Luck Be A Lady

Mark and I spent the day in Seattle. Gosh, I love that city. I've lived there off and on throughout my adult life but moved back over to the other side of the pond back in 2001. Whenever I can walk around DT (my old neighborhood) Seattle I get the fond memories back, especially on a nice sunny day like today. :-) Well, we went to see Rent at the Paramount today and it is just as enjoyable as the last time I saw it. Mark and I both cried during the 'death' scene of one of the characters. Touching..... Went to Pacific Place afterward to get my Coach fix (big sigh - can't afford anything there right now) and had dinner at a new restaurant there called Mexico and boy was that yummy! We love Mexican cuisine and this was great! Sat outside on the balcony and it was gorgeous. Afterward, I got to visit B&N and get a couple of Broadway CD's which was within my budget. Can't wait to open them up and pop them in the CD player!

Brady playing some rockabilly! 

Greg taking us on a 'Magic Carpet Ride' 

Mark S. jammin' on his cool bass! 

Hey y'all! I've been ignoring the blog and I hope she'll forgive me! It's been a crazy week being a 'tux shop' and 'shoe store'. I feel like a multiple personality! With the additional duties comes all the problems and having to smooth ruffled feathers of more customers.T An interesting experience to say the least. I won't go any further than that because I'm in retail and that should say enough! Well, this weekend ought to be fun. I'm 'working' this a.m. going over the big store on the other side of the pond and delivering some things and then the rest of the weekend is MINE! Hoo-ray. We're going to see The Wiz at WWCA in Port Orchard tonight. One of my employees, Matt Borer is playing the Tin Man and his dad Dale is the Gatekeeper so we'll get to laugh a lot I'm sure! Tomorrow we're seeing Rent at the Paramount.....yee-haw! I thought I'd add a few more pictures from the Del Rays' gig la

LOL - it's obviously the first day of 'band camp' around here. I was swamped w/customers today. We are selling all the acoutrements as well as shoes, tux shirts and bow ties! We feel like a music store with a tux shop attached these days. Kind of a bizarre feeling to be selling clothes and shoes in a music store! Oh well....it's really nice to have the business here so I shouldn't complain. It's just an identity crisis! I spent part of my evening looking for a body fat caliper. "Why," do you ask? (Be honest, I know you did) Well, part of this joining the health/fitness forums is finding out exactly where I am at. I'm very afraid (haven't stepped on a scale in ages) to know but they do say that knowledge is power! Maybe I won't be afraid of it once I know the horrible numbers. Oh well....it's time to go find that caliper and face the music!

I recently joined a couple of communities (i.e., forums, bulletin boards) on health and fitness since I'm trying to lose about 25 lbs. I was reading a story from a person who was plateauing after an initial loss of weight. It reminded me how important it is to appreciate the times God makes us wait in a holding pattern. There's always a reason.....and I need to learn to be more patient. I am sure that is my mission in life!

Check out the pics! The Del Rays did a rockin' set of music last night in DT Poulsbo. The weather was perfect, the crowd was filled w/lots of theatre friends and locals picnicking and dancing....a fun night all the way around! Now I'm exhausted.....I have to be on the ferry in an hour after all the excitement but what a way to start the weekend!

My buddy Cameron (4 years old!) break dancing to the Del Rays! 

There's my honey jamming on the drums! 

Del Rays jamming at Waterfront Park in Poulsbo!

So what if Evan's soon-to-be sibling is a little boy? Then who will be the cutest boy in the world? Oh the horrors! :-) I guess they'll have to share the title! The answer of course is for his sibling to be a cute little girl! Things are getting busy around here.....I think my life is about to take the turn around the corner into back-to-school hell. Back to the 6 or 7 day work weeks with 18 hour days ahead of me. Oh the horrors...... that's the nature of retail. I'm off to Bothell today and tomorrow for meetings and delivery pick ups. Oh the horrors.... On a happier note (Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! - my happy note!) Tonight is the Del Ray's performance at Waterfront Park in DT Poulsbo! Cannot wait to see my honey and his compadres jamming up a storm! I was told that I would be there as a landmark festooned w/balloons. I wonder who's providing the balloons?

The cutest little boy ever! This is Evan, son of my good friends Jon & Kimberly. He has got to be the cutest almost 3 year old boy ever!

It's no secret that I've loved Southpark forever and it always perks me up when I'm feeling down like I was a little earlier! My friend Jon spotted this fun thing to do and if you're a fan you should do the same thing! Create your own Southpark character and see what you would look like if you lived with Cartman, Kyle, Stan and Kenny! Loads of fun for the entire....well almost the entire family!

