the end: the beginning

Well, I'm a little late in posting, but tour ended April 12, 2012. It was a whirlwind!

Over Easter break we were in Macon, GA for four whole days, the longest time in one place the entire tour. Angelica's parents were in town and took some of us to church, out to a fabulous Italian buffet, and then back to the Georgia style mansion/bed & breakfast they were staying in. They served us sweet tea, mini quiche and cookies! What a perfect day.

Now that I'm back from tour, auditioning is a high priority (especially for another tour!), so I decided it would be best to move to NYC to be closer to everything. I love my apartment! I live with two fabulous girls in Hamilton Heights, and I'm getting acclimated pretty well.

Here are a couple of pictures of my room:

Hooray for under-the-bed storage!

Right now the desk is in the closet and I have an armoire outside my room, only temporary until we can get rid of the armoire and move my desk out there :)

It is small, but I love it. My dad came in and painted it this "sandstone" color instead of the hospital white semi-gloss they used before, which makes it much warmer and homier, and he helped hang all the pictures, so he gets the handy award for the day. Thanks Dad!

I may have a job subbing Zumba classes up in Inwood, so we'll see if that pans out. Meanwhile I have a few auditions coming up, maybe something will come of those :)

Anyway, life is changing. I loved tour and I'm so thankful for that experience and I hope to be out on the road again soon. To my "faithful three": you guys rock, thanks for following me through this experience and keeping up with my life out on the road. Only the Lord knows what's coming up next, and I can't wait to see what that is!

Mucho love,
g

The curse of Vegas...

It's been too long, y'all...

This is our third time in Vegas. Not a fan. The first time we went was quite an adventure, but the second time an 8 hour ride there turned into an 18 hour ride there because our bus broke down and a tire exploded (simultaneously). So this time around, after our bus getting a speeding ticket and me making Walter pull the bus over so I could take an emergency bathroom stop (something I ate?), I thought I'd stay in.

Let's back up. It's been almost a month since my last update, so I have a lot to cover. Yes, I take notes on the road so as to not forget anything.

Funny tidbit #1: we got stopped in New Mexico to make sure that we were all "U.S." and when we replied that we all were, he said to enjoy our "vacation." Had a good chuckle about that.

Then we made it to Montana, which was absolutely gorgeous! We stayed at the Dude Rancher in Billings twice throughout the week, which was quite a trip. There were cow branding symbols as the pattern on the wall-to-wall carpet throughout the hotel, if that gives you any indication.

After that, we went through Spokane, WA to get to Bellingham. I absolutely loved Spokane and I think when I get tired of the east coast, I'll move there. Anthony and I met 4 guys in a restaurant doing a Bible study, and we got to chat and pray with them, which was incredible, and totally what I needed! Such a great encouragement. The next morning, Laura Stracko (bus-buddy Laura, not roommate Laura) and I went to walk downtown. I had the best latte I've ever had in my life at the Rocket Bakery, and got to browse the sweetest bookstore called "Auntie's Books" and next door was "Uncle's Games"! Such an adorable little town. I got to see my Uncle Ted and Aunt Tonya and one of their daughters Jennifer in Bellingham after our show there. It's great to see family, and I'm glad that I had the freedom and time to get to see them, as that doesn't happen all the time.

Back through to Helena, MT (we don't exactly have a straight path around the country, we've covered lots of ground...twice) we had a half day. What a great adventure! The first night there, we played in the pool with some kid's swimmies, to be used as mini beach balls to keep off the water. It turned into quite an intense sport, very competitive. I think with the 8 or so of us in the pool, we hit it around 32 times without it hitting the water! It's the little things...The next morning Strack and I went to the "mall" (aka JCPenney and that's it) for a bit, and decided to go to the church that seemed a block away from the look of its' steeples. Thirty minutes later, we actually make it there and the sign says "weekday mass 9am and noon" and it was 12:30, so we thought we'd catch the second part of mass. It was such a beautiful church, famous in those parts, and we were excited to see the happenings there...however, it wasn't until they started praying for one person's soul and mentioning the luncheon afterwards in the fellowship hall to give condolences to the family, that was realized we crashed a funeral! Yikes. Definitely one for the books.

We also got to have lunch in Salt Lake City in the historic area of Sugar House. One of our reed players Jehiah grew up there and showed us around. I had a delicious spinach chicken alfredo bacon pizza at some little Italian place on the corner, and we got to take our first full group picture in front of some lady statue. That was of course the day that the bus broke down and we had to leave that bus, which my leftover pizza is still on. Gross. Oops!

