Do you ever go into something thinking you're going to hate it and then come out thinking it was pretty amazing?  I love things like that.  It just shows that there's always a little surprise around every corner.  That happened twice this weekend, and in both instances it was about the theatre.

Yesterday, I was grumpy about having to travel all the way into Washington DC to see a show based on a movie that I've never seen: Mean Girls.  It sounded like a good idea when I bought the tickets, but I kept forgetting about it and there were other things I wanted to be doing instead.  However, I realized that the show was pretty adorable.  It reminded me a lot of Legally Blonde.  It wasn't going to change the world, but it was a fun way to spend 2.5 hours.  Also, it was trying to spread a message of kindness which I'm a huge fan of.

Then there was today, a show that I had no desire to see at all.  It was a community theatre production in a church basement.  I've not had great experiences in church basements, but I needed to go.  I think I've completely changed my mind on theatre performances in church basements.  It was hilarious!  I was stunned by the caliber of actors in the cast and even the production itself.  I'm so happy I went because who doesn't need a laugh on a gray November Sunday?

I can only hope that wonderful things continue to be just around the corner.  Friends make fun of me because of my optimism, however when things like this happen it's kind of hard not to be optimistic!

We Need a Little Christmas

Ok, I'm usually not this girl.  I'm usually against Christmas until Thanksgiving.  However, on November 1 when the entire world started celebrating Christmas, I got a little in the spirit of things.  So much so it seems, that I even started my December Daily.  Yes, I do realize that this sort of goes against everything that December Daily is.  However, I've now decided that all the lead up to Christmas - as in Snow Head Day! - deserves to be documented as well.  

At least, that's what I'm telling myself.  I've realized that the little things like Black Friday Shopping, or Snow Head Shopping, or just the Christmas concerts that happen throughout the season are deserving of storytelling as well.  You may say I've spent a little too much time on Pinterest in the last few months.  Or you may say that I've finally gone way to Christmas.  Both of which are completely true.  

But honestly, once I start, it's hard to stop getting in the spirit. And since I'm way ahead of the game this year - something I'll only be for a few more days, then I'll be just as far along as everyone else is - I'm feeling even happier to be singing Christmas carols, and scrapping away with santa stickers.  And even finishing my first Christmas book of the season.

Yay Christmas!

Hello Holidays!

For the last few weeks a cute comic has been going around Facebook.  It shows Cinderella's fairy godmother with the caption, "At midnight on Halloween, poof goes all the pumpkins, and then hello Christmas!"  I thought it was funny at first.  Until this morning when I read that the Starbucks Christmas cups arrived in stores this morning (they're super cute, by the way!)  Then this afternoon, I saw a Kia commercial using Transiberian Orchestra music, and a Petsmart ad that included puppies with Santa hats on them.

Honestly?  It's November 1!  How is that even possible?  It was literally Halloween yesterday.  How can a switch from Pumpkins to Mistletoe happen so quickly?  I'm a huge fan of Christmas, don't get me wrong.  And I'm actually starting all sorts of wonderful things early so I'm on the ball.  But I'm just not ready.  

Though, I'm seriously thinking about grabbing that Christmas book on my shelf that I just bought...So I suppose, Bring on the Holiday fun!  Because this world could actually really use some of Santa's magic right now!

Trivia Tuesday

~ Trivia would probably go alot more smoothly for our team if we were awarded 10 extra points every week simply for dressing up. The costumes may get old after a while, but 10 points could be helpful in our current slump.

~ Samhain - which is apparently the festival that Halloween is derived from - can be pronounced 3 different ways (2 of which don't even use any of the sounds the letters actually make) - and I've been mispronouncing it for a very long time. Also, my defense is that they totally said it the way I say it in an episode of Supernatural.

~ In a half time question on serial killers, we were able to name 4 of the 5 correctly.  I'm not sure that says anything good about our team.

~ You'd think in an evening that started with the question "Which are the 2 colors that are most closely associated with Halloween? we'd be on fire, but of course 4th place slump hit again.  Way too many people know stuff...

~ I learned this evening that if you look in a mirror at your reflection at midnight on Halloween, you'll see your future spouse in the mirror.  I'm equal parts curious and terrified to do this.

~ Before pumpkins, people would carve jack o lanterns out of turnips.  Just how impressive could a jack o lantern made out of a turnip be?  That's a pretty puny little carving.  On the other hand, I'll bet it's harder to carve a turnip than a big pumpkin so maybe it would be slightly impressive...

~ In things I've never ever heard of, and most likely will never need to know again - the singer of Monster Mash (the song everyone hears on Halloween) is Bobby Boris Pickett and the Crypt Keepers.

~ And from the weird laws department, silly string is banned in Hollywood on Halloween.  Why you may ask?  Because it's a pain in the neck to clean up.  Though it's a pain in the neck to clean the other 364 days of the year as well, so I'm not exactly sure what sets apart its annoyingness on Halloween.

Happy Monday!

As Mondays go, today wasn't nearly as bad as other Mondays have been.  Other than the fact that it's finally chilly - though that does mean I can wear my new winter coat which is fun - tiny little good things happened to turn this Monday around.  Hopefully this means that the rest of the week will be lovely as well.

First up, a review I wrote made someone actually go see a show.  Last week, I saw Poe and all the Others at Annapolis Shakespeare Company and wrote about just how wonderful it was for BroadwayWorld.  And this evening, a friend that loves Poe thanked me for my review after she had seen the fabulous show.  Yay!

Then it was the continuation of the Black and White Challenge, which my friend Jennifer won by leaps and bounds.  I assumed she wouldn't do the challenge because it's just not her thing.  She in fact did choose not to by sending the Cat shaking his head No GIF, and then took a picture of her Cruella Deville leggings, with the tag "These in black and white times 7" Ha!  She won the challenge by far!

Lastly, even though I promised not to get all political anymore, it must be said that the best thing that happened today was Paul Manafort being arrested.  One can only hope they'll be more arrests imminently and we'll finally get a Presidential President.

Happy Halloween Eve!

