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...

Adventure Weekend Part I: Hip-Hooray for Hollywood!

It really is true what they say: 'When it rains, it pours!' Luckily, I love the rain...especially when 'rain' is a metaphor for out-of-town adventures!!
This past weekend I ventured over the grapevine for the second time this month (two weeks in a row!) This time, not only did I have a travel-buddy...but I was also relieved of any and all driving responsibility. I literally didn't have to do anything but sit back and enjoy the ride! And enjoy it I did!! A good friend and some good music and we arrived in no time! Our destination: Jess's apartment!
Jess had a beach day planned...so after getting settled, and gathering our beach gear we were off to Malibu...but it wasn't nearly as warm as we were expecting (but that didn't stop us from having fun!)
We decided to leave the beach and head back for a little tourist action. Jess lives pretty close to Hollywood, so after she gave us a tour of the studio she works for...we headed into Tinseltown.
I had seen parts of the Walk of Fame before...but it's always exciting to look for your favorite star's star!

'The Producers' have adjacent stars!!

We wandered down the boulevard a bit and all of a sudden there it was:

Grauman's Chinese Theatre!! 

It is so much fun to see all the hand, foot (and sometimes hoof) prints of so many movie legends. I was having a hard time containing my excitement...I mean, almost all my favorites were there: Doris, Bing, Julie, Dick, Danny, Frank, Johnny, Rock...and then there were these three:

The hand, foot & wand prints of Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe & Rupert Grint (aka Hermione Granger, Harry Potter & Ron Weasley!)

The newest addition to my personal Walk of Fame mug collection

We ended the night with delicious burgers at Mel's Drive In...
...the weekend was much too busy to contain to one post, the adventure will continue in part II

Through the river and over the woods...

It has been raining here for, like, a week straight! The sun finally came out today, and it was beautiful!! (I was secretly hoping for a double rainbow, but the rain stopped shortly after the sun came out...) I've never seen rain like this before, it was incredible!! A little ridiculous, but mostly incredible!!
The next few days are supposed to be sunny, or at least not rainy, for the next few days...but I'm not going to be here. I'm flying to my grandma's for Christmas...the best part is going to be the 4 adults in a Prius road tripping from the Sac airport to grandma's house...and I can't WAIT!! Mostly because my family is CRAZY!!!. First off, 16 people over for Christmas. 5 cousins, 2 aunts, 2 uncles, 3 dogs, 2 cats, 1 step-cousin, 1 cousin-in-law, 2 parents, 1 sister and a grandma who says and does things mostly because she's old and no one is going to say anything back. I will give an example: My grandma came in September and tried to give me money. I told her no. I refused to take it. So what did grandma do? She stuffed it down my shirt!!...yes, apparently, my grandma thinks I'm a stripper. She also says stuff like "Because you'll want to go to church on Christmas eve, I should probably start going again so they remember what I look like there." Oh, grandma...
I am so ready for this crazy to happen!! Bring it on, Christmas, bring it on!!!

But first, I should probably pack!


The picture I'm sending with all my Christmas cards next year...I hope your Christmas is as awkward as mine!!

My parents went on vacation and all I got was...

...about a week's worth of cheesy souvenir mugs!
Introduction to 'theme within a theme'...the next four days will be the mugs my parents brought me back from the road trip they took last summer. I don't remember what they brought back for my sister, but it was probably something that was 4-mugs worth of non-cheesiness.
I kinda like these mugs though...in a quirky kind of way. They remind me of something you'd see at grandma's house (probably not my grandma...but a grandma.)
This one is from Wyoming. It has a wolf on one side that I wasn't able to capture the awesome-ness of with my camera, so I decided to just not bother and stick with the the caribou or moose or whatever on the 'right-handed' side of the mug.

Also, a thought struck me this morning as I was making my coffee...
I wish everything in life was like coffee filters. I mean, you can buy a package of 200 for, like, $1.75...and you know how long it takes to go through 200 coffee filters...almost a year. I can spend $1.75 on something that lasts almost a year.