Sleepless in Cleveland

It's 2:30am and I have to report to the bus in 5 hours, so why am I still up you ask? I'm not sure. This is beginning to be a bad trend in my sleeping pattern. I think it's a combination of things keeping me up. It could be that I sleep the day away on our early morning daily bus travels, or that my brain won't shut off with show and regular life things, or maybe it's because I truly have restless leg syndrome!!! Whatever the reason is it's not good. We are in Cleveland right now- and leaving for Grand Rapids tomorrow morning. I did a meet and greet tonight with Hilton Garden execs and their families (HGI is one of our major sponsors) and one of the very enthused guests asked what city we just came from, and all i had was a blank stare as I searched my brain for the answer! STATE COLLEGE! ahhh! I can't even remember where I woke up this morning! This tour is about to become a real brain twister. We are on city #1 of a 4 day one-nighter stretch. I'm remaining calm, but confused and exhausted as well! Unfortunately these one nighters don't allow for much exploration in the 15-20 hours we are here for. The big event of the night for me was getting a slammin grilled cheese and fries from the hotel restaurant. Yep, as Drew Carey were to say, "Cleveland Rocks!" Well, at least it does in the hotel grilled cheese department, the rest of the city is still in question.

A little bit on State College, PA, aka Penn State....

There were really good things and really bad things about city #6. Let's start with the positive first- the ice creamery turned out to be amazing and we got to walk around the campus in between shows Saturday! I got the Bittersweet Mint, delicious! I was hoping for Peppermint but they didn't have that one ready for scooping. The creamery is definitely smack dab in the middle of the agricultural department so I'm wondering if I could go to Penn State and graduate with a master ice cream maker degree?? Seems possible. The campus was really pretty and clean, but empty because all the students were already gone on Thanksgiving break. Okay, for the bad- the hotel was a dark cave with no window to the outside world and my Internet didn't work and it was just dusty and grouse. OH! I almost forgot the best thing about our two day visit to State College! I saw Twilight New Moon with Hillmer and Sam!! The movie was actually really great- so much better then the first one- but I can't believe how hard we laughed every time there was a shirtless Jacob! haha!

Here we are at the creamery, doing a lady lion pose with our ice cream. Penn State are lions so there were signs all over saying "Lady Lions." We seemed it only fitting to adopt the lady name.

This is the Bruce Jordan Center where we preformed in State College with us on the sign!!!

Back in the U-S-of- A!

We are already on our 5th city in this wild adventure! After our 19 day stint in Canada, we barely inched over the border arriving in Buffalo, NY today for one show! (I'll get back to Canada another day.....again, haven't been the best blogger this year!) It was dreary, cold and wet today- making my first impression of Buffalo less then perfect. Our hotel isn't as fancy as our Canadian hotels have been, and it's not near anything cool- making it a double bummer. We arrived about 2pm, dropped our bags off and had a few hours rest before we had to head over the arena. I spent those few hours picking up a postcard and peanut M&M's and finally using my phone again!! It felt great to text and talk like normal! The show was good. Huge arena with a packed house and a wonderful audience. Couldn't ask for a better show set up. My right foot is bothering me a tad, and it's annoying me because I don't know how I may have injured it. My first bet is on me being clumsy.

We are leaving bright and early to hit the road to State College, PA where we will sit for 2 days. I'm exited about State College because of an ice creamery that's connected to Penn State!! The flavors are incredibly amazing!! Check it out!! Apparently at Penn State you can take ice cream courses! So cool! http://www.creamery.psu.edu/flavors.htm

I'll let you all know which one I try....or 3 or 4! :)

The tour has officially begun!

Last night was opening night! (finally!) I started to think we'd never stop rehearsing, but we made it! 1 city down, 30 to go! Of course it wouldn't be opening night without a little excitement, and I've felt like something was bound to happen because everything up until now has gone too smoothly. So our bus in NYAC and the Shine staircase got a case of stage fright.....neither one worked! The bus started to malfunction mid number and luckily the manual controls kicked in, but the cues for the bus rotation were behind so it didn't really sync up with the LED screen. The first 2 girls off the bus actually stepped off while the bus was still moving.....which is totally unsafe! But they made it work! If that wasn't enough, the Shine stairs didn't make the usual move forward, so the LED wall opened up and we just stayed back in the shadows. Wah wah! Totally killing our best moment in the show! We had to take super long walks to make it to our correct depths for the top of dance. We were all joking backstage after that we channeled our inner supermodel on the long walks, ha! Technical difficulties....but we used our PCS (professional common sense) and handled it well, everyone in charge seemed to be happy with us!

