Lost my heart in Texas, Northern Lights effect us, I keep it underneath my hat-

And we're back to our irregularly scheduled programming.

Hello everyone! Had lovely holidays? We did! Christmas and New years, nice and quiet here at the house. After that it was a quick trip back east for Michael and I to see our families and be subsequently spoiled rotten by them, and then back to Duncan just in the nick of time for--

FOOLS!

Seriously. We got back the day of tech rehearsal.

That isn't how it was supposed to go of course. We were supposed to be back on a ferry the day before, back to the beloved island. But Air Canada decided that they were going to close up the terminals before we arrived from our last flight to get to that island connector, costing us $400 and a night mostly spent in the Vancouver airport. For the record, most beautiful airport ever. O'Hare, take notes.

But, we made it back, got the show up and running, and that's what really counts is it not?

Well, I suppose the first thing you'll all want to know about is "How did the play go?" That's a layer cake question. Do you mean how did it go artistically? Pretty well, for what it is. Its not exactly a high art show. But the audiences loved it, I nailed the Ukrainian set design (apparently there were some people who were from/had been to the Ukraine in the audience, and they gave me kudos, so I'm happy) and the set made it through the entire show without falling apart. Mostly.

Kulyenchikov. I Like it!

I swear to got that door was trying to kill me. My own fault for cheaping out on hinges. I don't know if my grandfather would be impressed at my jury rigging or ashamed, but I do claim to be the McGuiver of stagecraft. 

super proud of this backdrop. Sarah and I did it in one evening with five cans of spraypaint. Women for the win!

15 cupcake points to whoever finds the hidden joke. 

How was the show in terms of acting? Let me give you some highlights.

The show opens with Cam looking very handsome and talking a lot. Cam's biggest complaint about the show? " I am a wordy bastard. All I do is F*cking talk!". It's true. At least 65% of the script is Cam blabbing. Usually about his 'passion for teaching' which we all think is probably just euphamistic for something else. After a while, you get bored of the script as it stands and start making up ridiculous stuff in your mind. Sadly for us, its usually dirty. We're not proud. But we are amused.

After meeting the wacky townspeople (aren't they adorable!?)

He then meets my wonderfully wacky parents, real names Dave and Rosalind (who were HILARIOUS. Dave is king of amazing ad lib, and Rosalind kept petting that rolling pin like it was Dr. Evils cat).

And then I come onstage. And by me, lets be honest, we all know I mean my chest. This was unabashedly a cleavage show. Cam ran around backstage just referring to me as "Boobs." Story of my life.

And there they are. And here I am, demonstrating my amazing sitting abilities.

Every good story needs a villain, and here comes the audiences' favorite part of the show; Sarah in a moustache. Sarah herself has noted the phenomenon that women in mascara moustaches seem to be the comedic sweet spot for women ages 35 and older. "I don't know what it is," she said "But it cracks them up. Every time."

There are more pictures specifically of this on the Noisy Mime Facebook page. Go there now. Seriously. Better than Lolcats.

The rest of the story basically follows the same old pattern. Two kids fall in love, I stuff a book down my shirt, the villain is thwarted, and there is some kissing followed by a wedding. Observe. 

Also, the one picture that I don't look like a complete Fatty McFatpants in. Weight watchers, here I come.

Cam and I, in the car on the way back home between matinee and evening show to get some dinner. 

Me: "Just think Cam. In a few more hours, you will never have to kiss me again."

Cam: "THANK GOD. No offense or anything, you're a good kisser and all, but that is one dimension our friendship did NOT need. The things we do for theatre..."

Me: "None taken, I totally get it. You are quite literally my little brother. This has been weird. But its all good. Next show you have to kiss Michael."

Cam:" WHAT?!"

He thought I was joking. Hehehehe.....

A note about that wedding picture. In the scene, Cam's character receives a letter that saves the entire situation. So we decided to have a little fun with Mr. Cam. The letter's contents were, on two separate occasions, the following. 

"Congratulations! You have received a DEUS EX MACHINA. Please put this in your Key Items Pocket.

Sincerely,

The Management"

And that was pretty good, he had a hard time keeping it straight for the rest of the scene. But the one that really got him (and got the rest of us a good scolding from Michael) was the Frankenfurter picture. Jennifer Lally, one of the actresses in the show, is a local artist and she is REALLY good. She drew a picture of Tim Curry as Frankenfurter and stuffed it into the envelope. Cam just about lost it. It was fantastic. Michael was furious. Epic win all around. 

Us being Serious

Return of the Boobs.

So that, my friends, was fools. Actually, wait, there needs to be just one more of these.

Maybe you had to be there, but this never stopped being funny.

How did we do financially? Broke even. On our first show? That's FANTASTIC. We are a super happy crew. Next on the show docket? Urinetown, the Musical. My father and I have already been hard at work coming up with puns for the poster marketing. 

