It Begins...

Well. Here we go. It's officially tech week. Started this morning around 8 am. Will run until next Saturday when the show opens at 7:30. Tech week usually consists of a horrible sleep schedule, food at odd hours of the day (if theres time for it), a lot of work, and a lot of running around. Why do I do this again?

Today wasn't so bad though. We were just running a Q to Q so it was a lot of note taking and sitting around. Wishing us luck for the rest of the week. Woof.

Bah Humbug

There isn't any place quite like the Guthrie. Especially the new one. (Granted, I hardly remember the old one...) My friend, KN, is in the latest installment of A Christmas Carol so we decided to go! I think the last time I saw it I was in 6th grade and it was at the old Guthrie. We went to brunch downtown then got to the Guthrie a little early to walk around and see the sites. 

Here is my friend and I. She did great. So did everyone else in the cast (and crew). But let me tell you, that ghost of Christmas Future got real freaky since the last time I've seen it... 

Run Turkey, Run!

Since I'm staying with the dogs, I spent my morning curled up on the couch watching the parade and several episodes of Game of Thrones. Sounds like a good morning to me! Then headed to the family festivities and caught up with my aunts, uncles, and cousins. We had a riveting conversation about what our side of the family are and are not good at. (Our list of are not's is bigger...) It was comical. Then went back home to the dogs and Game of Thrones. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

If Zooey can do it..

One of my friends wants one of these cases. She thinks its too childish. I told her "If Zooey can do it, so can you!"

Then I found a bunch of them at Target. Too bad they aren't for the right phone... Shoot.

See. It's a thing.

Hockey Season!

Tonight was the official start of high school hockey season (at least for Tonka, I don't know about overall). And, unfortunately, this is as close as it gets for pictures today... lame.

I do follow high school hockey pretty closely however. Probably more than any professional sport. I'm already itching for the state tourney in January. Hopefully Tonka makes it this year! We won today!

VIDEOS! (Don't you love me)

Some Tunes

Officially two normal rehearsals left before tech week starts! *gulp* Things are coming together... though I'm still nervous we are behind. Mainly on props. We need lots of props. And a finished set I suppose...

This was boring. Here are some songs you should listen to that I'm a big fan of:

Sittin'

For the next week I am now responsible for the lives of 4 dogs. I made it through last night so thats gotta be a good sign... right? One of my friends and her family are out of town for Thanksgiving so they called me up! Luckily they are all little dogs and mostly well behaved. =] 

Plus they are so cute when they all cuddle up with me on the couch.

Born and Raised

Let the weekend of concerts continue! 

Tonight I met up with my friend CD downtown where we then walked to Pizza Luce to catch up since we haven't seen each other in a while. After we walked over to the Target Center to prepare ourselves for JOHN MAYER and Phillip Phillips, who opened. Phil Phil was way better than I thought he would be live, he is very similar to Mayer in the way he performs. Lots of guitar riffs. Awesome vocals. Mayer was way better than I could have hoped. I figured he be all "crabby, obnoxious, I'm too good for all of you" John Mayer. But he wasn't that at all. He played well. Sang well. Had a super cool set. And then ran credits at the end to give everyone who worked on his tour recognition. I was impressed. I'll definitely be seeing him again.

I do wish I got to see him in his early days when he played more of the songs I loved (ie. Clarity, 3x5,  all those older ones).

Rocket Man

Saw a living legend tonight and let me tell you, it was a pretty cool experience. A friend from Cities 97 and I met for dinner in St. Paul before heading to the X to see Elton John. We could practically touch the ceiling from our seats so, unfortunately, the sound wasn't too great. And I knew fewer songs than I thought I would. But still... It's Elton John. I'm just glad I got to see him once in my lifetime.

Volume 25

Today I finally joined my dad bright and early to wait for the Cities 97 Sampler (Volume 25). He usually goes each year (except last year when my mom went) Han style (solo), so I decided it was time I experience the early morning rush. This year was especially cool because, through my internship at Cities, I got to work on or witness around half of the recordings on this volume. It was like coming full circle on my Cities experience. 

I ended up leaving line a little early so I could get to work. Unfortunately I didn't have the CD to listen to at work today, but you can bet I will tomorrow!

Flyin'

Voila!

The entrance to our fly loft. It's a fun place to hang out. It's also kinda creepy. Especially if you go to the WAY top which is a couple stories high. 

I'm running out of ideas for pictures to take while I'm bored at rehearsal..

Here's a video!

Love, Crew

Here's another throwback for ya. My freshman year of college, we crew folk decided to buy a seat for our friend Grant, who passed away the year before, for his birthday. About three days before I was going to purchase the seat, our other friend, who was donating money, also passed away. We then collectively decided to dedicate the seat to both of them. I always forget where it is when I walk in the theatre. But I found it tonight. 

