Not Gonna Lose Our Shot

This is, I swear, the most random thing in the world. I was all set to wear a pink shirt today for National Wear Pink Day or whatever, but spotted a t-shirt I hadn't worn in some 4 or 5 years. So I donned one of my Hamilton (the musical) t-shirts.

Then when I was turning into my neighborhood after a post-work gas run, I saw a familiar color!

I parked my HRV and after confirming my friend Cindy I randomly picked this shirt today, made sure to take a picture. I mean, what are the odds?!

We saw Hamilton together years ago but the odds of us choosing today to wear our shirts is crazy. I guess that means we're due to see it again. Or see some "Broadway" show in our area in the coming months. 

It's kind of freaky, but I'll take it as a sign. I'm checking out shows right now!

#NotThrowingAwayMyShot

Not Throwing Away My Shot

I wasn't expecting that my annual physical would awaken my Broadway love of Hamilton. But in the end, I could not throw away my shot! Unfortunately, that meant an updated tetanus shot. And an old lady Shingles shot! I survived through the night, but I am not neccessarily a fan!

Thankfully, Mother Nature has not added more snow -- merely extra layers of colors in the sunset!

So I'll just sit here and admire colors while I recover from a Tetanus shot in my left arm and a Shingles shot in my right arm. Lord, give me strength!

Talk Less, Listen More

I'm cheating tonight. Since I finally get to see MY Twins play on TV (vs the Brewers, of course), I'll give you the column that I just whipped together for my church newsletter. 

Talk Less, Listen More.

I recently had the privilege of seeing the Hamilton musical in person for the second time. I stress “in person” since I purposely subscribed to the Disney+ streaming network quite some time ago to watch it whenever I want to be in the room where it happened. (If you know, you know.)

There is so much I love about the production, but I really admire the incredible talent behind each lyric. Each turn of phrase. Whenever Aaron Burr reminds Alexander Hamilton to “talk less, smile more,” I think, “I need to remember to talk less and listen more, too!” 

It’s not exactly second nature to my outgoing personality. And frankly, we’re all victims these days of having our heads filled with “noise.” The news. Gossip. Social media. You name it. 

How do we cut through the noise and let God’s voice in?

Believe me, it takes a concerted effort. You have to remove yourself from the distractions. Whether that is kids, work, screen time, or other stressors, you know what occupies your mind the most. 

Just step away. Whenever it’s convenient (and safe, of course) to do so – and appreciate a moment of silence and a moment to listen for God’s voice.

Maybe take advantage of the early morning summer light to read a daily devotion on your front porch. Maybe at a stoplight say, “God, please silence my mind so I can hear You.” Maybe at church say, “Let’s just listen to Pastor Cheryl’s amazing sermon and not worry about how much we have to get done today at home.” Maybe when a friend needs help, you listen rather than plan your response.

As Job 33:14 reminds us: Although God speaks again and again, no one pays attention to what he says.

Let’s all make a collaborative effort to talk less and pay attention more!

I Did Not Throw Away My Shot

If you ever oversleep for church on Sunday but your phone rings from a girlfriend from church – answer it! She wasn't calling because you needed to be at church. You needed to be her last-second replacement partner to go see Hamilton!

When my friend Kim purchased the tickets way back when, she planned to take her daughter, my "niece" and dancer/singer extraordinaire Megan. But then Megan couldn't go due to some dance rehearsal and when Megan's back-up ticket person fell ill today, it was time for Kim to find someone at the last second. Someone who loves musicals – especially this one. And I got the lucky call. 

I had one hour to get ready. And at that point, it didn't matter I had plans for a movie with a friend and plans for golf with hubby today. If you've seen it, you know why Hamilton trumps all!

Kim hadn't seen it before so I showed her plenty of photo op places before the show. Pretty much counted on the fact that as a "stage mom" she'd absolutely love it.

And she DID love it. And it was phenomenal per usual! My only mistake was forgetting to pack any Kleenex for that part – you know the one – where I cried.

