It's dark.

I've been up early this week, but up so long before sunrise that it had already risen by the time I stopped working. Today I seem to be up just at the nick of time. Usually the shorter days just take a toll on me, but this year I'm doing pretty well.

This morning I'm up to do alterations for Banana Republic, then finish the show alterations for Farnsdale Christmas Carol, and then with any leftover time, I'm working on Alice in Wonderland costumes before I have to go into my shop.

Alan's in tech this week for The King and I, which he directed. It opens the day after Thanksgiving. Then Brigadoon v.2 begins teching the day after that. We'll both be running that show through the holidays.

I've been cast in a straight play for my next venture, and I'm very excited! I'll be playing Sorel in Hay Fever by Neil Simon. After years of consecutive musicals, I'm kind of looking forward to stretching a bit by constant dialogue. It's going to be a lot of memorizing over the holidays!

Oliver Photos
Studio East: Training for the Performing Arts
























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And....we're moving!!!!

Alan and I have been looking for a new place to live for a very long time. One place we actually put in an application, but she went with the couple that saw the place 10 minutes before us. Now it's official. Saturday we went to look at a lovely 2 bedroom split level house in Allentown (south of downtown Seattle), and fell in love with it. We asked her to move in hours later. Then hustled up to Capital Hill that night to give her money.

We are SOOOO excited!! Our current place is too small, and nothing gets fixed. Building Vep for 4 weeks in the living room solidified why I need a workspace...so we started looking again!

We have 2 bedrooms, one is light blue and one is .... purple! Our dining room is red, our kitchen is teal, and I can't recall what our living room is... It's so bright and fun. It's not loads of square feet, but it has the most beautiful view of the hills in South Seattle and the Duwamish River, which is 100 yards from our door (but significantly downhill). We actually only about a minute from the highway, but you'd NEVER know it from the few turns you make to get to our place. It feels completely rural - even to the Allentown General Store blocks from our house.

We are both ready for it! Our first place together!

My computer is working again! Thank you honey, for staying on the phone with India for 2 1/2 hours!

Tonight is the first night since Brigadoon ended (the last Brigadoon, not my current production) that I've dyed my hair. I may get ambitious and paint my toenails and pluck my eyebrows. Alan's off opening Irma Vep tonight (preview). I'll get all dressed up tomorrow for the actual opening.

It's been such a busy fall. Pictures to follow of the Hawaii trip. It was a wonderful week off. Alan was a sweetheart, and planned out the whole trip. It did mean we did a lot of movie sights-seeking, but he also found a few wonderful, romantic restaurants. Our final night we splurged on an ocean view hotel right on Waikiki beach.

I'm in rehearsals now for The Boy Who Cried Wolf and Brigadoon. After tomorrow, I only have one more show due before Christmas. It'll be nearly relaxing!

Alan is back off his assignment at Starbucks, which makes me happy! It makes him miserable. But with both of us working 60-80 hours per week, there's no one left to make dinner or deal with household stuff. We agreed when we got married that whoever isn't in tech takes care of the other one, and so far it's worked.

It's good to be back!

Another day of waiting tables. I'm so glad I'm almost done.

I'm here again. Sitting in my office. Off the clock, of course, and thinking how nice it is to be done with a project.

Alan and I did the math this week, trying to figure out why we've been so tired. The answer? Between us we've opened 21 shows since January. That's a lot! No wonder.

Brigadoon opened last weekend. It's a lovely show. I love the costumes and the set. My wig is fantastic, and the weather more moderate than the last time I did a show here. I'm back with my co-star from Oklahoma, which is the third time we've been cast together so far. It's nice because we have a shorthand with each other, have already done the romantic scenes, so we're pretty comfortable with each other. He, Alan and I were the lead trio for Oklahoma, too, so it feels like a reprise. Minus the dead labrador on my head.

Wizard of Oz opens tomorrow. I did this one with a team: co-costumer K.d., and my wonderful intern, Jessica. I could not have done Brigadoon if these ladies weren't running the show backstage. I did most of the parent coordinating for this one, and K.d did most of the kid related stuff. All of my volunteers pulled through nicely on their projects, and the unfinished few were quickly passed off to my last-minute project volunteers, so everything was done last night and the show looks great.

Alan's mother is in town this week. I haven't seen much of her, since I've been working all day and teching all night. She's been hanging around with Alan's Aunt Margaret and some friends of hers from when she used to live up here. I hope she's had a nice time tromping over old grounds. She's had a hard month of it.

