We celebrate independence: from England and Studio 3

Here they are, folks: pictures from closing night and our Super Awesome 4th of July BBQ.


First the closing: (Sunday, July 1st. Coco's. After 10pm-ish)


Melanie is giving the end of the season a thumbs down. Boo, unemployment!

Katie, Amanda and I think about matinee audiences. "Why do these seats say "Reserved"? Can I sit in them? Why not? What did she say?" (What am I going to do without cranky old people yelling at me on weekends for four whole months??)

From left: AJ, Amanda, Melanie, Alison. Yes, Alison made cookies. And yes, AJ is devouring them.

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Me and Deb.... look how happy she is that I get a break! She's wondering when I'm going to cook her dinner....

EXTREME CLOSE-UP of Aaron James!

Amanda and I spy on AJ. And he looks so happy about it, too.

Oh, yeah, Titanic was playing. At the bar. Amanda and Beth show us: "I'm the king of the world!"

Deb: What??
Amanda: It's true! It was THIS BIG!

Deb and Jeff Coon. He later unhooked her bra. And they say chivalry is dead.



It was a great night. We got as soggy as I had anticipated, and Deb got a lot of male attention. (Who could blame them, really??!!) It was a great way to end the season, and look forward to partying with everyone next year!



On to the 4th of July.... it was an amazing party! Everyone brought amazing food and we ate until our stomachs were distended. When it started to pour, everyone piled inside and we continued eating and drinking. We ended the night with a classic zombie movie, to celebrate our Independence. Nothing like a little 28 Days Later to show those Brits who's boss!

Beth and Amanda model our excessively yummy food spread.

Look how happy Dawn and Carrie look! Look what a jerk Deb is! (Apparently this is what happens when Deb is concentrating on putting together the perfect hamburger and I interrupt her for a picture.)

Melanie and her hula hoop. What a cutie!

The smoker's club: Kelley, Alison, Arizona and Lindsay. And not one of them looks shady. At all.



So there you have it: I'm free. Free from Studio 3 (for a few months) and free from jolly olde England. And we celebrated. Like rockstars. With another.... drumroll please... SPONTANEOUS BARBEQUE! (Okay, so it wasn't totally spontaneous. But it was a barbeque. And it was delicious.)



Don't touch that dial, it's going to be a great summer. I can just tell.

Nights free??

Seriously, what do people do with evenings off?

This is going to be a short entry, as I have lots of important things to do. Like surf the web some more, read more magazines and watch more CSI reruns. Because I'm not working... no shows...


It's totally weird. But cool, I'm definately enjoying it. And I know I should be doing something productive, like packing, but somehow I'm enjoying sitting on my bum right now. For a night.


More soon-- I have some great pictures from our 4th of July BBQ that I'm going to post. It was a rocking good time!


Sssshhh, it's CSI Miami time. Take off those sunglasses, David Caruso, just DO IT!

Theater's out for.... summer!

Today is my last day of the season here at the Walnut Street Theater. Side by Side by Sondheim will close today, after 46 wonderful performances. (Okay, most of the performances were wonderful)



Melanie and I spent the day on Friday cleaning the place up and writing down what we will need for next year. I'm actually not starting again until October 23rd, so I will have almost four months off. It's a long time to be away from the theater, but I think I need a little break. I've had a great season, but I have worked my tail off and am looking forward to a little rest and rejuvination. So I can come back next season and kick ass!



This summer is looking to be pretty busy, too.... I'm going home for a week in July to hang out with BOTH of my brothers, as Jonathan will be visiting from Puerto Rico. Deb and I want to squeeze in a trip to Maine sometime in July as well, and at the end of the month I'll be... drumroll please.... moving in with my girlfriend! We're very excited-- we're already furniture and paint shopping. We're going to make this apartment a real home for the two of us and Betty Spaghetti.



August is looking pretty hectic too.... Deb and I are going to the Dave Matthews Band concert at the Tweeter Center for her birthday-- we're hoping to get tickets for both shows, but as of right now the second show is sold out. So keep your fingers crossed! My high school reunion is in August, as well as Magic Mike and Kelli's wedding.



And then I have September and October almost to myself.... which will be good. Give me a chance to get the house in order and really focus on myself before the craziness begins around here again.



But today, I'll say goodbye to a great cast-- Ben, Denise, Fran, Kim, Mark and Heidi.... I'll miss you! We've had a great run and it's been a pleasure listening to your beautiful voices and wonderful piano-playing every night. This is definately a show I will miss.



And I will miss Melanie so much too. I'm very grateful that she and AJ live so close, so that we won't drift apart next year. I know my apprentice for next year will be great, but Melanie will always hold a special place in my heart-- not only as a kick-ass ASM, but a great friend.



Tonight we plan a soggy celebration of the end of our season at (where else?) Coco's. I'm sure I'll have lots of great pictures to share.



I will try to update as frequently as I can this summer, but my internet connection at home has been spotty. Feel free to give me a call, as I may actually be returning phone calls this summer since I'm so much less busy.

Surprise!

I was super, super bummed that I couldn't make it to Joseph's graduation or the official graduation party. It was really tearing me up inside, until my ever-resourceful girlfriend suggested that we just drive up on our day off (Monday) and surprise him! What a great idea. So after our shows Sunday night, we hit the road. We left Philadelphia around 10pm and got to Homer, NY around 2am.



