Every Mama Needs a Baby

I have to use my camera at work on Wednesday, so I was clearing off the memory card and found this. Its funny because I think it is a beautiful picture, but it reminds me of all of those really high contrast black and white photos moms usually stereotypically get taken holding their new borns. Puppy new-born!




Do you see the puppy?









There he is!!!!

Sonic Boom! (Boom!)

So Sam & I got to experience something REALLY cool yesterday.

We were both sitting on the couch and we heard two loud thud-like crashes in our living room. At first we thought it was a gigantic car accident on the road right outside of our apartment so we both shot up and looked off the balcony but saw nothing. We continued to speculate - maybe there was an accident in the parking garage across the street and we just can't see it, or maybe it was gun shots coming from downtown Burbank. But after assuring ourselves that we were indeed safe - and had no idea what had happened - and realized speculating was much more of a waste of our time than whatever reality TV we were watching - we turned back to the boob tube.

Later that night, Joe & Derek had two friends over and we hung out a lot to play some foosball and card games. One of the guys asked if any of us had heard the space shuttle reentering the atmosphere that day. We were like... uh, what? He went on to say that we would have heard a double sonic boom that could have been strong enough to break windows where we live.

Sam & I heard a double sonic boom. How cool is that?!

The Discovery Space Shuttle reentered the earth's atmosphere right here off the coast of CA. I have since done a bit more research about it - since I was (a) curious and (b) there isn't a NASA station anywhere near here. Apparently the weather was too bad (and had been bad for quite some time since they were supposed to land several days ago) for the shuttle to land near Florida (NASA's primary shuttle base), which is why they decided to land here.

More information can be found here:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/09/with-its-signature-sonic-boom-shuttle-lands-at-edwards.html

Holla!

I have some good (not great, but good) news.

The other day - who calls me? Low and behold, Maxine Lapiduss. For those of you having trouble recalling this name, please see this blog entry:

http://ridingone.blogspot.com/2009/07/with-good-comes-bad.html

She asked me if I was working and I said not currently, but I am leaving on the 24th to go on tour with a musical.

I am going to be her part time assistant between now and when I leave for the tour. Yes, it's a little bizarre, but its some cash in hand (I haven't had an income since the first week of June, so you will have to understand this professional compromise).

Other than this recent development lately, I have been very busy lately getting things started for the tour and exercising (25 lbs down since the start of Challenge: 100!) and having fun. It's a little boring at home, but I am slowly becoming more and more productive and developing better work and sleep habits than I have been exercising lately.

This Thanksgiving I am going to cook my own turkey! How exciting is that?! Everyone is cooking something, and Derek's parents are coming out here to celebrate with us, but I get the Turkey! I guess I better not screw it up. It's kind of important, ya know?

Oh, and if there is anyone residing in LA that doesn't have a place to go (or can't get there), please feel welcome in our celebration! We are going to borrow a few tables from Derek's work and push them together to make a big square and it's going to be awesome. :)

Updates

Holla! So here is the schedule that I hope you all can access:

