On the Stage

This always makes me laugh and I'm sure it'll make at least YankeeBob laugh, so I thought I'd finally share.

See...I don't know what YankeeBob looks like, he's never revealed himself. So you know how you form images of what you think people look like and you stick with it?

Well he's my image of YankeeBob



It is Bob from the radio show "Bob & Tom" which is on every morning from 6-10 AM. They're nationally syndicated, so some of you might have heard of them, theyr'e hilarious.

But that's who I picture everytime I think of YankeeBob, so there ya go Bob! :-D LOL

Hell

I'm in hell.
Right now
I try to escape
but it wont ever work

That's how it seems
at least

Sometimes it's
varying
layers of hell
I can be in the

12th layer and then
go to the 6th
and feel pretty good!

But here I am
Hell
and it's doing nothing
but getting worse

I need to go home
to my sanctuary
to my Angels

I have a lot of Angels
I feel blessed for that
Sometimes Angels pop up
where they haven't been in a while

but never here
in Hell

Not much going on, just thought I'd pop in to say hi! The apartments a pit and no one but me is interested in cleaning, so that's frustrating. Kaia is having trouble going to sleep AND going on the potty all the time again for no reason.

I'm really tired from the weekend. We stayed up until 4:30am friday night/saturday morning playing board games and video games. Stayed up till 2am the next night doing the same thing.

Saturday evening I went and say my best friend (that's a girl) from college do her senior recital up at college. She was SOOOOOOOO good. It's unbelievable how good she is. She has a stunning future ahead of her. Even looking at all she has accomplished already, she's set. And I'm so proud of her! She got first runner up for the lead soprano roles for The Des Moines Metropolitan Opera, so if the actual woman can't do it..she gets to! She was the youngest ever to receive such an honor. So when she's famous, I'll be on the phone with her in little 'ol Iowa saying "I knew you could do it, I'm so proud" because I just know we wont ever loose contact.

Rehearsal tonight..eh, I don't know how I feel about it yet.

Those are my skates. I miss using them, I'll need to get out on those more this summer.

I really haven't been out on them more than once since Kaia was born.

I used to skate all over. Jump over benches, jump down flights of stairs, go 10-15 miles an hour down hills...it was sweet.

I absolutely love skating backwards, it feels so good. Weaving in and out of things.

Jump in the air and do a 180 and land skating backwards, what a thrill!

Now jumping over things and down stairs, which I did a lot, scared the shit out of me...but isn't that part of the reason you do it?

I need to get new wheels on her and take 'em out for a spin again.

We went as saw Miss Saigon last night at the Civic Center.



It was goooood :-) I had never seen Miss Saigon before, so I was excited to see a show I hadn't seen before.

It didn't let me down either.

I was going to narrow down who was the strongest, but damn they were almost all good.

Jennifer Paz was fantastic as Kim -- just right on last night.

Johann Michael Camat was just the best Engineer I'd ever heard! I've heard quite a few, just never seen the show before...I'd single him out as the best performance of the night, with Jennifer a close second, or tieed.

Alan Gillespie as Chris was good! He had a few acting problems, but his notes were spot on (despite what Jeffrey Bruner said in his DSM Register article) I was very pleased.

Mario Tadeo was just fantastic as Thuy, just spectacular.

DJ Oliver as John I guess was a bit of a let down. He was good, just not vocally the strongest by any means. His acting was spot on though, very convincing, I enjoyed his performance...just would have liked to hear a little stronger voice.



The whole cast was just on the ball, they were great and the show is SO good, music, story, staging, costumes, props, wow!

We had a good time :-) Ah, the theatre...how it soothes the soul.

The Last Night of the World
CHRIS
in a place that won't let us feel
in a life where nothing seems real
I have found you
I have found you

KIM
in a world that's moving too fast
in a world where nothing can last
I will hold you
I will hold you

CHRIS
our lives will change, when tomorrow comes

KIM
tonight our hearts drown the distant drums

CHRIS
and we have music all right
tearing the night

a song
played on a solo saxophone
a crazy sound

KIM
a lonely sound

BOTH
a cry that tells us love goes on and on
played on a solo saxophone
it's telling me
to hold you tight
and dance like it's the last night of the world

CHRIS
on the other side of the earth
there's a place where life still has worth
I will take you

KIM
I'll go with you

CHRIS
you won't believe all the things you'll see
I know 'cause you'll see them all with me

BOTH
if we're together that's when
we'll hear it again

a song
played on a solo saxophone
a crazy sound
a lonely sound
a cry that tells us love goes on and on
played on a solo saxophone
it's telling me
to hold you tight
and dance like it's the last night of the world

KIM
dreams
were all I ever knew

CHRIS
dreams
you won't need when I'm through

BOTH
anywhere
we may be
I will sing with you
our song. . .

