Phenomenal Performance

*Original Broadway Poster Cover

This weekend I had the pleasure of going to see my cousin star in his high school Musical: Sweeny Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street. How is in the world a high school was given rights to do such a play is beyond me; however, why in the world the superintendent gave the high school permission to do such a show is what really astounds me. Despite that, it was an incredible performance. I don't just say that because I'm biased towards family, EVERYONE did a really awesome job down to the youngest cast member.

The score is VERY complex and the plot completely ironic; it's wonderful! Considering the level of skill needed to pull off such a show, I give the school an enthusiastic 2 thumbs up. The set, costumes, music, props, acting, singing, lighting, everything was top notch!

As morbid as you may find it, Sweeny Todd is my favorite musical of ALL time! I've loved it since I first read and heard the score in my high school IB Theatre class back in 2002. While in college I spent weeks studying it in a Modern Literature course and was thrilled to watch a video recording of Angela Landsbury play Mrs. Lovett opposite George Hearn as Sweeny Todd on a live stage.

When the revival tour hit Louisville you better believe that I was there! When my two men in Hollywood, Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, teamed up to put it on the big screen I was ALL OVER IT! This weekend I got to see my cousin ROCK it out as one of my favorite Broadway characters! It was a great weekend and a phenomenal performance.

Death by Pecker

This morning I had the scare of my life, the kind that gets your heart racing and your blood pressure sky high.

Even though my alarm had already gone off twice I still laid contently snuggled beneath my covers thinking I could hit the snooze at least once more and not be late for work. Tiko was, of course, on the bed snuggled up with me and right as I drifted off into my 9 minute nap he got up. Jumped up is more like it. Out of no where Tiko jumped up and took a protective stance right there on the bed baring his teeth.

The next few seconds felt like hours as panic, fear, and confusion ran through my head. A thousand Law and Order episodes flashed in my mind as I began to prepare myself for the obvious attacker that was in my house. Tiko would only take such a stance if there was serious danger or something horrible in the house, right?

I slowly began to sit up, holding my covers close, and tried to remember where I was charging my phone and if it was in the room. It was then I heard a strange sound that caused Tiko's hair to stand up and a low growl to form in his throat; he was in the zone and at that moment I wanted to smack the life out of him!

The sound that caused my dog to go on serious alert, a wood pecker foraging for breakfast in the neighbor's yard. I could have killed the dog right there on the spot; instead, I burst out laughing. The outburst broke Tiko's concentration and he immediately took to my mood with his tail wagging and his tongue hanging out. He came at me excited that I was awake and nuzzled for some attention while trying to sneak a few kisses on my face.

The idea that my dog is protective of me and would alert me to horrible things is a comforting feeling; however, the fact that what he deems horrible and I what I deem horrible are COMPLETELY different about gave me a heart attack this morning.

Needless to say, I didn't get in another 9 minute nap.

I'm Sick and Tired...

of being sick and tired.
Any one who knows me knows that I do NOT like to sit and do nothing. It's not that I can't when the situation calls for it; however, I would prefer to go and do and live! My ideal vacation is one where I'm exploring, learning, or hiking. I don't enjoy laying on a beach burning, because I have too much Irish blood and don't tan, and the idea of spending more than one day laying around makes me get the wiggles.

I blame my father; he is the exact same way. Thus, my childhood vacations were riddled with museums of everything possible that can be put behind glass or on display and we were always on the go. Asking me to lay on a couch for 4 days is NOT my idea of a relaxing time.

The day of surgery I slept off my anesthesia, Wednesday I could barely move on my own and spent the whole day on pain medicine, Thursday I could move but it wore me out and I was still on pain medicine. By Friday and Saturday I was moving on my own, for the most part, and ready to get up and DO something; the only problem was I too tired to do anything! It was frustrating!!!!

I spent so much energy on Friday and Saturday trying to pacify my mind's need to move and go that I crashed on Sunday. I mean crashed: emotionally, physically, spiritually, you name it and I was GONE!

After really hoping I could do a whole day at work I was disappointed that by 12:PM I was in desperate need of my couch and blanket. I'm home and really sick and tired of being sick and tired.

Flying High

The surgery couldn't have gone any better than it did. My Dr. is very happy with the outcome and expects great results. She definitely found endometriosis and had even had to burn off a few lesions to boot. I see that as a good thing, the more she cleans the better I feel!

My experience at Baptist East was pretty good. My pre-op nurse was a little.... distracted. When she found out I had seen an ENT about meniere's disease she did nothing but try and pull the name of my doctor out of me, even though I couldn't remember and didn't really care. She has a friend that is looking into getting tested and seemed desperate to get a recommendation.