Book of Mormon at the Kennedy Center

After years of avoiding The Book of Mormon, I finally saw it in all of its glory today.  You see, the show was written by the writers of South Park, which I hate.  I also don't appreciate crude humor.  So you know, this show had everything I hate.  However, after seeing it, I was pleasantly surprised by just how funny it was. 

Oh, it's crude and rude, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to hell for laughing at most of it.  But it's also super creative, and super hilarious.  And the acting and choreography were amazing!  I'm always shocked by the people that enjoy this particular show.  There were so many different people there - old and young, democrats and republicans (seeing as we were in DC, I'm making that assumption...) And every last one of them was laughing their heads off at the ridiculousness of the story.

This right here, is why I just love theatre!  Also, why I totally loved Book of Mormon - and why I'll have a terribly offensive song stuck in my head for the foreseeable future.

A Tale of Three Pictures

For the last few weeks on Facebook, there's been this photo challenge.  The challenge entails posting 7 black and white pictures of your everyday life - with no people in them - and then tagging a new friend each day to do the same.  Of course I assumed I'd eventually get tagged and because I'm a sucker, I knew I'd have to go for it.  Today, I'm 3 days in.  Now, the other part of the challenge is that you're not supposed to comment on the photos at all on Facebook.  But I love the stories behind pictures just as much as I love photos, so I'm going to tell you the tales of the first 3, even if they're not entirely exciting...

Photo 1 - Day 4 of a 4 day Adobe InDesign Class.  It was a long week, but it was also pretty great.  I learned a lot about the product, which I'm hoping will mean lots of opportunities in print and print production around the corner.  And of course, the banana is there because I love bananas and that was half of my breakfast.  : )

Photo 2 - The front page of my December Daily album this year. Yes I realize it's only October, but the only way I can stay on top of December Daily is by pre-doing a lot of the inserts.  Also, I LOVE the way it turned out.  This has been the cutest year so far for this scrapbook - even without any photos added.

Photo 3 - St. Mary's church in Annapolis MD.  Such a beautiful church inside and out.  I just couldn't resist a fun uppy shot of the steeple!

Learning Things

Today was the first day of 2 classes that I'm taking.  And after 8 hours of learning things in 2 different classrooms - for the first time in about 10 years - I have to say I'm exhausted.  However, I loved both of the classes and I loved learning new things.  I'm one of those nerds that gets excited about taking classes.  I'm usually all for taking classes in things that have no bearing on what I'm doing right now. Though that gets a bit pricey, so I only actually take classes for my job or a future job.

In today's instance, the first class was on InDesign.  This program may help with my job, but the best part is that it will help with a possible new job in Publishing which is something I'd love to get into.

The second class is on Interior Design which is the first in a group of classes I'm taking in Theatre Design.  Hopefully this will help in writing about theatre and may possibly take off into a future in the theatre.  

The problem is that both classes are super interesting, but neither actually work together in regards to a new job.  For now, I'm loving just learning all the stuff.  Though, I'm still not sure I'm good at either of the subjects...Fingers crossed, aside from any future jobs, I'll at least do well.  

A Night of Harry

A few weeks ago, it was announced that the trivia people that run our weekly trivia games would be holding a Harry Potter Trivia night.  Being big nerds we were very excited about the prospect - as was the rest of Baltimore.  It turns out everyone in Baltimore seems to be over the moon for Harry Potter because so many people signed up, that they had to draw names from a hat.  4 bars turned into 7 bars, and still teams were turned away.  Luckily for us, Team Buy me a Butterbeer First (a fabulous, if I do say so myself, take on our usual name of Team Buy me a Drink First).

Anyway, I learned a few things during this experience.  For one, I'm so not a big a Harry Potter fan as I thought I was.  In one entire evening, I knew the answer to exactly 2 questions.  Well, I'm not even sure you can call it 2 questions - it was more like 2/6 of a single question since it was half time and the question was 6 parts.  

Other people, like 2 of my team mates and seemingly the rest of the bar, are HUGE fans.  Like, fans to the N'th degree.  They were naming patronuses, and lines that people spoke, and spells, and a million other things that I read about and then immediately forgot. Like I said, it was embarassing - for me.  I had the nerve to call myself a fan, and yet here was about 100 other people that were blowing me out of the water.

There I was in my Harry Potter gear - a borrowed Gryffindor sweater and Hogwarts scarf (though that was not perfect, since I'm undoubtedly a Hufflepuff), and a custom made wand (thanks to one of the super fans in the group) and I didn't even know the answer to the very first question!  Abysmal!

However, even with all of my unknowing, we managed to have a blast.  And as it turns out, it was perfectly ok that I didn't know anything because the 2 super fans in the group knew enough for the rest of us and we managed to win.  Not even just win.  We won with more points than we've ever gotten at regular trivia.  It was pretty impressive.  Though, for all of our hard work we were gifted with a gift card for the bar we were playing in, and a one piece pair of pjs (just one - even though there were 5 people on the team...)  But I suppose the bragging rights were more important.  Now if I could just get them to hold a Doctor Who trivia, I may do just a tad bit better! : )

Mad About Will & Grace

When I was in high school and college, I would come home every Thursday evening and watch the Thursday night line up on NBC with my mom.  We loved Friends and Frasier and Will & Grace.  In the last season Will & Grace got a little melodramatic so I stopped watching it.  However, those first 6 seasons were hilarious.  

When they decided to bring it back this year, I was cautiously optimistic.  I thought that it might be just a little too crazy to be good.  It would have the sentimental aspect of a well-loved show, but the chemistry and the storylines would no longer be there.

I'm so so so happy to say I was wrong.  This show makes me just so darn happy every Thursday.  These 4 actors have talent and chemistry in spades, and magic happens when they're together.  The show isn't attempting to recreate them at all.  They're the same people they were, but they have the benefit of experience and age, which gives them a whole new world to play in.  

