The Elevator Epiphany

This morning I had some deep thoughts I thought I would share. I went down to the hotel's lobby, and I grabbed some food for breakfast. After I got in the elevator to go back to my room and pushed the level three button, I realized I had forgotten something. I was able to push the open door button and get out, but the level three button was still lit. After I got out, the elevator went to level three empty. I realized then that there is no cancel button in an elevator. I wonder if people realize how much of a commitment they make when they step into an elevator. Once you push that button, there is no taking it back. You have committed to that floor. The only way out of it is to get out of the elevator and get in a different one. Think about that the next time you get in an elevator!

Celebrities at the Christmas Spectacular

Sheryl Crow, Scott Hamilton, and Kimberly Williams-Paisley attended our first show of the Christmas Spectacular last Saturday with their children. During intermission after microphone check, I walked around trying to (casually) bump into the celebrities backstage. When celebrities come to the show, they stay backstage until the show starts and then are brought back again during intermission and after the program so they are not hounded by the audience. (Instead they get to be hounded by the performers! :)) I figured they were down the stage right hallway because all the kids from the show’s moms were standing there with their cameras. Dead giveaway. I thought they were farther down that particular hallway closer to the stage. As I rounded the corner, I realized they were right there! Well, hello there, fancy running in to you! The group was taking pictures with Mrs. Claus. They said, "Oh look it's one of Santa's elves!" I smiled and asked them if they were enjoying the show up to that point. They said they were. It was cute to see the kids so excited about the show and having a good time.

Scott Hamilton took multiple pictures of me.

Sheryl Crow shook my hand and told me it was a pleasure to meet me. (If I didn’t know Sheryl Crow was at the performance, I would have walked right past her in the hallway and never would have known it! See picture below.)

I exchanged smiles with Kimberly Williams-Paisley. Kimberly’s son looks just like his daddy (Brad Paisley).

Here are two pictures of our Company Manager Tim with the celebrities after the show:

Hockey

Some of the cast members and I drove to the Bridgestone Arena in downtown Nashville to watch a Nashville Predators hockey game. It was so much fun! I had a great time yelling and cheering. The locals say the Nashville Predators aren’t a very good team but they shut out the New York Islanders five goals to nothing. (I heard a guy behind us say that out of the last 23 games the Islanders have played, they have only won 5!) The only disappointment was there were only two small fights. The gloves never came off but one player got whacked in the head with the other team’s hockey stick. Good times!

One of the goals was pretty amazing. A Pred had the puck and were about to hit it into the net when an Islander was coming full blast at him. The Pred jumped over him, hit the puck to the teammate, and the teammate whacked it into the net. It was awesome!

On the jumbotron, they showed a guy with the name "Randy Houser" on the bottom of the screen. We all asked each other, "Who is Randy Houser?" I answered, "He must be Doogie Howser's brother." Ha ha! About 30 seconds later, we hear this girl in front of us ask her husband, "Who is Randy Houser?" To which he responds, "He's Doogie Howser's older brother". Then she laughed. Excuse me! You just stole my material! That is a copyright infringement! Then a little while later, things were not going the Predators way and I said, "Come on!" Then two seconds later the guy behind me says, "Come on"! Geez, I was surrounded by parrots! Come up with your own material!

As we were leaving the arena, people were handing out coupons for a free energy drink. Most people were tossing them in the garbage. While we were waiting for our car to pick us up, Lina and I watched a guy pick up the free drink coupons from the garbage can. A nicely dressed man watched him pick through the garbage. When the first guy left, the nicely dressed man took over at the garbage can and went dumpster diving for more coupons. Then his (assuming) wife started dumpster diving as well. The only thing was she was wearing a dark brown long fur coat! Are you kidding me?! Your dressed like that and dumpster diving for free energy drink coupons?! That's crazy! Then the nicely dressed man got a phone call and they left. Lina joked that it was the limo driver telling them he was waiting out front for them! I laughed so hard!

Another interesting thing we saw was a scooter/ice cooler. A guy was riding a motorized ice cooler out of the game. I had never seen one of those before! Very handy for the sports enthusiast though! Another guy in a motorized wheelchair was carrying a hockey stick with mistletoe tied on the end. Good luck, pal!

Good times at the Predators game! Great entertainment!

Hanukkah 2010

I went to my first ever Hanukkah Party. I learned the story of the Maccabee's and their miraculous oil. I ate some latkes which were tasty. I also ate a lot of other food. I had a great time. I think I will party every December for eight nights. Oh wait, I already do and then some! (Photo credit-Facebook)

ICE!

Each year the cast receives free passes to ICE! at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. We received the passes after my parents left so I decided to invite my friend Mindy and her family to join me since they live in the area.

ICE! is a huge tent filled with themed ice sculptures. This year's theme was the movie Santa Claus is Comin' To Town. They have huge ice sculptures (as you can see in the pictures) that are colored and larger-than-life. They also have a room with slides made of ice and the kids enjoyed them. Since it is so cold in the exhibit, they give everyone a beautiful blue coat to wear while they are there. Thanks Mindy for sharing your family with me and making it a fun night!

