i'll be spending:

with:

in:

jealous?

all hallow's eve

reasons i love halloween:

because these people:

helped turn our kitchen into this:

and it's a perfect excuse to turn into malibu barbie and skipper

this year nicki, eric, and i had a hallow's eve soiree, complete with pumpkin soups bowls, readings from tales of edgar allan poe, and a fierce game of werewolf.

i also made this banana bread (with a few tweaks of my own) and these cuppy cakes:

it was fun and festive and spooktacular. j'adore baking and decorating and celebrating and sending people home with food. happy halloween!!

i'm a horrible blogger

sincerest apologies to the 2's of 3's of you who look at this blog from time to time.

i haven't written since june. to catch up, a quick picture parade...

i voyeured. and cupcaked about it.

i made my feature film debut. "baby hungry" coming to small film festival near you. maybe.

was a real doll in a reading of a new musical by that happy chap on the left.

choreographed this very serious group of young actors in a production of oliver!

became executive assistant to this woman.

so my life is off the chains.

i also recently became the proud new owner of a 2008 subaru forester. she's black and her name is sue. and she's begging me to take up skiing. i'm considering it.

my new title of executive assistant at the salt lake acting company has me working a real, regular 9-5 complete with a desk (though a little make-shift at the moment), a salary, and a standing invitation to all board meetings. to take minutes. but still.

okay. so i'm back on the blogging wagon.

stay tuned for complaints about how knitting is hard, pictures from our halloween dinner party, and recipes that make your cupcakes too brownie-like.

mkay. ta for now.

my summer...

is spent....

in hot tubs...

seeing sarah at costco...

and sharing all the crazy utah news
with audiences seeing
SATURDAY'S VOYEUR


seriously, the best way to spend a summer.
(photos from Salt Lake Tribune)

cupcake lady

for my birthday this year i got this darling cupcake holder/carrier from nicki and a handy dandy frosting/decorating tool from my mama and now i'm a cupcake-makin' fool!

love

things i [love] right now:

warm weather
tomatoes
voyeur rehearsals
babies
'i'm a woman too' by ben lee

things i [opposite of love] right now:

people who mooch
cold weather
my tight right hamstring


the good news: there are more things in the first list. also, i love the things i love more than i don't love the things i don't love.

come and meet those dancing feet.

watch this:

video of 42ND STREET at pioneer

and get tickets here:

tickets for 42ND STREET at pioneer

if you've never seen 20 people tapping live onstage before, you must. it's thrilling.

see you there?

you are what you eat

okay, i'm just going to start out by saying that i realize this post may sound like i'm jumping on the bandwagon of the latest fad. it's super trendy to eat organic. everyone who's anyone shops at whole foods. FOOD INC. changed my life. blah blah blah.

but this is important.

FOOD INC. changed my life. (okay, that's a little dramatic.) actually, when i first heard of it, i was like, "pass. i've heard it all before. eating animals is cruel. noted." but then i saw this episode of oprah (i love her. please still respect me, and read on.) and she had michael pollan on - whose book IN DEFENSE OF FOOD i'm currently reading - and she showed clips from FOOD INC.

it piqued my interest.

cut to: tonight. i watched FOOD INC. and i encourage you to do the same. not because i necessarily believe the film presents 100% truth without bias or opinion (because what documentary does?) but because, even with some bias and opinion, it's a pretty eye-opening look at where our food comes from. it's so much more than an animal cruelty issue (which, by the way, it absolutely is - the way cows, pigs and chickens are treated in these huge mass production "farms" is appalling) but it's also what we are putting into our bodies. chickens that are pumped full of growth hormones and antibiotics to the point that they can't even walk aren't real food. cows that are fed corn instead of grass produce e. coli, so their meat is mixed with "filler" containing ammonia to kill the e. coli. that isn't food. but we're eating it. at alarming rates. and we're becoming fat and diabetic and diseased and it has to stop.

the great news is we absolutely have the choice to stop it. all we have to do is choose to eat fresh food. REAL food. buy locally. eat organically. it's easy. maybe not as easy as going to a drive-thru, but if you see what you're really eating at these fast-food places and where it comes from, i think you'll gladly forego the convenience.

