Theatre girl again

So I've been meaning to write for the last four days, and it's just been entirely too insane to get a moment to do it!

But now I'm kind of back to my standard Monday ritual of the past two and a half months...sleepy and quiet after bedtime yoga, plopped in front of the tv geekily anticipating a new Jon & Kate Plus 8 (best show ever) and drinking a decadent strawberry and chocolate smoothie. Thrilling, thrilling stuff!

Friday was my last day as a temp...possibly ever! Probably not. But you never know, I suppose! This job was absolutely a godsend and a blessing and the best thing I could've asked for. The super early mornings were really tough, but I think it was really good for me (even though it never got any easier!) because now sleeping in until 7:15ish feels like lazy heaven! And I feel up to going for a run in the morning, which is awesome. But yeah - the people I worked with, particularly the ladies, were just wonderful. I hope to see them all at the Yoder this summer!

Friday evening I went straight from work to Zenya Yoga Studio in Port Warwick, a tiny and gorgeous and peaceful yoga studio, where I took a free Hot Yoga class. Oh my lord. I sweated more than I ever have in my whole life, and it felt phenomenal. Most of the poses felt easier because my muscles were so freaking *hot*! And it was so easy to focus because...it was kind of impossible *not* to focus in that environment. And the instructor was great, and I just can't rave about it enough. The second the class was over I bought a 10 class pass, so I plan to sweat my life away every Friday night right up until Of Mice & Men rehearsal kicks in. And my beautiful wonderful Peter wants to try it with me this week! So I'm giving him a crash course in basic yoga poses on Thursday night (and it's possible there will be alcohol involved, so that'll be interesting) and then he'll come with me on Friday. Hopefully hot yoga for a yoga newbie isn't a horrible idea.

Saturday was awesome - I did my standard morning workout (running the Noland and then BodyPump at 10 with badass Lynn) and then drove to Richmond to go to a wine tasting festival with my mommy! It was my first one ever, and it was SO much fun. Even though Lisa was going to be joining us and then couldn't, Mom and I provided plenty of our own silly giggling just-barely-tipsy fun. Good times.

Then in the evening I came back for the first ever CNU student performances in the Yoder Barn! Beautiful little Natalie's senior thesis which was selected scenes from Sweet Charity, and Rabbit Rabbit, a BRILLIANT sketch comedy group comprised of four gorgeous young men, Chris Blake, Johnny O'Malley, Jake Mills, and Andrew Bentley. It was a freaking amazing night. Natalie melted all of our hearts (and I loved that Mich and Lauren got to duet together as trashy hookers with hearts of gold) and Rabbit Rabbit made us pee our pants. And seriously, I'm not just saying this because these boys are my friends and I love them to bits and think they're great, but Rabbit Rabbit is truly *brilliant.* A million times funnier than anything on TV today. And there wasn't a single "inside" TheaterCNU joke - it was all totally universal, original, brilliant humor. I can't believe how talented my friends are. It's overwhelming sometimes!

Then Sunday I spent the day with Carol's beautiful mom and her Jim (both of our moms have Jims. weird!) and her man and little Lisa. We had brunch where I ate at least four pigs' worth of bacon, then headed over to Ferg to see Blast which was great, and then we went to Panera where we switched out Mom and Jim for Pops and M&M (in Lisa's words). So four of Carol's parents in one day! A truly special occasion. It was a poopy day, though, like today. So we all kept talking about how, even though we were having a lovely time, we all kind of just wanted to be in bed doing nothing.


And then this morning, after getting up at the shockingly late hour of 7am to run and shower, I reported for duty as Miss E's temporary fill-in. And also just starting my jobs of Assistant to the Artistic Director and Associate Company Manager full time. It was a bit chaotic at first...and of course there's always an element of chaos that runs throughout the day when you're at Ferguson. So it was great. I saw some of my darlings and it's so wonderful to be around all the professors. They're such great fun.


So, I'm completely ready and excited for the summer. It feels like it's already here, and I am all about it :)

Weird bumper stickers.

Twice now I've gotten behind this one guy when driving home...and I swear to god, I am not making this up - this is what his bumper sticker says:

"I'm driving fast because I have to poop."

Seriously! Where do you GET that???