What gives with the world? We're having glorious summer weather here in Washington and Florida gets devastating hurricanes. The news is so incredibly sad. At least we have things like the Olympics and team spirit to keep us going. Of course, I was reading about the Iranian judo champion who withdrew from the competition because he would be fighting against someone from Israel. I guess there are some Arabs who won't even come into contact w/Israeli citizens because of their continued conflicts. It goes against their' beliefs.' I've been reading a lot about that lately (trying to keep up with the whole thing since the war started) and I can understand the difficulties involved. Not that I want to get into all that right now but it's tough to take sides as I educate myself more and more on the subject. I think I'm feeling a little depressed because I'm not feeling well today and did absolutely nothing on my one day off. Hearing and reading about all these t

I miss you! I hope I see you soon!

I hate break-ups. To put it simply, they just plain suck. I was discussing this with someone who is going through this right now. It's so strange to see nice people become jerks or asses or whatever word you use to describe stupid boys! (j/k - girls can be awful too) But ultimately, it's a personal journey between 2 people and they have to figure out the whys and the wherefores and move on. I can only hope that each person has learned something good from the experience. So as always after a pretty deep conversation, I turned inward and thought about my experiences. I have made some dumb mistakes in my life. I have a failed marriage plus a few stupid relationships and one in particular that sent me to the psychiatric couch for almost a year. I have such a perfectionist streak in me that I tend to beat myself up over the mistakes and the failures. I know that I used to think that I was undeserving of these 'fabulous' people. I think I tended to give them too

Went to Capitol Playhouse and saw their kids' summer show (one of four!), Les Miserables with Dan and Bob (the directors for our version of this production next summer), Margie (the costumer), Karen (tech staff), Josh, Evan and myself (the producer). After seeing this done professionally years ago I was wondering how a group of kids would be able to pull this 'opera' off. Les Miz is one of those shows that has been elevated to near heavenly status by many theatre geeks. It's still NOT available for community theatres to do (what gives with that?) but a few years ago the publishers and authors gave way to a 'school' edition to be done by the American youth. This of course sets off a dialogue of why they won't let the grownups of the world perform the show. I love working w/kids and am thrilled that they have this opportunity. But I was concerned that they wouldn't 'get' it and try to mimic the recordings. Do I sound a bit sarcastic today? Well,

What is it about the karaoke phenomenon? I find it to be a little uncomfortable, personally. We were celebrating the birthday of my dear friend Leslie (Happy Birthday, Leslie!!!!!) and they have a terrific karaoke system and lots of music to pick from. Some people take to karaoke like fish to water. Others, like me find it very foreign and as I said a few sentences ago, uncomfortable. I think it's a terrific venue for those who can't play a musical instrument or for those who don't get the chance to perform onstage. I like using it for rehearsing a song for an audition but find it tough to use them as a performance tool. I don't know......I'm one of those people who will look and look through a karaoke book of songs and even though I love a million of them can't find one song to sing. Several of my friends with the most fabulous of voices are the same way. I wonder about this......... I'll have to write a book on it someday! I guess the other thing I don&

Yikes......where did that rain storm come from? It was cold and pouring and I just happened to be on the road in the worst traffic ever. One thing I absolutely hate about living in Washington is that we have some stupid drivers. Okay, maybe these drivers are not born and raised Washingtonians so I'll try to give the residents a break here. We're obviously NOT used to 80+ temps around here but lately our summers have been more reminiscent of CA or Southern Oregon. No rain for weeks and weeks and then surprise! We get slammed with a downpour. Our roads are full of slick oil and muck from weeks of dry weather and becomes an ice rink. Accidents galore and traffic will come to a virtual standstill. I happen to work in an area that gets slammed by not one but two major ferries and being at this crossroad is annoying at best. Usually, I'm just looking out my store window laughing and saying how happy I am to NOT be out there in the middle of it. But this time, well I'm in a wo

Fun times.........my first show as a producer ended last night and we hosted a big party for the kids afterward. Lots of music, food, dancing was enjoyed by all. I think the kids enjoyed themselves too! My friend Andrea did a great job directing and those kids were super talented. Mark also did a spectacular job for his first turn as stage manager. It can be a thankless job but Mark really did well and I think the kids loved him as much as I do! I loved watching them grow and change and gain confidence as the show went on. That's the best part for me as a director. Luckily, since I was producing I got to be there frequently so I could still see the growth. If you didn't see the show I'll have some pics up on the CSTOCK website very soon!