They can tackle new story lines and new issues in politics and government.  In the last 3 weeks, this once-groundbreaking show proved that it can still be current, and still address issues that are important and should be talked about.  Tonight's episode was all about the horrendous practice of conversion camps - trying to turn children from gay to straight.  It's a disgusting practice, but it was covered in a way that was sweet and funny, and it starred 2 lovely actors who just happen to be gay.  It was a tough subject to tackle, but they managed to knock it out of the park.

Each and every Thursday I watch this show, it just makes me smile.  It gives me a chance to chat with my bestie afterwards because she's as equally obsessed as I am.  It's a tremendous cast of characters, and I'm so happy it's back on my television - for what I'm hoping is a long, long time!

Confused By The Whole Thing

A few months ago, Ticketmaster rolled out the Verified Fan process.  In an attempt to outwit the bots and scalpers that are driving up ticket prices, Ticketmaster wanted to create a new process that would make it easier for real fans to buy tickets.  For big events, they have ticket buyers sign up weeks in advance for a chance to buy a ticket.  Then on the day tickets go on sale, you find out if you've been given that chance.  If you're a lucky few that gets a code, you have the chance to go purchase a ticket.  Though you're not actually guaranteed a code or a ticket.  Even after you go through the whole process, you may not actually get a ticket in the end.

After 3 attempts at this process, I still haven't managed to get past the first step.  I signed up twice for Springsteen (2 different blocks of tickets) and once for Harry Potter.  All 3 times I was put on stand-by.  More over, 2 of my friends also managed to get on stand by.  I understand their desire to make ticket buying more fair.  But when tickets would sell out in a few minutes, and I wouldn't get any, I at least had the satisfaction of doing something.  I had tried but it didn't work out.

Now I can't even try.  It feels like I haven't made it into a special club.  It's a pain.  And the fact that some people have won the code each time, and managed to get tickets each time is even more atrocious.  This is only making it harder for regular people to get tickets, instead of easier.  

And to top it all off, if this process is supposed to completely eradicate scalpers and bots buying up tickets, why is there a pair of tickets to Harry Potter tickets listed online for $10,000?  Do better Ticketmaster! I managed to see Hamilton without a great deal of work.  We don't mind waiting months to see the shows, just give us a chance to try. 

Trivia Tuesday

Since I last wrote about Trivia, we switched again to a new place which means we get our usual evening back again. Of course, this particular bar seems a bit smarter than we are, so we tend to spend a great deal of time in last place or as close to last place as you can get without actually being in last place.  However, this evening for the first time since we began going, we actually placed.  Yay second place!  

So without further ado, here are the things we learned this evening at Trivia...

~ When I attempt to take a non-logical leap on a question regarding sternutation (sterno is hot so maybe sternutation means to sweat...), the answer will be a big fat Ster-NO!  (For the record, sternutation is sneezing in case you may have thought my reasoning was at all false.)  Also, the stuff that ignites gun powder in old guns, is also not sterno...

~ Maybe a question on the top 8 fashion trends that men found sexy on women was not the best question to ask on a week where so many women were sharing stories of sexual harassment.  Just a thought...

~ The USA Men's Soccer team was eliminated from World cup contention by Trinidad and Tobago - a match that was shown during last week's trivia evening, which is the only reason any of us knew the "sportsball" question.  Also, the rumor that President Trump thought it was unfair that the US needed to play 2 teams (i.e. the countries Trinidad AND Tobago) may have been a rumor or it may have been true.  The fact that we can't decide is really the sad part.

~ In Taco Bell hot sauce packets, the hotter the sauce is the more sodium it has.  I'm fairly certain this defies all rules of cooking.

~ The tiny (in comparison) country of Norway has more gold medals in the Winter Olympics than the giant country of Russia.  Talk about the little guy taking on the big guys!  Go Norway!

~ Thanks to Jensen Ackles singing this song - a song I hated until he sang - we knew that in The Weight, they pulled into Nazareth.  Cute boys always help me remember things more clearly - well everything except what I should say to them and how I should act...

~ There's currently a book on James Beard on my bookshelf that is unread.  This is to blame for us not knowing that the Beard Awards started in 1991.  In my defense the cover is really brown and boring so, it doesn't exactly look inviting.

A Social Five

I spend a lot of time on social media - I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one.  The problem these days with social media is that with everything happening in the world, it's become a bit of a downer.  I get it, people need to vent.  However, what was once a place for silly cat videos and fun jokes, has become a place for hard core news.  Good for civilization, bad for a happy few minutes of wasted time.  However, there are a few accounts sill out there that never fail to make me smile.  And these are it.  So if you need a smile, I'd suggest checking these lovely, creative, fun people out.

1. Daniela Ruah (@danielaruah) on Instagram - By day she's kick-butt NCIS agent Kensi Bly on NCIS: Los Angeles, and by night she's a mom who does fun things like yoga with her kids or create dalmatian costumes for her little ones.  She seems fun, and seems like someone I'd love to have lunch with.

2. David Lebovitz (@davidlebovitz) on Instagram - David is an American pastry chef who moved to Paris to work in food journalism and writing.  He has a blog and his books on sweets and Paris are fabulous.  His Instagram account is pretty much chock full of pictures of mouth watering food, and funny things that could only happen in Paris.

3. Lin Manuel Miranda on every form of social media - Honestly, he has got to be the most positive and lovely person in the entire world.  He's creative, and funny.  He's also a humanitarian who is constantly helping.  The entire world loves Lin right now, and I pretty much agree with them.  He's definitely a light in dark times, and his musings never fail to make me smile.

4. Any Supernatural based account on Twitter - including everyone who's been on the show, specific bloggers that write about the show, and charities that the show supports.  - For such a dark and scary show, everyone in this show is positive and kind and lovely.  Lots has been written about the fandom, so it's very public that these people are amazing.  I'm just reiterating this fact.  All you need to do is search for videos on YouTube of any of the Supernatural Conventions to see exactly how much these people care about each other and their fans.  They take so much of their own time to give back, and that love is felt throughout the fandom.  They are just a group of truly amazing people - that's pretty much all there is to say.