Alan's still working downtown, and has two months left of his assignment. He's booked up for the next year with directing gigs, and had an exciting callback last week. We're hoping for the best! (Actually, I'm hoping for the best. He's thinking the worst and preparing to be surprised, which is exactly what I do for auditions. Better that way.)

I have 3 production meetings next week for my next three costuming gigs. It's going to be a busy fall, but we'll get by alright. I also have my next Storybook Show starting in October.

Our exciting news? We've booked flights for Hawaii in a week we eeked out in our production schedules. Thanks to Living Social we have a lovely hotel package, and I booked a sunset catamaran trip for two there as well. We can't wait for the break!

I'm off now. I think I'll go putter.

It's been a rotten day. That's all.

Alan came home last night and brought me flowers, Ben and Jerry, Wine, and Pepsi. What a combination of comfort food, and how lovely of him to be so wonderful!!! LOVE!!!

We're also have car issues. Go figure.

Day Off!

Last night Alan opened his new show at Renton Civic. It was WONDERFUL! I'd read the script early on, and thought it was a charming play, but they exceeded my expectations. What a darling play! I was so proud of him!

Today I got up and did some shopping. I have to get packets of orphan costume materials together for my parent volunteers, and had two sets of coupons to use up to purchase all the fabrics. So I spent and hour looking for butt-ugly fabrics to make into dresses and pinafores for the show. I bought three different plaid homespun fabrics, and some purple-ish grey floral calico. Then I went to a different Joann's Fabrics and bought some puss yellow plaid. YAY! Three more fabrics and I've purchased everything I need.

Alan got to sleep in today - opening a show and all - and then we went to Snohomish and antiqued. Mostly we just enjoy getting to schlep around and chat with no particular agenda. We had sandwiches at a pub and espressos on the way out of town.

Now I'm at Miles and Becky's spending the evening. Alan's gone to his next performance but we have to be back up here later this evening for a friend's birthday, so I asked to be dropped off here.

Break a leg, honey!

Rain, Rain, go away.

It's now officially April. It's been raining since the beginning of November. It rained on our Wedding. It rained on our honeymoon. It rains buckets every time I need to haul costumes to my car. Our rivers are all flooded from runoff from the mountains. I'm tired of rain. Even for Seattle, this is excessive.

On a plus side, I'm in the middle of a very busy period. I have 6 shows to open in 7 weeks. I've been diligent to stay on top of it, since I don't have time to get behind this time. Robin Hood opens first, then the Homeschool One-Acts, then the Homeschool Musical. Then the Teen Ensemble added MacBeth to the season. Two weeks after that one strikes, Double-cast Annie opens. In the meantime, Storybook is opening it's third show of the season, Sleepy Beauty.

Alan and I have started apartment hunting. We've seen two so far. Since we have the luxury of waiting until we find a place to move (instead of needing to move at the end of a lease), we're taking time to find a place that's either the right size or the right location. We may not find both in the same move, but at least we can upgrade a bit.

Alan's in hell week, opening a show at Renton Civic called Here on this Flight Path. It's a two-person show, and he's very nervous about his line load. I've been staying at the office as much as I can so that he can spend huge chunks of time uninterruped, memorizing lines. It opens next Friday.

Woman in Black has it's last 4 performances this week. Tonight I'll head back down to Federal Way for the first of them. It's been a very fun show - fun cast, great makeup, and it's been lovely to work at a new Theater. I've also managed to open a reciprocal lending door there, and borrowed some of their Panto costumes for our Princess show.

I'm off to a meeting now. Annie and Macbeth are calling.

Another lovely sunny day! Baxter and I are still hanging out. His owners should be home in a few hours. I'm mustering the brainpower to make coffee.

I dreamed about working last night. I hate those dreams! Just when you get away from it all, suddenly you fall asleep and you're back at it again. This time I was in my costume shop sewing on the costume set that I'm refurbishing. Arabian Nights was completely falling apart. I had to whip up 15 pairs of harem pants over a weekend just so the group had enough costumes for everyone. I finished another 5 in the interim, and bought fabric for more girls' cropped tops, boys' peasant shirts, and a few sparkly veils. I'd love to remake the zillion vests that were made out of snuggie material, but I may not have time this round. They go back out again the 2nd week of march.

I had my first night alone in a while. I don't like it. It's funny that I lived by myself for so long, and now that I don't have to, I don't want to, either. I asked Alan yesterday if that makes me pathetic and co-dependent. He said, no, it's cute. And better than, "O crap,him again."

