I went to the doctor on Tuesday and it turns out I had STREP!! I couldn't believe it. I actually went in there and explained, "I don't think it's strep because....." He put me on a z-pak and I'm fine. Actually, I was FINE when I went in there. I felt better on Tuesday than I had in over a week except for my migraine. He gave me prescriptions for them, too. I mean, HOPEFULLY I won't have many more migraines... but if I do now I have some better ammo than Excedrin. He actually gave me a shot for my migraine that day. It was weird. I hate shots. As soon as I realized the sample he was giving me was a shot my heart started racing. A shot and strep throat in one day. BLEAH.

The z-pak made me feel really weird during performances. I felt VERY... aware... of everything. I was having a continuous battle with my brain during Merchant because I was simply unable to feel anything except how I had done everything before. It was weird and bad but at least I don't have strep anymore.

Aaron sent out our schedule for next week. I almost cried when I read it. He always has the schedule go Tuesday - our day off. We have the Tuesday of our last week off so it obviously said "June 10." JUNE TENTH. Oh my God. Sunday is June and in two weeks we will be closing these shows. It's impossible to think of this date because I have been living this life for so long. I have been at this job for a year and been excited about starting it for five months before that.  I am sure that some people are more than ready for it to be over, I'm just not one of them. I am SAD and as we approach that date I am just going to get more sad.

I had an actor's nightmare this morning where Josh blamed me for him missing a cue. In my dream the conversation went, "Hey, about the Pedant scene today....", "Yeah, were you just not paying attention or what???", "YOU DIDN'T GIVE ME MY CUE!!!" I told him about it later and we laughed a lot. 

It was 88 degrees today and Chris and I walked to the park again. We were going to walk AROUND the park but we were so sweaty by the time we got there that we just sat in the shade and watched people walk their dogs. 

I am a really big fan of spring/summer. I tend to stop eating, though, which can be a problem. I just don't want to eat anything heavier than a turkey sandwich. Food seems like more of a hindrance in the heat. HOWEVER, when I do want to eat I know exactly what I want (that is not the case in winter. I'm all "I don't know, what do you want?"). Also, do not worry, I still eat three meals a day, it's just kind of against my will. 

My tonsils have been swollen for a week. I stare at my throat for several minutes a day (I like to be aware of what is going on in there) and there is a significant amount of swelling in that whole... tonsilish region. I think I'm going to go to the doctor on Tuesday. I hope I don't have to have them removed. That can't be free. Everyone I've known who has gotten their tonsils removed has said it's improved their singing voice so I guess it can't hurt. Unless something goes terribly wrong and they accidentally (or maybe on PURPOSE??? to SABOTAGE ME??) like... cut my vocal chords. If that's even possible. That'd be my big fear.

And maybe the doctors will just give me medicine to stop the swelling and get all the gunk out of them. It really feels like my tonsils are FILLED WITH GOO. It's awful. 

Today Chris and I went on a walk around the park. We brought a whole bunch of nickles to feed the ducks but right when we got to the duck pond we saw a dead duck being... defiled... by another duck. Ohhhh God. It was the most disturbing thing I've seen in real life. We were going to stop but we just walked away in fear and disgust and left the park altogether. I was so freaked out. I hate those ducks, now. Some of them were really shady to begin with but this just takes the cake. A few of these ducks would hang out with these big, ugly geese and they always looked mean. Today their meanness has been proven. On the walk home we saw a male and a female duck a couple blocks away just walking around in someone's yard. I yelled to them, "Don't ever go back there, ducks!! RUN!!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!!!" I hope they did.

Tomorrow it's supposed to be 85! I finally decided it was a good idea to open the kitchen window. It's been closed since... well, since we went on tour for the first leg, I guess (September). Wow, what an interesting paragraph this was. The weather and how we opened a window. MY LIFE RULES.

