What Would I Say?

There's this funny little facebook app, what-would-i-say.com, and it's sorta hilarious. You sign in with your facebook and it accesses all the statuses/comments/photo captions you've posted on facebook, it jumbles the words, and makes new sentences. Some of them come out really funny. Others are complete messes. But the funny ones are worth it. Here are some things it came up with that I would say...

Sounds like me

Do you know who the cahokians are? Ancient mississippian people!

A surprisingly accurate and depressing reflection of my life.

What is Belle from Beauty and the Beast doing here.

Accurate and less depressing reflection of my life!

I hate it when that happens

Must've been from Costco

Let your imagination take that one...

go play with what-would-i-say.com. It's a hoot and a half.

PS. Reading cat reward for those of you who made it this far.

Theater Goer

I went home last weekend to see White Bear's musical Once Upon a Mattress. It was hilarious. Like seriously great. My pretend sister in law Maddy (Our boyfriends are brothers. Voila, pretend sisters in law?) was the cute lead and I want to be her when I grow up. I bought one ticket, planning to go all by myself... however, while at that show, I actually ran into approximately a million Ashland friends. Also, I ran into my high school director who hugged me and told me "good job" by accident after the show. Old habits die hard? I told her, "no, YOU good job, Suoja."

Karen Sullivan (soon to be pennywise in urinetown), me, and Maddy

Denise is my favorite. She also taught me how to pencil my eyebrows, so I guess we have a special connection.

Ashland friends at the WBL show. Though I only really know like 40% of these people, I probably hugged 90%.

Maddy is stunning. Amazing. Really Loud.

Later in the weekend, I went to Ashland to see the closing weekend of The Wizard of Oz. Cozy and I went for dinner before and dessert after. The whole night was so fun. Over all, though, I just can't get over that Ashland is doing Urinetown next. Rehearsals have already started. I think I might cry just a little bit because I love that show so much.

I took a selfie before going because I was kinda proud of my hair

Rob and Cozy

Peg, sneaky Maggie, me and Cozy!

Ps. Did you donate to Ashland on give to the max day? If you did, you are a wonderful person and I appreciate you a lot. I mean it. The razoo.com site that hosts MN Give to the Max went down for almost 7 hours starting about noon on that day. It was kinda a big disaster and I think they might get into a lot of trouble for that because a lot of bigger nonprofits count on this day to make millions. Woah. Anyway, despite the really crappy situation, Ashland still received over $11,000 in donations. That's pretty cool. Thank you for giving if you were generous enough to support a place I love. Ashland and its administration say thanks.

Rose with Thorns

I have to tell you about something amazing I've been experiencing lately. A friend of mine, Anna Rose, writes a beautiful blog. We met through camp counseling at Ashland Productions and I could immediately see that she was the most caring soul through how she interacted with the young ones. Her blog is called Rose with Thorns and it is simply inspired. Anna Rose has the most sincerely kind, sweetest, most generous and selfless soul. I can't even explain to you what a gentle, beautiful being this young woman is. It is impossible to do anything but love and support her.

Lovely Anna Rose

I am continuously inspired by her quiet strength and unending sense of hope. She writes daily (daily? Yes, daily.) about many things. She talks about her day to day life while also focusing on coping and living with her personal challenges. Anna Rose is a brave and beautiful writer, her posts describe life as a woman living with aspergers, anxiety, depression, and eating disorders. Her posts also describe life as a woman living with friendship, unconditional love, happiness, hope for tomorrow, and daily growth. Repeating themes throughout the week include Recovery in the Media, One Thousand Thanks, and Coping Skills.

A screen shot from her blog. The categories in which she places her posts.

It is amazing to read her blog. Her words are enlightening, inspirational, and brilliant. I read her blog for enjoyment, but also to be educated. Will you give it a look? Again, it's called Rose with Thorns and you can get there by clicking here. I wish you could meet her in real life, she'd quietly wiggle into your heart and before you even knew she was there you would care about this human like she was your childhood best friend.

The first summer we met!

Bye Bye Birdie! The following winter

Our last summer counseling together. Jack in the middle : )

PS. Did I mention she throws murder mystery parties? Isn't that the coolest? I've never attended one because I'm always away at school (silly school) but I still think that is the coolest thing ever.

I Love Ashland!

GUESS WHAT DAY IT IS.
Okay, it's not hump day, but something else exciting is happening.

