Friday, December 31, 2010

The great and glorious iPad of glory (and stuff)

Sorry. I haven't updated in a long time because it was Christmas and I had to do lots of shows and also some Christmasy stuff.

And, for Christmas, I got an iPad.

It is awesome.

It is the love child of a kindle and an iphone, only a thousand times better.

The iPhone is super cool and cute and stuff, and is capable of many a task. Also, it is a phone. I mean, you can't really replace a phone.

And the kindle is (aside from being superior, in my opinion, to the other ereaders) a wonderful and glorious invention in itself, as I can carry hundreds of books in it that would otherwise fill my bookshelves and clutter my future apartment (which will still happen anyway)

No, the iPad is someting altogether different. Tablet technology is really amazing. I can do so many things on this awesome little machine.

I can blog. I can use the internet. I can write novels. I can play sweet ultra-graphics games. I can watch movies for hours. I can store my recipe books (and cook using them, and mark grocery lists, and find stores to get the ingredients.) I can keep a journal. I can read everything on my kindle. I can use Skype. I can text.

But most of all, I can make drawings. And now, this is all I do during intermission.

Namaste.
-Kate

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Edmonton is cool


So late Tuesday night, after the show, we drove from Red Deer to Edmonton, Alberta. And let me just say that Edmonton is way cool (literally and figuratively)

Wednesday I awoke early for a bus call taking us to the mall. We had a golden day, which means no show and no traveling! I walked around the mall with Ana and Stacey for six hours and never ran out of things to do.






The West Edmonton mall is INSANE. It has over 800 stores, an indoor water park, an ice rink, a sea lion habitat and show, a full-scale replica of the Santa Maria ship, a Chinese supermarket, bungee jumping, and a theme park with two full-size roller coasters. Yes, roller coasters.
It was crazy.

Happy cast members after the insanely awesome roller coaster ride.

(Thanks to McKayla Marso for the photos. I totally stole them from your facebook.)

At any rate, now I am chilling in my hotel, having much-needed rest and personal time before our show tonight. I downloaded the 2nd book in George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series, which so far is incredible.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

On The Road-- Foodwise


Cooking. I never appreciated it until I didn't have it anymore. (Yes, this is related to touring)

I've never really done enough cooking. In high school I was always too busy. When I came back from college the first summer, I tried cooking a few things, like vegetarian gyoza for my family and baked cinnamon apple crisp at Christmas-- but I've never really gotten to bake, or cook--or, for that matter, sautee, grill, fry, whisk, what have you-- as much as I'd really like to.

In fact, when I suggested to my boyfriend that I was interested in cooking more when I had an actual kitchen, he laughed and said "You? You could live off pop-tarts and easy mac. That's like, all you eat."

Well, this was partially true. But not any more!

Something inside of me has snapped, and I know what brought it on.

On tour, you never really get the opportunity to make food for yourself, unless, like my roommate, you buy an electric skillet and get as many vegetables as you can whenever there is a grocery store near the hotel. Our meals are essentially planned for us: on long driving days, we rush off the bus for a quick lunch break, which usually means the nearest fast food option available. Around showtime, a group of us will sometimes go to a restaurant (if we have time) and try for something dirt cheap (acting ain't easy) and hopefully alcohol. (Not me though. Except in Canada. Woot!) The only time I've ever ordered room service was yesterday and today, when I had a bowl of vegetable soup brought up because I am sick and the nearest food alternative is a mile away in freezing rain.

Thus, touring has increased my appetite for: cooking.

It started with the food blogs.

Oh, the glorious, glorious food blogs. Pages of brilliant photography, laid out with instructions, peppered with witty stories about their creation and preparation... I love, love, love food blogs.

I tend to do this to myself. When there is no viable option for a good meal-- such as when I am unable to eat solid food after wisdom teeth, or if, like now, I'm stuck in a hotel room with nothing but cheap complimentary tea bags and a half empty packet of ramen-- I will go on the internet and TORTURE myself with images of beautifully prepared and seemingly delicious food stuffs.