5. Travel sites on Instagram on places that I've been (Cornwall, Edinburgh, London, Austin, New York, Savannah) or places I want to go (New Mexico, Canada, Italy) - These sites are like a virtual vacation.  They make me remember my fabulous vacations there, or add lovely sites and restaurants to the list of places I want to go.  What's a better way to get away than dreaming of warming climates and trips to far off lands? 

A Weekend of Jennifers

In August I stopped writing because I was so angry and disheartened about the state of the world.  At that time, I realized I was constantly writing about all of the bad in the world, because that was really all there was to talk about.  In the last 8 weeks or so, things haven't gotten much better however I've realized there is still good things to talk about and there's still fun to be had.  That's what I'm going to try to focus on going forward, and try not to let the current administration bog me down too much.

So without further ado, I'm celebrating my weekend of Jennifers.  In 3 days I did fun things with 3 friends named Jennifer, and I enjoyed my time immensely  On Friday, there was a Tim McGraw and Faith Hill concert which was as usual for them, awesome.  That show was shared with 2 friends named Jen.

Then last night, there was an amazing concert by Leslie Odom Jr.  This show marked the first for me at the Kennedy Center - which is a gorgeous venue, and was spent with yet another Jennifer.  We ate Mexican food and fell in love with Leslie's new version of The Room Where it Happened.  Honestly, he's so darn good!

Then today, with that same Jennifer we saw an interesting performance of Sondheim's Company which was new for us since we've never seen that show.  But at the moment, we still aren't sure exactly what happened because the sound was so bad.  So I'm going to go on record as saying I still haven't technically seen Company.  

All in all a pretty perfect weekend was spent.  These are the things that make me happy, and these are what I'm going to do my best to write about!

Bring on the happy!

Anger & Sadness

I'm just so angry tonight. I'm literally afraid to put my phone down and go to bed just in case our President decides to do something else egregious. It's an awful feeling for sure, one that I'm sure a lot of the country shares this evening. We have got to be better than him and show him that we will not tolerate his rhetoric and hate.

How Did We Get Here?

In the wake of Saturday's awful terrorist attack, I'm finding the politics of the aftermath quite difficult to handle.  I'd like to first say that this incident was most definitely a terrorist attack perpetrated by white-nationalist neo-Nazis, and our President's inability to call it what it is was disgusting and telling of who he has aligned himself with.  And his "clarification" today did nothing.  His time for calling out the terrorists had passed.  Today was just damage control - read clearly from a teleprompter to save what little face he has left. 

My issue is with how this awful and heartbreaking attack is being handled online.  Well-meaning people are researching the photos of the march, and are calling out members by name.  In the internet world, it's known as doxxing.  While I feel anyone who aligns themselves with the white power movement is morally bankrupt, I stop short of finding doxxing a good form of retaliation, because then, where does it end?  We're horrified when good people like Felicia Day are doxxed online by misogynists who think she's "ruining gaming." But these same people that were horrified by this incident, are some of the ones that are releasing personal information of the white-power marchers.

I just feel that by releasing this information online, they're stooping to the same level of these hateful people. These white power marchers deserve the backlash that is coming to them.  They're hateful, and believe in an ideal system that is morally reprehensible and unforgivable.  But rising up and being the better people in the face of their hate, may be the more logical path to peace.  I'm not naive enough to think that love is the only answer to this horrifying ordeal, but a little love, patience and restraint never hurt.

Trivia Wednesday

~ I am apparently, an old soul.  I mean really?  Tell me something I don't know.

~ Even though Lacrosse is Maryland's state sport, neither Hopkins or UMD has the most national titles in the sport, contrary to what we may have thought.  It's Syracuse, just in case you were wondering.

~ At our new found trivia location, sometimes you have to order beer 2 at a time, if you want them during the game at all. Let's just say, service is not something this particular bar is known for.

~ However, it is amusing to watch the cooks in the open kitchen get yelled at by the expediter.  When the game is moving along slowly, this provides endless entertainment.

~ Oscar Romero was not the horror director that died a few weeks ago, but George Romero was.

~ Sometimes you can get an answer correct even if it's for the wrong reason.  Points are points.

~ When a question is asked on the USSR, "Back in the USSR" is the only acceptable song to play.  However, when the category is "It's a Kind of Magic", how did they not play Queen?

~ Chromophobia is a fear of colors.  How does one avoid all colors?  Black and white are actually colors, so in theory you'd be afraid of those too...

~ I disagree with a question on topiaries being under the category of art.  Topiaries are interesting but I'd really call them a talent, definitely not art.

Book-ish

For about 18 months, I was reading ferociously.  I was averaging about 6 books a month.  There were so many books sitting on my shelf that needed to be read, and gosh darnit I was going to read them all.  And I loved it.  I missed a lot of television and movies, just reading my evenings away. Then somewhere around May, it just stopped.  I'm not sure what happened exactly.  But in the time since I haven't finished a single book.  I've started about a dozen, and I've read maybe 25 pages of them all, and then just stopped for whatever reason. I still have tons of books on my shelf - even more since I still insist on purchasing them.  I just can't make myself pay attention to them long enough to finish them.

That is until this week, I've finally tucked into a book that I love so much that I'm dying to get home at the end of the day to read it. Not surprisingly, it's about 2 of my very favorite things - theatre and travel.  It's called "The Little Theatre by the Sea" by Rosanna Ley.  It's so darn good!  I'm hooked.  I saw it in every bookstore in England, and didn't want to buy it because it's fairly fat and I'm a terrible packer.  However, after about the fifth time I put it back on the shelf, I just said the heck with it, and decided to stuff it in my suitcase (after purchasing it first, obviously!).  

I'm so glad I did.  Of course even though it got me hooked on reading again, it's also gotten me hooked on wanting to travel again - and after England, I'm poor so I need to start saving up again.  Always a bummer - where are you winning lottery ticket?!  Anyway, if you're into reading, theatre design and travel to Sardinia, I highly recommend this book!  She has tons more travel-centric tomes as well, that I'm sure will be taking up room on my shelf sooner or later since I'm back into reading again!

