Ten Years Later

A couple of weekends ago was my ten year reunion at Woodberry. This was also the weekend of Kelsey's show, so I made sure to see that on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and then went down to Woodberry on Saturday. Since I couldn't use Kelsey's car I had to get a rental. I ordered the economy car. When I got to the car place, they didn't have any economy cars. I grudgingly accepted the free upgrade.

And Beau made me take a picture with it.

The thing that I love about Woodberry is that it never changes in any real way. Sure, some buildings are torn down and some others have been built, but the spirit of the place remains the same. I walked into the Walker Center and saw Cirves directing a show. A group of us went to the Fir Tree and got the same milkshakes and curly fries that we would order as students. Naturally, this is exactly the kind of feeling that Woodberry wants to elicit in its alumni when they return.

Some people I have seen more often than others in the intervening ten years.

Other people I have seen less often, but still- nothing much has changed...

I mean, we still look basically exactly the same, right? Willy wasn't at the reunion because he was in Japan or some other terrible excuse like that.

Also of note, Kelsey and I returned (again) to 1789 to celebrate the paying off of her student loans! 

She made me take exactly one picture, so that we could remember the crème brûlée forever. 

What I Learned in Pirate School

I'm officially done with my 2nd GGSS show! Even though I haven't quite caught up on sleep yet, I'm still so incredibly glad I did it. I believe there was a noticeable difference in my anxiety levels on stage. One of my friends actually said after a show one night that I seemed really comfortable on stage. Add that to the list of things I never thought people would say about me. Other things: apparently my biceps were a little out of control during this show and also I make a cute boy. 

All in all, I had an amazing time and am sad it's over. There was one point during show week where I told Mike he would have to take the GGSS torch because I was retiring.  But now I'm not so sure I won't want to do a victory lap:)

Just find whatever makes you happy!

Mom-in-law Leslie and Michael! Leslie, my coworker loved meeting you:)

Nanny (Mike's grandma): "Kelsey, aren't you going to take a picture of the food!?" Of course, Nanny!

Oh, oh. This was the point at Saturday's potluck where Noah began plating things. Goo was understandably distressed. I was too until I began shoving orzo-stuffed tomato with balsamic reduction in my mouth.

There was a round two that involved tiny homemade truffles in the shape of seashells and ships. The salt on top (I'm sorry, I don't remember what kind of fancy kind it was) was extremely on point..

View from the G12 roof at Saturday's party! Beautiful.

                     

When I was late for strike and Mike was at his reunion, but he still helped me find my keys in the morning<3

Pirates shirt!

Costume Crew completely beasted our costume closet. Re-organizing this guy was the most fun I've ever had at strike. That's not sarcasm.

Forward, ho!

I would also insert a picture of the coconut cake that Ween and Daddy Jim brought us when they visited on Friday, but, and don't be disturbed by this, there is no evidence of it left. If Mike and I had nothing in common but our love for that specific cake, I think it would be enough haha.

This week, we are planning on resting and finding new "normal" schedules. Mike has to wake up at 5:30am now. So far, I've been resisting waking up that early and sleeping in, but eventually I want that to become my morning gym routine.

Hope everyone has a great week and thanks for all of your support throughout the show!

                                             

I'm In Production Week!

Last night was opening night and I'm feeling the love of production week. Josh, Absi, Ross, and Mike were a little cheering section together and the cast always feels especially funny when Josh and Ross's laughs boom out over the audience.

The hardest part of the week seems to be getting enough sleep, but we actually have a work event on Saturday so I have today off and was able to sleep in which was glorious. And now I get to spend today hanging out with Mike's mom and grandma who came into the city to see the show. Mike thinks it is hilarious that Nanny decided to travel down to see the show before she even knew Mike was also going to be back from NJS at the time. He told me that she said she was going to be brave and take the trip down by herself because I was being brave by being in the show. I definitely got teary when he told me this, and have been striving to be even braver with my acting/singing/dancing every night I'm out on stage.

Kelly and Alex are also coming tonight, and somehow Kelly has managed to send me tiny texts of encouragement right when I need them. The other day she sent me a picture of Jack Sparrow which later became my inspiration for what I do to my hair. (I was later told I actually just looked like Legolas from LOTR which I can live with.) I don't know how Kelly always texts me right at the exact moments I'm freaking out, but that's why she is my person.