The casting – even with several understudies today – was amazing. And it was so entertaining. 

As much as I loved being the alternate attendee, you MUST see this one, Megan!! YOU should, too, if you haven't yet.

Also, just so you know. I'd be happy to be on any of your backup plus-one lists for any event like this!

Not Quite a Crystal Ball

Took my new lens ball (birthday present!) outside yesterday and it was so humid, it fogged right up. I'll have to try it a different day. But in the meantime, I'll pretend it's a crystal ball. It kind of looks like one, doesn't it?

Of course, these days you don't need a crystal ball to predict the future in some things.

I've decided that watching the Olympics when they’re half a world away is sort of like looking at the last page of a new book before you start it. (Yes, some people do that — not me). Yet, even though you know how it ends, you want to see how the characters got there. So you read through it anyway.

That was me yesterday and Suni Lee’s successful bid for the women’s gymnastics all-around gold medal. I knew she got it, but I had to watch "fake live" coverage last night to see how she did it. So I stayed up and watched that and, in my excitement, forgot to blog and went to bed. 

Tonight I saw some live action of a different kind — and they were all winners.

The entertaining KIDS From Wisconsin entourage had a show in nearby Plover this evening. Since this was considered the Hometown Show for my “honorary niece” Megan, I made sure to go.

This year’s theme was In Living Color — but there were no Fly Girls like the ‘90s TV show of the same name. Instead it as just amazing numbers covering a colorful spectrum of genres. Good stuff. Megan was amazing as always and did a super job with a Patsy Cline solo. 

My fave number of course was a medley from Hamilton. I am not throwing away my shot!

Naturally, I took hundreds of photos because that's how I do things, so I don't need a crystal ball to know what I'm doing the rest of the evening. 

Better get started. Have a great weekend. I think I see a good one!

Uno Dos Doses

If you're wondering if you can go on a date in the middle of the work day, you can! Then celebrate like this:

Yup, we got our second doses today and are fully vaccinated! Now that's something to celebrate.

My friend Cindy made me this Hamilton musical-inspired vaccination day shirt: Not throwing away my shot! Love it!

Must be a bit of a lucky shirt. So far – knock on wood – the second shot hasn't knocked us on our butts. Yet. We've heard a lot people get reactions after 12 hours or the next day. So we'll hope for the best.

Right now my only side effect is a really sore arm. After the first dose, I could sleep on my left shoulder and arm no problem. This time... not so much. But if that's all we suffer through, it's 100% – or 95% – worth it.

Since I was feeling OK after work, I did something "normal" for me this time of year. I took pictures of the middle school softball game. I'm a little rusty after two years – remember, no spring sports when the pandemic kicked off last March – but I got at least one I'm giddy about. 

Got a little air time there. That's a pretty big windmill! 

I can't wait to get back into the swing of it – as in real life with some photography, too, ha – soon, too!

#getvaccinated

The U in GratitUde

Alphabetical gratitude month continues today with the letter U which reminds us to be grateful for our unexpected blessings!

A = Autumn, Austins, Assumption
B = Ballots, Books, Book Club, Bible
C = Casey, Clay, Carter, Church, Creativity, Camera
D = Dad, Daughters, Deck Chair, Dar, Design
E = Eggs, Election, Energy, Empty Nest
F = Family, Friends, Faith, Flu Shot, FastForward
G = Games, Golf, Guilty pleasures
H = Hugs, Hurricanes, Humor
I = Ice cream, Impromptu Invitations
J = Jim, Jokes, Job, Java
K = Kindness, King Cone, Knock on Wood, Karma
L = Laughters, Love
M = Mom, Masters, Musicals
N = Nieces, Nephews, Neighbors, Norse Force
O = Outage
P = Pigging Out, Passport, Phone
Q = Quiet
R = R People
S = Scandi-hoovian-ism, Sisters, Sylvester
T = Thanksgiving, Tree, Teachers, Turkey

Unicorns: What's not to appreciate about unicorns? I, for one, am grateful for them. A couple of us at work call it a "unicorn" when our to-do list is done. Yes, it is as rare as a unicorn. I mean they exist, but they're rare, right? We've had only a handful of unicorns in 2020. Now we call it a "partial unicorn" (isn't that a horse?) if we just get to the point we don't need the computer mouse to actually scroll through the entire task list. I'm grateful for my partial unicorn, horse, reindeer, whatever you want to call it, today so I can take one of those unusual guilt-free Thanksgiving vacations! 

