Up yours, leap day.

Today sucked. I had to go to the dentist and get some teeth filled, and tonight we found out the house has a ton of leaks in it apparently. Lovely. I'm going to go smash some things, excuse me.

Eventlessness

Forgot to take a picture until rehearsal was over and we were sitting around talking. This is Nifer, John R., and Julie. Yes, they are in their natural state and obviously had no idea there was a camera taking a picture. Nifer always does that. This was everyone who came to rehearsal tonight, surprisingly. Little by little the group seems to trickle away, and then suddenly everyone comes back at the same time and it's overwhelming. Hopefully we'll have everyone back soon, though. We have auditions coming up in a couple weeks (anyone interested? It's fun!) so hopefully we'll get some fresh new blood in here. Today was pretty uneventful overall...all I can think about is the house and I'm stressing about the whole thing. It's hard to find motivation to pack. I just can't believe this is happening and I just want it all to come together so I don't have to worry about it any more.

Once upon a diary

Jason and I were packing up the living room this evening when I ran across Leigha's diary. She writes the most interesting little stories. Here is one she wrote with illustrations. It starts off with a boy and a girl and they are each telling their stories in speech bubbles until the girl starts telling her story, which is written in narrative form. I'll spare you the 8 year old spellings and translate for you:

Girl: Once upon a time..
Boy: A cool motorcycle dude!
Girl: I will make a better story than you
Boy: Oh! I bet you will make a horrible story.
(this is the page in the picture)
Girl: (narrative) There were four unicorns and there was a princess: Milly Sue. Her favorite one was Buttercup.
(speech bubbles again)
Boy: Buttercup? Oh please. Does it have to be Buttercup? Any other name!
Girl: Nope. Buttercup.
Boy: Come on!
Girl: Nope. (back to narrative) and the four unicorns were attacked by an evil monster. Rooooar! Said the monster.
(back to speech bubbles)
Boy: Hey, time for my story!

And that's it for several pages. I don't know if she's just not finished or if that's it, but that is so stinkin' cute. There is also a page that just says, "I love Lord of the Rings. It is soooooooo cool. I just love it!" Oh yeah. She's my kid all right. :-)

*EDIT 9/7/08* I just got off the phone with my mom who read this entry for the first time. I guess this was a book she read to Leigha at one time. Oh well. I'm impressed Leigha was able to recall it so clearly, though.

Moving forward

We took pics of us at Hype 7 rehearsal tonight. I don't know exactly what Nifer's laughing at so hard in this picture, but she looks uber cute. Joe, Jen, Tiffany, Nifer, Me and Zak. Bryan took the picture because we were trying to get one to submit for the improv festival, in September, and he will not be around by then. Bryan got a job and is moving to Fort Collins in about three weeks! Congrats, Bryan! After this we went out and had some food then went to a hookah lounge for a while. Just saying it doesn't even begin to encompass the awesome time that we had sharing hookas and laughing with one another. I love how close this group is and I hate to see one of our number leave, but that's how it goes I guess. Hype 7 has been around for thirteen years (give or take) now so of course people have left before and people will join in the future. I love being a small part of something big. Jason and I finally get to move on with our house buying, as we finally got the paperwork and can begin the task of getting inspections done and whatnot. Change is good. I'm so excited for this part of my life to begin!

Always

Eight years ago on this date, Jason and I got married. We were so young that on our way to our honeymoon destination we stopped at the McDonald's in town to grab some dinner and one of our classmates was working drive through. Nice. Jenny was kind enough to watch our girls for us, so we had dinner at Stix, my favorite sushi place near our house, then went to Scooters for some coffee. We ran into Mike B. there, he was doing some school work courtesy of their wifi connection. We found out today that they finally accepted our contract and once the paperwork comes in tomorrow, we can get the inspection done and whatnot. It's about bloody well time.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, Jason gave me perfume and I gave him a tool bag.

