Stuck with a Bunch of Truckers

This past week, my family and I were on vacation at Disneyland Resort. After five days of utter bliss, we set out for home yesterday.

We were trying to beat the storm moving down from the north.

...we lost the race.

Now here I am, sitting in a hotel in Corning, California. We spent the night here last night, thinking that the roads home would be clear of snow in the morning and we'd be able to get home.

Well, no such luck.


Have you ever spent a whole day at a hotel in the middle of nowhere?


You haven't? Well, I don't recommend it. 

At least I have internet connection, right? Even if it's spotty at best, it's something...

This morning I spent four hours downstairs in the breakfast area eating biscuits, drinking apple juice, and going to every social media site I'm on while listening to the football game and the truckers in the background.

It turns out that our path home AND the grapevine (the main road to LA) are both snowed out and closed. Which is ironic because out my window is a perfectly blue sky with not a single cloud... but I digress.

What else is there to do though? There's a Subway in the truck stop across the street... nah. I could always upload some pictures or videos from our trip, or watch videos here, or watch videos there, or...

Or listen to Emma and Mom have a debate on what kind of coffee is better.

Wait... now they're on to which fast food restaurant has the best soda.

ANYWAY, while we and a bunch of truckers are stuck here in Corning, ya'll are stuck back at home with an early white Christmas.

Take a picture for me. :)

So How's Your Week Been?

A week has passed since the show closed.

A WEEK.

Weird, huh? One of the busiest weeks of the year and then after... nothing.

But I have to admit, for the showing being over, my week was still pretty awesome and "Journey-filled" :)


The court scene in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

At this time last week, I had just closed the show, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. With ten shows under my belt, it's hard to just pick one but... I think this might be my favorite show I've done :) Everything about it was great; rehearsals were a blast, the show turned out amazing, and I became much better friends with my cast mates than I was before.


 Then last Thursday was the end of term showcase for our Journey classes. The drama and musical theater classes were really good, Improv class was hilarious, and dance (my class) rocked it!

Friday was the pirate themed Director's Event. About 18 kids from cast, plus almost our whole Artistic Team got together to eat a BBQ dinner, play a hilarious round of Mad Libs, and watch the show. I can't stop thinking about how fun that night was :D

Saturday, the TREK (Teens Reaching out to Expand the Kingdom) leadership team went bowling to celebrate the end of a sucessful term of serving the community. We had led a diaper/underwear/sock drive to help out Northwest Children's Outreach, a local organization that provides clothes and toiletries to the needy.


And now, I am getting ready to leave for Disneyland on Thanksgiving. It seems crazy that I'll be out of state just two weeks after I closed my latest show... sounds like a packed out schedule! But I guess it's not as crazy sounding as leaving the country after just a week (like someone I know... :P)

Well, enough blogging. Time to get back to... packing? Nah... burning DVDs of showcase for people that bought them last Thursday.

I've always got Journey on the brain.

And I like it that way :)

It's Go Time!

If you were to see me right now -- listening to Taylor Swift, writing for NaNoWriMo, and waiting for Agents of SHIELD to come on -- you'd never think that the next week will be the busiest week of the year for me and my family.

Well... it is. :)

Tomorrow starts 13 days of Journey in a row. Journey being Journey Theater Arts Group.

Every day for the next 13 days, I will be doing something relating to Journey; whether it be going to a show, visiting a school for a docent speech, performing my own show, and working with my fellow TREK members to donate items to Northwest Children's Outreach.

Here's an overview of what I'll be doing over the next 13 days.

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Day 1: Wednesday, November 6th. Mom, Emma, and I will be going to see the 11:45am showing of The Phantom Tollbooth performed by Journey Vancouver in Fort Vancouver High School. I read the book a while ago and enjoyed it and it's also  one of Emma's favorite books. I can't wait to see it performed on stage! After that, we're coming back down here to Hillsboro and we're going to go around to fast food restaurants and nail down what the artistic team of our show will be eating for their dinners every day of show week. I love behind the scene work like that!!

Day 2: Thursday, November 7th. Emma and I will be taking an early step into character by donning our costumes and makeup and going to Life Christian School with our mom to tell the 3rd grade class about The Adventures of Tom Sawyer! Whenever we visit schools in costume, we show the class(es) that we visit a little sneak peak of a song or dance from the show. This time, we've decided to sing the very opening of the show... 20 seconds of "Ain't Life Fine" in harmony! We've had this job for seven shows, including this one. Oh, also Thursday night we have our Journey classes... Emma's in Improv and I'm in Dancing Through the Decades!

