Orlando

Every time I say Orlando, I think of Ghost (the movie). "Orlando- is that you!?" For three days, it never got old.

Orlando is where I had to switch hotel rooms in that mess of a blog I wrote about. But no worries. After that day, all was good. We were in a Double Tree with like 800 rooms, and it was really nice.

The theatre threw us a party there that was a blast. Great food, great location, great OPEN bar (love it). And Ted (Jesus) was able to come, which was just wonderful. So often he misses things like this because of other obligations.

I think it was the first time I have been there without going to Disney. Funny enough, I am done with tour tomorrow (crazy), flying home for a few days, then flying BACK to Orlando with my mom and BA for a fun little Disney vacation! More on that later...

Mind you, since Orlando, I have flown to Montgomery, AL, then from AL to Tampa. All within like two days.

Enjoy the pics...

With Ted at the opening night party in Orlando.

Darrel, myself, Ted, Zack, and Tessa (baby Neeley's)

They might have served us a little too much red wine. :)

The Rainbow Connection

I think that many of you who read this blog are family members, extended family members, or are married to family members. You'll get this. For those friends out there reading, you might not. :)

Today I was flying from Montgomery, AL to Tampa, FL. We had a layover in Charlotte, and it was just one of those travel days. The connecting flight was over sold, we were delayed, people were grouchy, the plane was hot... the problem was that we were delayed once we were ON the plane, not at the gate. So we all had to sit on the runway in the hot Charlotte heat for about two hours. I guess it was due to storms in Tampa.

Anyway, I just got to thinking while I was listening to my iPod. My mind has been rather heavy lately. For some reason I have been thinking about kids and family a lot. I seem to be surrounded by them, and the happiness and joy they bring to the people who have them. And I'm just so far away from having that. I have been thinking about relationships lately. Some of mine have been confusing and difficult recently. There were some people from the military on my plane, and people were shaking their hands and thanking them. It made me think about my cousin and all he has gone through. And I'm reading a book called Promise the Moon that is about a military family that is actually kind of depressing. For some reason, my mind would just not stop on this plane ride.

As we were landing, I looked out the window at the hazy sky and I see a gigantic rainbow. It was so cool to see it from a little higher up, above ground level. I have not seen one that I can think of in years. I actually said it out loud, and people started looking out their windows too. It cleared my mind a bit, and made me realize that it will all be OK.

Lauderdale

This one is a bit overdue, but better late than never!

We spent a week in Ft. Lauderdale, and it was honestly just great. The theatre was nice, it was in a great location, we had rental cars, and we had a day off while we were there. We were actually staying in Plantation, which was about 15 minutes from downtown Ft. Lauderdale. It was the first time that I can remember ever being there without my grandfather, so it was a little weird at first! I took my friends to all of our 'spots' to try and make up for it.

On Monday, our day off, a few of us decided to go down to the beach on A1A (beach front avenue!) and do the whole tanning/swimming/lunch thing. It was sunny for about an hour and a half before the lifeguards told us to "seek shelter across the street" around 1:00. Well what's across the street? A strip of bars of course! We had lunch and frozen cocktails overlooking the ocean. Life was good.

We laughed so hard- squirting Corona lime juice!

After a much needed nap on our day off, we (and I mean 40 of us) went to Hibachi for Matthew's 30th birthday! It was one of the few times I can think of on tour where we pretty much ALL went somewhere together. Even Jesus came. :)

The rest of the week was just nice. I found a really dangerous outlet mall that I never knew existed before down there, called Sawgrass Mills. Like BA said, we have probably been better off not knowing about it. I mean, GOOD stuff. They had your typical outlet stores, but they also had heavenly places like Burberry, Theory, Kate Spade, Saks, Nordstrom, Movado... the place was an absolute city! It took me about 15 minutes to drive around the perimeter of the entire thing (to figure out what area I wanted to spend my two free hours in). If they were smart, they would put a hotel there, because you could really spend days going through the bargains. Unfortunately, even at outlet prices, some of the stuff was still totally out of my league, but I did buy myself a coat that I love. And then I made myself get in the car and leave before more damage was done!

What A Day

Wow. Today has just sucked! I have great things to write about our last week in Ft. Lauderdale, but that's for when I am a little more upbeat.

Today we had to travel from Lauderdale to Orlando, with a sound check scheduled for 6:00pm in Orlando. We all had rental cars in Lauderdale, and were told we simply had to leave the keys at the front desk and Enterprise would come get all of them, as we have done in the past. Oh no. We get word yesterday that we all have to wake up early and drive them back to the airport, before we depart for Orlando. Now I can not really complain here, because I drove with a friend instead of taking the bus, so I didn't have to worry about hauling ass (pardon me) back to the hotel to make bus call. But still. Pain. And then I actually went to National to return the car instead of Enterprise (in my defense their logos are both green) and totally unloaded all my luggage, strapped it all together, and then the dude told me I was at the wrong company. Really?!

We hit a little traffic on the way to Orlando, but nothing too bad. My friend Doc and I got to the La Quinta (Spanish for hole in the wall), checked in, and ew. Just not nice. You know when you are surrounded by pawn shops and check cashing places that you are not in the best area of town. And the room was kind of nasty. What ever. I unpack, organize life in my room for the weekend, and decide to read and take a nap. (I was up until about 4am watching Weeds season 3 on DVD). Oh, but I had to wait to do that until maintenance came to fix my leaky toilet. Anyway, apparently I was sleeping when I received a text that we were moving to a different hotel because this one was so bad. No one's fault, but no one called me. I'm not on a "phone tree" because I'm not cast, not really crew. Kind of get lost in the middle somewhere. Got the text at 4:40 that we were leaving at 5:00.