(they dance together in the balcony)

BOTH
. . .played on a solo saxophone
so stay with me
and hold me tight
and dance
like it's the last night of the world

I don't think we're alone in this vast universe.

I believe in "other" life somewhere.

I'm not so positive that the government doesn't already know something (i.e. Area 51) and wont tell us. I can understand why, it would just ROCK this United States and the rest of the world.

IF we're not the only people out here then why haven't "they" tried to contact us yet? (If Area 51 and the likes aren't true)

What will happen when they do? It could be very scary, it could be life-threatening. It is a little scary to think about.

Also, IF they have contact us or WHEN they do why would it have to be the U.S. Why is there only an Area 51 in the U.S.? Isn't that a little weird?

If there is an Area 51 (I know there IS a place called that, but if it's used to house alien secrets), which I like to think there is, when do we get to find out? Is there some statute of limitations or something like that, that will eventually run out so we can find out what it is that Area 51 is all about?

It's like some of the other government secrets that I wish we could find out about. But I'm talking about aliens right now, so I'll stay on topic.

What if there are aliens living among us right now that have assimilated and we just don't know it?! That would be kind of cool.

Also, why do the aliens have to be smarter than us?? Maybe the aliens are some little rinky dink things that are like animals or something to where they can't contact us or have no idea we are here because their intelligence is that of a fly or something, you know? Everyone always talks about aliens being of a superior intelligence to us...that doesn't have to be so. Maybe it's some 1 foot talk hairy thing with 5 legs that's grey with 4 eyes and some weird cone-shaped tusks or something.

Some of this is pure speculation and sci-fi talk, but the one thing I do think is that I think we're not the only ones out there...just waiting till we find that out for sure.

(Just Like) Starting Over by John Lennon was #1 in the U.S. when I was born (1/16/81) and Imagine by John Lennon was #1 in the U.K. when I was born...odd that both were John Lennon..should I be liking him or something?

How about you?

Check it out!

This weekend some jerkface stole these two things off my car antenna:





I had my cactus on various cars of mine since I was probably 16. 8 damn years I've had that without some dickface stealing it. He was not as bright as when I first got him he'd been through 8 winters, 8 summers, 8 rainy seasons...he was perfect.

I had jack on my car for a couple years. His eyes and mouth were missing and he was definately also weathered... but that's why I loved him.

Why does someone want to do that? How do you get joy out of stealing people's stuff?

How do you get joy out of defacing people's property too?! My uncle lives with my grandpa (his dad) he's taking care of him because he's had severe strokes and heart attacks and so in his spare time he makes things and puts them up in the front yard. He's an artist. He made a huge Superman out of paper mache and wire and all that and had it out there for Halloween. Someone stole it and beat the shit out of it. They found it later.

You wanna know the only good thing about that? We found out who did it and they got in trouble somehow. It was two 15 year old girls. You want to know WHO turned them in? Their mother. Now that is a good mom right there. Realizing he children have done wrong and wanting them to get punished as they should. That's good parenting.

Later on in winter he had a HUGE snowman he made with paper mache and wire and whatever else he used. Someone stole that too. He never got it back. He said, besides the hours upon hours he spent making it he used over $1000 in materials to make it. He's an artist that's what he loves to do, he's putting it out in the front yard on Broad St. the busiest street so people can enjoy it and he has never ONCE got a complaint. Why does someone have to do mean things? What's going wrong in their mind that stealing and beating up people's property is their idea of FUN?!

Just like the wire thing we had hanging on our front door at our apartment. Someone stole it, twisted it all to hell and ruined it and then hung it down the hallway so we could find it and see what they did to it. WHY?? I just wont ever understand people. They also took our rug out front of our door and put it by someone elses door. What for??