also, whole foods is the most fun place to shop. go there.

and chipotle is a fast food restaurant that uses fresh, local ingredients and meat that is hormone and antibiotic-free. eat there.

i'm not a radicalist. i'm not a hippie. i'm just a person who eats and doesn't want to get sick.

at the risk of tooting my own horn (which is totally what i'm doing) this is what i made for dinner tonight and it was fun and easy and soooo tasty:

veggie pizza, spinach salad and green beans. all organic ingredients purchased at good earth and the organic produce section at target.

(not far)
past*

(no time like the)
present**

(not so distant)
future***

*hawaii was perfect.

we:

• snorkeled - saw a shark. i'm not kidding. also swam with sea turtles like we were old friends. oh yes, and an octopus wrapped itself around my right leg.
• rode mopeds around the island - i had to pull off to the side at one point because i got a hair in my eye. a four inch long hair. it was disgusting.
• drove the road to hana - we swung from vines like tarzan. my dad, dalton and i got some major height. lana got some major laughs. big kudos for at least giving it a go, though.
• got tan - like way, way tan.
• found oprah's house - behold the power of modern technology: step 1 - get your mytouch phone out and go to google. step 2 - search 'oprah's house on maui.' step 3 - click the link that says "she bought the old robinson ranch on thompson rd." step 4 - type 'thompson road' into your gps. step 5 - drive to oprah's house.
• split up: boys vs. girls - dad and dalton went golfing. mom and i went to the spa. we win.
• ate - AMAZING sea food.

**now i'm back to my life and work. and building our new season at SLAC. read: on the computer a lot, doing tedious things; taking little breaks now and then to check facebook and blog.
don't tell.


***up next: 42ND STREET at pioneer theatre company. rehearsals start the end of the month and i'm excited. and scared. (if you just sang "excited and scared" you're a geek.)

untitled

saturday i'm going here:

with them:

to celebrate that beautiful blonde's 50th.

i'm pretty excited.



PS - yesterday i saw a grown woman riding a razor scooter across 7th east.

on my mind

i'm thinking about:

how sleeping in is awesome until it's night-time and you're not tired when you should be.
the BEE and how i miss it already.
how i haven't been watching much of the olympics.
maybe seeing 12 ANGRY MEN at pioneer tomorrow night.
hawaii in 11 days.
starting 42ND STREET rehearsals in a month.
sleeping in my own bed wednesday night for the first time since january 30.
VOYEUR auditions.
whether or not i like the idea of a blind date.
new music.
how if i don't go to sleep now i'm going to be yawning all day at work tomorrow.

bon soir.

can you use it in a sentence?

wanna see one of the funniest, sweetest new musicals?

here it is.

for tickets, go to www.pinnacleactingcompany.org or call Melanie @ 801.674.7956

come. you won't be disappointed.

anne

yesterday anne bogart fed my soul.

i got to listen to her as the keynote speaker of the utah theatre association conference. the things she talked about obviously had to do with theatre, but even more deeply about human nature, society, passion and how to get what you want.

she talked about 7 things. these are the notes i took:

1. follow the pulse.
be in touch with what excites you.
enthusiasm: to be filled with god.
follow what changes you

2. make a mark.
what do you do onstage that is worth people watching?
theatre is a verb: to remember
our job in theater is to create memory for the audience.

3. create the world you want to live in.
theatre's subject is always society.
"can we get along?"
you create a model society in the rehearsal room.

4. finish the sentence.
people who don't finish sentences are of no danger to anyone.
to be an artist is to be articulate in the face of uncertainty.
theatre is a place to practice commitment.
find your own words that work for you.
if you have a dream, describe it.
use words that give value to what you do.
least favorite theatre word: want
"what i want is usually a little perverse and has nothing to do with theatre." - anne :)

5. be unreasonable.
sometimes logic and too much reason can kill theatre.
whatever you do needs to be unreasonably impossible.
starting a monologue is jumping off a cliff - let the scary momentum of falling drive you.
say, "i know!" then make something happen.
allow yourself not to know the answer.
allow the work you're doing to be bigger than you.
CERTAINTY ALWAYS LEADS TO VIOLENCE
show up, pay attention, tell the truth, don't hang on to the results.