It's electric

Leigha and Brianna are in an Awana program at one of the churches in our town. They look so cute in their vests. They haven't been able to go for a while due to busy schedules and snow days, so they were excited to get to go today. While they were there Jason and I went to Target and Home Depot (alone!) to get a few things. Overheard at Target: "Oh, look at these hammock bags....they have hammocks in them!"

It's over!!!!

Okay, so........I totally don't remember exactly what was going on in this one....but this is a picture of Hype 7 doing our longform in the 7 o clock show at the Roving Imp. We did a spoof on reality tv. In this one we were roommates with a couch and somehow Joe's character just kept getting older and older. I think eventually he was 92. The fun thing about the reality tv show spoof was that we had a "confessional" booth, which was great for revealing plot secrets and setting up new scenes and whatnot. This is Zak, me, Bryan, and Tiffany. I had a good fan base in the audience this evening. Jenny came and so did Mike B. Sweet! I'm so happy they came, it's really nice having friends in the crowd. That was the last of our shows, and after such a busy week of rehearsing and performing, I'm glad it's over. I had a blast, but I need a break now. Great shows, all!

Blog, everyone. Everyone, blog.

Hype 7 had a really great show tonight at the Westport Coffeehouse. Seriously great. We had a pretty good audience, including several former members of the troupe (one came in all the way from Chicago!) The only person from the improv crowd that showed up was Joe H., which kind of surprised me...I figured everyone (not having rehearsals) would be there. *shrug* He enjoyed it, though, and it was way cool of him to come support us like that. We celebrated our fantastic show by heading to a diner called Chubby's, which is apparently a Hype 7 tradition. Greasy, greasy food. Wow. Although sometimes...that's just exactly what you need late at night. Great malts! There are just way too many people in this photo for me to list them all, so all I'm going to say is the only person you can't see is Tiffany, she is behind Joe. Everyone in this picture is either a Hype 7'er, former Hype 7'er, or family of a Hype 7'er...except the one guy behind Zak. I think he's Joe's friend...I never caught his name though. Tonight was just swell.

Love me or leave me

Hype 7 is gearing up for two big shows this weekend, and tonight was the final of five in a row, a tech rehearsal at the Westport Coffeehouse. Oy vey, I enjoy rehearsing, but I'm glad that's over. It gets pretty exhausting after a while and I dislike being away from the family so much (although I had a super extended weekend with everyone this week, so that helped a bunch.) The good news about the rehearsal/show thing is that it's been keeping my mind off the fact that we STILL haven't heard back as to whether or not they accepted the paperwork for the house and IF we have a contract. This is frustrating and infuriating. Oh well, at least once I'm in the house these couple weeks will seem like nothing in comparison. It's going to be so awesome to have our own place. Anyhow, this is Nifer, Tiffany (she's wearing the Antiprov bandanna!!!) Joe, and I playing documentary. Zak is on the floor conducting us. I'm excited for tomorrow!

Happy Birthday, Lynette!!!!

Jim Bob: Well, Trixie Lou, looks like it's Feberary.

Trixie Lou: Yup, I reckon it sure is. Fixin' to be late Feberary, too.

Jim Bob: I figger it's about time to start thinkin' 'bout gettin' rid of the 'ol Christmas tree.

Trixie Lou: But Jim, we paid over $10 for that!

Jim Bob: Right you are, Trixie, Right you are....but these things only last so long. What'cha say, we get rid of the tree then I'll take you out on the town. I'm thinkin' Waffle Hut, baby.

Trixie Lou: Oh, Jim, how you do go on. But how are we going to go about disposing of the dang thing?

Jim Bob: Erm....uh........

Trixie Lou: You did have a plan for it, right Jim Bob?

Jim Bob: Uh, sure! Sure, hon, I did. *heaves tree off balcony and into street* There. Nothin' but the finest for my sweetheart.

Trixie Lou: Wow, you're always thinkin' Darlin'. I'm ever so romancticified that I'm not even going to consider possible safety hazards to other drivers in this here neighborhood.

