I'm back.... and bawling...about lame things!

Alright, I've been gone for awhile - so here's the standard spiel - I've been busy (work, community theatre, and now roller derby!), I promise I will be better about updating (well....probably not, but I'll try, possibly), and I have so many ideas about things to post (well, I do, but I never seem to actually post them).

Anyway....I've always been a bit overly sensitive. This week has just been a bit nuts, though, even for me. Here's a list of the things I've cried about this week:

I read this article and 1) realized that I have cried during most of the moments mentioned in the comments (Tod and Copper in The Fox and The Hound, the death of Littlefoot's Mom in The Land Before Time, the Baby Mine scene in Dumbo), and 2) just reading about those moments made me sob.

I went through of fit of nostalgia this week, and discovered The Chipmunk Adventure on You Tube, which I loved when I was six. It has fifty kajillion plot holes and cheesy musical numbers. However this scene:



made me realize that all the poor Chipettes were orphans and didn't have their mother anymore, and it made me cry for them. Seriously??

Mike Isabella's stories about his grandmother made me get all choked up on Top Chef, and I greatly dislike Mike Isabella.

And the most embarrassing thing - when Ondrei broke down during the acting challenge this week on ANTM, I cried too!




Did I mention that I'm on a roller derby team, and I am supposed to be bad ass now? Well, hmm...

A Scene from the Theater

When I found out one of my roles in Play It Again, Sam, I was quite excited. I will get to be in this scene:





How could I not be giddy? I get to perform dialogue that is quoted on IMDB!

Needless to say, this role will be a stretch. At rehearsal tonight:

The Director: "You need to be more monotone."
MRT: "I thought I was being monotone!"

However, I can do this. I can be artsy, faux-deep and nihilistic. I will be monotone, and my inflections will be subdued! It will happen!

Billy Corgan is as deep as a kiddie pool

I think I need to text Sis RoyalTurkey about this.

I love it when I'm vindicated.

However to be fair to B. Corgs, I did like a few Smashing Pumpkins songs. However, I still attribute my appreciation of these songs to James Iha, D'Arcy, and the drummer the Smashing Pumpkins had at the time. Here's the angstiest song I like.

Yet, when I confessed to Sis RoyalTurkey that I liked this song, this is how the conversation went.

MRT: I actually like "Rat in the Cage."
SRT: (rolls eyes) Sigh...It's called "Bullet With Butterfly Wings."

There really is no hope for me.

Lather, rinse, repeat

Tragically, I've had all these topics to write about lately, but no time to write them. I promise, though, once I eventually have time to blog, these entries will be funny and ranty with lots of parenthetical asides (do you expect any less?).

However, I've noticed that when I talk to people I frequently discuss things that I've already discussed in my blog. At Seussical rehearsal I whined to one of the Bird Girls about college hippies with no outdoor living skills. One time on a cast outing at Chili's I ranted to the waitress about my hatred for Rent, and then proceeded to discuss every single reason why I hated that musical so much. And I've discussed this hatred on my blog twice!

Are there really only a finite number of things I can whine about? Am I becoming one of those little old men who tells the same stories over and over again? I'm only 26! And I'm a woman! Oh dear... Thank goodness I haven't become a blogging superstar who has agents offering me publishing contracts and representation, then whenever I would talk to people, they would probably already tell me that they read it in my blog already.

I promise though, my future entries will be about new topics, that only a few people have heard about before. I hope. Otherwise maybe I should start looking into retirement communities.

Gauche and Unsophisticated List: Now with musicals!

Right now I'm watching the Tony Awards, and in keeping with my gauche and unsophisticated taste, I keep tuning out during the focus on the plays and hope they show another colorful musical number soon. Also, now I totally even want to see Rock of Ages even though I'm sure theater snobs will roll their eyes and moan about how the modern musical is merely an mish-mash of past pop songs, and that nobody writes original music anymore. But...Don't Stop Believing is one of the numbers! If I get to New York soon, I will be elbowing the little old ladies and gay tourists in the TKTS line for tickets to this and 9 to 5. But, I have no interest in seeing Next to Normal. None! Is it so wrong that I don't want to watch a musical about manic depression? This, combined with my great dislike of Rent (ugh - the entitlement, Maureen's twittiness (poor Joanne), the whining - and for all its claims to modernity it certainly seems to still contain every musical stock character and every tedious cliche ever, sigh....), probably will cause me to be shunned by all musical aficionados. However, even I rolled my eyes when Poison came out during the Rock of Ages opening number. This is the Tony's...not a hasbeen's last gasp (after the attempted country music career and three dating shows on VH-1 - that I have not watched) at relevance!

For the past two months, I haven't been watching as much terrible TV, reading cheesy, everything-is-resolved-at-the-end-of-the-book, mystery novels, watching ridiculous romantic comedies because I was in this little production.



However, Urinetown is over now (and some of my fellow cast members have been cast in a Peoria community production of Rent - I hope they forgive the above rant.), and I have discovered new shameful shows and movies.

I have actually been to the movie theater quite a bit this spring. This non-Trekkie (such a non-Trekkie that growing up I gently mocked my poor neighbor GoodKevGuy about his adoration over Star Trek: The Next Generation, sorry Kev!) adored the reboot of Star Trek, and today I bawled through Up (I think I may have scared the many children at the matinee) . However, a month ago I went to see Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, and I loved it, despite the fact that it was predictable. I did not understand all the vitrol that critics and other bloggers had about this movie. It was an adorable, fluffy cupcake of a movie, it made me feel warm and fuzzy, and I will own it on DVD.