6. bring attention where attention is needed.
observer created reality
the quality of your attention to something determines others' attention to it.
theatre: to shine light in dark places.
expand the definition of what it means to be human.

7. cultivate attitude.
feed-forward: going toward something
feed-back: the sensation you get from an experience
good acting: a balance of the two
attitude=posture
your attitude can poison or make magic.
you must have the will to go out and the grace to receive.
there are a lot of things we can't choose; we can choose our opinions and our attitude.
go too close or back too far but the middle distance won't help you.
you must have: passion, something to say, and technique.

listening to her and getting to meet her was inspiring. it cemented my desire for grad school.

thank you anne.

peeved

don't you hate it when you've been craving chocolate all day so you decide that between work and rehearsal you'll stop at a little coffee shop for a double fudge cookie then when you get out to your car and bite into it you realize it's stale? i do. didn't stop me from eating it. but still.

i resolve

it's 2010. and we don't have flying cars OR robot servants. hmmm. i'm a little disheartened.

at any rate, i figure i'll set some goals.

in 2010 i will:

• research grad schools and make some choices on where to apply and when.
• give the gym a higher spot on my list of priorities. (you: "how cliche. resolve to go to the gym." me: "i know.")
• put money in my savings account every week.
• be a little more early to bed and early to rise in hopes of promoting my health, wealth and wisdom.
  
• write more. journal, blog, heartfelt notes to loved ones.
• cook more. i had this brilliant idea to cook my way through Julia Child's cookbook and blog about it but apparently someone beat me to the punch.
• drink more water.
• read more.
• rekindle my relationship with multivitamins.
• keep my life more organized and tidy.
• take a class: french, cooking, dance, something...
• be happy
• be thankful

do-able? quite.
happy new year.

ps: the date today is magical. 01022010.
palindromes. i love them.

twas the night before christmas

this year my christmas cheer manifested itself in handmade ornaments, chocolates, caramels, cookies and prezzies.

happy christmas to all, and to all a good night.

thankful

what am i thankful for?

go, dog. go!

"hello."

"hello."

"do you like my hat?"

"i do not. goodbye."

"goodbye."

to all the diligent readers of this blog:

i cordially invite you and yours to salt lake acting company's first show for children - Go, Dog. Go! based on the book by P.D. Eastman.

i am privileged to play hattie, that fabulous poodle up there on that scooter.

the show is simply darling. bring every child you know. there is no professional theatre for children in the state of utah (what??? i know.) so slac is making this a tradition. it's geared specifically for children 3-10, but trust me, adults will love it just as much. it's magic. it's hilarious. it's a life-size pop-up book.

it runs dec. 4 - dec. 27 and tickets are $25/adults, $15/kids or for groups of 10+ $20/adults, $10/kids. get tickets here or by calling 801.363.7522

if you know young families, preschools, church groups, or anyone looking for a fun holiday activity, please pass on this info, or give me their names/contact info. we have a green room available for holiday parties and other options for groups and parties, including some pretty rockin' discounts on certain dates.

wishing you all very happy holidays!

woof!

things to note

i'm learning to knit.

i was wednesday addams for halloween.

i'm an only child for the next 2 years.

tomorrow night i'll be dancing and moving to that beat. that beat.

tues: act like a dog, then housesit a cat

my fingernails and toenails are black.

and they shine like justice.

i'm hard up for things to blog about.

results

my 2-day detox is over and it went well. i felt hungry for pretty much the entire time, but today (the first day back on real food) i noticed my appetite was much lighter than usual.

things i noted during the past two days:

• my favorite apple changed from red delicious to gala
• good shake-ups to the menu included salt on granny smiths and cinnamon on reds
• it's exhausting eating nothing but apples
• i want to do it again. but not for a few months.

j'aime les pommes.