U.S.: I'm also grateful for the United States of America. No political comments, I swear. Since I just watched Hamilton recently, I was reminded again of what it took to actually create these states to begin with, let alone unite them. We live in a pretty incredible country. I'd like to see more uniting than fighting. That would be the ultimate blessing!

University: I'm hoping that by pre-appreciating the University of Wisconsin-Platteville for providing 4 1/2 years of education to our son, that it'll lead to something unbelievably good when he virtually walks across the commencement stage in a couple weeks. Thanks, University!  (Hey, I might as well keep the unicorns coming!)

#gratitudemonth #gratitudealphabet #unicornsRreal

M-m-m Grateful

Our alphabetical gratitude month continues today with the letter M which means I have a multitude of blessings to be grateful during Gratitude Month and every day!

A = Autumn, Austins, Assumption
B = Ballots, Books, Book Club, Bible
C = Casey, Clay, Carter, Church, Creativity, Camera
D = Dad, Daughters, Deck Chair, Dar, Design
E = Eggs, Election, Energy, Empty Nest
F = Family, Friends, Faith, Flu Shot, FastForward
G = Games, Golf, Guilty pleasures
H = Hugs, Hurricanes, Humor
I = Ice cream, Impromptu Invitations
J = Jim, Jokes, Job, Java
K = Kindness, King Cone, Knock on Wood, Karma
L = Laughters, Love

Mom: I am so blessed to have this purple-loving woman in my life. (Not a Vikings fan, just a purple fan.) She's 88 and of sound mind and two very sound green thumbs she uses to raise her favorite – African Violets. Purple, of course. I've said it before that Mom loves to write, has perfect penmanship to this day, and appreciates a clever sense of humor. We're probably much more alike than I would have thought – or appreciated – earlier in my life. Now, I'm so grateful she's with us. And can still kick our butts in most card games!  

Masters: C'mon I have to give a shoutout for the perfect weekend-long distraction. When it's rainy, cold, windy, or all three here in central Wisconsin, there's nothing better than seeing the world's best golfers take on a course we normally only see in springtime  and make it entertaining to boot. A perfect 2020 escape! And Tiger even carded a 10 on a par 3. He's human, ladies and gentleman. And far too honest. I never card more than a 9. Ever.

Musicals: Oh  how I miss seeing my Broadway Musicals in person these days. Had 3 from our season tickets get postponed or canceled. So glad that thanks to Disney-plus, I've been able to see Hamilton a few more times. I am not throwing away my shot ... at seeing that and The Greatest Showman on demand. Heck, it's early yet. I've already watched one Hallmark movie, I might was throw a musical into the mix!

Sweet dreams! Hug your moms if you got 'em! 

#gratitudemonth #gratitudealphabet

Wonderful World of ... July

In my desperate need, well desire, to see Hamilton again, I subscribed to Disney+ streaming service. Since we already have Hulu and they'll be nothing new on ESPN+ for awhile, I just got the wonderful world of Disney. Maybe just for July. Maybe longer.

If you see the fine print there, it's only $6.99 a month. I'd have to watch Hamilton like 9 more times to equal the live performance ticket price alone. So I delved into Disney movies first this evening – it's what you do when it's 90 degrees out – and watched the new Lion King movie. Pretty well done. There's also a ton of retro Disney, too, like Herbie the Love Bug, Witch Mountain, Mary Poppins, Parent Trap and The Muppets, to name a few. (See complete list here.)