My friend Rob Walter has a tumor in his brain the size of a ping pong ball. He's being operated on on Wednesday at the Cleveland Clinic. Rob went to Kent but we also did Godspell together in 2000. He's only a couple of days older than me and he's such a great guy and I am really hoping everything goes okay. Apparently they don't THINK it's cancer since he's so young and he takes better care of himself than anyone, ever, but still. It's completely crazy. The only reason they even found out about it was because he started taking gymnastics again and all the flipping in mid-air caused him to have a seizure after like, the 10th flip. I am just STUNNED that you can have a tumor in your BRAIN for long enough to let it grow to the size of a ping pong ball and have NO IDEA. That's terrifying. He's in really good spirits. I just hope it's not cancer and that they get it out and that everything is okay.

Well, Happy Memorial Day to everyone...

I seem to only refer to my blog as my "blargh" anymore. No one ever updates THEIR blarghs (perhaps for the same reason mine are only once a week now: I'm too busy) but I feel an obligation to blogging. It's because I was one of the first bloggers ever. Seriously. I was blogging before there was such a word, back in 1997. However, if some equally clever shortening would have come out of my weB LOG, it would have been liFE UPdates. "Feup" probably doesn't sound as good right NOW but I sure remember thinking "blog" was the stupidest thing I had ever heard, too.

So, hoory for everyone because David Cook won AI!!! I was so happy. I didn't get to see the show (we haven't seen ANY result shows because of performances) but as soon as Shrew was over I ran to the computer to try and find out. When someone finally updated a live update blog I just inhaled, walked into the dressing room, threw my hands up, and straining to find the right words yelled "YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYY!!!" I do admit that Archuleta performed better than he has EVER performend on this show on Tuesday. And, actually, until I saw the dial idol results I kind figured that he would win. But, yay, he didn't, and now I don't have to eat my hat.

I take a lot of credit for David Cook winning because I urged the audiences at Merchant "[they] might as well turn off their cell phones anyway because they need to save power to vote all night long for David Cook on AI on Tuesdays." Now I gotta come up with something else to say.

On Sunday Chris and I drove with Ginna to Ohio. We spent the night at her house and on Monday picked up a Budget truck to move stuff from Sandusky and/or Kent to Staunton. We didn't have to leave until Wednesday morning and it was really nice being home for a little while. My kitty is great and I got to see my dad's new hotel which should be partially opening tomorrow. It's gonna be great. The water park looks awesome and I told him if I were checking in to that hotel I would have said "oh my GOD!!!" upon entering the rooms.

Something that was not awesome was waking up at 5:30am on Wednesday to drive back. We made REALLY good time and, after a long stop to get furniture out of storage and 4 shorter stops, got home around 3:30. I didn't start to crash until we were already on 81 and only like 20 miles outside of Harrisonburg. I can't fall asleep when Chris is driving because it makes him tired but I did (I couldn't help it) and we had to stop shortly after. A pop machine stole my money and I had given it a DOLLAR SEVENTY-FIVE! God. I was so mad. After we got back here we split our belongings to store in three different locations and performed Shrew at 7:30. Oh man. We were soooo wiped out when we went to bed.

Even though I got about 8 hours of sleep last night I still feel like I need a nap before Merchant tonight. I don't like to do that show sleepy. Shrew will wake me up but Merchant is not as high energy.

Today I had a JOB INTERVIEW at the AMERICAN SHAKESPEARE CENTER!!! Have you heard of it?? I kept hoping Jen would ask me questions about how I heard about the company and what my experience with Shakespeare was or something, but she didn't. When I decided that I was going to stay here for a while and try to make a more financially sound life for myself, one of the first places I was hoping to get a job was at the place I already worked at. One day I found out the box office would be needing people and I applied... and today I was offered the job. It's full time so I can keep my health insurance. WHAT!?!?!?! I am going to have health insurance for more than a year????? Has a democrat become president??? WHAT IS GOING ON???? I was THRILLED and said that it was the best day of my life which MAY have been an exaggeration since the day of day we got engaged and the day we told everyone we were engaged were... you know... probably better. Also, I think 6 of the 7 days in Florida were pretty good. And that time I went to Disney World. And when I attended the taping of AI in 2005. And when I saw U2 in concert. AND when I went to Old Navy and there was one coat left that I liked and it was in my size, on sale and I had a gift card. But besides those things... this is awesome. I am so happy to have a job still and a job that I can walk to and a job that I will not hate. Yay. REALLY!!!! YAYAYAYAY!!!!!