I just don't get it.

Hey, it's working and I feel great!

Kaia for the past two nights has gone RIGHT to sleep. What is up with that?! It's amazing though. Sunday night V took the night time rituals, and last night was me and for both of us she was a perfect angel! She gets rewarded...a sticker on the calander and sometimes a little pretty (lip gloss) or something we have stashed away for special times up in our closet. :-) It just makes me so happy :-) She always makes me smile and just really brings me up whenever I'm down, she is just the best ever I can't explain how much I love that girl. But you just love them SOOO much more when they listen to you and do what they're suppose to! LOL. She's my little princess :-) We try and raise her the best possible with the pleases and thank yous and manners and all and listening and doing what she's told all the good stuff and I hope we find out in a couple years (when little girls really hit the snotty little girl phase) that we ended up doing a pretty good job. She's such a sweet little girl, I honestly miss her every second I'm not with her.

So, night time is working for 2 days straight! Whoever has wood near them please knock on it :-)

This is the hotel we ended up going with...it's about 2 blocks from the theatre and it's right by the Shedd Aquarium and an Art Museum too, and it's looks really nice! So we're excited :-)

Club Quarters Chicago Wacker at Michigan

Had a good weekend, I guess.

Friday went and saw The Secret Garden at ISU. It was pretty good. Staging was really good and the acting and singing was good (could have been stronger in places) but the thing to really bring from this show was how GOD-AWFUL the boy who played Colin was. He was beyond horrible. He spoke fast and in choppy sentences so you couldn't understand anything he said. His notes were basically never spot on. I felt bad for the couple people who had to *try* to sing duet lines with him.

See...the director, who is finally leaving ISU, hired him because (and I quote) "He is so cute that no one will notice (that he can't sing or act)" Well, I got news for ya, people can and do notice.

The girl who played Mary, now she was cute and good. He notes were spot on and her acting was very convincing in 90% of the places. Kuddos to her.

Saturday night we saw The Diaries of Adam and Eve at the Cottage on Broad in Story City. That was VERY good. My friend Andrea and Robby were the title characters. It is a show written by Mark Twain. It is so witty and inteligent and funny, and sometimes sad. It's just what it sounds like, a diary of thoughts from Adam and Eve from their creation. It's hard to quote lines from it because you kind of just have to read it or see it, but it was a very good show and very well acted.

Sunday I got to go golfing 18 holes with my buddy and then I had rehearsal.

Golfing didn't start out so good ;-) But I ended up getting my game back and feeling pretty good about it. I made some very good shots, but I still have a long way to go and it's just too expensive and time consuming to be able to play more than a dozen times a year and that's frustrating.

Rehearsal was blah. It's been three of us in the quartet for quite some time because this other dude just has too many things going on right now. It's always stressing me and my voice out and we're always going flat...it's just stressing and frustrating me more than it is fun right now, so I'm getting frustrated with it and that is not good.

I'm designing a couple models for what the JSTT site could look like because I'm working on that with my friend Tom, so that is always fun to do!

I have basically all the tools needed to make a wondeful site and to really grow as a web site designer, now I just need to learn to use them. With the help of Tom I think we can churn out some good products and I can grow with the programs and we can work together...so this is exciting.

For V's birthday/anniversary present I got us Tickets to the sit-down cast of Wicked that is going to be in Chicago.

The tour is starting here already and when it swings through Chicago the tour is going ot keep going on but they're leaving behind a sit-down engagement at chicago.

Ana Gasteyer will be Elphaba. So we're going!

Now, I have the tickets and they are good, we just need to find a hotel close to the theatre for one night.

This will be a fun little getaway for V and I, I think we'll have a good time!

Why are hotels so expensive? But I don't wanna stay in a shithole. There are some very cool hotels for about $120-150 per night, we're just staying one night, and the pictures make these hotels look just great...I just don't want to spend that much money.

I wish my digital camera had some juice in it so I could take some new pictures of Kaia for yall, she's cute as ever in her summer outfits and her pigtails! :-)

Is it ok to think you are having a hard time in life because it's the life you live and so for you it's hard, even though you know there are more people out there with worse lives than you? Or should you shut up and take it because there's always something else to compare your life to that makes you look like you got it easy?

