Current events...

Whew! Fiddler has opened! Thank the universal power!! I have been able to rest for the last four days and I feel so much better! Now, I just have three weekends of performances, but my evenings during the week are free. It's absolutely divine spending my nights at home with the dogs and cleaning the fish tank and weeding the back yard and mopping floors and cleaning rugs...and well, all the things that have been neglected for the last couple of months.

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So, the show went well and I really adore the cast and crew. No major issues during opening weekend...at least no major train wrecks to speak of. Opening night did have a mild calamity during "To Life" when the ensemble neglected to sing and the orchestra went ahead about 8 measures. They finally came in and we jumped back, but all was fine by the ending. Audiences seem to love the show very much.

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My wedding date is set for September 25th. Anne-Marie Trout will be my witness and James is inviting his friend, Linda, to be a witness for him. Rumor has it that his mom, Sunny, and sister, Meghan, will be joining us as well at the County Clerks' office that afternoon. I do plan to video tape the ceremony and will post it on YouTube as soon as I can.

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All in all...life is absolutely amazing right now. I'm enjoying my time off with James and can't wait to be Ray Brave-Fisher on the 25th. We're picking up our rings on Saturday this weekend. It is just beyond any words I can find to describe it.

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Love is an amazing thing!

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Be blessed!

So, what's going on with me you may ask...?

Geesh! What isn't going on with me is the more appropriate question!First of all, I love the new job. It's getting very busy and chaotic...and I thrive in that type of environment. I feel like I can at least focus on that and take the opportunity to learn and grow. This is a contract position for 4 months and hopefully will turn into a full-time venture at some point. I may be going to Dallas in mid-October to train on one of their systems. The people are really great and they are so busy that I think they really need me there.
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Secondly, I'm wrapping up 'bare' for Artistic Differences next Saturday night. It's been a great run and the show has been a great success for them. I'm not as happy with the show musically as I could've been because we've had some issues, but it's still very good. Last night, I made a major boo boo during a very emotional scene on stage and during a piano solo with no dialog to cover it. My fingers just went to the wrong keys on the piano. Totally embarrassing...ten years of professional experience and I still make stupid mistakes!!
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Thirdly, Fiddler opens on September 12th at DMTC. The ensemble cast is very good and I've been impressed with the vocals. Their ability to hold harmonies has been very refreshing and overall, it's a strong cast. I'm concerned about what orchestra pieces we may have. Technically, the show does not use a piano, but I will be playing anyway unless we have an entire 24-piece orchestra.
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Fourthly, I'm closing a house sale next week and I'm very excited about that! My friend, Anne-Marie has been waiting for this to close since April 30th!
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Most importantly, James and I are shopping for rings and have decided to stop waiting for a date at the Dharma center and we're just going to go to the courthouse and get married as soon as Fiddler opens and we have some evenings free. We will be having a formal reception and celebration at a later date.
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I'm ready for Fiddler to open. I over-extended myself again by doing both Fiddler and bare and I'm totally exhausted. I've got a cough that I can't shake which may be turning into pneumonia again. I am trying to make a doctor's appointment for next week. I felt bad that 'bare' added additional performances, but there was no way I could take on any more. I had to let Erik Daniells play those shows. I simply have no more time to give right now.
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Fiddler will be my last show for quite some time. I love the cast and absolutely adore Steve and Jan at DMTC...they've been really good to me for these two shows. But, even though I've really enjoyed Little Shop, bare, and Fiddler, I'm just so freaking tired all the time! Man! I need to find a balance!
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Mucho congrats are going out to my dear friend, Jeff Nauer, and his fiancee Mary who got engaged last week!

The puppy has found a new home!

This little girl has been a joy to have around the house...outside of the chewing of speaker wires and the demolition of plants. Plus the occasional swim in the pond...typical puppy behavior! But she's so loving and cute, it hasn't mattered that much!
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But, I found a wonderful home for her and she should be going with them today or tomorrow. We went to the vet yesterday for her first round of shots. The doctor estimated her age to be around 7 weeks. She also estimated that the puppy would hit around 100 pounds at full size. Way too big for my house!!
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I'm going to miss her, though!

HELP - Puppy needs a home!

This little puppy showed up on my co-worker's front door this morning. No tags, no nothing. She's canvassed the neighborhood but no one is claiming her. I'm going to foster her for a few days, but if no one claims her we'll have to take her to SPCA.

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If she looks familiar or if you're interested in helping foster or adopting her, drop me a note!

Meditation routine

About two months ago, I decided to get back into my daily meditation routine. Back in the mid-1990’s, I started attending workshops with Dr. Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, and a few others when ever they would be in town or close by enough for me to drive and see them. Meditation became a daily obsession for about a couple of years from late 1995 until around March of 1998. At that time, I had become so engrossed in musical theater performing that I did not have time to do meditation on a daily basis and it fell by the wayside.
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So, after spending ten years with my world totally being focused on theater with no time for other activities such as meditation, or dating, or dinners with friends, or basically anything else, I have found that time again since giving up theater as an extracurricular activity. I had forgotten how intense and relaxing it can be. I find myself more focused at work, my blood pressure has lowered, and my dreams are more vivid and almost precognitive in nature. In my dream diary, I logged a powerful dream on April 18th and in the dream, I was a child walking hand in hand with my mother. I knew that this wasn’t a dream about me…the child in the dream was not me and the woman I was holding hands with was not MY mother, but the mother of the child in the dream. In the dream, we were walking down a sidewalk in a very small town. I could see the stoplights turning red and yellow and green. I could see the cars driving down the street and there was a drizzling cold rain coming down. My mother and I were wearing raincoats and she was carrying an umbrella which she was having trouble holding because the winds were very gusty.
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I looked up and saw two tornadoes in the sky above the small town in the distance. I heard the mother scream and I as the child in the dream yelled “Run, Mommy!” From there, I remember running into a huge building which looked like a hotel lobby of some sort. I heard what sounded like a freight train followed by glass breaking and a loud crashing noise…and then the dream ended. It was only a couple of days later when the unusual tornado hit Suffolk, Virginia…a town which is very close to my own home town of Roanoke Rapids, NC. I used to spend a great deal of time up there with family because my great-aunt Margie lived in that area.
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So, these days I’m paying very close attention to my dreams. Maybe it’s just coincidence, but maybe I could dream about a series of numbers and win the lottery. Hey, stranger things have happened!!
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Hope your day is blessed!

