washington dc

so i've been really bad about updating, but i started another blog about eating vegan on the road under this same name, so you shoudl check it out.

i'm currently in DC and i can see the kennedy center from my window as well as the watergate- dc is a pretty cool place. it's weird being back here, especially bc the hotel is on teh same street (like a block and a half away from where the KC put me up)- it's like flashing back to my past job. I love it.
day off tomorrow. so i'm probably going to go to the smithsonians tomorrow and maybe catch an imax.

wizard of oz is on tv right now and i'm really enjoying it. also enjoying how not-skinny judy garland is. like. i think i have better legs then she does. and that makes me feel happy and sad at the same time that that is no longer considered a standard of beauty.

oh well. off to see the wizard. taking a shower then out dancing tonight! woot woot!

i love my life.

so tour is going great.
we started out in north carolina our first load in was a little crazy, it was at a high school and there was no venue contact and i didn't really know what i was doing but it was fun and the kids were great. my co workers gave them all nicknames like smize and sasha fierce. a lot of them really loved working with us and i hope that they continue doing theatre and at least one of them does technical work. it was a bit of a crazy thing but a totally fun first day.
the night before we all went out to this bar called zac-a-doo's. it was in fredricksburg va, and kind of ridiculous. we were the youngest people there and a woman told me that we were all cute "in a mom way". it was ridiculous.

we've been in north carolina all week. just getting used to the show, it's been an adventure and each venue has been a learning experience, but i'm beginning to get the hang of things. hopefully next week will be easier.

other things have been ridiculous. went to a strip club near unc wilmington, with the only straight male co worker in the company. i felt like i was in csi las vegas or pulp fiction. it was wild. first time ever at a strip club so far this tour has been adventure after adventure. sketchy gay clubs all over the country. so much fun.
last night we went out in st. louis, mo. another discovery of america is that cabs suck and are way too expensive, except for in new york.

so i love glee but really... really... it is a little ridiculous. let's talk first about the way they sound. totally not their real voices. they sound best when they're not digitally remastered like disney's high school musical. also it annoys me when there are 8 million voices when there only 12 people onstage, and only 3 of them are singing. also. then... let's talk about the lighting for all of their numbers. newest episode... really? a 8 ft high and probably 15-20 foot long light wall? because a high school that has no real theater department has one of those hanging around, and a tech crew to set that up just for rehearsal. just the basic logistics of it all. sometimes being a theatre person ruins otherwise beautiful simple things for me. hahaha.
also because i've pretty much seen lea michelle naked i feel like i know her. thank you spring awakening.

that's all for now. i am so hungry i need to go try and find food.

so i just saw the movie fame. it made me really really happy. i highly recommend it to everyone.

to bead or not to bead...

packing sucks! ohmigod.
i am so bad at it. I've pared down my clothes as much as possible and they "fit" in my big ass walmart suitcase (which i love, don't get me wrong) but man. I packed a little differently this time from last time, this time bringing less pants and more leggings and a couple of skirts. the problem is the food thing. i'm planning on buying more food on the road and not eating out as much so i have a small duffel that was meant to hold my food and my frying pan and my beads, and hopefully my shoes but it is looking way too small. i mean, towards the end of tour what I have was what most people had, but at the the beginning? it's going to be an issue i can tell.

I'm happy with the clothing, and i'm not changing it. but now the dilemma. do i I bring the beads or do I not? honestly bead crochet has been all i've done of late and i love doing it. i can do it all the time. once they are strung it is wicked fun just to sit there and crochet. problem is beads take up room. i've tried two different ways of organizing them and neither is really the best. i don't know what to do. very annoying. i really want to. but part of me says it's a stupid idea.
last tour i had a significant amount of down time where I could bead and stuff but I don't know how this tour is going to be. i'm assuming busier but that could be me being cynical. we will see i geuss. i'll let you know all tomorrow what i decide. until then... im heading to bed and hopefully by the morning i will have found clarity. and my mind... or at least some of it.