I just don't have anything interesting to talk about.

We had rehearsal last night...I sing really HIGH, I mean HIGH, in one song we're singing "Lida Rose" in the background while Marian is singing and I am singing higher than her sometimes. Me = BOY ... her = GIRL. So, keeping that in mind, I can't sing this high for more than MAYBE a half hour before I start straining more than what is good for anyone's voice.

Yeah...we rehearsed for 1 hour 20 minutes last night. Granted, I wasn't always singing, we did parts and stuff, but still...damn. Those other three guys and just sing forever...they're singing in a NORMAL range, I'm singing in the stratosphere.

I'm getting a MiniDisc play/recorder with a microphone off Ebay, I talked to the dude last night and he has it all boxed up and it's going out today, so when I get that I'll record some of us and try to figure out how to get it from there to my computer (which is possible, I'm told, but not easy to do), then figure out how to get it on to here, if yall are interested. Otherwise I'll have to find a way to charge my digital camera (I have NO idea where the charger is) and take some video with sound so you can hear.

That's about all...just working, hanging out, rehearsing...that's it.

I'm just not up to finding things to complain about or funny stories to tell, there's always stories in everything you do all day long, but they're just not interesting.

I called this morning and "Heather" can understand why I would be calling since I wasn't contact by April 8th, the interim office coordinator was at conference on Friday and today is her day off, but "Heather" can tell me that the position has been filled.

So, not only did I not get contacted but they went ahead and filled it without so much as an interview. I didn't have enough balls to ask WHO it was filled by and WHY I didn't get an interview, but there we go. I had some hopes for this position...now why did I go and do a thing like that to myself?

Am I to suspect that they are sending me another letter in the mail saying they narrowed it down even further before interviewing and I didn't make that cut?

Or, perhaps they think the work day here is until 5 PM and they're going to call after I've left work?

Or, perhaps they called at home since Veronica has been gone and just left a message without calling work?

Maybe they're going to call me AFTER work...at home...

Maybe something came up and they can't call me until Monday and just assume I wont be wondering why they haven't called me yet.

Maybe they sent me an e-mail, which I can't check until I get home.

Either way...it's 4:20 on the 8th, the deadline for when the letter said they'd be contacting me, and I have no contact yet.

IS anyone else having a problem with them? They aren't reporting the right amount of comments a person has actually received, to me at least.

Example:

Meritt has a post on the raising of postage stamps. When I go to her site it says 0 in the how many comment she has for haloscan. That's not true! I click on it and she has 3 comment sitting in there...

Anyone else having this problem? Yes, I did delete temp internet files AND cookies!

The church is suppose to be in contact with me BY today, and it's 11:45 and I haven't heard anything yet...I'm getting a little nervous now.

We're looking at another house this weekend in Story City, to rent. The rent is only $400/month and so if this house is nice and big enough for us, we'll get it and we'll be saving ourselves $145/month and be living in our own house...even IF we're not buying, which we just can't do right now with my salary and all the bills we're paying. Believe me, I worked up an excel spreadsheet and we just can't do it.

Damn ebay...the auction of something I wanted ended at 6 this morning, and when I went to sleep at 11:45 PM, I was still winning by $10. Well, I wasn't going to wake up at 6 AM to check it, and I love by ONE DOLLAR!!! I wanted this SO bad, and there are more on Ebay still, so I'm bidding on the next one, but this one doesn't end until Sunday at 7 PM, which I'll be awake for at least. I know you need to be there in the last seconds to keep bidding and win at the last second, believe me, I've ebay-ed plenty of times and have won that way almost every time. But I just didn't want to wake up at 6 AM, it MUST have been someone on the east coast that won since it'd be 7 AM there! No one gets up at 6 AM, come on now... ;-) Oh well, I'll just wait out this next auction, though I want it NOW NOW NOW, I don't want ot have to wait! I'm a young American...don't we all want everything NOW NOW NOW??? :-D

Last night...I had a dream...I found myself in a desert called "Cyberland" my canteen had sprung a leak and I was...thirsty...out of the abyss walked a cow...elsie...I asked her if she had anything to drink and she said

ok, I'm done

Reall though...I had a dream last night that goes a little something like this:

So, I'm in this bedroom and there is a friend with me (I can't remember who it was anymore, but I do know I know this person). The details are a little sketchy by 3:45 in the afternoon but I know he wanted me to kill his mom and it was my job to kill her.

