Life-Size Bobble Head

I have a great friend, very talented and fearless. When I'm afraid I can't do something, she is the first to remind me that I am strong and amazing, gives me a squeeze and then a little shove. And then cheers when I am done - GOLD STAR, she says. She encourages me to jump into the crowd, trusting they'll catch me and will do so herself just to see if she's brave enough (she's brave enough for most of us).  And she is someone I admire and who inspires me; my personal courage role model. She sets goals and achieves them.

The last few years, she's been setting biking goals, pushing herself more each year. She has a goal, this year, to ride 59 miles through Deception Pass on the Bike MS ride this weekend (see her story here). And while that is an admirable goal in and of itself, it isn't all she has for a goal this year.  This year she wanted to push her fundraising goal a little more as well. And I want to help her for all the times she's given me that little boost I needed when it seemed to hard to get through.

So, I am. 

I am holding an auction for a CRAZY AWESOME costume.

Time to digress, for context, so hang with me.

Many of you know (and if you don't, here you go), I spent the last 10 and a half years working for a company called Expeditors.  I met many wonderful people there and had great memories and a lot of hard work. One of the most memorable parts of working for Expeditors is Peter Rose, the much beloved former CEO. So beloved, one year, many years ago,  bobble heads were created of the CEO. These bobble heads were coveted and scarce and a sighting was rare. 

Until Halloween 2014. . . For Halloween 2014, my very talented friend actually created a  LIFE SIZE VERSION of PETER ROSE.  And it was AMAZING. 

And now, this LIFE SIZE PETER ROSE, can be yours!  

All you have to do is bid (by private messaging me via Facebook or via the blog).  The bidding starts at $100 and all the proceeds will go to Melinda Thrasher's Bike MS fundraising goal. The bidding will be open through tomorrow night.

If you can't bid, but want to support both my friend and this amazing cause, please do. Every dollar counts and I know Melinda would be grateful for your contribution. Just click on the link above and donate!

Thank you all for reading! And let me know if you want to bid!!

30 for 30 has gotten me totally inspired

today is day 11 of 30 days of writing.  it's been so helpful in getting me unstuck. i've been stuck for months and months and months. and for some reason, at the end of September, i was ripe for change. Dustin asked me to go to this "open mic" night at the Hugo House to see him read some of his work. i hadn't seen him in months and i always leave our writing groups with so much excitement and inspiration, i thought it would be good to see him (miss him so much!!) and see what he'd been working on. i needed out of this funk.

it was the exact right time.

i found this note on the table we were sitting at and it hosted a graphic that spoke to me.

i thought it would be a good idea for Dustin to do since he was so good at being regular with his writing (he's totally my hero on this. . .). but a few days later, he emailed me, telling me he had taken a look and maybe we could do it together. i don't even know what possessed me to say yes since the previous three or four months i'd been completely terrified to open up my computer or my notebook.  the thought of writing anything made me want go into a fugue state. so, when i said yes, i think it surprised me more than Dustin.

and so far. . . it hasn't be horrible. the complete opposite (for those of you following this horrible pattern are likely screaming at your screens, "seriously kp. you fucking say this every few months. .. " continue. . . ). it's been great. i've written about Laffy Taffy (a caper at work), what it's like to have to arrange a funeral, the rivers etched into your skin when you take a shower, college reminiscents, parts of a novel i've been desperately trying to rid my mind of, part of a novel in my brain i want to let ruminate in that same brain, and the weird parallels between the global warming conspiracy and when a democrat is in office while the economy appears to be booming. . . all weird, but all good. the two things i wrote related to my novel. . . it's amazing. i'm so excited to finally be actually writing about it. 

i even went to the open mic night on 10/5 to read something from one of the novels. it was liberating! i even auditioned a story for a storytelling night. .. and i cannot wait to edit it if they choose it. and even if they don't, i'll now have a place to send more pitches. 

so. . .not so bad for 11 days. 

