The start of something new...well sort of. :)

Hi Friends!
If you are reading this blog after reading my last post then I am certainly surprised by your loyality. That last post I know was depressing but I just had to express myself! I promise this post will be a lot lighter.

So our first week of tour went so well! Our first destination wasn't too far from Coeur d' Lane so Loretta and I slept in at her boyfriend's Apt and then went to Olive Garden for lunch. We spent the afternoon in Coeur d' Lane just hanging out. If you've been keeping up, Olive Garden was Loretta and my tradish for Thursday evenings buuuut since most of the places we'll be going will be really small towns, an Olive Graden visit will have to be on Sunday's. We'll just make an awesome pit stop while on the highway. :)

When we pulled into Newport, we quickly realized how small this town was. It basically had one  little strip where there was a gas station, a safeway, a McDonalds (this is where we went for internet) and that was it. Seriously. But you know what, I liked it. It was a nice place to visit for sure. When we arrived at our homestay, the sun was just beginning to set and the view from her living room literally took my breath away. Lois was the name of the sweet little old Lady that we stayed with. I'm kicking myself for not getting a picture with her. She was sooo cute! She fixed us homemade chicken noodle soup, was always baking cookies, and worked at the Library. I just loved her. Her house was right off the river and she had so many windows all throughout her house. It was so quaint and lovely.

Loretta and I were afraid that when we came back from our break we would be a little rusty but turns out it was just like riding a bike! YEA! We had an interesting week with some people dropping out at the last minute but come show day it all came together. The kid that we had playing the Black Knight was/is my favorite Black Knight we've ever had! This kid was a little bit round, had Drew Carey glasses and a LISP! He had such a happy spirit about him that if I was allowed, I would've hugged him every day! It was definitely a fun cast. Loretta and I even performed some Bieber during a rehearsal. Needless to say, they liked it. :)

Loretta and I also had to do a new workshop. In the summer we had a few workshops to do each week and for Fall Tour MCT added 2 more to the list. The one we performed last week is set up to be performed for an assembly of up to 600 kids and by doing this one workshop it counts for three. The reason is because it's for so many kids all at once rather than a smaller group of like 30, no big. As the kids were coming into the gym one of the teachers handed Loretta and I microphones. I felt like Britney Spears. Before we got started I was standing there looking at all the kids, (we probably went over the 600 amount, there was sooooooo many kids there) I had to stop and soak it all in. I thought, "Man I remember when I went to school and we had assemblies like this.".  I couldn't (and still can't) believe that I'm doing that sort of thing right now. I whispered a little "Thank you" to God in my head.

I can already tell that I'm going to like the Fall Tour so much better than the Summer Tour. Now don't get me wrong Summer Tour was fun but with Fall Tour I get to sleep in if I want, I have the day to go do fun things (Loretta and I went canoeing out on the river) or run errands, and then WE'RE the after school activity. Most kids play sports or go home and watch SpongeBob, but we are actually what they're looking forward to after school. Nice!

Personal note: Earlier I mentioned that we had to go to McDonald's for internet which at first kind of bumbed me out that Lois didn't have internet but it ended up being better that way. Our first night there I finally finished the King Arthur books that I was reading for the summer tour. I had this big book that contained 4 of the stories called  "The Sword in the Stone," "The Queen of Air and Darkness," "The Ill-Made Knight" and "The Candle in the Wind". I can officially say I finished them before Fall Tour started. Woot Woot! I also read another book called "Leaving" by Karen Kingsbury and it spoke to my heart SO much! I could totally relate and couldn't have picked a better time to read it. It was all about this girl who just got offered a role in "Hairspray" on Broadway but not only did she have to worry about leaving her family but issues with a boy was thrown into the mix and she was looking to God for guidance. It was definitely a girly book but I LOVED it and finished it in a day and a half!

I caved.

I started reading the Harry Potter books.

I never read them because I didn't want to follow the trend and I already saw the movies but I figure I got a lot of time on the road, I might as well read 'em. :)

I hope this blog was a lot more upbeat.
I'm going to go read Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone now sooo Goodnight!
-Jen

An Ocean of Emotion

Hi Friends!
So in the last Blog I left you I mentioned that I was home, my wonderful home of Lynchburg, Va. (siiiiiiiigh)
Oh I missed it dreadfully!
Being home for those two weeks was actually bittersweet. I had a lot going on emotionally. At first it wasn't bad at all. I was excited to see my family and friends and to sleep in my own bed. Just about everyday of those two weeks was packed full with something to do. I had lots of Father-Daughter time with my Dad. When I wasn't hanging with my Dad I was with my Gills. During the week I went rollerblading, saw some friends that were in town (Rebekah and Cody), had sleepovers with the Gills, breakfast downtown a couple times (once with Rebekah and Micah and then with Rachel Rogers), spent the afternoon with Grandma, saw Liberty's dance rehearsal for OKLAHOMA, Chic-fila with Ray, Zumba and a slumber party with Courtney, went to my church a couple times (Thomas Road Baptist, I really missed it) hung out with Alan, went Bridesmaid dress shopping with Micah, Starbucks with Brently, went to Richmond with Dad, more Gill time at the Apt, The Muse, pillow fights, saw Wolfbanes production of "The Tempest", sat in on a Mr. Brasher Class, had La Carretta with some Gills, had Panera and went shopping with Sarah, a date or two, pillow talks with Allison (I love those), dancing, frolicing in fields/fountains and enough Sweet Frog to last me until December.