We went shopping yesterday. I had a show in Auburn, after which Alan and I went to the Supermall. There were a few things we'd been needing to buy. We went to Bath and Body works for new hand lotion (me) and new candles (our house - they alleviate the smell of decaying rat filtering up from the foundation), jeans (Alan), and T-shirts from Old Navy (both of us, on sale, just for fun). Mine is a Guinness tee for St. Patrick's Day. Alan got an A&W Tee - his initials, and an old nickname, and a cute henley for me on the final sale rack. On the way home we stopped for Pizza at Shakey's - Alan's old family hangout, with great thin crust! We stopped at home for a minute or two, and then I went back to the Logsdon's.

I have an audition today for Into the Woods. I'm working on a new monologue hoping to make it work, but if not, I'll go back to my old standby. Usually that's safer.

Back again.

My home computer no longer let's me log into blogger, so I apologize to my family who calls and tells me to update my blog.

I'm on a break for two weeks. I opened the three shows I costumed in January, then I've been running Jack and the Beanstock. Schools are on break for the next two weeks, so we don't have performances gain until March. I still have alterations to do, and office hours to put in at my costume shop, but for the most part -I'm off!

I've been getting up in the mornings and jogging this week. After a fantastic Valentines Day (eating Bacon covered Salmon Fillet, over truffle oil drizzled potatoes and green beans), I've decided that the 10lbs I've gained since the wedding needs to go away. I blame the honeymoon. All we did was eat for 10 days. Which was great! But the fun is over, and the jogging commences.

I've been having fun playing finances! We've finally caught up from out three weeks off - which put a huge gap in my regular alterations pay, which takes 45 days to catch up with me. Then, all of my costuming jobs pay when the show opens, so I spent most of January working my butt off, with little in the bank to show for it. Luckily Alan's income floated us until I got paid again. We had our taxes done on Valentine's Day - which was very complicated with my business, but I was able to write off a third of rent and electricity since I work out of the house -and take up most of it! That was a lovely perk. Now alterations have caught up again. Since last year my alterations money was the wedding budget, we're used to not counting on that as regular income. Ergo, we're shunting it all into paying off the credit cards in the hopes of being out of debt in just over a year! You all know how much I love that! The old 12-column ledger has emerged again so that Alan and I can track our joint checking account, and our little bitty savings! (We have some! Yay!), and we've picked our first three credit cards to pay off. It's fun watching the balances fall...

Woman in Black is in rehearsals right now. I haven't been as an actor yet - no sense going until there are props to move, but I've been gathering costume props for the actors to work with, and out shopping for costumes, hoping to get everything finished by the beginning of March when I have to start attending in the evenings.

At the studio, Singing in the Rain is going up, but I'm not costuming. It's lovely being in doing other projects watching someone else working hard. I'm in the process of rebuilding one of our school shows that had been used so long it was falling to pieces. Later in the spring I have 3 Homeschool Production Shows to costume (Robin Hood, The Girl Who Was A Tree, and The Lion and Mouse Stories), double-cast Annie for the mainstage, and a newly added Teen Ensemble Macbeth going up right in the middle. It's going to be a very VERY busy April and May.

I'm not going to see much of Alan here shortly. He's directing West right now, and just got cast in a two-person production of On This Flight Path. He's also temping all next month running a Mail Room at a Law Office downtown. Which makes him happy!

That's pretty much all for us. I'm hanging out with Baxter for the weekend, as the Logsdons are gone for a few days. And I have one performance of Jack in the Beanstock today - a theater bought the show for one performance to fill out their roster.

Ciao!

Honeymoon Day 10:

Our last day in California began cloudy and dripping. Alan and I were unable to connect to the internet at the hotel, so we begged the front desk clerk to tell us where the nearest Starbucks was. We found one, and discovered that the park had moved to post-holiday hours and wasn't open yet. Alan wanted to go storm the gates, but I vetoed - reminding him of how much fun we'd had outdoors in the rain at Disneyland. So I got to sit for a few minutes happily muching on Vanilla Bean Scones and a latte.

We arrived a tad early at the park, bought an umbrelly on the way in, and waited to enter. Once the gates opened, we beelined to the Universal Tram Tour. It was a really great tour! They've built or left up working special effects sets and backlots. It is a much bigger studio than Warner Brothers, but the tram tour is less intimate - with huge four-car trams and no chance to get out and take pictures. The King Kong 3-D ride was AMAZING, but Jaws was out for repair, and the exploding bridge malfunctioned.







