Because I don't feel like working...

I SHOULD be at the theater right now cleaning up the props loft, but it's gross outside and I'm just so uninspired. Then again, when it's nice out, I'm also way uninspired because I just want to sit by the pool and work on my tan. Actually, the best thing for me to do at this very moment would be to get off my butt and go for a run. It's really really cold here. The past few days it's hailed for a few minutes at least one time. I was out and about for all of them. No, we missed the BIG hail storm when we went on our rafting trip, but Ronen and I had to take cover under a tree on our hike up the mountain and yesterday I had to take cover in a store for a little while.

Speaking of that, I went on a shopping spree yesterday. I was looking at old pictures of myself from when I came home from working at Camp Harlam and noticed how by the end of the summer I'd decked myself out in rubber-band bracelets and bangles up the wazoo and I was also painting my nails a lot. I painted my nails a lot last summer too. I don't know why but it always happens in the summer that I decide to be one of those girls who accessorizes like it's they're job, but I looked at myself and all I was wearing were my class ring and some wooden beaded necklace from LAST summer when I went through this accessory phase. I always wear out of it by September, but I figured it was time to do a bit of shopping.

First, I stopped by the hair salon to get my eyebrows waxed. I didn't touch my eyebrows from May 08 till this past March because I wanted a natural look and then I got them waxed but asked for a natural look anyway. Well now I'm tired of being a hippie and I miss having shaped eyebrows so the plan was to get them waxed here but when I went into the salon she told me it was a weeks wait. Sad face.

Most of the jewelry that I bought is just cheap meaningless stuff which was the idea. It's all stuff I can wear in the shower and never have to take off. We were told at the beginning of the summer that often people give us discounts because they love the theater so much. Since I'm not recognized as often as my job keeps me behind the scenes, I don't usually get the discounts. I try and drop the fact that I work at the theater when I talk up store owners. One person did give me a 50% discount on two bracelets I got at her store as opposed to the regular 25%. One is just a silver chain and the other are some cheap orange beads. At another store I got a colorful beaded bracelet and then a bracelet made with beaded hemp seeds. No discount, but I'm happy with both of the items.

One store I spent a really long time (too long, actually) trying to pick the perfect size hematite ring for my index finger. The reason I say too long is because they were only a dollar and I shouldn't have been so picky, but I'm really stingy. While I was trying on rings, this magnetic bracelet caught my eye and I decided to skip out on the ring and just pick a magnet bracelet. When I went to pay, the store owner said "I saw you trying so hard to pick one of the rings" and when I told him that I'd been stressing that I'd finally pick one and then it would just fall off, he told me that if I found one close enough to just take it so that way I wouldn't feel bad about losing it. So that was nice.

My favorite purchase came from this adorable old woman's store who I think I'm gonna end up going back to when I'm ready to put some money down on a Grand Lake sweatshirt. I bought a really cheap necklace that is wood with white beads, but I also found a ring that fit my left ring finger. When I say fit, I mean it actually fits on my hand and looks decent which is not typical for me in stores like this because I have such small hands. It's really pretty. Sterling silver with an opalescent stone in it. The woman told me it was actually made on an Indian reservation, probably Navajo. I'm stoked about it.

When I got home, I decided to take a swing at shaping my own eyebrows which I've never done before. I don't think I did a half bad job. At one point I had to stop myself for fear of overdoing it and I'm sure they could still use some work, but they're worlds better than they were. I had my silver nail polish on and decided I wanted to see what the green looked like so I started painting over the silver and then just decided to paint only 5 fingers. Trying to further my corky camp counselor look, I painted one nail purple and one nail blue. So basically I look ridiculous.

Wow, I'm so sorry, this was the most worthless post I've ever done. As you can tell, my job doesn't always keep life exciting. Cest la vie. I need to figure out what to do now because I hear thunder so I suppose a run is out of the question. We'll seeee.

Things I should have written about and will at some other point:
Apprehensions about going back to Philly both socially and career based
Deciding to be a vegetarian for a month
The epic fail I promised to describe to you all when I was in a better mood
The new addition to the Dani/Biebs residence

Someone bought me for $13,000!!!

Alright alright, my last post was not very informative so I'll try and to a better job now of describing the cabaret.

The opening number that I was in was called "Raise The Roof" from the musical The Wild Party and it was fine. It was me and all the actors in the company. Actually, it wasn't fantastic but for having one week to learn four parts and choreography I'd say we did pretty decent. The next few numbers included a trio singing from some show I don't know, the two leads from All Shook Up doing a song together, two people swing dancing to "It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing", a solo ballad, a girl signing another jazz song, Ronen and Aly dancing and singing as Siamese twins, and a few others.

My song went really well. I messed up the words and sang part of the 2nd verse twice but I'm totally over it. I'm just really excited that I actually got up there and performed. It was neat and you could tell that people were excited to see a tech person up there performing. Unfortunately, my camera broke and I was unable to video the rehearsal, but when I get the dvd I'll be sure to post my number up here so you can all admire how fantastic I am.