Day 3: Friday, November 8th. Before rehearsal, I have a TREK meeting with Rachel and Andee to put together our schedule for the next day's meeting with everyone. After that... Full Show Run Through! The show is coming along GREAT!

Day 4: Saturday, November 9th. Our last rehearsal! Exciting, yet... sad. That means that we only have one week left, then Journey will practically be over and we won't get to see each other again until the new year.

Day 5: Sunday, November 10th. MOVE IN!!!! The day we finally get to see everything put together! Sets, props, costumes, lighting, and of course the actors all come together on one stage at the same time. This is when we start noticing the little things that we didn't know were a problem until we get in the theater. Long skirts and lots of stairs... hope no one trips this week!

Day 6: Monday, November 11th. Our first official dress rehearsal, even though we should have gotten through most of the show yesterday. Should be a clean-ish run with minimal stopping to fix anything.

Day 7: Tuesday, November 12th. Running the show again; trying to get all the light changes and music cues perfect. There's a ton of background music in this show!

Day 8: Wednesday, November 13th. Hopefully, this day will feel like just a formality because we'll have the show down perfectly! And when we leave rehearsal, it's straight to bed for....

Day 9: Thursday, November 14th. School shows!! We have two; one at 9:30 and the other at 11:45. Hopefully, since the show is only 90 minutes, we won't have to cut anything for school day shows. That's always stressful, trying to remember what we did and didn't cut. After that is group pictures and then home to rest.

Day 10: Friday, November 15th. It's Opening Night!! The day has finally come! All the hard work that we've put in for the past six weeks has all come down to this... our performance weekend! After the show at seven, we'll head to Burgerville for our opening night party. Always a blast!

Day 11: Saturday, November 16th. Two shows today. Two!! One at three o'clock then we have a dinner break until our next show at seven p.m. that night. Only one more to go!

Day 12: Sunday, November 17th. A happy, yet very depressing day. It's our last show. It's about time to say good bye to the people we almost call family. At least, good bye for now. There's always the next show... which I am definitely auditioning for! But it doesn't matter how many shows there are in the future... this is the last time you'll perform this show with these people. So even though it's almost time for the strike party, don't forget to be the best you can be in this last performance. You don't want to look back later and think, "if only I'd done a little better. Then I'd be happy with it." Our last event with cast and crew is the Strike Party, following the show and cleanup of the theater.

Day 13: Monday, November 18th. Usually the day after a show closes, I crash on the couch and sleep for 24 hours. This time though, I have the opportunity to serve alongside my fellow TREK members (or TREKkies, if you're that kind of awesome person). We will be taking the new packages of underwear, socks, and diapers that we collected last Thursday to Northwest Children's Outreach. I bet we'll have a lot to give them!!

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So that's what's happening to me in the next week.

And I gotta say... I'm pretty darn excited!

November is a Month without Weekends

Usually on the weekends you get to chill at home, go to church, maybe clean the house, and relax after a packed and stressful week.

But for me, November will be a month without relaxation on the weekends.

And (contrary to popular belief) I'm not complaining!

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This month I have two major things going on. And one awesome thing that leads into December :)


1. National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)

November is National Novel Writing Month (as well as no-shave-November and NaBloPoMo, but I won't go into those...)

Starting November 1st (today!!), people all over the world write as fast as they can and try to reach the 50k words goal before the end of the month.

I tried it last year... and failed miserably. Then this past July (for CampNaNoWriMo) I teamed up with my sister and friend and we acted as each other accountability partners. We checked in with and encouraged each other everyday. Whenever one of us got stuck in our story, the other two gave suggestions until we were back on our feet and writing again. By July 31st, we had all completed our novels!

There are some little prizes you can win for reaching 50k in November, but the real prize is setting a big goal for yourself and knowing that YOU finished it!

This November, I'll be writing a sequel (Stranger Tides) to the book I wrote in July (The Quest). I have a rough outline of the plot, a little head start on the story, and all the twists and dramatic changes mapped out. I'm good to go! :)


2. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

This is a big deal guys! Even though this is my tenth show with Journey, the commitment is still just as big. By November 10th, the day we move into the theater, we've had six week of preparation.

4 hours Friday nights, 4 hours Saturday mornings... that's only 48 hours of rehearsal before we get to the theater!

This may seem crazy, but we do it! Like everyone on cast, I spend a lot of time at home practicing songs, memorizing lines, and running dances. We all have to work as a team to make this show the best it can be.

