Ninth Week of Cinderella - Last Three Shows

There are four main reasons this blog post is a week late. 

1. The 5th Stormlight book, Wind and Truth, came in at the library. So I've been reading that. 

2. I've been so TIRED. I've been catching up on sleep and rest and relaxation. 

3. We found out Fixer Upper is on Disney Plus. 

4. The weather was really nice and my garden was calling me. 

5. I've been a little hesitant to write about the last three shows of Cinderella. This play has meant so much to me and I want to capture EVERYTHING about it. I want to write about it right. 

But I also don't want the memories to slip away so I guess it's time to try to capture everything as best I can while it's still fresh.

So here we are at Monday March 17 which was St Patrick's Day. This is the year that Veronica asked me if Santa, the Leprechaun, and the Tooth Fairy are real. She wasn't disappointed to find out the truth. But she told me, "I don't want to tell Derrick. I'll still make it fun for him."

Meanwhile, Derrick snooped through my dresser when everyone else was at the play on Saturday night. He found the bag of skittles that I'd hid that was going to be a gift from the leprechaun. That prompted him to ask me if the Leprechaun was real. I figured that he's in middle school and almost 13 so I might as well tell him the truth. Also I've regretting even making the leprechaun a thing anyway. So I told him it was just a legend. He was okay with that, but he also said, "I don't want to tell Veronica. We'll keep pretending for her."

I thought it was really sweet that they were both protecting each other. At some point during Sunday they both found out they both knew the truth. Then they were like, "Well let's still pretend to do the leprechaun together."

So on Sunday night they set traps. And then on Monday morning Veronica sprung them. She even took the time to spell out HAPPY SANTPATRIS DAY! in skittles. 

A few days earlier I'd been trying to explain that a leprechaun coming into your house and playing tricks and leaving candy was not a thing when I was a kid. I told Veronica, "we just wore green. That was it."

So told me she pictured my whole family dressed all green outfits with top hats and skirts. I was like, "No, it wasn't even that complicated. If you had a green shirt you wore it. That was the holiday."

That afternoon the twins came over after school. They all tried on the dresses that Lydia has been making.

These four have been friends for 5 years.

I'd bought cake mix and I showed Veronica how to make rainbow cupcakes. The other twins were like, "I wish our mom baked."  I told them, oh this is very rare for me. 

The cupcakes were really fun. Veronica had no memory of making these with me at our house in Pocatello.

Here are more pictures to celebrate me baking something. 

We didn't have anything with the play until Thursday which was really weird feeling. We still felt like we needed to go somewhere so the twins and I went to Joanns and Hobby Lobby to buy some craft stuff for another dragon. 

I bought some hat pins to make Fairy Godmother wands for my fellow Back Stage Fairy Godmothers. At first I'd thought about making some sort of button/badge. But those need a little machine thing that was more money than I wanted to spend to make 5 badges. So these wands were Plan B. I used some little beads that we already had and strung them on the hat pins. 

Okay here we are on Thursday and honestly it's all a blur. I don't remember exactly what I did regarding work and stuff. 

But my calendar says Veronica had theatre so I would have taken her there. It was her last practice before spring break. She said she had a lot of fun. 

Charlotte and Lydia came home from school and a little bit later we went back for Parent Teacher Conferences. They were quick because we just have to meet with the Prime Time teacher and the girls are in the same PrimeTime class. And they don't have any concerning grades. 

Our tax refund money had come in and I had no desire to cook dinner. I also had no desire to even make a decision about dinner. I told Brandon. Pick a restaurant. I don't care which one. 

He decided we should all go to the Brick House. I wasn't even sure it was open on Tuesdays. And honestly I'm still not sure it is open on Tuesdays. We were the only people there and no one ever came in. But there was a waitress who sat us and took our orders and someone cooked our meal and it was GREAT. 

Honestly, it worked out really well to go there because this was one of the first sit down restaurants we've been to as a family in a long time. Normally it's a really overwhelming experience - for everyone when we try to eat anywhere besides fast food. 

But this was so laid back. I was able to move around the table and sit next to the kids and go over the menu with them and help them find food they would like. (Mostly hamburgers). When the waitress came to get our order we could hear her really well and she could hear us. That was nice.  

And when the kids got a little impatient its not like they were disturbing the other guests or anything. 

The food was great too! I had a capris sandwich. It was delicious. 

Here we all are. 

That night I had Bunco. It was good to see my friends again, but oh I was tired. We started at 8:00 and didn't get done til 10:00. I was having trouble concentrating on conversations during the last little bit. 

It was still really fun though. One of my friends was literally ordering tickets to Cinderella while we were playing. That was nice of her. 

I ended up with 12 wins and 12 loses. So it was not a lucky night for me. But I'm still glad I went. 

On Wednesday I didn't have scripture study because I'd cancelled it because I was so ticked about what happened to Valerie and Nathan Hamaker from the Latter Day Struggles podcast. I didn't have it in me to try to find anything nice to say about the church. 

I was also just tired in general. I'd been driving Derrick to school every day of the week so I still did that, but then I came home and just kind of did nothing. I updated the blog and that was nice. 

In the afternoon I went downstairs and watched Conclave on Peacock. That's the first movie I've watched in a while. It was really good. 

The kids were all really excited when they got home. They had the next 10 days off of school. Thursday and Friday were days off for Parent Teacher Conferences and then the next week was Spring Break. 

I was super tired. But I rustled up some energy when I got a message from the Library that the Fifth stormlight book had finally come in. I'd put my name on the hold list back in January. I'd been something like 65th in line. I was fine with that because I wanted to focus on Cinderella rather than get sucked into the book. But I was still obsessively checking the hold list to see where I was in line. I'd watched the number slowly move from the 60s to the 50s to the 40s, 30s and 20s. Last I'd checked I'd been something like #16. And then suddenly it was available. I've jumped the line like this before. I think the way it works is that the number is for the whole interlibrary system. But if the book is available at your home library you get preference over the other people in line. So the Twin Falls copy came in and I was up next. 

That night the kids had a combined activity at the ward. It was an etiquette dinner. I was planning to just drop the kids off, but as I was driving there I realized that Derrick might get bored during this activity. At Bunco the night before my friend Amanda had mentioned that she was going to talk to the kids first about how to behave in fancy settings. I realized that Derrick would probably hate sitting and listening to someone talk for a while. 

So I decided to stick around and hang out in the lobby in case Derrick needed me. I was kicking myself for NOT bringing the book with me. But it actually worked out great. I was able to talk to my friend Carol when she dropped off her son. And later I talked to my friend Brad. He was coming to the play with his daughters on Friday night. 

Derrick did get board at about the 15 minute mark. So he came out and sat with me. The Bishop was nice and brought a plate out to him. It was spaghetti with Alfredo sauce. He really liked it, but he said he likes tomato sauce better. 

