BCEFA and Kansas City!

So...some of you may be wondering what BCEFA is! It's Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS. We have been collecting money and selling autographed posters and bookmarks after the show for the past couple of months to raise money for this fantastic cause. To learn more visit www.broadwaycares.org.

In addition to collecting money after shows, Broadway Cares also raises money through the Easter Bonnet Competition. Since we weren't in New York for the Easter Bonnet this year we decided to have our own. Each show puts together a short skit/performance number and a bonnet is designed that is worn in the performance and then judged by a panel. We had a few contestants and a fabulous evening of laughs! As you know, I wear a fabulous snood as part of costume (A snood is a bun cover). Since the beginning of tour I have been collecting Swarovski crystals that fall off of the finale costumes. I used these crystals to bedazzle a snood to wear as my bonnet. Now generally the bonnets are much bigger and have a theme, but I figured the snood was perfect for Lois. My schtick in the opening is that I can't get the jazz style of the dance combination and I do it ballet style. So for my skit I got together a couple of my boys and we made it an "audition" for West Side Story. Aaron was our director and Jonathan and Tim were fellow auditioners. I wore a pink leo and pink tights and we did part of Cool. I did it ballet style of course. It was really fun and here is a picture of all of the contestants with their bonnets. As usual, Lois is a little out of place.


This took place in Worcester, MA right before our layoff and some of my girls from college (EB, Kar and Nicole) were there to hang out before seeing the show the next day!







Now on to Kansas City!

What a fabulous suprise it was! Such a cute city with lots of great restaurants and places to see. There was even a coffee shop where you could get a cup of delicious coffee (Snickerdoodle was my personal fave) for $0.55!!!!!! Can you even believe it?!?!?!?!?!

There was a great movie theatre that offerred showing in the deluxe theatres where you sat in big recliners, had a waitress and ate lunch during the movie!!!!



This is Aaron holding up his menu, so excited to see Kick Ass.










Something else that was crazy in this movie theatre were the hand dryers in the bathrooms. Now this may seem like a funny thing to blog about, but it blew my mind and I want to share.



you put your hand in and the air automatically turns on and you slowly lift your hands out of it and they are dry! Incredible!








They didn't have a particularly cool sink, but this what you saw when you looked in the mirror:



Lookin' good right???















This started a trend in Kansas City. Crazy bathroom sinks and things. The other two I cam across while visiting with my sister-in-law SeaSea who came to visit with her boyfriend Eric. We had so much fun hanging out and I'm so pumped they got to come.
Luckily, Steve--My Father-in-law--reminded SeaSea that the Christopher Elbow chocolate shore is in Kansas City so we went there for some artisinal chocolates. They are unbelievable. Like little tiny works of art and SOOOOOOOOO delicious. My favorite was the Strawberry Balsamic. So anyway, at the Christpher Elbow store the sink was crazy. At first we couldn't figure out how to turn it on because there were no moving parts!



SO what you did was touch the right side and it would start running. Then tap the left side to make it warmer. As you can see it also lit up. It was nuts. And really funny trying to figure it out.











That night we went to fabulous restaurant Extra Virgin. It was tapas style and the food was SO good. Their sink was just cool. Nothing confusing or revolutionary, just cool.



It was so shallow and drained out the back! I could totally see this being in my parents house. Anyone agree?








So, moving on. While in Kansas City I got a facebook message that a girl from me and Sarah's USY trip had tickets to the show. What a small world! She lives in Kansas City and saw on facebook that I was there and so we met up for a little bit after the show and caught up a little. That's the thing I love about tour: you get to reconnect with people all over the country that you just wouldn't normally get to see.
Overall, Kansas City was a great success. We had a great time, ate great food, had fabulous weather and I saw this t-shirt at the airport on my way out.





What else do you need in life?

Some more catch-up! Tallahasee and Hershey

We just got to Indianapolis, IN and although I still have more form Kansas City, I'm going to do a quick recap from places that I missed before hitting the hay. Early yoga class tomorrow morning. Gotta work out the kinks from the flight today!

So the highlight of Tallahassee, FL was definitely the soup festival that was held in our hotel. It was $10 for all you can eat soup. Local restaurants all made their signature soups and I think there may have been more sort of voting situation, but we just ate soup and drank free soda! The best part you ask? The Soup Nazi was there! They were charging somehting like $20 to take a photo with him so I just got this one:







Tallahassee was also the city where we performed in an arena. Our dressing rooms were the basketball locker rooms and there were those communal showers. We got a big kick out of it all!