Mike's other grandparents are coming Friday night, and although I won't be able to see them I'm glad Mike will. I also have coworkers coming every other nights of the show with their significant others. It means so much to me to share this experience with other people.

I know Mike would ideally like to be in the show too. Instead of being onstage, however, he is serving as house manager every night but one. He will probably end up getting even less sleep than I do this week. And still last night he got me a drink, met all of my new friends, and let me stay at the party as long as I wanted to celebrate opening night before driving us home. Sometimes that's what love looks like.

Pirate ladies!

Backstage pirate party!

I'm Not In Production Week!

This is Mike, obviously, because I'm not in production week. But Kelsey is.

Kelsey is an actress.... and I'm in the military.

Makes sense, right?

A year ago around this time I was in production week and not in the military, and even though I had been told that my commission was going to happen I didn't believe that I would ever actually get in and be able to actually do things. I was also not married. Or engaged. I was, of course, very hopeful that the year would go... exactly as it has gone. I had a plan for it all somewhere in the back of my head, but having that plan actually work out is a great birthday present.

For my actual birthday I insisted on cooking because I am still recovering from my 67 days without anything but a microwave. We grilled some burgers and I made Pina Coladas our new vitamix (named Dalek Goo in honor of Emily Goo and to continue our theme of giving appliances Dalek names). Kelsey was a wonderful hostess and made a dessert of angel food cake, strawberries, and whipped cream (made in Dalek Mix, which thankfully took over my normal job). Then I ate way too much and had a lazy Sunday, which is how I like to do birthday weekends.

Today I took the bus/metro to work but decided that it was such a nice day that I should jog back. I knew that the map said it was something like twelve miles but I felt that the map was exaggerating a bit.

It was not. The red dot is not where we live, it's where my legs said "time to walk" and I turned off my running tracker in shame. On the plus side, I learned that 95% of the run from work to my house is on bike/pedestrian trails. So if I ever get a bike, there's that.

I'm very proud of Kelsey for doing the show, but it gives me the feeling that I should be doing something too. Work is very slow so far and I forget that sometimes I should not be so eager to take the mountain of assignments right at the start. Maybe I'll learn eventually. Probably not.

Right On Time

It turns out that spring, spring break, and MJ all showed up right on time. "March Madness" is officially over at work, I'm so so glad to have Mike back home, and I'm incredibly grateful that that his 10-day house-hunting leave overlaps with my 4-day spring break. 

Best things so far about having husband back:

• Getting home from rehearsal at like 10:30pm and collapsing on the couch because there is pain in forgotten muscles and I'm beyond exhausted. Then, Mike quietly tells me he made gnocchi today (yes, MADE it) and asks if I would like some. I would almost just prefer going to bed at this point, but I try just a little bit and it is absolutely the most delicious comfort food with a roasted carrot cream sauce that I just decided to eat a whole bowl. I think he thought I wouldn't like it, but unfortunately, I liked it so much that I'll now be requesting it on the regular.
• Running dates where we don't take our ipods because I ramble and then Mike tries to teach me cadence callbacks.
• Running mundane and annoying errands that turn into adventures because you have a buddy.
• Watching all of Season 2 of Orphan Black (not by facetime). 

This is exactly how I felt this past Saturday...

A picture of Ashton at his first Easter Egg hunt. Too cute.

On Thursday Mike, Josh, and I went to see Man of La Mancha by Shakespeare Theatre Company. This season has been REALLY incredible. The last 2 shows were pretty spectacular, but MJ had to miss out due to NJS. Man of La Mancha was possible the best show to celebrate his homecoming. We all got pho for dinner and then the boys got Rita's for dessert. Since I prefer ice cream or frozen yogurt to custard, I sought out finding my own dessert before the show. Luckily, I have vast knowledge of places where you can find ice cream in this city and Luke's Lobster had just brought back their cherry ice cream cookie sandwich (everything is cherry themed in DC this time of year for the Cherry Blossom festival). It was delicious and I made the boys try it.

On Saturday evening, Mike and I had a dinner extravaganza with Jessie and Duncan. I had been at Jessie's the night before for a show party and realized that all four of us had been wanting to try Hank's Oyster Bar for happy hour. So we decided to go on Saturday and have some wine and oysters. Raw oysters are delicious and I even ate some without cocktail sauce. 

