Goodbye Darrel

I'm bummed. Darrel flew to NYC today because he has to start rehearsals for the show on Saturday. I don't start work until November 17th, in New Mexico. I think this might be the longest we have gone without seeing each other. Good thing for cell phones, Facebook, and email! He also gets to go to a Halloween party tonight that our friends from tour are throwing, and is going to see people from the FIRST tour that we have not seen in about a year and a half. Mind you, we are having a fun Halloween party at our loft tonight and it will no doubt be a good night, but it's just not as much fun without Darrel. :(

On a side note- thanks to my step-sister Alisa, I am a Flapper for Halloween! She had the dress, and I found tights, a wig, gloves, and a necklace to complete the look. (I might have bought the necklace at Target with the full intention of returning it next week....).

Happy Halloween!

Hot Water Woes

Our hot water tank in our apartment downtown looks like it holds about a gallon. No lie. It is hanging from the ceiling in the laundry room. We literally cannot wash our hair and shave our legs during the same shower because we run out of hot water. When Toni, Darrel and I all have to take showers, we try to spread them out, but sometimes it just doesn't work.

The other day we were getting ready to go out, and there was just no way I was putting my body under that cold water. So this is what I resorted to:

Bragging Rights

Um, I think I have them. Here is Darrel singing at open mic night in Erie earlier this week!

Ticked Off In Tremont

On Monday night, me, Darrel, Toni (my roommate) and her brother went to a local bar for $3 drafts and Karaoke. Toni's brother was visiting from London and it was his last night in town, so we wanted to do something fun.

Tremont is an area of Cleveland that is very trendy and artsy. That guy from Iron Chef owns a restaurant down there, there are tons of little bars, galleries, etc. But it's also right on the edge of not totally being safe. There will be an amazing house built right next to a house missing windows. But they have some really fun places to go.

Anyway, the night was super fun! We tried different beers they had on draft, and Darrel sang a lot of Karaoke for us. Believe it or not, after a few of those beers, I went up there and sang WITH HIM! I don't think I have even attempted Karaoke since I was drunk when I was 20. We sang "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" by Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks. I was so nervous, but had so much fun.

So after this awesome night, we walk out to get in my car and go home, and.... my back passenger window has been shattered, and my 80 gig iPod is gone. BASTARDS!! It is just so unfair that thieves get away with doing things like this. I was parked on a well lit street, right out front of the bar, and next to a church, of all things. I obviously had to get the window replaced ASAP, so I found a place and went on Tuesday afternoon. It was $227. And now I have to get another iPod, which will be a few hundred dollars. It's not worth turning into insurance, so I'm just sucking it up.

Our cheap night out with $3 drafts turned out to have a pretty hefty price tag!

Viva La Vida

Last night, Darrel and I went to go see Coldplay here in Cleveland. It was AMAZING!

I bought tickets months ago, and we had pretty good seats. Their set and lights were great, and they were honestly much better than I expected them to be. A lot of their older music is kind of slow, but their new album is sssoooooo awesome and upbeat, and that's what the show was like. I was blown away by the way the lead singer could run and jump around, playing guitar, piano, and singing. I knew every song but one, and had a big smile on my face all night.

If you don't have their new album, you have to buy it or download it. I can't imagine anyone not liking it.

Another cool thing is that I can now say I have seen the father of Apple and Moses!

Costume Concerns Confirmed

My Rainbow Brite costume is now for sale on eBay.

Unless I planned on wearing it on the corner somewhere, it was just not appropriate.

Back to my other blog- I ordered a M, and it fit like an XS. And you could see my cheeks.

Oh well.

SML

I would love to know when small became medium.

Lets just get it out there- I am about 5'3" and weigh about 140. I am an average person. While I might have a little muffin top, I am still considered normal, and skinny.

I can not buy a small anymore. Gap, Old Navy, Banana.... Medium. Vicky's. They only come in XS, S, M, and L. (for you men out there, I'm talking about Victoria's Secret). WHO the HECK wears an XS there!? A 12 year old? An anorexic person?! Because I really think that might be the only people who could fit in them, and should someone of that age and size really be shopping there anyway!?

All I am saying is that I think the sizes are getting smaller. Because if I go up one more shirt size in these stores, I will be at the highest size they sell- large. And I am not big!

Ridiculous.

Costume Concerns

I decided that I want to be Rainbow Brite for Halloween this year. A friend of mine had a great costume a few years ago (but she lives in NYC, so I'm not being a "costume stealer") and I thought it was so cute. She put her hair in pigtails with sparkles, and painted her cheeks rosy. Loved it.