We went on the Simpson's Ride, which Alan loved, but made me sick. Blech. We ran down to the lower portion of the park and went on the Mummy ride, which is similar to Indiana Jones at Disneyland, but not nearly as cool. We ate lunch beneath Jurassic Park, went to the little Movie History Museum, and then went on the Jurassic Park Ride when the sun peeked out. That one is fun! I waited three hours in line for it last time I was at Universal. It wasn't worth it then, but this time we walked right on.

We went back up to the main section with only a few hours to spare before we had to leave for the airport. We went on the Shrek 3-D experience together, then divided and conquered. Alan went to the Horror Movie walk through and the Terminater 3-D Ride. I went to the live trained animal show. Then we met in a little Irish Pub for a drink. We dashed around taking pictures in "Europe," went into a few gift shops, and decided we'd had enough and should head home.








We had a lovely honeymoon. It was sad to leave such a nice vacation and hit the ground running the next day. We're already read for the next one!

Honeymoon Day 9:

Disneyland!!!

We got up with the sun, grabbed our free coffees at the terrible little hotel breakfast nook, and walked to the main gate with a few minutes to spare. All things considered, the crowds weren't that big. We knew there was a good chance of rain, but I layered quite a bit, and we weren't giving up that easily.

The first part of the day was wonderful. We dashed to Adventureland and went into Tarzan's Treehouse and then on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Then we got into a short line for the Indiana Jones Ride, which wasn't open the last time Alan went to Disneyland.





We stayed for a while in New Orleans Square, checking out merchandise to souvenir later, and finding the restaurant that had crepes mentioned on a cooking show on the Food Network. We went to the Haunted Mansion ride next. I usually love that ride, but at Christmas it becomes the "Nightmare Before Christmas" Mansion. I've never loved that movie for starters, and the last time I was on it at Christmas, the ride stopped for ten minutes next to a set of deranged "feed-me-seymore" plants singing the nightmarish theme. LAA la la LA LA LA. LA LA la la LAAAAAAAAA. LA la la LA LA LA. LA la LA la LAAAAAAA! Over. And Over. And Over. I'm over it.

Next we went up to Pooh Corner to go on some kiddy rides before the place packed out. We went on Pooh's Honey Pot, a silly little ride, but a fun one. We bypassed Splash Mountain, opting not to get wet that early in the day.

We made our way to Toon Town, looking for (Please, God!) an espresso stand as we went. We felt like true Seattle-ites wandering Disneyland in an increasing drizzle, searching for "real coffee." We finally found a stand next to Sleeping Beauty's Castle. I got a latte and a gingerbread cookie, Alan had a Mocha. We walked through the castle diorama to get a break from the rain for a moment.



In Toon Town, I love touring Mickey and Minnie's houses! The line for Minny's house was the longest line we saw all day. Minnie was greeting guests at the front door. Little girls with Mouse ears were lined up around the outside. Mickey's welcome sign said he was greeting, too. We went to Mickey's, and pulled the things that said "pull," pushed the things that were meant to be pushed, and sat in the dog bed. At the end of the walk, there was a Disney Cast Member who invited us to meet Mickey. So we did.




We stayed in Toon Town, doing all the walk throughs, playing with the zany cars, and then went on the Roger Rabbit Ride. It's one of Alan's favorite movies. There we hit our first snag of the day. The ride broke down right as we made it past the first corner. The announcement told us to remain seated until a cast member released us. We stayed. And stayed. They had to get the people furthest away, and then walk us all out in a line. We would have made out, but there was one more car in the room with us. I took pictures of the stilled characters.








We opted for It's A Small World. I LOVE that ride at Christmas! All the little bobble head puppets sing Jingle Bells with It's a Small World. YAY!!! Alan would have been happier had the ride been a shooting gallery.

Next we took a left to the newly remodelled "Finding Nemo" Sub Ride, which was our personal longest wait of the day. The Star Wars Ride was being repaired, but we spent time in the gift shop anyway. Then we went into the Toy Story shooting gallery. I sucked. Alan rocked!

Then we went back to Adventureland to take the Jungle Cruise. The second-oldest ride at Disneyland, and still one of the best! Our guide was really quite funny. As we left the boat, it began raining in earnest. We began regretting the Seattle mentality that had prevented us from purchasing ponchos at the first sign of trouble.



We went across the lot to the California Adventure. Alan had never been. It isn't that great, in my opinion, on a good day. Mostly it's a water park, which is useless when it's raining. As the rain worsened, I voted for spending some time in the Aladdin show, which is very good, and all indoors. We dried our coats on the seats next to us as we watched their production, lamenting the size of their budget and the coolness of the special effects. Then we braced ourselves for the outdoors and went to the Muppets, but it was broken down for the moment. We went on the Monsters, Inc ride. We went into the almost identical Toy Story shooting gallery, and this time, I. Kicked. Alan's. Ass.

