My Super Duper Big Fat Catch Up Entry

Hello readers! I know the last post I did I promised I'd continue writing the next day.... well, life got in the way. I didn't have access to reliable Internet and then we were stationed out of NYC for a week and I was so tired and busy that I couldn't get it together to blog at all. So this is going to be a REALLY long entry! Be prepared...

When we last left off, I mentioned that we had celebrated my 30 and 1/2 birthday. I bought chips and salsa and guac for everyone and also Tanqueray and tonic. Then Colleen and Lauren surprised me with a birthday cake! It was a lot of fun that was much needed. We were in a stretch of days with lots of shows and driving and no time off. Here are the pictures!

My 30 and 1/2 birthday cake!

Blowing out the candles.

Josh enjoys a piece of cake.

The cake was really good.

After the night of the birthday, we got up the next morning and drove the short distance to Randolph, VT where we had two performances that morning at the Chandler Center for the Arts. While the load in at the theatre was icy and a little dangerous, the people at the theatre were very nice and helpful. They provided coffee, water, and doughnuts and asked us to sign their guestbook to document our show being at the theatre. They were really nice. Also, we each had our own dressing room! Usually we are all in one big dressing room or two medium sized dressing rooms which is fine since we all like each other. But it was nice for once to have a room to call your own. Between shows we had enough time to take our lunch break so several of us walked up Main Street to a cute little cafe by the railroad tracks which served really good sandwiches and soups and whatnot. When we got back to the theatre to get ready for the second show, Brian shows us a "photo shoot" he'd taken with Froggie, the prop frog we use in the show. He turned it into a little story and it's on his blog. It's really cute, so check it out! http://looking4max.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Next up, New Hampshire! We stayed with Lauren's family and were treated like royalty. First thing when we got there, Lauren's mom put out all these appetizers like veggies and hummus, nachos, salsa, cheese, etc... And she made us her famous Peach Martini's which were delish! We spent some time telling our stories from the road and soon Lauren's sister Kara arrived with Lauren's niece Cami. Cami is four years old and a huge Max and Ruby fan. She is really cute. She's clearly in awe of her Aunt Lauren and they spent a lot of time giggling together. Cami is also a huge fan of the movie Annie which makes me a huge fan of Cami:)

After stuffing ourselves with appetizers and drinks, it was on to the dinner portion of the evening, with turkey tettrazini, salad, bread, and followed by some Girl Scout cookies. Man, were we full after all that! We settled in on the couch to watch American Idol together, with the exception of Mara and Brian who both hit the sack early. I'm cheering for Anoop because he's from Chapel Hill!

The next morning we got up and Lauren's mom had made us breakfast sandwiches and coffee (in a to go cup, at that!). We headed to the Pinkerton Academy in Derry, NH, which was only a matter of miles from Lauren's house. This was a high school and it was absolutely gorgeous. It was brand new, huge, and state of the art. The theatre was one of the nicest we've been in on the tour. Lauren's parents, sister, niece and nephew all attended the show and were seated in the front row. It was a lot of fun performing for them. I enjoy having people I know in the audience, especially if they are a fan of the show (a.k.a. a tiny tot). It gives the show some extra life and I try to really give them all my energy.

After the show, Lauren elected to stay in N.H. with her family since the next day was a day off in Burlington, VT for us. Her mom offered to drive her there so she could spend some extra time with them. The rest of us loaded into the vans and drove to Burlington for our long awaited day off. Before we left town, I found some bunny ears which I bought for Shelley since she is the only one of us who doesn't get to be a bunny. She kindly modeled them for me.

We were looking forward to Burlington for more than just our day off. First of all, Shelley and Mara's boyfriend and fiance both flew into Burlington for the weekend so they were happy, and I was staying with my best girl Taryn. She is one of my BFF's and was a bridesmaid for my wedding. We met studying at Circle in the Square. This was going to be a great weekend. As soon as we got there, I went to pick up my rental car. Taryn lives about 30 minutes from Burlington so I needed transportation to be able to get around and not rely on someone else to get me where I needed to be. I drove to her apartment in Waterbury and we went out of a driving tour of Waterbury and Stowe, VT. She showed me lots of her favorite spots and it was all so beautiful. It kind of made me want to move to VT! Well, not that extreme, but maybe a second home when I'm rich and famous (ha, ha, ha). That night I was exhausted so Taryn made us some dinner and we settled into bed with a movie on...I was asleep about 10 minutes into the movie!

