Leaving On A Jet Plane

We are off to Houston this evening.

Ms. Susan is getting married! We are so freaking excited for her, and also pretty excited that we get to be there for the blessed event. She was kind enough to fly to Utah at the last minute for our wedding, so it was the least we could do.

And she gave us 4 months notice, not 6 weeks. . .

We also get to see lots of old friends and have a little weekend break in a nice hotel.

I am a little concerned about flying, as my stupid nausea is still with me, but I'm crossing my fingers and saying many prayers that I don't throw up en route. That's just gross.

I will take many many pictures while we're there and report back on Monday!

RED

Upon arriving home from work yesterday, I found a special Fed Ex package waiting on my doorstep. It was my swap package from Megan in NYC. It was awesome. Red, my most favorite color (I'm not sure if I've written that somewhere here, if she's just intuitive, or if it was an accident). It contained a very cool book on lost film, a very cool red tote bag, and yummy yummy cupcakes! I will post a picture of everything tomorrow. I fell asleep before i could take one last night.

Thanks, Megan!!

UPDATE:
OK, I'm a big liar (sort of literally at the moment). I didn't take a picture. The cupcakes (Red Velvet) made a wonderful breakfast this morning, and I lazily didn't take a picture first. It was 8 am people!

You can see the stuff I sent to Ms. Megan on her blog. I chose blue, because it seemed like a very mellow color to me. . .

Megan, I apologize for the lack of card in the package. . . I blame my pregnant brain. . . I left it on my desk when I went to the post office, and I didn't want the package to be late. . .

Firsts. . .

Today I did two things for the first time:

#1-- I mailed off a package of swap items (a day late, and with much trepidation that I had completely missed the mark. Let's hope I'm wrong.)

AND


#2-- I voted for American Idol. In fact, I voted for myself and Ben. Why today? Because today every vote translated into 10 cents toward solving the world hunger crisis. Between us we donated $2 by way of News Corp. Maybe tomorrow we'll call in and donate some of our money, too. There aren't many more worthy causes out there.

We Have A Cast!

After a VERY long weekend of casting, Ragtime has a cast. . . 62 strong. It makes me want to weep.

Happy Birthday, Natalie!

Today is my little sister's birthday. She's 28 today.
She is also the superwoman I have previously referred to.
Mom to 3 darling kids, a beautiful singer and a beautiful person.

Happy Birthday, Tilly!

Missing Lost

I have always appreciated Wednesday night TV. It's not overcrowded like Thursday, but there is some quality stuff that I can watch while cleaning the house (at least that was true pre-pregnancy. Lately it's been stuff I can watch while laying on the couch and moaning occasionally)

First, we have an A.I. results show, which can often frustrate me, but I like progress, so it's OK that stupid Sanjaya is still on the show, as long as he doesn't outlast someone like Blake or Jordin. That would make me mad.

Second, and most importantly, we have Lost. FINALLY back from it's ridiculously long break mid-season, it's got me hooked again big time. I have loved the last 5 or 6 episodes, and I can't WAIT to see what happens this week.

Unfortunately, I'll have to wait. I am going to be stuck in the basement of the SCERA tonight. We're having auditions for Ragtime, and though I'm not yet ready to give up the idea that the show may very well suck because we won't have the black talent we need to pull the show off. . . we DID have several talented, and simultaneously dark skinned people show up last night. I'm a little bit giddy that we may not look like idiots for choosing this show after all. (OK, I didn't pick it, but you know what I mean) We may just be able to create a cast of diverse and talented performers to pull this thing off.

Hooray!!

But I'm still not thrilled about missing Lost.

The Landlord

I can't stop laughing at this. There is some mild language involved, so don't watch it if you're sensitive to that stuff.

VA Tech

I'm sure all of you have, by now, heard about the terrible tragedy that unfolded this morning at VA Tech. If Virginia is anything like Utah was a few months ago, this will play constantly on every local station for the next few days to a week, slowly simmering down as there are fewer and fewer details to discover.

I have a lot of quesitons about this shooting. HOW did the shooter not get caught during those 2 hours between the time he shot several people (it sounds like at least 2 of the dead were from West Ambler Johnson Hall) and the time he made his way ACROSS CAMPUS to Norris Hall to continue his rampage? What made the cops think he had left campus? And were they not in all out pursuit of this guy, regardless of where he was? Where did he hide for those 2 hours?