Date	City	Venue	Hotel
9/20	Edmonds, WA	Singers/tech arrive	Best Western Harbor Inn
9/21	Edmonds, WA	Rehearsal at Edmonds Ctr for PA	Best Western Harbor Inn
9/22	Edmonds, WA	Rehearsal at Edmonds Ctr for PA	Best Western Harbor Inn
9/23	Edmonds, WA	Rehearsal at Edmonds Ctr for PA	Best Western Harbor Inn
9/24	Edmonds, WA	Rehearsal at Edmonds Ctr for PA	Best Western Harbor Inn
9/25	Edmonds, WA	Rehearsal at Edmonds Ctr for PA	Best Western Harbor Inn
9/26	Edmonds, WA	Rehearsal at Edmonds Ctr for PA	Best Western Harbor Inn
9/27	Edmonds, WA	Rehearsal at Edmonds Ctr for PA	Best Western Harbor Inn
9/28	Edmonds, WA	Rehearsal at Edmonds Ctr for PA	Best Western Harbor Inn
9/ 29	Edmonds, WA	Dress Rehearsal	Best Western Harbor Inn
9/30	Wenatchee, WA	Wenatchee Performing Arts Center	Red Lion
10/1	Tacoma, WA	Landmark Theater	BW Tacoma Dome
10/2	Portland, OR	Schnitzer Auditorium	Benson Hotel
10/3	Edmonds, WA	Edmonds Center for Performing Arts	Best Western Harbor Inn
10/4	Spokane, WA	Woldson Theater at the Fox	Mirabeau Park Hotel
10/5	Travel or off	Tbd	Tbd
10/6	Travel or off	Tbd	Tbd
10/7	Florence, OR	Events Center	Tbd
10/8	Eureka, CA	Arkley Center	BW Humboldt Bay
10/9	Paradise, CA	Paradise Performing Arts Center	Tbd
10/10	Vacaville, CA	Vacaville Performing Arts Center	Tbd
10/11	San Rafael, CA	Marin Veteran Memorial Auditorium	Comfort Inn, San Bruno
10/12	Boulder, CO	Fly to Denver	Boulder MTN Lodge
10/13	Boulder, CO	Macky Auditorium (tentative)	“ “
10/14	Casper, WY	Casper Events Center	“ “
10/15	Cheyenne, WY	Cheyenne Civic Center	Comfort Inn
10/16	Colorado Springs, CO	US Air Force Academy	Quality Inn
10/17	Colorado Springs, CO	Day Off	Quality Inn
10/18	Greeley, CO	Union Colony Arts Center	Tbd
10/19	Hays, KS	Ft. Hays State University	Baymont
10/20	Hays, KS	Ft. Hays State University	Baymont
10/21	Topeka, KS	Topeka Performing Arts Center	Ramada
10/22	Davenport, IA	Travel/Off	Fairfield, Inn
10/23	Rockford, IL	Coronado Performing Arts Center	Holiday Inn
10/24	Effingham, Il	Rosebud Theater	Econo Lodge, MO
10/25	Jonesboro, AR	Arkansas State Univeristy	Days Inn
10/26	Chattanooga, TN	Travel/Off	Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel
10/27	Chattanooga, TN	Tivoli Theatre	Chattanooga Choo Choo
10/28	Bowling Green, KY	Capitol Arts Center	Quality Inn (Tent)
10/29	Performance tbd		Tbd
10/30	Jackson, MI	Jackson Community College	Tbd
10/31	Greenville, MI	Greenville Perf. Arts Center	Tbd
11/1	Clinton Township, MI	Macomb Center for Performing Arts	La Quinta
11/2	tbd	Travel Day	Tbd
11/3	Wisconsin Rapids, WI	Lincoln School Performing Arts Center	Tbd
11/4	Grand Rapids, MN	Reif Center	AmericInn
11/5	Rochester, MN	Travel/Off	Tbd
11/6	Rochester, MN	Mayo Civic Center	Brentwood
11/7	Detroit Lakes. MN	Holmes Theatre	Tbd
11/8	St. Paul, MN	Fitzgerald Theatre	Tbd
11/9	Fly Home

It gives you an idea of where I will be when this fall (though I already have conflicting information). I'll be sure to post changes as I get them.

I had a conference call for my job the other day, and I am now functioning with a new purpose in life - actually getting things done. And frankly already wow-ing people with my ability to use technology and output high-quality work quickly. It's not very difficult to appear that way when everyone you work for is old and confused (not that there is anything wrong with that, just perhaps not the most efficient type of person, eh?).

Number one goal for today is to talk to my student loan company and figure out what is going on. I wish I had been a little bit more responsible and attentive when I was signing up for all of those.

Something Scary...

Check this out - you might understand why it gave me the heebie jeebies.

http://www.gonetoosoon.org/garden/madelineregan/wall/

Fall 09 Tour Schedule

Here is the much awaited schedule. By the looks of things I won't really be headed out east until the Spring tour.

http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&pid=gmail&attid=0.1&thid=12385f476f1a0a64&mt=application%2Fpdf

In case you missed it

I just found the CMU school paper online with the article about my Women's Association Scholarship. See page three here:

http://www.cmu.edu/news/news-notes/piper/pdfs/ThePiperMay09.pdf