Couch Surfing......

So here I am back on fall tour.  Couch surfing my way to New England in the fall.  Yes, couch surfing.  This really neat website that you can go to and set up a profile and locate families or people across the country that have couches or beds available to crash on for a night or several.  For free.   I'm excited because it is a new show and a new part of the country that I've never been to before.  Neat.  I'm also sadly disappointed, or maybe the right word is jaded.  The shiny surface that once was touring for a year has now worn off and I'm left with the soon to be rusty underneath.  Not that I don't like my job.  It's just that I wish I could be in Minneapolis and do my job.  Traveling is hard.  It sucks, especially since my suitcase just broke.  Boo.  Of all the places I've seen and experienced, it makes me realize how much I miss Minneapolis.  Funny, whoever wrote/said, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder, " really hit the nail on the head.  I miss you all and thank you for supporting me through all of my misadventures.       

I'M COMING HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday we arrived back in Missoula.  Two of the longest days of my life.  We didn't even have it that bad.  Only 20 hours of driving compared to some groups who had several days or half a week of driving.  Still it was great to get to our hotel.  Then we had two days of check in.  Since Nicole and I are switching shows we had to do a complete check in.  Everything had to be inventoried, sorted, cleaned, repainted and stored.  Boo.  Too much work on too little of sleep and I just want to come home.  I'm super excited and I can't wait.  My flight leaves at 2:00pm tomorrow and then I have to drive back from Rochester to Minneapolis!!!!  I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!  AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!  See you soon!

The end is near.......

Home again, home again, lickity split.  Today is the last day of summer tour and I couldn't be more excited to be done for a bit.  I really love my job, but the endless weeks of loud children are wearing on me.  I need to sleep for about three days and then I think I'll feel better.  Today is also the last day that Nicole and I perform the show Hansel and Gretel.  We are switching shows come fall to The Princess and the Pea and we get to tour the east coast.  New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Canada to name just a few.  Tonight after the final show :( and :) at the same time, we drive to La Crosse and then by Tuesday night we will be back in Missoula, MT for check in and I'll be home by next Friday.  It has been a long summer and I'm in need of a vacation.  On Thursday our contact here in South Milwaukee took us to Jazz in the Park in downtown Milwaukee and it was amazing.  We had a picnic and there were a ton of people there groovin' to the live music.  I forgot how much I love live music, it makes my heart happy.  I'm very excited to be hanging out in Minneapolis for a while and I'm very anxious to see everyone!!!  

INTERNET!!!!!

You don't realize how much you use the internet until you can't use it anymore.  Nicole and I had an unbelievably amazing week in Manistique, MI.  The family we stayed with was AWESOME!!!!!  They included us in everything we had meals together, game nights, ice cream nights, nights with Grandparents and they even toured us out to the tourist spots in Manistique.  We had breakfast Tuesday morning with the local Kiwanis, the group that helped fundraise the money to bring us in.  Another great group of people.  Also that week in Manistique was the replica of the Vietnam wall. Very moving and eye opening.  It was indescribable how open and honest this family was.  It was really hard to leave on Sunday and drive to our next town.  Hartford, WI was pretty weird  after Manistique.  It was the first week that we had to cut kids.  That was really hard.  To see the faces of all the kids that didn't get cast was really sad and heartbreaking.  We did discover The Mineshaft.  A restaurant down town that had a game room upstairs where we earned tickets for cheap plastic prizes.  So of course we spent some money and won some tickets, had some fun and got some decorations for Frank, our truck.  In addition to the Mold-O-Rama items from the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI, he now has several plastic soldiers, jumping frogs, bouncy balls, and a plastic die.  Very much a lot of fun had at the Mineshaft in downtown Hartford, WI.  I'm ready to be done for awhile.  We have one week in Oconto Falls, WI and then our final week in South Milwaukee, WI.  Then we are done for two weeks and I get to come home!!!!!!  I can't wait.  

Boo.....

I really hate those people you meet in your life that think they know how to do everything better than you.  Those people who are on a high horse all the time, like they have something to prove or need to verify that theirs is the best.   I don't claim to be an expert on anything, but I do know my job and what I've been trained to do.  I just expect some professional respect.  You do your job and I'll do mine and let's not criticize each other about the way we do our respective jobs.  I just hate it when people try to tell me how to do my job, when I'm the one who was trained specifically to do my job and they were not.  Grrrr.

  

So just another interesting story that happened in Salem......

So you learn something new everyday.  On Tuesday of last week, Nicole and I learned a very valuable lesson.  So the space we were in in Salem, IL was an old converted theater.  It used to be an old movie theater and now it is a stage theater.  So on every single armrest is a cup holder shaped like a giant donut.  Instead of the newer ones that have an X thru the middle to prevent  your cup from falling this one simply had a smaller circle.  Needless to say it would hold a regular soda cup but not a Dixie.  Anyway, we had all of our kids seated in the chairs before rehearsal waiting for a few stragglers to come in when Joseph, one of our Nasties, he was 8, gets my attention.  I go over and he is near tears in a state of panic.  I ask what's wrong and he says his arm is stuck.  I then notice that he has stuck his arm THROUGH the cup holder up to his bicep and is now stuck.  I asked what happened and he said, in just a slightly twangy southern accent, "I was trying to show off and I got my arm stuck." I try to calm him down because now he has convinced himself that he will be stuck forever.  Joseph is 8 but not a petite 8 year old and in his panic to get free he is sweaty and his arm is starting to swell.  Thank heaven I put ice in my Nalgene that morning.  Nicole grabs my water bottle and I proceed to pour ice water onto his arm and into the cup holder.  At this point our contact Lisa is now calming him down and I'm trying to wiggle his arm free.  So long story short we get Joseph free and big cheers from everyone.  He was fine and only had a slight indentation on his bicep from the cup holder.  So lesson learned:  To remove a sweaty child's plump arm from a cup holder apply ice water and breathing techniques.  

P.S. The very next morning we arrive and Joseph proceeds to have a seat and immediately place both hands into the cup holders.  I go over to him and ask him if he remembers the lesson we learned yesterday about cup holders.  He replies again in a slightly twangy southern accent, "Yes, Ma'am, " and places both of his hands neatly in his lap.  

Sorry.....

For those of you who are diligently following my blog, my apologies.  Internet is hard to find on the road.  I'd go to a coffee shop that has free wi-fi, but most of the towns that we've been in don't even have coffee shops!!  I'm having an amazing time.  Last week we were in Salem Illinois and I have never been so hot in my life! ICK!!  We were in a really cool renovated old movie theater, but the air conditioning decided to stop working and it was at least 85 to 90 degrees the entire time we were there.  It was disgusting.  You literally just raise your arms above your head and you're soaked.  Dripping.  It was hardly worth taking a shower in the morning.  Ish.  I felt really bad for the kids on show day.  They finally got the air conditioning working before the first show, but then between the first and second shows something happened and it ended up being sweltering backstage for the kids.  They were exhausted, sweaty and encased from head to toe in polyester fabric.  I felt awful for them.  By the time the show was over they couldn't be happier that it was time to change.  We stayed with the most amazing couple.  Beve and Don.  They went out of their way to make sure that we had everything and I mean eerything was just how we needed it to be.  Beve cooked for us and Don grilled and they even took us out to breakfast on the day we were leaving.  Super sweet and it really felt like we were at home there.  It was really nice.  They also had a small lake just out their back door that we got to float on whenever we wanted to.  It amazes me that in the towns we go to there are people just waiting to open their doors to us.  It's crazy.  We are complete strangers to them and yet they open their homes and theaters to us with open arms.  I can't believe it.