It Starts

The cross country road trip back to Utah has begun! And...it'll be over before I know it! I met up with Cecilia in Tennesse last night and we hit the road this morning. The ONE site I got to see was this:


The Loveless Cafe



We went and had breakfast with Cecilia's parents. They are way nice and it was really good food. I love the South.



We hit snow in Arkansas which apparently is unheard of. Cecilia's mind was 100% boggled.



Highlight of the day: Lunch. It was tasty and fun in Arkansas. My entire meal was deep fried, except for the pickle and onion. I'm gonna have a heart attack. Have I mentioned that I love the South?

Some free time

We had another day off today. After sleeping in much later than necessary, we went to lunch in Alabama. Basically, we drove across the state line to a TINY town and stopped at the first place we saw that had a lot of cars outside. It was a very crowded diner with some of the nicest people I've ever met. They were way friendly, especially when they found out where we were from. We even got a picture with a group of them, but its on Allan's camera so I don't have it yet. That lunch is for sure in the top ten best experiences of the trip. Good times.

Once we got back to our hotel we didn't have anything to do. Elise and I were tired of being bored so we decided to get out and be creative. This is the result:



It took about 6 hours from start to finish. No big deal.

No other road trip will measure up.

We've been all over these past few days. Elise figured out that we've been to 12 states in 10 days. Chalk that up to awesome. Those stats include last week as well as this week. Here are pictures:


We were in Delaware for 4 days and it was 100% boring. We took this picture on the way out of town. Its Babe Ruth's Birthplace. That was in Baltimore I think.

We stopped in Washington DC (where I parallel parked the mini van) and had sushi for dinner. It isn't my favorite only because I'm paying a lot and the portions TINY.

We spent Saturday in Atlanta. This is Martin Luther King Jr's tomb. The visitor's center there was really cool. We've done a lot of historical things on this trip, but this one was a lot more emotional for me. MLK is really inspiring.
This is Olympic Park. It was a georgeous day! People were outside playing frisbee, sitting on benches talking, and just walking around. This is us portraying how hot we were, in more ways than one...
Then we went to The World of Coke.


Our final stop of the night was at Medieval Times. Everyone had a crown and a knight that we were cheering for. We had front row seats and were booing and cheering on the knights through the tournament. We were fed soup, bread, chicken, ribs, and a danish with only our hands for utensils. It was so much fun!



Now we're in Georgia for the rest of the week before Elise and Allan fly home and I road trip back to Utah with Cecilia (my boss). As you can tell I'm having a blast. I can't believe how many States we've been able to go to.

I also feel the need to add - I am slightly obsessed with Beyonce's "Put a ring on it" song. I have to listen to it at least once a day. Because of me, that song is now one of the top 25 songs on Elise's ipod. I can't help it, it makes me so happy each time.

Philadelphia?!?!?!

This is so cool. I'm seriously loving how many places I get to see. This is just the perfect job.



The parallel parking is extremely stressful though.


The Rocky movies? Ya, I pretended I cared about that. ;)


I finished the night with a Philly Cheese Stake. It was so simple and oh so good.


I'm having fun and stuff, but I'll be home in two weeks and I'm VERY excited about that.

Somewhere

I really think that somewhere out in this great big world there is the perfect guy for me. He's probably really patient, because he'll have to be able to put up with me. He'll be able to handle my sarcasm, throw it back in my face, and know when I'm not in the mood to joke around. He'll be smart enough to carry on intellectual conversations, but he'll never make me feel inadequate or stupid. We'll both love to travel and see new places, but he'll like spending time with family just as much as I do. He'll understand me and my quirks so well that I won't have to tell him when I feel uncomfortable or want to leave a party because he'll just know. Maybe we'll be the kind of couple that surprises people, maybe we'll be disgustingly cute, but either way it won't matter because we won't care what everybody else thinks.

He's out there somewhere. He's probably dealing with horrible people and learning a lot about patience, because that is really going to be important. When he finally meets me he will be so excited because by then he'll be able to recognize how amazing I am.

Maybe its the movie I'm watching, maybe its the Valentine's spirit in the air, or maybe I've just had too much chocolate.

Sure, we go around to middle schools all over the country teaching kids about healthy eating and exercise.

But Valentine's Day is an exception.

Salem Massachusetts

Its Friday the 13th. I guess its a perfect time to head down to Salem! Of course EVERYTHING was closed. The majority of the local shops were either closed for the season or closing early. The main street and almost every store had a witches theme though so it was cute. There are lots of historical tours during the day and ghost tours during the night, but of course we went in the off season. And it was freezing.

How did we have so much fun? We went into the few shops that were open, then we found town hall and Abe Lincoln's birthday party! Like...the coolest thing EVER.



After that we went on a short walking tour.
We went out on the pier.

Visited the local cemetery and the memorial for the 19 people who were killed for being witches,


We also saw the place where Alexander Graham Bell had the idea to invent the telephone, and ate at the Hawthorne Hotel, named after Nathaniel Hawthorne who wrote 7 Gables here. Its a pretty sweet place thats for sure. Its also insane how NICE everybody is. Random people would find out we were from Utah and then give us ideas and advice on where to go and what to do. Its too bad that I have to be surprised when people are nice to me.