She had to poke me twice to get my IV started; the second time she didn't get my vein numbed and thus I felt the ENTIRE process of her inserting the needle and tubing. When I cried out in pain she told me that it shouldn't hurt because she had numbed me; yea, because my back arched, my eyes watering, and my scream meant it felt good!

Even after the IV was inserted it continued to burn and sting. I said something to two different nurses and each time was told to get over it. buck it up, and stop being a whimp. The comments did NOTHING to calm my anxiety about the surgery and in fact made it worse. It wasn't until they gave me the "happy drugs" did I start to feel better.

They wheeled me back to the operating room and placed me on the table in a crucifix position, with my arms outstretched... weird; I hope I didn't make any crucifix jokes! After having to get up so early and a dose of "happy drugs" it only took one inhalation of the anesthetic to knock me out; I never even saw my doctor come in. The next thing I knew I was in recovery with a dry mouth and upset stomach, nothing a little water and crackers and Motrin couldn't help. With in a hour I was in phase II recovery and was able to see Brandon. The nurses in recovery were AWESOME, super sweet, and very gentle and released me to go home before 11; I was home in my own bed sleeping before 12.

I've slept on and off most of the day and the only soreness I've had so far is in my shoulders. In a way, I feel like I've been in a car accident again the way my whole upper body aches. I'm sure my abdomen and incision pain/ cramps will come tomorrow. :)

I'm home, I'm happy, and I'm recovering.
Thanks for all the prayers and encouragement!

Spring Cleaning

The surgery is set and I am hopeful of the results.

I'm having laparoscopic surgery for Endometriosis at 7:30 AM. That means I have to get up at 4:30 AM to be at the hospital at 5:30 AM for surgery prep... yea... that sucks!

The Dr. said the procedure shouldn't take more than 2 hours, max. I will be under anesthesia but I should be home resting in my own bed by lunch as long as all goes well and I come out of recovery fairly quickly. It's considered minor out patient surgery so recovery will take about 4 days and the side effects are usually minor with just aches and soreness; they'll give me something to take if I feel the need to.

I'm a little nervous but not freaking out; it's the whole idea of being put to sleep and then sliced open that kinda gets to me but only when I think about it too much.

They're gonna hose me down and clean me out; nothing like a little bit of spring cleaning to help with pain and fertility! ;)

Country Style Movie

If you know me well you know that Johnny Depp and Tim Burton are two of my favorite people in Hollywood. I was ecstatic when they did Sweeny Todd, my favorite musical of all time, and was excited to see what they were going to do with the AWESOME children's book Alice in Wonderful.
Of course I wanted to go see it opening weekend so we opted for Sunday afternoon in hopes of avoiding most of the crowds.

When we first entered the theatre we were the only ones there, keep in mind we live in a small town. With only 5 minutes before the movie started about 20 people came in; including an obnoxious group of 3 high school girls that decided to sit behind us (oh goody!). The girls talked at full volume through all of the previews and although we hoped they would stop once the movie started they continued their chatter, at full volume. They didn't bother to whisper and didn't even try to. I started getting frustrated 20 min into the movie, they were still talking, and turned around and quietly asked them to please whisper. This only caused them to talk louder, giggle, and make fun of me. 40 min. into the movie I was LIVID and, unfortunately, made matter worse by turning around and rudely asking them if they were going to talk the entire movie. Of course, they answered with a resounding YES and then proceeded to make fun of me even louder.

10 min. later, now almost a hour into the movie, a man sitting in the row behind them stepped into their row and nicely asked them to be quite so that others could enjoy the movie. They giggled some more, talked at full volume, and made fun of him. The man gave them 15 min. to quite down and then very sternly told them that if they didn't shut up he would have them removed from the theatre (I cleaned his response up for posterity sake). They retorted that they did not deserve to be talked to in such a manner and an argument ensued with plenty of cursing between the two. I honestly thought the man was going to punch one of them but instead he stormed out and retrieved security. Security came in and told the girls that people were complaining that they were talking and asked them to stop; if they did not stop they would be asked to leave. The girls were outraged and claimed they hadn't been talking at all and began arguing with security.

Once security left they moaned and groaned at being treated so poorly until the same man who yelled at them before told them to shut up or he would have them kicked out (Okay, so not exactly what he said but you get the point with out me having to get graphic). At this threat they quited but not with out yelling at anyone in the theatre who leaned close to whisper to the person next to them to STOP TALKING!!!

As we were leaving the theatre I heard a couple people thank the man on their way out. He kept an eye on the girls as they left and luckily no fights took place afterwards.

In all honesty, I couldn't help but giggle. I love our small town but the people in it really are country; go KY! I can't really say if I recommend Alice In Wonderland or not, I guess you'll have to go see it for your self and hopefully you'll have a better experience than us.

Brandon's response to it all was: "We can't even go see a movie with out something going wrong, and you want kids!"