Following me was my roommate Kathleen singing Beat It by Michael Jackson with complete choreography and then the hot dog and hot dog bun "You're Lovely" number which I never got the opportunity to see because I was in the number after that. The jellyfish dance. Actually, the song is called "Different" and it's from the musical Honk and it was great. It's this "duck" singing about how he's different from all the other ducks (the show Honk is the story of the ugly duckling) but Mark made such a beautiful set-up for the whole thing. 5 of us had umbrellas with sheer cloth hanging over them and flashlights and all the lights were out so it looked like jellyfish floating across the stage. His flashlight was green so while we all "swam" together, he looked odd from us all. I'll be sure to post that number as well.

The girls number was fantastic. It started out with a girl on stage saying "Um, guys, does anyone know what show we're doing tonight?" and the lights come up and she has seventeen costume pieces in her hand. The joke is that since we're a repertory theater and do a different show every night we never know what show we're doing till we get there. The music starts up and the girls start entering from the back just the way the boys do when they're searching for Harry in "Run and Get Him" which is the song we arranged to do. I run out on stage and scream "PLACES PLEASE!" in my panicked voice that the actors like to give me a hard time about. The first verse the girls sang was about not knowing which show they were doing. They run off-stage and Cat and I enter. She sings about needing more time to finish putting the set up, I sing about killing anyone who's moved my props, and then Cat sings "Why are we freaking out? They're the ones who are gonna look ridiculous onstage!" We run away and the girls who do most of the quick changes in All Shook Up come out and sing about that. Then there's another verse where the girl understudying Fiona tells her that she'll go on for her tonight because she looks sickly but Fiona says she's feeling fine and will go on. Then all the other girls ran out and we actually sang one of the real verses from the song only with a tap dance break. Then we started circling the two girls like the choreography goes during the wedding scene in Brigadoon, and it's revealed that the one girl has tied up and gagged the other. There's a big fight until Bob Scott (the flamboyant gay man who cooks for us all the time) gets up out of the audience and tells us all to stop freaking out. We sing a verse of praise for him and the number is over. I'm sorry, that was probably boring, but I wanted to be thorough.

The boys did their number "I'm The King Of Grand Lake" which also featured Bob Scott as the king. Both the boys and girls decided to use him as a secret weapon oddly enough. It was kind of funny. So before the last number, the artistic director invited Sally and Chad Scott (some of the people in charge here who I don't think like me much but I work for all the same) onstage and said something about a trio of Scotts. I think there was GOING to be a gag about Bob Scott again, or at least that's what the artistic director THOUGHT was happening, so he said "Wait, I said a TRIO of Scotts!" And Sally says, "We have three! One, two, and," she said, pointing at her belly, "three." Our company manager and managing director were able to hide from us ALL that Sally has been pregnant this whole summer. She's already three months in. It was really cute and then the company came out and sang "What I Did For Love." End of the cabaret! Off to...mayhem.

So after the cabaret we went to the place where they held the silent auction. What we had been told about this is that it would probably be one of the best evenings we'd have this summer. Why? Well, for one, we'd all be super relieved that the cabaret was over and we could start relaxing again. Also, open bar. We were told to have a good time. Not TOO good a time, but a good time. Apparently last year the girl who had Elisa's job popped out of her dress and a board member complained so we were strictly warned that if you drank too much you should leave. I think I probably hit that point in the night. I believe I may have had an entire bottle of chardonnay all by myself in addition to the multiple oyster shots I took. I had an effing good time, friends. The whole time we were drinking and eating, people were coming up to us and telling us how splendid we were. I was on cloud nine because SOOO many people came up to tell me what a wonderful job I'd done and how impressed they were. I got a FANTASTIC backhanded compliment at one point when a woman came up to me and said "I had NO IDEA you were talented!" but I think she was a little bit drunk so I wasn't really offended.

The auction was ridic. I took for granted how rich everyone is here. Honestly, I was busy drinking most of the night to pay attention to what was going on, but I know that the most expensive prize ended up being $20,000 for the leading men in the shows to come sing at a venue. The Jazz, the group that I was in, was the last to be auctioned off. All I remember is climbing some stairs and standing with the rest of the crew while people yelled out numbers and the final bid was $13,000. So that should be a lot of fun.

I guess now would be a good time to mention my attire. Why? Because it was JUST after the jazz night was auctioned off that I lost my dress. I had gone outlet shopping a few days earlier with some people but couldn't find anything I was in love with except this one hippie dress that was cute but not appropriate for jazz. It was a bit hippie-esque so I decided that I would wear it for the opening number. What I DID end up wearing was a read dress I borrowed from one of the actresses that was BEAUTIFUL but a bit low cut for someone with my proportions...or lack thereof. Basically, I have no boobs so nothing to keep the dress up. We made it through the cabaret with some double sided scotch tape but for some reason I decided to risk it and just wear my bra underneath for the party. Good thing I went with the bra because, as I said, the dress fell down. I'm fairly certain nobody noticed, though, because I wasn't asked to leave. HOWEVER, Elisa was. Now, no one is saying she drank to much. In fact, we're all fairly certain she was doing just fine. What we think happened is that they were just particularly sensitive to her situation because it was the HER from last year who had the incident and Elisa is pretty well endowed. It was really annoying of them to suggest she needed to go home, but rather than make a scene there, we left. This is where my night ended as far as I was concerned.