I think people thought I was losing my mind as I was walking around looking at all the arm rests of the seats.

Pancakes!

Let me tell you a story about Pancakes. My friend HR introduced us all to Pancakes around 5 or 6 years ago now. He was a yellow rabbit and named Pancakes because of H's love for pancakes (specifically the ones I would make). He hung out with us all the time, especially during theatre rehearsals and shows. Well today when I walked backstage for the first time in about 5 years, there he was! Just waiting for me!

It was like a blast from the past. 

200

Officially only 165 days left! I'm on a roll.

Today I felt gross when I woke up (I have been eating like crap this weekend... it's catching up to me. Shoot). So I laid on the couch and watched movie after movie: Wreck it Ralph, again, Stardust (which I slept through half of), A Lot Like Love, I then got up and ran some more errands, then came home and watched What Happens in Vegas. Did some more cleaning/trash duty. And am currently watching Footloose while writing this, the 200th post! 

After seeing that tree yesterday I decided to pull mine out. Nothing better than Christmas lights, why not enjoy them as long as I can.

The Journey Home

As my two weeks of freedom - I mean, two weeks of house and dog sitting - come to a close on Monday, I spent most of my Saturday after rehearsal cleaning the house and running errands. I suppose close to this time now, definitely by tomorrow, my parents are getting back onto a plane and making the long journey home from Australia. So what better way to show my responsibility than having them come home to a clean house. Granted, the whole dog hair thing is a losing battle so no matter how many times I vacuum I won't win... 

I went to Redbox after dinner to get a movie to watch. Ended up renting Wreck it Ralph (I hadn't seen it yet, but totally loved it - obviously. It is a Disney movie after all...). On the way to our closest Redbox (which is almost 15 minutes away) I passed this tree. It's one of my favorites. And its especially great right now because its the only one thats lit up in the neighborhood. Too bad a picture doesn't do it justice.

Good Leadership

Today was my first Friday off! (Update: I now only work 4 days a week for those who didn't know...). How did I spend it? Well I got up at 4am to help out at an event for Paul Batz. He does a lot of leadership breakfasts and conferences, writes books, and has a blog. (Check it out here - Click me!). Today was the last of the Leadership Breakfasts for 2013 and Don Shelby was the guest speaker. The event was pretty simple work wise; did some set up and tear down and then took pictures throughout the event. Don Shelby was an awesome speaker. He has a book - that I didn't know about till he mentioned it in his speech - that I might have to pick up. He read parts of it and I was super intrigued to read the rest. 

Then, after being so productive in the morning, I went to Home Depot (in heels - ha) to get bags for the rest of the leaves in the yard. Picked up the leaves. Ate lunch. Then slept till I met up with SK for dinner before we saw the musical Young Frankenstein at Minnetonka. 

And then I went home and went back to bed. I have quite the crazy lifestyle.

My Biggest Fear

It's pretty irrational. It's not zombies, vampires, snakes or spiders. Not sleeping through an alarm. Not the house burning down. (Though most of those things also freak me out...). My biggest fear is that I will drive a car right into the stairwell in our garage. We have a string hanging down to tell us when to stop but I'm always nervous that it moved (magically, apparently) or that I'll altogether miss it. 

I know that it can't happen, especially in the truck. I'm pretty sure the truck would hit the wall before the tires rolled off the edge, its just one of those things...

Sorry for the lame picture. Plus I'm out of videos.... 

At least you got a embarrassing story from me out of it!

Na-na na-na na-na na-na

BATMAN!

We got done with rehearsal early tonight. Naturally, I went to Target (it's on the way home...). Man of Steel came out on DVD yesterday so I had to buy it. (Henry Cavill... mmm). While I was wandering around I noticed ALLLL the superhero shirts they had in the guys section and then noticed the batman footie pajamas. I almost got them. I still might go back and get them. There is also a Batman robe I might have to pick up. However, I was crushed when the girls section only had Disney Princess shirts, or superhero shirts that were pink and sparkly... dumb. Guess I'll have to order one online or go somewhere else to find an awesome superhero shirt.

Those pajamas though... I'm coming for 'em. (Hopefully they would fit me... Otherwise I guess I'll settle for the awesome robe).

The old stompin' grounds

If you were to show me a picture of my high school today, I wouldn't recognize any of it. They completely redid basically the whole thing the year after I graduated. It now looks like one of those high schools you would see in a movie, complete with "art gallery hallway," full sized walk in Tonka gear store, and coffee shop. Classic Minnetonka... I did get one year with the new entry way, however. (They told us we would be the first class to have the new entrance on our diplomas... they lied). To the left of the entrance is the Arts Center on 7, which is where I spend ALL my time.

Also, I know I've mentioned Bastille before. But I can't stop listening to their album. Here are a few more songs of theirs I really like. Plus their lyrics are just awesome.

