Feliz Día de Las Brujas! ("Happy Halloween!")

How appropriate that I'm playing La Bruja on this particular holiday, eh?
We're en route to Clearwater, FL (home of the mirrored Virgin Mary...Google it) after four shows and three days in and around Palm Beach, FL. We stayed at a cute little inn right on the water, where we enjoyed complimentary breakfasts, the sound of the waves lapping at the shores, and the torrential downpour that flooded the parking lot. Seriously. Whoever invented the phrase, "When it rains, it pours" must have been a Floridian.
We have no plans for All Hallow's Eve, though I'd be content with wine and Hocus Pocus on TV. Can't say I've been a big fan of Halloween since I outgrew my (adorable!) Voting Booth costume, so I'm not too disappointed. Besides, we have a 10:45 show tomorrow. And with a job like mine, it's pretty much Halloween EVERY day. Yeah, that's my excuse to not party tonight...yeah...that's it...

Also, this.

The shows continue to go over well, but we encountered a strange phenomenon in two separate venues: clapping. So much clapping. Not the good kind, with the tumultuous applause and roses thrown onto the stage. Clapping ALONG. What's with the clapping along to everything? I appreciate the enthusiasm, but it makes it so hard to hear the music! Luckily, the kids were too hair-raisingly terrified of my Bruja that they weren't inclined to clap during MY number (yeah, that's it...), but it got kind of old. On the other hand, I'm a crotchety old bruja in real life too, so there's that to consider..
I had some very special visitors on Saturday, with the arrival of two of my favorite French Canadians! The lovely Mademoiselle Karine St-Marine and her fabulous Arby's-lovin' love Monsieur Marc-Andre Bourbonnais planned their Florida vaycay to coincide with my tour dates, and they came to one of the shows in Lake Worth! I hadn't seen them in such a long time (tu me manques beaucoup, Québec!! Gaaaaah! Je vais revenir a te voir bientot!), and it was so nice to spend the (rainy) day with them. I'm very fortunate to still have them in my life, when so many other things have a tendency to go away.
Have a safe and Happy Halloween, and eat a mallowcreme pumpkin or 40 for me!
Hasta pronto!

He aprendido una cosa nueva ("I learned something new")

How much kids clap along with the songs is not an indication of how much of the show they understand, but it IS an indication of how much they're enjoying it.

Thanks a bunch, Belle Glade, Florida.

That is all.

No hago blog. Bronceándome. ("Can't blog. Tanning.")

My mother informs me that I haven't posted here in a while. But there are a few good reasons for that:
1. We've been in Florida, and it's been sunny. Sunshine > Blogging
2. I've been taking a good amount of pictures and Facebooking those bad boys, so a lot of the minute details of my days have been chronicled there.
3. I've been really damn tired.

However! I am currently recovering from tummy troubles, stretched out on a 3-seater bench in the passenger van, en route to Miami, so here's a little update..

My fabulous, wonderful daddy came to see the show when we were in Smithfield! It was so nice to Bruja it up for him, and in true Jack Linberg style, he pimped out the show to anyone close enough to hear. He even convinced a kid that there was a competition going on among the classes at the show, and the winner was the class who could cheer and laugh the most. NO WONDER there was so much commotion coming fro/ House Right...! Sadly, a highly rated hole in the wall BBQ place in the area closed too early for us to share some father-daughter pulled pork sandwiched, but we made do with a beer at Ruby Tuesday (another first for me! I'm racking up all kinds of new East-coast chain restaurants!), after which I rpomptly fell asleep, sprawled over the sheets of my Super 8 hotel room for a good four hours.
I told you I've been really damn tired.