I missed everyone going to the bar, drinking more, Elisa crying a lot, Ronen getting annoyed at Aly, etc. Somehow I managed to walk myself half way home, was picked up by another company member who left early to mack it with his girlfriend, and I passed out in the on the couch. The next morning I found my purse in the adjoining cabin and found MYSELF in my bed. I spent an hour being proud of myself for making it into bed before I was informed that I had in fact been picked up and placed in my bed by Kent. I don't know WHY I always pass out when I drink a lot, but I wish I could manage to stay awake for longer so that I could have fun with everyone, though it sounded like the night got a bit dramatic for my tastes anyway.

Yesterday, the day AFTER the craziness, was the company rafting trip. WHY exactly they choose the day when everyone is the most hungover for this excursion I do not know. What I DO know is that it is very difficult to sober up when you can't vomit. Because of my surgery last summer, I'm no longer able to throw up, say, all the alcohol I'd consumed the night before. So for the first half of the trip down the Colorado River I was still pretty drunk. We had such a fantastic time though! I saw a bald eagle sitting in a tree and a tiny coyote. I also got to work on my spectacular tan. =) I don't know, there's not too much to tell about rafting because it was so laid back. It wasn't particularly rough at all so no one fell out or anything like that. Some people went cliff jumping but I chose not to because the water was freezing and my head was already pounding.

Today I went up Shadow Mountain again but this time Ronen came with me. It was a really nice day minus the hailstorm we got stuck in. All of a sudden the sky was pelting ice at us! But we made it to the top, had a nice lunch, and now here I am looking at a pile of dishes that need to be done before I go to change-over and then All Shook Up.

One last thing before I end this annoyingly long post. My father sent me the cutest thing in his package to me. It's a Biebs' Daily Disposition Chart with a happy face on one side, a storm cloud on the other, and it came with directions to move the pointer to where my disposition is on that particular day so everyone knows how to handle me. I hung it by where I sit during the shows. If I can get my camera to work I'll post of picture of it.

Love you all! Now that the cabaret is over I'll try and be better about posting regularly.

Life is a CABARET!

Tonight is the Cabaret!!! Huzzah! And I my nails are drying so I can't do anything with my hair so I've decided to update!

So what is the cabaret? It's another event to get money from all the rich people who love theater here in CO. But a cabaret is a cabaret, pretty self explanitory. A number of people are singing straight solos, duets and/or trios. There is a swing dance number, two guys dressed in a hot dog and hot dog bun costumes singing "You're Lovely", opening and closing numbers with the whole company and the boys and girls numbers.

Every year the guys and the girls rival each other in their numbers. It's a big secret and it's not revealed until the dress rehearsal what the other gender is doing. This year, both numbers are spectacular! The girls took a song from Brigadoon that all the boys sing when they're chasing this one guy through the town who actually gets killed at one point during the song. It's the men singing "Run and get him! Run and get him!" The girls version is pretty much all of us running around backstage yelling "Run and QUICK CHANGE!", a quick change being when you only have a few seconds to change your clothes before the next scene. I don't know, I'm doing a horrible job of describing it, but I'll let each one of you borrow the dvd when it's edited (they're filming tonight!). The boys number is from the Disney movie musical "Newsies" and it's a bunch of paper boys singing about being in the paper. Our boys changed it to fit being written up in the local paper about our shows being awesome, and they have great choreography.

I'm in the girls number, the opening and closing numbers ("Raise the Roof" from The Wild Party and "What I Did For Love" from A Chorus Line), some other boys number where I dance around in the dark with a flashlight and an umbrella with cloth over it pretending to be a jellyfish, and I'm singing "The Lady is a Tramp". Phew! 5 numbers! But I'm totally ready for it as long as the dress I borrowed from Christina doesn't fall off me.

After the cabaret, there is an auction where people bid on things donated by locals or that we company members put together. One of the auction items is a night of jazz and I'm going to be participating in that for whoever wins.

Sorry, this was super rushed but I have to be getting ready so that I still have time to mop and sweep before my regular routine. I'll give you more details about the acts and about this evening in the next few days. Cheers!

(My camera is broken!!!)

Yay! Part 2

Except I'm not feeling very "Yay!" right now. I woke up at 7:30 this morning after having been trapped in my room all night while Cuddlefest 09 (an excuse for my cabin mates and some extra company members to get drunk and lie on top of each other) happened ONCE AGAIN in my living room. Which wouldn't have bothered me as much if it had only been the one night, but this is the third day in a row I've woken up and haven't been able to be comfortable in my cabin because "Jane" and "John" are sleeping together on the damn couch and Elisa is in bed and Kathleen is in bed and the only place for me to be is coffin of a bunk where I can't even sit up all the way and always have to pray that I don't die when I get on it because the thing is falling apart. Thus, I'm outside at the effing picnic tables and I'm cold and really grumpy. A perfect way to start the day, right?

Okay, enough of negative Nancy. I have stories to finish. Let's see... I read the entire first Twilight book in 2 days. Not necessarily because I loved it that much but because it was something to do. Honestly, it was a bit juvenile as far as love stories go but it was enjoyable all the same. I'm waiting for the company manager to finish reading the 2nd one so I can borrow it from her. I'd go out and buy it myself but that's not environmentally conscious.

