Easter. Dolls. McGill. 'Nuff said

Hi Friends!
Spending Easter Sunday on the road was very weird for me. Normally on Easter morning I wake up and I find on the kitchen table a small Easter basket filled with reese eggs (and probably a cd) with a sweet Hallmark card from my Dad. He's very thoughtful. :) He and I then head to church at Thomas Road and then have lunch at my Grandma's. Oh what I would give for some home cooking right now! Not this Easter. This Easter Loretta and I were headed to Lisbon, Nd. No Easter card from Dad or a cute little Easter dress to wear and no Easter celebration, it was kind of sad. Before we headed to Lisbon we had to make a quick stop at Walgreens and I thought, well we may not be able to praise the risen Savior today but we're at least gonna eat some Easter candy!!!!!!

For our week in Lisbon we were staying with an elderly couple who were very sweet. We had the whole basement to ourselves which was nice to have our privacy but tour has changed my mind about basements. I used to think they were really cool and nice to have extra space or a game room but not anymore. When I think of basements now the first word that pops in my head is "dungeon". I'm not saying this because of our stay in Lisbon at all but the basements we mostly have stayed in don't have windows so we never see the sun and the temperature is always cold down there. In other words, they're dungeons. Sorry I just had to say that. Anyway, as I was bringing my luggage downstairs, I overheard Loretta talking to our homestay. I knew I was in trouble because all I heard was Loretta saying, "Jen LOVES dolls!"

Oh no.

I thought I already met my "doll room" quota for tour.

Wrong.

I walk in the room and there were dolls EVERYWHERE! I thought the doll room in Wibaux was bad but it was nothing compared to this room in Lisbon. An entire wall was being taken up by this clear cabinet with rows and rows full of porcelain dolls and vintage dolls. It was terrifying and hilarious. There was one doll that really did kind of creep me out. It was a really old wood doll and it's face was all scratched up. This wood doll hung up on the wall which made it look like it was levitating and it was right beside my bed that had doll sheets. Our homestay then decided to pull out every single doll she owned and then show them to me. She even showed me some of the ones she put in storage (in the closet and under the bed) that she took down because she didn't want me to feel overwhelmed by them all. I think she was showing me all of these so I would invite her to come down and play dolls with me.

Not happening.

I made a video and put it up on my youtube channel (Team JeLo) because one picture just would not have done it justice.

Also during our week in Lisbon, it finally happend. Loretta has been really wanting to have a super small cast all year so we could see what challenges that would bring for us to overcome; I was ok with either. That week rather than having our typical 60 member cast we had 16 cast members. Big difference. We decided to not have Camelotians or Squires, to have 3 Damsels and have the regular Super Six (Big King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, Merlin, Talisien, and Raven) say the Mini's part instead of having actual Minis. This was so much fun! With the cast being really small we got to connect with them a lot better than if we had 40 some more in the show. The kids were young that week but they were so talented. We had these two brothers (Lancelot and Mordred) and they kept Loretta and I laughing the whole time at rehearsals. They were awesome and so energetic but so was the rest of the cast. Since the cast was so small, Loretta got to perform as the sarcastic Damsel of the 2nd Order. It was a lot of fun to perform with her as the Keeper.

The place we were performing at was called the Lisbon Opera House and it was built in the late 1890's. One of the cooler places we've performed on the road. It was very old and the were in the process of fixing it up but were trying to keep as close to what originally was as possible. I just liked walking around and looking at all the old wood and patterns on the ceiling. I love theatres that have a bit of history behind them.

The theatre just so happend to be right across the street from this cafe called "Hodenattes". (The title is a combination of Home, Garden, and Lattes because it was a place that sold all three.) It was really cute and had so many neat trinkets. I always got the Carmel Frappicino which was probably a terrible decision but I was ok with that since I got the Veggie sandwhich. That sandwich was AWESOME! I love Veggie sandwiches.

When we weren't in rehearsals we would just chill out at our homestay but one day we had to do an Assembly workshop. We hadn't done one of those in such a long time. It's my favorite workshop we do because we do it in front of the entire school and because it's for so many just one Assembly counts as three workshops. In the "package" of a week we're allowed to do 2 performances and 3 workshops anything extra costs more. I like it because its for the whole school and I remember thinking Assemblys were always cool when I was in school. I also like the fact that we get all three workshops done in 45 minutes. :) In this particular workshop I'm supposed to be really clumsy and at the end I'm supposed to trip over my feet and say, "I learned that I'm really clutzy today." Well I didn't feel like tripping that day; they would know it was fake anyway. What did I do? I flung myself down the bleacher stairs. Hahaha! It was sooo fun!

Something else that was fun for us that week was we got a little site visit from Micheal McGill who writes a lot of the shows for Missoula Children's Theatre. He wrote King Arthur's Quest so no pressure. He actually showed up to our rehearsal just as it ended but I feel sure he would've been happy with what we did with the show with the amount we had audition. He then took us out to dinner and we caught up and shared stories. He is seriously one of the sweetest people at MCT and I just adore him. Whenever we would go to Check In he would alway get up in front of everyone and tell us how much he was so thankful for us out on the road and how we're making a difference. He's very encouraging. It was a very encouraging dinner that night. I've said it once and I'll say it again, I love my job. :)
-Jen

She's gonna make it after all!