Today I get to celebrate my most favorite theater in the world, Ashland Productions! I participated as a counselor at Ashland twice, I worked a spotlight once, I also was on stage for Birdie and Cats, and now I'm the most enthusiastic audience member ever.
Ashland puts on amazing productions. One of their main focuses is education, and guess what, I love that! In addition to their adult/teen shows, each summer, Ashland has summer theater camps for kids. The counselors are brilliant and the campers are inspiring and passionate! Also, each spring with their ACT! program (Ashland Children's Theater), Ashland spreads out some wonderful directors to many elementary schools across the metro. Each elementary school learns the same show at their own school and then when the rehearsal process is over, they all get a weekend of production on the Ashland stage with professional set, lights, costume, and mics! How COOL is that?

Counselor Buddies

Cute campers on mismatch day

More Cute Campers

My stage hubby, Jack

Stage right master. I got a headset like Britney Spears

Bye Bye Birdie

Bye Bye Birdie

CATS

Fine Feline Friends

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Damn Yankees

Current Show: Wizard of Oz

 I'm going home to see The Wizard of Oz this weekend. Eeeep. Can't wait!


Recently, Ashland posted this video on their facbeook page:

Today, Thursday Nov 14th, is Give to the Max day. This theater is amazing, and if you are willing to give this year, you can help reach Ashland's goal to raise $15,000! Every teeny little bit helps : ) AND I heard that they have some amazing sponsors willing to match the first $3,500! COOL! I know a lot of you have supported my theater hobby over the years and I just want to help give back to a place that gave me so much. Consider supporting this special place with me, minimum donation is $10 and even that makes a big difference! Learn how by clicking HERE.

Apologetic Book Snob

Do you remember this post when I mentioned that I picked up the audio book Carrie by Stephen King? If you missed it, you should be caught up now. Well, I listened to the whole thing. It was pretty neat and I was excited to come home and see the remake in theaters. WRENCH IN THE PLAN, the movie already came and went in Winona. I suppose that's okay because Rotten Tomatoes gave the remake a 46%. I did, however, find the original movie on netflix and watched that instead.

Drumroll... 

As anticipated, the ending in the book was way better.

See? I like being this horrible person who reads the book before seeing the movie.

Did you know that in the movie she just sets the school on fire, goes home, kills her mom in self-defense, and dies cradling her in the closet... while in the BOOK, she sets the school on fire, goes through town breaking all the fire hydrants with her mind, causes major gas pump leaks, sets the ENTIRE TOWN on fire, and then goes home to kill her mom on purpose? Yeah! Way scarier! In their fight, Carrie's mom stabs her in the shoulder, and after killing her mom by stopping her heart with her mind, she crawls into the street and dies there. Seriously. Everyone just dies except for like 3 people in the whole town.

2013 vs 1976

Rotten Tomatoes gave the original movie a 92%. It was pretty good. They just hadn't read the book ; )

ENG 250: Grammar and Usage

I'm working on a grammar final project and it is slowly crushing my soul.
Okay, maybe it's not THAT bad.
But it is a lot of work that I don't want to do.

However, if you ever have any questions about distinguishing between adverbial and adjectival phrases, I am the new master and you should ask me.


I just thought I'd leave you with these:

 

Have a good one.

Duluth Reunion

You guys.

My weekend was so great.

Thursday afternoon I had an art class that usually goes from 2-5 but we were released as soon as we finished our studio projects: make a mask and a hat. Done. I was on the road to home by 3:15! I spent Halloween night at home eating meatloaf (meatmound) and candy.

My eye mask. Geddit?

Friday morning I got an oil change and tire rotation and hit-the-road-Jack for Duluth! About half way there, the sky went from sunny and bright to a gloomy misty dreary grey. That sounded about right, so I knew I was indeed on the right path to gloomy Duluth. Friday night I saw Dan's show Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and I LOVED IT. A lot of the actors were really brilliant and hilarious so it was an all around good time. The show is about Andrew Jackson's campaign for presidency, and then his time as president. Except it's sarcastic, satiric, and set to an emo punk rock music theme and atmosphere. Seriously hilarious and surprisingly awesome. Friday night after the show, Dan's brother and his friend showed up and they played video games until 5am in the bedroom where I slept. I'm amazing at sleeping. Saturday we all hung out, got Pizza Luce (Baked potato pizza is a thing, and I love it.) with his parents, and saw the show. Me for the second time, Dan's parents, brother, and buddy for the first time. Not sure his parents loved it, but that makes sense considering the frequency of vulgar language and penis jokes. They all left but I stayed for good old Renegade Improv because Dan was on. Spectacularly funny, as always.

well, he's cute.

View his incredible, life-changing, one of a kind stimulus package.

patriotic set

Another awesome weekend.

Fun fact - I'm sitting in a library group study room alone and the motion censored lights just turned off because I've been doing work at this computer, unmoving, for far too long.