not ready, at least not yet

     It's hard to believe that pretty soon I'll be back on a stage, reciting a monologue that I haven't even thought about since this past Sunday.  It's a little crazy to reconcile this past week of amazing fun with my job. I mean, yeah, my job is fun, but in a very different, disciplined sort of way. Oh, and takes me far from Drew and family and friends (not to say the people I work with aren't my friends, because I can assure you they most certainly are).

      

      And where is it I am going, you may ask? I am rejoining my cast in Detroit, of all places! My brother keeps on kindly reminding me that Detroit has one of the highest crime rates ever and to please watch my back while I am there. 

     You don't have to tell me twice. I tend to be very suspicious of strangers; I don't know them, therefore I don't trust them.  

     So, I am trying to keep an open mind, trying to expect good things, but trying to stay practical about my expectations at the same time. For instance, there most certainly will not be Disneyland in Detroit:

  

   I will, however, still have the ability to give a hearty thumbs-up--even if I am not in Disneyland. I will be sure to do that while in Detroit, especially after seeing how cool it makes me look in this picture.

   Um, correct me if I am wrong, but I am also pretty sure that there is no Malibu Creek State Park or old Adobe houses with climbing Drew's hanging off the side in Detroit:
    But, I know there are houses, at least, if not necessarily adobe houses. Yeah...Detroit has houses. Right?

    And you know what, I bet there is a Benihana in Detroit. But there will not be these awesome people to share it with:

        Please do me a favor and look at the little guy's face on the right. Ollie had already been on a lengthy hike and we waited over an hour to be seated. The poor dude was just too tired to even muster up a smile. About ten minutes after this picture was taken he was sleeping soundly on his daddy's lap and his shrimp and chicken was put in a doggie bag. 

       I am not quite ready to go back to work, but I never really am when it means leaving Drew. However, the grace that I need isn't going anywhere and it'll be available on Tuesday. Just like always. 

ice skating. in california. WHAT?!

   Today, we were strong. We were brave. We were resilient. 

    We were ice skating...

      Jason prepped Ollie, who turned out to be a maverick on the ice--skating to the beat of his own drummer as he perfected this combination walk/run on the ice, varied by grabs for the rink as his feet slipped out from underneath him and he hung by the railing like a monkey. Lyric was a champ. She literally threw up as soon as we parked the car, cleaned up a little, drank some water and grabbed a stick of gum before she insisted on still skating.  You can't keep that girl back when it comes to the ice!
   Jenna and Jase, mugging for the camera as we Latshaws can tend to do.
   Drew, anticipating another Eagles victory this Sunday, I think...
     What's better than the perfect couple? The perfect couple on ice, of course!
   A big part our trip out to CA was in celebration of the four years that Drew and I have spent sharing a last name (most of the time, anyway...At least when I am not on stage).  We would skate together and every once in a while (when Drew wasn't laughing at me for skating like a three year old, halting baby steps and everything) we would look at each other and say, 4 YEARS!!! Sometimes the other family members would join in, too. Passerbys probably didn't know quite what to think...
   Oh, and here's just a cool pic of the boy's car that caravaned to the ice rink. These guys are just too cool for school. 
   Ollie, on the side of the rink, where you could find him most of the time. Me, on the side of the rink, where you could find me some of the time...Oh, and the little girl behind me in the pink striped hat was skating all by herself around that rink; she put me to shame, for sure.
      Who knew ice skating in Santa Monica could be so fun?!?! 

people's choice awards!

  Tonight, Jenna and I went to the People's Choice Awards, thanks to our brother Jason.

   The stressful part of the evening was parking. In downtown L.A. During rush hour. We had this fancy pass for valet parking--should be easy, right? Yeah...About that.  Well, because a road was closed we could find our way to the valet section. After circling for a half hour, we finally found a kind security guard who told us how to circumvent that darned closed road and get to our destination. FInally. Oh, except they were full and the clock was ticking. See, it was now about 5:15, the doors were supposed to close promptly at 5:30, and now we were redirected to a new place across town.  

   Uh-oh.

    So, we followed the new directions and couldn't find anything that resembled parking for the life of us. There was no sign, no flags, no orange cones, no nothing. It was 5:30, Jenna was starting to cry, sure that the doors would close with us irreversibly on the outside...

   Finally, we stumbled upon the garage, dropped our car off and hustled as quickly as our heels would allow us towards the Shrine. The doors were not, in fact, closed and--though I am not sure exactly how this happened--we found ourselves being ushered onto the red carpet. With Queen Latifah. No, we were not arm in arm with her, but still, we were sort of sharing the red carpet with her.

   And of course I tripped. Go figure.

   We went inside to our sweet seats nice and close to the stage and saw this:  

     We were having fun star-gazing, dressed up and alert for anything interesting.
  Carrie Underwood sang beautifully as well as snagging two awards.
  It was a little easy for us to tell who was going to get the awards, though; generally, if there were four different people nominated for any given category and only one of those were actually there, it wasn't exactly difficult to guess who would claim it. 

   Jenna and I each took turns striking a pose:
     Rascall Flatts gave an amazing performance. We were seated in such a way that a lot of the celebrities had to walk right by us. At one point, right after Debra Messing had presented, I overheard her say to her friend, Was that as awkward as it felt? Kid Rock walked by us a few times, holding his bottle of beer and looking a little strung out. Jenna and I each gave a scream (well I gave a silent scream since my voice is still on the mend since getting sick) for David Borealis, one of our favorite vampires.  Christian Bale was kind and gracious and of course dedicated his award for the Dark Knight to Heath Ledger...

  

   We had a truly great time!

rancho santa fe

    Drew and I are living without a care in the world. For now. Of course, it wouldn't be a good thing to live that way all the time, but it's nice sometimes. Um, really nice.