I forgot to take my makeup off from the matinee today and my remover wipes are at the theatre. If I take a nap Jessica is gonna be looking ROUGH from the mascara stains on her face...

First thing's first: I started an engagement blog for me and Chris. You can read it at:

http://seilard.blogspot.com

"Seilard" is our celebrity name. It's like "bennifer."

Second, I called my grandma yesterday to tell her happy birthday and she asked if Chris and I were still engaged... I said yes... she said she couldn't wait until "that day comes" and I told her how it probably wouldn't be for another year and a half... and she said, "Oh. I might not make it, then." WHAT!?!?!??! GRANDMA!!!!! You don't say things like that! Not to me! I can't handle it!! Then at 3:30 in the morning I started crying hysterically because once you start thinking about one person dying you think about EVERYONE dying. I woke Chris up and cried for like a hour saying how "it's not fair. WHY DO PEOPLE HAVE TO DIE??????" and other crazy, dramatic things. It was just horrible. I still had puffy eyes when I was putting on makeup for the show today.

So, I didn't think this was real but I guess it is. It's like when ING opened and they gave you a $25 sign-on bonus. As I ALWAYS ALWAYS need money if you click on this link before May 15th and sign up I get $10 and you get $25. I didn't get hacked. I read an article from the washington post. THE washington post!!!

Go get your free money via this link so I get more free money. ;)

Montjoy forgot a line today. Actually, Montjoy DIDN'T forget a line, he just said the wrong line at the wrong time. The first two Montjoy scenes end with "I shall deliver so...." and "I shall, King Harry...." This is the SECOND TIME I ended the second scene with the ending of the first scene. It doesn't REALLY matter except today I tried to save it. I said "I shall deliver so. Thanks to you highness. AND------" and then patted Henry on the arm and walked away. I was so lucky I stopped myself after I said "and...." because what I WANTED to say was "and tell him [something something]" which would have made NO SENSE WHATSOEVER. Tell WHO??? I would have started speaking gibberish like that time I spoke gibberish in Guys and Dolls except WAY WORSE because that was a huge theatre. In THIS theatre the audience would have been able to hear every nonsense word that came out of my mouth. 

Anyway, it was fine. We all had a good laugh later and the scene moved on so it didn't matter. I just thought it was really funny that Montjoy ended the scene with a conjunction.

BY THE WAY---- June is going to be the greatest music month ever. Well, at least in terms of artists I like releasing new albums. First Aimee Mann then Alanis Morissette and then Coldplay!!! I didn't even know Coldplay was working on a new album!! YAY! 

Last night Rene and I decided it would be the best idea ever to stage a 2 person production of My Fair Lady featuring us and perform it in the living room. I mainly just wanted to do my "cockney accent" (I say that in quotations because it is nothing resembling a cockney accent) and scream "HERE ARE YOUR SLIPPERS!!!!! AND HERE!!!!" Hahahaha, oh man. That would have been so great. It turned out that we did NOT perform this, although I do not think the idea has been completely thrown out the window. Then we talked briefly about Sunday in the Park With George and I went home to watch it and make Chris watch it. He liked it a lot. I cried as per usual. Today we went to the library and rented the original broadway cast production of Sweeney Todd on VHS. I can't believe I had never seen this musical. It was great. I guessed the thing about the beggar woman early but I did NOT foresee what ended up happening to her. I just love that Stephen Sondheim so much. After the wonderful day when I will finally get to be in L5Y I hope I can just say, "Ok, it's Shakespeare and Sondheim only from here on out!"

Our staged reading on Tuesday went really well. The play is actually pretty good and we all had a good time and I think the audience did, too. The biggest problem for me was that reading in candlelight gave me a really bad headache. I don't think anyone else in our cast had this problem but for me... man... it was bad.

