Settling In...

So let's talk about what has been happening in my life...

I'm on the ship!

We just finished opening all of our shows last cruise so we are officially the new cast of the Magic!!!!

Crossover was a little hectic. We lost two of our cast members and several people got isolated for the flu or for GI! We had to rearrange some tracks for understudies and our swing had to open all of the shows! A lot of crazy and stressful things happened throughout these past 3 weeks, but we stumbled through it and came out on top. I am so thankful for how professional and flexible our cast is! Even through emergency rehearsals, double dress runs, understudy put-ins, and surprise contingencies, everyone did their part, worked together as a team, and kept each other going.

I forgot about how many things you have to adapt to on the ship. It was frustrating to hear some of the things people were complaining about until I reminded myself they are still adjusting to a whole new lifestyle. Ship life teaches you to appreciate the simplest things! Internet, cell phone service, carbonated soda, sunlight, American currency...the list goes on!

I don't have much time to talk about much right now, but I promise I will post some magical stories soon! I'll leave you with this:

A group of us have started praying together backstage before every show at the 5 min call. It is amazing, and some of our other cast members join in for the positive energy. So thankful for the openness!!!

This is from Thanksgiving, but it's a beautiful picture and I miss my family!!!

Election Day

This is how I feel about the election...

Romans 13:1-7 " Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore he who resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath upon the one who practices evil. Wherefore it is necassary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience' sake. For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to all what is due them; tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to who fear; honor to whom honor."

And this is a quote from Cloud Atlas that I like...

"...Life amounts to no more than a drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean but a multitude of drops" - Cloud Atlas

It'll Be a Fright!

Happy Belated Halloween!!!!

Even our rehearsal studio was Halloweeny!

This Halloween will probably go down in my memory as one of my favorites! I've already raved about how much I love this cast and the fact that they aren't huge party fanatics and like to keep it low key! So on Wednesday we all got together in one of the party rooms in the Rosemont and had a fun little Halloween get-together. Everyone bought sugary treats and dressed up in silly costumes.

This was my costume! (Captain EO rehearsal dancer/80's workout instructor)

The Whole Gang

We played running charades (my team won), and had a costume "Boo-off" contest! We've been putting-together one of our stage shows, Villians Tonight; hence, where we got the "Boo-off" idea.

"Boo-off"

Speaking of Villians Tonight, we finally put it all together and did our first two full runs! Those who were not in the show came to watch. It's always more exciting performing for an audience! It went really well, and it's nice to have a completed show!!!

Last night, my roomate Jef and I had people over for a Soup Party! Everyone brought a different vegetable that we put into the stew! It turned out to be extremely delicious! We all watched Moulin Rouge and enjoyed each others' company!

As far as rehearsals go, we are starting our final stage show, Disney Dreams! We learned all of the vocals today and on Monday we start the choreography for the Cinderella waltz! I'm so excited!!

We have about 2 weeks left up here in Toronto and then it's off to the ship!!!!!

Oh! And Nick gets here in less than a week!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I painted this jar for my friend who portrays Cinderella in Twice Charmed!

I painted this jar for my friend, Alfie! He loves Dr. Facilier and The Lion King, so I painted it half and half!

This is my jar painting workshop!

Fellowship!

There are about 10 of us who have been going to church together and meeting for little bible studies/devotionals. I have become especially close with a girl named Victoria. She is 26 and dedicated her like to Jesus about a year ago. Although we are 6 years apart in age, spiritually, we are on the same level. We started going to a bible study of other believers in their 20's up here in Toronto. I really like that this particular group calls themselves disciples rather than Christians because we are constantly growing and learning from Christ. Victoria and I have developed some really great friendships with some of the people in the group. It's really fun hanging out with them because they know the city so well!

Last weekend we volunteered with some of the people from the bible study at a homeless shelter called the Scott Mission where we served about 45 homeless men! The Scott Mission is a Christian-based organization that serves the homeless community here in Toronto. They open the doors for 45-50 men around 7:30pm and offer them a meal, a sleeping mat and blanket, showers and bathrooms for the night. They have breakfast for them in the morning as well, but they must be out of the building by 7:00am. After helping prepare and handout the meals, we were able to go around and chat with some of the men. I wasn't fully comfortable just walking up and talking to them on my own, but I listened in on a couple of the conversations.

These men are deprived of daily conversation and really just want to talk and be listened to. And that's exactly what we had to offer them: our ears. Some of the men were so interesting. A lot of them were from other countries who had traveled to Canada, lost all of their money, and couldn't get in touch with their family back home. Some of the men were extremely intelligent. One man in particular has a hoarding problem. He collects books and magazines and is paying over $1000 a month for the 4 storage units filled with his collection. He has money to pay for storage, but he doesn't have an apartment! He seems to be emotionally connected to purchasing and saving these items because it started right after his wife passed away. The woman who was having this conversation with him works in finance. She was discussing with him how much money he could save if he stopped buying the books(he purchases them daily) and he was adding the sums in his head faster than she could write them down. It's sad to think that this man could live a fairly comfortable and secure life financially in a decent apartment if he didn't bear the burden of his collection.