Time Warp

Last month, I woke up one morning at 6 AM because a siren went past the street. (Well, the clock said 6 AM anyway.) I made myself go back to sleep. Then I woke up and the clock said 7 AM. I still refused to get up. I have a rule that if I don't have to be up at a certain time then I have to stay in bed until at least 7:30 AM!

The next thing I knew it was 7:50 AM. I got up and exercised. The clock on the wall of the fitness room said 10:15 AM when I was done. Don't worry, I don't exercise for two and a half hours, although you might think so when you look at me. Ha ha! I thought that someone had changed the clock in there because I thought it was only 9:15 AM.

The housekeepers had just got done with my room when I returned after exercising. I thought they had started kind of early that morning because usually they didn’t get to my room until around 10 AM. (I still thought it was 9:15 AM.) I looked at the clock on the microwave and it said 10:30 AM. I thought the housekeepers were playing a joke on me. I looked at my cell phone, and it also said 10:30 AM. Then I looked at my iPhone which I keep hidden and it also said 10:30 AM. My friend had text asking me if I wanted to go to the movie that afternoon. I said sure and then asked him if it was really 10:30 AM. He said it sure was!

I walked back in my bedroom and the clock in there said 9:30 AM. My question is: How did the clock change an hour while I was sleeping? My clock was correct when I went to bed the night before because it was the same as my computer. When I woke up, the clock was an hour behind. Weird!

New Scene, New Role

This year the Radio City Christmas Spectacular in Nashville, TN had a new workshop scene. That means I had a whole new scene to learn during rehearsals. In previous years, I would coast through rehearsals because it was the same scene and same role. Well, this year, I really earned my money during rehearsals. I actually had to think during rehearsal (AHH!!) and practice before and after rehearsal (unheard of)! The character I play now is named Bob instead of Bruce. I do a lot less during the scene even though I am on stage the whole time. I'm basically a prop that moves itself. Very handy for the crew!

The reason Nashville got the new scene was the old set was a casualty of the flood in May. You can reference the pictures from my post back in May about this. So here is the back story I tell people when they say, "I really miss Bruce." (Don't we all?)

Bruce was, unfortunately, a casualty of the great Nashville flood. Since he was so short (reference picture above), he drowned when the waters rose; may he rest in peace. Luckily for the show, Bruce has an identical twin brother named Bob who is taking over for him. Fortunately, they are identical so Bob can wear Bruce's clothes. It all works out! Bob is not nearly the prankster and jokester that Bruce was but Bob still creates his own mischief. We all miss Bruce. He brought smiles to thousands of people throughout the years. Now he is fake fainting for porridge and then flinging that porridge at his friends in heaven. Let's have a moment of silence..........

Opening Night 2010

I know I am such a slacker! You don't have to tell me! I am obviously having a hard time being motivated to update my blog. I blame it on having two jobs. When I get done with my day job, the last thing I want to do is work some more on the computer. I want to play until I go to my night job. That's my excuse!

Anyway, Opening Night was way back on November 19th. From what I remember, I had a fantastic show! My mom was in town for opening so she was my date to the Opening Night Party. This year the Opening Night Party was held at the Gaylord Opryland Golf Course Club House. (In previous years it was held in one of the ballrooms at the Opryland Hotel.) It was very nice! I actually liked it there better because you didn't have to walk so far to get there and we had the whole building to ourselves.

I ate way too much pasta and I had to restrain my mom from drinking straight from the chocolate fountain (hee hee). It was a great evening to celebrate a Spectacular opening. These are the only pictures I have (thanks to Facebook and the people who took them).

The Little People-Eric, Lina, Amy, Ryanne, Me, Cezar

Emily and Me

Emily performed the role of Clara my first year in Nashville when she was 13 years old. Now she is old enough to be part of the ensemble. Wow, am I really that old and have I been doing this that long? Where does the time go?

The Black Hole Part 2

As many of you know, a few years ago on my way to Myrtle Beach for Radio City rehearsals, I was stranded in Atlanta overnight. Well, since lightening strikes in the same place, here is the story from the Black Hole Part 2.

My parents drove me to the Salt Lake City International Airport. I checked my luggage to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I asked if my flight was on schedule from Atlanta to Myrtle Beach, and I was told at that point it was. I said goodbye to Mom and Dad at security. I boarded the first plane that would take me to the Atlanta airport (aka the Black Hole). The flight was a little bumpy because of turbulence. At one point, the pilot came overhead and told us that due to weather in Atlanta, we possibly couldn’t land there so we could be diverted to Tallahassee or Austin. I thought, “Oh no, here we go again.” Then 20 minutes later, the pilot came on the overhead speaker and told the passengers to prepare for landing in Atlanta. What was that all about?!

We landed in Atlanta. I walked to the gate where my next flight would depart. When I arrived at the gate, the flight was on time for its scheduled departure. Good! I met up with two Little People who were in my cast, Amy and Cezar. Amy was from Tucson and started her journey at 7 AM. Cezar was from Connecticut (originally from Poland) and began early that morning as well. Amy and Cezar’s flight to Myrtle Beach had been canceled so they were on the stand by list for my flight.