Also, how does this community deal with something like this? Blacksburg is a small place, surrounded by mountains and completely living and breathing all things VA Tech. It is the LAST place one would think for something like this to happen. It's beautiful there. And it's beyond me how such a string of hatefulness can be unleashed on such an unsuspecting, and undeserving community.

I wanted, more than anything else, when I was a senoir in high school, to go to VA Tech. My best friends were there. I got accepted months before the letter came in the mail from BYU. I was all but certain it was where I would spend my college years. And I was happy with that. I always loved the campus. Loved the feeling that those beautiful "Hokie Stone" buildings evoked.

I am so sorry for those people and their families. I hope they receive some answers as to why this happened. And I wish the news would stop calling it "the most deadly school shooting in US history". That's just asking for copycats.

Notes From The Underbelly

I will readily admit that I have been intrigued to see this show, having seen the commercials for it about 1,000 times in the past couple of weeks. It looked campy and silly, and probably over the top, but I was still interested.

Any pregnant woman, or at least a first time pregnant woman, would be. I like a little bit of pregnancy humor to curb the depression of growing out of all my clothes and constant nausea. It's the same reason I read books like this


to educate me about pregnancy, rather than ones like this.

Ben and I found the show really funny. Not wholly realistic, but realistic enough to amuse. I think we'll watch it again, if not just to laugh at the crazy couple getting up for "pretend feedings" in the middle of the night and swearing we'll never be that crazy.

Lucky Stiff

We had yet another theatre going experience last night, designed not so much to support the theater we were attending as to support our friends that were involved. This production was Lucky Stiff at the Hale's Orem theater. It's one of my least favorite places to watch a show, especially sitting on the front row, as we did last night, but I'll do plenty of things I don't like for my friends. . .

Korianne was the music director, Dave Tinney directed and starred in the show, and, we found out once the show started, Skylar Hawker was the every part possible "Man 1". We like the music to the show, Ben more than I, I think, and it was a good production, especially considering the very small, very simple in-the-round set up of the theater.

All in all, I was thoroughly entertained. I was wishing I had called MUCH earlier for tickets, so we didn't end up part of the show, but it was still worthwhile. Dave was genius, as usual, and Skylar was awesome. I have never seen him do anything like that, and it will be a long time before I get the picture of his fake comb over out of my head.

RIP Kurt Vonnegut

I know he was old. And I know his books were odd sometimes non-sensical, but I actually liked Kurt Vonnegut's stuff.

In my junior year of high school, I took an American Literature class, in which we each had to study a particular author and do a massive project on that author. As each class member presented his/her project, we had to read one book by that person's author, in order to understand the presentation a little better. (at least it seems like that was the way it worked).

One of my classmates studied Kurt Vonnegut. And I read Cat's Cradle. I remember thinking that it was insane writing. I remember having to re-read passages multiple times to keep up with what was going on. But I also remember liking it.

Many years later, I also remember Ben reading aloud to a couple of us at his apartment one night out of Breakfast of Champions. I don't know if it was just the selections he chose, or the warped sense of humor I had developed in my theatre influenced college years, but I laughed out loud. A lot.

Apparently Mr. Vonnegut had a major psychotic breakdown in the late 60's, and he hasn't written a novel in decades, but he was, at one point, an incredible writer. And I'm a little sad that he'll never write again.

Rest In Peace

Merry Go Rounds Can Light School Houses

This morning, Ben brought my attention to a fantastic thing being done by students of BYU's engineering department. The goal was to create something that could convert human energy into electricity, using things that are readily available in Ghana, and other African nations. Read a more detailed description of the project here.

What an awesome idea! Not only does this provide people in these rural communities with power that they can create and sustain on their own, it also provides support for the education of their children. After watching War/Dance at Sundance, I am fairly convinced that the people in rural Africa are amazingly capable, strong people, just looking for a way to better their lives. This provides them with an opportunity to do that!

And, more than that, it could help us here at home.

Imagine how quickly we could contribute to the solution of helping provide funds for educating our children (a real hot button issue here in Utah right now) as well as helping solve the problem of childhood obesity. Imagine a program where each class of students spent recess time taking turns on the merry-go-round. Competitions could be held to see which class could generate the most energy. The kids would totally get behind the idea. I can just see it!

These engineering students are on to something great. I'm very impressed.

I'm Swapping

OK, I'm going to try out the swap thing. Heidi is always posting about cool swaps she does, and I decided I wanted in on the fun.