Here are some show pics taken from a dress rehearsal, and also some cute ones from our opening night party!

lots of things have happened....

So i confess, I've been a terrible blogger as you can tell. But I'm back on track. Things got a little crazy the last week in Myrtle Beach and then once we arrived to Hershey we were working super hard so I got super tired. Wrapping up the last fews weeks......

I can't believe how quickly time seems to be moving. I'm still a little shocked it's November! When we left Myrtle Beach I was a little sad because I finally felt like I was getting settled in and comfortable. Plus there was a long- and dorky- list of things I never did! Like mini golf, lazer tag, eat crab legs, and seeing the Dixie Stampede....yes, i know these are dorky! The last few days of rehearsal there were pretty intense and exhausting and I injured my neck- it's still slowly healing. Other noteworthy things that happened in Myrtle- 1) I had a celebratory weekend of fun for my 25th birthday! We saw 'Where the Wild Things Are' on Friday night....cute movie, a little strange though. Saturday my friends surprised me with a barbie themed cake at lunch time, delicious!! And on the big day Beth, Hillmer, Nita and I all spent the morning getting massages and afterward met a bunch more girls for gospel brunch at the House of Blues. After I blew out my candles on my birthday pumpkin pie that night, I had a weird moment that I felt really old. A quarter of a century old! 2) Coffee house radio on satalite radio. Love it! Our cars in Myrtle had satalite radio and this station totally kept our sanity and provided many funny ride home sing-a-longs. Good times in our car group! 3) I got a flu shot. Not hugely noteworthy, but it seemed like a big deal after many late night, lunch time, and car ride discussions on if the flu shot was a good or a bad idea. 4) Myrtle never let you down for a photo shoot. Between the crazy touristy stuff, huge crabs, and beautiful beaches- I will always look back at my Myrtle photo album and smile.

Here is Beth and I's beach condo! Gotta love that stylish couch! hehe!

This pic is from the last day of rehearsal at the Waccamaw! This was our main rehearsal hall. That gold thing in the right corner is a practice banner for Nativity.

My feet! I had to tape these bad boys everyday!

Blowing out my candles on my barbie cake! I love that I turn 25 and get a barbie birthday cake, and that it made me just as excited as when I was 8! My cake said "happy birthday howie!" :)

Wig fitting! That is Tony our wig man- he was so honored that he was going on the blog!

Busy weekend!

The biggest news of the week was not that we finished learning the show, or that our big cheese director was there are seemed very happy with us- nope, it was that I got my FIRST speeding ticket ever!!! Driving to rehearsal on Saturday morning with the girls I got pulled over for going 67 (okay so that was really fast) on the highway in Myrtle Beach. I'm so glad my friends were with me otherwise it would have been way more traumatic! The even more disappointing fact was that I had always hoped that I could charm my way out of a ticket- but this police man was in a super grumpy mood and was SO not having it. He did reduce my ticket though after we said that we were on our way to rehearsal for Rockettes. Since my ticket I have learned my lesson, however I refuse to drive 30 miles an hour like everyone else here!!

Here is take 2 of our rehearsal studio- I don't think the pictures showed up on the last post.

This is where we kick...

Dont be fooled- this may look like a shoe store, but it's not! This is the "store" we rehearse in......more strange Waccamaw pics to come!

Serenity now!

Hi! So I may be being a bit lame, but this week has been so rough! I'm super exhausted- a few times I've just come home and taken a nap after rehearsal.....boring, I know! We learned the 'Santa' number on Tuesday, basically for 6 hours we did a cardio class in a humid room with lots of people. It was a great workout, but it killed my calves!! Apparently it was tough on everyone because the athletic training room was packed full of people with all sorts of injuries that day and the next morning. The funny news of the day came from finding out that I get the coveted title (sarcastic tone injected) of being center stage Santa! HA! Toward the end of the number we form a triangle shape with me as the point in the front- at least i know how to tell people to spot me in full Santa gear!

No other big news to report. My roomie, Beth, and I have been trying to enjoy the beach when we can muster the energy go. I feel like most nights we just stay in, cook dinner and watch TV. Our favorite activity is to go the the grocery store- I swear we go like 4 times a week! Whooo- we are crazy! :) A few girls and I went to see Love Happens on Saturday night and I left feeling a tiny bit bummed out. It wasn't the cute romantic comedy I'd hoped for, it was a little bit darker and depressing. On my day off, Beth and I went shopping at a really cute plaza called the marketplace commons. It took us 2 1/2 hours just to get through Anthropologie!!!

