So, I Went to France

We were in Paris for the last week or so. We saw all the important sites plus some really beautiful country villages. It was a great vacation and I'm glad I got to experience it, especially with my lovely husband. It was hella expensive, but it's a place that people should go to at least once in their life. I have to admit though, I didn't fall in love with Paris. All the great tourist sites (Eiffel Tower, Versailles, Champs Elysees) were so packed with tourists, they were almost not enjoyable. We could barely move at all (except for the sudden shoves by hoards of people trying to push through) at Versailles and it made me resent the tour instead of enjoying the beautiful palace.

The local Parisians hardly smiled and seemed as though they didn't much enjoy life. Eating seemed to always be a hassle whether it was getting a table, getting waiting on, getting correct food, getting the bill or simply eating food that wasn't quite what I was expecting for Paris. I spoke ok French, but found that although I could speak and read it, I couldn't understand it for crap. They would talk so fast, that I simply couldn't keep up. There was 1 waiter that we had that only spoke to us in short simple French and I understood every word - god bless him.

What I did love about Paris was that every building, everywhere you went was carefully and meticulously crafted. Beautiful architecture surrounds you everywhere you go. And since we went in May, the gardens were in full bloom. I adore flowers and it was wondrous to always be around gorgeous flowers. I also loved the countryside. The villages are far more charming than Paris. Not only do they have a much slower pace, but they are quaint and far more beautiful. I also really enjoyed going to the French Open. I had never been to a tennis match before and to attend one of the Grand Slam tournaments was awesome. Although I was freezing the entire time, I think I found a new love for tennis!

What I have always known about me, was confirmed on this trip: I'm not a good traveler. I do just fine for a few days, but then it starts to wear on me. I lose interest in doing things and would much rather just hang out in the hotel room all day until we go home. I also find that instead of relaxing and enjoying myself, I get even more stressed. Stressed about money, stressed about transportation, stressed that I'm going to do something wrong and offend someone or get lost, stressed that I have to be responsible for planning things, stressed about returning to a mountain of work...ugh, just stressed in general! And it's especially worse when I travel to large cities. I long for suburbia - and yes, I know how crazy that sounds, but I really do. If I could vacation in a Target or a Chili's I'd probably be just fine. I do know that the next vacation we take will be to an all inclusive resort that picks us up from the airport, feeds us and just lets us lay on a beach all day. A vacation of mindless nothing-ness - sounds good to me.

Festival Update

Well...we didn't win and I'm actually very glad. It was enough of a headache planning a trip to Utah, and I did not want to do that again for Tacoma.

If you read the below post, you will see that the organization of this festival was a piece of crap. Once we got there...well nothing had changed, still shitty. Other than the hotel being a rather nice place to stay, the festival was a joke. Some of our paperwork was lost - of course they got our check, but some of the paperwork that was with it was missing. The adjudicators provided nothing meaningful and made such comments as "well, I wasn't bored." Awesome. I am glad we were able to perform, but sad that our little not-for-profit theatre had to spend so much money to attend this poorly organized event. The awards "ceremony" at the Applebees didn't start till after 11pm and, again, was poorly planned. They didn't notify the restaraunt that awards were being given out and that everyone should be in the same area. So when we showed up, it was chaos. Then, they handed out the 2 awards and it was done. Fortunately, the right people won 1st and 2nd place. The 1st place show was from Littleton, CO and they were amazing! It would have been nice if the organizers recognized people for acting, set design, costumes etc, like other regional festivals had done, but clearly making a few more awards was beyond them. Lots of folks worked their butts off, not to mention took time off of work and spent lots of time and money getting to the festival, and they couldn't even print out a certificate that said Good Job! We plan to send a letter to AACT explaining to them was a disappointment the festival was. They obviously can't do anything now except for maybe take more care when planning the festival next time. Which would be good enough for me.

Idiots who think they can plan things.

As you know, I will be going to a regional theatre festival on Thursday. This is a big deal to our little community theater and I'm sure it's a big deal to the others attending as well. However, it seems as though they found the most incompetent person to actually plan the festival. So, what should be an honored event to attend, is a thrown together piece of crap. Let's see, where to start...

