Things I Learned About Virginia and Washington DC

1. It's humid out there.

2. Virginia has lots of trees. And mosquitoes.

3. The National Mall is much bigger than it looks.

4. The east coast has history. It also has a lot of empty fields where history was once made. Now they're just empty fields with a few rocks.

5. People try and charge way too much for anything with the tiniest bit of history.

6. The Smithsonian is free. Therefore, the Smithsonian is awesome. (Of course, the tons of cool stuff helps the awesome factor a little.)

7. Tarl and Joy are cool.

8. People who go to the University of Virginia are a little weird, Tarl excluded... wait, Tarl not excluded.

9. Good ol' TJ is tall. At least, his statue is.

10. DC has way too many escalators. WAY too many.

I am now back into the swing of all day homework sessions, which is not fun. I have lots of fun and exciting things to share about our trip, but until I turn in all my huge assignments and get started on my next three classes (yep, THREE - at the same time! I must be crazy!), those posts will just have to wait.

Bittersweet Vacation

Tomorrow we leave for an awesome vacation to Washington DC and Virginia. While we are very excited, it's a little bittersweet, as this was originally planned to be a trip with Matt's folks. Obviously, after Matt's dad's heart surgery, they are no longer able to go with us. We are pretty disappointed, but we have plans to do a repeat next year. In the meantime, we had to figure out how to turn this vacation into something fun - without doing all the things we wanted to save for the trip with Matt's parents.

In the end, we've made plans to visit some friends who have recently moved to Virginia. We're very excited about this because it's something we wouldn't have the time to do if we were able to stick to our original plan. But these people have been friends for years (Tarl is part of the group of Matt's friends who've been besties since high school), so having the opportunity to see them is really great. It's just one of those lemons to lemonade situations, I guess. Anyway, we'll spend a couple of days in DC with them, visit their town of Charlottesville, Virginia, and be tourists in a couple of historic Virginia towns. It should be awesome!

So, off we go tomorrow. I have pre-trip jitters and post-homework exhaustion, so I better rest up for this crazy week to come!

The Blues: of Grassy and Moody Varieties

It's been a blues-filled week. (I may be stretching a little bit by tying these two events together, but I like to think of it as "being creative.")

First, on a quick, unrelated note: I had a birthday. There's not much to report on the subject, but it seemed a little weird to just go past it without acknowledging it. So: I had a birthday. It went by pretty uneventfully, as I was in dress rehearsals for my show at the time. I bought myself some new clothes (from Matt... he got away easy this year), had a little dinner with my family, and got some books, craft stuff, and more clothes for gifts. It was nice, and now I'm older. That's all.

Anyway, back to my bluesy week.

On Tuesday, I went out for what I hope will become a new summer tradition. There's a fun restaurant up in Lyons, Colorado called Oskar Blues. This place is known for its good beer and fun music events, and every Tuesday night is bluegrass night. My friend, Rachel, and I headed up for dinner and some good music.

Rachel and Stumpy (her cast).

I hadn't realized that there would be no organized bluegrass band performing for us. Instead, a ton of bluegrass musicians gathered around to jam. With no plan and no set list, these people just came together and played music. It was pretty awesome.

Bluegrass jam.

Yay, music.

As the night went on, more and more musicians kept coming in. The circle grew, with many people standing around the edges. At one point, I counted over 25 musicians.

Lots of bluegrass-ers.

Rachel and I got lucky with a front row table to the whole event. It was really cool, and we hope to repeat the fun many times this summer.

After bluegrassing it up on Tuesday, my blues became... blue-er. (I'm really pulling this out of nowhere now... oh, well.)

This weekend, I closed the show I've been working on for the last month or so. It was very sad for me.

See. I'm sad. I'm about to perform my show for the last time.

I'm totally suffering from the post-show blues. But I tried to enjoy the opportunity while I still had it. I had a blast performing this weekend. In fact, I think Saturday night's show was one of the most fun performances I've ever been involved in.

I went a little picture crazy during the last show. I just had to capture the memories!

Men getting ready.

Women getting ready.

Me and Mom.

We had a little drama before our final show. Our hero and leading man was late! He was driving from a dress rehearsal in Larkspur to our show in Brighton (a really long way, for all you non-Coloradans). We knew he was doing his best to get to the show, so we weren't too worried. But it is a little nerve-wracking to be missing the star of the show.

Our director, on the phone with Jack Swan.

Our show was supposed to start at 2. He still wasn't there.

The cast, waiting and worried.

Finally, he has arrived. I'm not sure if I've ever seen anyone run across a parking lot that fast.

Our hero.

Finally, our show could start. It was pretty ridiculously awesome.

Mother McGoof and Captain Bermuda.

Me and the director/Carlota.

Rawhide, eating his sandwich.

The preacher. He tried to marry me.

Now that the show's over, I can let out the secret: the damsel does not end up with the hero. We're tricky. I end up with this guy:

Lt. Lorne Order and my future husband. He's 6'8", so he pretty much looks like this to me when I look up at him.

Scary villain.

Showing off my bloomers. They were cute.

After the show, Jack Swan took the time to meet one of his biggest fans, my niece. She liked him.

Hero and villain after the show. Now they can be friends. How nice.

As is usually the case, post-show is the time for parties. We had a last hurrah together at the cast party.

Food and party.

Now it's over, and I've got the post-show blues. I usually get pretty sad when shows end, but this time I'm really sad. Now I'm back on hiatus until I finish grad school. It's really hard to walk away from this much fun, knowing that I have no more theatre in my near future. Of course, I wasn't planning on being involved in this show until I got pulled in at the last minute. So, I guess you never know what will happen. In any case, there will be more shows. Just maybe not for a while.

Dark Deeds Are Afoot!

Yup, it's true. Even though I told everyone (including myself) that I was giving up theatre while in grad school, here I am in another show. I just couldn't turn down the opportunity to play the damsel in a ridiculous melodrama. Doesn't that just sound like tons of fun?

Well, it is.

Though it made my life a little crazy and stressful at times, I'm really glad I decided to accept the role. It's been such a release from the stress of work and grad school. I have had a blast!
Last weekend, we opened our show to great (if small) houses! Tomorrow night, we continue our run! If you're in the Denver area you should definitely come check us out. Just look at how much fun we have:

Damsel, Bertha Birthright (me) and the villain, Montague Leech

Getting ready for the show. Look, it's my mom.

It's been a lot of fun getting to be in a show with my mom again. This is only the third time in my life it's happened, and the only time as an adult. I was five and thirteen during each of the previous shows we've done together.

I'm a pirate... before I turn into a damsel.

Tai Pan.

Our hero, Jack Swan, and the evil villain.

Jack Swan, saving me from... something. I look a little scared. I think it's because my giant dress is eating us.

Even heroes need to be saved some times. Lt. Lorne Order to the rescue!

Me and one of my men...

Oooh, scary. See this show has everything.

Damsel and villain. We're obviously not in character or he would be doing something mean and I would be crying about it.

Carlota Castanet de San Diego. Dead... under mysterious circumstances (or resting during intermission).

As you can see, this show is ridiculous. But it's also hilarious and tons of fun! I had originally thought that I didn't have time to participate in theatre and keep my sanity. Now I'm thinking that being involved in this show has helped me to keep my sanity. It's been such a relief to stop thinking about special education for a couple hours, and just play and have fun!

Come see Dark Deeds at Swan's Place (or Never Trust a Tattooed Sailor) this weekend: Friday and Saturday at 7:30, Sunday at 2. For information, visit the Platte Valley Players website!