The shows were pretty okay last week, I believe. I am honestly finding it hard to believe that last week wasn't a million years ago so it's kind of hard to remember. Let's see. We had our last non-Shrew HS matinee... oh! This weekend Aaron went on for Evan as Biondello and Gratiano. We knew Evan was going to be gone this weekend (his brother got married) since the first day so the fact that this actually happened... actually, it's kind of sad. Our time together has gone very fast. Anyway, Aaron did GREAT and I wanted to stop the show and tell him that in the middle of the courtroom scene of Merchant. He was also very funny and I laughed a lot.

Tomorrow the theatre is hosting an ice cream social at this new(ish) little gelato/ice cream place in town. Chris has suggested we get ice cream like 3 times since Friday and every time I keep telling him to wait.... we will get it soon enough. And for FREE.

So, my favorite girl, Brooke, was voted off AI. I never thought she'd win so I was never expecting that... I just hope she keeps making music. I ALSO hope that she opens the door for others of her musical type on the show (like Chris Daughtry has done for David Cook) because her type is great. Also, if David Cook doesn't win I will eat my hat. He just HAS to. Syesha is great but we've seen her type a million times on this show. Jason is, seriously... I mean, Jason is FINE. But look. Jason is high. That's his thing: being stoned. Jason can go be stoned and sing decently somewhere else. David Archuleta is embarrassing to watch. I never liked his voice but I REALLY do not like how he makes everything sound exactly the same. If for some horrible reason there is a finale of David Archuleta and Jason I will probably not vote. If it is anyone verses David Cook he gets my vote... but if it's Syesha verses David Archuleta or Jason I will vote for her. (Also, Brooke's website went back up the night she got voted off. BrookeWhite.com You can listen to and/or buy her 2006 album if you want to. I might buy "Free.")

I really started to miss the Keys over the weekend. I kept asking, "Remember when we went to Florida? That was so great." I miss the water. There is no water in Staunton. I mean, there's a pond and running tap water... but the ocean is 3.5 hours away and there are no big lakes anywhere close. Most of us are in the middle of a 2-2.5 day weekend (I guess it is the weekend for us) and I was lamenting over the fact that there is nothing FUN to do anywhere here. I wanted to go to Busch Gardens but it's only open on the REAL weekend (as is King's Dominion). Battlefields and Monticello may be interesting or... you know... just something to DO but not only have I been to every historical place in Virginia already but they are a FAR CRY from fun. I haven't even been able to find a miniature golf course. I told Chris if we were in Sandusky we could go to Marblehead or the African Wildlife Safari or mini golf or race cars or bumper boats or even an indoor waterpark... or AT LEAST just sit by Lake Erie and look at birds, boats and waves. Those things are all FUN. That is why Sandusky is called  The Fun Coast and Staunton is called "The Birthplace of  The Council Manager Form of Government."

I guess I don't know for a fact that that is the SLOGAN of Staunton, but it's what the website says. I am just getting cranky from lack of inexpensive things to do. Staunton is fine. Really.

It's just no FUN COAST.

I think I'm homesick.

Tomorrow I am going to start a hella extensive process of exfoliating my skin.

I'm probably not going to want to update on Monday because I'm tired already. On Tuesday we're doing a staged reading of The Maid's Tragedy and I am really excited, actually. I'm singing all the songs in the masque and playing Dula and Cleon. Dula is like Foible from The Way of the World----aka, the part I should always be playing.

The only bad thing about our reading is that I'll miss AI.... I can watch it on youtube later but whenever I've missed the show someone I like has gotten voted off. Let's see if it happens again.

Anyway, here's some stuff that MAY be interesting for you.

Our podcast about "The Merchant of Venice"
It's a little over 45 minutes long but if you have nothing else to do it's a really interesting listen. Ralph, one of the founders of this theatre, says more amazing things about this play than you'd ever believe. Chris, Scot, Ellen and I are the guests on the recording. (you can also download it from itunes for free and listen to it all up on your ipod)

my flickr page
I just posted the pictures from our engagement party and the couple we took on the day we actually got engaged. Also, if you go to page 2, the production shots that I am in from our three shows are up. Here's some of my favorites (but there are more)

The Widow in SHREW


The Pedant in SHREW


Jessica wallowing in despair in MERCHANT

Go look. Pictures are fun.