The girls had liked the dinner too. 

On Thursday the kids were out of school. I went to work and when I came home we did about an hour of cleaning around the house. 

Brandon was teaching at CSI that evening so it was just me and the kids at home. At 7:00 Charlotte and Lydia and I had our pickup rehearsal. So we left Derrick and Veronica home. 

Jared said this could be a "fun through" instead of just a "run through."  And OH MY GOODNESS was it hilarious. 

Highlights of the night included:

One of the step sisters deciding to give all her lines as if she was drunk in the first act and hung over in the second act. She literally had one of the prop bottles and was pretending to drink out of it. Then she'd get mad at everyone for being too loud. 

Archer, who plays a revolutionary character, and normally gives his lines with a lot of passion decided to play everything really nonchalant. He had a bag of sun chips and opened then when he first came on stage and then just casually ate through the chips while delivering his lines. He had that bag the whole show and came out and dumped the last of the crumbs in his mouth when we did the bows at the end. 

Elinor is one of the youngest people in the play. She's small and tiny and has been very quiet. She plays the puppet fox that gets turned into the footman. During the chase scene she put on a huge hoodie. She put her feet through the arm holes and suddenly became this creepy little creature. After the chase scene she'd randomly hop through other scenes. 

Paul, who plays a blind night, went really crazy with his character and was wondering all over the place.

When the Fairy Godmother first appeared me and the other "backstage fairy godmothers" came out with signs saying things like, "Fairy Godmother fan club." 

During the ball room scenes the other Lydia put a mannequin head on her with a hoodie. Alyssa was wearing a horse head. Payton was wearing one of the step sisters green wigs. 

I took this picture that does NOT capture all the chaos. 

I was also taking pictures of things that I always wanted to remember. This is the view from the stage looking up to the balcony seats. 

This is the back of the big screen that projects the different backgrounds. It flashes green and then red.

Here's the prop table.

Here's the dress rack. It's never this light when we are back here for real. 

This is the gap between the set when it's at its most awkward. There's like a tiny gap that we were all squeezing through. Thankfully it wasn't always in this configuration.

The fun through was a hysterical delight that got us back in the groove of doing the play. 

On Friday the kids were out of school. I went to work for a little over an hour - really long enough to process a few payments. And then I was back home to hang out with the kids and make sure the house was clean. 

We did another hour or so of cleaning. And then ran a few errands.

Around 3:00 Brandon's parents arrived at the house. They were in town to see the play.  At 4:30 we went to Wendy's. Brandon met us there after work. Everyone had burgers and fries, but I just had a burger. I've learned that I don't like to do the dancing after eating a bunch of potatoes. I was also feeling just a tiny bit nervous. 

I hadn't really felt nervous for the play in all the weeks we'd been doing it. But for some reason I felt nervous for the play that night.  Maybe it was because we hadn't done the play in 6 days. Maybe because I knew a lot of people from my ward would be there that night. Maybe because my inlaws were there. I don't know why it was exactly, but I felt nervous. 

At 5:15 the twins and I left Wendy's and drove to the Orpheum. As soon as we got there my nerves started to go away. There was something comforting in the routine of going downstairs to the dressing rooms and putting on costumes and makeup. 

By the time we were lining up behind the curtain for the prologue I wasn't feeling any nerves.  

Some people said this was a rough night for them. But I think it was one of our better shows. We did run into a problem with Alyssa's dressing gown costume. It was twisted all over it self and I think it was creating new dimensions of time and space. She ended up having to go on stage in her corset and bloomers. Weeks ago when she first saw the corset she was like, "Oh that has polka dots. I'm glad no one will ever see that."  I made a new rule: Always assume the audience will see your corset at some point.

We were so focused on figuring out the dressing gown that we almost missed the cue to get her into her ball gown. UHHH it took us a bit to be back into the swing of things. 

Veronica was sitting farther back than she had been the week before, but I could still hear her laughing in the audience sometimes. I decided that Veronica just needs to be in the audience for every show. It's wonderful to know she's there. 

Derrick was also there and this was the first time he was seeing the show. He'd been unsure about going to see another play. He told me it would be "too boring." So then I told him all the funny things about the play I could think of. When I told him, "And one of the step sisters throws up on her mother's shoes" he was HOOKED. He was like, "I have to see this play. When can we see this play? Mom we need to get tickets." 

So we'd decided to have Derrick, Brandon, and Veronica see the play on the 21st when Steve and Jacque were coming. Brandon and Veronica came a week earlier when Emily came. Derrick could have come then as well, but he was fully committed to the 21st at that point. 

I told Alyssa who played that step sister that my son was so excited to see her throw up. She told me to tell her what night he was coming so she could really sell it. 

Brandon said that Derrick started out a little unsure of the play at first. But as soon as the knights came on stage to fight the Ogre he was hooked. (Honestly, I think the play starts with a fight scene to reassure the boys in the audience that it wont be boring for them.)  He especially liked the Bling Knight.  After the show he went up to Paul and told him, "You were my favorite part!"

Speaking of Paul, he was adding some things to our dance in The Prince is Giving a Ball. We'd carefully practiced our choreography at a certain part. But he decided that was the prefect time to walk toward the end of the stage and almost fall off. The panicked look on my face was NOT acting when I reached out and grabbed him from the edge. 

I can't remember if I wrote about this in an earlier post, but Jared really had people coming up after the show and commend us for being so accommodating and enabling a blind person to be in the show. Jared said he never had the heart to tell them that Paul wasn't blind.

Oh and yes, Derrick did love the throw up part. 

All during the show we could hear some guy laughing really hard in the audience. People were like, "I don't know who that guy is, but I like him."  About halfway thought Act II I was like, "Hey, that's my friend Brad."

At the end of the play Derrick had to go on stage and see all the principal characters. Here's a picture of him and Veronica with Cinderella and Prince Topher. 

I was out in the lobby seeing all of my friends from the ward go by. Lindsey was there will her daughter Amelia. Chandler was there with Cort and their four kids. Cori was there with her daughter Hadley. Brad was there with his daughters Frasier and Olly. Even my friend Michelle was there with her granddaughters. 

After a while Brandon, Derrick, Veronica, and Steve and Jacque came to the lobby. It was fun to see them. They went home and we met up with them there soon. We all had ice cream and talked about the show. Jacque said, "Okay, I know how you did the dress transformations, but HOW did you do the dress transformations?"

After a while I went to bed and read a little bit of the Stormlight book. I'm so glad I re-read the other four before jumping into this one. I finished the fourth book less than 3 months ago and I STILL had to pause and be like, "Okay, who is this character?" When I was getting into this book. I would have been completely lost without the re-read.

On Saturday I slept in until 10:00. I was so tired. 

Steve and Jacque hung around a bit and then left. Brandon looked a me and was like, "Did we have anything planned for today?"

