Hiccups

Sorry I haven't been too good about keeping up with this thing. I guess since I'm in the grove of things I don't think there's too much that's exciting enough to write about.

It's been pretty nice being back on the road. There hasn't been too much work to do here in Columbus, so it's definitely good to be working. I'm more used to everything now so that makes the job a bit easier. They're talking about going to a bigger set and adding some more people on the crew at the beginning of next year, so we'll see how that goes.

The other night Jeff got the hiccups during the show. It was the funniest show of his I've seen (and we're at over 90 shows now)! They started at the end of his routine with Walter. Of course he had Walter makes some jokes about it. Then they continued on into his routine with Achmed. He tried timing the hiccups to hit between lines, but sometimes it didn't work. Marnell and Robin were on the side of the stage with a bottle of water and small bottle of Jack Daniels (which apparantly is the best cure for Jeff). He kept going through his act and eventually they went away. Then when it came time for Brian to join them on stage he had the bottle of Jack in his back pocket. Luckily Jeff's hiccups started up again, so Brian pulled the bottle out. Jeff said, "How did you know that's what I need for hiccups?" and Brian said, "I didn't, I just had it with me." So Jeff took two sips out of the bottle and Brian took one. They made a few jokes about it and the hiccups went away again. Then once Peanut got up there we could tell he wasn't thinking quite straight. He mentioned his Comedy Central show and called for us to roll the commercial, then he came off the stage and asked what the next part of his act was. There was about 5 of us back there trying to help him out. He got back on stage, picked up where he left off and everything was fine! When he was back there he said "I drank too much of that stuff. It'll be really funny if I get through the rest of the show!" But he did. I guess he doesn't really drink, so that's why it hit him like that. I thought the whole thing was pretty funny.

Here we go again!

I'm about to head for the bus for the next leg of the tour! We have a show in Youngstown tomorrow so it won't be leaving until 4am, but he's at the shop tonight so we can get a full night's sleep. I'm glad in some ways to be going back out. I haven't worked too many shows here in town over the past couple months. Business has been slower than in the past, but I am definitely glad to at least have a job. I just have to keep thinking that.

Something that's different this time around is I now have a boyfriend :) We've been dating since July and it's been going very well so far. That'll make being on the road a bit harder, but it'll be ok. We're only gone for about 5 days at a time for the first few trips. It'll be nice starting out that way.

Thanks for reading, and I'll keep ya updated!

Apologies

Yes I know it's been two months since I've posted. Sorry about that. We've only had a few shows between now and then. No shows in September. I think I mentioned that in previous a previous entry, but Aunt Nora brought to my attention that it would still be nice to have some kind of status report :)

We had a couple shows in mid July, a couple at the end of July and a couple in August. I don't really remember details other than we didn't have our bus for any of them because I guess it wouldn't be worth the money it would take. Also Dana our driver went out with a couple other shows for the summer. One week we had a bus similar to ours but a different driver. But for the most part we flew out and stayed in hotels. We drove to one show in a big rental van to Roanoke, VA. That was about a six hour drive. I think all the traveling we did between New York and Ohio when I was a kid made me okay with road trips like this :)

So now I'm working in the shop here in Columbus and doing a few shows here and there like I did before I was on the tour. We go back out on October 8th starting in Youngstown Ohio! So it may be another month until I update again.

Next part of Alaska

So after we got back from the rafting trip I was pretty beat, so I took a nap. We had plans to meet Brian for dinner at 7. The whole group of us ate at the Japanese restaurant in the hotel. It was a lot of fun. I had some really good sushi. There was one point during the night I went to the bathroom which was out in the hallway. As soon as I opened the door and came out I could here everyone talking and laughing. We got kinda loud and crazy as the night went on :P It was all Brian's treat which was very nice.

The next morning I got up and met a couple of the guys to go on an ATV tour. That was really cool. We went to a state park and rode all around the trails. We had all kinds of trails, too. Through puddles, over big rocks, over roots, through trees... it was fun. And we stopped a few times to get pictures of the awesome views.

Later that day I had a spa appointment, which I had never done before. I got a 60 minute massage and a manicure which were both very nice. And of course the next day a pen exploded on my hand, so the nice nails looked all blue and spotty. Me and a couple other guys went to the Japanese restaurant for dinner again, and I had some good sushi again :)

The next morning we had to meet in the lobby at 5:30 to go to the airport. Everything went well flight wise. It was about a 5 hour flight from Anchorage to Minneapolis, but I just slept as much as I could.

Like I said, the whole experience was amazing. I can hardly put into words how beautiful it was. The pictures don't even do it justice because they only show a small part of what it was like.


Check my Flickr page for pictures I took as well as pictures from the rafting trip!

More Alaska

I'm back in Columbus right now, but I have to write about the rest of the Alaska adventure! The first night some of us took the tram back up to the mountain to the "casual fine dining" restaurant up there called Seven Glaciers. Jeff, Robin, Marnell and Brian were just getting seated when we got there too, but the were sitting in a more private area. The food and the view were excellent! We all got the beef tenderloin and a few drinks. Everyone except me also got king crab. The bill came to $630 for 6 of us :P Jeff and everyone came over to our table one by one throughout the evening to say hi. There were these really cool salt and pepper grinders at the table, and Jeff said "anyone who can steal me one of these gets a bonus!" Turns out he actually found some on the interent and ordered them. After dinner we took the tram back down to the hotel and the guys went to the bar, but I decided I really didn't want to be hungover during the rafting trip so went to my room.