The next morning, Taryn had previously agreed to sing at a benefit that was happening at the cafe/general store that is below her apartment. I had the pleasure of having my morning tea and breakfast sandwich to the music of Taryn Noelle and her fantastic back-up musicians. Taryn is an amazing singer with a very rich and soulful voice. If you haven't heard her, check out her website where you can listen to samples. I recommend her album "There Was A Boy" which is all good, but my favorite song on it is Bye, Bye, Blackbird. http://www.tarynnoelle.com/

Taryn singing with the guys.

She sang Bye, Bye, Blackbird for me:)

After the show, we drove around town more, and Taryn took me up to the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, where the Von Trapp's (the family from The Sound of Music) moved after escaping the Nazi's. I can't believe I walked where the real Fraulein Maria walked!!! They had lots of posters and art on the wall of the story and the family. Here is a sample of some of it:

This was the view from the lodge. Taryn's mom's house is across the valley there.

After our drive, Taryn had to go teach a few classes (she teaches lots of ballroom, modern, and musical theatre style dance) so I spent a few hours doing my own thing. First stop? The Ben and Jerry's Factory which is only a mile or two from Taryn's apartment!

I saw this poster at Ben and Jerry's and thought Charles would be interested in the fact that I was going to perform on the same stage as his beloved band Phish. That must mean I've made it. :)

After my factory tour, I drove around town and did some looking in local shops. Then I was exhausted again so I went back to Taryn's to nap. That night, we drove to Burlington where we took in some live music of a friend of Taryn's, Nicholas Cassarino and his trio. It was wonderful! He is an excellent guitar player and his voice is good too. His brother, who I think is still in high school, came up and sang a song too and he also had a great voice. Then his mom came up and she could sing too! It's genetics, I guess. http://www.myspace.com/nicholascassarino

The next morning, we had two shows at the Flynn Theatre in Burlington. We were there for two days, meaning we were able to put the set up and not have to take it down after the shows that first day. I'd been looking to performing at the Flynn for a while, because Taryn has performed there and it sounded really nice. It lived up to expectations and then some. The crew there to help us were fantastic. First of all they were union guys, and they were the nice kind who are helpful and positive, not the kind who think they know everything and you know nothing because you're acting in a children's show. They helped us unload in record time. The theatre itself was beautiful, the dressing rooms were really clean, and we were within walking distance to the walkable downtown which has tons of restaurants and shops.

Note: This is not Brian or Colleen on the poster.

The next morning when I got up for the second day of performances at the Flynn (and the day we were scheduled to drive back to NYC), it was snowing like crazy!!!! Taryn helped me out to the car with my luggage and even scraped the windows of the rental car which were totally covered in snow.

I took a picture of us because in all our fun, we hadn't taken any pictures. I wish I'd taken one when we were all dolled up for our night out, but this picture of us at the crack of dawn with no make-up on will have to do.

After the shows, we began the long drive back to NYC. We got something like 3 hours of overtime that day because the drive was long anyway, but the snow slowed us down a bit. I got back late in the evening and waited at home for Charles to get home from work. I was so excited to have a whole week with him. Granted, he works the evening shift and I was doing shows practically everyday I was home, meaning I had to get to bed on the earlier side. But something is better than nothing, right? The next day, we had our one day off in NYC. I used the day to go to lunch with Charles, then run much needed errands, then meet Charles for his dinner break at work. Unfortunately, this was the week that Charles found out he is getting laid off. The detox unit was closing at his hospital and the senior nurses from that floor are getting moved to his adolescent psych unit, meaning newer people like Charles are getting bumped. His last day is the 28th. He already has a potential interview and is starting to apply for stuff, so please keep him in your thoughts. We are trying to stay positive about it all, since he wasn't really happy anyway. Everything happens for a reason, I guess.

The following day was our big performance day at Town Hall. Town Hall is historic and basically a Broadway house so it was a big deal in our minds. I think I built it up too much because I was thoroughly disappointed. First of all, the load in stunk. We had to get everything out of the van as quickly as possible and loaded into a big alleyway/hallway so that we could move the van and not get a ticket. Also, the sidewalk we were crossing with all our set pieces, props and costumes, was heavily trafficked since it was NYC at rush hour. Then, the stage was not really deep enough so we had maybe two feet of depth behind our backdrops to do all our costume changes. Finally, it was hotter than hell in there! They had the heat on during the show, and people I know who came said they thought it was really hot. Well, I was running around singing and dancing in a fat suit....it doesn't get hotter than that, and when you add actually heat to the mix it is not pretty. We all had sweat dripping from our faces by the end.