Tomorrow we plan on driving an hour up to Maine and spending the day. Sunday we head down to Delaware. Since Monday is President's Day we have a 3 day weekend!

Hi. I love my job.

The Travel Channel

A few weeks ago in Northampton Massachusetts I was watching a show on the Travel Channel called Hamburger Paradise. I only partially watched it as I was doing some paperwork, but I guess it got into my brain.

Today as we were driving back to Massachusetts from New Jersey we were in Connecticut. I vaguely recalled one of the burger places being in Connecticut so I had Elise google it on her phone. Low and behold, it was not only in Connecticut, but it was directly off an exit on the highway we were already on. So we stopped in for 15 minutes for some world famous burgers at World Famous Ted's Restaurant.

It was actually pretty tasty.




It was also a really nice day. Notice my lack of a huge coat, scarf, and gloves?

So watching the Travel Channel actually DOES have its perks! :)

Can't win 'em all.

Our show today was at the Yeshiva school in Queens. Its a Jewish school. We had to change some of the show to accomodate their needs. We talked about fish sandwiches instead of burgers, and Elise wore a skirt instead of pants for her costume. At the end I went into the Rabbi's office and he proceeded to tell me that he is extremely disappointed, the show did NOT work for his school, it was a lot of money wasted, and that he is going to be getting calls all night from angry parents.

Wow. I didn't realize that it was a bad thing to tell kids to eat healthy, not smoke, and know that you don't have to look like Pamela Anderson.

Oh well. You win some you lose some.



This was taken after the show, so they were both a little shaken. Doesn't she look cute in her skirt thought? ;)

The Big Apple

The Pro's and Con's of "touristing" alone.

Pro's
Go wherever you want
Everything is on your own time frame
No wasting time making decisions
No compromises on what show to go see
Its easier to get a good seat in a theatre for one person
It's easy to squeeze one person onto The Late Show
When I want to walk 50 blocks from Central Park to the West Village, I can do that without listening to people complain the whole way about the cold or their tired feet.
When I get a migraine I don't feel obligated to stay out, and I don't feel guilty calling it an early night.

Con's
Nobody to take pictures of/with me.
Nobody to bounce ideas off of.
Nobody but myself to stop me when I start walking the wrong direction, and I usually don't stop me until I've gone the wrong way for 3 or 4 blocks.


That being said, I had a pretty good time hangin out in New York City for two days.

I'm so blue

This is me in the Museum of Fine Arts. It was a mix and mingle. Note the tables for light snacks and drinks. There was a dj too. It made looking at artwork a lot more fun.



We ate hot dogs from a vendor in Boston Commons. It was tasty and I was full for a very long time.



I went to Blue Man Group today! That was so fun. We didn't have the greatest seats but we werent too far away either.

We hung out in Boston this weekend and we're heading to New York City tomorrow. Believe it or not, I'm still having a great time. I'll probably stop asking Elise to take pictures of me without the flash too. She's shaky.






This is where we're gonna be for the next few days.

And so it goes.

This past week has been a fun adventure of finding alone time, finishing the rehearsal process, and taking the show on the road. I've made friends with some wonderful people and am embracing my duties as stage manager. Now we are on the road and starting to have a lot of fun. These are some pictures and updates:


This is me in the bookstore where I found some alone time. I love these used book stores. There are tons of them and they are all so great inside. Its just books piled everywhere possible.


This is Megan, me, and Cecilia. These two are amazing. Megan is the production manager and Cecilia is her assistant. They have taught me the ropes, and have been really understanding and supportive. I am so grateful to work with them. They will basically be my link to the rest of FoodPlay as we are on the road. All of my contact goes through them. And, I get to road trip back to Utah with Cecilia. :)


Denny's gave a free Grandslam to every person in America on Tuesday. We were going to be a part of history in the making, but it was insanely crowded. So we took this picture and went somewhere else.



We wanted to go bowling, then we found this candlestick bowling alley. Its actually way hard. All of the pins are skinny and fall down easier, they don't get cleared from the lane after every ball, and you get 3 balls per turn. It sounds easy, but its not. I scored 54 the first time and 74 the second.



We were the only people in the whole place because it was snowing outside. Seriously, see a little white stuff and the world shuts down.


THIS WEEK:

Monday: Northampton (A), show at Hatfield Elementary.
Tuesday: Traveled to Framingham (B) and slept.
Wednesday: Performed in Wellesley (C) at Dana Hall which was swank, then traveled to Brockton (D) where we will sleep.
Thursday: 2 AM shows in North Easton (E), 1 afternoon show in North Dartmouth (F), then back to Brockton (D) to sleep.
Friday: No scheduled shows YET.
Saturday: Day off, Boston perhaps?
Sunday: Traveling from Brockton (G) to Rockville Centre, NY (H)

Another week goes by

This week:

I received pep talks from some of the most and least likely people.

I saw people cross country skiing on the sidewalk.

The lesson in Relief Society was "Super Soul Sunday" with a great analogy of the football and religion. QB=us, End Zone = Celestial Kingdom, Opponents = Satan, Teammates = Sisters, Game Plan = Plan of Salvation, Coach = Heavenly Father, Assistant Coach = Jesus. It was actually really cute.

I cried for the first time in months and felt so good after.

I found another awesome used book store and bought a book.

I didn't regret for a second my decision to become a stage manager or come to Massachusetts.