Hershey was a really fun city. There was a restaurant down the street from the hotel where the owner would stay open so we could eat after the show. He was also nice enough to drive a few of us to yoga since we didn't have cars and it was too far to walk. he was awesome and this is what he posted on the restaurant's sign when we got into town!














And what trip to Hershey, Pa would be complete without a trip to chocolate world and the cows who sing to you about how it's all made!







They have updated the song just a little bit since I was last in Hershey (about 12 years ago), but it's still just as fabulous!






I'm getting pretty close to being all caught up! I hope you are all enjoying the pictures and things. I would love to hear how everything is on your end so feel free to email, comment or call me!

xoxoxoxox

Kansas City with a splash of the layoff

So we are still enjoying the FABULOUS weather here in Kansas City. I have to say I have also been doing a terrific job of sleeping embarrassingly late every morning therefore wasting a lot of the great weather. On another note, while on our layoff in NYC I had a day of fun with my best friend Sarah Daniels. Now many of you know Sarah and know that we have been best friends since our mothers were pregnant with us (we used to send mail and phone each other from in there, but that's another blog post).
ANYWAY, Sarah was the most amazing Maid of honor a girl could ever dream of and as a thank you I planned a day of fun for us in NYC over her spring break which then ended with my bday party at an Irish pub.



DO you know of another maid of honor who would do pushups with the bride before walking down to aisle to ensure that her guns looks ripped? I don't think so.



We started the day with a private partner yoga class which was a ton of fun and super silly. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take any photos in there because...well...I forgot and we were laughing too much.
Then we went out for a great lunch and came back to the apartment to bake cupcakes. There is a great photo floating around of Sar and I at about...hmm...7 years of age in my kitchen in NJ COVERED in brownie batter. We were really great bakers from the start. Clearly we needed a reprise:


Just picture us about twenty years younger and with high ponytails instead of our hair down. We also may have been standing on reverse sides. otherwise, it's exactly the same.








We had a great time and then headed over to the pub for some food and drinks. Lots of friends came to celebrate and even a few surprises! It was a great night and I will leave you with one of my favorite photos from the evening:

East Lansing, MICH

Working backward now. We were in East Lansing, MI last week and it was a lot of fun. We flew out on my birthday and stayed in a Candlewood Suites. The hotel was attached to a great health club with saunas, steam rooms and hot tubs and we also had kitchens in our rooms. It was awesome.
We flew out on the scariest plane I've ever been on:

Yea, two seats on one side and ONE on the other.












Luckily the flight was short.



We flew into Detriot and then bused it out to East Lansing. So this is where Michigan State is so there were a lot of restaurants and stuff to do which was really nice. We also had rental cars so we could get around.
I found out, via facebook of course, that my second cousin goes to Michigan state to his parents and grandparents come up from Ohio and my parents flew out from NYC to see the show. It was great to see everyone and get in some family time.
Everyone was supposed to come see the show Saturday evening, but when we all met up for lunch I got a phone call that I was going to be going on for the matinee as Bebe everyone called the box office and switched their tickets! I still can't believe how perfectly worked out. Unfortunately, Kirsten (who plays Bebe) had a really bad sore throat and ended up missing the evening show as well, but we both agree that it was great that my family got to see me go on.
Now I know that for you guys this is my first time going on, but in real like these were my third and fourth performances as Bebe. I haven't had a chance to do any of the other roles that I cover yet, hopefully soon and only for good reasons.
Here are some pictures from my first time on which was also Kirsten (who plays Bebe and also covers Diana) and Lauren's first times on as well!




Getting ready to start the show!







At the ballet!


















Our last night in East Lansing was also the final night of Greek Week at Michigan State and my cousin Justin's frat won so a couple of the girls and I went to the party. We had a great time, were asked to dance a lot and I have to say I felt a little old for the first time in my life. I'm sure it won't be last either. Oy vey.

Time flies

So it's been way too long since I have updated and so much has happened! I'm going to use the next week or so to update you guys with funny stories and photos and I hope you haven't shed too many tears in my absense. hahaha.

I'm just going to jump right in and then I'll work my way backward.

We just got to Kansas City, MO this evening from East Lansing, Michigan. We got to the airport about 2.5 hours early and clearly this is what happens.

We are staying in a fabulous hotel. When you walk into the lobby it feels like it is going to be a small inn, but there are 19 or 20 floors and our rooms are like suites! We have couches, complimentary fridges and microwaves, great views and tons of space to have a dance party!

we are all pretty pumped about the rooms. Well, I'm exhausted from the traveling so I will call it quits now and write more tomorrow.