The good thing about Town Hall though, was I had lots of fans! For the first show, my father and mother in-law, Ronald and Edie came, along with Charles and his Aunt Elaine. Also David, my coworker from Circle in the Square was there, as well as Beth Falcone who teaches at Circle and is my voice teacher. For the second show, some of my best friends Jon and Christie came with their kids (my munchkins!) Lucy and Liam. Also at the second show were Colin, my boss at Circle, Sara who teaches at Circle and who I've taken a professional class with, and Justin Quackenbush, one of my favorite boys. It was so amazing to have such a great audience of people who love and support me! After the shows and the load-out, I went to lunch with Christie and Lucy and Liam at Bubba Gump's. Jon had to go back to work so he couldn't come, but I have plans when I get back to go visit them in Connecticut for a weekend.

The following day we had shows at Montclair State University in NJ. The first show was special for me because my cousin Michael came with his wife Angela and their daughter Ellie. I haven't seen Ellie since she was maybe one year old. She is so cute and totally into singing, dancing and the like so we hit it off right away! Angela took some pictures and I'm hoping to get her to email them to me. We took a really cute one with Ellie in my Lobster hat from the show. I got to take her up on the stage and show her all our props and how everything works. Afterwards we had lunch at the cafe across from the theatre. It was lovely and I'm looking forward to getting to see them now that they live in NJ. They have just relocated from Texas.

The next day, was a show in New Hyde Park, NY at an elementary school. The stage was so small we were unable to build the house at all, but we made it work. We had to alter our entrances and figure out how to do things without the benefit of a house to hide behind. It actually worked fairly well so now we know we can do it. The room they gave us to be our dressing room came with a slide. Of course Josh had to try it out!

Hmm...I'm so tall, how will this work?

It works, I can slide!

I've got to work on my landing!

The following day was a performance in Waterbury, CT which Colleen's sister Michelle attended. The school was nice. Nothing too big to report....except....this was to be Mara's last show. :( She had given her two week notice so we all knew it was coming. She has been busy planning her wedding which is in June and it was too stressful to be doing it from the road. We all understood but we certainly will miss her. Mara was my roommate on the tour and we meshed really well together. I will still be consulting her on any purse purchases I make on the tour, and I'm sure Josh will be consulting her on EVERYTHING!!!

Goodbye, roomie! I wish you all the best and can't wait to see pictures of the wedding!

Our last "Buddle" with Mara. That's a bunny huddle for all of you non-bunnies out there.

Bunny Scout Angels

Meet Elizabeth Rajasekhar. Our new Louise.

The next day we had a day of put-in rehearsal with our new "Louise", Elizabeth (a.k.a. Liz). It was Mara's last official day so she was there to help Liz learn her track in the show. Liz had been working by herself with the director and music director for a few days and she got to see one of our performances at Town Hall but this was her first and only day of rehearsal to actually get to do it with us. After the rehearsal we all got a little misty eyed as Mara walked away. At the same time, we all felt excitement about having someone new in our mix.

The very next day, Liz had her first shows! We were in Flushing, Queens and she did a great job. We were all making sure she was where she needed to be and it added some new energy to the show. I'm sure it will take her another week to really feel like she's settled into the show and the grind of life on the road, but she's really picking it up fast.

Yesterday, we had a show in Little Falls, NJ and then we hit the road again. We're not expected to be back in NYC until the tour is over. Little Falls Elementary was a fine school with a really long hallway we had to go down to load in our stuff. That is always annoying, but the kids were great and the principal was nice asking the kids to make sure to sit "Pretzal Style" on the floor and to turn their eyes and ears on "like Lasers". It was cute. The funny thing was, when I made my first entrance, I noticed that almost every child in the gym was wearing green in some form or another. I was confused. I had totally forgotten it was St. Patrick's Day!

After the show we drove to Fairfax, VA where we stayed a new hotel called Aloft which is a sub-group of the W Hotel. It was super nice and had that new car smell. This morning we had two shows at George Mason University which both went really well except for the tons of flash photography that was going on during the first show. Can't they listen to the announcement???? No photography is supposed to happen, much less flash. And to top it off, the balcony was really wide and there was no center aisle so the ushers were unable to get to anyone to tell them to stop. For the second show, Shelley made the pre-show announcement herself instead of letting them use the pre-recorded one they had used before. She always emphasizes the picture part and even asks them to put their cameras away. We only had one flash in the second show and it was by someone who had arrived after the announcement. Fortunately, they were on the end and an usher put a stop to it.

After GMU, we drove to Harrisonburg, VA where we are staying at a Jameson Inn tonight. Tomorrow we drive to Spindale, NC where we will also be staying at a Jameson Inn. The following day, we perform in Spindale and my parents will be there, along with my aunt and uncle, and my friend Joe. I'm exicted!!! That night, we will be staying with my mom so that will be a lot of fun!!!!! I can't wait to tell you all about it! And I promise that now that I'm back on the road and a little better rested, I will go back to posting entries every 3 or so days.