Jim Bob: *taps her on the nose* Come on, Peanut. Waffle Hut, then deep fried twinkies!

Trixie Lou: I am ever so spoilt!


Seriously, people, what the crap were you thinking? That stupid tree sat out there all day, too.

The Roving 7?

Hype 7 is preparing for a big weekend of shows, including this Saturday night at the Roving Imp theater! It was strange being there with all H7 and no Imps besides myself and Nifer. Pretty good rehearsal, I'd say. That's Bryan sitting down, behind him is Joe, our new guy Zak is in the grey hoodie by the wall there, Jen's head is behind Tiffany, Nifer is behind Tiffany, and Tiffany appears to be making a heart with her hands, apparently symbolizing her love for me. Well, Tiffany, I'm sorry, but my heart belongs to people who shovel my driveway, and as you can clearly see from the picture a couple days ago, the last person to shovel my driveway was Jason. I do like you hyperplatonically, though. :-)

It's okay, I'm a limo driver!

We got Brianna's hair cut today....for the very first time. Yes, I know. She's three. The poor kid didn't have hair for the longest time, do you really think we were going to just take that away from her right off the bat? Not to mention it is so very cute how could we? Finally it got to the point where she cringed every time a brush got near her, so we took her to a place where she could sit in a tiny car and watch Dora the Explorer while getting her hair cut. Seeing as how the price was totally reasonable, we were happy all around. Hype 7 is preparing for two shows this week, so tonight was the second of five nights in a row of rehearsal. I didn't go yesterday, they did sketch work on a couple things I'm not in so I just took the night off. Tonight's was fantastic, though, I felt really "on." This ought to be a good week.

That's what I'm talkin' about!

There is not a more beautiful sight in the world.

Carrie Fisher flop

The instant I took this picture, I knew this was it. The exact thought in my head was, "Oh yes." I didn't even TAKE any other pics today. This, my friends, is the porch pelican. Nifer's back deck buddy. I have no clue of it's origins, I have no clue what it's purpose is, and I have no clue why Nifer hasn't taken down her Christmas lights, but one things for sure: The porch pelican is awesome. To the max. I went to her place this afternoon to do some 2 person improv rehearsing. We did some pretty cool stuff....we're going to need some help on formats though. Tonight was Roving Imp and we had two amazing performances. After the nine o clock show we watched Star Wars together. It's incredible how much stormtrooper stupidity you overlook when you watch the movie as a child. "This door is locked...move along." That's some fine investigative work right there.

Brianna's traveling quarter of destruction

A fraction of the Hype 7 journeyed to the Westport Coffee House today (also known as the epicenter of the Kansas City improv community) to meet up, post flyers, and film some stuff for our show next Friday. This is Joe, Nifer, and Jen, and of course Brianna down there in the corner. She insisted she was a pink zebra today due to that striped jacket. Nice. Jen had given her a quarter while at the coffee house and Bri kept trying to put it into the candy machine. Thank goodness she couldn't operate it...it contained chocolate covered espresso beans. That would have been swell. We walked all over Westport putting up flyers and filming. I think it's basically going to turn into a "Hype 7's Day Off" kind of collaberation. Should be pretty funny.

The true meaning

Forget everything you THINK you know about Valentine's day. THIS is the true meaning: The Cherry Yum Yum Pie. Behold it in all it's sugary fattening goodness. Behold it, I say!!!