Balloon Day was a Bust

After the success of last year's Balloon Festival on the Eastern Shore, I've been anxiously waiting for this year's.  The weather was gorgeous today, and unlike last year it wasn't a balmy 352 degrees (I exaggerate, but you sit in the sun in August in Maryland for a few hours and see how you feel...)  The only problem was with the gorgeous weather, came a beautiful breeze. That lovely breeze was fabulous for us spectators, not so great for balloons.

Therefore, since the winds were so strong, no balloons went up.  And when the festival is called a balloon and wine festival, and you're someone who doesn't drink wine, and there'll be no balloons to look at, you leave, in favor of beating the traffic and having a yummy dinner somewhere.  So in other words, this Balloon Day was a bust.  One day, I hope to get to New Mexico and see their Balloon day.  I'm pretty sure they never have this ridiculousness to deal with...

Friday Five

1. I absolutely love these Scenery Bags!  They are so darn cute.  The idea is that just like Re-Sail bags are made from recycled sails, these are made from recycled backdrops from shows. How great is that!? I'm so pre-ordering one...  

2. The news that Indecent will be shown on BroadwayHD makes me so very happy!  I wanted to see this show before it closed, but I haven't had the chance.  Then they were given a bit of a reprieve, but it still didn't happen.  Now that it's being filmed, hopefully lots more people will have the chance to see this important work.

3. I was never a huge fan of Duck Tales, but now that David Tennant is voicing Scrooge McDuck, I might need to watch it. Also, these pictures just make me smile.  I just love him.

4. Okay, the model for this month's TimeOut NY is the cutest thing ever!

Our @TimeOutNewYork cover star @ChloeTheMini visited our Times Square offices today for some selfies! 🌟🙌🏽 pic.twitter.com/HY9NpgAbYE

— Jillian Anthony (@jillathrilla) August 2, 2017

5. The late night hosts have been on fire this week, thanks to the ridiculousness of the White House.  But this monologue by James Corden is my absolute favorite!  (Excuse the bit off-color humor there at the end, but the first 3 minutes is amazing!

         

Trivia Wednesday

~ It's mildly irritating and kinda creepy when a drunk dude decides to make the empty seat at your table, his seat. It's even creepier when his drunk friends pull up 2 more chairs and join him, and they all start asking you what the answers are...Maybe we should stop looking so friendly.

~ Some crazy dude sat on top of a flagpole for 439 days to protest the price of gas. If he would have gone to work for those 439 days, he could have afforded gas - just saying.

~ Turns out the only mathematical principle I can recall with a good deal of accuracy is order of operations, which as it turns out came in handy for tonight's math question. I was so happy I answered it correctly, I wasn't even bothered by the fact that it was only the second question, meaning it was a soft ball question..,

~ The bone between your eyebrows is called a glabella, which sounds more like a music festival than it does a part of the body.

~ The definition of "watching" tennis is to have it on in the background while you're doing most anything else. You don't u derstand what's happening but it provides noise.

~ At our new place of trivia, ordering in a sassy fashion is the only way the staff will get your order correct. For instance, one person to,d the waitress this evening that rum and pickles make him sad, so please give him vodka and no pickles on his sandwich, as they've done before. Not sure why it works, but his order was perfect!

~ A 5 letter word ending in F that means a bundle of wheat is sheaf. I went to a pub called the WheatSheaf in England, I totally should have gotten that.

~ The max number of points you can receive in old school pacman is 3,333,360. My only question is why? Why is it such a weird number? Why isn't it 999,999?

Queen!

Last night, I was up way past my bedtime at the Verizon Center in DC to see Queen + Adam Lambert.  And Oh my goodness, was it awesome!  It was sort of a last minute thing, as a friend had an extra ticket, and as this same friend says "I come from a place of yes" so I said yes. I'm a fan of Queen, but I'm by no means a die-hard fan.  I only know the singles that everyone knows.  However, that's ok because those are the songs they sang. 

Adam Lambert as their new front-man is amazing.  He went through 7 costume changes in about 2 hours, which is impressive enough.  But one of the costume changes required 5 inch platform heels which he succeeded in dancing around in.  Pretty talented!

What was even cooler was their inclusion of Freddie Mercury into their show.  While Brian May played one of his songs, they used old video of Freddie singing along and projected it on the big screens above his head. So it appeared as though they were dueting again.  Such a cool idea to remember a giant that had such an impact on the music world.

I gotta say, it was up there in the list of concerts I've seen.  I mean, any concert that starts with a giant robot (see above : ) has to be pretty awesome, right?

The Great Comet Kerfuffle of 2017

I saw the Great Comet a few months ago, and at the time, I thought it was the strangest thing I'd ever seen.  It was bizarre and I just didn't get it.  The staging and theater are beyond gorgeous, but the story was just incomprehensible to me.  I sat there completely confused for the entire 2 hours.  Also, I was slightly annoyed (yay understudy because you were awesome!) because Josh Groban was out with a cold, and he was the reason I was seeing the strange show in the first place.

Flash forward a few months to the show being touted as the best thing to hit Broadway in years, and everyone and the show being nominated for Tony awards.  I was still confused by it, but I really did love everyone involved in the show so I was ok with them getting the accolades.  I didn't agree, but I was ok.  Then Josh Groban left sadly, and the fabulous Oak Smash stepped in and he got amazing reviews.  And for a hot minute, I thought about seeing it again, just to see Oak and figure out if maybe seeing it again would make me like it more.

But then, this week happened.  The Great Broadway Kerfuffle of 2017.  Somehow Mandy Patinkin saw the show.  Then in a matter of hours, Oak was leaving 3 weeks early to make way for Mandy to play a 3 week engagement, and the producers were hopeful that Oak would come back after Mandy left. When I first heard the news I had 2 thoughts.  One, how cool that Mandy is making his return to Broadway in such a loved show. And two, what the heck happens to Oak.  This is super rude to him.  Well, it turns out those were the same thoughts everyone else had.

In another manner of hours, Oak would release a gracious statement thanking the show, and saying he wouldn't be back after Mandy left.  Mandy would realize he was to replace Oak and bow out, because he thought it was handled badly.  And the producers would take to Twitter to apologize for the "optics" and tell everyone that there's a chance the show wouldn't be running much longer because the sales were dismal.  Whoa.