The past few nights we've played in Arizona, and last night was amazing. Skip our music director from the NYC rehearsals came to visit and see the show, as well as Mama's friend Mary Jo from the good ole days of interpreting school, AND my costumer from Dirty Rotten Scoundrels! It was such a treat to see everyone and catch up with Mary Jo afterwards. We passed a "Hippie Cove" in Tempe whose music was blaring very loudly and she says "Hippies aren't loud!" She also wears dollar store reading glasses just like Mama does, which made me laugh. Miss you Mama!

And with this stop in Vegas and another stop back through Salt Lake City, we'll be on our way to a three show stint in Boise, Idaho on Tuesday. The craziness of the travel has taken it's toll on all of us, but what a great adventure to be on. I am so thankful for the awesome people I have met and the cool places I've been. 4 weeks left, and I'm gonna make 'em count!

viva las vegas!

Surfin U. S. A. is more like it! We had the longest travel section of our tour this past week, from Arkensas to Oregon! 40 hours of travel over 3 days was absolutely brutal. The first day we traveled from Alma, AR to New Mexico through the Texas panhandle. We stopped in Amarillo (shout out to my favorite Webb's who are from there!) and I had a delicious steak at "The Big Texan."

Day two we moved on to Las Vegas, Nevada. Boy was that an adventure! I went with several of the boys to the Bellagio for dinner (at 9pm when we got there) to a magical all-you-can-eat gourmet buffet! Yes, it was expensive, but man was it worth it! I ate roast pork, tortellini in a walnut pesto sauce, soft pretzel rolls, pineapple fried rice, pizza, gourmet cheeses, cheesecake, fruit torts, and my favorite: the raspberry sorbet! It was probably about a billion calories, but don't worry, we certainly walked it off! I think we covered between 4 and 5 miles going up and down the strip, seeing all the beautiful hotels, all the lights, the giant fountain display, and New York, New York! Who knew home was so close by! I didn't gamble (I spent enough money on food, certainly worth the entertainment value of gambling), but we had a lot of fun exploring until 2am. It's certainly not somewhere I'd ever want to live, and it all started to look the same after only a few hours, but I'm glad we went and I had a great time.

Day three was Valentine's Day! We spent just about all of it on the bus, but everyone did "Clueless Cupid," a Valentine's version of Secret Santa. I of course, drew Carl's name (if you don't know who he is, read previous posts). With a $10 limit, I could only do so much, but I ended up getting him a manicure multi-tool (as he is known to the entire cast as the "tool") inside a spider-man lunch box. If you read last week's post, you know how perfect that gift is. He absolutely loved it, and has since started using the lunch pail to put his knitting projects in. Yes he started knitting. Carl the tool. When we finally got off the bus, Stracko, Angelica and I went to the diner by the hotel and had a lovely ladies dinner and milkshakes to celebrate our survival of the longest bus trip ever.

The next day we traveled to Medford, Oregon for our first show in days, which was a little rusty at that point. Medford is absolutely beautiful, and a place I would consider moving to when I'm ancient with a million grandkids. We had dinner in a train-depot-turned-restaurant/bar, full of character, DELICIOUS food, and ridiculously low prices. All in all a successful journey to the west coast!

Tomorrow morning we're headed to a 5 show weekend in Reno, Nevada. Our first sit-down (three whole days in the same city!) since Newport News, VA a month ago. I'm scheduled for some serious understudy rehearsals during our downtime, so that should be a ton of fun!

Cheerio all, I'm off to bed to get some rest before heading out on the road again...

We're not in Kansas anymore...

Okay, I never was in Kansas. We just left Florida for good, and are currently in Mississippi. It's been so long since I've updated! We have done a LOT of one-nighters in a row, which doesn't leave a lot of time to sit and write, as I'm always either on a bus, doing a show, or discovering a new Catfish place miles from the hotel.

One thing I have thought about a few times that had never occurred to me that I might miss is driving. We are always on a bus, and I never have the freedom to really travel anywhere on my own other than walking. I miss my little stick-shift!

As Robbie (our conductor) was saying last night to me, and he's right, that the novelty of tour is wearing off and now we actually have to live it. I am still amazed at all the new places I see, all the traveling we do, and how well we all get along. But it's true. The moving into a new hotel every night, packing, unpacking, reorganizing, it's beginning to take it's toll. I have found a nice little routine I like, and I think tour life suits me well, though. The toughest part is food. There isn't a Whole Foods in middle-America for days, so sometimes fast food is all we have as an option. Bleh. We're all already sick of Denny's and Waffle House, which seem to be the only places to eat between here and Nevada. Keeping on the healthy bandwagon is difficult, but (aside from the cookies Dad sent), I'm doing alright.