Years and years and years ago, about 2 days after the dinosaurs became extinct, my dad proposed to my mom. The date was February 12th. Two days later, she made him this pie for Valentine's day. It was so tasty he said, "It's a good thing I already proposed to you or my buddies would think it was because of this pie." It's been the traditional V-day dessert in my family ever since. I helped out in Leigha's classroom party this afternoon. The head room mom is a snooooob! You try to talk to her and she literally uses an "I'm talking to a two year old" voice to respond, while avoiding eye contact and then ordering you to fill cups with ice. One of those hyperperfect mommies I strive to never become and avoid at all costs. I can't stand people who condescend like that, it drives me crazy. Anyhow, so the kids played musical chairs and it was funny to see every parent in the room watching their child like, "Yeah! You sit in that chair, Johnny! Don't let that little girl in on that, this is YOUR game!" I have to admit I felt my adrenaline going as I saw Leigha get the killin' look in her eyes about the time there were three chairs left. Musical chairs is an underrated competitive sport. Jason came home from work and handed me a tall nonfat peppermint mocha and a heart he twisted out of aircraft-grade wire. He called it a "love coffee." Nice. I reciprocated by giving him the pie. We don't really make a huge deal out of Valentine's day. Everyone else is celebrating by going out and whatnot, it just seems a little forced. Besides, our anniversary is in 11 days. That's a reason to celebrate.

Above water hair weaving

Tonight after rehearsal Julie taught Nifer how to french braid...using my hair. I had every confidence in her, as evidenced by my facial expression. I do believe her facial expression is "I saw Sweeney Todd and I'm about to practice the technique I learned from it." I finally started going through stuff to prepare for moving today. If all goes well, I have less than two weeks.

Octopi

So, so many amazing pictures I could have posted today. However...Ihop free pancake day comes but once a year. So here it is! (I probably shouldn't have put the sausage on my plate before taking the shot...that looks...wrong) That is my "I'm going to devour these suckas" face, and my hair is wet because it's relatively early in the day and it's so thick and curly it takes hours and hours and hours to fully dry. Besides the pancakes, I spent the morning with Jason and Bri, which was really nice. This afternoon Jason was going to a huge music store we have here, so I went and had coffee with Nifer and we discussed a project we both want to work on. You'll hear more as details develop. After coffee we wandered around Westport then I came home and helped Leigha make some Valentine's cards for her classmates. I always made my cards as a kid and I enjoyed it so much. It means a lot more than just signing your name to a punched out card with My Little Pony on it, so I carry on the tradition with Leigha, and when Bri gets big enough to not destroy everything in her path I'll make them with her, too. This evening was Hype 7 rehearsal, and we had an auditionee who made it into the group, so we have a new member which is fantastic. We went out as a group afterward and Tiffany drove Nifer and I to the restaurant, but when she drove us back to the car her car that she's borrowing from her mom (her own car is broken currently) wouldn't start. We couldn't get the hood of Nifer's truck open so we had to call Joe to help us jump it. That rather sucked. Poor Tiffany. Bummer way to end an awesome evening. The ball is still rolling with the house, we get the inspection done next week. Whee!

3, 2, 1, Contract!

A friend of Jason's from work opened a pizza place in Parkville (that's a lot of p's) and had a special price today for his airline buddies. We had lunch then started driving downtown to have some coffee at a local shop when the realtor called and said the paperwork for the house was ready to be signed, so we drove all the way through downtown into Johnson County to sign the contract. I just love downtown Kansas City, it's such a beautiful city. So many varying types of architecture (I'm an architecture junkie) and such a colorful history. We've only lived in the area for two years now, but I just love it. Feels like home. We signed the contract for the house and if all goes as planned, we should be closing on the 25th!

Life of the party

We drove the 3 hours to Jason's mom's house today to celebrate his Grandma's 81st birthday. Her birthday is actually the 25th, but that's also our anniversary and everybody has things going on every other weekend this month, so we celebrated today. She's sitting in front of the cake, obviously, and standing behind her is Jason's Grandpa (her ex husband) and Jason's mom. Jason's brother Tim was there and the girls jumped all over him, which was cute. We looked at old photos of Jason being a dork and dinking around with his Grandpa's airplane. It's so cute to see a picture of him from over ten years ago doing what is now his career. We came home in the evening, laden with an abundance of food. "Take it, we're never going to eat it all!" That's an order I can live with.