so the time between jobs is quickly coming to an end. it's amazing how quickly a month can go by. i had so many things i planned on doing/should have done that are nowhere near. oh well. life goes. on. I need to start packing. which is goign to be interesting seeing as my room is a mess. a vile mess. lol. have i unpacked from camp? nope. have i worn pants in 4 months? not really. so i don't even know what fits/i don't want to pack any. it's an issue. seeing as pants are kind of important in theatre. tech. i'm goign ot see how much i can get off wearing leggings and long shirts and t-shirts etc.

i'm irritable today. probably because I don't want to do much and I'm not sure how amped I am about leaving home/starting this new job. we'll see. hopefully it will be good.

so i haven't updated in way too long. i need to work on keeping this more up to date. maybe i'll make it a resolution to be a daily thing.

i'm currently in boston's logan airport waiting for my 7 am flight to orlando to meet up with 9 of my amazing camp counselor co workers from this summer for 5 days to go to disney and enjoy the florida goodness. It was a really spontaneous decision for me which is rare when it comes to trips, because i love to have each little detail planned out to the minute. it's an ocd thing. i get anxious when i'm travelling. it can be a problem, i like to know every detail of every moment of every day. i have no idea what i'm doing. no idea where i'm sleeping (exact details) it's going to be an amazing romp! and I packed the lightest i think i ever have in my whole life and i'm really really proud of myself; 1 bag (21" upright rolling!) and a pillow and blanket and backpack so good. and nohting is crammed into a plastic bag. go me.

what else.

as some of you know i worked at kingsley pines summer camp all summer and it was, without a doubt the best summer of my life thus far. there are no words to describe how amazing it was and all the amazing campers i had the pleasure of meeting and the incredible counselors and staff i got to know and become friends with. being out camp sucks. there's no longer food cooked for me, a bell to tell me when it's time to do something else or the ability to dress up like a character from dr seuss or disney or history or a pirate... i mean, i could do the dress up bit but it would be a lot of work and i'd look kind of ridiculous not to mention that once i started i wouldn't be able to stop and i would have way more clothes than is necessary. hahah. i digress.

im just hanging loose and easy until sept 29th when i go on tour with chamber theatre company which should be great. then come january im thinking about bouncing around to visit people then 80-98% sure of moving to nyc or the nyc vicinity. and if not there portland oregon or burlington. so there's that a very brief run down of what's going on right now. woo hoo...

may i suggest this is the best part of you life.

camp x2!

so camp continues to go well. it's raining. a lot. like way too much. it feels like it never stops raining. ever. it's cold and wet and i keep asking myself... where is summer? when will it come. we've had approximately 6 days of sun since campers have gotten here. that's almost 5 weeks people. craziness, obnoxiousness.

i just bought rainboots though. and they're coming in by mail so hopefully.... hopefully... by the time they get here the rain will have stopped. fingers crossed.

other than that, jewelry is going great i love teaching it (most days) and i love doing it and getting to hang out all day and doing crafts is just like christmas. this is honestly the best job i have ever had in my whole life. i love it. yesterday i got paid to go bowling. eat ice cream and play board games. you can't beat that, you just can't.

other than that. not much is new. i feel like i might be getting sick with blows. but i'm pretending it's not happening bc i don't want to be sick. so i will not be sick.

i miss everyone from home and school and etc. and the only thing that does suck about camp is that it's really hard for me to find/make time to call people. it's a little annoying because i want to. but it just keeps getting pushed aside. and it's not good.

anyways. im going to go back out and experience this lovely rainy cold maine day. hope everyone is doing well.

camp #1

hey all. im trying to update more. camp is going well. it's been a week since the campers have gotten here, and it's been going really well. it rained for a while and was pretty miserably cold which had the campers pretty down and made doing anything much besides putting on 8 layers and curling up under all of my/our blankets.
teaching jewelry has gone well. it's intimidating but i've actually been really enjoying teaching. it's frustrating sometimes because there's a point that no matter how many times or ways i explain something they still don't get it. but at the same time, when they do get it and are interested it's 10x's better and totally worth it.
i also got an awesome new north face vest for 50 bucks yesterday at the north face outlet im pumped i guess it retails at around 82-120. woot woot! there's also a really sick store around here called mexacali blues that has the coolest clothes in the world. it's all awesome hippy clothes and sick awesome nastiness. in love. i will probably spend almost all of my money there. that and being really close to ll bean and all the cool outlets and two awesome bead shops. let's see how much money i keep from my paycheck. hahaha.
i have a job in september. woot woot. call/email me if you want to know what it is. but it's nice to know i have employment when the summer's over. especially in this economy (etc etc blah blah blah) so hoorah.
so other than that, not much is new. food here is great. the kids are great. my campers in my cabin are great. things are all around pretty freakin awesome. we're watching pirates of the carribean in the staff lounge right now, it feels like i ahve so much time off. it's great, a total change from theatre work. woot woot. alright off i go. call me/write me/email me.