I replied, "I thought I'd be dead by this point so no."  It was kind of a paraphrase of a line from Over the Hedge when the turtle says, "I thought we'd be dead by Step 4 so this is good."

But it was also kind of the truth. I really wasn't sure how I would handle this play. Making it to the third and final week of the play was amazing. 

So we just kind of took it easy all day. I worked on the back stage fairy godmother gift. I'd bought some little shadow boxes and put the wands inside those. They turned out really cute. 

I made sure to take a nap so I could have a personality that night. This wasn't just any night of the play. This was 4th Wall Night. We'd have people in the audience wearing their fancy clothes. And then after the play we'd all meet up at Red Hawk for socializing. 

So that night when we went to the theatre we brought along our dresses. I'll show you the pictures later. 

After everyone was in their costumes we met on the stage and Jarod directed us in where to stand for the cast photo. Of course Paul HAD TO pretend to be blind for the photo. 

I'm trying to remember anything specific about this show. It was another good one - why is it that I can remember when things go wrong, but I can't really remember the good things. 

One thing I do remember is that I had to take the pumpkin prop over to the other side of the stage at one point. This is a job Makeesa was doing, but she'd ended up with a different job at the same time. (It had something to do with all the safety pins she was putting on Alyssa hoop skirt to keep it in place.) Anyway, I took it across, but I wasn't exactly sure what to do with it. It had to go to Cinderella at some point. Payton was over there and she said "I'll take the pumpkin Miss Valerie."  She was the youngest one on the cast, but was right on par with everyone. 

So I gave her the pumpkin, but then I thought, "hummmmmmmmmmmm she is nine.  I should probably make sure it does go to Cinderella."  So I hung around and watched until she gave the pumpkin to Rachel. Then Payton turned around and gave me the biggest hug. That back stage hug is one of my favorite moments from the play. And Payton in general was just the best. She was so encouraging and fun.

A not so good moment was when our assistant Director Mattheu found out we needed more bottled water. That was a good thing. But he decided to go walking back stage with a whole case of water during one of the most complicated set changes. There was always a danger of someone walking into the big heavy staircase as it was being unbolted from the side of the platforms and leaned against the wall.  And that night that person was almost Mattheu. I was like, "Stop!!!" And thankfully he stopped and didn't get smacked by the stairs. 

There were other things I was taking mental images of and hoping to always remember. Things like what it was like to crowd around the curtain to hopefully get a peek of Cinderella's dress transformation. Or what it was like to sing the knights part in the Call to Arms.

I've always loved how we pantomime singing along to Step Sisters Lament or Lovely Night.  

One of my favorite things was when Cinderella leaves her shoe on the stage. Then she'd run around the back of the set to meet us for a costume change. I loved watching her run lopsided because she was only wearing one shoe.  

When the play was over I wasn't expecting to know anyone in the lobby. But there were a few surprises. My friend Janelle who was the former Stake Relief Society President came up to me and we had a big hug. And one of the Aspen Grove clients that has been a client since I started working for the company and has become something of a friend was there too. 

When we were done in the lobby I hurried to help get the costumes hung up (we take really good care of them all night, but the last 10 minutes are so crazy they just end up in a pile on a table) and then I went downstairs to get ready for 4th Wall Night. 

Charlotte and Lydia were getting into their dresses. And so was everyone else. There were so many fancy dresses in that dressing room. 

I texted Brandon to let him know we were done. He'd meet us at Redhawk. 

When we got to Redhawk we took pictures, but I took them with my phone which is on it's last legs. I should have used Brandon's which is so much better in low light. So heads up, I'm not happy with most of these pictures. 

I do like this one of Charlotte and Lydia. Charlotte is wearing the dress we borrowed from Macey. Lydia was going to wear one of Macey's dresses, but then she decided to wear her latest creation. 

Here it is in all it's glory. She painted the designs on it and then sewed lots of little beads on it. 

Here's my dress. I found this one at DI for $8. Mine wasn't the only DI dress. Kerri's was $6 and Rachel was wearing a gorgeous gold dress that she'd bought for $10. 

And here are me and Brandon.

And here's Clint who took our picture. He's known for sneaking pictures of himself onto any camera he can get his hands on. Fun fact, we worked together in Yellowstone at Canyon Village. He was in the gift shop when I was in the cash office just down the hall. I have no memory of him - which is a shame. 

And here's all four of us - with our fancy friends in the background. 

Our friend Brent was going around and taking pictures. He took this one of me and Brandon. I do like this one, but I don't love that Jarod's head is in the back. 

We went over to the "color thing" and took the traditional cast photo. Charlotte and Lydia wanted to stand on the wall so they are on the top row on the right. I'm right below them. 

They always have a contest for best dressed guy and gal. Rylie who is the Fairy Godmother won best dressed girl. Archer who is the revolutionary won best dressed guy. 

The night was really fun. This was the first time I felt like I REALLY belonged. Usually I'm there as "Brandon's wife" and I'm always kind of hoping people remember me as Valerie. Tonight I knew that everyone remembered who I was. 

It was also so fun to see Brandon going around and talking with all his friends. He was probably more excited that I was because he hasn't seen a lot of these people as much as I have. He went around and talk to everyone. 

We ordered hambergers and wings. And gosh it felt weird to eat those with such fancy clothes on. But I was also STARVING. I'd had dinner around 5:00 and it was nearly 11:00 before I had my food. 

We left around 11:45 and it felt so good to get home and get into pajamas. It had been really hot back stage the last two nights. I was so sick of wearing my heavy skirt and tights. Every night I was coming home and sleeping in shorts. 

On Sunday we all slept in. Our last performance of Cinderella would be a Matinee at 2:00. The girls and I had to be there at 12:30. Our church starts at 12:00 so there was really no point to go to church. So we didn't go. 

It was really strange to go to the theatre so early in the day. And even more strange since it felt like we'd JUST been there. 

We all got into costumes and then met on the stage. Jarod said something like, "Who is excited for our last performance."  We gave a weak little "yay."  He said, "It sounds like we need to get the energy up." And he turned on Cotton Eyed Joe on the sound system. That song activated things I didn't know I knew how to do anymore. I was jumping and dancing along. Charlotte and Lydia were like, "What is happening?" And "Hey I thought you couldn't jump mom?"

After we were done with the song Jared came on the stage and gave us a pep talk about it being our last show and how much he appreciated each of us. 

Soon we were lined up behind the curtain one last time. Rylie gets really emotional about the end of shows. Brandon told me she was in tears at the end of Spamalot. She was already crying during the overture. She didn't want to ruin her makeup so she was leaning over so he tears would drop straight to the floor. 

I was a little sad about the end of the show. But my main emotion was relief. I was counting off things like, "that's the last time we ever have to do the dress change during the chase scene."  Or "that's the last time the set will have to move" or "that's the last time we put her in the gold dress."