oh - and this whole thing is to raise money for the Hugo House.  I don't know if any of you have heard of it, but it's amazing. when i went to my first open mic in September, to listen, it reminded me so much of the play from San Miguel that parroted what it must have been like back when Kerouac and Burroughs had done readings in front of their friends fueled by the alcohol and camaraderie.  it felt like home. i think i looked over at Dustin at some point in the evening and said, "why haven't we done this before??" it was a question asked that seemed so . . . late - i mean, it felt so right to be there with these other people. 

i became a member about a day and a half later, as soon as i had a second to go to their website. and i never want this place to go away. so, if you feel so inclined to help support a community that supports me as a writer, i would be extra grateful (as i am already grateful you are here reading this). many thank yous. i'm hoping that out of this 30 days i'll get something i can submit for publishing. . . or at least something that's fit to post here as a fiction. but nothing has totally taken shape yet. but keep me doing it. which means i'm about to do a weird ask. . . and give. . . 

if you decide you can donate some cash - $20 or more, i'll totally write you a micro fiction of any topic you want. and send it to you. . . really. it may be horrible, but you'll get me writing. holy crap - i'm terrified. . . ready?

set?

go!!!!!

Elf - The Musical a review

On October 6th, Mikal and I went to the University District Food Bank Aloha Auction.  In case you forgot, I helped crowdfund to sponsor a table at the event.  While we were there (it was a total blast), we got some stuff (as you might expect, it was an auction and all. . .).  Some of it was pretty standard and I do every time anyway.  And some came as kind of a surprise.

A SURPRISE ????  How could that be? you wonder - I mean, at an auction you must raise your paddle to get something or write your paddle number on a sheet of paper.  Well, yes, you do.  And I did do that. . .and so did Mikal.  And then there was some wine or something.  And sometimes there is some confusion when you yourself sign your number but then have your spouse go check to see if you won and they think you meant a different one. .. so you think you lost the auction item and then bid on other things. . . and that means you end up with a whole STAYCATION package - which includes a night at the Sheraton, dinner at Gordon Biersch and tickets to Elf - The Musical at the 5th Avenue Theater.  When at first this seems like the end of the world because you spent more than you THOUGHT you did at the end of the night, this actually turns out to be a really cool fun thing.  

my house in elf form

Ok - so you're with me on why I was at Elf - The Musical on Saturday evening.  Plus - if we are friends on Facebook or you follow me on Twitter, you've seen my weird obsession with Elf and having my house full of paper snowflakes and garland (much to my husband's dismay at the amount of paper I have used). 

If you don't know the story (you've been living in a cave), Buddy the elf was an orphan as a child and one Christmas Eve, when Santa was delivering presents, he crawled into Santa's sack of toys.  Santa didn't notice until he got back to the North Pole and he and the elves decide to raise him as one of their own.  Buddy grows and grows and becomes so much bigger than everyone else with only basketball as his "special" elf talent.  He finds out he's human and decides to go into the city to find his real dad.  This does not go well.  His dad is a jerk and Buddy is banned from his father's building.  In his subsequent adventures, he meets a special pretty girl, falls in love, wins over his dad's family, ruins his dad's career, finds Santa's sleigh and helps save Christmas for all of the world - the bonus is that he also puts the spirit of Christmas back into his lady friend and his dad.  It all ends very happily.

The musical version of the movie follows pretty closely.  There are some scenes where the movie was directly quoted and directly sung from, "I'm singing, I'm in a store and I'm singing" and the response, "hey, there's no singing in the store" with the ensuing fight about the "big guy".  So, the cute factor was off the scale to WAY CUTE.  I mean, I love Elf.  I love this movie.  It makes me love Christmas.

But the production?  It was good.  I'm a stage manager, so there were some things that drove me crazy, but overall, it was very cute.  There were two major highlights - Buddy the Elf, played by Matt Owen and the opening song of Act II, Nobody Cares about Santa.