camp address

hey all!
so hopefully I won't be so lax as I was on tour. We'll see. I'm at Camp Kingsley Pines this summer as a camp counselor and jewelry making instructor, should be wicked fun. Maine is beautiful, and it's fun being at camp, even though it's just staff training this week. the summer looks promising.
send me letters and packages!
my address is:
my name (michelle obvi)
51 Coughlan Cove Road
Raymond Me 04071

I don't know how many pictures I'll be posting and as with before any opinions expressed on this blog are explicitly my own and not in any way that of Kingsley Pines.
bell goes. off i go

back in new england

wow i suck at updating this i'm sorry.

so things have been up and down. we've been all over the place and it's been awesome i'm finaly in new england again. i've missed it. it's ncie to be back.

i got to go up to burlington for a little over 48 hours. it was awesome i got to see both hello dolly at the flynn and professor wellwrights library at smc. it was awesome. being back in vt made me really happy.

i'm in ithaca ny now. got to drive past my exit on rte 90. it was aweome, but also sad bc i didn't get to stop.

anyways i was planning on writing more. but i lost my motivation.

2nd hawaii post

hey all. so i figured i'd post my second post about hawaii, even though i'm already back on the mainland.

so yes. load in took forever, i helped hang the lights and the strand lbx board is officially the worst board ever created and I hope to never see it again. I know that doesn't mean a lot to you all, but it does to me and I had to put it out there.

After load in we went to an amazing place and I had some of the best sea food ever. It was a nice end to a relaxing day.

The shows went well and after the shows on monday I rented a paddle board for 2 hours. A paddle board is a surf board that you stand on and suprise suprise have a paddle and row yourself around. a lot harder than it looks. i fell off alot, alot alot. i was too scared at first to try and catch waves, but after the 1st hour i was feeling better about it and stayed in for another hour. in my second hour i caught 2 waves, it was AWESOME and so worth every minute of falling off. some day I will paddle board again, and actually catch waves. yay.

problem with paddle boarding was that the next day my uppper legs were in so much pain ! omg, my muscles were KILLING me. it was a little ridiculous. like sore to the touch, could barely bend over or sit down and stand up. took 2 whole days to go away even with stretching for at least an hour every day. craziness.

after that we went to maui. maui was pretty cool, but i didn't get to do much, went to a movie with one of the actors (fired up, hilarious) as well as on the last day checked out this town calle paia, where i will officially move someday. I will move to paia, get a little dog, a surfboard/paddle board, a motorcycle and sleep either in a hammoch or a mattress on the floor or a tent somewhere. so if anyone wants to join, let me know. oh i also would love to open a coffeehouse/bakery/bead shop while i'm there if i can't work in theatre. sounds like a plan right?

so at the end of the day Hawaii=awesome. i loved the warm weather, the ocean everywhere, the breeze, the laid back attitude of island living. i'd love it there. so that's it. now i'm in west virginia, huntington. staying at a best western for a few days shaking off this jet lag, well i think. so that's it. i'll update again when anything exciting happens.

aloha!

so i am currently in hawaii, in the city of honolulu on waikiki beach!

it's beautiful here. the flight here was long. we left charleston wv at 4:15 am plane flew out at 6:15 and we left for hawaii from houston. it was an 8 hour flight, and i tried to sleep most of the way because of the 5 hour time difference. im suprised at how well my body has adjusted, we'll see for real tomorrow though. hahahah.

hawaii really is a paradise. even though it's "chilly" by island standards right now (high of 79 today) it's still beautiful out. with a nice warm breeze that is around almost constantly. we're stayin right near wikiki beach so i can just walk to the beach.