After a repair stop for the cargo van, we headed (reeeeeally really far) south to Tampa, where the theater was stunningly beautiful (and old. And MUSKY.), and the sandwich shop I went to for lunch was helmed by a 60-something Pilipina with the sweetest demeanor and best stories (and adobo!).
Then, three days in North Fort Lauderdale, where those of us without family in the area finagled our three night sit-down to a lovely Westin--for the same price! HELL-O in-room Starbuck's coffee, complimentary check-in Chardonnay, and enormous jacuzzi!! We had a day off, and I got to explore Ft Lauderdale for the first time as a tourist. I was a mere five miles from Port Everglades, where my little MS Maasdam used to dock on our Panama Canal/Caribbean cruises. I watched a ship disembark (I think it was a Princess ship) and got majorly nostalgic. Later, back at the hotel, I kept seeing luggage with brown MS Eurodam tags them..turns out they were docking on Sunday. I wish I could've seen that big ol' ship pull into port! The biggest déjà vu moment was as we were driving off to Jacksonville and I passed by the street with the Publix grocery store where I used to pick up baby carrots, and the Ross where I bought my white dress that I wore to many a Formal Night on the ship. Very weird, but it was nice to reminisce.

In Jacksonville, we got cut from two shows to one (budget? Not selling? We don't really know. The rumor is that the show isn't selling well because people are worried it'll be too bilingual), but the theater was gorgeous. Then off to Ormond Beach, which was blissfully only an hour and a half down the road (take a look at my past five days of itinerary, and you'll see the long hauls we've been doing),which gave us some time off. I was majorly H.A.L.T.-ing (an acronym Tony taught me: Hungry Angry Lonely Tired) by the time we got there, so Danny, Tony, and I took a quick trip to nearby Daytona Beach. I got to frolic in the warm Atlantic waters again, terrify some sandpipers, and see one of America's most heavily populated beaches at the tail end of it's season. You can't tell when you're watching MTV's Spring Break specials on TV, but Daytona is a really beautiful stretch of beach, with cute little shops and a weird mix of Southern pride and beachcomber style. Happy Hour at Chili's, then it was an uttery uneventful evening.
Another cancelled double show today (making it a single show), where the coordinator thanked us and wants to bring the show to the western counties, where 65% of the kids are Hispanic. It was so nice to hear feedback, especially in the last week when we've been wearing a little thin. Also, the coordinator bought us donuts. Bam! Double excellence!

I'm excited to see how the show is received in Miami and the environs, what with all them Spanish-speakin' folk down thurr, and I cannot WAIT to see Miami! Lincoln Road, South Beach, Cuban food every five feet...oh baby. But first, another nap.

Hasta pronto!

En mi mente, me voy por Carolina ("In my mind, I'm goin' to Carolina")

I had a really lovely day off today in Smithfield, North Carolina.
Yes, THAT Smithfield.
What?
You've never heard of Smithfield?
Why, it's only the happening-est suburb of Raleigh this side of the Johnston County Airport!

I'm still a little overwhelmed by the fact that I've woken up for the last seven days in the Carolinas, two states I knew absolutely NOTHING about, nor ever had any desire to discover of my own volition. And frankly, I've been very pleasantly surprised! We were in Asheville (NC) for the last couple of days, and what a gem of a city that place is! It very much reminds me of Santa Barbara in CA, with the very eco-friendly, locally-sourcing, vegan-munching, micro-brewing vibe, and the abundance of 20-somethings embracing both the ideals of Southern hospitality and global consciousness. Also, the prices. Very, very high prices. EXCEPT when it comes to beer! Cheap beer! I never paid more than $5 for a pint of a locally-brewed beer, and oh my oh my there were some tasty selections (Pisgah Pale, for one, named for the nearby Nat'l Forest). Today was a day off in Smithfield, and I was the only one who didn't have paper, laundry, or episodes of The Good Wife to catch up on, so I took myself on a date to probe the depths of Smithfield. After hitting up the outlet mall (adjacent to our hotel, btw) and treating myself to some cute charcoal-grey heeled booties and a soft-serve from Dairy Queen, I headed into town. Though "town" consists of about 2 swuare miles of antique stores and law firms (go figure), I headed straight for the Buffalo Creek Greenway, a 3-mile paved path through the woods surrounding the Neuse River. I walked the whole length and got a kick out of all the hellos tossed my way. I was more relaxed and less on guard than I would have been in a similar situation in NYC.

This picture taken by a Hello-er.

Of course, NYC doesn't have meandering paths peppered with tiny creeks and chirping cicadas (cicadas? crickets? I don't know. Bugs are weird down here) either..

The greenway ended at the local high school, and I looped around down Buffalo Ave back to the the trailhead. All in all, I probably walked a good 5 miles over 2 hours...so I totally deserved that pulled pork sandwich and shave ice I ate later.