So what else is new? Well, I painted Cam's bedroom red, Sarah has switched which room is her bedroom so now I'm going to finish painting the room she was in, and finish getting it set up as a guest room for the arrival of her mother in a week. =) Which will mean that some envoy from each family will have visited! You can all compare notes now. 

I also finished one of Michael's christmas presents which is to refinish a poker table. 

Red velveteen and black satin. Yeah baby! Also, I had a little extra time off, so I did this puzzle. I can't get itto rotate, I apologize. 

What else....

Not much more to report. Just doing as we do. We've all been pretty sick with this coughy hacky flu cold bug thing, and its taking its sweet time leaving the premises. But when Sarah gets back, she and I are going to start working on the audition notices, and writing up teaching posters for me for voice lessons. I need to get me some students and to get myself settled enough that maybe I can cut down my hours at Starbucks and focus on teaching. It would give me more flexibility to go get my teaching certificate. 

so, until there's more to publish, here's a little zen for you, and a hat for you Dani. 

An Important Christmas Posting, for our Friends and Families.

Twas The Night Before Christmas

What? Me? Eat clothes?

Twas the night before Christmas and through the farmhouse, 

Only Loki was stirring-(She was eating my blouse)

The stockings were hung on the faux hearth facade, 

In hopes that St. Nick wouldn't find us too odd. 

The kittens were nestled all snug in our bed,

The tips of their tails tucked up over their heads.

"Asleep? Das wut you tink!"

The four of us humans, all close on the couch, 

Were watching the Grinch be a Christmassy grouch.

When out in the paddock there came such a din, 

We thought we'd forgotten to let the dog in!

I threw off my blankets, and put on my shoes

And ran to the back porch to find out the news. 

The mountain beyond me was crested in white, 

The horses all stabled and snug for the night. 

When what from the mist and the frost should recur,

But Minerva the fairy, I know it was her!

She came on a snowboard as crimson as holly,

Punk-gothic, Sardonic, and clearly not jolly.

Her appearance tonight, it must be conditional,

It could not be plainer- she was non-traditional.

She saw me and said, in a voice like a stone, 

"I'm here 'cause you're spending your Christmas alone.

You've bucked all tradition, all custom, convention,

This new type of Christmas has earned my attention.

You watch silly movies, eat non-Christmas food.

Can you tell me your Christmas is still just as good?"

I smiled at the tiny and glowering fey.

No matter her viewpoint, I knew what to say.

"Traditions are lovely, important and grand. 

But when Christmas is here, here's what I understand.

Whatever we eat and whatever we do,

There's one thing at Christmas that's always been true.

Religious or atheist, pagan or not,

We love one another- that's all that we've got!

The stranger next door, or the friend on the street,

Giving peace and goodwill makes our Christmas complete!"

Her pale brow had furrowed, a snarky reply

Seemed to rise to her lips, when Cam let out a sigh.

He pulled out a large box, opened up the flat lid,

And next, oh then next, do you know what he did?!

He held out the last slice, of our last pizza pie,

And a tiny dark tear coalesced in her eye. 

"You're welcome," said Sarah, "You want to come in?

We were going to watch Star Wars- you'd like Qui-gon Jinn."

She smiled at us all as we stood in the cold,

A smile that was bittersweet, lonely and old.

Her answer was silent, she nodded so slow, 

And said softly "Are you guys fans of Techno?"

We laughed and went in, Michael got on Groove Shark,

And soon it was dub-step that rang through the dark.

So with techno and pizza the farmhouse made merry,

And rocked out to Madeon, with a punk-gothic Fairy.

And Michael summed up, as only he could- 

"It's not Christmas at home... but its pretty damn good!"

Jelly Belly Wigglin, Laughin and a Gigglin, honey that's the way I am!

When you get right down to it, life isn't terribly complicated. We are born, we grow, we learn, we get jobs that are almost entirely unrelated to what we learn, we make money which we then use in a perpetual cycle of purchases to maintain food, shelter and transportation (also, in our case, various video games and books).
Oh, and clothing. No naked people in this house!

So why has it taken me so damn long to write this blog post?

Its not as though a great many exciting things have happened- well, exciting for our standards. Life continues in its little cycle of work and play, work and play (way more work than play right now, but we're getting there) and slowly but surely we make our little path towards the holidays. But that's not what you're here to read about. Lets recap.

OCTOBER

Most of October consisted of THE PLAY (I will use capitals here to imply the level of importance this has in my life right now) and Loki getting huge. At some point there was Thanksgiving, which we spent with Terry and Nenna, Sarah's really lovely grandparents who came down for a visit and promptly thought that the farm was lovely (which it is) and that our lives are very quaint (which they are). For the record, love those two to death.

