It's time to raise some HELL!!!!!

Okay, now I'm mad!

I was watching Hardball with Chris Matthews just now, live in Colorado at the DNC and there was this woman he interviewed, a former Hillary Clinton supporter, mind you, and she said there was a report that Barack Obama had gone to a Muslim school in Indonesia. When Chris asked where this report came from, she was all, "I'm not going to tell you that."

WTF?!?!?!?!

Okay, lady! First of all, if you're going to go on national television and make allegations like you just did, then you better be pretty damn sure you're ready to back it up!!! I'm sorry, but if you say something like that on National TV in front of God and everyone within earshot and then say you're not going to tell us where you got the information, that just doesn't sit well with me!

My next gripe, there were some McCain supporters there protesting, which is their right, I know. If only they knew the person they're supporting is another Bush puppet... Oh well, we can bring them to water, but we can't make them drink.

Oh, I'm all fired up now!!!! I'm going to start volunteering more down at our local Dem HQ. I want to do everything I can to get Obama elected as our President, and get Nathan Reichert re-elected to the Iowa House, and every other Democrat running I can think of.

Slan go foill...

Now that the musical is over...

Now that the musical is over, I'm going to be throwing myself into politics. I volunteer at Muscatine County Democrats making phone calls for Representative Nathan Reichert's re-election campaign. I'll probably take it even further by helping out with the Obama campaign. All I know is that we can't have another Repub as president. If that happens, bye-bye-bye America! Hello Canada!

It's recently come to light that John Edwards had an affair with a videographer. But I also heard that John McCain had an affair on his wife years ago and ended up leaving her for his mistress. However, no one's tsking at him for it. When a Republican has an affair, it's no big deal; but when a Democrat has an affair, everyone's up in arms!

WTF?!?!?!

I think there's a major double standard going on here, and I don't like it. If they're going to air Edwards' dirty laundry, then they should air McCain's as well. Just MHO, mind you.

Slan go foill...

Stephen's Green and Michael Phelps; what an interesting combination...

That's what happens when the Olympics are going on at the same time as the monthly pilgrimage to Pat McGuire's. There was supposed to be a Cubs game last night as well; Cubs vs the Atlanta Braves, but the manager of Pat McGuire's came up to Mom and me before the band took the stage and let us know it had been rained out. It was okay; there was always the Olympics. =)

First set was without the distraction of the Olympics, at least for the most part. And for some reason, Andy and Martin played all our family's requests in the first set. I had requested "German Clock Winder", "Carrick Fergus", "Boston Rose", "A Rainy Night in Soho", "Danny Boy" (for my dad), and "Wild Colonial Boy" (for Mom).

Coverage for the Olympics started at seven p.m., near the end of Andy and Martin's first set. I soon found myself listening to the band with my ears and watching the Olympics at the same time. Yet another feeble attempt made by Yours Truly to multitask. Sadly, I can't do it very well. And when the coverage started, I moved over to the "Cascade" table so I could see better. Katie McGuire didn't mind.

Ann was there this time and she arrived sometime during the second set. Since she hadn't been there last month, I was very happy to see her! She's one of my best friends outside of the church, and she and I have had a few conversations about my faith. She understands my limitations and doesn't tease me about them.

During the second set, I was listening to the band again, watching the Olympics, and eating my dinner. They played the usual stuff during the second set, like "Finnegan's Wake", "Charlie and the MTA", and "The Unicorn". For "Finnegan's Wake", when we screamed "LUNCH" during the third verse Martin, anticipating some edible ammo, opened an umbrella! I regret not being able to get a picture of that to put up here because it was HILARIOUS! And I was able to tear my attention away from the Olympic coverage long enough to be a "Unicornette" and dance to "The Unicorn". It was Ann, me, Katie, Emily (from Clinton), Eve (her sister), Em's daughter, Megan (Barney Barnhill's granddaughter), and some of the other Cascade gals. The stage was packed, but it was fun!

During the third set was when I was the most distracted. And that was because that was when Michael Phelps was swimming in the 200m Butterfly to get his tenth gold medal in his entire career. So the race was going on, and I can't even remember what song was being played, but when he hit the wall first, everyone cheered in the middle of the song. Martin just looked at us, and at the end of the song, Andy asked, "Did Michael Phelps win the gold medal?" The answer was a resounding "YES!" accompanied by cheers. =)

Of course, they ended with their usual Irish patriotic songs "The One Road", "A Nation Once Again", and "Amhrain na bhFiann", the Ireland National Anthem (I think) and that is sung in Gaelic. Martin emailed me the Gaelic lyrics a long time ago and I use them on occasion, but the Gaelic is getting easier for me to pronounce. Now if I could just learn Spanish with the same greatest of ease, I'd be happy. =)

I'm really looking forward to next month once again. And maybe I'll have something to celebrate then too. =)

Slan go foill...

The matinee finale...sad it's over...

Because Hwy 6 going to Atalissa finally opened up, I was able to get to Iowa City for choir practice and sacrament meeting at least, so I decided to go ahead and do it. I was able to get out in time to get back to Muscatine for the matinee performance yesterday. And when I walked into our "dressing room", I was greeted by Guns and Roses singing "Sweet Child of Mine" on YouTube. Quite a jarring contrast to the nice spirit I was feeling as I came back from church, that's for sure.