I was also experiencing some odd time compressing. Like I was watching Rachel and Kaden dancing and Cinderella and the Prince and remembering our first rehearsal when I watched them meet and shake hands for the first time. 

When we were on stage for the banquet scene time was really odd. I was remembering when Jared first blocked this scene and told us where to stand. I was also remembering all the times the dialog got fudged during this scene. And the time that Cinderella's skirt was falling off and Makeesa was trying to fix it in the scene. And I was also in the scene for the last time. 

And then we were on stage for the wedding and singing the songs the last time. And I was singing the soprano part because I never really did get the alto down for this song and had given up on it weeks ago. (It was find because Marianne had given up on the soprano and was singing alto.)

And then we sang the song at the end of the bows one last time. This did make me emotional. 

But the world is full of zanies and fools
Who don’t believe in sensible rules
And won’t believe what sensible people say,
And because these daft and dewy- eyed dopes
Keep building up impossible hopes,
Impossible things are happening every day!

I'd loved spending these last 9 weeks with these zanies and fools who don't believe in sensible rules and put together this wonderful play. 

We ran out to the lobby one last time. Brandon and Derrick and Veronica were there. They'd arrived about 10 minutes earlier. I didn't know anyone in the audience so after the lobby cleared out I went and organized the costumes one last time. 

Then I went downstairs and changed. The whole cast was expected to help take down the set.  Brandon was there to help with the big set pieces. Our cast only had a few guys and so his help was very much appreciated. 

I'd been assigned to help clean out the dressing rooms and the green room. Our choreographer Ian was there and he helped me know what the expectations were. He also vacuumed all the rooms.  

Charlotte, Lydia, Veronica, and a couple of the other girls helped. The other Lydia organized a bunch of things. 

All the costumes were taken upstairs and loaded into a car to go back to Britt's. She would have the drycleaned which was good because we'd all lived in them a lot. (I'd actually taken my shirt home and hand washed it after the first weekend because it was getting gross around the collar. 

Anther group was working on props and getting them returned to where they'd come from. It was impressive to see everyone work together to get everything cleaned up. But it was also sad. Our beautiful set was unceremoniously taken down. Part of it went to Xavier Charter school for their drama department to use for something. Another part of it went to the storage building several miles away. 

After everything was cleaned up we had pizza and the party started. They always do silly awards at hte end of shows. It was fun to hear everyone's awards. 

My award was really funny. I got the "My job is to make sure Paul remembers he isn't actually blind" award. 

Charlotte and Lydia got the Shining Star awards. 

The kids were pretty much done with the party after they had pizza, dessert, and heard the awards. So Brandon took all four kids home. 

I wasn't quite ready to leave. So I stayed around for the karaoke part of the party. Some people were just silly - like Paul who sang Jack and Diane and just sang the lyric Sucking on a Chili Dog over and over in more and more hilarious ways. 

But most people were serious - and TALENTED. Like random people in the ensemble who had like maybe two lines in the whole play got up and sang power ballad after power ballad. 

Marissa sang "The Wizard and I" from Wicked. Jaclyn sang, "Burn" from Hamelton. Tyler sang "Hellfire" from Hunchback of Notre-Dame.  

Heather and Cami did a duet to "In His Eyes" and I was going crazy trying to figure out where I knew that song from. I was like, "this is so familiar. How do I know this song?"   

I had to google it and as soon as I saw it was from Jekyll and Hyde I was like "oh of course." Way back in like 2008, my coworker Elyse let me download a bunch of her musical CD's to my work computer. Jekyll and Hyde had been one of those musicals and I'd listened to it a lot. I'd forgot all about it for the last like 17 years. 

I stayed at the party until about 8:30. And then I just kind of snuck out. I didn't really want to make a big show of saying goodbye. I'd slipped the gifts along with heartfelt cards to my fairy godmothers. And that was about the most fuss I wanted to make. I knew I'd see most of these people again. 

And that's the end. 

Thanks for reading. 

Eighth Week of Cinderella - Three more shows

I feel like I've already written so much about Cinderella. And yet there is still so much more to say. In some ways doing this show feels a lot like the summer I lived in Yellowstone. So much happened in such a short amount of time. Yellowstone was 12 weeks. This play will be 9. Both events were life changing. 

We did three more shows during the 8th week, and each one had a different feel to it. There were also other things going on. So let's get cracking. 

We were so tired on Sunday. Charlotte and Lydia were super grumpy so I told them they could stay home. They'd done four nights of tech rehearsals and two plays while still going to middle school on time every day. They needed a break. 

I went, but I probably should have stayed home. I was struggling to stay awake in Sacrament Meeting. I put my head down on the back of the bench in front of me. Veronica was like, "Mom, you have NEVER done that."

In Relief Society my friend Olyvia was going to teach the lesson. I told her, "If my face is expressionless it's not because I'm mad. I just used up all my social battery this week."

Even though we were tired the weather was too nice to just stay home after church.  So we went to the college campus and laid out blankets under a tree. Brandon and I took naps. The kids played around. Derrick had his foam airplane and played with that for a long time. Then all the kids went on a walk and pulled big sticks out of the stream. 

I woke up and had to go to the bathroom so I walked over to a porta potty that was behind the expo center. Then I walked back. Here's the view of the area. 

Here's Derrick looking at the stream. 

I went on a longer walk on the walking trail. Here's what our area looking like when I got back. 

We'd had a really nice time. I'm glad we got out of the house. 

At 6:00 I went out to Filer for a meeting for the Curtain Call Awards. This is an award ceremony like the Tony's for local theatre. A lady named Diane started them something like 15 years ago, but the last one was 10 years ago. She and a man named Chris Ayers decided to bring them back. 

I was following the Curtain Call Awards because Brandon was nominated for best set design for Little Women. But I also thought they were a cool idea in general. So when they put out a call for people to help with the awards I thought it would be fun to help with that. 

But I also am trying to not over commit to things. So I didn't reach out right away . . . I waited about 5 days and when I was still thinking about how fun it would be I reached out and said I wanted to volunteer.  

So then I was invited to the planning meeting. It was a great meeting. But honestly in hindsight it felt like a dream.  

First was the setting. The meeting was at a building on Main Street in Filer. I've driven down that street once - by accident. It's not on the main highway through town. I call it the "Radiator Springs" Main Street because it feels forgotten and aging. 

Chris Ayers owns the building and has something of a black box theatre in part of it. It only holds like 40 people. He started the Magic Valley Theatre Collective and had their first play, Once, there last fall. 

And all that is cool, but it's still mostly and old building on an old Main Street. Exactly the kind of setting that my brain would come up with for a dream. 