Remember how I mentioned weeks and weeks ago that a lot of businesses around here have closed down in recent years? Well an interesting thing happened this past week. Two of the closed down buildings opened up and had sales to get rid of whatever items were in the store. I decided to check them out to see if anything was worth buying. What did I find? Well, in addition to a gift for my roommate, I purchased my own pair of blue suede shoes. Moccasins to be exact, and they're totally awesome. I didn't wear them the day I bought them cause I was afraid my toe would bleed and ruin them, but the next day I wore them to the pool. Cat drove me home from there and it wasn't until I was all the way back at the cabins when I realized that I'd left them on the roof of the car back in the parking lot. Devastated, I halfheartedly called one of the people still at the pool and asked them to scan the parking lot knowing well that chances were I'd never see my $13 treasures again. But, as if by the grace of goodness, when Erin Crabb got out of the car she was holding my shoes which she had retrieved for me from the middle of the highway. So I still have blue suede shoes! And yes, they do make me cooler.

Actually, I got two pairs of shoes in the past few days. I ordered some running shoes from ebay. They're pretty boring, just plain old white athletic shoes, but I paid a quarter of what they originally sold for and they're brand new. I also got a 3 page letter from Dani which made me feel kinda bad because I had literally JUST put her gift in the mail along with a note a scribbled on the back of a Subway napkin because I didn't have any paper on me. Later today I'm going to write her a long letter to make up for it. It was so nice hearing from her. I miss her something awful and I truly cannot wait to get back to Philly so we can go back to our quasi-couple relationship.

Alright, let's talk about the Buffalo BBQ Parade! For the record, I didn't see any Buffalo or BBQ's for that matter. But I was in the parade. Oy vey. First, let me explain that this past weekend was Buffalo BBQ Weekend. The parade was the only thing I took part in. For the most part I just stayed by the cabins to avoid the crowds. Actually, I did see a couple who were both wearing Phillies shirts but when I called out to them from about 7 feet away, they didn't even turn to look so I'm thinking they may not even have spoken English. Anyway, the parade is supposedly this big deal competition for who has the best float and what not. RMRT build a jail and put it in the back of the pick-up truck while some of the company members got in the costumes for Jailhouse Rock from All Shook Up and danced around. But that's not what I did. Oh no. For some reason I was recruited to walk with the kids from the youth theater program. All bazillion of them. When I got there I was really out of place because I didn't have a shirt that matched all the kids and staff members, but one of the girls in the teen program who recognized me from when she works as a spotlight operator for one of the mainstage shows was nice enough to hand me a shirt so I didn't look like the adult creeper. Then I got a fake eye-patch with a skull and crossbones emblem on it because the teen theater is doing a pirate show. So I looked like an asshole but that was okay because the little kids were totally into it. We marched through the town chanting about how cool the theater is and waving to people along the way. I'd forgotten how annoying it is to be in a parade because of all the stopping and starting. It's no better when you have to stop right in front of a pile of horse crap because everyone and their mother rides a horse through the Buffalo BBQ Parade. Cest la vie, it was nice seeing the kids so excited. And then at the end Sally made me give my shirt back which made me really really sad.

I'm still stuck outside. =(

I played poker the other night. I don't know why I do that to myself. I hate losing money. I'm not a bad player, but I never win. I came in 3rd and I'd say that was pretty damn good considering a few people bought in multiple times. I lost on a two pair 3's and Queens cause Omer had a flush. Dammit. Kent walked away with $40 some.

I'm still gonna save talking about the cabaret for another time when it gets more exciting. Which leaves Benifiber being the only topic I didn't hit. I've been drinking this stuff in my water called Benifiber which kinda masks the fact that I'm drinking water cause I hate water. It also has fiber in it...exciting, right? Haha, alright, gotta venture back in and find a place (the bathroom?) to get changed. I'm going kayaking with Cat in about half an hour. Thank goodness I have somewhere to be aside from here. Guhh......

Yay!

Hola friends! There's much to talk about!
Let's start with Saturday. Saturday I did lots and lots of laundry. Like, I washed all of my clothes because this is only the 2nd time this summer I've done laundry. Yeah I'm that gross. During my laundry endeavors, I found $40 in my clothes. Awesome. So while my laundry was being done I decided to walk on over to the Dairy King...yes, Dairy King, and get some french fries and ice cream. Actually, I decided not to get ice cream because I've been doing so well in my pursuit to eat healthier and be healthier. So I got french fries and then walked over to Circle D and bought one of those Naked drinks or whatever that has all the fruit in it. A really really good call, I'd say. Totes better than ice cream. Plus I have a bunch of fudgsicals in the freezer that I keep forgetting about.

ANYWAY, while I was waiting in line for the french fries at the take out window in front of DK, I feel a twinge of pain in my toe, the one that I'm pretty sure was broken. I didn't think anything of it because, well, it's a broken toe and they tend to hurt. I was wearing sandals (I'd like to mention now that I just took a moment to grab a fudgesicle from the freezer. I couldn't resist.). Right, sandals. And toe. So I'm standing there and all of a sudden I hear this screaming which startles the hell out of me. I look down to see this two year old girl screaming bloody murder, eyes locked on my big toe which has, for some reason, started oozing blood and puss. I guess there was just a lot of pressure built up that needed to get out. In any case I wasn't really in any more pain than I'd been in before but it looked pretty gross. Her mother explained that she'd recently cut herself and learned about blood and pain. The reason she was screaming was that she was afraid I was hurting so I had to try and tell her I was okay. The whole episode was really cute.