So I went online today and looked all over the place, trying to find the best price. They are SO EXPENSIVE! I mean, all costumes- not just this one. So after hunting around, I finally find it for the cheapest price and decide to buy it. I have no idea what I am doing on Halloween, but it's a weekend, and I'm sure I will be going out.

But I was (and am) a little concerned about what it's going to look like. It might be a little slutty. But it's the only one I found on about 10 different sites this afternoon, so it had to be my only choice, right? Lets just say I'm not exactly going to look like this chick does, but here it is:
Fast forward 12 hours to right now. I just Googled it to find an image for this blog, and found the much less slutty version of this costume, for the same price. Figures:Oh well. I live downtown. I'm sure I'll see worse! :)

The Rhine River Valley

This will be my last blog about my trip- I figure it was WAY more interesting than my blogging about the cold I have. Again.

For many, many years, my family has visited Bacharach, Germany. It is a small little town on the Rhine River in Germany. Unfortunately, their population has dropped to less than 1,000, and only two babies were born there last year. But it sure was a cute and nice place to stay! My family was VERY into wine back in the day. My grandfather and uncle would go over to Germany and buy hundreds of bottles of wine for their wine cellar. They would actually have them shipped back to America in those large containers they put on ships. (I'm not taking ancient day- I'm talking like the 60's and 70's). And pretty much everything I have of my grandmothers for the dining room came from Bacharach.

t was so fun to be there with my grandfather because he knows so much about the area. We had dinner one night with old family friends, the Yost's. We ate at the Altes House and then they invited us up to their house for some wine, which turned into about four bottles! I got a great German history lesson, and really enjoyed seeing how "normal" people live.

We took a great riverboat cruise up the Rhine one day to check out the town of Boppard, where they were having a wine festival. I think that was the only day I saw sunshine. We also took a day to take a long train ride to the Mosel River Valley and stopped in another small town where Poppy used to go. Turns out THEY were having a wine festival too! Tough life.

Our three days there were very charming and simple. We also spent a day in Heidelburg, which I absolutely loved, then flew out of Frankfurt.

Germany was clean, the people were extremely helpful and friendly, and I would go back there in a heartbeat!!

Augsburg, Germany

After our fun filled few days in Munich, my grandfather's girlfriend's family became our hosts and tour guides for a few days a bit North of the city, near Augsburg. Now, none of them actually LIVE there- they all live in these little farm villages outside of the city, which was so interesting to see.


Bethanne and I stayed with Aunt Hildie, who is in her mid-seventies and barely speaks English. She had the best beds ever!! The only problem is that the German's just don't believe in heat or something. The house was so cold, I swear you could see your breath in the morning. Getting out of that down bed to go to the bathroom was like torture.
Our first night there was my actual 30th birthday (the 27th), so Poppy arranged for Heidi's ENTIRE family to meet for dinner at a local restaurant. About 18 people. I have no idea what it is really called, because Heidi calls it Hanz and Franz. (They claim those are the names of the owners). So, I had a fun birthday dinner at Hanz and Franz in the country of Germany, with a table of English-challenged relatives. It was so much fun!Now here's the thing- due to their strong Germany accents, they have a hard time saying the word Bethanne. It comes out as... Bat Man. So for two days, this group of people got a kick out of the fact my sister's name was Bat Man.


We spent a day with cousin Seppe, who took us around to some smaller towns on the Romantic Road, showed us his country club (the golf course was so cool) and took us to his house for a cocktail. In one of the towns, we climed up to the top of a cathedral for a better look- little did we know it was 350 steep stairs up the bell tower! Shoot me. Poppy found a nice place to sit down and have a beer while we trecked it up to the top.

Dinner that night was at Uncle Oskar's farmhouse. A special little turkey based dinner for Bat Man, since she does not like ham and that seems to be all they really eat. The house was so neat- they literally converted a barn into a house! Heidi found an ancient tractor, and Okcar actually started it up for us to show it off. I have never seen so much dust and dirt kick up!All in all, it was a really nice few days, and Heidi's family went out of their way to keep us busy and make sure that we were taken care of (and fed). It was so interesting to see how the people of Germany really live, rather than be in a big city hotel. When Seppe picked us up to drive to the train station for our trip to France, we had to stop the car to let a herd of sheep run across the road....