We made the circle of the boardwalk, which was mostly closed in the rain, and then went into the Bug's Life 3-D show. It was cute, but so scary for a little kid! Outside, there were Bug Musical Posters which were pretty cute. We decided that we were tired of being wet with nothing to do, so we left the park after dashing back to see if Miss Piggy was "over her tantrum" and caught the Muppets in 3-D.



It was dark, now. As long as we were out of the park, we decided to head into Downtown Disney to let Alan have a look around. We ended up eating dinner at the Blues Brothers Restaurant, and watching part of the Seahawks game. We went into a few gift shops on the way back - including the Disney one. I bought some Shortbread with a picture of Mickey in a Kilt for Alan's parents.

We went back into Disneyland. The rain had turned into torrential downpour with sideways driving rain. We barely made it into the park before we had to turn into the Abraham Lincoln show to get out of it. We, and a handful of other people also escaping, watched Abraham Lincoln's lifesize sculpture come to life and deliver a stirring patriotic speech with bald eagles flying across a screen behind him. We gift shop hopped our way back up main street, and then hit some kiddie rides with no waits. Our second snag of the day - Snow White broke down on us as soon as we got into the first room. Once again, we were the last people extracted from the ride.

Wet and miserable, but determined not to wuss out now, we ran to Adventureland. On the way we stopped in at the Saloon and had tea.



At Indiana Jones we could run up and get onto any car, any row we wanted. At Pirates of the Caribbean, they asked us if we'd like to stay on for a second turn. As we left, we decided that we'd eeked out enough fun from the day, and it would be nice to be dry again. At my insistence, we hopped a bus instead of walking, which turned out to be the wrong bus. Which meant we had to take the whole route, then return to Disneyland and catch a shuttle, which didn't go to our hotel, but one down the street. Alan was right. We should have just walked.

We picked up our car and drove to Burbank to find a hotel, found a really shady one, and fell asleep after draping our clothes over the heater to dry.

Honeymoon Day 8

Well everyone, rehearsal was delayed today due to snow, so I have a moment or two!

Day 8 was our last morning in Palm Springs. We woke up early (for us) and tidied up, then dropped by Grandma and Ken's place to give them the keys and garage door opener. We had a lovely time!

We stopped by the Brighton Outlet one more time on our way out of town. I bought a lovey pendant necklace I'd loved, which was marked down to less than $10. Alan won brownie points when he found the same necklace marked down lower in another section of the store. YAY!

Our goal for the day was to hit several of the movie filming sites that Alan had researched, beginning the with Vasquez Rocks, where Kirk fought the Gorn, and more than 500 films have shot. The mapquest directions sent us out and around the back side of the mountain range instead of through the city. Since the Rose Parade and Bowl were on in Pasadena, we thought skipping L.A. is a great idea.

Three hours of driving through the absolute middle of nowhere later, we were wishing we'd risked the town way. Not only were we on a two lane highway where even the scrub brush was giving up the will to live, but traffic leaving Pasadena on highway 2 backed up traffic on the one left turn off my highway. We crawled through the desert for several miles trying to bypass.

Eventually we stopped in Peachtree (population 500) for gas and a restroom. The guy with one eye standing next to the man with no teeth told us that the "bathrooms is broke. You might try the likker store." We passed. I turned to Alan, who was passed out in the passenger seat with a migraine, and told him that these had better be pretty damn cool rocks.

Finally, just as we were worrying about losing the light, we pulled into the Vasquez Rocks. They were cool. Not three and a half hours of driving cool, but cool. After all that driving, it took us 20 minutes to get back into L.A. Stupid Mapquest.





Next we went into Hollywood, but didn't stop, then took the longest possible way to the Pacific Coast Highway to go down to Long Beach. There, we found the bar they filmed "True Blood" - Alan's favorite Vampire drama. We chatted with the bartender about the filming and local area attractions. If we'd had more time, we would have stopped at the section of Long Beach with Vintage Clothing Stores and Restaurants. However, it was late, and we needed to find our hotel in Annaheim.





We stopped at a Starbucks to use our new laptop and find a hotel. Then we drove to Annaheim. After much driving around (Disney Way cuts off most of the streets around Disneyland, leaving us circling the park trying to find our street again), we checked in. Then we went to Dennys for an 11pm breakfast, then went to sleep, dreaming of Disneyland!