i am in heaven! if you don't already know i collect pineapples, and hawaii is the land of pineapples. i've had to show some serious restraint. but i do have a long term plan to have a kitchen more or less focused on pineapples, pineapples and ceramics. might be an awkward mix. i finally manged to buy pineapple shaped salt and pepper shakers, amazing kitsch pineapple coaster set, a pineapple bowl, pineapple post its, pineapple reusable wine cork, pineapple post card, and a pineapple keychain. i founda pitcher that i will definitely be buying when i get my 1st apt. actually i plan on coming ot hawaii to furnish my 1st apts kitchen. gives me an excuse to come back.

i'm already spending way too much money here. (first see above with my pineapple obsessions)
but really today i splurged hardcore and gave myself a spa treatment, i got a detox and metabolism boosting wrap, which was incredibly pleasant, something new i had never done, and i also got myself a hand massage. it was WONDERFUL. but expensive. but worth it. if i had more money i woudl go back and get a massage too. but i can't afford it lol.

after that i walked along the beach and bummed around. i was outside for like an hour and got wicked sunburn i couldn't even believe it earlier tonight when i looked down and realized i was all kinds of red. it's weird to have a sun burn in february, but i'm not complaining at all! hahaha.

after that i shopped most of the day but only after going out for AMAZNING sushi to this restaurant we went to last night. i think i've decided that sushi is one of my favorite foods. though really, the best sushi i've had was with kyla in burlington vt, not what you'd expect right. when i get back to btown i want to try bizen again.

tomorrow i'm going to rent a surfboard with a paddle to give surfing a go without having to go from laying down to standing, though i think i could do it. we'll see. i'm excited. the ocean here is beautiful and clear and turquoise. i love it. the waves crash pretty far out too so i can be out of ppls way. if it's wicked crowded tomorrow i don' t know what i'm going to do. b/c i don't know how fun it'll be if things are paaaaaackkeeeeed. but tomorrow i will def put my new sunscreen on.

anyways. that's about it now. i'll update more as we go on. hopefully some pics soon.

i keep forgetting to do this

hey all. so now i'm in texas. since i've last left you i've been to vegas where i got to see some family, which was cool. i also saw 2 cirque du soleil shows. O and Ka. i splurged on myself and spent waaaay to much money but got myself 3rd and 5th row seats in the center section. totally worth it. O was my favorite. it has a giant pool in it. i spent as much time watching the mechanics of the show as i did the acrobatics. it was so much fun for me. Ka was mechanically astounding. but i still liked O better. Vegas was fun. i made a little bit of money on slot machines, but not much to be too excited about. After Vegas we went to washington state. which was cool. Washington reminded me home a little, with the mountains and the trees. though it was much much warmer. We were outside of seattle but I didn't get a chance to go into the city b/c i spent all my money in bellevue WA on a new portable gaming system and delicious delicious tea from this place called teavana. I'm going to buy myself more from them online soon. I have never had such good tea in my life.
After washington it was off to california. I 5 was closed bc of blizzard like conditions, which in one way was cool because we got to drive through the redwood forest and see the pacific but it made our day so much longer and we ended up off our normal course. Still pretty cool though. After california we repeated our drive through new mexico arizona and texas. Texas was, once again, booooooooriiiiinggggg. I swear I 10 is one of the most boring roads ever made. It's like someone went. I have an idea, let's put a road in texas that goes through nothing, has nothing on it and gets you almost nowhere. yeah that sounds like a plan. oh man. we go to hawaii soon. which is going to be rough.
things continue well. i'm loving being on the road still.
here's some pictures i took out of order b/c im too lazy to fix it.


from the amazing restaurant we went to in boise idaho. amazing salad, amazing pizza and amazing beer. what more could you ask for?



a picture i took in bellevue washington


got to watch a master glass blower work in tacoma washington. it was so cool.

on the road in washington

falcon ridge!!!!

bellagio fountains in vegas


hahahah

obviously i went to paris.


the hoover dam!

grand canyon. omfg loves it. i want to hike it and paddle it for the rest of my life.