SO the plan was to finish this post this evening after the show, but I just finished drinking a white Russian that someone made for me and honestly I don't think I can type any more out. However, you can anticipate hearing all about the Buffalo BBQ Parade, my time at the pool, buying blue suede shoes, buying running shoes, getting a letter from Dani!, reading Twilight, drinking BeniFiber, and tales of my bed falling apart. Cheers!

Randoms

So this post will be somewhat scattered because my cabinmate is watching a movie on my computer but I wanted to update before going out for my run. Her computer is broken and she's still waiting for a new one. =(

Pictures are FINALLY up on biebs.shutterfly.com so you can check them out now. I haven't uploaded pictures from a few things that have gone on since then, I'm just waiting till more things happen. Hope you all enjoy!

Things have been pretty easy going lately with this fantastic schedule. I got myself pretty badly burned at the pool but I'm pretty much recovered now so life is happier. Minus breaking my toe during a scene change the other night. There's not much that can be done for it though and I don't like it slowing me down so I'm still running and what not. Painfully.

There's a boy who works at the putt-putt who is vying for my affection. I'm not really into him, but bless his heart he's trying so I let him buy me drinks at the bar and walk me down the street at the end of the night. I'll keep you all updated on the romance standing.

It has come to my attention that MULTIPLE conversations have gone on with various company members about how I have the biggest range of looking like a runaway teenager who just rolled out of bed to quite the hottie when I clean up. I don't think this upsets me in all honesty. Frankly, I know I look like death many many days and I'm okay with that. Especially out here I let myself go alot. Perhaps not the greatest habit but I'm really not trying to impress anyone. Plus, it's nice to know that people notice when I actually TRY to look nice. I don't know, I hear there are some pretty awful pictures of me on facebook now so we may have to do some untagging.

Lastly, I received TWO packages this week and they're both fantastic!!! My mother and grandmother hooked me up with SOOO MUCH STUFF! I got running pants and a running shirt and a book on astrology and food and nail polish and candy and a bag and more! It's so exciting getting packages like that and I'm really thankful for them. My mother also sent me the first book in the Twilight series which I am already thoroughly engrossed in. My other package was a total surprise all the way from Australia! Joel sent me some pictures from years ago that made me laugh and then my favorite candy that they have over there. It's Cadbury chocolate with strawberry centers. SOOOO GOOD. So thank you!

Well, 38 days left. It seems incredible. Wish me luck, folks!

I am broken

My entire body is sun burnt and I broke my big toe during a scene change last night. Very sad.

Kegs, eggs, pajamas and hats!!!

I know that I promised pictures, but today was a great day and I'd rather write about that instead of posting pictures. I promise I'll post them on shutterfly tomorrow... well, today I suppose because it's past 4:30 AM here...which means some of you may be waking up right now in time to read this!!! (minus Joel who seems to read and comment on my blog in his sleep)

My day started off way earlier than it needed to. I woke up at about 9:00 and decided that today would be the day I'd start jogging. So I had a healthy breakfast of Crispex and a banana and set off. I think I could get the hang of this jogging thing, but I don't think I'll be able to keep it up in the city. One, it's not scenic enough and two, the only time I'd ever run in the city would be early in the morning to avoid traffic and people and I've heard too many horror stories about woman getting attacked in the morning. So ef that, I'll just make the best of my time now. Anyway, I went for a half-hour long trek from the cabins to the trail head of the mountain I climbed a few weeks ago. It was cute. Not particularly exciting, but I did get to run along Grand Lake for awhile so that was nice.

When I got back to the cabins, I called my father to find out the correct way to make his pasta and eggs. Why? Let's go back about 3 days ago when a number of people were outside during pre-show discussing how, in past years, a big thing to do during this part of the summer was cabin theme parties. Sometimes they were competitions between cabins of sorts, sometimes they were just dress up parties, whatever. It was decided that we needed to start the wagon rolling and have a party tonight. However, the possibilities for party themes sort of got way ahead of us, and by the end of pow-wow it was decided that we would combine four of the ideas together. Thus, the concept of our Kegs, Eggs, Pajamas and Hats Party was created. In the next three days a poster was made (actually, Erin just drew some pictures of the four categories on a piece of notebook paper and posted it on the call board), prizes were compiled (actually, Josh's mother found a bunch of t-shirts that say ROUSTABOUT on the front and All Shook Up on the back and she bought them all for him so it was decided to give them away as prizes) and aside from those two things, everyone seemed pretty low key about this whole thing. However, once I heard t-shirts were involved I KNEW I had to win one of the categories. The Best Keg category confused me so I crossed that off early. As far as pajamas go, I brought with me some long pants with moons and starts but that's about it so I actually opted for thigh high socks since they were more colorful. Regardless, I knew Best Pajamas may be a stretch. I thought it would be easy enough to find a hat (more on this later) but the category I decided to place my wager on for myself was Best Eggs. And who better to help me with this endeavor but Papa Bieber and his fantastic pasta and eggs concoction. Which brings me way back to this morning when I called him and told him I was cooking eggs for 15 people (which I absolutely did not do. Again, more later.) He gave me specific instructions and I listened carefully taking notes.

