Ah ha! I found you!

What? Where have you been blog? I've been sitting here with all sorts of entertaining and hilarious stories, and you are nowhere to be found!

Anyway, all is forgiven blog of mine, since we are reunited at last.

What all has happened since we last checked in?

• I moved to my own apartment
• My sister got married and I gained a brother-in-law
• I celebrated one year on Rock of Ages (my does time fly)
• Finally finished my 2008 taxes. (a good 36 hours before the extension deadline, thank you very much)
• I learned how to cook four dinner meals that don't involve cereal or Domino's (related to this: discovering that 1 cup of rice is A LOT of rice)
• I got fun NYC visits from my cousins David, Meredith, Pat, and my cute goddaughter Kate
• Ran my 100th mile on Nike + (go me!)
• bought a vacuum cleaner (v grown up)
• Had many rooftop parties
• Headed back to choir (yay singing)
• Got my ATPAM apprenticeship and three months (+ a year and a half) later FINALLY got my insurance card
• Drank an unmeasurable amount of wine
• Found a love of running on the treadmill at the gym, Glee, apple cider, the Q66 bus that goes right to Starbucks, Michael's and Home Depot
  
• And finally spent countless hours sharing stories, laughter, and wine with my wonderful friends and family.

So, that's what I've been up to in a nutshell. I'm posting this before my blog gets another wise idea of running away. (PS Speaking of running, I'm up to 3.5 miles!)

A Pattern

I'm noticing my blogging comes much more frequently when wine is involved? I wonder why that is? I am so exhausted from today. No day can be good when it starts with me heading out the door at 8:15am. I know, I know, to those "normal" 9-to-5ers of my blog readers, this is late, and you - like my sister - are probably cursing my name right now, but hear me out... I worked last night until about 9pm (I know this because 9pm is the latest FedEx pickup near my office is at 9pm, and I distinctly remember running down 50th Street to make it in time). Today, I worked until 7pm. I'm not sure what the point was that I was trying to make, but most important, nothing good happens before 11am. Ugh, I didn't even have time for my Starbucks addiction until almost 12:30pm BRUTAL!

Anyway, lots happened today. We announced our fancy ROA Broadway cast today. I'm hoping upon hopes that tomorrow when I walk into rehearsal and meet Amy Spanger, I'm able to refrain myself from sharing the story that my short-lived acting career (count 4 shows before slinking into management) all begin with an audition onstage at the Theatre Company of Bryan/College Station singing along to the cd of her singing "Why Can't You Behave?" That's right, we could sing along to the cds. It's community theatre, y'all, and let's face it, without it, I highly douby I would have made it to this Broadway adventure. So, thanks Amy Spanger! You're awesome, and I haven't even met you yet!

The most excting/stressful/ridiculous part of putting this show up on Broadway are the number of "crises" I deal with on a daily basis. (*Disclaimer, when I say "I" I mean, our management team of 5, but since this isn't their blog, let's just use I to mean the collective I...). Here's a short list of what we dealt with today:

• the already lamented 9am production meeting (attended by at least 20 people, including 5 via conference call)
• assembling, signing, sending out 18 AEA contracts
• rental agreements, furniture distrbution, insurance certificate getting
• royalty correction from the OFF-Broadway show (isn't this over yet?)
• pay the rehearsal studio
• pay the dry cleaners
• set up new Amex cards
• set up new accounts for the wardrobe department
• add actors, crew, musicians, agents, lighting shops, sound shops, designers, marketing teams, lawyers, stage managers, PAs, production supervisiors, creative team per diems, and a partridge in a pear tree to the payroll
• prepare SSDC statements to finish our paperwork to get the return of our Off-Broadway bond
• update the contact sheet, update the contact sheet, update the contact sheet
• get W-4 and I-9s ready for rehearsal tomorrow
• put off making the house seat book AGAIN
• update wrap reports and step charts
• attempt to prepare a group package for 500 friends of my producer
• solve Quickbooks mysteries (once again, in the Off-Broadway books)
• plan our rehearsal game plan
  
• answer 7 million emails
• ignore 15 million emails
• flag 40 million emails for follow up

Well, you get the idea, the ROA corner of the Frankel Green office is hopping. I'm coping by coming home to my aforementioned wine and Wii Fit. Yes, i understand that inherently those do not go togther, but we all deal with stress in our own ways. Plus, Em, Nick, AND I have agreed to give up drinking for Lent. I'm already excepting my birthday, St. Patrick's Day/ROA 1st performance day, and any day where we ahve avoided a near disaster on this show. It's brutal. Ash Wednesday is a week from today. I'm not sure I can survive what I have committed to, but it will probably make my evening on the Wi fit a little easier to handle.

