so long. Then you’re blindsided. Someone catches you off guard and knocks the wind out of you as they proverbially punch you in the stomach.

A total sneak attack.

And all of the sudden, you're second guessing every passing glance, every conversation, every interaction...

And kick yourself for being such a fucking dumbass in the first place.

Not right

Did anyone else read or hear about this?

A school in California was visited by highway patrol officers to announce to 20classrooms that several students, their classmates, had been killed in car accidents over the weekend. "A few hours and many tears later, the pain turned to fury when the teenagers learned that it was all a hoax -- a scared-straight exercise designed by school officials to dramatize the consequences of drinking and driving."

I'm sorry, but that's just wrong. I'm all for scare tactics, and driving home important points to teenagers. But that's something you just don't joke about. Scare tactic or not.

I lost a very dear friend to cancer when he was 14 - I was 15, and granted, the circumstances were different. My brother lost a friend, someone he grew up with, when she was 17. And just last year, my sister-in-law lost HER best friend...she was 16 and killed in a car accident. I know how it feels, both first and second hand, to lose someone so young in such a tragic manner.

Can you imagine how those teenagers felt? They were told classmates, friends, were killed. Gone. Only to find out hours later, "Ha ha! We tricked you! Did you learn your lesson?" I would be PISSED OFF. It angers me just reading this story! If you want to "scare someone straight", find a better way to do it than using death as your "prop".

Car naps, bread, toe jams, "Wicked", and cheesecake.

Car naps = NIIIIICE. Having gone to bed at or after midnight every night for the past 2 weeks, they are an excellent way to (temporarily) get a bit of spring back into my step. The gals at work tease me endlessly about this little quirk of mine, but I recently found out I'm not the only one who indulges in lunch time car naps. (Hop on over to Joan's blog and you'll see what I mean.) Rehearsals (every night this week!) and other commitments, plus crazaziness at work have me over-committed...as per usual. I highly recommend the joy of a car nap to anyone who doesn't have any other time to nap. :-)

Bread = basis of the show, and also the title of the song I can NOT GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!! It's a quirky-ish song wherein all the villagers sing about (what else?) bread. And how happy they are that they have it once again. To see a bunch of DB graduates acting like people who practically orgasm over bread, come see "The Baker's Wife". It runs Wednesday through Saturday, June 18-21, at Bishop DuBourg Highschool. Doors open at 7 p.m., show starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for high school students, and $8 for children 12 and under. Call 314-783-4477 to reserve your tickets. (Also, watch for some of my castmates on the window of Show Me St. Louis June 16!)

Toe jams = painful because character shoes are instruments of torture! There is a lot, and I mean a LOT, of standing in this show. Not dancing. STANDING. Dancing in painful shoes, I can handle because at least my focus is elsewhere. But standing? All I can do is focus on the fact that my poor little toes feel swollen to 5 times their normal size. *sigh* But suffer for your art, right?

Wicked = one of the OTHER shows composed by Stephen Schwartz. For the record, he also did Pippin, Godspell, and Disney's Enchanted. So what's the point? He ALSO did The Baker's Wife. Did I mention it's playing next week, Wednesday through Saturday, at Bishop DuBourg Highschool? If you missed the bold, underlined, italicized, RED print above, scroll back up and take a gander. And memorize the information. And call the hotline to reserve your tickets. You will be quizzed on this... (Yes. I AM plugging that much.)

Cheesecake = nothing at all to do with this post. It just sounds good right now...

"Did you know"

* Did you know Darius Rucker (formerly of Hootie and the Blowfish fame) is "currently working on a Country solo album for Capitol Records Nashville"? I heard the first single "Don't Think I Don't Think About It" on 92.3 the Bull this morning. I have to say, it's not terrible. I only caught the tail end of it, but I dug it okay. (Apparently the single went to radios back in April, but I must have missed that one as I'm a self-proclaimed channel surfer. Look for the album to drop sometime in the fall.)

*Did you know a woman married the Eiffel Tower in a "small ceremony attended by a small group of friends"? Wait. Back up. She MARRIED. The EIFFEL TOWER. HUH?! Professionals (?) have diagnosed her as being / having an "objectum sexual", in which people literally fall in love with buildings and objects. She even changed her name to reflect the vow to "love and obey" the tower: Erika La Tour Eiffel. I'm all for "whatever floats your boat", but certain things just should NOT be encouraged and / or enabled. Ms. La Tour Eiffel has also been previously linked to a bow (as in for archery) and a fence post.

*Did you know teens are using cell phones to send nude pictures to their boyfriends & girlfriends? Yea. So did I. But KSDK had it listed as one of their "hot topic" news stories yesterday. Does this really surprise anyone? I mean really? Parents are not as naive as they act (read: "I just don't understand why kids would do a stupid thing like that," as quoted by one of the parents). Yet there is still that "My child would never..." attitude with some. The same parent points out, "We did dumb things when we were kids, but not like that." It's a never ending cycle. With the ever growing technological world, there are new opportunites for weird (and potentially dangerous or harmful) shit creeping up all over the place. And I'm sure by the time I have children, and by the time they are adolescents, they will do stupid things that I myself never did when I was their age. (And I've done a LOT of stupid sh*t.) Bottom line, parents can not turn a blind eye or deaf ear to their children. Regardless of how much attention a parent gives a child, they will still make bad choices, and they will still screw up. But more attention, I think, makes those bad choices and screw ups fewer and less severe.

*Did you know an inmate (Genilson Lins da Silva) in Brazil had $173K, guns, a fridge, and PLASMA TV in his cell? The prison affairs department was performing a raid on the cell in a statewide crackdown on drug trafficking when they found (and confiscated) the items. An investigation has been ordered as to how Silva got the items in his cell. News flash: I'm betting it was an inside job. How do you NOT notice a plasma TV and fridge in a JAIL CELL?!?!

*Did you know the Detroit Red Wings beat out the Pittsburgh Pirates for the Stanley Cup last night? Even as a St. Louisan, even as a Blues fan, even with as much flack as I KNOW I'm going to catch for admitting it, that makes me happy. I do enjoy the Detroit Red Wings. Don't judge me.