His mom was hiding underneath the bed in the room. In fact, she was already dead, but I had a gun and I was suppose to look under there and shoot her in the head anyway.

I look under there and I can't get to her, don't know why, but I can't. All of a sudden this dead mom comes to life and starts crawling out. Her skin is all grey and she is badass looking. I'm scared to death. She's coming at me and she has this weird box over her head with mesh where he face is so we can see her.

I'm picking up my gun and aiming it at her head as I am walking backwards, and I'm shooting...and nothing much is happening.

THAT, my friends, is all I remember anymore...freaky weird though.

On Saturday my little cutey daughter, Kaia, hand wrote out her name!!!!! :-D :-D :-D

The K, which we had worked on a lot, looked like a "K" with a little _ but at the top part of the K, it was a very sophisticated K. The "a" was a pretty good circle with a little tail jutting out at the right part, then the "i" was fairly easy, then the same effect for the next "a". I was a VERY proud papa :-D

She did it on dry erase marker board, and before I could take a picture she had scribbled all over it!! So, tonight I'll see if she can do it again on a piece of paper, then I'll date it and take a picture and frame the damn thing for life! I"m SO proud for some reason, it was just the coolest thing ever! Gives me butterflies in my stomach, good butteflies!

So...that's it...just wanted to share :-D

...we may be able to get a house, if no job, no house
...we may have a place for Kaia to go to pre-school
...I can ALSO save money on gas
...I can be in a job that's worth something to my degree and to me
...life will be BETTER, oh so BETTER

So, I finally got the letter from Bethesda Lutheran Church, the church I had applied for a job with that I was very excited about.

I open the mailbox, see the skinny envelope with their address and name on it and it's obvious it's a one page, tri-fold letter like I'm used to getting.

I'm pissed...I thought I was perfect for this job, really actually did. I start to open it, it's not opening horribly easy, so I start ripping and shredding as I get pissed and just bust open the envelope...taking out some of my anger. I don't rip the letter, that's good at least.

As I'm walking toward my front door I'm reading...just scanning for the words I need to see.

But wait...what? what is this? Wait...let me read closer...

"Blah, blah, blah, blah..."

"We were fortunate enough to have over fifty applicants for this position..."

ok...nevermind, this is it right here, the next sentence...

"...and are pleased to tell you that you are one of twelve candidates in consideration for this position. Congratulations on making it this far, we will be in contact with you on or before April 8th."

Holy shit...do a happy jig I did...all the way down the hall and in the apartment while showing it to Veronica.

Now I'm excited :-D Give me that interview, I can do it!

It's going ok :-) Good parts and bad parts for sure, but I don't need to air that dirty laundry here. Because, I don't need to be saying what's going bad, because I"m far from perfect myself. Besides, who knows who reads this! I just found a friend from high school's blog, and was reading it, there was nothing bad there, but still...it's the fact that I was reading it and she didn't know it. This isn't a normal blog where you can make notes it's her own site she made and just makes it into an online journal type of thing.

I tell you, there is nothing like getting four guys together and harmonizing your butts off. Sure, we've only gotten together 4 times, there are a lot of kinks to work out, but it's feeling good on the parts where we are harmonizing. We're a long way away from being memorized and from adding our own little nuances to the songs, but it's fun! I tell you though, that is some HARD music! Ther are some very tight chords and some mashing notes that then resolve themselves. There are some parts where the second tenor is close to me, or the second tenor and baritone cross and the baritone is singing higher than the 2nd tenor. It's tough music! BUt we have TWO MONTHS, we'll just plug away and come through with a beautiful sound. :-D Still excited, little nervous and apprehensive still, at this point!

I'm really enjoying the guy playing Harold Hill too. He is a super nice guy, fun, and his voice is just phenomenal!

I think it'd be fun to get a clip of the quartet singing up onto the site here, but I don't know how I'd do that. First I'd have to get it taped, then somehow get it on our computer, then find the code to get that sound byte onto the site.

If I get it recorded I'll work towards doing that so y'all can hear! Maybe I'll wait till we get a little better ;-)