went to the grand canyon west today. it was amazing, first day off. i almost wish we hadn't been so close to teh grand canyon b/c i would have like a chill ass day off. but instead i got to see this natural beauty and wonder, so i can't really complain. All i want to do now is quit my life and kayak the Colorado river. It was expensive, but we got to go on the skywalk which was this cool sort of sidewalk that was glass that went over the canyon. I had a fun time just laying down over the glass looking at the canyon 2,000 feet below, unfortunately they didn't let us bring camera's out there. it was still fun though and the photographers had a great personality and it was fun talking to them. so here are some pictures from the trip. I'm in love. I've decided some day i just want to take a break from my life and hike and/or paddle the grand canyon. loves it. i plan on going back again some day soon. me and some the actors were just talking, but what i was saying was that i was so glad i took pictures, because it was just so grand and picturesque and huge and immense that my brain cannon conceptualize it. like i'm looking at the pictures and i can't even imagine that i was there and it was actually that large. I totally totally want to go back. I plan on looking at this pictures for a while.





in air at the top of this pint we ended up at. very cool








a completely accidental shot that came out amazingly of one of the actors on teh show kevin.



a cool color accent shot i took


here you can see the skywalk we walked on.



one of the views i saw. so beautiful

first on the road picture post!

Hey everyone out there! so here's the first post of my time on the road!
things are going crazy, but alright. Still getting in teh swing of things. I got really sick the other day and spent a whole day feeling ill in bed. luckily we had driven so that way we had the time to let it happen. I'm still feeling weak and really nauteous especially when i think about any of the food i've had in the last week, or any food in general.
Things are going well, stressful. I'm trying to get used to the show and going to a different venue every time. I'm also not really in the swing of things and comfortable with what i'm doing entirely yet.
so there's that. hope everyone out there is doing well! i'll be enjoying the warm late spring like weather before our load in at 5pm.

so far i've been through:
virginia
north carolina
south carolina
georgia
alabama
mississippi
lousiana
texas
new mexico
arizona
woo hoo!



me looking like a fatty fatty no friends in my suave pink hat i got at the thing



oh hell yes we stopped and saw "The Thing" on I-10. It was a little weird, and not any 1 specific thing. luckily, it only cost a dollar.


something we saw at the thing. not really sure what it is.... oh wait. it's THE THING!!!!!



it's fraggle rock! we saw it on the road going through arizona.


yay! welcome to arizona. It's 80 degrees here. i love my life.


sunrise coming through new mexico i think? on the way from texas to arizona.


driving the truck in texas.


thanks arizona, i'll take that into consideration. we also saw huge smelly stock yards we could smell them for miles before and miles after, and there were so many cows crammed into a relatively small area. they made me incredibly sad. so no thanks, i won't be eating beef.



the "meteor crater"/tiny gully thing we stopped at in texas. it was incredibly dissapointing. but i like the way the way this picture came out.


where me and jon ate in big springs tx. very interesting place to eat.


fried zuchinni slices. mmmm... this place was awesome.
some windmills we saw in texas. i thought they were pretty cool




lighting hopkins statue in crockett tx.



texas!


cheer wine, this delicious and incredibly sugary beverage i had at a bbq place in south carolina. the food was great!


jon in the truck. after he had just broke branches off a tree. oops.

on the road again!

tomorrow morning the blues journey crew heads to our first venue in Charleston SC! i'm so excited! it might end up being trial by fire, so we'll see. i'm incredibly nervous and excited at the same time. life will be tiring especially the next few days so hopefully it'll go well.

just a picture i found funny. took it in nyc.

hey all i figured i would post my address for ya'll
so here it is

Jen Howard for Michelle M. (email me if you don't know my last name. )

Education Department

Kennedy Center

PO Box 101510

Arlington, VA 22210

If it’s a package, send it here:

Jen Howard for Michelle M.

Education Department

Kennedy Center

2700 F Street, NW

Washington, DC 20566

if you send a letter to the package address it'll take more than a week to get back aaaand it'll get zapped by gross radiation and stuff and supposedly the paper will get brown and sticky, so unless you want me to see what it's like, don't send a letter to the physical address. woot!