Talk about a lot to handle in a manner in 12 hours.  It's a lot to take in, but I, like a lot of people, think that Oak was slighted.  The producers apologized for the optics.  But not exactly what happened.  If they take color completely out of it - even though it's hard not to see an African American actor replaced by an Older White actor - you have a relatively new actor replaced by a bigger name, just because that bigger name is a bigger name.  Oak was brilliant in the role.  No one was saying he needed replacing.  He spent months preparing. The man even learned to play the accordion.  Replacing him with Mandy Patinkin is just rude, especially when it doesn't even look like you spoke to Oak first about it.

In the end, like I said I didn't like the show.  But I don't want them to close.  The actors are incredibly talented and deserve to continue to get the accolades.  But I do believe the producers messed up royally, and need to apologize to Oak and Mandy alike - Oak for obvious reasons, and Mandy, because I'm pretty sure he was a bit slighted in this whole situation, and didn't realize what he walked into.  He was gracious in stepping down though, when he learned what had happened.  I hope the show finds a way to make it through, but I also hope the producers learn that numbers aren't everything.  Treating these actors like people instead of dollar signs is a much better way to run the business of show business.

Trivia Wednesday

~ After almost a whole 11 week series at our current location, we're still not sold on the food or the dude.  We still miss our old guy and our old bar quite a lot.  However, after a disastrous week last week - that I thankfully missed - the wait staff was much better and no one had to complain about their food/drinks to the manager.  So I suppose that's a plus.

~ The half time question was finally a visual question - I love deciphering photos.  Of course, when the topic is losers in great sports photos, we're most likely not going to do well.  Not only did we have to figure out who the photo was of, but we then had to name a team that the person in the photo was playing and ultimately lost the game.  Yep, in this particular situation, we gained a big fat 0 points.  That's the only time that's ever happened.  Usually we can at least scrape together 3 points...so sad!

~ Snuffie on Sesame Street was my most favorite.  He apparently has a first name and it's Aloyious.  I'm kind of obsessed with how cute that is - but I didn't know that at all.  I was putting my eggs in the Barnaby basket.  Also, it didn't help that the trivia dude kept pronouncing Aloyious as Aloy-sous.

~ A muddler is the tool used to muddle a drink.  All those years watching food shows, finally gave me some alcohol knowledge.  That might be the only thing I know about booze.

~ To be risible means you're prone to laughter.  That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard.  Wouldn't you think it would mean you're prone to getting angry - as in getting a rise out of someone?  I'd like to see the reasoning for laughter...

~ The shark that stuns his prey with his tail is not called the Sting Ray Shark. Just like the McDonald's lower calorie version of the McDLT is not called McDreamy or McSteamy : )

~ If the answer to a question is Bassa Nova like it was tonight, I will always start singing "Blame it on the Bassa Nova" and start quoting this scene from West Wing. 

~ The largest watermelon ever grown weighed 350 pounds.  I'm pretty sure I could make a good go at that in one sitting...

I'm Confused

A few weeks ago, the Trump administration withdrew their "healthcare bill" from congress because they knew they wouldn't have the votes.  Today, they somehow had enough votes to pass the "bill" to debate.  How does that happen?  Also, the "bill" hasn't been seen by anyone.  What exactly did they vote on then?  If Congress can just vote on things, with no data, then I suggest we vote that I win the lottery.  If it's this easy to possibly pass a bill that will revoke care from millions of people, then winning the lottery should be a walk in the park for these lawmakers.

What's even more puzzling is that John McCain, who was being lauded as an American Hero after he left treatment for brain cancer, to make his way to Washington for the session, voted in favor of this truly mean (in the words of the President) "bill."  McCain is being treated for cancer.  How does he deem himself worthy of this treatment, when he won't extend access to this level of care to a good portion of the country?  He had no office to win, and nothing to lose.  And yet, he completely disregarded the sentiments of his constituents to pander to the GOP.  It's disgusting.

This current administration, and the GOP lawmakers are willing to risk the lives of millions to pass their own agenda, because the previous bill was passed by a President on the other side of the aisle.  Where is the compassion for their constituents?  Where is the loyalty to their country?  And most of all where is the common sense of the government?  

Scappy Lessons

The last time I went to England, it took me about 4 months to finish my scrapbook of the photos.  I was lazy, and uninspired and by the time I finished it, I wasn't its biggest fan, and I had already shown everyone my photos on my phone, so no one really cared about looking at the album.  After this trip I decided I would be better about scrapping the photos, and I would get it done as quickly as possible.  It's been a little over 2 weeks, and I just finished printing all of the photos, and a great deal of the journaling.  All that's left is some fun embellishing and filling a few holes.  I'm feeling so much better this time around!  But I did learn a few lessons along the way.

~ When you have a goal in mind, every Best Buy in the metropolitan area will stop selling Canon Selphy printer ink, so you'll be forced to wait on an order from Amazon.  The same will go for 6 x 8 album inserts.  Thank goodness for Scrapbook.com!  Speaking of 6 x 8 albums..

~ The rings in this size binder are either too small or I feel the need to print way too many photos.  That album is bursting at the seems...here's hoping the rings, while too tiny, are strong.

~ A SAG/AFTRA Backstage Broadway interview with Andrew Rannells is the perfect accompaniment for the "watching paint dry" activity level of printing photos.  I almost didn't realize I wasted hours of my life watching a printer spit out photos...

~ Not all photos look great printed.  I'm convinced iPhones trick your eye somehow by making you think you have an award-winning photo on your phone, but when it's printed, it looks like you took it underwater.

~ You will always lose the scissors, stickers, tape roll, or glue amongst your work area, and will then find it 20 minutes later, after you've opened a new one or grabbed another pair.

~ And lastly, getting the scrapbook done early, helps you remember all the lovely stories that happened on vacation which totally helps with the journaling.  Not everyone will read it, but at least it will make you happy!