So that's a hard thing about tour. It's hard to eat right. Luckily, I seem to have taken the route of avoiding fast food (except Taco Bell. I friggin' love Taco Bell.) and overall eating much less than I usually do in New York. Which is good, 'cause, along with the hardcore dancing in that blasted jitterbug number, I feel I may have actually lost a couple of pounds... but I digress.


My roommate is marrying her British boyfriend this spring once tour concludes. And the biggest difference between the English and the American is, she says, the English don't care about food, and find it incredibly humorous how dramatic Americans are about food; they think the world "delicious" is absurd. But we are dramatic about it-- We're passionate about the Food Network, we obsess over food for big events-- and the British don't care as long as there's booze somewhere.

But food is important. And awesome. I digress yet again.

So, when I get back, I'm gonna COOK.

I think I'll start with vodka cream pasta and garlic hasselback potatoes and maybe spiced poached cinnamon pears wrapped in pastry.

Domestic? A little. But I don't have to be feminist when I just want to make something delicious.


**This post may or may not have been influenced by the fact that it is 11 pm, I am starving, and I've just streamed Julie & Julia on megavideo. And my god, does that stuff look good. Mom, can I have a cookbook for Christmas? =)

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Bozeman, Montana

"DON'T BACKTALK THE SPARKLY FAIRY"
"AAAAAHHHH YES MA'AM *sob* PLEASE DON'T HIT ME ANYMORE"

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Salt Lake City! (And St. Louis MO, and some Erie PA, too)

I've been quite negligent with posting, but I've got some pictures!

First off, this was from Erie, a harbor city right on Lake Erie.
Boats!

We performed at the Warner Theater, which was cute. The outside was really pretty!
And my awesome friend Ali Upton came to see me :)

Then we went to St. Louis
Which was really nice, and my parents came, and that was splendiferous.

(This entry is rushed because I have bus call in half an hour for our next matinee, and I have to pincurl my hair, which takes quite a while)

Anyway, now we are in SALT LAKE CITY which is a really, really cool place. The environment is a tad religious, which is great if you are-- but as I am not in the church of LDS, I couldn't go inside the Temple (which is ok, because I hear they have a cool visitor's center which my roommate Sarah went to) and I got to wander around all morning looking at super awesome stuff.

For one thing, the graffiti and street art is BALLIN'

It's really awesome to see all the street art, because you won't ever see any other like it anywhere else. It's completely unique.
This doesn't do any justice to the incredible Christmas lights around town, but let me tell you-- they're beautiful. It's such a cool city.
Here you can see my ruby slipper Toms peeking underneath the glass table. Hee hee.

This morning I went wandering alone and found an amazing locally owned used bookstore/coffee shop combo, which is possibly one of the greatest things on earth that you can find on a cold wintry morning walk. I got a mocha and a marzipan almond croissant and read my book and enjoyed the snowy chill and atmosphere. Salt Lake City, I heartily approve of you.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Kansas!

We're driving through Kansas, and although we aren't playing any cities here (en route to Pueblo, Colorado) it's interesting to visit towns that have things like the "Oz Museum" and "Toto's Tacos".

We pass a lot of windmills and prairie.
My friend Jesse (who plays the lion) got a bunch of us books for an early Christmas gift on Black Friday. Me and Stacey (our brilliant female swing/ensemble goddess) got A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. I'm not a big fan of fantasy, but let me just say, I am so happy that I ventured outside my comfortable genres (mainly classics, beatniks, and Vonnegut) for this book. It is amazing.
I love nothing more than getting completely wrapped up in a book, so much that I look forward to finishing lunch or hopping back on the bus just so I can get another chapter in. It's a lot of Kings and Queens and direwolves and thieves and princes. Actually, it feels like one of those books that I would get really into if I were living in the time of Little Women (the other book I'm rereading) and stayed up in an attic all day with my own personal dusty library.

I've only read a few other fantasy books (excluding Harry Potter) and they mainly focused on animals. Yeah, I'm a real big nerd for that kind of stuff. One of my favorite childhood books is called The Sight and it's about a wolf pack and has a whole bunch of magical elements and a prophecy and AHSOCOOL. (/neeerrrrrrrd)

But anyway.

I think I just saw the beginnings of snow outside the bus window!

This is really exciting.