I'm really looking forward to this weekend. It will be a challenging rehearsal on Saturday because our head director, Linda, is flying down to check on our progress as a cast, but after that I'm off to Charleston for my day off!! Only 2 more days!!

Crunchy peanut butter + chocolate chips=happiness

Beth has introduced me to the best and easiest dessert treat ever! (Beth is my roommate while in Myrtle in the beach condo) Many a nights after rehearsal as we sit and watch TV....Glee is our favorite....the crunchy peanut butter and chocolate chips come out of the pantry. We each take our spoon, dip it in the peanut butter, cover that sticky lump with chocolate chips and enjoy, yum! So easy- so simple- and I never thought about it till Beth showed me! Beth, you are a genius! :)

We finished 'Shine' today and I found out that I'm the top of the staircase in the grand reveal of the number. It's nothing super exciting except it's a great way for me to tell people how to spot me during the show. It's actually the scariest spot considering that I have the most stairs to step down giving me a better chance of tripping and falling! That would be something to happen to me....knock on cyber wood!! ha! I think toward the end of rehearsal today our energy got a little low as a group so one of the dance captains, Mark, stopped and gave us a wonderful inspirational pick up. He reminded us why we are all here- the love of dance. And how this particular number really lets us shine that out. (no pun intended, well kinda) On this tour we will perform for hundreds of thousands of people all over the country. In those audiences there will be little girls that will look up to us and dream of being a Rockette one day. We truly have an amazing job and are so lucky to be doing what we love to do. Sometimes it's hard to remember that as we are jumping in and out of 40 degree ice baths, rolling out of bed at 5am to travel on a bus for hours for a show later that night, or shoving a swollen and blistered foot in a heel for hours. It felt nice to reflect on that positive moment and warm fuzzy feeling. I definitely benefited from being reminded of those things today because I've felt my attitude has been on the brink of falling to the dark side. We ran the whole number after his pep talk and I think our cast had it's first magical moment. We really came together as a group and danced as a team. It felt great. We have a really good line this year......GO A TEAM '09! Oh ya, and today we also had our first theme day at rehearsal- fosse day. We wore all black and a red lip, not that far off Rockettes I know, but you have to start somewhere, right?

SHOW SCHEDULE!!!

Here is our tour schedule- all 31 cities! Let me know if I'll be in your neck of the woods or if you want to make a fun Holiday vacation to any of these wonderful places. I love to see familiar faces along the way!

11/9 - Hamilton, ON 7pm

11/10 - Hamilton, ON, 7pm

11/11 - Hamilton, ON, 4pm, 7pm

11/12 - DARK

11/13 - Montreal, QC, (4pm), 7pm

11/14 - Montreal, QC, 11am, 3pm,7pm

11/15 - Ottawa, 6pm

11/16 - Toronto, ON, 7pm

11/17 - Toronto, ON, 4pm,7:30pm

11/18 - Toronto, ON, 4pm,7:30pm

11/19 - Buffalo, NY, 7pm

11/20 - State College, PA,7:30pm

11/21 - State College, PA, 1pm,7:30pm

11/22 - Cleveland, OH, 6pm

11/23 - Grand Rapids, MI, 7pm

11/24 - Ft. Wayne, IN, (4pm), 7pm

11/25 - Columbus, OH, 4pm,7pm

11/26 - THANKSGIVING/DARK, Memphis, TN

11/27 - Memphis, TN, (1pm), 4pm,7pm

11/28 - Memphis, TN, 1pm,4pm,7pm

11/29 - Birmingham, AL, (4pm), 7pm

11/30 - Knoxville, TN, 7pm

12/1 - DARK

12/2 - Philadelphia, PA, 4pm,7pm

12/3 - Norfolk, VA, 8pm

12/4 - Winston-Salem, NC, (4pm), 7pm

12/5 - Winston-Salem, NC, 1pm,4pm,7pm

12/6 - Columbia, SC, 5pm

12/7 - Charleston, WV, (4pm), 7pm

12/8 - Louisville, KY, (4pm), 7pm

12/9 - Cincinnati, OH, 4pm,7pm

12/10 - Lexington, KY, (4pm), 7pm

12/11 - Greenville, SC, 7pm

12/12 - Greenville, SC, (1pm), 4pm,7pm

12/13 - Greenville, SC, 1pm,4pm, (7pm)