First, the regional festival dates weren't officially set until end of March - only about 8 weeks until the festival will take place. (other regional festivals have been completely planned for months) It's not cheap to travel to a different state with 7 people, costumes and a set. We won the state festival in June 2008, but because we didn't know IF there was going to be a regional at all, we couldn't fundraise during that time. And there wasn't adequate time between when we were told the dates of the festival and the actual event to plan anything successful. Luckily, we received some donations, but they won't even cover half of the expenses.

Second, information about the festival itself was impossible to find out. I had to send several emails to the nitwit organizer asking questions that should have been easily answered - where will the festival be taking place, who is participating, when will there be a schedule, where should we stay, what are the technical specifications of the theatre...and so on. More often than not, the organizer wouldn't respond at all. I had to send several follow up emails just to get a response to 1 of my questions. One of the most important things was obtaining official registration forms for the event. We got these a mere 3 weeks before the trip.

Next, I had to bring up issues with the organizer that she most certainly should have been aware of before the planning process begun. AACT has very specific rules for the festivals, but it seems that the idiot organizing the event didn't bother reading them. I had to bring up the fact that we needed to send in copies of the script and permission from the playwright to produce the play. She responded essentially saying, oh yeah, you should send those to me at X address. HELLO! This is something that you need to make sure you have well in advance! GRR!

There's a whole laundry list of grievances I have with the organization of this festival. It is costing the theater a significant sum of money to attend this haphazardly organized festival. Oh and did I mention that the awards ceremony is at 11pm at the Applebee's? Ugh.

Chi-Town

This past weekend, we visited my best girl friend in Chicago. She moved there about a year ago, so it was time to go see her new digs. It was a short trip, just Friday-Sunday, but we had a great time. We walked (A LOT!) around the city, took a boat tour, walked around Michigan Ave, went to Navy Pier, ate at a bunch of great restaurants and saw the comedy show at The Second City. The weather was also quite pleasant. When we arrived it is around 80 degrees, which was a bit warm in the cab, but otherwise wasn't bad. Then the other 2 days it was cloudy and rained off and on. The overcast skies made it nice and cool to walk around the city. And we seemed to get pretty lucky with the rain; we would just happen to go into a store or a restaurant right before it poured.

I really enjoyed Chicago. I thought it was great mix of Denver and New York. It's definitely large and busy, but seemed a lot cleaner, less crowded and safer than NYC (at least in the area we were in). Also it's not overflowing with crappy souvenir shops and other tourist traps like NYC. Chicago certainly had it's fair share of tourists, but it was nice that the city didn't seem to pimp itself out to them. But clearly, the best part was spending 3 days with Marisa. We always have such a great time together and it was nice to devote some actual time together. I was glad we were both able to take some time off and have some fun in Chicago!

Regionals Here We Come!

Today, I sent off the registration forms and a check for the registration fees for the American Association of Community Theater's Region VII Competition. I will be acting in "The Organist's Daughter" for Coal Creek Community Theater. We won 1st place at the Colorado Community Theater Coalition Festival last June, so now we compete against theatres in Utah and Wyoming for a chance to perform at the National Competition in Tacoma in June. The Regional Competition is in Orem, UT May 8th and 9th. This is the first time CCCT has had the privilege to attend a Regional Festival and we are pretty stoked!

8 of us will caravan it out to Utah to stay at the prestigious La Quinta Inn and perform at the world class Mountain View High School Auditorium. I tease. These are pretty standard locations for theatre festivals. But, it's hard to get people excited about a trip to the middle of Utah. So to get you jazzed, here's some info about Orem and about Utah:

Census 2000 Information
Population: 84,324
Households: 24,166
Population 18 & over: 54,492
Average Age: 23.9
Average Family Size: 3.93
Percent Male: 49.7
Percent Female: 50.3
Percent Married: 69.0
Square Miles: 18.241
Average Temperature: 89 Summer, 45 Winter

• The City of Orem was organized in 1919 and named after Walter C. Orem, President of the Salt Lake and Utah Railroad.
• BTW, folks that live in Utah are called Utahns. Interesting.
• Utah has a higher percentage of residents (30.8%) under the age of 18 than any other state
• Utah is the beehive state.