      Our trip out here was uneventful and I'd take it so far as to even say restful since we both actually slept on the plane. It was also so refreshing for me to go to an airport and not be fighting back tears for once. This time I didn't have to say good-bye to Drew; I didn't have to pretend that everything was going to be fine as I turned my back to him and resolutely walked away.  Instead, we both got to walk towards the terminal together. He even lugged around both of our bags (until I remembered that I am a fully functioning human who can probably handle wheeling around a bag the size of a carry-on and so offered to just leave him with the really big one which was...you guessed it, mine).   

     Oh, and I really liked glimpsing the Pacific ocean again--even though Drew told me that it was just the sky and actually had me convinced for a moment as I kept staring at it, amazed at how similar a sky and an ocean really look. 

    Turns out they don't look that similar. Drew laughed as I said once again, But I really think it is the ocean, and the jig was up. I know, I know--gullible is not found in the dictionary, ha ha. 

    Right now we are staying in Rancho Santa Fe, which is not in Santa Fe at all. It is, in fact, in California--outside San Diego. It is a picturesque little town about 7 miles from the coast that is part of a covenant. Sounds scary, like they made some secret pact involving blood and monsters, but in reality it means that they all have ownership of the town so that every little thing--down to a change of a mailbox, even--needs to be approved by the appointed board. All of the architecture is spanish and romantic and there is no McDonalds in sight which is just fine with me.  All of the landscaping is pristine and lush which again, if just fine with me.

   Tonight I had lobster for dinner and I don't think I have ever had lobster for dinner before. Drew had swordfish--I suspect this was because Drew is a sucker for anything that has a sword, but still, it was delicious. We ate while overlooking the waves crashing on the sand; the sky blended in perfectly to the soft line of the ocean (see--they really do look alike!). 

   And now I am listening to the sounds of a fire crackling and popping in the fireplace. I am with Drew; I am content.    

vacay, baby!

      Tomorrow morning I leave for vacation. Let me rephrase that and make it a little better while I am at it: Tomorrow morning I leave for vacation with Drew.

    Yeah, that sounds about right.  

  

       Some reasons why this makes me very happy...Drew and I haven't been on a vacation since our honeymoon. We need one; every couple does. We need some days dedicated to nothing in particular. No deadlines. No appointments. Nothing involving work for either of us and everything involving us; the reasons why we fell in love and better yet, all of the reasons why we have stayed in love. 

       I haven't spent a week not doing A Chorus Line since late March. I love my job, true, but a break is in order. My body will thank me for it. My feet, especially, are looking forward to the lack of heels.  And some sand underneath them.

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   And now I must say a huge thank you to all of the friends and family who have come and seen me in A Chorus Line over the past few weeks. Wow. You guys rock. You cheered and cheered and made me feel like a rock star. Thank you a thousand times over; it means so much to me. 

E-A-G-L-E-S

    Well now, here's something new for you: A sports post.  That's right, something that has never been done before on thislifeinwriting.blogspot.com, and you get to witness it. 

     How very exciting.

      I must say that I grew up in a house where the Eagles pretty much ruled. With the exception of one brother who was and is a diehard Cowboys fan (I know, I know--what drama! what angst! the eagles and the cowboys are sworn enemies! Ai-yai-yai...), as well as one mother who didn't and doesn't give a rat's tail about football, it sometimes felt like we all rose and fell with the Eagles. 

    And then I married Drew and quickly became a football widow. I was faced with a choice: either learn to know and love the Eagles as well, or miss out on a big part of my husband's life.  

   If you can't beat em, join em, right? 

   So I joined him. And to make it even more appealing for me, Drew started telling me all these human interest stories about the Eagles. For instance, Andy Reid is mormon and somehow always manages to hire one or two mormon players on the team--like Kevin Curtis, for example;  Donovan McNabb and Brian Dawkins generally room together when they are on the road, probably because they share the same values, Drew suspects; Shawn Andrews stayed out of training camp this year because he was struggling with depression, but then got help from friends, found God, and is even reaching out to other NFL players now struggling with depression.  

   Really, you never have to ask Drew twice to talk about the Eagles.  

   In fact, one night we were driving home late--I think from a Look Machine show--and Drew was listening to Gary Cobb's sports radio show.  Of course they were discussing the Eagles and of course Drew had to call in and add his two cents.  Well, in another 10 minutes Drew had something else to add, but was sadly turned away when he called.

   Apparently Drew had already reached his limit for times one is allowed to call in to the show within a ten minute span.  Go figure. He is nothing if not enthusiastic. 

   And now these beloved Eagles have won a spot in the playoffs and I am hoping that they win tomorrow.  Mostly because this will make Drew extremely happy, but also because this team has won me over--albeit, with Drew's help!--and now it would make me happy too.  

   So may the best team win tomorrow and by best team I mean the Eagles.

    Duh.

    

sooooo tired.

 Some things just need doing. 

  I mean, even after you've gotten home after leaving your house 14 hours earlier, warmed-up for and performed two shows, spent time with friends and family alike in the great city of brotherly love, drove your sister home and dodged deer as you drove yourself home, as well as fixed the furnace which likes to keep your house at a cool 50 degrees--even after all of that, sometimes you need to check your facebook wall. 

  Answer a few messages and comments. Make sure no new pictures of you that have recently shown up need to be untagged.  And yes, sometimes this needs to be done after you have spoken with your hard-at-work husband on the phone and begged off any real or lengthy conversation because, seriously, you are just plain exhausted. 

  But not too tired to tag everyone in this photo:

   At which point said husband immediately responds with this text:

   So. Tired. Must. Tag. Facebook. Photos:-)

   Oops. He caught me red-handed. Too tired to talk, but not too tired to tag him in a facebook picture, it seems...