The Spring 2005 Wycliffe Dinner Theater team:

Tasha, Julie, Torrie, Austen, Jerry, Joann, Vanessa, Jackie (who was replaced by Jonathan)

Johnny, Vicky, Liz, Brenda, Amy, Me

Chris, Jessica, Angie, Adam, Aaron

The Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon

Testing out this new photoblogging thing.  Not as tricky as it could have been. On a sidenote, I always think it's silly to go to a major landmark, stand in front of it, and wave.  What do you get?  A whole photo album of you waving in front of something that can't be identified.

Welcome

Welcome to Yakima, the Palm Springs of Washington.

I made it home this evening. How strange to come home knowing it's to stay for a while. As soon as I finish typing I'll go unload my car. Monday I have an interview.

We dropped all of my teammates off at the airport this morning, some quite early after a rather late night. I've got the post-tour blues.

Well, that went well

Well...that went well...

Sort of. One of my crew threw their back out. And the kitchen had a rat and termite infestation, so we tried really hard not to touch anything. We were especially worried about the tupperware we'd spent two hours yesterday sanitizing and cleaning. But we had Amy here from last tour. So everything seemed to be evening out.

The show was fine. A few glitches here and there, and lots of pictures and chatting with our VIPs between acts. During the close there were roses for Joann, and Tasha bought roses for the cast, and the cast bought roses for Tasha, since it is the last of her 222 shows. And then pictures, and more talking, and more posing, and then...

I found out that the wash lines hadn't been set up. And the church people decided to take matters into their own hands. And they haven't taken lots of tests for their food handlers licenses. So, I ticked a lot of people off by making them stop what they were doing and start over. And everything moved slowly. And I forgot I was supposed to do inventory. And we only had one sink. Because the dishwasher didn't work. And so on, and so forth. Our normal end time is 10:15. We got done after 11.

And Jess decided at the last minute she wanted a picture of the kitchen crew in front of the trailer I was trying to shut up. In the rain. So my crew gathered around, posed, and realised we were missing someone.

The dinner theater now has a picture of the kitchen crew, with me yelling "He's mopping the floor. Leave him alone!" Death look and all.

Where is your towel

I never go anywhere without my towel!

I finally saw Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy yesterday. And I borrowed a towel to take with me. They're right. It was handy as a pillow when Angie's neck got sore, and worked as a blanket when I got cold.

I wanted to see it badly after I heard it reviewed as having a "completely nonsensical plot." That clinched it. Sounded like they'd followed the book for a change. And then some tourmates of mine brought in a news clipping with actors' pictures. And it was the entire minor cast of Love Actually.

It was brilliant. I loved it. They had the sperm whale and the pot of petunias. And Alan Rickman played Marvin the manic depressive robot. No one else could do it and not make you want to kill yourself. The special effects were good enough, but not spectacular until the creation of the worlds sequence. Amazing. And it was funny that they used a lightsaber sound effect in one scene and had to credit Lucasfilms.

Well done, and room for a sequel.

San Francisco

San Francisco...the place where people pee at random on the side of buildings.

I actually saw that yesterday. We were walking through the financial district and looked over and there was some guy taking care of business on the side of the Bank of America. Now, As much as I think that, as far as BofA is concerned, well done!, it was a little gross.

So, twelve of us spent our day off in San Francisco yesterday. We rode the Bart from Pleasanton and then all split off in Union Square. Lots of window shopping to do there, but FAO Schwartz left. That was disappointing. We followed my AAA guide (courtesy of my homestay)on a 4-6 hour walking tour of downtown. We veered off through the financial disctrict, saw the original Wells Fargo bank and museum. Nice stagecoach. Then we went through Chinatown and lost our two Chinese members of the team to dim sum. The rest of us skipped Coit tower and headed through Little Italy. There were some good smells wafting from every direction, and it was about lunchtime. But we opted to head to the waterfront. That's where it got messy and frustrating. Seven people take bloody forever to decide where to eat, and of course, we ended up back at the first place. Aargh. But one our blood sugar rose we weren't quite as grumpy.

Pier 39 was next in order. We shopped around and watched a street performer. He wasn't the best magician ever, but he was a great performer. He interacted with the audience, brought volunteers up from the crowd. And he knew how to pick them. One of his assistants was a 6 year old girl with long pigtails. What a cutie. Then we went to see the sea lions, took some pictures, and met up with our Chinatown party.

