The Final Countdown

Today is my last full work day prior to the wedding. ACK! I don’t have that many things left to do, but I’m still a little anxious. That’s just my way. For example, one time, even though I had completely finished the run of a show, I had dreams for weeks afterwards that just as I was about to go on, I looked down to find I hadn’t brought any of my shoes with me. NO SHOES! Luckily, I took my wedding shoes to LaGrange last weekend, so this should be a non-issue. AND, as we’re leaving for the honeymoon on Monday and will be gone about a week, I probably won’t be posting again until October 5! It’s not that I’ll be too busy, I really just don’t think we’ll have internet there. Oh, well! Anyways, just thought I’d leave you guys this awesome video as a kind of “until we meet again…”



Bride and Prejudice

I will do a lot of things just for the experience a/o story. I feel like this makes me more adventurous than I otherwise would be because if given a choice based on my real preference, I would always choose to stay in my comfort zone. To not do/experience whatever is being offered because I’m lazy. BUT, in the interest of living a more interesting life, I make a concerted effort to say yes to experiences that seem unusual, typically trying to say yes early so I’m unable to back out later. This has led to a number of awkward meals and random excursions—I love the line in 30 Rock in which a guest star warns Liz to “never follow a hippie to a second location”—but for the most part, things usually turn out fine and I have a richer life because of it.

That’s how I ended up in a Bollywood-style dancing class last Saturday at my local library. I was just there to drop off some books, when I noticed a flier announcing some upcoming events. Typically, these advertised events are ESL classes or volunteer tax help—nothing I’m too interested in. But then I saw that they were starting to offer Bollywood dancing classes “for fitness”, and it would be starting that very Saturday at 11 a.m. I looked at the clock; it was 10:58. It was fate.

The class was hilarious. The teacher was 4’10” and between 16 and 26 years old. (There was no way to know.) I was the youngest participant there by 30 years, which was extra awesome because there was a lot of hip thrusting and shoulder shimmying. The teacher shouted encouragements with a heavy accent and some unusual phrasings, i.e. “make around” for turn around. “Come on! You are sexy! Shake your butt!” It was what I imagine a Bollywood-themed Zumba class might be—a lot of jumping around mixed in with some generalized culturally-based dance moves. There were also several musical theatre-style elements thrown in, e.g. jazz hands, which you guys know I love. Seriously, if I didn’t have all this wedding/honeymoon nonsense coming up, I would definitely go back.

What about you? Do you ever do things just for the story?

Summer Reading Wrap-Up/"Back to School" Reading

What did I read? Not everything on my list, so fail. But I did read some other stuff, and with my honeymoon coming up in three weeks, I feel like I’m going to get a lot of reading done. (I’m dead serious on this one—I’ll be at the beach!)

1.           A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, which won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (Boo-yah!)

2.           The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls, a memoir

3.           American Pastoral by Philip Roth, a novel (PR is the best.)

4.           To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis, an award-winning “comic science fiction novel”

5.           The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, supposedly phenomenal non-fiction work [in my defense, I am on the waiting list for this at the library!!]

6.           Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome, idyllic children’s adventure book

7.           Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, which I’ve been meaning to read for years

8.           A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire Book #4

9.           Forever by Maggie Stiefvater, like Twilight but well-written?

10.        Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris, Sookie Stackhouse Book #11 (Seriously, stop judging me.)

Extra Credit (what I did read even though it wasn’t on this list):

·         Bloodroot, Amy Green—pretty good

·         Columbine, Dave Cullen—very good

·         Outlander, Diana Gabaldon—good enough, but I should get extra extra credit for this because it was 688 pages long!

·         Kill the Messenger, Tami Hoag—lame

·         Mistress of the Art of Death, Ariana Franklin—good enough

·         The Sherlockian, Graham Moore—good enough

I am now moving all the remaining titles on my Summer reading list to my Fall reading list except #6, which I feel is more of a summertime book. As previously discussed, #8 was good, and I am halfway through the next book in the series. I do not recommend #10. I think I am over these. I always knew they were lame, but as I’m looking at this list knowing that I read that book and literally have no idea what happened, I think it’s safe to say I should stop reading them.

New goal: focus more on stuff I want to read instead of random stuff I find available in the audiobook section of the library. That section helps me get through more books, but it’s obviously limiting the quality of my choices.

FALL READING 2011—Now through Thanksgiving weekend

1.       The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls, a memoir

2.       American Pastoral by Philip Roth, a novel (PR is the best.)

3.       To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis, an award-winning “comic science fiction novel”

4.       The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, supposedly phenomenal non-fiction work [in my defense, I am on the waiting list for this at the library!!]

5.       Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, which I’ve been meaning to read for years

6.       Forever by Maggie Stiefvater, like Twilight but well-written?
**      Possible additions:
                Ready, Player One
                The Tiger's Wife

Did you get through the books you wanted to read? Are you looking forward to anything coming up/do you have any recommendations for me?

There’s No Time. There’s Never Any Time!

Where are my manners? I can’t believe it’s been more than a week since I last posted. I will blame it on all the wedding-related stuff I’m trying to knock out every night when I get home. I don’t have that much to do, but ideally, I’d like to have almost nothing left to still be stressing over by the time it actually gets here. Like performing in one of my shows, I want to have learned all my lines and where I need to stand, so that all I have to do opening night is throw on my outfit, put on my makeup, and do it. So far, I have not succumbed to craziness (specifically related to weddings), which I think is a very good sign—particularly with fewer than three weeks to go [minor ACK].

Related to this, I baked approximately one million cookies this weekend, vacuum-sealed them, and put them in the freezer for possible favors. I say possible, because if I sample one the day before, and it tastes like I vacuum-sealed then froze it, they will not be given as favors. I would say that at that point they would all go in the trash, but JP will probably eat them either way.

I also had a MAC artist do my makeup on Friday so I could see if I needed any additional products (I’m doing it myself the big day because let’s just say LaGrange is not overrun with makeup artists). I thought it looked pretty good when I left, albeit a little dramatic. JP confirmed this when he said, “Oh my gosh. You look nuts. Umm…Lady Gaga called and she wants her eyelashes back.” Obviously, the fake lashes the girl at the store put on me were too much, and they have since been removed to my theater makeup kit (where I feel they will be more appropriate). He also compared me to a drag queen. No good.

What I wanted to look like.

What John Paul said I looked like.

ALSO, here is the blog post our photographers did on our engagement shoot. Some of them are weird, but mostly they are cute.

Sorry for all the wedding stuff, though! It’s all just hanging out in my head and making it hard for me to think about other things. Not too long now!

Thoughts? Words of wisdom?