After that, I went to visit Ronen (my fellow Jewish friend who I went hiking with yesterday and is such a fantastic person) who was working in the box office. The two of us decided to go searching for hats together when his shift ended. We came across moose ears and a faux raccoon hat in a gift store and decided to go to the party with a concept of the huntress and the hunted for the party. It was pretty brilliant if I may say so myself.

We had two performances of Shook today. I must say I really enjoy doing Shook. Mostly because there's so much damn space backstage and I'm not by myself during this show. Plus, the music is fantastic. In between the shows, I went home, cooked my pasta and sauteed the onions for later in the evening, and then painted my nails. Very exciting. Kathleen made a bunch of deviled eggs which I tried and decided that my pasta and eggs dish probably wouldn't hold a candle to them or anything else that anyone cooked but I had already started and figured that it would be easy enough to finish cooking once the party started.

After the show, this alum artist from RMRT who's apparently been on Broadway performed a bunch of songs at a local bar/restaurant where one of our first get-to-know-the-townspeople functions was held. I decided not to go. Honestly, I was too tired and grumpy and just didn't care enough. I'm not sorry about it either. I'm sure he's very talented and he did come by the cabins later to hang out, but whatever. To each his own and I think it's great he's lucked out and made it as far as he has but Broadway IS NOT the end all be all in this industry. Sorry, rant.

When people started getting back to the cabins, Michael Rosen had already started a fire in the pit and a few people were already decked out in PJs. Once Ronen got back, we put on our hats and then went running through the cabin area with me chasing him with a fake rifle we found during intermission in the props loft. It was great. After we'd flaunted our hat concept off to Sarah who was judging the Kegs, Pajamas and Hats categories, I went back to my cabin to finish my dish. It had been decided that Micahel Rosen would act as the impartial judge and that only his opinion counted, but all people who submitted dishes made enough for at least a handful of people to try. My original plan had required 2 dozen eggs. I think I ended up actually making 4 eggs. I don't honestly remember, I was a bit intoxicated already by this point. I think I had at least 4 spectators at any given point. It was kinda funny. I'm not a cook by any means but everyone thought I knew what I was doing because mine involved onions. I mixed up my batch, threw some ketchup in and mixed it up and had all people in the kitchen try it. They all thought it was great so I was excited about bringing it out for Michael to try. When I gave it to him, he seemed very satisfied and explained his judging criteria (something about consistency, something about taste and something about moisture if I remember correctly). After he tried my eggs, I continued to drink along with everyone else and the boy from the put-put who I kinda blew off at a bar and magically reappeared this evening to tag along at my side...which didn't suck.

Late in the evening, I decided that I wanted to know the winners of all the categories so I rounded up the people who initiated the party in the first place and told them we had to have the ceremony before we all get too drunk. When everyone was gathered at the fire, Michael was the first to present the winner of his category. And who do you think won best eggs? Why, it was yours truly! Granted, 2 of the 5 dishes entered were eggs and whatever was in the fridge which is kinda gross, but what-the-frick-ever. I got my shirt and that's REALLY all that mattered. Then there were calls for standing on a stump and a speech and unfortunately I think this may have been recorded so I'll have to watch out I don't get tagged in anything terrible on facebook. I do know that I thanked my father for giving me the recipe and I thanked my cabinmates for always keeping me entertained.

So that was pretty much my day. I got some exercise, I ate a healthy breakfast, I got a cool raccoon hat and I won a t-shirt for cooking an award-winning egg dish. A good day indeed to make up for some really rough days the past few weeks. Things are really looking up, I think. Cheers, everyone!

July 5th ONWARD!

My most sincere apologies for not updating again. The days have all kind of been blending together so rather than going day by day from this point out, I'll tell you what my days have been like in general and then share some special experiences that have happened in those days.

I'm sure I've explained this before, but I'll do it again for good measure. Now that all 3 shows are open, I'm generally not called until 1 hour before the show time. Most nights the show starts at 8:00 so I basically have from morning until 7:00 to do absolutely nothing. Not everyone has this schedule. Some people work in the box office and some people work with the youth theater program which I know nothing about. But even the people in the box office don't work there every day so sometimes they aren't called until 7 as well. This will be pretty much how the rest of the summer plays out with exceptions for the cabaret, matinee and early performances, etc. Regardless, I'm going to have a frick ton of free time.

Two of my days off were spent waking up relatively late and then going to the beautiful pool with people. I'm trying to get a tan but it's just not working out. I don't understand, I haven't even gotten burned. They say that it's easier to tan/burn here because we're closer to the sun, and I haven't been using my regular level of SPF, I've been using 15. And no burn. And no tan. And no glowing beauty for Biebs. But there's plenty of time I suppose.

