12 on 12 June 2011

This particular 12 on 12 was difficult for me because it fell on a Sunday and a day off.  So while I had an entertaining evening, everything prior to that was quite boring.  And unfortunately, I didn’t quite get 12 photos, only 11 this month.  And as you’ll see, I got a bit creative with the photos I did take.  I promise, it was one of those days where I honestly did next to nothing.  And how does one take a picture of nothing? So here goes…

I started my day watching the Angels play the Royals – we lost big time 0-9! Ouch…Then I started a new book – it was loaned to me by a friend at work…Early evening, I got in my car to head to Garden Grove where my friends were performing in a production of Chicago!  To save the money on the ticket, I volunteered to Usher!  But back to the car… this is my view of my 2005 Ford Focus…I was a bit early, and since I often forget to eat when I’m home and don’t realize it until I’m away, I stopped at the Del Taco near the theater…My total came to $6.30 so this is what I handed the cashier.  She took it, gave me my drink, then my food, and closed the window.  I stayed put, she came back out and asked what I needed – I asked for my $5 in change. It also sort of justified me taking a random photo of my money!  Does no one know how to make change anymore?  Here is where the show was supposed to be performed.  However, the Gem had a fire a week before the show was to open.  They lost all their costumes and some of the scenic.  The fire also closed the building.  Thankfully, the community rallied – the amphitheater next door loaned them their facility and a local community college helped rebuild every single one of the costumes to their original design, in 3 days!  My old friend Dan, was the audio designer for the production.  It was really great seeing him and catching up on life and his happenings…Dear friend Tim, was playing Amos!  I had last seen him onstage in the SCLO Production of Grease over 10 years ago so it was fantastic to see him grace us with his talent again!  He’s such a talented guy!Good friend Gemma was playing the girl who says “pop”!  (She was also in SCLO’s Grease – crazy small world)  She is such a terrific dancer.  Your eyes are just drawn to her when she’s onstage!  I even ran into Joe Mulroy again (I swear he’s stalking me!) in the audience.  And if I’d just remembered to take a photo with Joe, I would’ve had 12!  Alas… It was a wonderful evening!  I’m am so glad I was able to find the time to see the show. When I got home, the laundry I’d done over the past couple of days was waiting for me on my bed.  Before I could sleep, it needed to finally be put away.  You can see the many empty hangers waiting for the clothes that would complete their purpose in the universe…Finally, I pulled down the calendar and began reviewing my month of May as I was determined to finally start catching up on my blog.  Thankfully, at least I’ve gotten in the habit of archiving everything on my calendar before sitting down to summarize them in blog/journal form.

And so completed my day (with only 11 photos).

12 on 12 May 2011

I started my long day with a little Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix… still very much enjoying reliving Harry’s adventures!

But then this day was all about Grad Nite… at 8pm it was off for Grad Nite #1 – this is my “credential” – it really doesn’t get me anywhere but helps my performers (who are dressed in street clothes) not get stopped by Disney security.

This is Adolfo – he’s my audio guy.  He’s holding an antenna for our headset system like a top hat over my head :)

Here are a couple of pyro technicians – they are setting up some of the pyro that is set just behind the stage.

They work hard… and safe, notice the protective hand and eye wear!

Erin is proudly showing off some product (I believe this might be one of the flame effects).

These are my lighting/video guys – Joshua, with his eyes closed, and Nick.  In addition to running the show each night, Nick designed the show and Joshua programmed it.

These are my “shills”, four of which also double as my acrobats.  They are here to get and keep the dancing going all night long!

Ah, Traci, ever lovely – no matter the hour!  She’s one of the many ASM’s involved with this event and is Entertainment 2 for the night!  She gets to run around all over making sure everything is setup and people get their breaks!

Rene at his finest!  He’s the guy in charge of the Grad Nite event.  He’s been my partner in crime for the last few months as he’s also the guy in charge of Join Jack’s Crew! 

This is our break area – can’t say where (cuz technically it is backstage) but we can find food, treats, and drinks to last us throughout the night.

I have given up caffeinated Diet Coke but it’s a staple of Grad Nites.  You may also notice the empty chips bag and the ever present radio – also both staples of the event.

Adolfo, again, hamming it up for the camera – it’s getting late in the night, or should I say morning?

This is a nice shot of the DJ, shills, Grads and Castle.  It is my view for most of the evening. 

12 on 12 April 2011

Today was full of the mundane and the exciting.  For the second month in a row, my 12 day fell on a day off.  So I’ve now done two months at work and two months off.  I can’t decide which I like better.  Each give a different glimpse into my daily life. 