Our night at the Scott Mission truly opened my eyes to a new view of the homeless. I feel like I better understand where they are coming from when I pass them on the street. It may not be in God's plan for me to play a huge role in the homeless ministry, but He definitely wanted me to witness these interactions!

I've developed a new hobby: painting mason jars!!! It's a great way to recycle old pasta sauce or pickle jars! Mason jars make for great drinking glasses because the cups that are in our apartment are really tiny! So these are some of the finished jars I've painted! I told my cast mates that if they brought me an empty jar I would decorate it for them! I just have them give me a theme or a color and then I paint it for them. I find it really relaxing! I think they make great gifts for people! There are tons of uses for jars!

Picking up the Pace...

Things are getting very busy up here in Toronto!!!! We have learned all of the character shows, re-doing one MainStage show and starting WAVS and FAVS (the welcome aboard and farewell MainStage shows)!!! We're waiting on the final cast list for the last mainstage show, Disney Dreams, but we had our costume fittings, so we pretty much know if we're in it or not!

I am dancing in all but 1 of the 5 MainStage shows!!!!!!! I am thrilled to have so many dance opportunities this contract! My costume fitting took 2 hours because I had to try on so many costumes! We have learned two of the dance numbers in WAVS already and they are so much fun to dance, but also very fast, precise and a lot more difficult than I anticipated! I always love learning new styles of dance. These numbers are very girly and rockette-ish!!!

A few days ago I interviewed for Character Line Captain. The Line Captain is basically a dance captain and needs to know all of the choreography and blocking for every character show!! It was announced today that I am the Line Captain for my character team! I am so excited and gracious that I was chosen!!!

One of my favorite things about Toronto is that there are so many theaters around the city. I am trying to take advantage of all of the live theater shows while we here. Last weekend a small group of us went and saw War Horse. We bought rush tickets just a few hours before the show so the 5 of us paid only $29 for front row seats!!! Amazing! I've seen the movie and loved it, but the stage show was breath-taking. The horse puppets were so realistic and truly embodied the mannerisms and movements of a real horse. It was a long show, but never once did it feel that way. The way the story transitioned and progressed was just perfect and I was completely engaged in the show the entire time. Every aspect of the show was BRILLIANT.

Afterwards, we found the stage door and met the lead and got a picture with him!

Another show that is playing up here is Cirque du soleil's Amaluna. Now let me just tell you...this was my first time seeing a Cirque show!!! I was blown away at the things these people could do. We didn't have the best seats, but the staging allowed every seat in the house to see the show regardless of positioning!!! I couldn't stop verbalizing my incredulous thoughts about each act and performer. And do you want to know the coolest thing about the show....all of the performers live in our building!!!!!!!!  So there were people that we recognized from seeing in the gym and the elevator...no big deal...

I feel so blessed to be surrounded not only by a cast of talented and beautiful cast members, but a whole city of performers!!!! I am falling even deeper in love with Toronto this time around!!!

Is it October already?!

The past 4 or 5 rehearsal days have been extremely light for me! The mainstage cast is working on their first big production called Twice Charmed. The rest of us have had rehearsal for maybe two or three hours and then we have the rest of the day off! For example, today I don't have to go into work until 4pm!!! I am fully taking advantage of all of this time off while I have it!!!!

Yesterday, almost half of our cast woke up with flu-like symptoms. It was very eerie in the way it all happened at once to a large handful of people. I was lucky enough to be untouched even though my roommate suffered from the late night/early morning chills, fever, short breath, and achey muscles. Some of the Wonder cast was also affected by the illness. We still haven't figured out the source of this day long sickness...

Last night, I got together with one of my close girlfriends who is very strong in her faith. We went out to dinner and ended up just talking for about 3 hours! After dinner, we went back and I gave her the Jesus Burgers book to borrow and we watched worship videos and testimonies from Isla Vista. Finally, we prayed for the casts health and protection from the virus and for the long rehearsals for the following day. It was so nice to join in fellowship with someone and know that God has our backs and is watching out for us on this journey!

I am happy to know that I am right where I am supposed to be. God has been revealing His purposes to me and I am excited to see His movement throughout this contract!

Happy October!!!

Week #2

Been here for about a week and a half now! I'm having a great time with all of my cast members and l love being back at The Rosemont and the rehearsal facility. Toronto feels like home to me. I love the city.

The whole cast has been getting along so well. Almost every night someone invites everyone over to watch a TV show or a movie or something. Last night we had a movie night! The Rosemont has a mini movie theater that has a projector and seats about 30. We watching bridesmaids and shared lots of snacks and candy!

Both yesterday and today I've been lucky enough to be off of work after lunch. Today I only went in for an hour and a half and then I was done! So now I have the whole day off!!! I'm hanging out with my girls watching Tangled!!! Tonight there is an Art Festival all around the city that lasts until sunrise. A big group of us are gonna go out and explore!!!

TTFN :)