There are also Pixar movies so I can watch the ones I enjoyed when Carter was little – Toy Story, Incredibles, Monsters Inc, Cars – and now watch their sequels, too!

Then there's all the Marvel movies (also included) that I had once planned to watch in order before watching Avengers Endgame. I did not watch them all but I did watch Endgame on my long flight to Seattle. Pretty sure there aren't any spoiler alerts I can't handle.

And as one more bonus, I could watch all the Star Wars movies – in chronological order of the overall story, not the movie release dates. I think that would take me beyond July!

But still, one month is only the price of one matinee movie around here. And my popcorn at home is pretty cheap. I'm not getting paid to endorse this product. Just letting you know about this reasonably priced option – especially if your kids have been staring you in the face for 121 days and you (or they) need an escape from each other or this heat for a few hours!

It's a wonderful world!

Not Throwing Away My Shot

Nine months ago, my friend Cindy and I got to see Hamilton – unseating Wicked as my most anticipated musical. It did not disappoint. We both fell in love with the story AND the music.

We had to get season tickets to the Broadway Touring shows at the Appleton performing arts center, but it was worth it for our guaranteed seats to this show.

Due to COVID-19, we didn't get to see the last 3 shows in our package – though Dear Evan Hansen will come around in August of 2021. I guess seeing the theatre-goers' state of suffering prompted Disney to take advantage of the situation and offer a subscription to their Disney-plus streaming service, which includes a recording of Hamilton, as it was presented on Broadway.

I was going to wait until I had lots of free time to subscribe, but that $6.99 was burning a hole in my pocket – especially after so many friends watched it this past weekend when it first became available. So after supper, I signed up for a month (a bargain compared to theater pricing), ignored the severe weather outside, and joyfully sang along with Lin-Manuel Miranda, who not only created Hamilton, but portrayed him.

Thumbs up from this fan. The production was amazing to see in person and this lived up to it – partly because of the camera work and close-ups we couldn't see from our balcony seats, and partly because I know most of the songs now!

I forgive you for fleecing us, Disney. Just this once.

Treat Day

Today is pretty much the only non-holiday and non-celebration day of my entire vacation. So I made it all about me. Of course.

Got to sleep in. Ran some errands – including the Rudolph cheese factory. Was pleasantly surprised I timed my scanning of Sirius radio channels just in time to catch a number from Hamilton!

Ignore the dust on the screen. I had the windows and roof open! Yup, another 90-degree or close to it vacay day.

My treat this afternoon was a visit to my hair artist. She made sure to get rid of all the glitter that would clash with any sparklers this July 4th. Afterward, I high-tailed it over to King Cone to purchase my lifesaving Pandemic Protection Package.

For a mere $19, I got this King Cone mask (awesome!!!!), plus a medium scoop of ice cream (Coconut Cabana today) and $5 in King Cone Moola bucks! Who's winning now? This girl!

Yes, I had to take the mask off to eat the ice cream. Yes, I was just showing it to you to brag about my good fortune. And yes, as of 5:30 p.m., there were still Pandemic Protection Packages available!

That was about it. Hubby's golfing so I watched a little Netflix and am going to read with Mr. Deck Chair – unless the skeeters aim to spoil MY day!

Hip-Hop History Lesson

When you build up expectations for something, it's such a treat when it meet and exceeds them! I've been looking forward to seeing Hamilton for years – yes, years – so I was beyond excited for today to come!

In early 2018 they announced the musical about Alexander Hamilton would tour through Appleton. I've seen a lot of Broadway shows (Wicked, Les Miserables, etc) at the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center and it's a super venue. Since Hamilton tickets are in such hot demand, the best way to ensure I could get them was to buy a season ticket package. And convince a musical-loving friend to do it with you.

So my girlfriend Cindy and I will get to see some other great shows this season – like Phantom of the Opera and Dear Evan Hansen – but we were most excited about Hamilton!

