It's a Mad Extravaganza!!

The only thing better than a trip to the theatre, is a somewhat impromptu trip to the theatre! This morning, I hopped in my car, drove to my friend's house and continued on from there to Hollywood to see La Cage Aux Folles at the Pantages theatre. The Producers are right...no matter what you do on the stage, keep it light, keep it bright, keep it gay! There was so much fabulous, I don't even know where to begin!
I guess I'll begin with the only thing that was not-so-fabulous. George Hamilton cannot sing. Other things George Hamilton doesn't do well? Dance, enunciate, and have regular-human-colored skin (the man looks like an elderly Oompa Loompa!) He may have been decent if Christopher Sieber and Michael Lowney weren't such incredible singers. Other than Mr. Hamilton's sub-par vocals, I have nothing else to quasi-complain about! Our cheap seats did not come with a cheap view and everything was wonderful and full of theatre-magic! This show does not allow you simply spectate, the audience is a very important character in this show...and we all played our part serving as patrons of the club. The cagelles were ridiculously incredible. I swear, those guys are ten times better in heels than I will ever be! Michael Lowney (Jean-Michel) was very talented, and had a sort of swoon-y Jo-Bro quality about him (and so full of charm for a straight kid!) Christopher Sieber (Shrek: the Musical, Into the Woods, Spamalot, Pushing Daisies [Smell of Success], worked with Olsen twins, etc.) was HI-LAR-IOUS as Albin/Zaza! His range was just...wow! His timing was spot on! AND I got to meet him at the stage door after the show.

I even got an autograph...well, sort of:

I knew the Playbill would be black, so I brought a silver gel pen...just in case! Well, gel pens are unreliable, and the blasted thing didn't work. Bugger.

My favorite takeaway line from the show comes from Zaza's song I Am What I Am, which closes out the first act:

"Life's not worth a damn until you can say 'Hey world, I am what I am'"

And I truly believe that! You've got to be yourself! Don't let others tell you what you should or shouldn't be. Don't let anyone tell you you've got to hide!

And of course being what I am...I cannot have an adventure without acquiring one of these:

 

Don't be jealous of my Vanna White skills! (Or my jammies, which have pies on them.)

It's hard for me to say nice things about the Central Valley, it being so dreadfully hot and all...but it'd be hard to make a 12 hour round trip excursion to Hollywood (that includes taking in a show) from anywhere else...

I scream, you scream...

I love ice cream. I really really love it! One of the 'house rules' I had in my apartment was: if you want ice cream, you go get ice cream. (Some of the other rules included staying in jammies until at least 10 on Saturdays and never turning off the TV or changing the channel during a Law & Order: SVU marathon)

But...back to the ice cream thing. I really wanted ice cream tonight. I needed to work on church stuff, but I knew I wasn't going to get any real work done as long as I had ice cream on the brain. So I hopped in the car and drove myself to 31 Flavors. Let me tell you, 31 is a lot of flavors to have to chose from. I narrowed it down to two: cotton candy, and my 'usual' a flavor called icing on the cake. I couldn't choose. I 'eenie meenie miny moe-d', but ultimately, there was really only one right answer: both. Both was good. Both was the best decision I ever made without actually having to make a decision.

My life is exhilarating!

Chick Flicks and Disney Heroes!

This weekend I had a good old fashioned slumber party with some friends! We ended up watching Love, Actually (which is one chick flick I actually love!) and I really do feel like I should share the following paraphrased conversation...

KM: Wow, I never noticed before, but that guy is like the real-life version of Aladdin, maybe that's why I've always thought he was cute...because I love Aladdin!!

H: Oh my gosh, you're right...he is totally Aladdin!!

L: Aladdin is really cute for a cartoon character...but is it weird that the cartoon I always had a crush on was Robin Hood?

K: Yeah...I can see that!

H: Wait...wasn't he a fox?

L: Yeah he was!

(Then K high-fives L for her awesome taste in cartoon crushes!)

Then after much giggling and talking about boys we went to sleep.

After we woke up, lounged in jammies and finally got ready for the day we ended up going to see New Years Eve (aka the movie that every actor EVER has a part in)

It was pretty cute...the only part I really didn't like was the part where the rude teenagers sitting next to us were talking and not even trying to whisper.

One of my favorite actors, Matthew Broderick, had a tiny little cameo...which was made even better by the fact that his character's name was 'Mr. Buellerton'!!! Lea Michele (Glee) sang her little tush off, Ashton Kutcher played a version of himself, and there was a plot twist that I almost didn't see coming...

And the best part: Zefron!! I don't care how old I get, Zac Efron will always be dreamy!!

Today I Don't Feel Like Doing Anything

Sometimes I can be pretty lazy. I'm a procrastinator, and I hate chores. Far too often I have been known to spend a day in my jammies and watch TV and movies on the sofa all day long. Except for trips to the kitchen for food, and the occasional walk down the hall to the restroom, I rarely get up. I actually like lazy days...I catch up on 'my stories', spend quality time with my laptop and watch Penelope (or whatever, I just love that movie so much!). My tendency towards laziness drives my mother up the wall. She is one of those who is always moving and busy. Until Sunday. When she came down with a little cold. So she slept until nearly 10, stayed in her jammies and just rested on the couch all day long. Like, a good daughter I made her tea, brought her toast, and offered to sing 'Soft Kitty'. I didn't let her do any school work or house work. And you know what? At the end of the day she felt better. In fact, on Monday she told me that she felt better then she did before she got sick. She actually admitted that taking a lazy day helped her.

So...to that I say: Why do today what can so easily be done tomorrow?

Be lazy

Be refreshed!

I'm tired

...but not sleepy.
This has been a re-occuring problem for some time now. Part of it is work stress, I'm sure. I can't seem to stop thinking at night. I lie in my bed, listen to my fan and think. I think about things that I can't control, especially not at 1 o'clock in the morning. If I could take my brain out at night, that might help. Other than that, I don't know how to fix this problem. Two nights ago, I was in this same position. In my comfortable bed in my comfortable pajamas with my white noise at a very comfortable level and my comfortably dark, cool room. The conditions couldn't have been more conducive to a good night's sleep. But I couldn't get sleepy. So I decided to get up (at 2 am) make myself a cup of chamomile tea and watch Glee on DVD...I fell asleep on the couch. Maybe I should try sleeping on the couch every night, I mean, any sleep is better than none at all, even if couch sleep is pretty poor quality.
It's almost as if I'm becoming nocturnal, I get so sleepy during the days that I am tempted to take a nap on the sofa in my office, and some days I take a nap when I get home from work. Which just makes sleeping at night just that much harder. Which, in turn, makes getting up in the morning that much harder, which makes me so sleepy during the day that I need to take a nap when I get home...and the vicious cycle continues. I don't know what to do. I can't even talk to my mom about it, because she worries enough about me as it is. I don't need her to lose sleep over my loss of sleep. Her not sleeping isn't going to make it any easier for me, and I don't want to give her any more reasons to stress out about me, since I'm the more gray-hair inducing of my parents' children, they don't need to add my insomnia to the long list of reasons why I can't take care of myself.

I'm just so tired of being tired. I just want to sleep.
I've tried tea and tylenol PMs and if Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep and doesn't know where to find them, it's because I've counted them all, and Mary's Little Lamb, and every other sheep for that matter. So much fleece...