One Tequila, Two Tequila, Three Tequila, Floor

Ah, the weekend.

Friday dawned bright and early (actually, dark and early - touring actors rise before the sun, like migrant farm workers) in lovely Grand Rapids, Michigan. Our Quality Inn featured a parlor with fireplace, conservatory with birds (SQUAAAAAWK) and a terrace dining area with hot breakfast buffet. It was all decorated in a sort of faux-victorian manor-house style. Kinda like Clue, actually. The show itself was pretty painless. We were in a performing arts center attached to some sort of arts tech high school. The arts center has different shows come through, like us, Footloose, Bye Bye Birdie, and right before we were there, Church Basement Ladies! A Heavenly New Musical. Yeah...this meant we had a crew of highschool tech kids, who were beyond awesome - way more efficient and knowledgable than a lot of our union crews, and they were all really sweet kids. And apparently, according to the highschool tech boys, we were much better behaved than the Church Basement Ladies, who offered the boys blowjobs for coffee. I assume they were joking, but I was shocked. SHOCKED. These are supposed to be CHURCH LADIES! By the time we were loaded out, it was steadily drizzling, and Ichabod and I hopped in the truck and drove back to...Indiana. Oh, god, why.

We rolled into our destination, Kokomo, Indiana, and I was filled with the sinking sense of dread that always accompanies me whenever I enter the crossroads of America. According to the sign, Kokomo Indiana is The City of Firsts! It looks like, oh, I don't know, the first place you'd get knocked up in the back of a pickup truck, or the first place you'd get busted for making a meth lab in your basement. The first it actually refers to is some sort of car-ignition invention. Thrilling. My dread only increased when we spotted a big yellow sheet by the side of the road with SWORD SHOP scrawled on it, and a silver scrawly arrow pointing down a dirt road. To the sword shop. The SWORD SHOP. What IS this place???

There were free m and m cookies at the checkin desk, and the lobby was cute, and a bunch of guys who just started work at the plant accross the street invited us to a party (although I think that was more of a negative...) anyway I passed on the plant party, watched Princess Cake Challenge! on the Food Network with Lighting Girl, went to the sad little mall with everyone to put the finishing touches on our halloween costumes, ate at Panera, and passed out.

The next morning we drove three more hours through Indiana (nooooo) until we ended up in Clarksville. I somehow found a nature park/trail thing behind the strip mall and the mall mall and the corporate park which was actually really pretty, and felt much better about life/being trapped in Indiana after I ran around the woods. I know. I know, you're thinking WHO are you and WHAT have you done with Stephanie?? I haven't worn pearls in I don't KNOW how long, and I'm RUNNING on NATURE TRAILS? Replace my cosmo with a nalgene and my Anthroplogie giftcard with an EMS rewards card and call me Backwoods Barbie. I don't know what the hell's going on. (Before you worry too much, I did head straight to the mall after all the nature.)

Because my b-day is on Monday, we all went out for a birthday celebration last night at Senor Iguanas, where it was 2 dollar cosmo night. I of course applied myself immediately to working my way through the flavored margarita list. (Mango was the best.) It was a lot of fun. The waiters put a giant sombrero on my head and sang feliz cumpleanos and smushed whip cream on my face, and my friends indulged me in my two greatest loves, never-have-I-ever games and impromptu dance parties in places that were not intended to have any dance parties whatsoever, such as Mexican Restaurants, parking lots, and hotel rooms. DANCE PARTY! The only problem with dance parties involving musical theatre actors is that I cannot keep up. I try to compensate for lack of skill with enthusiasm.
I may have ended up skipping down the parking lot lane singing "I don't know how to LOoOooove him!" from Jesus Christ Superstar before I was toted inside by Lighting girl to fall asleep.

Ah, random acts of musical theatre. A very happy birthday indeed.