If you haven't heard anything about it, it is honestly a hip-hop history lesson about Alexander Hamilton and his role with the founding of our nation. Besides dying in the famous duel with Aaron Burr, he was the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and known for the creation of a national bank. Seems like dry content, but take if from both of us... SOOOOOO entertaining! I'm glad I studied up on it a bit and listened to the soundtrack so I could follow the rap songs. These guys are good!

And even though are tickets seated us on the third level, we could see the whole stage and it was actually pretty cool because they kept changing the scenes without interruption to the flow of music or story. I can't say enough how amazing it was!

I'll quit babbling. I'm tired but won't be able to sleep anyway since I have so many of the songs in my head!

Who lives? Who dies? Who tells your story?

Silver Linings and Such

Not sure if hubby is quoting a country song or a John Wayne movie, but when I stress about something and it goes my way, he often says "The Lord looks out for drunks and ne-er do-wells."

Does it matter which category I'm in? Not really. It's true though. But I like to think of it as finally finding that silver lining in the cloud!

Today a big cloud came out. And I stressed. It was one of those things that were sort of in my control, but not really.

We were scheduling a trip for work and I said I didn't have any conflicts this fall except for my sister weekend in late September. So it ended up that Oct. 1-3 worked the best. I don't know what calendar I was looking at, because I completely overlooked going to Hamilton... on Oct. 2! Oh no!

I've been waiting two years to go, knowing it was going on tour and coming to the Fox Cities in 2019. I bought season tickets in March just so I could be sure to get tickets for this show. Now what?

Although I try to have a work-life balance, I didn't want to miss the work thing since it's one of my video shoots and I should be there. And it was completely my fault that I overlooked my own personal event of the year on my calendar! So I looked at the performing arts center site and saw that people can do ticket exchanges.

And the deadline to exchange Hamilton tickets is... tomorrow! I guess silver lining #1 that this all came about today.

I checked with my friend who has tickets with me and she was thankfully available for all other days during the two weeks Hamilton is showing. Silver lining #2.

I managed to get on the website tonight and get those tickets exchanged for the Friday night show that same week, sitting in about the same spot – so no charge. I did not even have to pay for my idiocy! Silver lining #3.

Thank you, Lord. For looking out for this overbooked lost sheep!

But the Book Was Better

I've been an avid reader since I got a copy of my first Laura Ingalls Wilder book in my hands. After conquering Little House in the Big Woods, I read my way through the entire series and didn't look back.

Many times over the years, I'd swap books with like-minded friends as we kept the power of the written word alive. Then, with the advent of the Kindle and other e-readers, it suddenly became super easy to access books that were difficult to find in a brick-and-mortar store or that piqued our interest based on a friend's recommendation or the making of a book-based movie.

When my friend Christine and I ran out of copies of our Stephanie Plum novels to share, we decided to start a book club to expand our horizons and share the love. That was five years ago this month!

We started out with a handful of friends and, even though she moved away, much of the core group of 6-8 has continued to meet monthly ever since. We pick a book on a rotating basis and the "hostess" leads discussion at the designated local coffee house. I love it and I love these ladies! They're definitely my soul sisters!

A few times we manage to add a Girls Night Out to the mix when one of the books we read was playing on the big screen (book is always better) – or the movies is simply called Book Club. That was a hoot!

Tonight two of us went to see a free showing at the library of The Hate U Give, a book we read last November. As usual, the movie was good, but the book was better. Still, it does help to know the story so we can fill in the gaps if needed.

And it's always good to have a Girls Night, no matter what!

Still, this theory of book first, movie second, might not always work.

I recently purchased tickets to finally see the musical Hamilton this fall. So, so excited!! On a whim, I thought maybe I should read the book that the creation of the show was based on. So I ordered Alexander Hamilton on Amazon and this is what came in the mail...

I guess the listed page count (800!) escaped me. And it's small print!

I'm sure I'll plow through it at some point – maybe with Mr. Deck Chair's help this summer – but I can guarantee that come October, the show will be much better than the book!

Keep the word alive, my friends.