I love San Antonio

There are many places I have lived and liked. Saudi Arabia, Louisiana, Nederland Texas, Delaware, New York City. There are many more places that I have visited and enjoyed. London, Prague, Italy, Seattle, Colorado, New Mexico, Memphis, Paris are just a few.

However the only one that feels like "home" is San Antonio.

I love it. I love breakfast tacos and the warm air. The wonderful old oak trees and the beautiful homes. Southtown and downtown and Hemisfair Park. The colors of Mexican folk art and the sound of Spanish. I love it.

Going back to places you have once lived is always awkward. And returning to SA this December was a little weird. But my friends are amazing. And the city welcomed us with open loving arms. We ate breakfast tacos and mexican food, visited The Magik Theatre and KRTU 91.7, walked the riverwalk, drove up to Austin to see Lani and Becky and helped Davey celebrate his new apartment. (Only 5 months after he moved in!)

We also went to Kerrville for a wedding, and I went down to Corpus for Christmas. Houston and Kerrville and Corpus are nice. But I have a special place for SA.

Go SPURS Go!

Keep San Antonio Lame!

Remember the Alamo!

Onward and Upward.

TheatreworksUSA

I got a job.

I now work for TheatreworksUSA and in the spring I will be out of NYC 60% of the time on tour with Max and Ruby. We will perform the show up to 12 times a week in school auditoriums, cafatoium/ gymnasiums and "real" theatres. Sometimes we will be under a "sponsor" which means a venue has brought us in to perform and sometimes we will be a "field trip venue" which means that Theatreworks or another larger organization has bought space in a theatre and we are performing for audiences to whom TW or the Larger Organization has sold tickets.

I will most often be sleeping in hotels throughout the country and we will travel in one cargo and one passenger sprinter vans. The company reserves 4 rooms. 3 doubles and one single. The single is for me. I have 4 girls and 2 boys on my show. Every night that we are staying in a hotel we will be paid a per diem which will cover the cost of the room. Once a week we get a day off from traveling/ performing. During that day we can re-pack, clean, repair, rest, go to the mall, see a movie or get the vans serviced. It isn't the same day each week so sometimes we will go 13 days between days off.

For this work I will be paid (fairly well especially considering how much I have been making) and I will get overtime AND my equity card. I will also get to travel the country and get to know 6 hopefully cool people.

I'm looking forward to it. TheatreworksUSA

Onward and Upward

Rockefeller Christmas

Friday night we went to a Ben Allison concert in Queens (for more on that check out one of Ryan's blogs) and on the way back uptown decided to stop by the Rockefeller Center to see what all the fuss is about.

They really fancy that part of town up for Christmas. I suppose that it is famous and it is a major tourist center but the amount of people within a 4 block radius was staggering. First we went to see the tree (of course) and then we made our way over to look over the ice rink. It's much smaller than I had expected. The ice is also pretty far below street level so it is a little like looking into the seal pit at Seaworld.

Right as we arrived someone was proposing in the middle of the ice. Somehow everyone else had cleared the ice and this couple was in the middle. She thankfully said yes and then they took a very awkward turn around the rink before the Zamboni came to clean up. I wondered how he got everyone off the ice without her noticing. Then I wondered how much 15 minutes of time at the Rockefeller ice rink costs. Probably a lot.

We took a turn up through the angels and watched the light show on the building at the top of the walk before walking over toward Radio City Music hall to look at the huge balls. I mean, huge Christmas ornaments. I tried to count the number of Santa's and quickly gave up. How do you think parents explain all those Santas to their kids?

Another NYC tradition off the list. Check.

Onward and Upward.

Vermont Speaks

Stealing from Shannon's blog ideas here is a look at a few notable signs we saw in Montpelier, VT.


And my personal favorite....

Apparently even Vermonter's dogs are independent.

Onward and Upward

Vermont

This weekend we went to Vermont to visit Ryan's cousin and her husband, Amy and Pete. Pete's mom and dad were there for a little while and his brother Paul stayed with us the whole weekend. Amy is a "homesteader woman" so the most of the bread we ate and all of the jams and jellies were homemade. The rest of the food was from their co-op. Pete works for Magic Hat brewery so all kinds of beer were readily available. They also had wine that his father had made and grapa that a friend of theirs had made.

We had a weekend of amazing food, lots of talks and cold temperatures. Their house is heated by a stove that burns about one bag of wood pellets a day. The bedrooms actually have holes cut in the floor so that the heat will come up to the second floor. On the cold nights that made it bearable but not particularly toasty. They live in Montpelier, VT which is a very small artsy town. You would never think of it as the capital. Burlington and Stowe are pretty nearby and they are both much bigger than Montpelier.

We had some snow on our last night in VT. The five of us walked down to the Mexican food restaurant for $2.50 margaritas which were actually not bad. The city looked beautiful all covered in powdery whiteness.

All in all not a bad way to spend a weekend. When we got back to NYC it actually felt warm! Also on the way back we saw the actor that plays Christopher on Gilmore Girls so that was super exciting! (at least for me) Above I have posted some pictures.

Onward and Upward.