Breaking and Entering

The girls of H7 (sans Jen who was babysitting) got together for a shopping excursion today. This is me, Nifer and Tiffany (and Leigha's elbow) at Cheeseburger in Paradise for lunch. We had a great day, found some awesome sales and stuff. Leigha had a birthday party this afternoon so I drove her to Bonner Springs in the middle of our day. While she was at the party we shopped a little in downtown Bonner, then picked her up and I took everyone by the house to show them where it is and stuff. Everyone was quite impressed with the place, and I'm getting really excited to move in. We finished up our shopping trip and parted ways, exhausted. I can't believe I have a free Saturday night! Not even eight o clock and I'm in my jammies already. Mmmmmm.

Win some, lose some

Improv Thunderdome, Round 2! Tonights competitiors: Scriptease vs. Babelfish vs. Antiprov.

Members of Scriptease:
Clayton Ingram (second from right standing up, grey hoodie over orange shirt)
Drew Davidson (kneeling on floor, beige button up shirt with blue shirt underneath)
Rene Boudreaux (third from right, greyish shirt, leaning back a little

Members of Babelfish:
Joe Henley (kneeling, grey shirt, right side)
John Robison (standing, second from left, uncomfortably close to Nathan)
Nathan Stewart (standing, third from left, argyle sweater)

Members of Antiprov:
Scott Connerly (kneeling, in the middle, grey shirt)
Joe Stephenson (standing, first on the right, white shirt)
Jessica Robins (The only girl...and that's me)

We collectively did a fantastic show. I was so nervous. After the first round of Thunderdome people asked for the DVD so they had cameras filming everything...even us warming up backstage! That was a little strange, but kind of fun too. In the end Scriptease won and we all went to Mc Coy's to celebrate a great night of improv. I got congratulated by a lot of improvisers that I respect the crap out of, which felt awesome. I am sad to see Antiprov's short lived day in the sun come to a close, but it was so great while it lasted.

The bank accepted our offer for the house. We go in for the official paperwork on Monday. This is so unreal.

My mamma don't wear no socks

Took a ton of pictures today, but ultimately, this one was just the cutest so I went with it. Today was completely backward of what I thought it would be. Jason was sick, poor thing, he caught what I had on Tuesday. He stayed home from work all day, slept until about 1pm. We waited all day for the phone call about the house, but still haven't heard anything. *frustration!* I was pumped all day for my second Hype 7 show tonight, and then we had a dissapointing turnout. A ton of people said they'd come then just didn't, and we didn't have any students walk in like the last show. We did a mini show for the audience that DID show up, and I think they both enjoyed it....After the show we went out and talked about upcoming shows and rehearsals and filming days. We have a lot going on in the upcoming months, and it's pretty exciting, but it's very strange talking about such things when you're bummed from such a low turnout. We did have a good time, though, and I think we all left feeling better.

(P.S.-you know you do improv if you finished the subject line with "I was there when she took them off" in your head.)

NYEEEROOOOOOM!

Jason and I have often joked that if there was a snowplow in our town, it was lost. Imagine my surprise when, not only did I see one in town, but in our neighborhood. They NEVER plow our neighborhood! (In fact, this guy didn't plow, just drove twice the speed limit down the street....nice.) Leigha had a snow day today so we watched The Two Towers. She's starting to grasp things like plot and character and whatnot, so it's a little aggrivating watching a non-kid movie with her. "Is he a bad guy?" "Yes." "So the king is a bad guy too?" "No, he's a good guy." "Then why is he listening to the bad guy?" "Because he doesn't know he's a bad guy." "Oh. (pause) Somebody should tell him." She also got really excited with the horses in the movie, and claimed that Shadowfax has a magical ability to bring the dead horses back to life so they can fight orcs. Yeah. Roving Imp rehearsal tonight was incredible. I played some really REALLY intense characters and it was so real there were a couple places where I reacted naturally then had to step back and remind myself, "This isn't real." Got a lot of thumbs up from John. Actually, all of us did. I love it when that happens.