Then there were the people. I met Chris for the first time that night. I knew of him. Ivan had been in Once with him, and I've heard his name before. I also met a lady named Diane. I'd seen her in The Importance of Being Earnest last August and I knew she did the costuming for the Ovation shows. But I'd never talked with her. 

So yeah, it felt like a dream because there were people that I knew of, but hadn't ever met. 

Even the people I did know weren't people I knew well. Brianna who played Marian from Music Man was there. Tim who is playing Sebastian in Cinderella was there. A lady named Natalie who I've met at 4th wall nights, but have never really talked to was there. Her husband is Ryker who was grown up Ralphy in A Christmas Story. 

The two people I knew best were still kind of just on acquaintance level. My friends Danell and Alexandra are good friends with Brandon from doing plays with him, but I haven't really got to know them yet.  

These were all the types of people that would show up in my dreams. 

But it was a REAL meeting and we made REAL progress. We spent a lot of time talking about how things should be done for the awards for the current season of shows. And then we planned the ceremony for the 2024 season. We even got a date on the calendar - which is always one of my favorite things. 

So on April 9th I'm in charge of the table that will have all the trophies and the envelopes with the winners names. Diane suggested I find about 3 girls who can help take the awards from the table to the presenters. I was like, "Oh I have three daughters."  So the girls are involved too. 

On Tuesday Brandon told me he wanted to be a presenter. I'm not sure how we came up with the idea, but one of us said he should present as the French Taunter. We had a good laugh over that. I asked the committee about it on Facebook and they agreed that it would be hilarious. So that is happening. But keep it quiet because we want it to be a complete surprise for the audience. 

Sunday had been the first day of Daylight Saving Time. But Monday is the day we felt the effects. 

I usually wake up Derrick at 6:55. But when I went to wake him up I realized there was no way he was actually going to get up and catch his bus. So I texted the bus assistant and let her know that Derrick didn't need a pick up. I'd drop him off after dropping off the girls. 

We dragged through the day and I honestly don't remember anything specific about work. 

I'd scheduled an orthodontist consultation for Veronica after school. So I picked her up about 15 minutes early and we went to the orthodontist. Two years ago I'd scheduled Derrick for a consultation and added Veronica on a whim. We were surprised to find out that she'd lost all her baby teeth and was basically ready for braces whenever we wanted to do them. 

This was more of a formal visit to get a plan in place - and get a price estimate. The other kids all had bad enough bites that Medicaid paid for their braces. But Veronica's bite isn't severe enough. (And with the raise I got a few months ago we've been kicked off Medicaid anyway.)  So we will have to pay for this one. But 1 out of 4 isn't bad. 

I'm tentatively planning to have her start braces in about 6-9 months. She wants them now, but I told her it's more of a middle school thing. 

Back at home I think I took a nap or maybe I chugged another energy drink. I really don't remember. Either way I did something to make sure I'd have energy for that night because we had another Cinderella performance that night. 

My friend Megan was coming with her daughter Addy who is the same age as Charlotte and Lydia. My friend Justine was also coming. I was so happy to know that they were going to be in the audience, because I was having a hard time working up enthusiasm for this performance. 

I found out later that Jori and her family were in the audience as well. I'm so glad my friends came out to support me. 

Back stage things were a little off. Makeesa wasn't feeling well and had to stay home. Our music director, Cami came to help us out with all the costume changes. Makeesa had given her detailed notes about every change. She was a big help, but it felt odd to do the show without Makeesa. 

Karin took this picture halfway through the show and sent it to Makeesa to let her know we were doing okay without her. That's Cami photobombing, then Rachel, me, and Marianne. 

My favorite part of the show was when the step sister Charlotte gave one of her lines. It's supposed to be, "We are exhausted" (small pause) "being as beautiful as we are."

But she delivered it as "We are EXHAUSTED!" (SUPER LONG PAUSE) "Being as beautiful as we are."

I was downstairs at that moment and was like, "Yep, I feel that."

The show itself was very good. Yes this was the 7th time we'd run through the whole show in 8 days, but it was still a joy to be a part of it.  

My favorite part was when Lydia and Charlotte and I were all back stage during 10 minutes ago. Lydia came over to me and put her head on my chest. I wrapped my arms around her. Then Charlotte came over. We all hugged each other and swayed together. It was the best. 

It was fun seeing my friends in the lobby when it was over.  Justine took this picture of us together. 

What I didn't know, was that she'd also been taking pictures throughout the performance. That's not allowed so I can't really share these pictures on Facebook. But I'm going to share them with the like 30 readers of this blog. 

So here they are in no real order. 

This is me jumping during The Prince is Giving a Ball. I'm so happy she got a picture of one of the jumps because its a freaking big deal that my feet are able to do those jumps. 
 

Here are the twins and I running to the side of the stage after doing our bows at the end. I love that we are holding hands. The lady next to me is Carol. She actually can sing alto so I stick close to her every chance I can during the songs. 

Here we are during the rest of the bows. We are the first group out so we are standing there a while. I use that time to scan the crowd to see if I know anyone. 

Here I am singing in the wedding at the end. (That's Payton next to me.)

Here are Charlotte and Lydia in the Prince is giving a ball. 

Lydia during the Prince is giving a ball.

Here I am with Paul who is pretending a little too well to be a blind night. We literally have people coming up after the show saying its so great that we are such an inclusive acting group. I'm in charge of him during The Prince is Giving a Ball so I often am turning him to face the right way or make sure he doesn't accidently walk off the stage. 

Speaking of going off the stage!!!!! I can't believe I forgot to mention this. We actually did have someone fall off the stage during this show!!! We have a little girl named Elinor who plays the fox. She has a little puppet at first, but then "transforms" into a footman. She does some flips for the transformation scene. Well this time she went right off the stage. She was fine (THANK GOODNESS) but it had everyone worried for a bit. 

Here are the twins in the back for the banquet. 

When the play was over we all got out of there as fast as we could. Another event was happening during the week so we were advised to take our stuff home. So I took my make up container home. That meant I could take out my hair donut and pins at home so we didn't even have to wait for that.

When I got home everyone was in bed, but Brandon was still awake. He said they'd gone on an adventure, but he'd let the kids tell me what it was. 

So in the morning I asked Derrick and Veronica about it.  They'd gone Geode hunting at a place called Rabbit Springs near the Nevada boarder. And they found geodes!

Veronica had fun showing them to me.  

And here is a random picture of my make up tote. I'd started out thinking I could fit everything in that multi colored bag. HA HA HA.

Here's all the make up 

I'd left work before the mail came in on Monday so when I got to work on Tuesday there was a huge stack of envelopes waiting for me. And Blue cross of Idaho had two weeks worth of payments because they'd messed things up the week before. So I did the largest one day deposit I'd ever done. It took forever, and at one point I was messaging Jori to see if she could get Veronica because I wasn't sure I'd be done in time. But I did finish in time.

