Last night I had the pleasure in assisting my friend Lori with her musical theatre class that she teaches each week. This class if full of little girls who are just the right mixture of hams, nervous nellies, and absolute angels. 🙂

Each May a recital is held where these girls showcase their talents and at this year’s recital they’re going to perform a few songs from Disney’s Beauty & The Beast. I was asked to assist last night as judge for their auditions.

And oh my goodness! I thought I was going to have a terrible time since it’s very hard for me to watch anyone (but especially children) butcher something that I love. But for the hour & a half I was there, I had so much fun.

Each girl was asked to audition for at least 2-3 “parts” in each song. And wouldn’t you know, out of eleven girls, seven wanted to play Belle. 🙂

We only had enough time to audition for the first song, what I lovingly refer to as the ‘Bonjour Song’ and here are a few highlights:

• One girl told us she practiced 24/7. She practiced at school, on the bus, before bed, you name an activity and by golly she was practicing! And wouldn’t you know it? It showed. 🙂 She was delightful.
• One girl was ADAMANT that she only wanted to audition for Belle. I asked her if that meant that if she didn’t get that part she was going to be ok with playing a generic townspeople role. And the look of absolute horror that came across her face was hysterical. She admitted that perhaps auditioning for a Bimbette role would be fine as well, and SHOCKER she was a WAY better Bimbette than she was Belle.
• One girl’s mother walked in during her audition and she went from total ham to nervous wreck. And it was adorable to watch.
• Some girls just kind of stood there. So we tried to give them directions like “Do you have a crush on anyone at school? Anyone that you just LOOOOOOOOVE? That’s how the Bimbettes feel about Gaston. Try thinking about that.” And one girl was so very obviously still in the ‘boys are icky phase’ that she told us, “I’d rather feel that way about my father.” 🙂

We went ahead and cast for that song last night after the girls left and I can’t wait to tell them next week! But of course, first we’ll need to have the sore winner/sore loser chat first. I have a feeling that without it my warm fuzzies for these kids will be replaced with annoyance and disappointment and I’d rather not have that happen.

It’s times like last night that make me realize how much I miss working in theatre. I also realize that in the next few years I need to look into getting certified to teach. In college I had wanted to double major in Education and Theatre. Unfortunately the time commitment to do so would have resulted in my being a complete zombie for 4 years so I took as many education classes as I could but still need to take a ‘Methods’ course and Student Teach in order to be qualified. At this point it might make more sense to go back to school and get my Master’s in Theatre Education. Perhaps this is something I will tackle in my 30’s 🙂

*kisses*

Smiley Count: 5

I have been a redhead literally since the day I was born and I have NEVER heard the stereotype that apparently we talk too much.

That we have a temper? And how! 🙂

*kisses*

Smiley Count: 1

“HOLY CRAP!!!! I totally just had an old lady who TOTALLY smelled like OLD PEOPLE!!!! LOL I know that’s really messed up but it was so blatant and bad smelling!! On top of that her hands were freezing! More than mine!

…I think she was a zombie!

–Courtesy of my husband, who always knows how to make me laugh on even my roughest of days 🙂

*kisses*

Smiley Count: 1

I feel like I’m in an awkward place with this blog.

When I started my blog and when I had a large number of followers & comments I was freshly engaged/newly married. I had to stuff to talk about, stuff that didn’t seem like it was all that boring.

And since we’re still a small family with just the husband and me, I’m not even able to completely bombard you with photo posts every so often.

It’s just a strange place to be in, this part of my life.

Most days I open up a blank post and just sit and stare, occasionally typing a few sentences only to delete them b/c I just don’t see how they can possibly be interesting to anyone if they’re not even interesting to me.

It sounds depressing doesn’t it? But I know I’m not depressed. Sure I go through emotions like candy. Just yesterday I went from happy to completely pissed to sad and sappy back to happy and then fell asleep on the annoyed train. But I’m not sure that makes me depressed…just maybe a tad unstable 🙂

Perhaps I’m just in a nasty little rut?

*kisses*

Smiley Count: 1

I keep wanting to post about the next leg of my trip but it involves my underwater camera that I have yet to get developed! So you’re going to have to be patient. 🙂

Instead I am here to provide a list of things I’d like for Christmas…in case you were at a loss as to what to get me 🙂

• I don’t own ANY of my favorite Christmas movies. I usually DVR them when I see them on but I really need versions where I don’t have to fast forward every 5-10 minutes. These movies are: The Family Stone, Love Actually, The Holiday, White Christmas (Vera Ellen’s waist frightens me, but I still love this movie), Elf, and the original version of Christmas in Connecticut.
• Itunes gift card…so MANY Glee songs, so little money.
• Ross gift card, this chick has become addicted to dresses and needs to add to her collection.
• Wine…I like wine a lot…especially red wine this time of year… 🙂

See? I’m easy to shop for!

Also, just to give you nightmares and leave you wondering how someone with a waist that small has so much energy:

*kisses*

Smiley Count: 3

I cannot believe it has been a month since we set sail on our cruise. Where the hell does time go? Also, unfair. I want to go back!

Driving into Port Canaveral there was a Carnival ship in port and for the first time the husband put two and two together. He said “It’s as big as a hotel!” And then he got a wee bit frightened. 🙂

The day our ship left port there were 3 ships vying for space in the port. The Disney Wonder, another Carnival ship and our ship The Freedom of the Seas.

Our ship was by far the biggest and driving up to it our shuttle driver pointed out that there were jacuzzis that jutted out over the ship’s edges on each side of the boat. (Yes, we went in those jacuzzis. No, it wasn’t very fun feeling like you were dangling above your doom, even if the water was nice and warm!)