Ok. It is too late to REALLY write because I have a show in the morning. Here is what I need to say as briefly as possible:

A. I performed "The Way We Were" at the ASC Gala on Saturday night. It was awesome. By "awesome" I mean "my heart was beating so hard I can't believe I didn't over compensate the higher notes at the end." John and I LOVE working together and I am glad he played that guitar.

B. Shakespeare turned 444 and his birthday cake was delicious.

C. Josh, Ginna and I did a hilarious sketch for the Airport Operator people about Shakespeare trying to book a flight to Italy, being a total pompous jerk and not being able to get through security. Seriously, this skit was amazing. I also sang "Airplane" by the Indigo Girls with Chris as the opener.

D. I have always felt that if I was ever on American Idol that the same thing that happened to Brooke would happen to me. Lyrics are so easily forgotten, especially when you have such a short amount of time to learn the song. I mean, even if you REALLY KNOW the song sometimes you still forget them randomly.  Despite the fact that I closed my eyes and covered my ears when she did it, I think I would have done the same thing. I swear to God, if you forget lyrics sometimes I think you go insane for a moment. You are unable to jusify singing the same verse again or switching the verses or "la la"ing or anything else. I bet she wouldn't stop and restart again NOW.... now she can think of a contingency plan. Before you have that plan, though, you might go insane briefly and not be able to think up ANYTHING. Having said this, I was relieved she didn't get voted off but she had better really bring it next week. Not for me; *I* think she is the most original contest ever from the show and I would be more likely to buy her album than any other contestant from any season. However, if she doesn't BRING IT next week than when she finally DOES get voted off no record company will want her because she'll be "the girl who sucked from American Idol." (Just like poor Jasmine Trias.) My final thought is this: Brooke is great. I wish I had her hair and her dress was AWESOME. (Thanks to yahoo answers I was able to find the designer... unfortunately it's $400 and only available in XS and S. SOMEONE MAKE A CHEAP COPY OF THAT BUTTERFLY DRESS!!!!!)

E. Last week Ginna and Ellen threw us an engagement party!! It was great. Oh man. I'll upload pictures in a couple days. Ginna made this awesome cake and Ellen did this hilarious "unity chip" thing... everyone showed up and I was happy.

F. I had TWO DAYS OFF this week!!! Can you believe it??? It was followed by a 2-Henry Wednesday and a 2-Shrew Thursday.

I am so mean to leave an update like that and not say anything for a week. BUT, you have to understand, I am a busy person. This week we had 7 shows, 2 workshops, I gave 2 tours, we had a company meeting, we had gala rehearsal and Shakespeare's birthday rehearsal AND I had to watch AI on Tuesday. (I was surprised Michael got voted off. I'm not FURIOUS, but I was surprised. I did laugh at his song choice, though.)

 

This week will also be busy in the same way.... but I only have one tour this week. I WILL be doing the Merchant podcast on Friday, though. That'll be fun for me. You know I love to talk about and listen to stuff about Merchant.

 
So, really, Chris proposed on March 28th. His birthday was the 27th and at 11:59 I said "It's the last minute of your birthday! Happy Birthday!" Then it turned midnight and I said "Oh. It's not your birthday anymore. Did you have a good birthday?" and he said, "Yes, because I got to spend it with you."

I was all like "Oh, well, that's nice but we spend every day together."

Anyway, then he proposed to me and it was really sweet and he gave me that book that I LOVE, "A Lovely Love Story" about dinosaurs that are in love. The next day we went to get the ring. We basically picked like the first one she showed us that was in our price range. Then it had to get sent away for resizing because of my tiny fingers.  I didn't want to tell anyone until I got it back because everyone would have been like "Let me see your ring!!!!" and I would have been like "I... can't. Yet." So, we didn't tell anyone. And let me just say, it was THE HARDEST THING I'VE EVER HAD TO DO. I kept saying how I was afraid I was "accidentally" going to tell Ginna. And in fact, the next time I saw Ginna she was smiling at me strangely and all I could think was "SHE KNOWS!" I also thought Scot somehow knew. We did tell Ben early but ONLY because he was leaving town and we wanted to tell him in person. Ben was so excited. AND RIGHTLY SO. I always tell Ben these weird secrets so when I pulled him aside during the company pizza party I am sure that's what he thought I was going to tell him.  But, it was not and he was an amazing actor that day. He walked up to Chris, who was standing with many people and said, "Congratulations on a fourth tour. I am really happy for you to be back." HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!! And no one was any the wiser.