I took her to the orpheum for her class. Veronica had a great time at theatre as usual. Her teacher and one of the high school aged helpers are in the play with me. They have both told me that Veronica is doing really well.

When I came home I found Charlotte and Lydia playing on the mattress on the patio. Derrick joined them when he came home. This is such a white trash picture. We have our old mattress AND our two rubble piles in this picture. 

Charlotte and Lydia needed fancy dresses for 4th wall night and the Curtain Call Awards so we went to Macey's and raided her closet. The girls found some really cute dresses. (I'll save the pictures for later.)

Here's one of Veronica's geodes. 

I went for a walk in the evening. Brandon and the kids were all hanging out in the garage when I got back. Brandon and I had fun talking out there. (This is when we came up with the french taunter as a presenter idea.)  

I had so many plans for Wednesday. I was going to work in my garden, I was going to watch Conclave, I was going to audit all the Exponent things, I was going to get so much done. 

Instead I spent the morning sleeping. Everything from tech week caught up on me. Apparently you can't run indefinitely on loud pop music and Celsius energy drinks. 

At 1:00 I pulled myself together enough to go meet with a potential new billing client. A Licensed Clinical Social worker started her own practice a few months ago. She reached out in a local group for marriage and family therapists and asked if anyone had a good biller. My boss recommended me. 

I've been considering taking on another small business client. Things with Castle Therapy are humming along nicely now. So I was planning to maybe take on another client when Veronica is in middle school. 

This is a little sooner than I planned, but she only has like 12 clients and things don't seem too screwed up so I'll take her on in April. 

And then it was back home and back to bed. 

I rallied again when Veronica was home from school. She had parent teacher conference so we went back to the school for that. She's doing well in school. But she is very much over elementary school.

That evening the kids all had youth group. Derrick's group went Rock Climbing. He loved it so much. He came home and told me it was "the perfect sport."

The girls had a night where everyone brought something from their family's culture. Veronica decided to bring CrumCraka (I don't know if that is spelled right AT ALL) its the little ice cream cone shaped Norwegien cookies. Brandon helped her make them on Tuesday night. 

I asked the girls what their favorite thing was. They said it was the "American Cookies" AKA store bought chocolate chip cookies. 

I asked who brought those, but in my mind I was thinking, "That feels like a Kaymie move."  

I was right. Kaymie's daughter Addy had brought the cookies. And I just love that so much. I could just hear Kaymie saying, "I'm not making a special food on a weeknight. We eat store bought cookies in this family. We'll just bring those." 

I hope that woman never changes. 

While the kids were at the church I found enough motivation to plant peas. I'd put a lot of compost in this bed last fall so the soil was really healthy looking. 

When the kids were home they saw and owl in the neighbors tree. From far away it looked like a cat. 

On Thursday Veronica convinced me to let her stay home. I think the only way she's making it through the rest of the school year is if she has a mental health day every month. 

I took her grocery shopping with me. When we got home she helped put things away and I took a nap. 

Then she stayed home while I went to work. 

Brandon was at CSI that night so we had a really chill evening. 

At 7:00 the girls and I went back to the Orpheum for the pick up rehearsal. They started with running through the dance numbers. It was fun to watch the Ball Room Scenes. We haven't seen those in weeks. There's a lot going on in those. 

Then we did the Prince is Giving a Ball. It was Archer's birthday and his mom brought mini cupcakes. So we got those. Then the principal actors stayed to run through dialogue. The rest of us went home. We were home by 8:00 that was lovely. 

Friday was a really strange day weather wise. When I dropped Veronica off at school the sun was shining. But a storm moved in and soon it was snowing. There's only about 20 minutes between dropping off Veronica and dropping off the twins, but we were in a whole different season. 

Here's the snow on the street and driveway out the front window. 

And here's the view out the back window. 

I was trying to get a picture of the giant snow flakes that were coming down. 

I got everyone to school and then went to work. On Friday's I always track how many outstanding claims there are. Things were really out of hand last week with Blue Cross of Idaho not processing anything. But this week things were looking good again.  

I've been trying to decide how much to say about Friday afternoon. There's a lot I could say. But I guess I'll be vague and say that before I left work I got a text that made me sad. 

At first it was just a little sad. Sad as in, "well that's disappointing, but I kind of expected that. It's no big deal."

But as I was driving home from work it turned into, "No this is wrong. This is not something I should be okay with. It is a big deal."

I was blinking back tears the whole way home. When I got home I knew I needed to get it out. So I turned to the queen of hard emotions and listened to Taylor Swift's song, "You're on your own, kid." 

Here's the link to the song on Spotify. And here are the lyrics.

You're on your own, kid

Summer went away, still, the yearning stays
I play it cool with the best of them
I wait patiently, he's gonna notice me
It's okay, we're the best of friends
Anyway

I hear it in your voice, you're smoking with your boys
I touch my phone as if it's your face
I didn't choose this town, I dream of getting out
There's just one who could make me stay
All my days

From sprinkler splashes to fireplace ashes
I waited ages to see you there
I search the party of better bodies
Just to learn that you never cared
You're on your own, kid
You always have been

I see the great escape, so long, Daisy May
I picked the petals, he loves me not
Something different bloomed, writing in my room
I play my songs in the parking lot
I'll run away

From sprinkler splashes to fireplace ashes
I called a taxi to take me there
I search the party of better bodies
Just to learn that my dreams aren't rare
You're on your own, kid
You always have been

From sprinkler splashes to fireplace ashes
I gave my blood, sweat, and tears for this
I hosted parties and starved my body
Like I'd be saved by a perfect kiss
The jokes weren't funny, I took the money
My friends from home don't know what to say
I looked around in a blood-soaked gown
And I saw something they can't take away

'Cause there were pages turned with the bridges burned
Everything you lose is a step you take
So make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it
You've got no reason to be afraid
You're on your own, kid 
Yeah, you can face this 
You're on your own, kid
You always have been

The song helped me get out a lot of tears. I was also texting Jori and that helped. 

The kids had an early out that day because it was the end of the quarter. So I only had about 45 minutes before Veronica came home. I let myself fall apart for that 45 minutes and then pulled myself together. 

Veronica came home and she was so happy it was the end of the quarter. After a little bit the bus attendant for Derrick's bus called me and let me know that Derrick was refusing to get on the bus. I tried to talk to him, but I could tell he was really upset. So I went to pick him up. 

It had been a rough week for him with the time change. He also recently got a new teacher. The last teacher hadn't been there in like 2 months. (And if we are being honest really hadn't done her job even when she was there.) They finally had a new teacher which was great!  But he was making Derrick work harder than he had all year so Derrick was struggling with that. 

Anyway, I picked Derrick up and we talked about it on the way home. He told me he hated getting up early to take the bus. He said, "Mom, I'm having puberty, I need more sleep."