To fast forward: I helped plan a party for the entire company tonight here in Orlando, with the theatre. I'm supposed to look nice, and take care of everyone tonight. Haha! You should have seen me. My hair was up with chlorine in it from the pool YESTERDAY, and I forgot my entire bathroom bag hanging on the door hook in the hotel in Lauderdale. I was in a mood, let me tell you.

I decided to just bring my luggage to the theatre, and used Corey's dressing room to fix myself the best I could. Pulled a dress out of my suitcase, washed my hair in the sink with hotel shampoo and conditioner, threw myself together in about 20 minutes. While on the phone figuring out transportation for everyone for the party tonight. And did I mention I had to set up merch before the doors opened?

I think we all need this party tonight more than we thought we would.

Life on the road.....

A picture of my friends kid, showing how I feel right about now. He's hilarious. :)

Goodbye Jesus Bus

Enjoying some Mexican food. And Patron.

They took our buses away. For the last three weeks of tour, all three of our buses are gone. We are flying, renting cars, taking cabs. Such a pain logistically. Your bus becomes your home, so I guess I'm kind of homeless for the next few weeks! Totally sucks. I had to get all of my stuff off the bus, re-pack suitcases, ship a box home. Some stuff I just left on there because it was too big of a pain to figure out what to do with it (like my down comforter thing. What the heck am I supposed to do with that!?).

Anyway, we decided to take our driver, Kevin, out for his last night on the town with the Jesus tour, in Fayetteville. He has moved on to bigger and better things, and will be missed. Not only was he the worlds best driver, but he is a great friend to all of us. :(

Downtown Fayetteville is actually pretty fun. Who would have ever thought I would go to Arkansas? There is a street called Dixson with bars and restaurants. We hit up a few last night. Lucky for us, they all served Patron, which seemed to be our shot of choice. Oy.

Kevin, Corey, myself and Michael


With Stacie, our other partner in crime for the day

We'll miss you Kevin!!

A Week in the South

We have been in the South for a few weeks now, and lucky for me, my good friends who have moved away from Cleveland all moved down here. This is definitely one of the perks of touring- visiting with friends and family in other cities that I might not otherwise see.

Chattanooga was first- Dana and Jason moved there a few years ago, and I have visited a few times. I think it's so darn cute there. They bought a great house outside of town, have a boat, and have really made a great life for themselves. Dana picked me up in the afternoon, we went to lunch and hung out, met Jason for dinner, and then went out for drinks. The night with my JCS friends out with us turned out to be rather interesting (and fun)!

Next was Charlotte- Lindsay and Nick, Zack and Emily, and Miller all live there. They always talk about how great Charlotte is, and they are right! The downtown is awesome. So many restaurants, young people, clean. Loved it. I met them for dinner at and Irish place called Ri Ra right next to the theatre. Not gonna lie- I was kind of hung over the day we met, so it took a lot for me to walk into the door of that place. :) The girls had their conversation going on (babies, boys and jobs) and they guys were in their own world. Probably politics and golf. Loved the night.And last but not least was Savannah- Jenny and Patrick moved there and opened a restaurant in December. WOW is it a beautiful town! The moss on the trees, the old Georgia homes. But an even bigger WOW is how damn hot it was there. Kind of unbearable. Their restaurant was by chance practically next to the theatre, so some of us went there for dinner after the show. It's called Noble Fare, which is Danish for Patrick and Jennifer. I think. To say it was excellent is an understatement. Jenny decorated it in her Jenny way (think black and white and pink) and Patrick has created a menu that in untouchable. Even though they usually close at 10:30, they stuck around until 12:30 because they live upstairs, and fed us wine and martinis and desserts. Mind you, we have also hit Nashville, Charleston, Birmingham and Fayetteville during this time. Whew!

I was so grateful to have a taste of home during the past week or so. Things have been a little rough lately, but my girls helped put a smile on my face! :)

Job Update

Well, I have officially decided to do tour again next year. I know, I know. I said one year to go out and do something different. Then I said I haven't seen every city yet, so I would do it one more year. And now... year three. It happens.

I'll be home July thru mid-November, then back at it with Jesus and Judas.

Speaking of being home during this time. I kind of rented out my house starting August 15th, and now I'm homeless. Oops. I am going to put my house in storage, and need to find a temporary furnished home/room/apartment from August until November. I have about 4 weeks of vacations planned, so I won't necessarily be there all the time. Sooo.... if you have a mansion with a pool and an extra room, please let me know. :)

Girls Day

We had a day off in Nashville over the weekend, and decided to make it a Girls Day. What is the most wonderful, amazing thing you could do on a day for the ladies? Go see Sex and the City of course!

We all got dressed up, and headed off to a 4:30 matinee. I bought all of our tickets online ahead of time because we heard it was selling out. Low and behold, there were signs up at the box office that certain shows were not available! And they had one every hour. The movie was better than I could have EVER dreamed. Really. There was not one thing I would have wanted to change about the ending to my favorite show ever. Carrie's 81 outfit changes were worth seeing alone! I don't think there was one seat left in the theatre. It was so funny- you could tell women were there because they were saving seats with jackets and purses. Guys just don't do that. :)

After the movie, in a SATC daze, we went to Carrabba's for dinner and martinis. As Carrie would say, the whole day was FABULOUS!