Jolly Holiday

I'm so old school that when I hear of a new "holiday" each day I just go back to Mary Poppins and recall that it's a jolly holiday with Mary!

Today's new to me holiday was National Intern Day.

So of course I was compelled to make a card and buy some little treats for the 2 rock star interns on our marketing corporate communications team. They've been with us since May and I will miss them so much when they go. It's like mentoring people who still have 2 years of college to decide what they might want to do – and giving them real-work situations to help them decide. 

Back in the last century when I was in college, most internships weren't paid and I could not give up a summer of income to do one. So I really admire how forward-thinking our 2 writers are. It's a level of maturity I don't think I had heading into my junior year at college. 

But as I said to the golf "opponents" tonight, if you have a college aged kid interested in anything my company offers – from marketing to finance – let me know. We have a generous – very generous – program at Sentry that I'd recommend.

It could be a jolly holiday for someone next year!

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!

Neighborhood Watch Cow

I think our neighborhood watch cow and friend need an umbrella. Not that we need a Mary Poppins look-alike in the 'hood. But I hate for her nice dress to get all drenched in the rain!

And yes, that means it's raining. Again.

Just when I was going to leave the house for a walk, too. Gotta keep up my streak! Last week I got 10,000 steps each day Monday through Friday. Anyone with a desk job knows that's not that easy to do. Now it's Monday again and I'm short. Steps, that is. And yes, I do have an umbrella so I wouldn't have to get my fancy dress (or sweats) drenched either.

But boy, I'd rather be munching on something good like the cow is doing. I see the farmer has kept his floral "sweet treat" strategically out of reach. What a great plan. Flower survives and the cow doesn't scarf down something he doesn't need. He might not be happy but he'll be healthy.

Thanks to this rain – again – my flowers will keep surviving, too. Now if I could just keep MY sweet treats strategically out of reach.

Or go puddle jumping long enough to distract me from remembering they exist. Or pace the driveway under an umbrella. Many, many times.

Sigh. Where's Mary Poppins and her spoonful of sugar when you need her?

This Was Me...

What confusion when my Wednesday is my Monday and my Thursday will be my Friday. That's what a two-day work week gets you. So, yep, this was me today...

 And understandably so, this was also me today...

It was actually good to get back to work today so I wasn't eating 24/7!

This was also me today...

Felt like Wendy from Bob the Builder. Can we build it? Yes, we can! Got the privilege of a tour of our new office building nearly completion. Pretty impressive. Not as impressive as my hard hat hair and cool specs. But cool, nonetheless. Love my job and all the different things I get to do in a day!

And finally, this was also me today...

Oh yes! My friend Cindy and I released our inner child with a spoonful of sugar and a bucket of popcorn! Loved the sequel to the original Mary Poppins. The new Mary Poppins Returns was very well cast with all new but wonderful songs. Very entertaining and once again, a good story!

Fun to have a typical "manic Monday" with multiple personalities! TGIF tomorrow!

Finishing Strong

I swear one out of five years the weather is decent on the last Saturday in October. This was not that year.

This weekend is historically the state cross country meet – which conveniently takes place at the golf course five minutes from our house. I knew it was going to be cool today. But the rain was predicted to be done before noon.

Had book club first thing. Raining. Did a little shopping. Raining. Had hubby drop me off at the race. Raining.

Well, drizzling is more accurate. But still I felt a bit like Mary Poppins – only in running shoes, not fancy boots. And carry a camera, not a magic carpet bag.

Glad it did not deter the Royals fans from cheering on our boys team. I felt bad for all the runners having to slog through wet grass and a bit of mud. Our guys did pretty well, though. Two of them finished in the top 15 and the team took 9th out of 16. I guess they were predicted to go 10th, but the finished 1 point ahead of that 10th place team!

If you don't follow cross country, it's probably confusing. Just know that there's a great group of guys who had their last run for Assumption High School and they did us proud. As the retiring coach told me before the starting gun went off, "We've been to state seven of the last nine years. That's pretty awesome."

It sure is. Way to finish strong!

Bring on the sports lull until basketball. My Mary Poppins umbrella and I are OK with that.

A Jolly Holiday With Mary

My friend Christine and I popped open our umbrellas, caught the East wind and headed to #17 Cherry Tree Lane to spend the evening with Mary Poppins and the Banks family.

As you can see, we had really decent seats for the Broadway show! And it was a packed house at the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center in Appleton. I loved the Mary Poppins musical movie as a kid but haven't seen it in years. I had hoped we would really like this presentation tonight. In truth, we absolutely loved it! It far exceeded our expectations!

In fact, it was supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Now it's very, very, very late for a "school night" so it's time to put our umbrellas away, take a spoonful of sugar and have sweet dreams!

I Got the Music in Me...

There's only one kind of scale a fluffy girl like me appreciates.

A musical scale.

I love music. I can sing -- when no one's listening. And I can dance -- like nobody's watching. I am 100% typical girl when it comes to liking TV shows like Glee and just about any Broadway musical.

Although we are not a cultural Mecca, we are fortunate in central Wisconsin that Broadway tours its shows through Appleton (70 minutes away), Madison (90 minutes away) and Minneapolis (a 3-hour hike that is always worth it).

This "season" has been a good one at the Appleton Performing Arts Center. My friend Christine and I saw Les Miserables in November, will see Mary Poppins a month from today and, with fresh tickets in hand, we will now see West Side Story on April 24! What an exciting lineup of fun!

But wait, there's more...

I am also counting down 82 days 'til my twin sister and I see Mamma Mia! in Minneapolis! That will be exciting for 3 reasons: 1) We both love that musical (and know every word of it!). 2) I think this will be Raylene's first Broadway show. And 3) I will get to spend a whole day with my true other half! Can't wait.

With all the blues (sans rhythm) I've been experiencing in 2012, I'm glad I have these uplifting performances to look forward to! It does put a spring in my step.

Plus I know that in between all these big shows there's at least one middle school band concert on the horizon, and there's always Glee on Tuesdays (starting in 9 minutes).

I better go warm up!