Urp-blehhhh!

I am sick. Like, throw up sick. Ugh. The world goes on, however, and in the afternoon my sickness had been downgraded to "I feel nauseas and my stomach hurts." So I went about my business, just slower. We dropped off some papers with the loan place, which is ironically right next door to Jason's leg doctor. It was amusing. This evening I went ahead and went to H7 rehearsal because we have a show this week. This is us playing "Audition." Bryan is on accordian there, Nifer is the director of an upcoming production, and Joe is the hopeful auditionee wearing magic shoes, apparently. If you look carefully, you can see the Interview Pidgeon's cage in the back middle there. It was a good rehearsal. On the way home it had started to snow and I literally drove 40mph the whole way down I-70. I'm ready for Winter to keel over now.

I'm so happy that you're so happy for me

Tonight was the final rehearsal before Thunderdome. I had John take a bunch of pictures of me, Joe, and Scott doing out thing, and some of them were really great. I apologize to John if he reads this, because something happened today that totally overshadows that and I felt would be a more significant reminder of today: Jason and I put an offer down on a house! I don't want to say too much about it because it might not be accepted, so you'll have to draw your own conclusions from this picture. *shrug* Sorry 'bout that. This is our realtor, Jerry, with my mother-in-law, Sheila. You know Brianna, Leigha and Jason from previous entries. I'm really nervous. For the house, for Thunderdome, for a lot of things really. The rehearsal this evening went great, though. Antiprov didn't bring our "A" game tonight, but I really do believe if we get it together Friday night, we have a real shot at winning this thing. I'm pretty sure that's how all the teams felt from tonight...that's probably how it should be. This is going to be a great week.

Hello, Operator, please connect me to the human race

This is what I look like when I'm trapped at a Superbowl party. That's my iPod you see there. I've warmed up to the idea of having one, since it's helped me get through rough times like this. Note the "holy crap I need to get freakin' out of here" desperation in my eyes. To those of you who didn't have to suffer this kind of indecency: get bent.

Let's go downtown!

This morning I had a planning meeting for the Kansas City Improv Festival, which is in September. We met at a coffee shop downtown and I told the girls if they were good we'd go to Kaleidoscope afterward (which I keep mixing up with Wonderscope in my head, dangit). They were perfect. For those of you who don't know, Hallmark is based out of Kansas City, and their building complex campus name is "Crown Center," which is also the name of the shopping area built into the skywalks around it. Kaleidoscope is in the complex and it's a place where kids can basically run around and make crafts and stuff, and it's free! It's so cool. The girls just loved it. When we were leaving there was a small stage erected in the food area of the shopping center, and the Coterie Theater was going to be doing a kid's show right when we happened to be there, so of course I took the girls to that as well. It was great. I love getting to do cool things with them. We had a dissapointing turnout for Roving Imp tonight, which sucks. Oh well. I have two shows coming up this week that I know for a fact are going to be well attended, so that's some consolation.

BAM!

I feel like I haven't seen Elsbeth in forever! She's been working hard on college and her job and stuff. Poor thing. Luckilly she had time this evening for a cup of coffee with me! We met at Books a Million and hung out for a while. Landa was there, too, but she mostly chatted with her former co-workers and popped in on us every once in a while. While we were looking around we saw a "Star Wars Pop-Up Guide to the Galaxy" book. I said, "Is there a Death Star? Please tell me there's a Death Star. That would be so cool." Elsbie flipped through the book, "There's no Death Star." "There is only Zuul!!!" Awesome.

Leigha had a reading day at her school today, so I dropped her off and picked her up so she didn't have to carry her sleeping bag and pillow on the bus. I remember doing that...it's not fun. This morning was funny because it was me, Bri and Leigha in my car dropping her off, and Leigha had the sleeping bag and pillow but was fully dressed, while me and Brianna were still in our jammies.