Munich

Munich was so much fun!

We missed our stupid flight over there thanks to U.S. Air getting us into Philly late, so we wound up traveling for about 23 hours with two layovers. Not fun. But once we arrived, we figured out the train to our hotel, and were happy to see that it was about a three minute walk to the main train station, and a five minute walk to Oktoberfest.

Our first full day there was Thursday the 25th. We went on a Mike's Bike Tour of Neuschwanstein Castle. This is the castle that King Ludwig built in the 1800's, and Walt Disney designed Sleeping Beauty's Castle after. It was really foggy, so your best bet is to click on the link above to check it out. It was about $40 for the whole day including the two hour train rides there and back, the tour, and great guides. The best part about it is that we met some cool people that we wound up going to dinner with that night. We hiked uphill for a half hour with no relief to get to the castle, but I was so proud of myself when I got there! While the inside of the castle is cool, it's more the experience of getting there and the excitement of seeing it that I enjoyed.
We went to dinner at the Hofbrauhaus right in downtown Munich for dinner that night with our new friends. It is famous for being one of the largest breweries in Germany, as well as a meeting place for Hitler and his people back in the day. It's like a mini-Oktoberfest every night! You just walk around until you find open seats at the picnic tables, and they serve one size beer. BIG! Holding those steins up is quite a workout! I ordered a plate of sausage and sauerkraut (which you could not pay me to eat at home), and we had a fun night.

Friday was Munich sightseeing and... Oktoberfest! It was so cold there that I had to buy a wool coat, just to survive the day. Little did I know that I would be wearing it EVERY DAY for two weeks because we had horrible weather, so I guess it was money well spent.
We watched the famous town Glockenspeil do it's little song and dance at 11am and spent time walking up and down the streets. By 4:00, we were ready to celebrate my 30th at the biggest party of the year! Oktoberfest was soooooo fun! 1.5 million people live in Munich, and 6 million go to Oktoberfest. I have posted a few pics and videos below. We did not have a tent reservation, which is required to get in. However, you can sit outside at the non-reservation tables, if you can find a seat. We found two open spots after about 15 minutes with a bunch of drunk Swiss guys, had a stein, and move to the quieter Swede table next to them after a bit. The guys there were NUTS!! Picture tens of thousands of people there for one reason- to drink beer. We finally got into a tent through a friend, and that was crazier than the outside! It was about 40 degrees hotter inside than out, bands were playing, people were standing on table singing, and it was packed like sardines.

Being Brave in Baden Baden

sorry for the lower case- the shift here is too hard!

today i was headed to bacharach, germany with poppy and heidi. our plan was to stay for four nights and poppy had a few ideas as to what we could do along the rhine river to keep ourselves busy, being the wine connoisseur he is.

we are on the train, on our way, and i see that totally by chance, our train stops in baden baden, germany. i wanted to sooooo bad when we were planning our trip, but i kind of got out voted and it didnt work out. after thinking about it for a few minutes, i decided i was going to hop off by myself and wing it. and i did.

i kissed them goodbye until tomorrow, got off, found a bus to downtown to go to the visitors center, and was on my way. then my suitcase broke. then i could not find the visitor center. then i started sweating from carrying the suitcase. i opened a book i had about germany on a budget, got in a cab, and went to a hotel they suggested. thank god they had a room for me! ill worry about the suitcase later.

the whole reason i wanted to come here was because of their roman irish bath houses. baden baden is known for its wellness, health, spas, parks, etc. but the baths are all totally nude! i asked the front desk what to bring, they said nothing, and i walked on over to the friedrichsbad spa, the oldest one here.

i had NO IDEA what i was doing! it is the equivalent of $35 for two hours. i paid, went in and figured out the locker with a girl from missouri, wrapped a little toga around me, and started. they explained that it was a 17 step process, and to just follow the numbers. it was great! there were different pools, whirlpools, saunas, hot chairs, and an awesome massage and body washing part. a woman literally scrubs you down with a brillo pad type thing on your front and back. there is a lot of going from hot to cold water, and at the end you have to dunk into what feels like a pool of melted ice cubes!

the women went separate from the men until the very end when it is naked unisex. the european way is just so different- they dont care about being nude in front of each other and no one seems to have wandering eyes, even when it is unisex.

i just got back to the hotel, am going to change and go to the oldest casino in germany to check it out. the men have to wear coats it is so classy! this town in just beautiful, and im so happy i came.

and im not going to lie- i looked a little. :)