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Dana as Hero just before the wedding.



Beatrice for Act II.



Act I Beatrice. Mark, the guy who took the photo, said, "Okay, give me a look for Beatrice. She's sweet, right?" to which I answered, "No! She's sassy!"



Alex as Ursula, Eric as Don John, and and Joe as Benedick.



Dan as Leonato, Duffy as Dogberry, and Alex again.



Brian ready to revel it up as Don Pedro!



Emma as Verges.



Josh as Claudio.

All the pictures were taken during intermission, so I apolgize about the "relaxed" look of them. We set the show in the 1860s (Brian even rode his horse onto the stage for his entrance!).

So I am balancing school, teaching, and life in general. We'll see how this goes. I am nervous to tell you the truth, but I think once I get the hang of it it'll be fine.

School started on Monday. So far so good. I'm enjoying the fact that everyday there is a variety of classes I teach. We have "A" days and "B" days at CHS, and I'm lucky enough to not teach the same classes on the same days. I prefer that myself, because I like a bit of variety and keeping things different. I had a bit of trouble my first two days with some of the classes when it came to pacing. 103 minutes for each class period is a bit ridiculous. Today (my "second" day) went much smoother with no extra time left in my classes. Hopefully I'll be able to keep THIS up!

Our play ended on Saturday. I'm sad. I know I'm going to really miss the cast; it was a great group of people. I'm going to try and stay in touch with people, but that is always skechy. Thespians! If only they could be normal people! :)

The pictures are from

My title comes from the musical of Anne of Green Gables. The song is called "Open a Window". I kind of feel like I'm in learning overload, so it seemed appropriate.

Why I love my church so much!

Our Saturday night pastor is hilarious! He finds the most random things that lead into the night's teaching.

Anyway, I've had to miss the last two Saturdays due to the play and we have a different pastor on Sundays. However, they follow the same passages. Recently it's been on Singles. This is hilarious!

God on high hear my prayer

Everybody who prays PLEASE pray for this little guy.

My college friends Jayme and Keegan had a little boy last summer. As a boy, Keegan had a form of cancer that dealt with his eyes. Joncee inherited the same cancer and they were able to catch it early (13 days after he was born). The chemo seemed to be working for awhile but I guess it came back. Recently Jayme and Keegan had to make the decision to have the "bad eye" removed rather than have more treatment done. Apparently there was leukemia found. He's been given a 40-50% chance of survival. He is Jayme and Keegan's only child so far and I know this must be so hard on them.

Keep praying for the Lenker family. They really could use as much support as possible.

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A little bit of this; a little bit of that

Ah, the power of words. They have such an immense strength. It's one of the few things that has the power to change a life. Wow!

Where has my recent awe come from? Good question. I have obviously recently been hit by the re-realization of how amazing words are. And how much I love them. Last night words brought up the past to my great amusement.

I began journaling in 7th grade. See, I wanted nothing more to be selected for the Journalism class when I hit junior high. My 6th grade teacher did not recommend me for the honor, so there was no way I could possibly get in. I decided to do two things about my frustration. 1) I would start a journal because it would last longer than any newspaper (I even wrote that in my first entry--that was a direct quote from my 12 year old self). 2) Every time the newspaper would come out, I would hunt for all the editorial mistakes to prove to myself I COULD be on the staff, and possibly do a better job of it than those who were on the staff. These two things combined may or may not have contributed to the fact that in 8th grade, I was selected for the Journalism class. Woo-hoo for moi!

So last night I was trying to remember something from my 16 year old self. I looked up my journals from the past years. Let me tell you, I was so very amused. My 8th grade crushes were hilarious. I am embarrassed to admit that I would write the word "love" with a heart instead of an o anytime I wrote about my crushes. I commented on the social shallowness of people when I was in college (asking about how a person is doing in passing does not truly require caring). The arguments I would have with my folks as an 8th grader ("My mom is an alien hypocrite!!!!!" I have no idea where that one came from.).

I browsed through them for about an hour. It was so very entertaining! Things that were brought up within the journals ranged from a conversation over lunch in France which dealt with chest hair (Alysha always made the topics of discussion more interesting) to my Scotish pen pal from elementary school named Fiona to Katie's Drooling Buddies (our dog used to drool quite a bit on my friends Joey, Troy, Amanda, Rita, and Nicole). I was completely entertained. I must admit that I may never have the most fascinating life, but it's nice to know that I can look back and giggle.

The title of this post comes from the song "Anatevka" from Fiddler on the Roof.

Defying Gravity - Eden Espinosa and Megan Hilty in LA

Eden and Megan performing "Defying Gravity".

One Short Day in the Emerald City

So I got back yesterday from a trip to Anaheim. I visited Janina and our cousin Kelsey. However, I was not the only guest. My cousin Halley and her friend/roommate Vicky, Jessica, Jason, Leigha and Briana were there. Oi! I went on Friday and came back last night (and had to dash off to rehearsal asap).

Twas a good trip. I got the brilliant idea of attempting to see Wicked on Saturday using the Wicked Lottery. See about 2 1/2 hours to 2 hours prior to a performance you can go to the ticket booth and put your name on a slip and mark whether you want 1 or 2 tickets. After that you put the slip into a container. 2 hours before the show they draw about 15-20 names. If your name is drawn, you get an "I won the Wicked lottery!" button, and you pay $25 for a front row seat ticket. So I thought it would be fun to try for. Janina was the only one who wanted to go with me. We got there about 2 minutes before the drawing and I won!!!!!!! Janina and I got to see the phenomenal show of Wicked with Eden Espinosa and Megan Hilty (I saw her in Seattle). We also saw people who played significant roles in Gilmore Girls, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Oh, and Carol Kane who played Miracle Max's wife in The Princess Bride. Huzzah!

The next day I got went to DCA with Nina, Kelsey, Jess, Jason, Leigha and Briana. We had a good time (and got free Mickey ears!). It was crazy. Good times. On Monday we did something, but it's a surprise that cannot yet reveal. Eventually I will, but not yet.

And so, I have about a week before we open Much Ado About Nothing. It's coming really well. I love this cast. It's a good group of people and we get along really well! I am having a lot of fun with it.

The title of the post comes from a song with the same title from Wicked.