The Story Behind a Photo

This is one of my most favorite photos I took on my trip. First off, it's Ice Cream which is always a good thing. Secondly, I think we can agree that it's pretty Instagram-worthy.  It's one of those photos that's just begging for a clever hashtag on Instagram. However, what I find even more interesting - and stressful since it happened to me - is the story behind the photo.

In this case, we were wandering around Padstow trying to decide on which Ice Cream shop would get our business.  There were so many, and we couldn't really decide.  We wandered just a bit further, and found an Ice Cream Parlor with homemade ice creams in all sorts of specialty flavors.  It was the perfect find!  After some indecision, I decided on 2 flavors.  Chocolate and the one I always get in England, Banoffee, in a waffle cone.  Both flavors were to die for!  So while I was waiting on my friend to choose hers, I went outside and snapped this photo so I could remember to scrapbook this yumminess when I got home.

As we both ate our ice creams, we mosied down to the coach stop to catch a ride back to our car.  That's when it happened.  One scary-a&$ seagull dive bombed my head a bit.  He got so close he brushed his feet against the top of my head.  I recovered and continued to walk. Then it happened again.  Though this time, I was a little too close to the edge of the sidewalk, and it took me a bit too off guard, and the stupid bird knocked me down, and made me drop my perfect ice cream cone - which he then pounced on and ate like he hadn't been fed in days! Of course, since it scared my friend too - who is more afraid of birds than I am - she just chucked her cone at him which is what he wanted in the first place.

So the moral of this story is, not all ice cream photos are perfect.  And sometimes they are - and if they are, a possibly homicidal bird may want it for himself...  Also, as a life lesson (I learned after this incident) when eating outside near birds, stay close to the wall.  They have to dive to get to you, and they won't do that if you're too close to the wall because they may dive into the wall (which I wouldn't mind really - since I now blame all birds for the loss of my perfect ice cream! - but I don't think they would like it...)

Friday Five

1. Even though, I'm still dealing with some terribly awful tech issues - some my fault, others not so much - I've been enjoying scrapbooking my England trip.  I love the way it's turning out.  I'm only half way through the trip, but now it's getting to the Cornwall fun, which is all beachy all the time, so that should be super fun to see come together!

2. I cannot wait to listen to this Podcast.  I love Jonathan Groff and honestly, how could a musical podcast be anything but fabulous?!

3. I love those dreamy Supernatural boys, and I'm always hoping they'll get some recognition from the late night shows.  Of course, it usually doesn't happen.  However, this week is Comic Con and they finally (finally!) appeared on Conan.  They were dreamy, and hilarious.  Jensen's Birthday surprise keg for Jared, with an added Keg Stand on national television will be hard to beat.  

4. Speaking of Comic Con - what about the new casting for the next Doctor.  A woman and a woman as super-talented as Jodie Whitaker?  Fabulous news!  I'm so happy to see the show move forward.  I loved Jodie on Broadchurch, and I think she'll be awesome as the Doctor.  And I'm also so happy to see so many of the fans getting on board - we won't mention the jerks that are actually taking the time to complain to the BBC about it being a woman...

5. Last but not least, I'm going to New York tomorrow to see a show I know NOTHING about.  Apparently it's called Puffs and it's about Harry Potter, other than that, I've got no idea.  One of my friends is a big HP fan, and she's seen it - and loved it.  Now she wants all of us to go see it too.  I was a little taken aback when everyone was planning to wear HP gear, since I have none, but I side-stepped the themed outfit, and now I'm just super ready to see it!

Wonky Tech

I used to think I could live a life without all sorts of fancy tech gadgets. I now know this isn't true because the second my laptop starts acting up, I get ridiculous grumpy. This is where I am right now. If the lovely, fabulous iPad would allow me to upload photos to my posts, I'd turn in my laptop for good and be done with it.

I love my iPad. It's mt favorite tech toy. So all I really need is for some to create an app that lets me blog easily - with pictures. Is that really too much to ask? I just got back from 12 days in England, people. I have oh so much to say! Don't the gadgets in my house know it's a bad time to go haywire?!

Theatre Weekend

So this weekend's 5 show weekend turned into a 4 show weekend.  However, that wasn't a terrible thing.  I really wanted to see Godspell Friday night, but after a long week, it just wasn't in the cards.  However, the next 2 days totally made up for it in terms of quality.

Yesterday was Off-Center's City Center's Production of Assassins.  I'd never seen this show before and I'm still not sure I understand what I saw, but I admit to loving it.  It was weird, and sarcastic, and a little in poor taste, but the cast was outstanding.  I came for Steven Pasquale, who was brilliant as always.  That man's voice is pretty perfect, and he's great with the annoyance and sarcasm on stage.  So he was a perfect choice for a snarky John Wilkes Booth. But the rest of the company was also amazing.

My favorite part was a line sung by the balladeer "Every now and again the world goes wrong, every now and again a mad man comes along..."  At which point the crowd went wild. It's the perfect description of where the US finds itself right now.  Nice lyrics, Sondheim - who was apparently at the evening performance along with Josh Groban.  I missed them both by going to the matinee - boo!

And the last show of the weekend, was an olf favorite of mine "A Midsummer Night's Dream."  Now, even though it's a favorite, I had no desire to go whatsoever.  It was to be performed outside (it was 89 today) and it was going to be in a sketchy (or so I thought) part of town, and I would be going by myself (everyone else realized it was too hot and too far...)  However, I'm so glad I went.  The show was fantastic!  The Baltimore Shakespeare Company put on a great production.

I know exactly how hot I was, so I can't imagine how hot the performers were, but they never let it show.  They seemed to be having so much fun, which is always a good mark of a great show.  In the end I'm so happy I went, and I can't wait to attend another one of their productions!

Friday Five

1. I LOVE the fact that This is Us received so many Emmy nominations.  If it were up to me, everyone would have been nominated from that show.  However, it was good to see that 4 of the stars and 2 of the guest stars were nominated, and the show itself.  Now here's hoping they all win - even the guys nominated in the same category.  A tie could totally happen!

