Kinky Boots

My friend Camille really wanted to go see Cyndi Lauper's Kinky Boots Broadway musical. I am happy to go see any musical so I agreed to get tickets with her. While I was a bit skeptical about how good it would be at first, I was pleasantly surprised. Not only was it well performed and entertaining, but it also had some great messages in the story.

Lola's 6 rules for happiness:

1.  Pursue the truth.

2.  Learn something new.

3.  Accept yourself, and you'll accept others.

4.  Let love shine.

5.  Let pride be your guide.

6.  You'll change the world when you change your mind.

Eccles Theater Premier

We have a brand new state-of-the-art Broadway theater downtown SLC and Becca and I had the privilege to attend the premier performance.  This performance highlighted the technologies of the theater and the local companies in town, such as Ballet West, Utah Opera, Rire-Woodbury Dance Co, Reperatory Dance Co, and the University of Utah Theater.  They all gave performances with Kurt Bestor, the theater's musical director, directing.  These performances were highlighted by performances and discussions by EGOT legend Rita Moreno, and Broadway babies Megan Hilty (Wicked, Smash) and Brian Stokes Mitchell (Ragtime, Kiss Me Kate).  Listening to Brian sing Wheels of a Dream from Ragtime, in person, was epic!

After the performances there was an after party with tiny treats, a dance, and a chance to mingle with the local talent.  It was a cool opportunity and a great event.

June is bustin' out... of here.

Suddenly June is over.  It was hot and cold throughout the month as we had a smattering of rainstorms.  It was a quick binge to get through everything before my trip sneaks up on me in July.  It was spent with fun, friends, and family making memories and experiencing life.

Alyssa and Cuyler blew us all away again with another piece of stunning chalk art, this time featuring the Starship Enterprise from Star Trek.  Lots of cool and interesting pieces were showcased.

Orlando was the site of a terror attack on June 12th when the Gay Club, Pulse, was attacked by a shooter, resulting in the death of 49 people and injury of 53 more.  Another senseless tragedy. 

Niki came into town and I managed to sneak in a last minute breakfast with her and Merilee after work one morning before she headed back to New Jersey.

I have worked a lot the last couple of weeks and am hitting burn out stage.  This unicorn coloring book is helping though.

I was able to spend an evening up in Logan with Kristin before she got married.  We had a great time chatting about life in general and our futures and anything in between.  Happy for her and Chance.

Was able to go to a ward BBQ and talk to a variety of people, making new friends.  It was refreshing and the first time in a long time I have felt hopeful about some things.

The movie Independence Day Resurgence came out and Jessica and I were perfectly entertained by it. 

Becca and I went and saw Me Before You.  Overall I enjoyed it, although it didn't have the emotional impact on me that it has had on most people. Side effect of working with quadriplegics for a living.

My mom and I saw Big River at Hale Center Theater and it was such a great show.  While I adore musicals, the best acting usually comes in plays.  This show had both.

Becca and I wrapped up the month with a food truck roundup in Daybreak, trying out the Cluck Truck, which specializes in chicken wraps, and of course grabbing some Matterhorn French Toast for dessert. 

Father's day was a nice day spent eating roast with family and enjoying time with my dad.  It was also a time to take an awkward family photo of the dad's with their "baby" girls...

Seize the Day.

I loved seeing Newsies the Musical in New York a few years ago.  I have been hoping it would make its way to Utah and it finally did!  Krystal and I jumped at the chance to see it and had a great time. As someone who has had the Newsies movie memorized since it came out, I had a hard time adjusting to the new songs, but they have grown on me.  After the show Krystal and I stuck around and met most of the cast members who were so fun and gracious as they signed our playbills and took selfies with us.

Newsies from left to right.

1. Alex Prakken aka a Delancy Brother (this was his last show!)
2. Jordan Samuels aka Specs and Miss Meda Lark played by Aisha de  Haas
3. Sky Flaherty aka Albert
4. Michael Dameski aka Scab
5. Joey Barreiro aka Jack Kelly
6. Joshua Burrage aka JoJo and Becca Peterson aka swing
7. Iain Young aka Finch
8. Josh  Assor aka Smalls.
9. Stephen Michael Langton aka Davey
10. Katherine Frank aka Sniper

Good Things

The past week or so have been filled with a bit of all 3.

Melissa's birthday was spent with a ladies breakfast up at Ruth's Diner.  Their mile-high biscuits with local fresh raspberry jam never disappoint.  I tried the cinnamon roll French toast and it was quite divine.

Becca and I enjoyed a night at the symphony for their "Let's Dance" show.  They had ballroom, lindy hop, tango, and tap dancers while they played a wide variety of music.  I loved the orchestral numbers as it brought back memories of us choreographing whole stories and shows to our classical music CDs as kids.

Laura and I caught "Peter and the Starcatchers" at Hale Center Theater.  It was a delightful little show about how Peter becomes the Pan and very much reminded me of a Shakespeare production because of the limited characters, story telling style, random bits of song, and costume creativity.

Making Christmas.

 

I've been busy on my two days off before Christmas trying to celebrate the season.  All of my gifts and decorating have been done for awhile but I hadn't done much of the traditional celebration things.

Becca, Melissa, and I decided to make gingerbread houses to celebrate Becca's birthday and then watch some Christmas movies.

I went and saw Elf: The Musical at Pioneer Theater Company.  "O.M.Gosh" was it funny.  The songs were delightful, it was expertly performed, and it followed the core of the movie that we all know and love.  Highly recommend it, I don't think I have been as entertained at a show since I saw Newsies on Broadway in NYC last year.

I cleaned my entire room head to toe.  This may not seem very Christmasy to you, but growing up there was a rule that Santa couldn't bring gifts if our room was a mess, and usually a mad scramble to clean them up well, so for me this is a big deal still.  Always easier to enjoy the holidays when the house is clean.

I made chocolate and candy cane dipped marshmallows for hot chocolate and they are delish.  Also made some Cinnamon-Pecan popcorn from Our Best Bites.

Finished sewing my projects I started for Baby Deirdre last August.  Started as in I bought material and I still hadn't done anything about it until yesterday!

Last night we went to the Piano Guys Christmas Concert at the Energy Solutions Arena.  I saw it with Toni, Melissa, Krystal, and Camille, and it was really cool.  They played a lot of non Christmas songs and had some cool guest performers like Alex Boye, and Jon Schmidt's dad.  My favorite songs were O Come O Come Emmanuel, Peponi (The Swahili version of Coldplay's Paradise), and Angel's We Have Heard on High (played on the inside of a piano).  At the end we all sang Silent Night which was cool when being sung with 12,000 of your closest friends.