Our plan was to sneak into the house without waking Joseph up, but that didn't quite happen the way we'd planned. Unbeknownst to me, my parents had started letting our dog Molly sleep indoors. (What a spoiled puppy!) Instead of sneakily slipping into the house and waking Joseph up in the morning with a surprise, Deb and I were greeted at the door by a barking, growling attack dog. Molly the dog was convinced that two shady girls were trying to break in and hurt her family! Needless to say this woke Joseph up from a deep slumber and he stumbled out into the kitchen, thinking that he was going to catch himself a burglar. Imagine his surprise to see his sister and her girlfriend, bearing a huge laundry bag full of graduation gifts. We exchanged hugs and went to bed.



The next morning.....


Joseph opened all his gifts. I think this is enough junk food to get him through a day of dorm life. I made Mom promise to hide it until it was time to move in to the dorm, because I knew that otherwise it wouldn't make it through the summer.

After breakfast, we decided to hit the Shipwreck Mini-Golf course. It was hot as hell outside and half way through the game we decided to stop keeping score and just fool around. Here's Joseph lining up a shot.

This is proven mini-golf technique: standing on the rocks will always get you a better shot. Naturally I chose the pink ball.

Yes, this is Joseph pretending to poop in the shark's mouth.

This is what happens to people who violate Rule #10 at Shipwreck: No profanity!

This poor dolphin was missing his dorsal fin, so Deb is giving him some extra love.

Deb's proven technique. Works every time.

After the game, we decided to get ice cream and get food for the BBQ. Oh, yes, we had a BBQ. This makes our 4th SPONTANEOUS BARBEQUE of the season. Dad, Deb, Weas and Molly the dog relax on the Man Porch before we got to eatin'.

Look at this fierce beast. I think she feels a little bad for growling at us the previous night.

It's eatin' time! (And for Mom, drinkin' time!) Matt and Weas joined us for dinner, and with the exception of Jonathan, the family was complete. Notice how no one at the table is really smiling... they don't want to be interrupted from the food!

Yes, I had to take a picture of my plate. This is the perfect summer meal. Clockwise from the top: salt potatoes, a hamburger, vinegar summer pickles, corn on the cob. And a yummy salad to the side.

Joseph was completely tuckered out from all that good eatin'. Fortunately we were able to rouse him for....

A game of cornhole! (Yes, I know. Seriously, that's what it's called. No, I didn't make that up. Stop snickering.) Matt and Deb were a great team.... and Deb was an awesome player, especially considering it was her first time playing cornhole. (Yes, I said it again.)

An action shot of Team May trying to defeat Team Not May.

It was pretty much a perfect day. We concluded with a bonfire and of course that meant s'mores. It was a beautiful night-- the lightning bugs were out and the mosquitos were not. There's really nothing better in the whole world than good food, good family fun and a bonfire.

The next day Deb and I drove back to Philly and back to the grind.... but our hair still smelled like campfire and we couldn't have been happier to get away for such a relaxing day.

Happy graduation, Joseph!

Graduation Day

It's that time of year again... but this year is extra special, because my little brother Joseph is graduating from high school this year!

I can't really believe that it's actually happening-- since he's so much younger than I am, I still think of him as 8 years old.

But yesterday he donned a cap and gown and received his diploma from Homer Senior High School....... and now he's officially an alumni.

I couldn't be more proud, or more sad that I couldn't be there. But there's a surprise in the works..... shhh.....

Happy graduation, Joseph! Now you're a real (gulp) adult!

Please look both ways before you cross the street or have sex.

What is with my friends and horrible things happening to them??

This post is dedicated to Amanda and Lauren.






Amanda, for all of the terrible things that have happened to you-- please roll yourself in bubble wrap and wear your helmet and safety goggles everytime you leave your house. Scratch that-- wear it in the house too. You never know. Be safe. And we'll get a drink soon, but I'll make sure it comes in a sippy cup. Just in case. See all the gory details here: http://www.mckennainphilly.blogspot.com/



Lauren, I'm so sorry your cooter is sick. And for the record, people, it's nothing that she did. It could happen to any of us gals, at any time. I won't go into details, but you should just pray that it never happens to you. And Lauren, I hope you feel well enough to scream about your vagina at Wendy's soon.





And the rest of you-- well, just be careful.

Monday, MONday, MONDAY!

This past Monday was our company outing to Dave and Busters. We had the best time-- is there more to life than drinking, playing pool and kicking butt at various arcade games? I didn't think so....


It's so wonderful that the Walnut treats us to this... it's been a long season and we've all worked really hard. It was very nice to be able to blow off some steam and have fun with the good friends that we're lucky enough to work with.

This was my third year attending the Dave and Busters end of season celebration, but my first year as an actual employee of the Walnut. (The past two years I've been Deb's "plus one") It felt different this time-- I remember last year Bethann joking with me and saying "We've got to get you a job here". Talk about a dream come true!


Me and Deb, happy to be enjoying our Monday. Look at my face, I'm already plotting to kick her butt at skee ball.

Look you guys, my drink came with a cherry! (Yes, it's the little things)

Don't Lauren and Steve look adorable? And look at how many tickets they have!!

Deb and Pam-- I think they're up to no good. (As usual)

Kill those aliens, Alison! (She's got her game face on!)

Melanie and AJ are super hard-core. Aliens beware! Melanie was actually sore the next day from all of the gaming. What a dork.

It's hoops time!!

All in all, it was a great day, and I am proud to report that before we attended the festivities at Dave and Busters AJ, Melanie, Deb and I had our third SPONTANEOUS BARBEQUE of the summer. Woohooo!

Could we have had a more perfect day? I don't think so.....