2. I know it's being burned off, but I really do enjoy the show Doubt.  The cast is awesome, and I'm pretty sure it would have done a little better with slightly better writing.  It's even got a pretty compelling storyline, that I'm hopeful we'll get to see the conclusion of.  

3. I'm fairly certain that the books on my nightstand have this conversation with my lamp each night.  Too funny!

Loving this #SummerReads cartoon from the ever-excellent @tomgauld pic.twitter.com/tf60ArWFGx

— Gutter Bookshop (@gutterbookshop) July 14, 2017

4. While I was in England, I fell in love with Ham4All.  These videos of people singing songs from Hamilton were our nightly fun.  After each day of seeing the sights, we'd come back to the hotel, and go on Twitter just to see who had posted what that day.  Such a fun and easy idea!  My personal favorite was Jesse Tyler Ferguson.

5. I'm loving scrapbooking my England photos.  In a Creative Bubble is my favorite designer and all of her fun designs are really making the book super simple and super adorable!  Now if my darn ink would just arrive from Amazon, I could finish printing my photos...

2 out of 5

Yesterday was Day 1 of a 5 Show week.  I'm a big fan of lots of theater, but this week is sort of out of hand. However, there are worse things to have an overabundance of than theater, so I'm definitely not complaining.

Last night, was Falsettos on the big screen.  Now I know I've talked a lot about it, but it was and still is amazing.  The show totally held up on the screen.  I'll always think that Live is best when it comes to great performances, but seeing a filmed version of this particular show did provide some insight.  I was able to see things I wasn't able to see in the theater, like tiny facial expressions, or line readings that made more sense when accompanied by a gesture or a smirk.  It really was quite beautiful!

I only had 2 complaints.  One was the change to a lot of the words.  Since it was being filmed ultimately for PBS, they had to change many of the harsher words.  Sometimes the changes were seamless, other times they were super clunky.  That had to be a bear for the actors to memorize!  My second complaint was the lack of an intermission.  Every other time that I've seen a taped performance, they actually build the 15 minute break in.  This time they went straight from act 1 to act 2.  Anticipating the intermission, I had smuggled in a hot tea from Starbucks and drank it all in the first act.  I was quite upset by the lack of a built in potty break.  Other than those 2 minor issues, the show was flawless!

Tonight, on the other hand was less than flawless.  Tonight was a production of Godspell - one of my all time favorites - performed by the Maryland based Infinity Theater company.  They made a bold choice to stage the entire show in the style of SNL  This meant that the actors were all disciples doubling as well-known characters from SNL over the years.  At one point, John the Baptist was the Church Lady, 2 disciples were the Blues Brothers while another was the musical guest, which I think was supposed to be Amy Winehouse.  Jesus, obviously, was the host this week.

It was incredibly bizarre.  It was so strange, that even after seeing this show dozens of times, I had a hard time following what the heck was happening.  This may have had something to do with the extra hour of content they somehow added to make the usually 90 minute show, jump to 2 hours and 30 minutes.  The funniest part was that my friend who had never seen the show before, loved it.  She thought it was fabulous, and she's usually much more skeptical about the weird than I am.  Go figure.  It was definitely not my cup of tea.  Thank goodness that the 3rd show of my 5 show week is yet another production of Godspell, hopefully done by a company that stays a bit more true to its roots.

If not I see a viewing of the Victor Garber version in my future, if only to get tonight's production out of my head.

Home Again

After 2 lovely weeks spent in England, I'm back home again.  It was a positively wonderful trip full of brand new experiences.  Some of these fun things were planned and some were decidedly not planned, but that's the best part of travel - happening into wonderful places, and doing something brand new.  

On this trip, for example, I drove in England for the first time.  That was actually not the best thing ever.  I have no idea how people drive so quickly through those scary tiny streets in the countryside.  I've probably shaved a few years off of my life just fretting about blind curves and possible cow crossings.  However, I did it and we survived so at least there's that.

There were other most wonderful things that happened that had nothing to do with me being behind a steering wheel (on the opposite side of the car than I usually am...), for instance:

I ate my weight in food during a Borough Market Food Tour.

I finally saw Platform 9 3/4 however, the line was much too long to get the super cool photo.

I rocked out with 98,000 other people who loved Adele at Wembley Stadium.

I saw one lonely little Puffin, who was most assuredly Neil coming to visit me.

I climbed to the top of 2 different castles in flip flops.

And I sat where David Tennant sat in Broadchurch.

And these were just my favorites.  The other days were also filled with amazing trips, foods, and experiences, all of which I'll be sharing in the coming weeks - whether you care or not : )

Travel Things you Learn

I'm leaving for a lovely vacation tomorrow and in the planning of this vacation, I've learned a few things that I never learned planning other vacations.  I'm going to share them with you so that you don't have to stress like I have.

~ Bad things happen all over the world, every day. There's death, and war and awfulness.  But, you will notice an overabundance of bad things happening where you're headed in the weeks leading up to your trip.  It probably has something to do with you noticing it more because you're headed there.  Or the gods having it out for you.  Either way, try not to freak out.  The bad things, while awful, mean that security will be heightened and you just may be safer.

~ Packing is indeed the worst activity ever.  It's up there in front of watching paint dry and watching grass grow.  You spend weeks figuring out what to take, and then pulling out all of those things, because you don't think they're quite right.  And then you stare at the remnants of your closet in hopes of some inspiration.  Then finally, you've had enough so you just throw a bunch of things in the bag and hope for the best.  Also, you hope that it will in fact zip when the time comes.

~ The weather will become the exact opposite of what it has been the second you can see the 5 day forecast.  For the past few weeks it's been 80 degrees and sunny, the 5 day forecast for next week says 62 and rainy.  And you were curious as to why packing was so difficult this time around.

~ Eventually after all the stress of getting ready, and possible bad things happening, you will be super excited to travel, and you may not be able to sleep because of it.  But that's ok, that's what the airplane is for - sleeping away so it goes quickly.  Because the faster you fall asleep, the faster the flight goes, which means the faster you'll be there!