One of the many fun blogs I check every day is m.writes, and she has decided to organize a mellow+yellow swap. I signed up, and was assigned a partner. . . Now I just have to pick a color, and find at least 3 cool things to send all the way to NYC to make Megan's spring a little springier.

Ideas are welome!

Easter Weekend

(These were created with the help of super glue and rubber bands. And now I can have egg salad sandwiches every day for a week! Hooray!)

Easter was a really mellow day for Ben & I. We would have spent it with family, as we usually do, but Saturday was so chock full of things to do, that leaving town for the weekend was just not an option.

This is how Saturday went down:

8:30 am-- We met Susan and her awesome fiance Andrew at Magelby's Fresh for some killer french toast. It was so great to see Susan and meet Andrew as a pre-wedding event. We're going down to Houston at the end of the month for their wedding, so it was nice to actually be able to sit and talk with them and catch up before the wedding craziness insues.

10:30 am-- Ben had callbacks for Julius Caesar. He decided he wanted to be in the Castle show this summer, so we spent a couple of hours hanging with a lot of great theatre people in the Pardoe lobby while callbacks went on.

1:00 pm-- Lunch with the Goertzens at Carrabas. Turns out, they're staying in town for the summer! Hooray! So we celebrated the end of callbacks in real style with DELICIOUS steak. I love steak, and this is probably the best one I've ever had. MMMM. Marsala sauce.

3:00 pm-- grocery shopping, followed by cupcake baking/cleaning up in preparation for. . .

7:00 pm-- Julianna's birthday party! OK, truth is, she didn't show up for a while. We had to entertain ourselves by decorating eggs while we waited for her to show up. BUT, in the end, we had some cupcakes, played some Nintendo, and gabbed late into the night.

Happy Birthday Jules!! (pictured here with Griff)

Madison took many more, and many better pictures than I did. I'll have to see if I can get my hands on a few. . .

Car Singing

I sing in the car all the time. I am a sucker for a good show tune, and I love to sing along. This is especially fun on road trips with Ben, because it's a thing that both of us like to do, and fewer people look at us funny when we're together. The idea of dancing, however, just doesn't occur to me. That's probably because I'm not a dancer by nature. In fact, even if I tried really really hard to dance well, I'd still probably look like a fish flopping on dry land.

For this very reason, when I saw the guy in front of me at a stop light this morning, I was highly amused. He was rockin out. I mean some serious grooving. And he looked like he was having a LOT of fun. He even looked into his rearview mirror, smiled, and continued on, knowing I was watching him with what was probably a badly concealed smirk. He just kept on doing his thing, maybe even more energetically once he knew I was watching.

Keep in mind, it was 8:45 in the morning. I personally believe it's close to criminal to have that much energy before double digits, but that's just me. . . It made me wonder what strangers think when they see me obviously singing along to my tunes in the car. It doesn't so much matter what they think, it just made me wonder. It made me think that I needed to enjoy my car time a little more. I should let the traffic stress me out less and see that as a time to enjoy myself a little.

I am going to endeavor not to whine about my commute for a week. I am going to do my best to enjoy the time. . . play some great tunes, and sing along. Maybe I'll have a little less stress that way.

Baby Quilt

A year ago, while I was spending large portions of my day just trying to entertain myself, I found a pattern among my quilting things that I had purchased, but never tried. It looked pretty easy, so I decided to give it a try. I decided it would be a baby quilt, with bright primary-ish colors, and set to work.

The piecing was fast. I worked on it pretty steadily for less than 2 days, and it was done. And then it sat in my closet for many months. I meant it to be a present for a friend who had a baby, but when that birth came and went, and I still hadn't taken it in to be quilted, I set my sights on another friend couple. . .

My mom took it to the quilters in January along with one she made for Aubrey, and we got them back last weekend. We spent a couple of conference sessions binding, and this is the finished product!


I'm really happy with how it turned out. The lady quilted a really cool flower pattern into it with yellow thread, which stands out especially well on the blue backing. YAY to one more finished project. I need to ship it off to California post haste, before the baby in question gets too old.

The Cusacks are Back

I have always loved John Cusack, and his sister Joan, for that matter. It has been rather sad to me that i haven't seen them in many movies as of late, and I was really excited when I found these two trailers this week. One looks heart warming and fuzzy. The other looks like Grosse Pointe Blank on crack. Both look awesome to me, and I'll be buying tickets as soon as possible.

Watch. You'll see what I mean.






Update: A third one came out today. Beyond creepy. As much as I love John, I'm not sure I can see this one.