When Heather Was Young

Today is my friend Heather's birthday. She's as old as me, which makes her pretty dang old. Heather lives in New York, which is pretty far away. We only get to see her (& her husband, David, and son, Rhys) a couple times a year, which means we don't get to celebrate her birthday with her. So, in honor of Heather's birthday, I cranked out a fun new song accompaniment for her. (And she had BETTER feel special, because only two other people have had this honor...)



HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HEATHER!!!

(PS - I would have used the actual music video so it's more fun, but I had to hurry to get it up today.)

Random Photo Memories

Remember that one summer, when my hair was mysteriously turning blonde, and then I later found out that it was being bleached by a nasty face wash? And then remember how I got to meet Jim Brickman and hang out with him backstage because of the fact that we have a mutual good friend named Diane? And then remember how months later, I remembered to ask Diane for a copy of the pictures she took of me with him, and suddenly I remembered the awful blonde hair fiasco? UGH.

And then remember that one time how Stephanie took awesome engagement photos of Lauren and me, and Matt was our special guest for the shoot?

And then remember that one time that we took Nick to the Haunted Forest for his 16th birthday and I had glowing gum? And how Nick & Phil were a little scared?

How about the time that I took my awesome friend, Shane, to Little Shop of Horrors, and he loved it? And how he said he even loved it as much as High School Musical – which is a LOT for Shane.

Or when I FINALLY got to hold my new niece after a month of being busy/sick, and I naturally tried to see if I could eat her?

Or! Or! When David and I went spider-hunting and captured/killed one to protect our womenfolk?!

Remember how I used to make food all the time, and was really good at making sorbet? And how everyone who ever tried it loved it (except for when I tried making chocolate sorbet & lemon sorbet – stupid Martha Stewart)?

Do you remember how Amesily got married, and Julie, Heidi, Kyle, Chase, Janessa and I were the most fun people at the whole event?

Yep. I remember all those things, too.

Total Randomness

I've forgotten how much I love Nicole Kidman. I'm so glad Tom Cruise left her. She deserves better. I'm not a huge fan of Keith Urban, but he DID give her an adorable baby, so I guess that's worth something. I think I could probably break them up so I could have her, though. I'm also getting REALLY excited for Australia.

I'm completely over the election. It was a week ago. Can we drop it now? I'm tired of seeing people I care about getting in other people's faces over their beliefs. Especially when it's something like "You're so close-minded and stupid for voting that way, let me show you why my way was THE right way." Seriously? SERIOUSLY! You really think that refusing to see any validity in anyone else's beliefs is defined as open-mindedness?

I just saw Aida at the Hale (Thanks, Em!) and was blown away. If you haven't seen it yet, GO!

I'm putting together playlists for my trip to Disneyland later this week. I'm going with Matt, Melinda, and Lindsay. Each one of us picked one of our favorite songs of all time, and I'm creating playlists around each song through iTunes' Genius feature. We also picked a song for each of the others that reminds us of them. Some of these playlists have turned out AWESOME, and some hysterical. It should be fun to listen to them and first of all have to figure out which song is the significant one in each playlist, and then who chose it and who it represents. Of course I know everything (what's new? HA!) but it'll still be fun to have everyone else guessing.

Did I mention that I'm going to Disneyland this week? Hopefully, it will be a better trip than my last two Disneyland trips. Please bless that Lindsay, Melinda, and Matt will not turn into psychos while we're there. If I suffer through another Disneyland trauma, it might finally ruin the place.

I want to be Baz Luhrmann when I grow up.

I can't focus on school this week. This is bad.

I finally got my student teaching assignment, and it's starting to sink in that I'm FINALLY going to be done with school.

I'm a little stoked for Christmas Carol. Say what you will about it, but I love it. It's not the greatest piece of theatre ever, but it's got such a great spirit to it, and it's so fun to take part in it. Diane (who I respect and love a great deal) told me the other day that she loves how I portray the role of Fred and that I "get it." Shortly after, Jerry, the director, pulled me aside and said pretty much the same thing. Emily says things like that sometimes, too, and probably not just because she has to as my wife. Compared to my last acting experience, this is basically heaven. I'm not questioning my abilities and choices on a regular basis.

Heather and David are coming home for Christmas! They've already contacted me to let me know that they want to come to Christmas Carol. God bless them, every one.

Matt showed me this video the other day, and I about died. I agree with what it's saying, but couldn't there be a better way to show it? Or at least some decent actresses?

Hey, It's a Happy Day!!!

My new drive came this morning, with plenty of time for me to install it before school. I quickly got to work, and before I knew it, I had a brand-spanking-new optical drive in my computer....THAT DIDN'T WORK.