My day off started like many often do – chores.  Firstly, I was overdue to change my bed sheets.  Mundane, I know, but I warned you!  Since the weather is starting to get a bit warmer on a more regular basis, I decided to mix it up a little & change my comforter to my quilt.  So the whole bed set is a bit contrasting in colors but I figure who sees it but me (and now those who actually read this)! 

Next up was another chore which was way overdue, even more so than my sheets – coloring my hair.  And trust me, it’s a chore when you have to do it yourself.  First you’ll see how overdue I was – good & bad, the picture doesn’t truly show how gray I actually am (though it’s close)! And now my product of choice – Garnier Nutrisse #53 Golden Medium Brown aka Chestnut.  I found this color about 3 years ago and really like it!

And here are the lovely chemicals in my hair!

While my hair was ‘setting’ I headed out to the front room, turned on the light, and ‘poof’ – out it goes.  This is the second light bulb I’ve had to change on a 12 day!  If it happens again next month, I’ll know something’s going on for sure.

Then I decided to start some laundry – more mundane, it’s true, but the exciting is coming later, promise!  I will say I love having my own washer/dryer in my house!  So convenient and money saving, I don’t miss paying for laundry one bit.

After the laundry was going, it was time to catch up on my blog.  I was a couple of weeks behind.  During the tech for Join Jack’s Crew I fell behind and have been slowly catching up.  I also had some music playing from my iTunes library (which is over 3000 songs and not even my entire music collection – how did that happen?).

Then it was time to get the hair color chemicals out.  I will say, this brand is quite lovely on my hair – my hair always comes out soft and luxurious, almost salon like (but not totally).  Here is the finished look, natural highlights where the gray would be located.

Ok, I promised exciting, so now we’ve reached it.  My dad had received tickets from a friend for Rain-A Tribute to the Beatles playing at the Pantages Theater in Los Angeles.  So we had Father/Daughter date; he met me at my house to start our evening.  [Side note – the last time we had a night out together, he got a traffic ticket; this night, he managed to rear end someone.  My mother is threatening to not let us hang out again!]  We spent our 80 minutes on the road to go 40 miles and enjoyed some great conversation.  I even learned some things I hadn’t known before – my dad went to an Elvis concert (with his ex-wife) and took my mom on a date to see Johnny Cash!  How did I not know this before?  P.S. – he took my mom on some great dates!  No wonder she fell for him!

We took some pictures in the lobby of the Pantages.  It is a beautiful theater.  If it weren’t so far away (and more expensive than OCPAC) I’d definitely see more shows there – I love it!  The show was great – it was opening night so the energy was up and rockin!  Rain is a tribute band and the show is more a concert than a show.  They do incorporate some clips but mostly it’s them playing and singing live.  But you can’t go wrong with the Beatles!  I seem to forget how much I enjoy them until I hear their songs again.

Once again, it was a busy day for me but it keeps me out of trouble, and keeps my 12 on 12 days interesting! ;)

12 on 12 March 2011

Another interesting day in the life of me… I knew it was going to be a very full day but I got started like any other day – a little time on the computer.  But it was just a few minutes.  I had plenty to do and there was no time for sitting around.  As I was leaving my house, I went to turn on my porch light & remembered it had burnt out a few days ago (I had been coming home in the dark the past few nights).  I decided to take the time and change the lamp (that’s the theater tech in me coming out – the rest of the world calls it a light bulb).  And since I was there, I cleaned the housing as well.  Now I have a lovely, clean, bright porch light. 

Then I loaded up some empty boxes into my car and headed to Mission Viejo and the family house.  I’m loaning all my good packing boxes to my family for their upcoming move.  My drive there takes me through Santiago canyon – a popular bike riding area.  On this particular Saturday, a bike club was out celebrating St. Patrick’s Day – they were all dressed in green – some even had shamrock hats and decorations.  It was most amusing.  And since I was stopped at a red light, I was able to take a picture (though apparently my computer doesn’t want to read it properly at this time).

I dropped off the boxes at the house and picked up Mom and cousin Barbara.  They were going with me to do some sofa shopping.  I had tentatively picked one out through Pottery Barn but thought I’d do one more day of looking before finalizing.  We headed over to Costco so I could get some cheap(er) gas and then went to Living Spaces.  I’d heard good & bad things so I wanted to check them out.  It was quite a large showroom.  We sat in a lot of couches!  And we even found a couple that were in my price range that I liked.  Realizing we’d spent over two hours in the store, we headed to lunch.  We decided on Wendy’s in the same shopping center.  It was a lovely lunch (thanks Mom!). 