One of my days off I went for a hike. This was part of my ambitions to be healthier and work out, something that I don't think is actually gonna happen because I hate doing all the stupid toning things that the magazines say to do. I hate cardio too. And eating healthy. ANYWAY, I decided to take a hike and I'd heard about this little area that a bunch of the company members went to together one of their first days here that I'd passed on because I had so much work to do. I was told that it could barely be considered a hike because it was so short but it was really pretty. Cat told me that I could hike on further than that if I wanted a longer walk. Well, I guess I went the wrong way and ended up on a legit trail but it wasn't too terrible or anything. I saw a lot of people on horses on my way and a lot of other hikers. It wasn't terribly scenic but there were a few points that were just gorgeous and I took a lot of pictures of things along the way. After about an hour an a half I turned around to go back. On the way I saw FOUR MOOSE. It was nuts. Two adult males, one female and a buck. One of the males was in water. I took pictures (from a distance, of course) and then continued on my merry way.

Today I'm going hiking again with Ronen. I don't know where we're going but I'm probably not gonna bring my camera this time. He wants to break in his new shoes and I just want to work hard. If it's pretty I'll go back later and take more pictures. See, that's the great part of this job. Yeah, I work hard labor every night from about 7 till midnight, but I'm only half way through the summer and most days I can just do whatever I want. I'm going to order a really easy dress pattern I think and make a dress out of some of the fabric I found for Brigadoon. I've never made a dress before but why not start? And learn astrology and write a song and finish LOST and start Twilight and do all sorts of crazy things. I have so much time!!!! And I suppose work out. UG! I just hate working out!

So tomorrow or this evening I will be posting a few pictures from the 4th of July and also from my hike. I'll be posting them on biebs.shutterfly.com very shortly as well, but it takes a long time to put pictures up so I'll need to have some serious sit down time to do it.

One other thing before I go. I didn't realize this until recently but I actually have a different address for letters than I do for packages, so if you are still interested in sending me anything, here is how to reach me. (Note: I've received two messages from people who told me that letters they tried to me were sent back to them, but one person WAS able to send me a letter with the incorrect address so if you did not get your letter forwarded back to you that means I did receive it. I'd like to thank that person for the kind words and let them know that their letter did reach me!)

For letters:
Lauren Bieber
Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre
PO Box 1616
Grand Lake, CO 80447

For packages:
Lauren Bieber
Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre
404 Vine Street
Grand Lake, CO 80447

Take care, all!

Whoa Nelly! It's catch up time!

I know you've all anxiously been anticipating this new post so I'll try not to leave ANYTHING out!

Opening of Shook and the subsequent party
All Shook Up was incredible. I must say that despite having the most ridiculous book I've ever read, it's a lot of fun to do. The music is fun, people really love the show, and I'm not the only person stuck backstage all the time because Cat has to run the projections. There's about 17 million costume changes so actors are back there a lot as well. And there's WAY more space backstage for this show than the other two. Opening was so fantastic and it was really great to see all the board members at the show.

We went to the Bear's Den again after the show, but the food was a bit more disappointing than the previous opening party we'd celebrated there. They ordered cheap Chinese food. I didn't even eat any of it, not gonna lie. I just brought some home. I did, however, drink. A lot. And I talked to some nice boys who I'm pretty sure I ditched at some point when I realized the world was spinning. Luckily I figured this out before a few other unlucky company members. There were a few people who partied a bit too hard, but all in all it was a good night for everyone. Cheers to our final opening!

Fourth of July!
So the next day was our very first full day off, but we still had things to do as a company. Not until way late in the day, though. I woke up around 9 and heard some business going on in one of the other cabins. I went over to cabin 6 to find the gentlemen there cooking breakfast for everybody which was incredible. We ate and played RMRT Guess Who for about 2 hours (RMRT Guess Who will be another one of my later entries that I can tell you all about when life is way boring.) I went back to my cabin and slept some more until about 5:00 which is when we started getting ready for our 4th of July celebration. This guy, Eddy, isn't one of the board members, but he loves the theater and he came into a bunch of money (cough he used to be a porn distributor cough) which he likes to give to us. He rents this place right down by the lake and we all went there for dinner (the theme was Hawaiian food, it was incredible!) and then stood out on the deck to watch the infamous Grand Lake Fireworks. They were thrilling. In all honesty, I've always been a bit underwhelmed with fireworks, they're just colored explosions that liter the ground with trash, but I will admit that these particular fireworks were enjoyable, particularly because we were so close to them. I took a number of pictures that no doubt look awful but I will be sure to post them as soon as I have the motivation.

Sunday, July 5th
This day wasn't too special, in all honesty. At 1:00 the entire company was called for the very last full company changeover. After that, I spent 2 hours vacuuming the stairs from backstage the the costume shop. It was...huhhhh...thrilling. We then performed Brigadoon and following that had our first changeover with the official changeover crew. Now, I probably should have known this WELL before now but I just only realized that changeover does not happen during the day. Rather, changeover will ALWAYS happen right after a performance so that we're ready for the next show. I don't know how I feel about this. On the one hand, I'm so exhausted at 10:30 and definitely don't feel like changing over an entire set with only a 3rd of the people I'm used to doing it with. On the other hand, changing the set over after the show means that on a typical day with an 8:00 PM performance I don't really have to be into work until 7:00 PM. So I basically have EVERY DAY off this summer. I think I'm happier this way, but I really wish I had a car so that I wasn't stuck in this town with nothing to do all day. Cest la vie. Now I will be able to work out and get a tan with no excuses.