I was really proud of him for being able to articulate that. So we decided to try something new. I'd take him to school every day if he would take the bus home after school every day. We only had three days of school the next week so that would be a good test. 

By the time we were home Charlotte and Lydia were also home. I'd told the kids we'd clean the house after school. I gave them all about 15 minutes to chill out and eat and then we started cleaning. 

The main room we cleaned was the living room. Charlotte used the scraper and got all the dog hair off the rug. The kids also spent time in the bathroom and their bed rooms. 

When we were done cleaning there was just enough time for the kids to watch Moana before the twins and I had to be at the theatre. 

I wanted to watch Moana 2, but I also really needed a shower. And honestly I wasn't in the mood for the movie. 

So the kids watched the movie and I went into my room and broke down again. I was getting worried about the Cinderella performance that night. I'd been kind of zoning out all afternoon. I wasn't sure I'd be fully present for the play. I also wasn't sure I wouldn't just break down crying during the play. 

So I got on the group chat for the quick change ladies and gave them a quick heads up on my emotional state. They were so so so so so kind. I was so happy to know they would have my back that night. 

Then I took a shower and cried some more. 

Brandon came home and I filled him in on my emotional state. He was so supportive.  

We needed to be at the theatre at 5:30, but the movie didn't end until 5:20. Normally I would have been an anxious mess at being late. But I really had nothing left at that point. So I wasn't anxious. And I knew that we really didn't have to be there RIGHT at 5:30. We don't have microphone checks so we don't have to be ready in time for those. 

We ended up getting there at like 5:35 and then we found a parking spot right behind the theatre - that's pretty impossible. Tyler was walking by right then. He was like, "How did you get that spot?"  I joked, "I am learning the wrong lesson by being late."

As soon as I walked into the Green Room Rachel Call (who is Cinderella) gave me the biggest hug. She kept saying over and over again, "I'm so happy to be doing this play with you."  Oh I needed that. 

Ivan had texted me to let me know he and his wife were coming to the play. I was happy to know that I had a friend in the audience. 

And actually as the play started everyone was happy that Ivan was there. The crowd was a little quiet. They weren't laughing as much as other crowds had. But we could hear Ivan with his booming laugh. It was so loud it was even picking up on the microphones and we could hear it down in the green room. People were like, "Is that Ivan?"  I said, "Yeah, he texted me that he'd be here."

Overall the play went well. But as the night went on we started to think that maybe we were a little cursed. The step sister Charlotte got stuck in her dress. She usually wears one green dress for the first few scenes and then changes into a shiny green dress for the ball scenes. Well the zipper on the regular green dress wouldn't go all the way down and then it wouldn't go back up. 

We had a few panicked moments back stage trying to get it off, but ran out of time. So she was going to the ball in her regular dress. But it was also half off of her. So Cinderella was literally pinning the dress back in place during the scene. 

We got it pinned nicer off stage before the ball scenes, but it wasn't until intermission when Rachel Stokes was able to work her magic and get the zipper down. Still, Charlotte/Ellen had to stay in that dress for a few more scenes since she'd already established that she was wearing it to the ball. Later she did wear the fancy green dress for the Banquet scenes. 

Another issue we had was one of the prop trees fell down. The Fairy Godmother came out and did a whole bit where she lifted it. Everyone was proud of her for covering. 

Usually I stay upstairs through all of Act II. But this time I went downstairs during He Was Tall/When Your Driving Through the Moonlight/Lovely Night. I sat on a stool and just stared off into space for a while. 

Then I came back upstairs for all the costume changes to get ready for the banquet scenes. 

Cami came back stage to be ready for the costume changes that she helps with at the end. She was giving people little back massages. She gave me one during "There is Music In You." She wasn't part of our group chat so she had no idea that I was going through a lot that night, but somehow she knew I needed that massage. 

This was the one point where I almost cried during the night. I'll never listen to this song again without thinking of Cami's kindness. 

Beyond the voice that keeps insisting “no,”
There is something more than doubting
Breaking through the darkness,
Something that sets your heart aglow…

Someone wants you;
You know who.
Now you’re living –
There’s music in you.

Now you’re hearing
Something new,
Someone playing
The music in you.

Now you’re living,
You know why,
Now there’s nothing
You won’t try.

Move a mountain,
Light the sky,
Make a wish come true –
There is music in you.

Now you can go wherever you want to go.
Now you can do whatever you want to do.
Now you can be whatever you want to be,
And love is the song you will sing your whole life through.

Move a mountain,
Light the sky,
Make a wish come true –
There is music in you!

By this point I was kind of wrung out emotionally. So I wasn't fully ready to go back on stage for the banquet. I didn't quite get into my correct spot so Nate and I had our positions switched. And that just threw off the whole feel of the scene for me. 

The scene kind of felt like an out of body experience. 

And that was before I realized that Cinderella's skirt wasn't staying up. 

We'd put her into the pink/gold dress right. But when the step mother had ripped the pink dress she'd pulled maybe a tad too hard and pulled the skirt of the gold dress. 

Something was wrong with the skirt and Cinderella had to hold onto it to keep it up. There's a part where she hides in our crowd so the step mother doesn't notice her. She usually just hides behind one person, but this time she came to Makeesa so Makeesa could pin her. But we'd already used nearly every pin on Charlotte's dress and hadn't got those back. So Makeesa basically had to tuck the skirt into Cinderella's underwear.   Thankfully there is another layer to the dress so it wasn't super noticeable.

Cinderella had to wear the dress all through singing "Do I love you because you are beautiful" and then we changed her back to her peasant outfit. I have never been so happy to get her out of the gold dress. 

The rest of the play was pretty normal. And soon we were out in the lobby. My friend Avery was there and gave me a big hug. Ivan gave me a hug too. He said, "That's 1." Meaning I've now been in the first of many plays." 

The cast was going out to get pie because it was Pi Day. I'd bought pie for the family so we didn't go with the cast. We just went home and had pie with Brandon, Derrick, and Veronica. I'm glad I already had that planned because I was not in the mood for socializing. 

Saturday started out with me feeling drained and melancholy. I got up and helped the kids and Brandon with a little more cleaning. But I went back to bed after a little while. 

Later I woke up for real and drank a Celsius drink.  That got me going. I also told Brandon about how I'd had to drink a Celsius on Friday while crying. It was time to drink it because if I drank it any later I'd have trouble sleeping. So I drank it and that just made me cry with more intensity. I don't recommend that. 

Anyway, it worked find this time and I perked back up. And I was happy because we had family arriving soon. 

My sister Emily drove up from Utah with her kids Vance and Juniper. She also brought my dad. My dad hasn't been here for a visit in two years. Last time he came was when Brandon and the twins were in Music Man. 

We had a really good time talking with all of them in the afternoon. Derrick and Vance are both really interested in Space. Derrick got up in front of all of us and did a whole presentation about the solar system. He told us facts about each of the planets. I was like, "He has never done this before."