When I took a picture of us at lunch, I realized I hadn’t gotten any photos when we were in Living Spaces – so I made us go back in a take photos of the final two sofas I’d settled on.  The first was a comfy over-stuffed style that had recliners on each side and the middle cushion pulled down.  It was a blue & grey softly patterned fabric.  The second was a charcoal grey corduroy type fabric with square arms.  The cushions were all attached and not interchangeable.  But it was cheap enough I could get the couch and loveseat!

Since it was getting late in the afternoon I wasn’t sure if I wanted to hit any other stores.  The route I decided to take us back home took us by a few more options so I decided to stop.  Linder’s Furniture was having an inventory close out sale so we popped in there first.  They didn’t have a lot in my style at first but we kept looking.  We came upon a dark red sofa with loose, fully interchangeable pillows that I really liked.  And it was 25% off currently!  Love it!  so I took a business card from the salesperson and said I’d be in touch. 

WE then drove to the next center to Easy Life Furniture.  Again, they didn’t have a lot in the type of style I was looking for but I’d seen one I’d liked in their ad.  We eventually found it in the back.  It was an espresso color in the same corduroy type fabric as at Living spaces but with rolled arms and loose interchangeable cushions.  All in all, I found some really awesome choices and decided to give up the pottery barn option as I liked all of these better. 

WE then headed home to see if Dad was going to join us for the rest of the afternoon/evening at Disneyland.  He was not, but as the others were getting ready, I got to have some talk time with him.  I’ve been so lucky to have my family nearby for so long, it’s going to be hard when they’re gone. 

Then it was off to Disneyland – Barbara hadn’t been in many years.  We started at Disney California Adventure.  First was fast passes for Soarin’ over California; then on our way over to Toy Story Mania we stopped for Churros.  There’s just something about a Disney churro that is so delicious. 

Once at the Toy Story Mania line, we realized it was just too long and we wanted to do more – so we got in line for the rollercoaster, California Screamin’.  So much fun.  I don’t want to ever get too old for rollercoasters.  I took a picture of the picture they took of us on the ride! :)

Since we had time to kill before our fast pass time we headed over to the blue sky cellar to learn more about the DCA expansion, including the new Little Mermaid attraction and Carsland.   Next we thought about Tower of Terror, only to find an 80 minute wait – pass.  So we thought, “how about Monsters , inc?  There’s hardly ever a line there”  Wrong – 25 minute wait.  What?!?  I’d forgotten what a Saturday during spring break was like in terms of crowd size!  Sheesh!  So we skipped Soarin and headed over to Disneyland.

As we got on to Main Street, the Dapper Dans were headed out for a set.  Barbara was intrigued so we went over and watched.  They are a great barbershop quartet.  They have a lot of fun and are very entertaining.  On this particular day, I knew two of the singers so it was even more fun for me.

Next we decided to head over to Pirate’s of the Caribbean.  The line here always moves fairly quickly.  Barbara hadn’t been on it since the updates inserting Captain Jack Sparrow, et al into the attraction.  Besides, it is a must see/experience when at Disneyland.

We then got fast passes for Indiana Jones and decided it was time for dinner.  Our first thought was to try the Big Thunder Ranch BBQ – however, when we arrived we were informed they were no longer taking walk-ups, only reservations.  Boo!  Since Village Haus was the next closest, and they have a new menu as well, we went there.  Don’t special order any food!  We learned the hard way – 20 minutes later we were finally eating our dinner.  It was pretty good but I think I’d rather of had BBQ – oh well, next time!

Continuing On to it’s a small world.  I hadn’t been on it in non-holiday attire in quite a while.  again, Barbara hadn’t seen it since they’d updated and inserted the Disney characters into the attraction.  we got off the ride just in time for Mom and Barbara to be the first in my family to see my new show “The Magic, The Memories, and You!”  There were some technical issues not making it the perfect show, but they enjoyed it anyway! 

After the show we headed over to Space Mountain to pick up more fast passes; alas, they were sold out and the line was too long.  So Autopia fast passes instead and then standing in line for Matterhorn.  While in line for Matterhorn, we watched fireworks.  After the ride, I parted ways as I had to work early the next morning (for the first time in weeks).  But Mom and Barbara stayed and closed the park.  They got on Autopia, watched Fantasmic, rode Indiana Jones, Big Thunder Mountain, and finally Back to Space Mountain.  Not at all a bad taking for a Saturday afternoon/evening at the Resort. 

All in all it was a fantastic day off for me.  I love that I was able to spend a day with my cousin, whom I Haven’t seen in a long time, and my Mom.  WE definitely filled the day with good conversation and lasting memories.  Thanks girls!