In the shuttle on the way to the ship!

I didn’t know what to expect when we got off our shuttle and prepared to board our ship. It’s kind of like an airport. You wait in line to get checked in. And you wait…and you wait…

We kind of lost our entire group during check-in. We weren’t smart enough to think ahead and realize that we wouldn’t have any means of communication once we were on the ship. (sure they have a cell provider but once we got that text telling us how much it would cost, we immediately shut our phones off!)

So once we made it through check-in we decided we should explore. I mean, we were bound to run into someone we knew sooner or later!:)

And holy crap. That ship was giant! It had:

• 15 decks
• A whole deck devoted to swimming pools
• All sorts of different clubs (that we never went to)
• A MALL!
• A casino…that was fun 🙂
• An ice-skating rink
• A theatre (I went to every show…of course)
• A FREAKING MALL on a SHIP. Ridiculous

We set sail at 4:30 and we had to go to the top deck to wave goodbye to all the poor souls who weren’t lucky enough to join us on the cruise! 🙂

Look at all the tiny people!

They launch rocket ships from there!

And wouldn’t you know it? Once we made it up there we found some friends!

And more importantly, the husband found some beer!

The first day on the ship was amazing.

• I participated in a dance contest for a free drink. (They told us the first 100 people down on the dance floor would get a free drink. And they literally meant A free drink. Don’t fall for it…unless you like dancing silly dances for no reward)
• We had an amazing dinner. (Prime Rib for me, Mushroom linguine for the husband)
• We explored every nook and cranny that we could on that boat. (including finding a free ice cream cone machine! That was awesome.)

Next up: Our first port of call: CocoCay

*kisses*

Smiley Count: 3

Can I just say that this almost makes up for the most craptastic PRun finale/winner ever?

…almost 🙂

*kisses*

Smiley Count: 3

I woke up at 3am and was unable to go back to sleep. Hopefully this won’t become a trend.

I was thirsty and decided to go and get some ice. Realizing it was 3am I decided it would be best to take both of my rooms keys with me in case one decided not to work. (Thought I was being proactive as the day before my key decided to deactivate itself.) Unfortunately, when I returned, neither key worked. Hotel staff at 3am is quite helpful and even though I had both keys reactivated, they still didn’t work and it turned out that I needed my door’s battery replaced.

Long story short, it’s 3:30am, I’m still unable to sleep, and my door now unlocks. 🙂

Since I’m not able to sleep anyway, I thought this would be the perfect time to start recapping my trip.*

*3:30 am is WAY to early to even fathom getting some actual work done. Perhaps at 4am? 🙂

______________________________________________________

The reason for our trip in the first place was to attend the wedding of our dear friends and old neighbors. I refer to them as our favorite 90210 couple as when we first met I wasn’t sure of the guy’s name and as his (now) wife’s name is Kelli, I deemed him Brandon. He actually gets mad at me now when I call him by his given name. I enjoy a good sport 🙂

They got married on the beach and it was quite the popular day for a wedding. We* actually walked to 3 different spots before we figured out which gazebo was theirs.

* The husband’s sister attends a University located about 30 minutes from where we stayed and the husband’s brother just returned from active duty in Afghanistan. The husband’s brother was visiting the husband’s sister at the time and they both drove up to see us and attended the wedding with us.

At the conclusion of the ceremony all of the guests were given personalized rocks to cast into the ocean along with our well-wishes for the happy couple.

It was a lovely touch, even if the bride’s mother collected a few stubborn wish-rocks that weren’t being swept away by the ocean. I hope those wishes still come true! 🙂

*kisses*

Smiley Count: 4

The cruise was amazing. I’ll go into more detail in the coming days, complete with pictures (the few I took). But I do not have the brain power to do any sort of real recap today.

I’m in Asheville for a work conference and let me tell you how out of my element I am compared to the work trips I used to take. Those glorious trips to NYC when I could take my girls out to dinner and paint the town red are so far gone. Now? I get to stand around awkwardly while people talk about Physics…but there is plenty of booze to be had, so I guess it’s not all a bust, right?

Also not a bust? accidentally walking into a gay bar. Pictures of naked men and delightful gay men complimenting me on wearing pearls? LOVE 🙂 My grad student companion was not as amused, but that’s probably due to the fact that he was getting hit on. 🙂

This morning is not pretty but I was glad to find out that I’m not the only one nursing a slight hangover this morning. The faculty member who organized this conference quite happily announced to me this morning that he too is hungover! I bet he feels silly now for scheduling lectures beginning at 8:30 am! 🙂

*kisses*

Smiley Count: 3

Days until cruise: 6

At the end of this week, I’ll be driving down to Florida. This absolutely blows my mind.

The last Port of Call on our cruise is St. Maarten. And I have to be honest, I don’t really plan on doing much besides relaxing on the beach with my husband and a bucket of beer.

Can you blame me? 🙂

We got a new camera in prep for the trip. And we got an underwater camera for when we snorkel in CocoCay. We’re borrowing a friend’s camcorder so we can record the wedding on Saturday and any other particularly memorable moments on the cruise.

We took a quick trip to the beach this past weekend, which was supposed to be a ‘base tan’ trip except it was overcast, cold and windy. We were able to snag up some beach towels and sunscreen for a crazy good, end of season deal though, so it wasn’t all a bust!

I cannot believe that by this time next week I will be snorkeling with brightly colored fishies.

You can look forward to many pictures like this, albeit, slightly warmer looking…

And a bit tanner too, I suppose…

*kisses*

Smiley Count: 1