I was also behind a car that had a George W. Bush sticker from '04 AND the Human Rights Campaign's Equal Sign. Y'know. Equality for gay people. Something W abhors. It made me want to pull them over and figure out just what the hell was going on in that car.

In other non-random and insane news, I have seven more days of work - seven more days of being up before the sun! Next Friday I bid my godsend of a temp job adieu and finally start full time for Steven. It's kind of hard to believe. Theatre hasn't been my full time job since July. Or, let's just say August, since I pretty much just spent that month running to Williamsburg to see What the Butler Saw and then traipsing around New York City seeing theatre. So I don't know if I'm just going to fall back into it like I never left or...well, I don't really know what the alternative to that is.

Speaking of theatre, I saw Great Men of Science finally finally finally this weekend!!! It was so glorious. My babies were incredible, and my little brother makes the best transvestite EVER. I absolutely love that play...one critic described Glen Berger as an American Tom Stoppard, and while I don't think that's a totally accurate comparison - I'd say the American Tom Stoppard who is obsessed with farce and jokes about poop. Then on Saturday night I saw an opera by OperaCNU whose name I cannot remember for the life of me because I'm a terrible person - but I loved it because hearing Jake Mills sing makes my heart happy.

And last night I stayed up past my bedtime to see my darlings Katie, Chris, Mich, and Jake (two of my favorite couples!) in a staged reading by Chris Ross, the King of Staged Readings, of Closer. It was so intense. What a gorgeous play. (And I think the Mike Nichols film totally does it justice. I'm not always the biggest Julia Roberts fan, but she does a fine Anna. Maybe not as fine as Katie Parker. But we can't all be Katie Parker.)


Anyway...some highlights of my lovely weekend.

My wonderful, talented, successful Little, Mr. Billy Harley. With some remnants of his fantastic French crossdressing makeup. He looks good in eyeliner.

Peter and Lauren, BFF.

I love Peter!

See?


Okay. I'm being distracted by America's Next Top Model. Pure class, baby.

The big weekend

So, first of all...I'm totally exhausted and I'd pretty much rather be asleep in bed than doing anything else. But alas, I should write about this weekend and DEFINITELY should go to freaking yoga tonight to help my legs heal (I'm actually not that sore today, but...the memories of yesterday and Saturday! shudder!)...and so I'm not going to go to bed quite yet. Also, pretty Lisa might be coming over later, AND Jon & Kate Plus 8 is new tonight. I'm a nerd.

I left bright & early on Friday and stopped at Panera to have an emotional reunion with their Chocolate Chip Bagel. I used to get one at least once a week until they got cold-heartedly got rid of them, and I'm so happy to have them back. The drive down to Meg's wasn't bad at all. I really don't mind long drives most of the time - I relish the opportunity to sing and pretend I'm Sherie Rene Scott or Idina Menzel. It's pretty embarrassing.

Picked Meg up and we went to Dean & Deluca to say hey to Joe and to get the most amazing sandwiches EVER. We had a great ride down together and it went by fast, I thought. We arrived at our rather fleabag-ish hotel that smelled like generations since the Pilgrims had been smoking in the room at about 5 or so and then we went out to hit the gorgeous, gorgeous town!

We picked up our race numbers and chips and such, and I bought myself the only two things I allowed myself to get (aside from insane amounts of food) on the trip - a cool little belt-y thing that has a stretchy pouch to hold your keys, phone, camera, etc. while you're running and you can't even feel it. Crazy. And I got a really badass Cooper River Bridge Run shirt made out of the stuff that's not cotton that you're supposed to wear when you run. I don't know what it's called. But it wicks sweat. Whatever that means.

Dinner that night (I think the only food I didn't take a picture of) was at Bocci's, Megan's favorite Italian place in the city. We waited about an hour or so for a table, but the weather was just fine and it was well worth the wait. We each had just one glass of wine (shocking) and insanely good meals...I got cheesy shrimp tortellini with procuitto and tomatoes and other yummy goodness that I can't remember, and Megan got a seafood pasta with vegetable marinara. YUM. We actually bonded over politics (it's weird talking to someone in my family about Obama and agreeing with them!) and had a great, great time.

The next morning we both had various alarm mishaps, but thankfully we both woke up naturally at 5:40, the time we had set to get up. Sneaky universe. We kind of puttered nervously around the room eating cornbread and Luna bars and making but not eating cream of wheat and fussing with our race numbers and Granddaddy things.