Ghiardelli Square was next in line. I bought some chocolate. Then we all went into Sharper Image for a free chair massage. That gave us the strength for the next phase. Next on the to do list was Lomard Street, but we skipped over it because Aaron had wanted for ages to find the park that was the opening scene for the Full House credits. He found the name of the park on a postcard in Chinatown, so Alamo Square was next. 29 blocks south and 8 blocks east of Ghiardelli. And we went. It was a perfect day. Sunny with some clouds and a little breeze, so instead of taking a smelly bus, we walked. And found the park after a long time, and all picked characters from the montage to take a picture in front of the Victorian row houses.

From there it was only another 12 blocks total to the Height and Ashbury district -- the hippie part of town. And Austen wanted to see that. So we walked past shops full of henna and hemp clothing and pipes. The guys were able to tell us that SOMEBODY in there was smoking weed. We ate dinner in an Arabic restaurant, sitting cross legged on cusioned benches around low tables. I ate mostly with my fingers because "it's really so much better if you eat with your hands."

We ended our day by taking a bus back to Union Square. Then we missed our train by 1 minute, but caught the next one. During the wait we counted blocks and realised we'd walked about 8 1/2 miles that day.

I sure was ready for bed!

Applications

Applications

I'm in the process of filling out an 8 page application. They emailed it to me a while ago, but it went to junk mail and I didn't catch it. So here I am writing two essays and filling out pages and pages of personal information. One whole page says "Answer the following doctrinal questions. Do not use your Bible." Almost done.

Hot tubs and orange blossoms

Hot Tubs and Orange Blossoms

Yesterday we drove from the east side of the bay to Exeter, halfway between Fresno and Bakersfield. As soon as we arrived at the church, our homestays combined forces and treated half of us to dinner at Baker's Square. The drive over was disorienting. I've noticed it before, but the eastern half of California looks a lot like Oklahoma, minus the palm trees and orange groves. But down here there's cotton and tomatoes, oranges, walnuts, strawberries, and almonds. Little squat brick houses, and mom and pop stores. The biggest excitement in three towns is to go ride the escalator at Gottschalks.

Last night Vanessa and I spent an hour and a half in the hot tub, smelling 30 acres of orange blossoms wafting on the breeze. What a wonderful smell.

And yesterday I got nostalgic for home. For dark cozy winters where the sun sets before 4 and there's nothing to do but cook soup and read. And ski. For late spring where the days lengthen, and snow crocus, tulips and daffodils pop up just in time for Easter pictures. The rare rainy days where you can smell the mountains, 45 miles away for the first half hour after sunrise. And the summer days, where the sun rises at 4 and sets after 10. Blazing hot days and chilly nights once the sun sets. Fresh corn on the cob, as much as you can eat from the farmers market. And crisp fall days. Where it's cold enough at night to change the colors of the leaves. And I'm going home!

Fremont

Pressing on Towards the Goal to Win the Prize

We're in Fremont, CA. As near as I can tell without actually consulting a map we're somewhere near Sacramento -- within two hours. Tomorrow we'll be in Exeter, which is between Fresno and Bakersfield. Then Sacramento, Los Altos, Walnut Creek and Watsonville. And then we'll be done. Six shows left.

I haven't coined a term for week two. Last week was Nostalgia Week. This week is spent looking ahead to the finish line. We're down to single digits. One more food order. Tasha is making a list of roommates so that everyone gets to stay with everyone at least once, except for the guys.

It looks like I have a job for the next year. I put my requests on the table and prayed. I learned my lesson about planning, and told God I'd do whatever, but here were some things I'd kind of like. And he answered all of them. I've decided that God will answer any request you bring as long as you aren't too picky about how he brings it about. For example: one time I prayed that sometime I'd get to live above a shop downtown in a city. I didn't specify which city. And now I get to. In downtown Yakima.

I spent last night and this morning patching my jeans again. I think they'll hold it together for another 13 days...

Pismo Beach

We've got three days off..

We had a four day run, ending with a difficult show. Out stage left blue light went out, which is the only lighting for the scenes with the Ichaw bird. So all of the possession scenes were done in the dark. One actor forgot to put his mic on, and as a result of a backstage consultation about changing blocking to the lit side of the stage, entrances were missed. It was a very responsive audience. They laughed at things no other audience has laughed at. Even the crash scene...When Jo realizes that she prayed for it. And speaking of which, it was an especially bloody crash this time. I found fake blood clots on the back of my neck after the show. And I got blood all over two other people. Since I'm on the floor, they really can't see it on me, so if I get it on other people, maybe they'll notice...