So why is THE PLAY so important? Because surprise surprise we forgot what its like to be a new theatre company starting out. We forgot what it was like to not be taken seriously. We forgot just how hard it is to get people to come out and audition for you when people don't know how awesome you are.

We forgot that people drop out.

So the first to go was the woman we asked to play the lead, which given the age disparity in our cast left only one person to pick that up- me. Ok, cool, no problem. So lets just go with in October, we switched up me for the female lead- did I mention romantic lead, which is not my strong suit- and we rehearsed a lot.

Also, this happened, and I laughed until I cried.

NOVEMBER

Michael's favorite holiday is Halloween. His second favorite holiday is Dia De Los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. His birthday falls right after them. So usually we have a big Halloween/birthday party. It's harder to do that when you know less people, so instead we had a Dia de los Muertos party with the cast. And you know me, party = themed foods and decorations. BEHOLD! This is what happens when Leigh is set loose on Mexican culture. 

These are Sugar Skulls, a traditional treat. Usually they are covered with colored sugar and icing, but that took a little more time than I had, so the cast and I painted them with food coloring. 

The lovely Rosalind, who plays my mother. 

The equally lovely (I swear, don't judge by the picture)  Jan.

Prepare for the three cutest girls EVER. Cute #1, Sarah.

Super cute #2, Helen

Super Cute #3, Anna!

These are fantastic in coffee.

Another wonderful tradition is the creation of an altar. It is believed that the day of the Dead is the day that the spirits of the departed make the journey from the afterlife to visit us back here on earth. Altars are built in honour of those spirits, and covered in objects and foods that were important to the spirit in life. Our altar includes items from mine, Michael's and Sarah's families. We and the cast also wrote messages to those we miss on flash paper, which we then burned at sunset. We may also have had a little whiskey, but its spirit honouring whiskey, so that's ok. 

This was very moving for all of us. Until Loki was left un-attended and ate all the spirit honouring food. And 27 mini cupcakes I left on the counter. Lessons for everyone.

So November was off to a good start. We found a wonderful off leash dog park for Loki, who proceeded to fall head over heels in crush (or maybe its just us humans) with a gorgeous Malamute named Tripper. 

You just try and tell me that he is not the Ryan Gosling of dogs.

And LOOK HOW CUTE THEY ARE TOGETHER. LOOK AT IT. NOW!

They would have such beautiful puppies.....

But, they won't. They both get the snip snip soon. Sigh. Ah, for the things that could have been...

Things that WERE however, included the weather getting chilly. As in Nov here = A very mild September in Michigan. Let me put it this way- its nearly Christmas, and last week there were new pansy blossoms. Just sayin. 

Because the weather gets a touch chilly, the Grumps (my daily older gents who come to Starbucks and sit outside smoking and bullshitting) complain about how cold their outdoor seats get. So, with some donated fabric from my shift boss Heather, I made them these chair covers. 

During this process, I had a great deal of help from two members of the household. 

How I get anything done is a mystery. 

Although, I did finally finish my summer dress. 

It does not look as flattering as I had hoped. But, I learned a lot from making it!

General updates for the month of November involving people who are not me. 

Cam- Doing awesomely at work. Being trained for big important jobby things, like counting lots of money and generally being in charge. 

Sarah- also doing awesomely, and being trained up to be a dog trainer. Published her book online, and generally bamfs about with Loki.

Michael- Blowing everyone at work away, already up for a promotion in February, and irreplaceable. Generally speaking, most awesome husband. 

THE PLAY

In November, the guy playing the male lead dropped out. Leaving us to shuffle Cam into the top spot. Romantic lead opposite me. Piles of awkward. As Cam described it, "I can't kiss you. You're my best friend's wife. It violates the Bro Code."

But he'll do it. For Theatre. If he has to.

DECEMBER

December, up until two days ago, has been decidedly uneventful. We've all been working a lot (just not necessarily me, and not necessarily at Starbucks). I did, however, pick up a paying performance gig with my friend Jan from the show. Ready for this? I promise you're not. 

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152322658880486

For the record, super proud of the hat. I made it myself. 

Meanwhile, my awesome sweater from Dascha arrived. Thanks mom!

IN OTHER NEWS

I recently had the opportunity to talk to my good friend Reed. Reed asks the following excellent question.
What is the truth about Loki?

There are many truths!

Truth #1 No food is safe around this dog. We have gone through 27 mini cupcakes, two blocks of butter, three loaves of bread, and various leftovers that I was going to eat and then forgot that we have a 75 pound waste disposal unit made of fur.

Truth #2 She is very sweet. When she wants to be.

Truth #3 She's freaking hilarious.

Truth #4 She's a ton of work.

Truth #5 She's housebroken!!! Yay!!!!

Truth #6 She's getting huge. Observe.

I think thats everything for the moment. Stay tuned for a special Christmas update in about...whenever I get around to it. 

Love, 

Leigh