We walked about 2 miles to the start line, which was really fun because there was this whole mass exodus of runners headed that way and it just got bigger and bigger and bigger until there was this whole ungodly SWARM of people. It was awesome. And it was hilarious - there was a line of, I swear, at least twenty-five port-a-potties and loooong lines in front of every one. It felt kind of absurd for some reason.

They attempted to organize the runners by their category (elite, 40-60 minute, 60 minute, run/walk kind of thing - I don't remember how many categories), which was denoted by the colors on our number thingies, but there were seriously so many people that I physically could not get to my little color group. So when the gun went off the volunteer that was trying to tell me where to go just gave up and said, "Oh, just go on," so I went past the min-chain link fence and joined the freaking MOB in the street. We did a slow, slow, slow shuffle to the start line that actually got me nervous that it would be so crowded that the running part would never really happen. Luckily, it did. Kind of.

The first half of the race was really weird. It was all kind of overwhelming and there was a very bizarre feeling that wasn't exactly adrenaline, but I can't think of what else I would call it. And it was HUMID AS HELL. And I can't even remember the last time I ran in humidity, if ever. I thought I was going to die, even after I took off my paper-thin yellow shirt (with the help of a kindly, and not creepy, old man). So between all that and the steep freaking bridge, I did a lot more walking than I had hoped to. On my long runs I try to run for 15 minutes and then take a walk break, but it was just not happening for me on Saturday. So I was getting kind of frustrated. Plus it was so crowded that sometimes when I did have a good pace going, I had to dodge people all over the place to even maintain it. It was nuts.

The second half was better. Partly because we actually got to go downhill on the bridge, and I started noticing more of the runners in wacky wacky costumes. And I ran the last mile and a quarter/mile and a half, I'm not sure how long it was. But it was really hard and wonderful and kind of emotional. And god bless my iPod for playing the perfect songs. Seriously, right after I told myself that I couldn't walk anymore until I passed the finish line, the Rocky theme song started. How perfect is that?

I found Megan pretty soon after crossing the finish line - and she ran the the whole time! She is such a badass. We found out our times last night - I was 1.14.08 and she was I think 1.07.something.

And as you can see from the pictures below, we ate ourselves into oblivion after that. Though our breakfast (and ice cream, not pictured) was actually burned off by that afternoon - we took a bus back to the starting line...only it dropped us off about 2 miles BEHIND the starting line. So after our 5K and walking around Charleston to get breakfast and the best ice cream in town...we walked FOUR MILES back to our hotel on sore, sore, sore feet and legs. Needless to say, we did some soaking in our disgusting tub and laying on our beds for the next few hours before venturing out for the best Thai food ever. We were also treated to a pretty magnificent thunderstorm...considering they were calling for rain that morning and it turned out to be gorgeous, I think this was the weather just evening itself out.

After our amazing dinner we went next door to Basil's sister restaurant, Chai Lounge. We sat on their covered porch and drank white wine (me) and beer (her) and had a phenomenal creme brulee. Phenomenal. Then we walked it all off to meet her absolutely adorable friend Wendy who was also in town with some of her friends. She was completely lovely, I want to hang out with her all the time.

We were pretty exhausted by about 10 (I was probably pretty exhausted at about 9) and we crashed...though I didn't sleep quite so well, strangely enough. It was probably all the wine. The next morning we woke up, were lazy, and then went to breakfast at Poogan's Porch, where we ate the morning of her wedding. Because I wanted to eat at least one thing that I'd had that wonderful weekend, I had the Sunrise Shrimp & Grits, with blue crab gravy. Again...yum. That's probably the most oft-repeated word in this entry.

We drove home after breakfast, and we were pretty well spent. That first three or so hours back to Charlotte were probably the most exhausting of the drive (except for maybe the last hour on 64 to Newport News), but at the end I got to meet her hilarious new kitty cat Moses. I have another nephew! And he's just as goofy as Lou, in his own unique way. I love those kitties.


And then...home.

It was a pretty unbelievable weekend. I still can't believe we did it. This was something we were casually saying, "What if?" about in our pajamas stuffed with Thanksgiving turkey and foie gras last November, and we actually did it.

In conclusion, I am sore and I love my sister :)

And congrats to beautiful beautiful Gemma on her 10K in Richmond! Woo 10K weekend!