On that note, I'm off to watch Whoose Line is It Anyway and paint my toenails, which have been brutally neglected since I opened Rock of Ages 1.0. Hope y'all had a wonderful Wednesday night.

Why isn't this MY reality tv?

Okay, I know that tv isn't real, but seriously, where is this man in my life? Can we discuss? I mean, I may have just watched four back-to-back episodes of The Office, every one in which I said outloud at least one, "Ahhh, I love him!!" Who's with me here?

In other, more realistic news (yawn), today I saw the Act 1 run through of ROCK OF AGES, and I can't lie, I loved it. It's gonna be a fun show people, have you bought your tickets yet? Starting Oct. 1, I'm always up for pre-show margaritas...

Also, I made a friend connection happen for my cousin Susan and my former co-worker Mary in Chicago. Sus lives just around the corner from the Briar Street Theatre, where Mary is serving as Business Manager for Blue Man Group-Chicago. I'm happy they are meeting, but so wish I could be there!! My social life of late has been reduced to hermitude. It is a choice I have concisously made, and I can't lie, I love it. I know that in three weeks, I head back to the late-night theatre world I've grown so accustomed to, but I have to say for now, I'm glad to have my evenings to myself. Have you been keeping an eye on the Nike meter on the right side of my page?! I've been keeping up with my running program, and although my farthest distance is only 2.15 miles, I'm feeling pretty good just getting out there and doing SOMETHING every night. It helps me unwind from the day, and I think I sleep better too. All good things.

I'm off to do some more organizing of my room. I mean, I've lived here over a year and nothing has really happened. Next year when I'm faced with living on my own, I'm very excited, but I'm also very nervous about putting everything together. Anyone have any ideas? Mostly, I'm planning on counting on my two interior designer cousins (that means you Sus and Maura). They both have amazing senses of style and I can't wait to see what they do to the place. :) Night all.

Have you Ever Thought About...

Readers. Have you ever thought about how many people it takes to make a musical? Oh. My. Lord. Today I was at a production meeting, and the following were in attendance:

• Director/Assistant Director
• Choreographer/Assistant Choreographer
• Production Stage Manager/Stage Manager/Production Assistant
• Scenic Designer/Assistant Scenic Designer
• Lighting Designer/Assistant Lighting Designer
• Props Master
• Wardrobe Assistant
• Assistant Sound Designer
  
• Production Manager/Assistant Production Manager
• Video Projectionist Designer
• Music Contractor/Orchestrator/Director
• General Manager (2)/Company Manager/Assistant Company Manager/Management Intern
• and finally two producers

Y'all, that's a lot of people. That's not taking in count the 17 actors that were on lunch break during our meeting or the people that were assembling the deck at New World Stages while we were in our meeting or my box office staff that were frantically processing codes for me. Tomorrow we meet with no fewer than 3 marketing firms, a press agent, a pr person, more producers and any other random people that I've missed off this list.

I can't even say how amazed I am at all that goes into getting a show to its opening night. I know, I know, I've been part of plenty show openings and what have you, but as I've mentioned before, this is the first time I've seen all of this "production" craziness, and it completely blows my mind. But as it's blowing my mind, its also sending chills up my spine. Every single one of those people will work their tails off come hell or high water to make the best production possible be on that stage come October 16, and they will fight for what they need to make that happen. Who says theatre is dead? It's an incredible thing to be in a room full of people so passionate about their jobs. I'm loving every crazy, ridiculous second of it.

In news outside my job (yes, I have a life). Wii Fit admonished my sister for telling it that she didn't think I looked in any better shape this week. It was amazing. That's news right? I'm not a total loser, am I? Whatever, I love that Wii Fit. TiVo is adjusting well to the newest addition. Also, I keep them in separate rooms, so that helps. Can you tell I've cut back on the social agenda lately? It seems that my bank account finally figured out that I spent many weeks this summer unemployed. It's finally recovering, but gave me quite a scare towards the end of August. Ugh. Can't I just win the lottery already? At least the health insurance lottery? Anyone? No one?

Last thought before I head to bed, I love the new iTunes. I love that Apple keeps making me want to upgrade my iPod even though I have absolutely NO reason to do it. I love that if I want to find twenty-five songs on my iPod that sound like Miley Cyrus' "7 Things" that I can do it, and my iPod won't judge me like all my friends do. Life is good. I'm out. Good night.

Oh - and Happy Birthday shout-outs to my cousin Mary, my college roommate Erica (who both turned 30 on Tuesday), my Pajama Gaming touring Thomas and my sole remaining swim team friend Eric. The first week of September is huge for me birthday wise! I hope all of you celebrated fully and will be blessed with the best year yet!