DAY 120 - Runnin' the course!

Get in' shape girl!  Today we ran the little ROTC training course in the hills above Weber.  It's this old school exercise course made back in the 70's or 80's.  You run down a path and there are stops along the way with different activities to do.  My favorite happens to be the hop kick, you have to hop on one leg while kicking the other leg up and touching your toe.  It's pretty fancy, I'm glad that this is the type of exercise the government feels is important for its young ROTC recruits.  Add a jazzy minus track and a few grapevines and I think we've got ROTC the Musical!  

DAY 119 - The Heat Is On in Salt Lake

My good buddy Jeff is in Miss Saigon at PMT.  I have been wanting to get tickets for the show to see him, but $50 is just a little bit to rich for my blood right now.  I was a little disappointed I was going to miss it.  But I received a pleasant surprise today when Jeff called me and said he had a comp ticket to the dress rehearsal!  I was able to go, even though I had to sit by myself, in between two nun like ladies and a group of pretentious Salt Lake Acting Company people.  It was an odd juxtaposition.  I believe the nuns were a little shocked at first, but ended up enjoying the show.  

It was funny to watch Jeff stumble around drunk in a Vietnamese brothel then finding himself wrapped up with a little prostitute... I was so proud of him for being edgy.  A far cry from the BYU Young Ambassador Spectacular.

The show was really good, in my humble opinion.  I saw "Miss Saigon" in New York the week before it closed.  I remember not being overly impressed, but that may have been because it was the day we flew in and I was extremely tired, and we were about half way up the balcony and I felt as if I was observing "Miss Saigon" form the suburbs of Hanoi.  But this time I was near the front, I was able to follow the story better and see facial expressions.  Many people try to pick apart shows for the flaws, but in my opinion, if it successfully conveys the emotion of the story it is a success.  Nothing really took away from that for me.  There may have been some awkward moments, and since it was a rehearsal, there were still a few minor technical glitches with mic's and that sort of thing.   But all in all I thought it was a great show.  If I had paid the $50 I don't think I would have been disappointed... I mean $50 is $50 and I think that's always too much for regional theater, but I guess if that's what we have to pay to support the arts I'm all about it.  When, of course, I actually have the $50 to support the arts... for now, thanks for the comp ticket!

DAY 118 - Buzzzed

So after looking at my recent photos I realized my hair was getting long and whispy and old man looking.  I hate it!!!  Whenever it starts to grow out I think its going to be thick and luxurious for some reason. I have these visions of having the shaggy surfer dude look.... Aint never gonna happen.  I don't know why I try.  So tonight I accepted the fact that I'm a half step away from trying to get into the Hair Club for Men.  I just hear their initiation rituals are brutal.  So until I make it through the hazing process I'll have to settle for a shaved crew cut look.  It's not bad, right?   I was also excited to finally have one of those camera in the bathroom mirror shots!  I'm so MySpace 2006!

DAY 117 - Show me the money!!!

Cash William Noyes was born Saturday at 10 something PM after poor Lisa was in labor for 22 hours!  Finally the doctor used every tool available and yanked him into this crazy world!  (The dog came earlier.)  

I'm so excited for Matt and Lisa!  He seriously is the cutest kid, big chunky cheeks and a cute little chin.  He was 9 lbs, I told them chunky babies are so much cuter than skinny babies, skinny babies look creepy.  I wish that same mentality translated to adulthood.

I was quite surprised when I got the text Saturday night, to see that his name was Cash.  There has been an ongoing dispute over the name issue the entire gestation.  Matt really wanted Cash, after one of his idols Johnny Cash, and if it was a girl he wanted Presley after his other idol Elvis.  I liked both names actually, I really think Presley is cute for a girl.  But I understand Lisa's concern, since her name is Lisa Marie, may seem a little overboard with the Elvis idolizing, they all ready drive a Cadilac and have a white grand piano in the living room, Matt is just a peanut butter and banana sandwich away from becoming the King himself.  ;)

DAY 116 - SURPRISE!!

Today was Alane's birthday!! Nancy was wanting to do something really special for Alane this year so she decided to put together this little surprise party. We have been planning it for a few weeks now and Alane hasn't suspected a thing. We had decided we would go to Sundance for brunch and Alane thought that would be the big activity of the day. Little did she know!

We went to brunch at the Foundry Grill at Sundance, which is to die for!! But we had a lot of time to kill before people were going to arrive at 6pm. So we stopped off in Alpine so James and Nancy could right up the offer on the condo they want to buy. Then we had an awkward amount of time left, not really enough to do anything, but we would have been a little early if we would have gone straight there. So we decided to go to the mall, but we had only been there about 10 minutes and it was time to go. So I texted Nancy and told her to tell Alane she had to use the bathroom, then James called and told Alane he needed to go cause he had to go to the bathroom... apparently there was a choloera outbreak amongst the group and we had to leave the mall STAT! Everyone had a case of the "runny bottoms" (that's what James calls it, Australians are funny).

Anyway, we finally made it to my apartment and she walked in and just thought the decorations were left over from my party Friday, but then she realized Christian Bale and she knew it was for her. Then right after we got there, people began arriving. She was sooo happy there were even some tears. We had a good turn out, more people than I thought. Some of her former students, and some of her friends from college and that she grew up with in Illinois. It went swimmingly, she told us she had no idea!

I'm glad she had a good birthday, its harder for all of us to get older, especially when things don't turn out how you figured they would. But, as for Alane, I think she has a great life, a job she loves, respect of the entire community she lives in, and friends and family who love her! Happy Birthday Alane!!

DAY 115 - All the balloons were hung on the ceiling with care

We're so sneaky....  Nancy and James came down today to get my apartment all ready for Alane's surprise party tomorrow.  Alane doesn't suspect a thing, she called me at one point to ask directions to Daybreak, Nancy and James were right there trying to be quiet.  I told her the best I knew how, but I don't know that area very well, so James was whispering directions to me.  Then right after she got off the phone with me, she called James for directions... guess she didn't trust me, but we thought it was real funny.

I also got to see my guilty pleasure tonight "17 Again" starring the amazingly um....talented?  Zac Efron.  It was a pretty cheesy movie, but what can you expect.  Reminded me of all those 80's movies I loved s

o much.  

As part of Alane's present we made her a full size Christian Bale cutout.  She'll love it, but its not so funny to walk into your dark apartment at midnight and see the silhouette of a strange 6' tall man in your living room...  Newsie Christian Bale in my apartment may not be such a 

bad thing, but creepy American Psycho Christian Bale not so good.

DAY 114 - This just in...

Has it been a year?? Seems more like 10!  Today was the Weber State News Senior Tribute.  There were four graduating this semester, all three of us were in the In Studio class two years ago, then went into news that fall.  I just happened to be a year ahead of them.  It was a lot of fun to see everyone again, and be in the newsroom and on the set.  I totally miss it!!  Hailey and I took our old positions as hard hitting news anchors.  After the show a bunch of us alums and the graduating group all went to lunch at Javier's.  It's sort of a tradition.

After that I went and met Nancy, we did our shopping for Alane's surprise party.  We got her present, and spent far too much time trying to find the right shades of pink and orange for the decorating theme.  But it's going to so much fun, she'll be so surprised!!!

I made it back in time to get everything all set up for the party.  The newsies began filing in.  I didn't have as many come as I had planned on, but it was a good group.  The ones still in school had a paper due by midnight, so most of them were frantically trying to finish their senior thesis.  But us alums had a good time, with our trusty advisor Terri as the life of the party.  A Shih Tzu named Oliver and a Man names Israel... and every sentence ending in "That's what she said"  it was a wild one!!!