I spent the whole day being ornery. Poor youth theatre kids. And it didn't help to see a show at school in the mood I was in. I really wanted to like it, I swear...

I got home tonight and got online with another HP support technician. I decided after the She-Ra fiasco, I needed to speak with printed words. Serenity was very nice, and only said a few mildly Engrish-sounding things. She (I hope) gave me some new steps to try and solve the problem, but they included rebooting at the end. I did them, and nothing.

So, I started speaking to Sunny. I was very excited at first, because I thought that maybe Sunny Watts was moonlighting as an HP online support technician. I love that woman. However, I probably wouldn't trust her with my computer.

Anyhoo, Sunny gave me steps to follow, and when I finished them- the error message was gone!!! I popped the revival recording of Chicago into the drive, and soon enough, the master of ceremonies was telling me about adultery and murder. I then popped in my DVD of Strangers on a Train, and shortly saw Hitchcock in glorious black & white.

I was giddy like a schoolboy. I thanked Sunny and actually said "God bless you!" Sunny is my new hero.

I'm still sending back the old drive, though. I figure that I earned the new one, with a little help from Sunny. And She-Ra.

Other happy thoughts tonight:

• While I was going through the endless steps to try and fix my computer, I watched Pushing Daisies and Dirty Sexy Money. The former was just as good as ever, and the latter was even better than last season. Oh, and Ghost Hunters was great, too. Very scary.
• My new favorite line ever from a primetime soap: "I'm going to take a shower and try to wash whatever's left of this marriage off my body. Try not to fall down." (She did, in fact fall down in the next scene.)
• I'm going to audition for A Christmas Carol at the Hale next week. The last time I was in a show (I'm pretending Ah, Wilderness! didn't exist) was CC of 2005, when I played Fred, which was one of my dream roles. I'm super excited this time, because *if* I get cast as that part again, I'll most likely be playing off of Trash Ball as Mrs. Fred. Cross your fingers and pray for us, please. Having a fun acting experience is EXACTLY what I need right now. I just have to hope that they want me enough to work around my few Chess conflicts.
• I'm feeling really good about my musical theatre class. Especially being someone who doesn't "sing or act very well" and should "stick to music directing." I felt really good about my preview performance on Monday- which was while my cold/allergies were bugging me and I had a queasy stomach from taking my pills on an empty stomach. Today, we did a really fun exercise to focus on breathing. Good times.
• I'm almost done buying things for my Halloween costume. It's a brilliant idea, if I do say so myself. I hope I have somewhere fun to wear it, because if it's just to stay at home and hand out candy to kids who won't even know who I am because they're too young, I'll be bugged. I put in a bid for the last main part of the costume on eBay tonight. I'll know tomorrow if I need to look elsewhere. And then I need to start constructing the tricky part...
• The semester is about 1/3 of the way over. CRAZY! And yet, awesome. The senioritis isn't so bad right now, but I expect it to kick back in eventually.
• I feel like my Facebook status right now is really clever, because it's not one, but TWO pop culture references. If you get them, you're cool. If not, you're probably Heather. ;) David will get one, though.
• Speaking of the Masons, I GOT TO TALK TO THEM TONIGHT!!! We've played phone tag for over a month, and we finally made contact tonight. Heather hasn't picked up a fake NY accent yet. Thank goodness. Although, if she started talking like one of the sweet, old, Jewish ladies that I met in Rockefeller Center 9 years ago, I wouldn't mind. It would actually make her more endearing, I think.
• My youth theatre kids are harder workers than they were last year. Granted, there are probably 30 new kids, and only about 40 of the same, but still...they're learning better, and some are learning faster. It makes it easier for me to ditch the extra rehearsals if I get cast in CC. :)
• I get to see the Culps next week! And Keisha is supposed to be in town, too. I think she may have called me earlier, but I didn't get a voicemail. I hope she calls back when I'm not in the middle of teaching.
• I have a free night tomorrow (I think). I think I'll have a Blu-Ray marathon while I work on a lighting cue list for Sty of the Blind Pig - a.k.a. the most screwed up play of all time.
• I'm going to Disneyland next month, and while I'm excited about seeing the parks all dec'd for Christmas, I'm mostly excited for the Ace of Base marathon on the car trip down. I think I actually have enough Ace of Base for the entire drive. (Bwahahahahaha!)
• Robin Thicke's new album is In. Cred. I. Ble. If you like him, or even if you don't, check it out. Seriously. So far, I haven't noticed anything too dirty, either. Of course, I didn't notice anything dirty on the last one until my sister chewed me out for listening to such a dirty CD.

And now, I'm going to bed. I have a feeling I'll be up way too early tomorrow because of stupid construction again. In the meantime, hey! It's a happy day!