Even though there are only kids on stage, parents put a LOT of work into this as well. Props, sets, costumes... all of these things have been in making (or finding) since the first rehearsal. Parents are assigned to committees and they find everything we need for the show! So when you come to see it (which you will! Buy tickets here.) remember that you're not only applauding for the cast and crew, but for all the parents that made this amazing show possible.


3. Disneyland - Trip Six!
Yep :)

Ok, maybe this isn't an after-school or extra-curricular activity, but it's spending time with family which is just as important.

Here's a recap of our first five trips to Disneyland, in case you were wondering :)

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So as you can see, in November I don't have a lot of time to relax.

But gosh, now that I look it... this IS how I relax! I write, I perform, I create, and I spend time with my awesome family :)


Have a great November!!

Seattle Trip with the Theater Peeps!

I've only been to Seattle a few times, once to head on a cruise to Alaska, once on our way to Victotia, Canada, and several times as part of the Schools on Trains program with Amtrack. 

We usually go up and hang out with some of our homeschool friends, but this time was a little different...

 

Photo cred: Andee Zomerman

Theater geeks/homeschoolers unite! Here you see about one forth of the cast of Journey Theater's upcoming production of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer! :)

From left to right: Mrs. Sprague, Johnny Miller, Faith Harper, Widow Douglas (me!), Ben Rogers, and Mrs. Harper (and Narrator).



The train left at 8:00am for the four and a bit hour trip up to Seattle. We managed to grab the cool seats on the train: instead of four rows of two chairs all facing the same way, two of our rows faced the back of the train so we could sit in groups of four facing each other and talk.

We talked about Journey, Disney, Comic Con, and what we would do in Seattle that day.  The Lindleys, Hardmans, and Zomermans decided to hang as a group. We finally chose to walk down to Pike Place Market, find some lunch, then on the way back to the train we'd stop by the library.

Or course, as soon as we got to Seattle and started walking through town, it started to sprinkle.

Then rain.

Then POUR.

It felt like we walked for miles! It was really just about half a mile, but you try walking through the pouring rain in a town you don't know well.


Anyway, we hid under our hoods, stuck together, and managed to survive the down pour :)







We finally made it to Pike Place Market, but we decided to eat lunch at a sit down restaurant rather than walk around the market and try to find random things to eat.

I wanted to go to Red Robin, but everyone kept shouting me down. Can't imagine why... something about there being one in Oregon so it's not as cool? :)

We ran once more through the rain over to Hard Rock Café. All of us kids order off the kids menu because it was just easier to read then the adult one. I ordered the fried chicken wings with fries and ranch for dipping sauce.

By the time we finished lunch, it had finally stopped raining! We walked back over to Pike Place Market. We browsed the different stands, watched them throw fish across the room, and generally tried not to lose each other in the crowds.

Around 2:30 we popped out by the original Starbucks. You can't go to Seattle without visiting it, so we stopped by and each order a drink. I got a small Double Chocolaty Chip Frappuccino. Mmmm, so good!



By the way, did you know that the Starbucks logo is actually a mermaid with two tails?

Yeah, I didn't know that either until this trip...

I also didn't know why it's called Pike Place Market. But, you know, that's just me being me.


We wander around the market area for while. We found this guy that could play the accordion really well and it made me want to dance! Oh, we also went to see the gum wall.

I'm sorry, but that place is just disgusting...

And the smell? Yeah, ok... let's just not talk about it.


We started to head back for the train station at 3:30. On our way back, we stopped by the library for something I was really looking forward to! The four of us (Lindley girls and Zomerman girls) ran around the children's section and found all the books that go with all the Journey shows we've been in!



Photo cred: Andee Zomerman

It was awesome! Charlotte's Web through Tom Sawyer... we found them all! We even found a stuffed Cat in the Hat and Horton to go along with our Seuss books!

We made it back to the train station with half an hour to spare before we left! We passed the time by singing the cup song and making up harmonies on the spot. I guess that's what happens when you get theater geeks together :)

We boarded the Amtrak train at five and were soon on our way home. It was a long four hours, but we passed the time by visiting the dining car, keeping the younger ones of the party awake, and talking about Journey (or course!!).


The train pulled in early at 8:30pm, we said goodbye to our friends, and we were home by nine!

Definitely a wonderful, action packed day! :D

Pre-Audition Jitters?

[Note: All my facts about the audition experience come from Journey Theater Arts Group since that's the only theater group I've ever been with.]

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If you're a theater person, you know exactly what I mean.

You've been practicing your intro and audition song for weeks (hopefully), asking your friends if they're auditioning, reading up on the show, and trying to think of anything but that minute and a half when you'll stand in front of a room full of people by yourself and try to earn a spot in the show. In a word, terrifying.