12/14 - Charlottesville, VA, (4pm), 7pm

12/15 - Fairfax, VA, (4pm), 7pm

12/16 - Fairfax, VA, 4pm,7pm,

12/17 - Baltimore, MD, 4pm,7pm

12/18 - Washington, DC, 4pm,7pm

12/19 - Washington, DC, 1pm,4pm,7pm

12/20 - Washington, DC, 1pm,4pm,7:30pm

12/21 - Hershey, PA, (4pm), 7pm

12/22 - Hershey, PA, 4pm,7pm

12/23 - Richmond, VA, 4pm,7pm

12/24 - DARK, Orlando, FL

12/25 - CHRISTMAS DAY, Orlando, FL

12/26 - Orlando, FL, 1pm,4pm,7pm

12/27 - Orlando, FL, 1pm,4pm,7pm

12/28 - Orlando, FL, (4pm), 7pm

12/29 - Ft. Lauderdale, FL, (4pm), 7pm

12/30 - Ft. Lauderdale, FL, 1pm,4pm,7pm

12/31 - DARK

1/1 - DARK

1/2 - Charleston, SC, (1pm), 4pm,7pm

1/3 - Charleston, SC, 1pm,4pm,(7pm)

Hello Monday...ouch!

Oh how the day off goes by so quickly- and so does that nice, close to normal feeling that our muscles get to feel every Sunday. Not gonna lie, rehearsal last week kicked my butt. Nothing can really prepare you for Rockette season- dance class, pilates, even running a half marathon 2 weeks before you start will still leave you feeling whooped after those first few days. And just when I started to think that my hamstrings wouldn't snap if I had to reach over and tie my shoe, Monday hits. We actually got out 45 minutes early last Saturday, which has only happened twice in my 7 years of Rocketting, so I don't know why I thought they would be easy on us today. We learned most 'Shine'- the final number of the show- and even though it's one of my favorite numbers to preform it also twists your body in ways that isn't natural. (For you who saw the show or read the blog last year, this is number that we get to wear the awesome costume...it looks like we are just dripping in diamonds!) We'll finish up 'Shine' tomorrow and then be able to check off 2 of the 9 numbers we have to learn. I'll catch ya up on last week....we learned NYAC or 'New York at Christmas.' This is a beast of a number clocking in at about 16 minutes long between riding on the bus and busting a move. In this particular number we start by riding a New York double deck bus through a virtual tour of Manhattan at Christmas time- passing by the tree in Rock Center, central park covered in snow, and of course Radio City Music Hall! I'm on the top deck of the bus this time, last year I was on the bottom right behind the driver's seat, so I'm excited to be doing something a little bit different...also may be excited to be doing a little more sitting! (top of the bus gets to do most of the "bus-ography" sitting down while bottom deck has to stand and fling their legs out the window) Yes, I'll admit I like to wear the lazy pants when given the chance. The number finishes off with us gasping for air as we do our famous eye-high kick line in a very festive Times Square. That's pretty much it- I think I've you up!

Pics

Here are some pics of the tour so far....

Melissa and I are enjoying the beautiful beach day!

The pier by our hotel

Myrtle Beach!

Saturday night a group of us went to go see Fame to celebrate our first week in rehearsals...

...warning, bad movie! Bad great opportunity for a bad jazz pose!

Alive and Kicking!

Arena tour 2009 has officially begun! I'm back on the road again- this time hitting 33 cities! Double from last year! It's going to be an exciting adventure and I invite you all to take the journey with me. I'll do my best to keep ya up to date with everything happening in Rocketteland!

We started on Tuesday of last week- apologize for my late start, got a new mac laptop before I left home and just turned it on!! (ps- LOVE my new computer, it's so pretty!) This time rehearsals are in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I was a little bummed about not returning to Connecticut this year, but after the beautiful beach day I had there is no looking back. So we are here for a month, living in beach condos by night and kicking in the Waccamaw by day. Let me explain the Waccamaw...the Waccamaw is where we rehearse. It's an old abandon strip mall- I don't know how Radio City found it- and the Christmas Spectacular moved in, turning D-list stores into rehearsal studios, costume shops, and cast lounges. It's really bizarre, funny pictures to come...

This season I'm lucky, and not so lucky, to be in my same line-up spot as last year....third from center on stage left! The not so lucky tag is coming from the fact that the show actually has a smaller line of Rockettes this year- 18 instead of 24. So this means everything is different! All the formations, travels and counts are new. Needless to say, I'm cozy where I am, and SUPER excited that my friend Beth is standing next to me on my short side- just like last year!

I'll leave you all with a funny pic from the first day of rehearsal. It's Christmas time again! Ha! And we gotta ice so our bodies don't break!