There were only a couple glitches this time around, the first one being that Courtney's gun didn't go off when she tried to shoot "the dead guy", aka James at the beginning. We just shrugged and went on with it. The second glitch was actually my fault. I had the wrong shoes on for the club scene. Hopefully no one noticed. ;)

Afterward the cast stayed to strike set, but I couldn't stay. I was still wearing my Sunday clothes and I had wanted my mom to help me take all the clothes I had brought for the production home (although I probably should've just donated them to the drama costume shed since I really can't wear them anymore).

All in all, I enjoyed working on the musical. I had a very cool experience playing four different characters onstage and I made some new friends. Now what am I going to do with my spare time besides look for a job? I could start exercising more and get my body back in shape since I do have to donate blood in a week. I could work on getting my 72 hour kit together. I got started on it while my parents were in Kansas.

Oh the possibilities! =D

Slan go foill...

Second night slump...NOT!!!

Usually we have to deal with second night slump, but last night was definitely not the case. I was really pumped up and ready to kick it, but that was because Melissa and Jeremy came to the performance, and they brought Seth and Alta with them. It was cool to see them again.

There were no glitches in Act 1 and my scenes went smoothly, as did the costume changes. I was a little worried about Kari because she was dizzy before the performance, but she was okay. Act 2 went smoothly as well, and afterward I met up with Seth, Alta, Melissa, and Jeremy. They gave me a card and a plant. It's the first time I've received flowers after a drama performance, ever, so I was pretty stoked.

After changing back into my street clothes, I went with Melissa and Jeremy to Tee's where they treated me to a shake and then the three of us shared Jeremy's banana split (which was awesome, btw!). We stayed there for about thirty minutes, and Melissa prompted me to tell Jeremy that I was thinking about going out for the Nauvoo Pageant next year. The incidents during rehearsal just drove home the fact that I need to do a drama production with others like me for once, good Mormon people.

I kinda felt bad that I ditched my castmates, but Brooke understood why I was leaving with my friends last night. I only see Jeremy once a week, plus I haven't seen him at all this summer, and I'm lucky if I get to see Melissa more than once in a while since she's no longer going to our branch.

Today's our last performance and it's a matinee. Mom's coming to this one, so I'm pumped up once again. I'm going to kick it one more time, after going to branch choir practice and sacrament meeting in Iowa City of course. :)

Slan go foill...

Opening night hijinks

Well, our opening night didn't have a dull moment; that's for sure.

Brooke and I got to there around six and it didn't take me long to get into costume. Keeny did my makeup and I was ready to go by six-forty. Six-fifty, we were all in the theatre doing our warm-ups, and by seven, the doors were opened and we were interacting with some audience members in character. Since I started out as the spinster, I was wearing my frumpy dress and chatting up some ladies with an English accent. It was cute, at least I thought so.

We took the stage and during our opening number the lights went off and for the a couple measures, we were singing in the dark! Turns out the light box is duct taped on the floor of the light booth so Steve kept kicking it every time he moved and the lights went off. Another glitch was there weren't any chairs for me to grab for the train scene, so I did that scene standing up the entire time! We figured out a way to make that work. And then James (our dead guy) lost his sunglasses, so he had to keep his hat on over his eyes. Tyler covered and made it work, but it was frustrating.

There were a couple musical glitches as well. When Keeny did her solo number "Speaking French", our accompanist messed up slightly, but Keeny covered it pretty well. :) And then Courtney's solo was done in the wrong key and that threw her off, and us too, since we sing backups for her right behind the stage!

And all that was Act One!

Act Two went more smoothly than Act One (thank goodness!!!). No major glitches or drama, and afterward, we all went to McDonald's for a late dinner or dessert, and then the riverfront to walk the path. We finally ended up at James's apartment, just hanging out and talking and I didn't get home until after midnight, with my eyes barely able to stay open.

And that, my friends, is the story of our opening night hijinks. I'm hoping tonight goes better, especially since Melissa and Jeremy are coming. And they are going to be in for a surprise. :)

Slan go foill...

Tonight's the night!

This is it! Tonight and the rest of this weekend will show if all our hard work has paid off! I'm actually more excited than I am nervous.

Last night's rehearsal went smoothly, except for the fact that Brooke O wasn't there again. I'm really hoping she'll be there tonight, even though I'm becoming quite accustomed to talking to empty air. *lol* I remembered all my entrances and lines. I just need to not break fourth wall. I'm getting better at that. It's just been so long since I've done a musical like this. During MTM, everyone broke fourth wall at one time or another and it was no big deal.

So today I'm just going to do some things around the house so I can work off some of this nervous and excited energy. Then I'll watch the Cubs vs. Cardinals game this afternoon. And then, it's off to the theatre to kick it on stage tonight!

And hopefully, the day won't include a trip to the emergency room, either for myself or anyone else in the cast. We actually have two diabetics in the cast, so the possibility is there for one of them to wind up in the ER today, even though it's slim since they're good at managing their respective diabetes.

Slan go foill...