That being said, I have my tenth audition coming up this Friday.


Oh, and in case your wondering, the sixty seconds right before you walk up to sing are just as terrifying the tenth time as they are the first time.


I have heard people say countless times, "Wow, I could never perform in front of four hundred people! No way!" But in reality, we find it a lot easier singing solo in front for four hundred strangers rather than forty friends.

This is the way I used to explain it: "If I mess up in front of strangers, odds are I'll never see them again so it doesn't matter. If I mess up in front of friends, I'll have to live with it forever."


Of course, now I realize that whole idea is kind of ridiculous. You should strive to never mess up, no matter who you're performing in front of.


And if we can't sing, act, or dance well in front of someone we know, how can we be told ways to improve? Face the audience here, pronounce this word this way, you're doing a dance step backwards... all these things we can't figure out by ourselves. We need our parents, our friends, and our directors to help us out and make our performance the best that it can be!

Ok, mostly just our directors at JTAG... but you get the idea.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that we shouldn't be afraid to sing solo for a minute in front of people that love us, support us, and want to see us do our best.

How Much Do You Smile?

This morning when I fell out of bed and stumbled downstairs, my mom had Good Morning America on. Just as I plopped down on the couch it went to commercial.

Not that I really cared that much... I was still half asleep and who likes the news anyway? But then the commercial caught my attention:

"The average person smiles 100 hundred times a day. Keep your smile clean with our new mouth wash!"

100 times, huh? I thought. 100 separate smiles... Well, I seem like an overly happy person sometimes. I wonder how many times I smile in day.

So I decided to count.

~~~

[Here's a word of advice. If you're trying to count how many times you smile naturally, don't think about smiling. It makes you want to smile.]

So I got up at eight o'clock this morning. (stop laughing! that's early for me!) We started school around nine with history, physics, literature, grammar, and vocabulary. I was up to about 55 smiles by this point.

Then I went upstairs to watch a video about personal finance by Dave Ramsey.

Needless to say, I'm now up to 79 smiles :) whoops, make that 80.

Dum de da de dum, now lunch time is done. Hot dogs and hamburger buns... that was fun to figure out! 93 smiles so far.

Continuing with school: Some art talk and I read a chapter from Chad Eastham book "The Truth about Dating..." et cetera. Gosh that book has a long name... it makes me smile just thinking about it! Speaking of smiling, I'm up to 107 smiles!

~~~

Wait a second... 107? I've already smiled 100 times today!! And it's only... 2:50 in the afternoon!

Well, I'd have to say I'm not the average person then... and really, who is? You can't generalize people that way. We're all unique. Some people may smile 300 times a day, some only 50 times, maybe some don't smile at all.

And there are different kinds of smiles: Big smiles, small smiles, shy smiles, happy smiles, rude smirks, and the polite I'm-smiling-but-I-don't-really-mean-it smile. It depends on who the person is and what they are feeling.

Then again, you can choose to smile... you can choose to be happy, right?


I really hope you're agreeing with me right now...


Say YES!!! Because you CAN choose to be happy! I don't understand how people can be grumpy or mad about nothing and say "Well it's not my fault that I'm mad!"

Sorry, but yes. It is your fault. Because you chose to feel that way.

Ok, example time... Say someone cuts in line ahead of you to check out at the store. You have three options:

1) Tap them on the shoulder, explain that you were already in line and that they cut in front of you, and ask them to move behind you in line. You'll probably be slightly annoyed all day.
2) Stare at them for a moment, sigh heavily, slouch against your cart and face-palm, and keep sighing heavily as they take forever checking out, trying to make it obvious how annoyed you are. Now for the rest of the day you'll notice every little thing that could every possibly annoy you.
3) Either you wait patiently for your turn to check out or you shrug and move over to the empty line next door where you have a nice chat with the friendly cashier about nothing in particular, and it leaves you in a happy mood.

Everyone should fit into one of those categories. Personal, I consider myself an option 3 kind of person and I know plenty of people that would be right there with me. I have known some that would be option 1 and just a couple that would definitely be option 2... but that doesn't matter right now.

What matters is, you have the power to decide what you feel about anything that happens to you.



Even if you have to be this guy, the only happy person in a room of rude, depressed, and angry people, be the one that starts the happy party!!




Now I'd like to challenge you. How many times do you smile?

Seriously, count. It's just one day. Make dashes on a paper if you have to.

When you're done, it'll makes you think about how many times you've been happy and how my times you could have been happy but you chose to feel differently.

Good luck :)

SMILE!!!