Allen and Heath

Today my job at rehearsal was to move all of our props and other things we need for rehearsal up to the sound/light booth in the Studio. There is more storage room up there and its much easier to get to it than when it was buried in the storage closet we were using. Decided to take a picture of the sound board up there while I was bringing loads of things up. It's no Allen and Heath iLive like what we have in the main stage, but its still a good one.

Young Franky-Frank

Had KB and AAlbanz over today to cook and watch movies. K has never seen Young Frankenstein (one of my favorites) so we watched that. I still can quote the whole thing. (There wolf, there castle). Other than that we caught up and made Taco Soup. K left after the movie was over so A and I took the dog for a walk, picked up a pizza and watched Now You See Me. Another awesome selection.

We made some coffee. K only wanted a little bit. So we gave her a little cup.

By any other name

Well here is my totally random picture for the day...

I spent my day at rehearsal followed by some shopping (boots!), walking the dog, and raking the yard. EL came over for a bit, we made dinner, then just chatted and caught up. It was a pretty solid day. 

Time for more videos!

Daft Punk is awesome, these guys can actually cover them just as awesomely.

This one is short: But still worth it.

Classic.

The Dark World

SF and I went to Thor 2 (The Dark World) tonight after we both got of work. Loved it. Obviously. How can you not like something with Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman (and whoever plays Loki, cause I really do like that actor)? On our way out of the Icon, S mentioned the chandelier thing that hangs over the stairs, so I told her the secret that you can control the lights inside of them on the railings surrounding the stairs. Apparently this is not a very well known fact. Needless to say, we spent longer than we should have playing with the lights. 

Then we went and got FroYo at the new place in the West End. Delish. Definitely will be going back there sometime in the near future.

Who's walking who?

Since I go from work to rehearsal basically every night of the week, I'm trying to get some quality time in with the pup in the little down time I have between the two. Typically that involves going for walks. But even at his ripe old age of 11, this dog is crazy. Running all over the place. Stopping whenever he chooses to. Chasing after leaves. You name it. It's probably a better work-out for me than it is for him. Which is also ok... I should probably be getting back on the work-out bandwagon one of these days...

Semi-finals.

Felt like a college throwback today. If ever there was a time last year I wasn't able to catch a GAC soccer game I would stream it on the internet. Today I ended up doing just that as GAC went into MIAC the playoffs. Another girl I work with went to St. Ben's and since that's who GAC was playing (well.. St. Johns, but same thing) things got pretty heated between us as we were both cheering on our respective teams. 

Unfortunately St. John's won... lame.

Like a kid at Christmas.

Thats how I was acting about the snow tonight. It was ridiculous. I was probably encouraging bad behavior at rehearsal; I was so excited I was making all the hyper-active 8 year olds just as excited. Whoops... I even listened to Christmas music all day to prepare. Unfortunately it probably won't stay very long... but its a preview of whats to come!

Bring on the wintertime!

Upgrade.

Well, it was probably time. My almost 3 year old iPhone 4 couldn't even send texts while I was at work anymore. Most apps would error out before they fully opened. The battery lasted maybe 6 hours. It was obnoxious and frustrating. Luckily Target was having this offer that if you trade in your old iPhone you can get a $100 credit to a new phone, PLUS they had the iPhone 5s on sale for $179. So I got my new one for a total of about $180 (plus tax and a case). Not too bad if you ask me. 

If you were worried, I can now text from work again. Phew.

Pompeii

Had to pack up and drive home this morning. BOO. Leaving Duluth is never fun. Good thing I'll be heading back there in a few weeks for Bentleyville! Anyway, on my way I fell in love with this song. I heard it yesterday on the drive up and had to buy the whole album immediately. Listened to it on repeat more or less the entire drive home. I highly recommend it. (Bonus: it was only $6.99 when I bought it on iTunes. Always a plus). 

Don't judge it for it's video... it's a weird one. ALSO, here is the view from the deck thing we had at the hotel.

#BirthdayWeekKarma

It's this thing CS invented back in the day where we text each other all the good things that happen during the Birthday Week. Well, the epitome of good things happened and I ended up heading north to celebrate her birthday with her! It was the first time I got to see her since graduation so it was fun catching up. We stayed at a hotel in Canal Park, grabbed some dinner, and hit the town! It was a great night. Plus we get an extra hour of sleep. Can't beat that!

Pumpinception

Well, since I was a little preoccupied with Ben Rector yesterday, here is my Halloween post! Apparently my dad decided to put a pumpkin light inside another one of our decorations. Thus creating Pumpkinception. Which is fitting since I just watched that movie. 

Went and saw Ender's Game tonight. I LOVED it. Critics did not. Stupid critics. What do they know anyway. Then again, its hard for me to find a movie I don't like...