My flight kept getting delayed later and later. It was originally supposed to leave at 7:05 PM. After many posted delays and a gate change, I finally boarded the plane around 9:30 PM. By some miracle, Cezar got on my flight. (It turned out to be good for me, but bad for him.) Unfortunately, Amy didn’t make the flight. All the rest of the flights were canceled to Myrtle Beach that evening so our company manager, Tim O’Donnell, found her a hotel room in Atlanta.

Cezar and I were excited to finally get off the ground and get to Myrtle Beach that evening. The plane pushed away from the gate, and then stopped. A half an hour went by and we didn’t go anywhere. I was totally frustrated because I had an aisle seat and I couldn’t see what was going on outside. I am so OCD! Finally, after a half an hour the pilot came on and said that the crew was over on the FAA’s 16 hours maximum and so the flight was grounded. It was unclear as to whether there would be another flight crew awaiting us at the gate that could fly us to Myrtle Beach.

We seriously drove around the Atlanta airport for an hour looking for an empty gate to park the airplane. The pilot finally came on and said that they were having a hard time finding an empty gate because either all the planes were loading passengers or the airplanes were broken. Nice, an airport full of broken planes! I totally disregarded the no cell phone rule and pulled out my cell phone. I called company manager Tim to tell him we were probably not going anywhere that evening. He worked on getting me and Cezar hotel rooms.

Finally after being on the plane for two hours and not going anywhere, we were allowed to get off the plane! Free at last, free at last! Once we got off the plane, they told us our flight was canceled and we had to go to the ticketing counter to rebook our flight.

After standing in that line for two hours, I was able to pull up our reservations on my iPhone app. We were both booked on flights the next day. Cezar was to leave at 9 AM and my flight left at 2 PM. We abandoned the ticket counter line and got in the taxi line. I felt like I was at Disneyland with all of the standing in line. Our next big ride was about to begin. Cezar and I finally got a taxi. Tim had text us the hotel information and confirmation numbers for our hotel rooms.

At 1 AM, we of course got the worst taxi driver ever! He drove around lost for a half an hour! What should have been a 15 minute ride was a 45 minute ride. The driver even had a GPS! He kept muttering it wasn’t working and hitting it. I thought it was very entertaining and was laughing my head off.

Then he pulled over on a dark empty street in Atlanta. Then I thought, “And this is how my story ends....” They will find my dead body along the side of the road in Atlanta. I realized then the only way to get out of the Black Hole was through death. So be it!

In reality, he finally got his GPS working and drove us to the hotel. I gave the guy $28 for the ride. (It was $25 on the meter and I gave him a $3 tip for getting us lost. I thought that was very generous!) After I gave him the money, he said something about an airport surcharge. I had no idea what he was talking about (and I wasn’t going to give him any more money) so I just walked into the hotel. As I walked into the hotel, I heard him say something about taking $5 off for getting us lost. I thought, “Do whatever you need to do to justify the money I gave you.” I was totally over it. I checked into the Ramada Suites Limited near the Atlanta airport. It was pretty sketchy as hotels go but typical for an airport hotel. I tried not to think about it and just went to sleep. I went to bed around 2:30 AM.

By the time I got up at 8:30 AM, Amy and Cezar were already at the Atlanta airport for their 9 AM flight. I was glad I wasn't them! I was still scheduled for the 2 PM flight. I got ready for the day and went down to the free breakfast in the hotel lobby which consisted of cereal and stale donuts. Tim the company manager called while I was eating and told me he got me on the 11:30 AM flight. I hurried to finish eating, went up to my room, grabbed my bag, and checked out of the hotel. I took the hotel’s shuttle back to the airport. I printed out my new boarding pass for the 11:30 AM flight. I went through security and walked to my gate.

The plane loaded on schedule. The passengers were all in our seats. I was blessed to have an empty seat next to me. They close the door and the gangway folds back. But we didn’t go anywhere. After sitting there for a half an hour, the pilot finally comes on the speaker and says we had a loose floorboard on the plane. I thought, “Are you kidding me?!” The pilot told us to make ourselves comfortable because maintenance was on their way to fix it. I figured that was the story of my life. I text Mom and Tim and they think I’m kidding. Of course, I’m such a funny girl! I text back, “Do you think I would kid about a thing like this?!” They both text back, “No!” The flight attendant was super annoying. (Maybe by this time, I thought any flight attendant would be annoying.) Anyway, he busts out the snack cart and serves us drinks and snacks. I thought that was a bad sign if we were getting fed before we even left the ground. Finally an hour after we are scheduled to leave, the plane moves away from the gate. Then we wait in line for another half an hour to take off. To say I showed up late to Myrtle Beach would be a gross understatement. I missed my first rehearsal.

Taking into consideration the time change, it took me 24 hours to travel from Salt Lake City, Utah to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. All I kept thinking was, “It was faster than the pioneers.” Just trying to keep a little perspective.