 

I made Ben a "Best Actor" award for THAT performance.

 

Last Sunday, we were walking back from the theatre, I called the jewelry shop to see if the ring was back, yet. It wasn't supposed to be back until April 12th, but I took a shot and they said it was there. If the place would have been open for half an hour more that night we would have gone then but it was nearly closed. I was so excited that I almost took a sleeping pill at 7pm just so I didn't have to wait. I didn't take it, though, and I was up really late.. but I still got up early and then we GOT IT. As soon as I went home I walked down to Ginna's apartment to tell her. I kept trying to show her my hand without telling her but she never caught on to what I was doing. In fact, the ONLY person who knew what I was talking about by seeing the ring was Aaron, and I think it's only because I literally stuck my fist in his face and said "WE'RE ENGAGED!!!!!!" Almost everyone else even looked at the ring and didn't know what was going on.

The next day was the company meeting and I got to tell everyone else here, in person or en masse. IT WAS GREAT. AND AWESOME. AND HILARIOUS.

The earliest we could even get married is December 2009 (Chris wants to be booked until then) but I'm thinking we might even have to make it January 2010 to avoid the problem of Christmas.

That's as far as we know right now. We have ZERO MONEY (thank you, cash per diem, for buying this ring) so it's going to be the smallest wedding ever. Cake and coffee and MAYBE hors d'oeuvres (not catered. I'm talking tyson chicken fingers with toothpicks in them). Luckily, cake is obviously covered (a little TOO covered. Both our mom's bake wedding cakes. What a weird situation to be in). 

SO, WE'RE ENGAGED!!!!!!! YAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

 

 

Ok, so this isn’t my story to tell but it’s a really funny and amazing story. My friends Rick and Ben were walking around downtown Charlottesville a couple of weeks ago when they noticed a cute little family. Rick recognized the man from being in the audience of Macbeth a couple nights before. Rick plays the Porter and Ben plays Macbeth so he was SURE the guy would recognize them. And, if fact, the man caught Rick’s eye, smiled and then looked down shyly. Rick didn’t want to make a big deal out of his "celebrity" so as they passed he smiled and nodded at the guy and just said hey.

After the family was gone Ben turned to Rick and said, "Did you know who that guy was?"

Rick said, "Yeah, he was at Mac the other night."

Ben replied, "NO.... that was Dave Matthews."

So not only did Rick recognize the wrong person, he thought HE was the celebrity in the situation... and not only that he was the celebrity, but that he was the one that this "audience member" would recognize, as the Porter, instead of the guy next to him who played Macbeth!!

I laughed so hard at this story. I just love Rick, he is seriously one of the nicest people on earth and just SUCH a great guy.

I wish Dave Matthews WOULD come to the theatre and see our shows. Dave, I know you’re reading this, come to the Blackfriars (and come early to hear the preshow music :)  ) before June 15th. I’ll get you free tickets.

Our opening weekend went really well. We had an amazing group of students in to see Merchant on Thursday morning and workshops after and they had the best questions. I loved those kids. Shrew’s "official" opening was AWESOME. The house was packed to standing room only and they were a GREAT audience. Our Friday Merchant also had a great crowd. I’ve noticed more and more that girls my age and younger are the only people who seem to relate to Jessica and I LOVE that. If I could be two people at once, one on stage and one in the audience, I would definitely want to reach me. MY gender and age group is the one who is REALLY in charge of this world... just wait and see.

And, in other news, please view these pictures....



WHAT’S THAT, YOU SAY???? AN ENGAGEMENT RING?????

Oh, my left arm is so heavy!!! It must be because this ring is weighing it down!!!!

Yes, it’s true. Chris and I are engaged. YAY!!!!

If you’ve ever seen me excited about anything multiply that by a million.