Currently my DVR is filled with shows on which I need to catch up. I claim to adore both Pushing Daisies and Ugly Betty on my Facebook profile, but I still have not watched the last three episodes of Ugly Betty even though it's season ended four weeks ago, and I haven't watched the latest two episodes of the Pushing Daisies burn off. However, I have kept up with Wipeout and Greek. And I've found time to become addicted to two more shows.

Big Break: Prince Edward Island: This is a reality show on the golf channel about up and coming golfers competing for $100,000. It is refreshing how most of the show focuses on the golfers competing in challenges, and there is very little reality show drama. Normally, I hate golf, and I do not understand how anyone could be entertained by it on TV. I'm also terrible at golf - the grip is uncomfortable, I cannot drive, the one time I played with my fellow PPE majors I did not make par on one hole, and the best part of that day was the free Chipotle lunch. Somehow though, this show is compelling, and I relate to how all of the golfers keep yelling (well it's more a yell whisper) at the ball to SIT! I also talk to inanimate objects (especially my computer at work), so I can relate. Also there are some great compelling characters such as delusional Brian with his overwrought metaphors, and snarky Brenda. I want to be friends with snarky Brenda. I'll even play18 holes of golf with snarky Brenda, and she'll mock me, but I'll have a fabulous time anyway.

McLeod's Daughters: So this Australian soap opera ended over a year ago, and it's first season was back in 2001, and the show stopped running on the WE network in the US in 2006, but I now just started watching the show on cough..YouTube...cough. This show is about about two sisters who are reunited after twenty years when they both inherit their father's ranch, Drovers Run. Claire grew up with her father on the ranch, and her half-sister Tess was taken away from the ranch when she was very young, and grew up in "the city." The ranch is struggling, so Tess decides to stay on and help Claire work the ranch. They also have help from housekeeper/mother-figure Meg, her spoiled daughter Jodi, and Becky, who is seeking refuge at the ranch after a traumatic experience. Of course next door, there is Killarney, run by the Ryan family, headed by bastard with a heart of gold, Harry, and snobby, Liz, with their two handsome, flirtatious, so-obviously-the-love-interests, sons Alex and Nick, and in early seasons Killarney has the ranch hand Brick, whose only flaw is his mullet, and Terry who is having a secret (only to Jodi) relationship with Meg. The early seasons are glorious. Love triangles! Wacky hijinks to catch a rapist! Having to put down sick ranch animals with great significance to the family! Babies on doorsteps! Melodramatic affairs! Strippers getting stranded at the ranch! Running away! A one-armed mailman! The cutest love story ever between Becky and Brick! Yet, despite the cheesy, cliched storylines, the character actually have more depth than this show deserves, and occasionally there seems to be some realistic depiction of ranch life. Go, go watch it now, so I can have someone else to talk about it with.

Unfortunately, it started to go off the rails in season three. SPOILERS, THESE ARE SPOILERS, DON'T WHINE AT ME IF YOU READ THEM AND THEN ARE ANNOYED THAT I GAVE AWAY PLOT POINTS ...they killed Brick and tried to replace him with Jake the secret millionaire who was not interesting, wrote off Liz Ryan and added the uber lame Sandra Kinsella, and killed Claire, and eventually by the end of the series all the original characters have left the ranch and either moved to Argentina or died. So I've only watched a few post season three episodes that were really conclusions to plot points that began to established in earlier seasons...I mean I had to see Nick and Tess get married. SPOILERS OVER NOW.

But I have rewatched numerous episodes from seasons one and two. This show is quite addictive in the early years, and I promise it's actually compelling. However, the theme song is so cheesy that you would need bread pieces for the fondue. Behold:



Now, I have been cast in Seussical: The Musical, so I might be unable to watch as much bad summer TV as normal. Hopefully my fellow Seussical cast members will forgive my grave hatred of Rent and disinterest in Next to Normal and not shun me from all cast outings.

Neener, neener...Billy Corgan is not that deep after all!

Reading about this news filled me with such joy! I no longer need to feel guilty about not understanding Billy Corgan's pain. All he needed to do to not feel like a rat in the cage is to date an MTV famewhore who cannot sing.

Of course, I was tempted to call Sis RoyalTurkey and brag. Unfortunately, I then remembered that I would have to explain to her who Tila Tequila was. (Now, I do have some standards, and the only reason I know who she is, is because I saw previews to her dating show when I watched the RW/RR Extreme Challenge.) Damn it!

Gauche and Unsophisticated List: Such a refined palate!

In my everyday, non-blogging, life I do try to maintain some pretentions of good taste when it comes to food. I ranted about how the hot sauce in Boston could have been consumed by me when I was two. I discussed how I adored tapas, and that squid in ink is acutally quite delicious. Now that I live in the midwest I hesitate to eat the seafood because there is no ocean nearby and therefore that means the seafood is frozen (gasp!). I proclaimed my love for dim sum, even though I've actually only gone for dim sum twice in my life. I watch Top Chef and mock the cheftestants when they use canned crab (but then again Hosea won that season - ugh!) or frozen scallops (thank goodness Spike Asshat was finally eliminated that episode). I know what a CSA is.

Despite my claims to good taste and my willingness to be adventurous, however, let's take a look at what I order when I go to all these different restaurants that I'm so open and willing to try.
* Thai - Pad Thai (2.5 stars)
* Chinese - Sweet and Sour Pork or General Tso's Chicken, or Orange Chicken when I go to Panda Express
* Mexican - Steak Fajitas
* Indian - Chicken Tikka Masala and Naan
* Italian - Cheese Ravioli
* Seafood - the fried seafood platter, or seafood drenched in butter lemon sauce
* Greek - Kebabs or Gyros
* Sushi - the California roll, a tempura roll, or the spicy shrimp roll with cooked shrimp

Drink of choice wherever I go - Coca Cola!

I think that about says it all.