I am pooped!

Tough day today! Good day, but a tough one. Frustrating and expected. Ran through both Extreme Country and Save the Last Dance... Country went better than I expected it to. But I was able to get MOST of the words! I only messed up a couple of phrases in two songs. It will probably be our last run through before we embark on the ship. Scary. But I am glad to get it over with and into my body at least.

So... why was it frustrating today? Stephen,, our musical director was scheduled to meet with us today to go over music. Well, wouldn't you know, something came up to delay him, and eventually, he ended up canceling altogether. Gee, like I didn't see THAT coming. Hopefully no one from PGT will be reading this... I'm not bitter, I just don't think this has given the company the best impression for a new employee.

We leave in less than a week!!! Man, I am getting excited. Scared out of my wits, but excited.

I am sitting eating a bowl of ice cream with oreo cookies on the bottom. I needed that. I am called in tomorrow at 11am, until 9pm. Makes for a day from hell, if you ask me. We shall see.

Hung out with Sophie this evening after dinner, and we sat out on the veranda, she drinking a beer, me Mr. Pibb. Some crazy homeless woman cam along and asked if Sophie could help her out, and then when Sophie went to get her some food (pretzels), she said she didn't like pretzels. What?! So beggars CAN be choosers, apparently. The woman then went around the apartment complex knocking on people's doors asking for cigarettes and whatnot. Go figure.

Today was Gaby's jump rope team try outs. Hope she did well. I am waiting for her to call me and let me know.

Gonna head to bed soon. More later. Good night.

As promised... the view out my window!

You gotta love the view! It is so helpful for creativity and learning! Not to mention the feeling of freedom and light. I love it here! I want to stay here FOREVER!

Life in Cocoa... I like this house.

This house is for sale... it is waterfront property, and it is in an historical part of town, which used to be all orange groves and slave houses. Very cool.

But it is very hot and humid here.

The Manatees knees!

The bees knees

Run Throughs... and more run throughs

Okay day today. About a 6, but still on the plus side of the scale. I can't wait to have a day that ranks up in the 8's or 9's! We worked this morning starting at 10 am on the Piano Man stuff. Some of the choreography is very intricate, and i found out that we will probably be doing the Elton John section for our presentation on Monday evening. Yuck. Now i really have to sit down and learn some of the more obscure Elton John songs, if there are any. Saturday night is one of them that everyone knows the chorus to, as there is only one words... "Saturday" but those darned verses throw me for a loop every time!

Tried unsuccessfully to upload my videos of the manatees, but thanks to Bill, I am now able to do it through a universal USB port thingy. So, hopefully I will be able to attach them in the post.

The picture of the bee swarm as well.

I am not called in tomorrow until 2pm, but Nicole and I are going in around noon to run stuff. Our run of Extreme Country is at 7pm tomorrow night. We ran it tonight after our run of Shimmy, and it went better than I thought. I am not the fondest of this show, as the keys are all in the stratosphere, not to mention at the end of the show, when I am out of breath. I am sure it will grow on me, though. I enjoy Shimmy, though. It is very fast paced, and the songs sound good for my voice. A little ragged tonight by the end of the day, but hopefully a good night's sleep and a good warm-up tomorrow will help that.

My folks and Peggy are coming this weekend to see me and the presentation, which is very exciting. I just hope I can get the words before they come. It's not like I have a choice. But it would be nice to know what numbers we are doing for the presentation ahead of time so we can prepare. It looks like there is one show we won't even get to while we are on land. That means we will be learning it on board the ship. Kinda sucks, because it will probably take away some port time for the cast. Ah well. The show must go on.

I had an article published about me in the SETC website, which was exciting. I tried to post it on here, but seem to be unable so far.

I'll try again when I have a free minute.

More later. Good night!

A good day!

Wow! Today actually was a good day. Finally! Only about an 8 on the scale, but still, the best one yet. So what made it so good? Not sure, really. I think I was just kind of in the zone, and was able to get two run throughs of one of the shows in, which added to some sort of reinforcement.

So, our cast ran Moments To Remember, and it was honestly kinda sucky. I know that I nned to really buckle down and learn the freakin' words to "I've Got You Under My skin" as well as the new swing section... Zoot Suit Riot, Mr. Pinstripe Suit, etc. FUN stuff to sing, but the words are killing me! So many words, so little time.

We then did a run of Shimmy, because we are having to do a full out run tomorrow. It also went well. I was happy that I have been able to retain most of the notes I got from what little time I had with a musical director. Route Sixty Six. Ugh. Words! Shimmy went well, as I was saying. We still have not been blocked into it, but we kind of were shoved into a sink or swim version
of the show, and we survived. I know tomorrow I will not remember a thing about where I was when, but hey, it worked for that run.

Zack is so patient. I am so totally the weakest link (good-bye) in the cast, and he is being so helpful with me and my total brain farts. He is the choreographer, and he is really quite brilliant.

I saw Manatees yesterday! I finally got out to walk yesterday afternoon, after rehearsal, and I was listening to my ipod, trying to memorize words, and I walked down by the waterfront and the docks, and there were three there flopping around in the water. Two big ones, and a little one. They were so cool. I took some video from my camera, but of course, I am having technical difficulties getting it uploaded onto this website. I also saw a swarm of honeybees, which was kinda cool. If I can get that photo uploaded I will try to do that, too.

I have to be in early tomorrow, so i need to get to bed. I can only hope tomorrow is as good a day as today was, if not better. I really miss my cats. They are my pride and joy.