During our three day trek to Oregon next week, we'll be doing an overnight in Vegas at the Hooter's Hotel. Yep. Just a warning, as I'm SURE that will come up in a future blog.

If you remember, last time I featured Carl in my blog. Well, he's up to crazy adventures again. The other night in Avon Park, FL we were staying in a gorgeous and quaint historic hotel with homemade quilts and settees and railroad bathrooms (my favorite so far, except for the gecko in my suite!), and he comes a-knockin on our door in a Spiderman unitard that he packed with him. Goodness knows why he thought it'd be useful, but it did give us a great laugh. Last night he stopped on our way to the Catfish place to pick up food, ate it on the way, had the buffet at Fat Baby's, and then went off to Wendy's. My stomach hurts just thinking about what he ate.

Alright, well we're near a Wal-mart today, so I think I'll take a trip over there to get some shampoo and lunch.

Also I wanted to add: thank you to those who do read this, it does mean a lot that you want to keep up with me on my adventures! However, it is lonely out on the road sometimes on those 10 hour bus rides, so any kind of email, text, whatever is always greatly appreciated! I miss y'all back home, don't forget about me :-P

Southern hospitality y'all!

Hey there y'all! It has been a while, and we have been super busy! Since Ohio we have been to western PA, Virginia, Florida, Alabama, and we're currently on our way back to Florida now for a show in Niceville tonight.

Sarasota was our best day so far. We got there early in the afternoon and walked in the downtown area by the beach until 3, and went to our hotel on the beach and swam in the warm pool until the show and walked around on the beach after the show as well. It was perfect!

I've decided the majority of this blog update should be dedicated to telling the world about someone on this tour with me, a boy named Carl.

Carl is 20 years old and this show was his first audition in NYC. He took off a semester at George Washington university studying mechanical engineering to take the tour. And he is a total tool. When he can't think of anything to ad lib on stage, he yells gibberish. On a lunch break he got his eyebrows waxed. At the pool in Sarasota he tried to give his swim trunks to someone else because he had a speedo underneath just incase. And most recently he bought two meals at a Chinese restaurant because they were only $4. He also is going to buy Rosetta stone so he can learn Swedish, mandarin, and Russian. I'm pretty sure he was a cheerleader at one point. And he makes a mean general tso's chicken when he's at home. Nevertheless, he makes all of us laugh and after we went to mcdonalds and got a sundae, mcflurry, AND a mocha frap for free today because of mistakes, I decided Carl should be a feature in the blog.

He's certainly an odd duck, but we all love him and his never ending ability to make us laugh.

On another note, it is lonely out on the road sometimes, and mail is always appreciated! Please ask for my address on the road if you are interested in sending me some love.

Alright, I guess I should get my act together, I'm in Niceville after all...

From NY to OH

I am currently posting from a hotel in Elyria Ohio in the laundry room (gotta do it when you can). Things are going well overall. The bus trips are really long, I'm going to need to find another outlet of activity besides reading, words with friends, and angry birds. But I have a few funny stories to share.

I had a dream the other night that one of the boys I the casts's brother was trying to kill me, and in the dream I was trying to tell him that his bro had it in for me, it I couldn't ever talk to him because he was out playing kickball with everyone in the snowy landscape overlooking the river to Canada. So when I awoke, I thought it was real, and right at that time I heard the guy's voice outside my room as he was walking by, I ran out to tell him that his brother was a soon-to-be murderer, and as I watched his face contort in confusion, I finally realized it was a dream. Needless to say I freaked the poor fellow out a little bit. But have no fear everyone, I am still alive and well!

Also, one of the band members has started up something called "secret mijo". The mijo is a little Mexican leprechaun (Yep.) who gives little gifts to random people as he sees fit. So you buy little gifts for someone and sing the secret mijo song (yes there's a song) and give them the gift. A cute way to keep things fresh on long bus rides.

There are also a few of us who have started a bible study, which I think I am going to really enjoy.

Anyway, tomorrow we're off to western PA before we head to VA and beyond!

Mucho secret mijo love,
G

Another opening...

Tomorrow is finally opening day! It has been quite the whirlwind adventure. The show will be awesome, although in the grand scheme of things, I think I'm in four scenes, so I'm feeling a bit useless and insignificant... But as a whole I really like the whole thing. I'm having some issues with some people, but I'm just trying to love on them more. We've been having mostly 13 hour days this week, which has run us down a lot, but that's given me a lot of opportunity to bond with everybody.

I'm rambling because it's midnight of our last day of tech... I'll update more later...

Love you all, my faithful three.