I'm tired of writing, I'll continue this post in a few hours...

Opening night!

This morning was our FINAL dress rehearsal for All Shook Up and it went MUCH better than yesterday's. I think there was a new sense of urgency. No one has time to be in a bad mood about anything, we just had to do everything correctly. There was no choice because we open tonight. And many of the problems have been magically worked out overnight. The TD made a pretty swank list of what has to happen during each scene change. It's helped a lot. I made a playlist of all the music in the show only not the versions from the musical, the actual Elvis versions. Which means I CHOSE to listen to Elvis this afternoon. I hate that I'm starting to enjoy this show. It's really dumb but everyone eats it up. Guhhh musicals. I can't wait till I get back to Philly and work on a show about gun violence.

Yesterday Joe came to visit! We had lunch and that was about all we had time for but it was still really really great to see a familiar face. It actually made me miss everyone a lot more, but I'm really excited for all the free time I'm about to have and finally getting to relax. Hopefully I can find someone to take me to Denver at some point. I wouldn't mind being dropped off and then just going out on my own, but we'll see.

I was thinking about what I said the other day about not really having people to spend time with apart from the rest of the company and I think I may have overstated that. There are a number of people who I would love to spend my days off with and so forth. So don't worry about me!

Tonight is the final opening which means lots of drinking. Lots. Of. Drinking. I spend most of the afternoon sleeping so that I wouldn't get too tired tonight and now I'm loading up on caffeine. I'm going to wear my long brown dress and cute heels. Apparently when a bunch of the girls went out last week they met the guys who work at the put-put and there's a twin that didn't get matched up with anyone, so I'm supposed to be working on him all night. Says the ladies. I'm much more interested in the free food to be perfectly honest.

Okay, from what I hear everyone brought baked goods so I'm gonna stop typing and go get free sweets. Love you all!

Sooooo tired

I'm so tired of being in the theater. Weird, right? For me it is, anyway. But there's only so much you can do when you're sitting back there in the dark and unfortunately the library only had one book on astrology so I can't really do much reading about it. Maybe I'll try and risk having my computer back there this evening. Today's tech was better than yesterday's for me but I think that's because it was worse for everyone else and so they couldn't worry about me. We actually had an alright tech, we only did the 2nd act and there wasn't much to do, but then we had a dress rehearsal. Now, I can't say how it went one way or the other because the set is built with an actual wall separating backstage and onstage and I never get to see anything going on ever, but from what I understand, it's kind of a shit show. The music sounds great for the most part, but there's flubbed lines and choreography and everyone is just generally in a bad mood which makes it that much more difficult to get things done. Also, everyone is pretty exhausted from doing all these changeovers and performances and rehearsals, but we only have one more day of it until we open. And then life will be WAY calmer.

My friend Joe is visiting me tomorrow for lunch. I feel badly that I have virtually no time to spend with him but unfortunately his road trip schedule is timed as such that this week is his only time in Denver. No matter, it'll be great to see a familiar face I'm sure.

I got a package from my roommate Dani today. I had asked her to send me my book of jazz standards so that I could offer my talents away as an auction item in the cabaret (I'm too tired to get into the cabaret info right now, I'll bring it up once Shook is open) and the video of Brigadoon when I was in it as a nine-year-old. It's not a very good recording but you can see little Lauren a few times. I only watched one scene with my roommate here but I think I'm gonna save the rest for a few weeks and maybe some other people would enjoy seeing it too. Dani also included a candle and some smelling oil sticks or whatever which were much needed cause our room smells like beef jerky and nair. She also included a Tide stick which I'm pretty sure was to make light of my laundry fiasco. I miss Dani very very very much!

Which brings me to something I've been thinking about lately. I know the four people who run this place (the two directors who happen to be partners, the company manager and the executive manager who happen to be married) do not care for me much. Everyone else in the company (actors, designers, technicians) all do like me, but I wouldn't call any of them friends really. I like working with them all, but for some reason I don't feel like anyone has truly opened up to me as a friend and I'm not sure if it's me or if it's them. I don't much care, really, I'm not upset or anything and I don't feel lonely out here. I just know that even at my shit job last summer I REALLY enjoyed my time with the people. I looked forward to the time when a show was over when we would all sit around and drink or what not but here I just grab a beer and watch LOST or something. I guess that's not fair, sometimes I hang with people and there's plenty of times when everyone all hangs out, but I wouldn't say that there are any few people I feel much closer to than the rest. We do have two more months and I suppose things could change, but I won't be upset if they don't. I still like everyone very much and am sure that when we have lots of free time that maybe I'll have more opportunities connect with folks.

Things to do with my free time when I have it.

• Clean the props loft
• Clean my room
• Jog/Various other workout related things
• Hang at the pool that was opened for company members only
• Tan
• Watch LOST
• Play Guitar
• Sleep
• Read

That's honestly about all I can think of. It's not like I can go anywhere cause I don't have a car and there's no place to go. I'm sure there are books that I should have read a long time ago. One of my summer goals was going to be read plays I've never read before, so I guess I could do that. My main thing is going to be to try not to spend money in this town. We shall see. Love you all!