Another photo from the wedding...

This is from Wade Lucas' Iphone...great quality pic! And some great quality cleavage on Miss Laura!

Bright sunny day!!

It's a bright sunny Monday morning and life is good! Over the weekend, we had a farewell party for Dinesh and Karen who will be leaving us as of this Friday to travel for a couple of months before heading back to their native Australia. I shall miss them terribly because they have become like family to us. But, we have a place now in Australia to visit on vacation!
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The new dog, Willow, is doing so much better since her last vet visit. She's very playful and loving. She's adjusted to her new home well and other than the occasional accident, she's doing well in the potty training area. The hardest thing we're dealing with is her ability to get onto any surface in the house...sofa, chair, dining room table, etc. There is no safe place to put things out of her reach. But, she's learning quickly!
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Willow and I had a little jaunt down to RSP yesterday to drop off some CDs for Lillian. We didn't get to see too many people as they were striking for Cabaret, but it was nice to run into Greg and Shaleen, Jessica, Mary Young, Amber, Dave Hushbeck, and a couple more that I haven't seen in quite some time. Sorry I didn't get to see Bob Baxter or Eileen Hushbeck whom I apparently just missed when I got there.
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James had this past weekend off entirely...both Saturday and Sunday. It was so nice spend the weekend with him. We get so little time together these days.
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Today is my mom's birthday! I need to call her later this morning to sing "Happy Birthday" to her. She says she will be back in Sacramento in about a month, so I'll take her to dinner when she returns!
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I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Puppy has been sick...

Willow's kennel cough got worse for a few days. On Sunday, she started having major coughing attacks which would last for 10 minutes or so. By Monday, the attacks were more severe and by Monday evening, they would last 20 to 30 minutes straight. Plus, she was coughing up a lot of mucous and I was very concerned. She had us up all night on Monday night. She would sleep for 30 minutes or so and then go into coughing fits for 30 to 45 minutes that would keep everyone in the house awake.

The vet saw her yesterday and gave her a cough suppressant and a stronger antibiotic. She actually slept all night last night curled up on the foot of the bed. This morning, she was very playful before I left for work. I'm happy she seems to be feeling better.

Hope your day is blessed!!

New puppy is at home!!

But I am very pissed...she has lost about a pound (she was only 9.5 pounds last week) and she has a terrible cough. Not to mention that the vet injured her paw while clipping her nails. It took ten days from the day I adopted her to get her spayed and ready for me to pick her up. She's so sick now!

She's curled up in the bed and I'm making her chicken soup and giving her treats today.

She's still adorable though!

New addition to the family...

After the loss of our Lucy girl, we knew the best way to honor her memory was to adopt another puppy from the pound. We hadn't planned to do this so soon, but this little girl found me.

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I dropped by Sacramento Animal Control on Bradshaw Sunday afternoon. They usually aren't open on those days, but on the first Sunday of each month, they have special adoption events. I dropped by only to leave a package of medications that Lucy had been on for the last few weeks. We didn't need them and I thought they might be useful to the vets there. After all, Lucy was the first of three dogs I adopted from them: Lucy, Ricky, and Odie.

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While visiting, this little bundle of joy was sitting in a cage with 3 other dogs. She was in the corner being very timid and shy. When the other dogs would get to close, she'd shiver and shake and start crying. A few other people were trying to get her to come over to the cage door so they could pet her. She was so scared that she wouldn't move. So, I knelt down and talked to her very quietly and said that everything was going to be okay. She ran to the cage door and climbed up the door trying to get to me.

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I was hooked.

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I got one of the officers to let her out for a while. I sat with her for about 30 minutes...she finally stopped shaking and started licking my face. The volunteers there said that she had been so afraid of everyone else that only one other person had taken her out of the cage. So, I paid my $111 fees and they scheduled her surgery. They said that she was found in a field and only know that she cowers when people reach for her like they are about to hit her.

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We believe that she is part Chihuahua and part miniature Doberman or Pinscher somewhere in the age range of 2 or 3 years old. She is truly a sweet dog and I can't wait to bring her home on March 12th after her surgery. We're looking at names and haven't made any decisions about that at all yet. They call her Tinker Bell at the pound, but James and I said "Absolutely not!"

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We miss our Lucy terribly, but I am sure she would be proud that we're giving another lost dog a shot at a long and happy life with us.

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Many blessings to you and yours!

My Lucy girl...

Lucy had a very bad night last night and we went to the vet this morning. About an hour ago, we put her down. She went quick and peacefully in my arms and I stayed and held her for a while to say my good byes. I know it was probably the right thing to do, but the guilt is killing me this morning.

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Thank you all for your well wishes. Your friendship and support mean the world to me! While I'm crying my eyes out this morning, I know that she had a great life here with me since she was 4 weeks old. She would've been 14 on June 1st.

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Blessings to you all and keep us in your thoughts.