Woo! I'm tired all over again. As you can see I had a lot of fun and I'm sure I missed a few things. So naturally towards the end of my vacation I started to feel a little down because I would be leaving all of this behind. Yes I'd be molding the children of the world but STILL. On top of that, I'm not gonna go into a lot of detail because it's very personal but the whole time I was home, someone who I still deeply care for was giving me this "I want to be with you." "No I don't." "Yes I do." "I need space." dance EVERY day. I know what your thinking. However, it's extremely complicated because I'm on the road and he's still trying to get his Theatre degree. I'm confused about the whole thing. My Gills tell me one thing but my Heart says another. Like I said this is extremely private and complicated so I'm not going to explain any more than that. Readers just know my heart has never felt more torn.

The last few days I was home I had so much fun but yet I found myself still very sad because I knew I would be leaving soon. I was going through an ocean of emotion. The night before my last day in Lynchburg I cried myself to sleep about leaving, woke up, and cried again. Then I thought, "Ok today is a new day! Get up!". I went and got some Special K cereal (my fav) and was like "I'm gonna go find on the map hanging in my room of where I'm going and put pins in it. Yea! This is gonna be good!". Once I found every destination I was stoked. I was like "Yea this fall tour is going to rock!". Then I looked at Washington State, then Virginia, then Washington, saw how far Virginia was from Washington and started crying again. This was my last day in Lynchburg and I just then realized how far away Washington was from Virginia. Haha I was a mess! I spent the last day with my Dad just hanging out at the house and talking. I love him. Then later that night I met up with some friends for some late night Sweet Frog. On the way home and that night as I went to bed I cried again. :(

I woke up the next morning with my bags packed and waited for Grandma to show up so we could all go to the airport. The ride to Roanoke wasn't bad, I just tried not to think about it. My Dad and I always have this tradition of getting breakfast at Chic-fila before we go get on a plane to Florida or wherever we're going so I got my last Chic-fila meal for awhile. They don't have them in Washington. I'm going to miss their Lemonade. It's the "Nectar of the gods". Then we said our "Goodbyes" and yep you guessed it, I started crying. When I got on the plane I was right next to the front door and it took EVERYTHING for me not to jump off the plane or have them turn it around. There I was crying and I'm sure the Steward guy was thinking, "What's the matta with her!". Poor thing, he just didn't know. I guess I should've said "Bomb" they might've stopped the plane then. Hahah!

When I arrived in Spokane, Wa, Loretta's friend David picked me up and we met up with Loretta and her boyfriend Cole. Those last few days in Lynchburg I'm going to admit were extremely rough on a little Gill's heart but I woke up in Couer de Lane, Id the next morning ready for Fall Tour and I thought, "Today is a new day.". :)
-Jen

The Long Journey Home

Hi Friends!

After our final week and saying our final "Goodbyes", we hit the road headed to Montana early Sunday morning. We drove from Texas to Wyoming in one day. UGH! It actually wasn't that bad Loretta and I switched every 3 hours which actually made it seem to go by faster. Loretta even pretended to be asleep and let me sing some of my favorite musical songs on the way. Thanks Loretta! When we got to Cheyenne, Wyoming late Sunday night we went to check in at the Roadway Inn.

Never. Again.

This place was, to be honest, a little sketch. When we got to our room, we noticed there was a "Do not disturb" sign on the door and the lights were on. We opened the door and found that the room was trashed. The bed was turned back, stuff was everywhere and I'm pretty sure I saw a used condemn on the floor. We decided that we did NOT want to stay there so we cancelled our payment with them and went to the Stage Coach Inn which was cheaper and so much nicer. We opened the door and both had a fit of giggles. Maybe it was the long drive, or the 80's wood panneling with deer and ducks on it, OR the "Hamptin Inn" bath towels hahahah!!!! It was actually a cute little place. The shower was pink! Haha!