WOW that was exciting! Ok, so the location may be lackluster, but hopefully the festival itself will be a lot cooler. We will compete against The Cheyenne Little Theater (WY), Painted Past Productions (WY), Mainstreet Players (CO, the 2nd place winner at state) and the winner of the Utah state festival which is yet to be determined. We will each present up to 60 minutes of a play or one-act that will be judged by adjudicators looking for the "most fully realized production." A winner will then be chosen to advance to the National Competition.

As with many theater festivals, the entries are top-notch and because all the folks at regionals have already placed at the state level, I expect competition to be steep! Our show is a sweet little love story. It's far from deep and doesn't really deal with any pressing or serious issues. It's cute and heart-warming. Sometimes (as was the case for state) the judges love this type of thing and other times it is considered fluff. Who knows what the judges will think this time, but no matter what we will do our best and put on a good show. Personally, I don't believe we will advance any further. The other groups attending the festival have competed at this level before and we are certainly the underdog. You can expect a full run-down of the competition once we return, so be sure to check back!

I don't understand...

...how parents do it. This past Saturday I babysat my nephew, Marcus, for about 6 hours. Luckily for the first hour or so, my husband was there to help entertain him while I cooked dinner. Marcus is 4 years old and a bit of a handful. He tires quickly of activities and has to move on to something totally different within 5 minutes. We have a lot of toys at our house, but of course he really doesn't want to play with those. He'd rather get into things that are breakable or not for kids like the computer and video games. And you have to keep a constant eye on him or he is into the candy (it was Easter so candy was abundant), going upstairs for something or just off doing something mischievous. So, in order to keep him busy here is what we did:

• We colored
• We ate dinner
• We played board games
• We read comic books
• We went to the park
• We walked around the neighborhood
• We played catch
• We played make-believe outside for about an hour
• And finally, because I was so exhausted, I gave in and let him play video games

Marcus is obsessed with playing mario cart and for a 4 year old, he's pretty dang good. I know there are better things for a 4 year old to do than to play video games, but it keeps him busy and content for a good while and all I have to do is sit on the couch and watch him. I couldn't really get anything else done besides just watching him play or playing with him. And this is where I can't, for the life of me, understand how parents do it 24/7. Even with 2 people it was difficult to get anything else done while he was there. How do they clean, cook, work on things, or even take a shower and get ready?! It is seriously beyond me. He doesn't take naps anymore nor does he go to bed early - he is always going, going, going. And of course, he's really difficult to ignore, so that's not an option. I just don't get how parents do it. I'm in awe that Marcus' parents haven't fallen over and died from exhaustion, because after just 6 hours I was ready to collapse.

Eating Habits

Ok, here it is, another rant blog. There are several eating habits that I just absolutely cannot stand, so here goes:

• Slurping: AAAAAAGGGGGGHHH!!! I can't stand slurping. Unless you are in the middle of some dental procedure where your tongue is numb and you have no teeth, there is never an excuse for slurping. It's really damn annoying especially because if you slurp, you are just being lazy. Yes, it is possible to eat soup and drink beverages without slurping. Trust me, I do it all the time. I know people that slurp everything! Like things I didn't even think you could slurp like mashed potatoes.
• Chewing with your mouth open: What, are you 3 years old? No? Then close your damn mouth when you are eating. I don't want to listen to your chomping and squishing nor do I want to look at your food when you eat. This also goes for gum chewers. Seriously, shut it and keep your chewing to yourself.
• Loud Crunching: This can sometimes be combined with chewing with your mouth open to create a truly frustrating experience for me. This usually happens at work. For some reason, the people around me only bring crunchy food to snack on all day. I can hear it over typing, people on the phone, copy machines and what ever else is going on in the department. It's like their crunching is magnified just to annoy me.
• Heavy breathers: Ok, I understand that if you are sick and can barely breathe at all it can force you to breath heavier when you eat. But this is for those who just breathe heavily when there is nothing blocking their airway besides the food they are shoveling into their mouths. This habit actually makes me nauseous. I don't know why, but when you breathe heavy while eating, I want to puke. So, breathe like a normal person and spare us all the nausea.

I think that most people that have these annoying habits don't think they have them. And even if you told them to knock it off, it really wouldn't do any good because it's been ingrained over their lifetime. But seriously, the next time you eat, stop and listen to yourself and if any of the above occur, please know that you are annoying the hell out of me. Thanks.