Brandon made a bunch of quesadillas for everyone. And later he made pizza. He was determined to make sure I didn't have to do much.   

At 3:00 we took my dad to the Holiday Inn and got him all checked in and let him take a nap.

There was a whole St Patrick's day festival going on downtown and so I'd been worried about parking. Brandon and I had actually driven both cars over to the Orpheum that morning. I'd left the van there and Brandon gave me a ride home. That way I wouldn't have walk far to my car after the show. But it meant I needed a ride to the theatre before the show. Emily took me and the girls and dropped us off at 5:30. 

She brought my dad, her kids, Veronica, and Brandon back around 6:30. 

Brandon, Derrick, and Veronica were planning to see the show on Friday the 21st when Brandon's parents come. So originally they weren't going to see this show. The original plan had been that Brandon would just help my dad get to the theatre and to his seat. Brandon knows everyone at the theatre so it wouldn't be a problem for him to go in without a ticket. But then I was like, "Wait, you should just go tonight." So we'd made sure to get Brandon a ticket. Veronica took the second of two tickets I'd got for my parents. And Derrick stayed home because he is still very committed to seeing the show on the 21st.  

I'd been stressing for Brandon about all the logistics of getting to the theatre with my dad and the parking situation. Brandon sang the tune of Don't Cry for me Argentina and said things like, "Don't stress for me, Valerie. The truth is I can handle this."

So I tried not to worry, but I still appreciated when my friend Kota - who had been ushering - told me that Brandon and everyone with him had made it in with no problems. 

I was worried that this would be another emotional night for me. But I'd moved on from sadness to anger and that morphed to spite. I told my quick change girls, "I'm determined to make this the best show EVER!"

Everyone was also kind of feeling that way too for various reasons.  Ellen who plays Charlotte did a joke "blessing" for the dress. And it must have worked because there were no issues with her costumes.  

It was so exciting to start the show and to know that I had family in the audience. When I came out for The Prince is Giving A Ball I was able to see my dad. (I'd purposely given him a seat on the side of the stage where I spend most of that song.) 

While I was back stage during scene five I realized that I could hear Veronica laughing. I'd put my dad on the front row so he could see well. Veronica had the seat next to him. She has a loud laugh like me and there were times that she was laughing at little silly things that other people weren't laughing as hard at.  Hearing her enjoy the show healed my soul in ways I never expected. It was life giving to hear her laugh.  

We'd jokingly called this the Redemption Show. And that's what it turned out to be. There were no costume issues. No prop issues. Everything went well.  And we had our largest audience yet. There were over 250 packed into the theatre. 

At the end of the show when we came out for the wedding I caught a glimpse of the people sitting next to Veronica. I realized that Emily and her family were there and so was Brandon. That surprised me. Emily had bought tickets slightly farther back. And we bought Brandon's ticket so late that he'd been on the end of a row even further back. 

I found out later that they'd actually switched tickets with Marianne's family. Marianne's daughter had been having a hard time with the music speaker that was just playing music before the show. So when they realized that a whole group came with my dad  they'd decided to switch for the seats that were further from the speaker. 

So Emily had been next to Veronica the whole time. She told me that Veronica had been so enthralled by the show. She was so excited during the transformation scenes she had been shaking. 

Emily's kids loved the show too. When we did the bows at the end Vance had clapped hard for everyone, but had clapped super hard for Cinderella. So even 7 year old boys were loving the show. 

At the end of the bows we run off to the lobby. At least the ensemble members do. The principal characters stay on the stage for pictures. 

Emily took Juniper up. They took this adorable picture with Prince Topher and Cinderella. 

Out in the lobby there were tons of people coming through. And I was realizing that I knew many of them. My coworker's Jeanette and Alli had both come with their families. I'm not really a hugger in my real life, but when I'm in theatre mode I'm a hugger. So they both got big hugs. 

I was so focused on seeing if I recognized any other surprise people that I kind of forgot that my family was there. I was like, "Oh HI EMILY!" When she suddenly showed up in the lobby. I did the same things when Veronica appeared. Brandon brought my dad out to the lobby and we took pictures. 

Here's me and the girls. 

Me and Brandon. He told me he'd been looking for me on stage and then suddenly I was right in front of him. 

Me, the twins, and my dad.

Me, Emily, and her kids. I was so surprised they were still awake. You can tell these kids had siblings who are teenagers. They are used to staying up late.

Charlotte and Lydia's best friends were there too. They'd loved the show. (And on Monday they came over and we had a long discussion about how the set worked.)

Here's another group photo. 

Another one with my dad.

And another of the two sets of twins. 

Brandon had been going around talking to all his friends. He said that EVERYONE loved me and that I wasn't allowed to stop doing plays now that I'd started. 

Later he said something like, "I realized I probably should appreciate you more. You are doing all this cool stuff back stage and making all these people love you. And you are helping with the awards ceremony and everyone is excited about that."

I just laughed because I think Brandon appreciates me plenty.

There was another cast party at a restaurant, but since we had family in town we didn't go. Brandon and everyone went to their car. The twins and I grabbed our stuff from downstairs and went outside to our van that was still parked behind the orpheum. It was so nice to not have to walk far for a parking spot. 

We got home basically at the same time as everyone else. 

We had ice cream and left over pizza and talked and talked and talked about the show. Veronica and Emily wanted to know how we did the dress transformations. Brandon said the play was magical. He'd helped a bit with the set, but he'd still been impressed by how it changed so often. Even through he'd been on the front row he hadn't been able to hear the set moving.  

It was so great to hear the feedback. We've been doing this show for so long that I've got used to so much of it. I loved hearing from people who were seeing it for the first time. 

Brandon took my dad back to the hotel. Emily and I stayed up a little later, but she was nodding off. So we decided to go to bed. Brandon and I stayed up talking for about another 45 minutes. There was just so much to say about the play. 

On Sunday we slept in. We just had stake conference that day. We were planning to watch it on zoom, but when the time came I was like, "Why would I listen to the stake statistical report when I could talk to my sister." So it never got turned on. 

Brandon had made muffins on Saturday. We had those for breakfast along with sausage, yogurt, and fruit. 

We talked until 1:30 and then it was time for Emily to leave. I was so happy that she'd come all this way for the play. 

After she left I took a nap and zonked out for like 2 hours. 

That evening we watched Moana 2. It is a good movie. I don't like it as much as the first Moana, but that's hard to do because that's in like the top 10 of my favorite movies. It was still a really good movie. 

One of the odd things was that we didn't have to be at the theatre again until Thursday. It was so weird to be looking at a week that didn't have us at the Orpheum all the time. 

Anyway, that's the end of the 8th week of Cinderella. We have one week left and then it's all over. 

Thanks for reading.