Right? Right?

I took a quick jaunt over to Sunset Memorial Park to see Ava Gardner's gravesite. It was interesting to see that this woman (who was born and raised in Grabtown, a small farm village a few miles outside of Smithfield), ranked #25 on AFI's Greatest Female Film Stars of All Time, is buried in a tiny family plot in a small town in north Carolina, right beside her brother, and a few steps from her parents and other family members.

There were other memorials and tombstones that were SIGNIFICANTLY more pimped out than hers, and you never felt like you were going to AVA GARDNER'S gravesite..you were going through the Gardner's Family Gravesite. A classy broad indeed. Unfortunately, I didn't get to town in time to visit the Ava Gardner museum, but I think she appreciated my visit.

"You bet I did."

We perform tomorrow and Tuesday at Johnston Auditorium on the campus of Johnston Community College, then work our way south to Florida for a good two weeks of exploring America's Favorite Peninsula.

But most importantly...

MY DADDY IS COMING TO THE SHOW TOMORROW!!!
I'm so excited! He has some business meetings in Charlotte (a good 2 hours away...MAJOR brownie points...redeemable in actual brownies, most likely), then is making the trip to see the show. I get a few hours with him before he has to head back for some p.m. meetings. WHAT A GOOD DADDY!! I have a feeling that North Carolina-style BBQ pork is in our near futures. To Yelp!

Shows are still going really well, and the kids are having a great time. They're gonna LOSE it when we're actually performing in Latino-heavy areas, especially with two Cubanos in the cast!

Hasta la próxima vez...

Una semana al camino (One week on the road)

We are currently in Anderson, SC, looking forward to a day off tomorrow before our performance at Clemson University on Wednesday. I can't believe it's only been a week since we first set out from NYC knowing that we wouldn't be returning for another 7 weeks...it feels like it's been a month. The bizarre time passage feeling is a lot like how felt on the Maasdam a year ago. Time flies when you're...not sure where you are? It's been dreary and overcast all day--or so I was told. I slept the entire car ride through Tennessee, and only knew where we were when i started seeing the palmetto-and-crescent-moon emblem popping up on road signs. I have to admit, behind California (birthplace pride aside, of course), I think South Carolina has the coolest-looking flag in the union.

Not quite as cool as a brown bear and a star, but it'll do.

The shows have been well-received in our venues in Virginia, and the people there have been very warm and welcoming. Must be something in the water Down South...  :)

I'm hoping to see the Georgia Guidestones tomorrow, in Elbert County, Georgia. It's been heralded as "American Stonehenge". Well, I've seen the English version, might as well see my own country's version too!

¿Cual día es? (What day is it?)

Phew!
In the last two days, I moved out of my apartment (and left my fabulous king bed!! Tragedy!), had three shows in a lovely little theater in Maryland, and traveled a grand total of somewhere around 700 miles. I am currently in Vineland, NJ, and have just had my first experience at a Bennigan's (not a fan of the Broccoli Bites.), and we have an hour drive tomorrow morning to our shows in Wildwood, NJ, after which we'll drive to Danville, VA. I've lost all concept of days of the week, hour of the day, and sleep schedules. BUT! The shows have gone pretty well, though we're still having pretty frequent audio problems (monitor went out today, mics going out during shows)...hoping that the kinks will get worked out soon. We had a bunch of incredibly helpful stagehands at Prince George's Publick Playhouse for the last two days, and what I wou;dn't give to have them at our vans for every show! Load-in and load-out were a breeze, which was good, because it started to rain on us after today's last show!
I was very fortunate to have my fabulous Aunt Gail come to the show yesterday, with her friends Patty and Haydee in tow. We went to a tasty Mexican joint called Sierra for dinner, where Patty's lovely husband Joe greeted us with a full round of margaritas ready to go. That man is a keeper, I tell you! Sooooooo great to spend some time with Gail, and I'm so thankful to have family that's supportive of my erratic but sparkly lifestyle.

Fear the sparkly.

Early early early call tomorrow morning, but I'll leave you with something I never thought I'd see in my lifetime:

Yup. Delaware. Brave new world.