After oysters and drinks, we decided we needed a real dinner and Mike wanted to introduce them to Medium Rare: a place in Barrack's Row that has a pre-set menu of salad, steak, and fries. I feel like I've been there a lot, but it's still good every time. However, we've never had room for dessert there. It does help when you have 4 people to split dessert between. Since dinner was so good, I was honestly expecting the sundae to be lackluster, but it was absolutely delicious!!! Add this to my list of places to get ice cream in the city:)

Mike and I went home for Easter and had a great time spending time with my family. Ashton is starting to say words and he is so animated all of the time. We watched a movie and ate smoked salmon, pasta salad, and eggs: both the hardboiled and Reese's variety. 

I just really liked this quote from Rob Bell about "resurrecting love"...

Because my mom is always asking how Rupert is doing, here is a video to demonstrate the kinda life he has going for him right now:

Reporting for Duty

(Mike Post)

Monday was my first day of work. At the end of the day I was given no homework nor syllabus explaining an exam or paper schedule. This was a first. Instead, I got checked in as much as I could (I need to wait for my email address and that is required to do most of the checking in), looked at what everyone told me would be my office, sat in on a meeting about the upcoming trials on our team, and was told to come back in ten days.

So far, so good!

As I was going home, a guy asked to take a picture with me (I was wearing my dress blues). I said sure. Turns out he thought I was an airline pilot and he wanted to send a picture of him and me to his friends so that they would think he had chartered a private plane somewhere.

Anyway, it is great to be back in my home with my wife and my things, and it will be nice to have a few days off before the "real" work gets started. 

Blogs That Helped Me Get Through Last Week

I had a rough week. It kinda started out rough and then never got back on track. And apparently Murphy's Law decided it was going to be an overachiever this time because I could handle it? Well, I mean I guess I kind of handled it in that I have a newly-patched tire that I'm pretty proud of.

This week will be better because it has to be. And at least last week wasn't show week. Also Mike gets back this weekend and I'm very excited to see him again.

Here are some new blogs on my reading list and some posts I might have read more than once this week. If you know my taste in blogs/writers, you're going to read these and instantly be overwhelmed with how much they scream Kelsey..... but if anyone needs some readings on grace or being brave, I thought I would pass them along.

Momastery

I'm pretty sure I've stumbled across Glennon's blog a few times and was all "Nope, not a mom. Don't care." Such regrets! When I read this post on grace, I bawled over the broccoli part. Glennon is amazing. Read her story!

Balance in the 'Burbs

My yoga blog of the moment. So I love yoga, but I've never been that into expanding my own practice in my free time until reading Cara's blog. She has me actually interested in pushing myself on my own time outside of a class and simply for fun. I love following her journey. This post is basically how I feel about this week....


Erin Brown

I found Cara through her sister Erin's blog. I'm such a nerd. Anyway, Erin is so awesome that I basically forward everything she writes to Mike so that he can have a little peek into my heart. Erin is all about self-care and setting a great example for her daughter. I really enjoy her facebook posts about her adventures with her daughter:

Having a kid makes me live my values all the time. Yesterday we were at the pool and she was eyeing the lily pad thing (again). So I was talking to her about being brave and trying something new when she said, "Will you show me Mama?" She meant how to do the lily pads, but it also meant being brave and trying something new. It was covered in tweens and really not something I wanted to take my grown behind over to try. But of course my response was, "Of course baby!" It was ugly. I did it all in a squat of sorts. Slipping around, no finesse. I'm sure I could get the hang of it with some practice. It was actually kind of fun. And Lola was excited to watch me. When I got back I said, "You know, I've never done that before." "Since you were little?" she asked. "Nope, never," (I would have been too shy and afraid then). She stood up really proud of herself and said, "Well Mommy, I'm so glad I could encourage you to try something new."

In life, but so clearly with our kids, it matters less what we say and more what we DO. I couldn't give her a speech about going for it and then not go for it. Nothing makes me better than being the woman I want my daughter to look up to. ‪#‎canililypad‬ ‪#‎yesican‬

My kid is working on a creating a club. Everyone is invited. The club is for "feeling good about yourself, karate, princesses and whatever else people are interested in. Mostly I want the kids who don't have many friends to feel welcome and included." More of this in the world, please.