Hi Friends!
After a very fun and rewarding week in Wibaux, Montana, Loretta and I were headed to Minneapolis, Minnesota. We have been from one small town to the next and it was soooooo nice to be near civilization, stores, movie theatres and a place that had internet. Don't get me wrong, small towns can be nice but sometimes a girl just needs a trip to Target. Haha! I was also excited to go to Minnesota. I really don't know why. I think it might be because I know this girl who is from Minnesota and used to always talk about how it was such a cool place. I wanted to see it for myself. On the way to Minneapolis we drove through the "Bad Lands" again and saw The World's Largest Buffalo and some of The World's Largest Public Art. It's amazing some of the random things we see on the road.

We stayed at this REALLY cheap hotel called the Travelodge in Burnsville, Mn which was 5 minutes outside of Minneapolis. We didn't have any high hopes for where we were stayinging since it was $30 a night but this place was actually really nice. Surprise! Once we got settled in it was off to bed for us girls. Tommorrow was a big day we were going to the Mall of America!

We had to get all gussied up to go to the mall I mean c'mon it's the MALL. We wanted to look like we had style. That morning I felt like I was in the 7th grade again, getting ready to go to the mall with my friends. Haha! That was the cool thing to do in Lynchburg. You got dressed up in your coolest duds just in case you saw someone you knew from your grade which you ALWAYS did. Ha! We found a parking space and the proceeded to go inside. We soon saw why this place was soon categorized as the largest mall in America.


THIS PLACE WAS HUGE!!!

 

There were four floors jam packed with stores and not just your typical stores like claires which can be found at any other mall but really cool and different stores that you wouldn't find anywhere else. One of the first ones we went into was this cowboy place. They sold everything from cowboy boots to chaps to John Wayne coffee mugs. Pretty cool. I love stores like that but Forever 21 will always be one of my favs. Not only was there every store you could imagine but the food court was AWESOME!

There was the typical chinese and pretzel places but there was a Bubba Gumps and fancy restaurants with expensive menus. We went to this cool place called Kokomos Island Cafe, which my Dad would have loved, for dinner. There was also an amusement park and a Lego land inside the mall! We didn't want to spend our money on that when we can buy CLOTHES! We did however go to the Sea Life Aquarium where we saw all kinds of sea life. My favorite was the sea horses. :) We pretty much covered all of the mall on our first day but we went back a second day just to make sure we covered all our bases. Plus we had to finish buying souvenirs for our families just to make them jealous. HA! Just kidding!

The next day I really wanted to go for a run. I ended up going to downtown Minneapolis, good decision. :) The one thing that was dumb about downtown Minneapolis is one theres no parking spots and IF you find one you have to pay at least $6 for two hours. Not this girl! I ended up finding this sort of Jiffy Lube place and just parked the truck there. I guess I got away with it because they were closed until noon and I got there early in the morning and if someone was there they probably thought Ranger Rooney was supposed to be there. Nope, fooled ya Minnesotians! I went for about a two hour jog but I took a lot of pictures so it wasn't that bad.

I found the Mary Tyler Moore statue in front of Macys and took a picture. I'm really proud of this pic, not gonna lie. I feel as if tour has made me a better photographer. You decide. I ran wherever my little heart lead me and it was so nice. I couldn't have picked a better day, it was nice outside. I even went and checked out the Target Field Stadium where the Twins play. I'm not a Twins fan but this place was pretty cool. There were all these statues of past baseball players for the twins and all sorts of public art. I then noticed that there were these guys planting flowers and where going in and out the actual gate that lead to the field. I used my "womanly ways" to get a quick look and picture of the field. It worked! Now I feel like I HAVE to become a Twins fan because the people there were so nice. We'll see. . . :)

If I could sum up the rest of our stay in Minneapolis I would only need to say 4 words: "Panera Bread" and "Movie Theatre". I did take a Zumba class one after eating all those wonderful calories at Panera but other than that not much else happend. We love Panera! I introduced Panera to Loretta while we were in Texas and she loves it too. That week we saw "Mirror Mirror" and "21 Jump Street" both were entertaining and fun. We almost went and saw "Titanic" in 3D but we instead opted for watching silly teen movies in our hotel room. I will say the place we went to watch movies was pretty cool. There were all these greek looking statues all over the lobby. Epic.

For our last night in Minneapolis, Loretta and I went out to see if we could find a place to sing Karaoke. I wasn't really in the mood to sing that night besides I had to watch out for Creeper Creep who wouldn't leave Loretta alone that night. I however recieved a flower from a homeless man but it was then stolen and given to another girl by one of the guys who was talking to us earlier that night. It was just a carnation but STILL!!! Haha!

Minneapolis was a very cool place to visit. I don't know if I'll go back and visit but who knows where the Lord will lead me. I do know that the girl I know was right. Minnesota IS a cool place but I don't know if it's as cool as Virginia. :)

-Jen