Then the rafting day came. Pretty much from the moment I decided to go on the trip I have been nervous about it. Class V rapids are the highest level of difficulty there is. There were 14 in our group, and another couple. We got to the building where they gave us shoes, dry suits, helmets and life jackets. They had to give lessons on how to put the dry suit on because there are quite a few steps. Then we drove down to the drop off area and got some more lessons about rafting and swimming techniques. Then we had to get in the water and swim. I think one of the guides said the water was about 38 degrees that day. Needless to say it was really really cold! Everything was covered except our face and hands, and I really dont know why they didn't give us gloves. Then we all got into 3 rafts and started the adventure!

Remember how much I said I liked Montana? Well this is so much better. That Montana rafting trip was nothing compared to the Alaska one! Even the scenery couldn't compare to where we were. The water was a beautiful clear blue, there were mountains, rocks, and green plants and trees everywhere. It was a six mile trip going through 3 canyons. The first two canyons had about 4 rapids that were class IV and lower. The third canyon had 7 rapids all class IV and V. There was a guide in each raft who would steer and tell us what kind of strokes to use and how many. As long as you listened to him and stayed in the raft you'd be ok.

The whole trip was so much fun! I'm definitely glad I did it. It was quite an adrenilne rush! After we got through the first two canyons, we all had the "bring it on!" attitude for the third one.

We all survived and had an amazing time. I guess Robin wants to find more rafting trips for us :)

I'll write about the rest of the Alaska trip in the next entry!

Alaska

I think this has been my favorite place so far! We did a show Thursday in Fairbanks and one last night in Anchorage. Yesterday was rough. We don't have the bus with us, so we flew from Fairbanks to Anchorage yesterday morning. On a 6am flight. Which meant getting up at 4. After going to bed around 1. We went to a Denny's for breakfast after we landed, then headed to the venue. We all really missed having the bus. It would have been nice to take a nice nap in there! A few of the guys fell asleep in our little backstage lounge we make every night. I closed my eyes for a while, but didn't fall completely asleep. I think we were all doing the falling asleep head bob during the show.

Now we're all staying at a resort about a half hour outside of Anchorage for a few days. It is so incredibly beautiful up here. Robin, Marnell, Jeff, Brian and his family are all staying here too. This all is basically Robin's big "thank you, job well done, enjoy yourself" gift. We saw all of them around earlier which was kinda cool. They talked to us outside for a while after they came back from a helicopter trip. I don't know if a lot of people will recognize who Jeff is or not. Probably kind of hard to place who he is when there's no puppet with him :P

We got in around 2:30 this morning. I've been in disbelief almost the whole time I've been here! The resort is surrounded by mountains. We took a sky tram thing today up to the top of one of the mountains, and that is probably the most amazing place I've ever seen. I really mean that. Tomorrow we're doing whitewater rafting again, but this time on class 5 rapids. I'm kind of anxious about that, but I don't think I should turn down the opportunity! Hopefully I'll be back to write some more about the trip here!

Columbus, OH

So we're back again, and with another crazy airport story!
We got home about 24 hours later than we were supposed to.

Yesterday we were to fly out of Billings, MT to Chicago, then from Chicago to Columbus. Our first flight was at 8:30am so we got to the airport about 7:30. Around 8 they told us we can't board until around 9 because Chicago was getting hit with some storms. Then around 9 they told us everything is Chicago had been ground stopped and they'll get another update at 10:16. Another plane had to come to our gate around that time to leave for Denver, then after that flight left they told us we missed our window to take off because the other plane was there. So they said they'd get another update in an hour. An hour later they said it'll be another half hour until they get an update. At 11:45 they told us we'd be taking off at 2:06. Then when 1:45 rolled around they told us t got pushed back again to 3:30. Oh yeah, I think it was around noon we went to the ticket desk to see if we could get another flight, but there wasn't anything else we could take. Our flight from Chicago to Columbus was supposed to leave at 1, but we figured since everything there was stopped we'd still have a chance of making that flight. But just to be sure, Marnell called about renting a van for all of us to just drive from Chicago to Columbus. After a while he found out there were no rental cars available in Chicago.

But Finally around 3pm we boarded the plane.
But there's more!

The pilot said it would be a few minutes before we were able to take off. The weather was still icky in Chicago, so after sitting on the plane for about 20 minutes, we took off. After a while the pilot came on saying we were above Rapid City, SD holding for a while. Then after that we were above Sioux Falls, SD holding again, and he came on again saying "Well I've got some bad news. They've stopped all flights to Chicago, so we're going to have to land in Sioux Falls." So we landed at the small airport of Sioux Falls and sat in the plane while the pilots figured out what was next. Finally one of the gate officers came on and said we'll be getting off the plane, but "don't go too far because if you get left behind you'll be here for days." It was a really small airport.
Dana (bus driver) was driving to Pennsylvania from Montana after he dropped us off at the airport, so Marnell called him to see where he was. And wouldn't you know he was just 50 miles away from where we were! So after about an hour or so he showed up at the airport, and that's how we got home :)

We got so lucky yet again! It turned out that we wouldn't have been able to make it to Chicago until around midnight, and the flight to Columbus wouldn't have been until 5pm today. So I could be on a plane right now if things didn't work out the way they did. And we would have been sleeping on the floor somewhere in the crowded and messy O'Hare airport instead of our bunks.

Dana said "I don't know if you guys are the unluckiest or the luckiest group of people!" I said, "I think we're pretty lucky."