The next day we finished up our drive to Missoula. Yep Texas to Montana in TWO days. We're nuts in the head! We shared a room with our friends Krystal and Eli and caught up with some of our long lost TAD friends. The next day was check in. Needless to say check in was a little stressful for us both and I'm already not looking forward to the next one at the end of Fall Tour. Although, it was nice to catch up with friends and exchange summer stories. A bunch of us even hiked up to the "M" and the view was beautiful. Montana is officially my favorite state to drive through. Mountains are EVERWHERE and I LOVE the mountains. Missoula is actually in a valley so we were literally surrounded by Gods work. I loved it.

After our second day of check in which was Loretta's Birthday some of her friends came and picked us up for her Birthday dinner. Later that night there was a bonfire in Loretta's honor which consisted of hotdogs, smores, and some of Loretta's dearest friends. I was glad I was invited. :) Afterwards we went to this place called Sheris for a late night snack (it was around 2am) with Loretta's boyfriend and their friend David. After that David and I went for a walk around the lake, just killing time, before I had to be at the airport in about an hour. David and I had some good heart to heart conversations and he gave me a lot of good advice which I have already applied.

I had to get on 3 flights to get home and right as I was getting on my last flight they made an announcement that they overbooked the flight and were asking for volunteers to stay and leave the next day. Well duh no one's going to want to do that! They loaded the plane with our luggage, I was sitting in my seat and started to notice that nothing was happening. They made another announcement on the plane saying that they overbooked the flight AND that because of the "weather" (it was sunny in VA and in Chicago) that the load was too heavy so they were asking for volunteers or they would begin selecting people to get off the plane. They mentioned that they would pick from the lowest ticket and go up. I thought, "Well I'm fine, I've already been on two flights today so my ticket is well over $500". They called off 3 old married couples probably because they were retired and they assumed they had nothing else to do. Guess who was picked next? Yep. F my life. They picked me and this other girl probably because we were single tickets and that would be easy to rebook. Ticket price had nothing to do with it! SOOO I go to customer service and they say the earliest they can get me out would be sometime in the afternoon the following day. I never loose my cool but this time I did. I was homesick and had been up for over 24 hours and my luggage was STILL on the plane headed home....WITHOUT ME! I was so upset and I tried to be a good little Christian girl, and after a few tears and angry words they got me on a plane for later that day. Never flying out of Chicago or with United ever again.

Now I'm finally home surrounded by my loved ones and dog. As cheesy as this is to say, "There's no place like home."

-Jen

All The King Arthur TAD'S

Final Week of Summer Tour

Hello Friends!
I'm a little late in my blogs but thats only because I'm HOME!!!!! Yep, thats right I've been in Lynchburg for about a week now and I'm so glad to be home.
(sigh)

Our last week of tour was so much fun! Loretta and I were on an Air Force Base for our final week and we both agreed that we never felt more safe. The security to get into this place was nuts so you know they weren't gonna let anybody who even had a hint of crazy get in. We actually stayed on Base so we didn't have to go through the whole security bit every morning so that was nice. We stayed at this hotel and our rooms were huge, there was a door that led from the den into the bedroom and when I first got there I thought I was peeping in on someone elses room. Nope it was mine. See the rooms were big. :) The kids at the Goodfellow Air Force Base were so great. We actually ended up casting four siblings in some of the major roles and we didn't even know it. They're family later  that week invited us over for a homemade dinner which was very kind of them and the meal was wonderful. I mean cmon, homemade pasta and coffee ice-cream for dessert, forget about it! We ended up staying and talking with the family until about midnight, they were just so welcoming. What I think I loved most other than their overall hospitality was they were actually very familiar with Liberty University which is where I went for college. It was very nice to talk to them about my hometown and some of our common friends in Lynchburg. By the end of the night I was officially homesick. I just kept telling myself, I'll be home soon enough.

Loretta and I went to Olive Garden for the last time for our summer tour which was kinda sad but we invited our contact and one of the guys that was helping us out with the kids all week and he even paid for everyone's meal. SCORE! Loretta and I also got all gussied up before we headed back home. We went and got our haircut. I also got a fedder in my hair, not a feather, a FEDDER. I was pretty excited.

Getting ready for Check in.

This was our first week where we actually had an autistic kid. We've dealt with kids who had reading disorders and were bipolar but this was a completely different playing ground. A rather pleasant one at that. He actually wanted to be an Assistant Director so we made him an AD. What surprised us both was before the end of our first two hour rehearsal he had the ENTIRE script memorized, parts we hadn't even got to yet he had memorized. He was also musically very smart and kept the beat for us while we sang "Follow Me" which was cool because all of a sudden it became an African Tribal song. Haha! This kid was also cracking jokes throughout the whole week and was such a joy to be around. Speaking of AD's, we had another Assistant Director who was also wonderful. We had two performances that week and for some reason for our performance on Saturday the kid playing the Ghost did not show up. Our other AD stepped in 15 minutes before the show started and gave a flawless performance. Woot Woot!
A good way to end the summer for sure!
-Jen