Matt Owen (after a good hour of searching google, I found very little information on this Seattle-born but LA dwelling actor) plays then incomprehensibly happy and optimistic Buddy the Elf. I actually thought several times during the show, "how on earth can someone be so happy?", "maybe he's super depressed during intermission or away from the show", "there's no way someone can be that happy all the time, it just is impossible."  He was great.  I read an article at some point about how he wanted to make Buddy his own Buddy and not copy what Will Ferrell did in the movie.  I think he succeeds here. I mean, Buddy in the movie is happy and full of Christmas cheer, but because it's Will Ferrell, you don't *exactly* believe it.  Matt Owen makes you believe - believe in Christmas, believe in Santa, and believe in syrup on spaghetti.

A very close second to Matt's Buddy is the opening number in Act II - Nobody Cares about Santa.  It's an excellent song full of tired men (and one woman - funny Cynthia Jones) who have played Santa all season long.  The season has come to an end and they are all having dinner at the only place open on Christmas, a Chinese restaurant. The song is catchy but mostly it's fun and kind of bluesy.  The best part is when the choreography (kudos to Denis Jones) gives us a chorus line of Santas doing pelvic thrusts to the beat.  It's pretty adorable (even though, I'm sure this doesn't sound adorable).  Anyway, it was the highlight of the night.

Overall, the musical is the movie with a couple of tweaks to make it stage ready and some songs that are actual songs and not Will Ferrell being Will Ferrell.  There are some catchy parts of songs, but nothing except the Nobody Cares about Santa song that really catches your attention and holds it.  So, without a hugely inventive script (it's the movie for the stage) and some catching tunes, it's really the production that makes the show.  

The show starts out with Santa.  He's a good Santa, except, I felt he was yelling his lines.  I know it's theater, but he was mic'd so he didn't need to yell.  But the show gets instantly better when you see the production choice next taken.  Elves.  Elves that are not played by little people.  Elves that are played by regular people, but with shoes on their knees.  It was hilarious.  It was brilliant.  It was adorable.  It really brought you into thinking that Buddy really was bigger than everyone else.

Some terrible staging and acting occurs right before Buddy is sent off on his trip on the ice glacier.  But the set design into the big city kind of makes up for that.  It's an art deco kind of design and the color scheme is inexplicably, but really cool and subtle purple.  I didn't notice at first, but then I realized that there is a color scheme that denotes the city - it's purple.  And I liked it.  Then you listen to some unremarkable songs and watch some things you don't remember.  

Then you're at the store where you meet Cynthia Jones' Store Manager, "She's singing. She's singing in the store." There's a pretty cute introduction to Jovie, but her part isn't that big in the show, so despite her pretty voice, she's not what you're watching.  But I was watching the clever set design with the ladders that end up as green tinseled wreathed Christmas Trees with Jovie wearing an adorable lighted star hat.

Another stand out that I'm just remembering is the kid who plays Michael, Buddy's younger brother.  I'm actually not sure if he was portrayed by Noah Barr or Grayson Smith.  I'll go out on a limb and say Grayson Smith.  Either way, the kid has some pipes and the singing was really good.  He was a bit nervous on stage and clearly needs some practice being out there in front of a load of people, but the boy has some chops.  His rendition of I'll Believe in You made me tear up.

The rest of the act was pretty unremarkable for me.  This is where Rodney gets to say what he said on Facebook about an hour before I left - 

Then, like I mentioned before, enter in the best tired Santas in the business.  With this opener, it really made me glad to be back (even though there were 3 people around me that left at intermission). Poor Jovie is forgotten, Buddy helps his dad sell a book (well almost) and Christmas is saved (this is where I teared up again).  My only real "stage manager problem" was the snow - man, the blower was loud and kind of seemed like it didn't happen in the right spot.  But - eh - it's live theater - that's what we stage managers live for.

The tickets were great (thanks @udistfoodbank)!  We were in row N in seats 111 and 112 which meant that my glasses actually worked for me. I love going to musicals and I'm glad I saw this one at least one time.  I would normally want to try to go again if I fell in love, but I'm a bit sad to say, I love the movie already, so the musical, though fun to see, was good just once for me.  If you're into Christmas and you have some kids - totally go - it's cute and will put you in a good mood and make you love Christmas even just a little bit (even if your kids are driving you mad and you hate this season).  It's not high brow and you won't go home thinking it's the best thing you ever saw, but the 5th Avenue does it as much justice as can be done.