Stayin on my Tip Toes

Hi Friends!

Where I last left you was my first week of Fall Tour in Newport, Wa and how it felt like riding a bike. Well for my second week of Fall Tour, Loretta and I were in Granger, Wa which was a lot of fun. We pulled into our hotel and I thought, "THIS is TOO good to be TRUE!". In the Lobby, before we even got to our rooms, was a little table with complimentary cookies and milk/coffee ANNNNND Chili! Yea, I KNOW! I then thought, "Ok, don't get your hopes up you haven't seen your room yet. You don't know what your walking into.". I open the room to my door and I find not one but TWO King size beds. I then proceeded with an "EEEEEE!" followed by some girlish giggles. Imediately I threw my stuff down and pushed the beds together for one Giant King size bed. Best sleep ever!

Granger treated Loretta and I like queens. When we weren't in rehearsal she and I were finding all kinds of adventures. We went exploring in this one town that had murrells everywhere of Indian Heritages and what not, went swimming, played some instruments in the school's bandroom, found an abandoned gas station that was made like a giant Teapot, played basketball and were surrounded by Dinosaurs. Thats right, I said Dinosaurs. Fun Fact about the town of Granger is that every year the city makes a dinosaur statue and places it somewhere in the area. We googled it and asked around and no one knows where this idea came from or why they do it. Needless to say Loretta and I had a photoshoot and ended it with some coffee from this drive thru coffee stop called (appropriately enough) Dino Java. Hahaha! It was so fun!

It was nice to do so many fun things when we weren't in rehearsal because it wasn't exactly the easiest week for us, so all these activities helped make the week more exciting. We were also surrounded by vineyards but we actually didn't get a chance to go to a wine tasting. However, I think my Gills will be ok with that since thats kind of "Our" thing. :) Like I said it wasn't the easiest week for us but please don't interpret that as something bad. Newport was to help us get back in the swing of things; our week in Granger kept us on our toes. We found that the kids were having a little trouble memorizing their scripts so since I was performing that week, I had to use a bit of improv to keep the show going while remembering their lines.

Yep.
I'm a Professional.
HA!

Another loop that we were thrown into was an issue of the stomach flu. In Newport we had a slight issue with some of the kids getting head lice which was bad enough but I think this topped Newport. During the dress rehearsal one of the kids threw up, then he went home, came back for the show, said he felt better, after he said his lines he ran offstage and threw up again. Then in between shows our Mini Taliesin threw up right as we were letting the parents in the gym literally 5 minutes before the show so now we were down two kids. Ok I can handle that. Oh but I'm not done yet dear readers. During the 2nd show a Damsel, Mordred and two Camelotians felt "sick" and I noticed as the show was being done somehow our cast kept getting smaller and smaller. Loretta and the teachers were backstage passing out buckets..........

Thankfully, Loretta and I had a wonderful group of teachers who helped us out that week and we didn't have clean up a single mess. Thank the LORD! Seriously, if I hear someone heaving or I see it I have to walk away before I threw up. It's just something about the smell. >:(
Like I said Granger kept us on our toes.
Hopefully stomach flu won't be an issue anymore if it is we know how to handle it. Find a teacher then go to Dino Java. :)
-Jen