10K with Big Sister = Check

So I can't wait to write an epic novel of how awesome our weekend was (and how INCREDIBLY SORE we are), but...I'm planning on tucking myself into bed in a half an hour after crying through Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (don't judge me).

The epic tale will have to wait till tomorrow, then, and for now...be sated with pictures!


Since my granddaddy and Lisa's papa are both hanging out in heaven right now getting to know each other and becoming best friends, I decided to run for them :)

It's almost time for the 2 mile walk to the start line and we're freaking out!

Meg ran for Granddaddy :)

Lookin' sassy and ready to go with her number

Attempting to look sassy.

We wouldn't really be able to get a proper starting line picture, so we took a picture by the Port-a-Potty. It's funnier.

Finished! And SWEATY!

I'M HUNGRY.

MEGAN'S THIRSTY. (And wishing that was a Bloody Mary)


This was my reward for crossing the finish line. YUM.
They looked like the Rocky stairs, so we took a picture!

Joe used to work there (well, another location) and they were not nice to him. Megan's a loyal wife, what can I say!


Megan loved the Hokie colored snapdragons.

On what turned out to be a FOUR MILE WALK back to our hotel room, we encountered some interesting characters...

Red curry fried duck. Words can't express how glorious this restaurant and their food was. (It's called Basil, if you're ever craving the best Thai food in Charleston or in America)


Next door was their sister restaurant, Chai Lounge, where it was time to switch from red wine to white (or a beer for Meg) and from entrees to dessert

Creme Brulee, to be exact. GUH.


Sunday morning soothe-my-insanely-aching-muscles breakfast: Shrimp & Grits with Blue Crab Gravy, veggies, and sausage. Oh, and two poached eggs. It's like the shrimp & grits they served us the morning of Megan's wedding, but deluxe!


And as we were leaving the gorgeous gorgeous city, tons of church bells were ringing and the sun was right behind this beautiful steeple giving it an amazing light quality, so Megan took a picture of it from my sunroof. Well done!

Three more days...

...until I run a freaking 10K with my big sister in Charleston! Aaah!

I'm so much more excited about this one than I was about the 5K. The 5K was so scary and I was so stressed out about so many other things and the fact that Megan was progressing so much better than I was was intimidating me and ruining my life, but this one...it's scary, but in a completely awesome, wonderful, inspiring way.

Tomorrow is like my Friday at work, which is extremely exciting news. I love my job, but it's hard being chained to a desk for 9 hours. Or 10, depending on how you look at it. And everyone loves a 3 day weekend!

I'm going to sleep in for a half hour on Friday (which is kickass news) so I can get on the road for Charlotte at about 7:15-7:30ish, and then Meg and I are going to ride together to Charleston. It's her favorite city in the world (well, maybe aside from Venice) and it's right up there for me, along with New York and Stratford-upon-Avon (which isn't a city, I guess, but whatever). It's gorgeous and walkable and filled with amazing restaurants that my sister happens to know inside and out.

Tomorrow is going to go by so slowly!



Oh, and before I go...the incredibly super sweet people at the dinner theatre thing I did earlier this year got me a present! They got me the absolute best thing possible at this point in my life...a freaking Barnes & Noble Gift Card!

So I went a little bit nuts this weekend.

Eric Alterman, "Why We're Liberals"
Harold Bloom, Shakespeare: "The Invention of a Human"
Joshua Ferris, "Then We Came to the End"
Nick Hornby, "A Long Way Down"
Stephen King, "Lisey's Story"
Tracy Letts, "August: Osage County"
John Steinbeck, "East of Eden"
Alice Walker, "The Color Purple"


I finished August this morning...guuuuuh. When I saw the show in NYC, it took like an hour for my heart rate to return to normal. It was one of the most intense and memorable and phenomenal theatrical experiences I've ever had. So needless to say, reading it was pretty...all of those things.

I'm about halfway through A Long Way Down. Nick Hornby is absolutely brilliant.


Then We Came to the End is next after that, followed by East of Eden. I can't decide if I want to Netflix the movie before I read the book. My philosophy is usually to see the movie first before I read the book, that way I won't sit through a movie resenting it for not being as good as the book - which of course, is completely impossible. Has anyone seen it? Thoughts?



Ack I'm running 6.2 miles on Saturday and I'm frightened!