Handy Jack? No....Hungry Jack

So...apparently...in Australia....Burger King is called Hungry Jack's. Who knew?



We arrived in Melbourne today. What a beautiful city! It's so clean and the air is crisp and even the homeless people are attractive. Passing by them, however....some sage advice my friend Ken gave me kept ringing in my ears. "Don't f--- the homeless." Simple advice, and probably good to adhere to. I had the most amazing breakfast with my friend Gary and a friend of his who lives here named Ben. Our "breakfast appetizers" were these AMAZING pumpkin and corn fritters with the most amazing creme fresh. The Australians apparently love their pumpkin as much as I do.

Since it's the day after Christmas here, it's what they call Boxing Day. Which...I guess is just like the biggest shopping day of the year. We went into the city and there were about one hundred million people walking around. So...needless to say I didn't last very long. I can't stand crazy crowds. So I bought myself a $100 coca cola and went on my merry way. Everyone here is so hip looking. I feel like a model for K-Mart in my khaki shorts and izod shirt. Every t-shirt in the men's shops here have these super low v-necks which would probably look good if you have a great chest, but they just make me look like a girl. So I didn't buy any. I don't really need any $100 t-shirts anyway. Did I mention everything here costs $100? Well it does. Whether you want a pair of pants or a sandwich it's $100. Crazy.

Well...I'm gonna go take a nap. All those people wore me out. Below is a street sign I saw today. I guess this must be the place where Michael Jackson is supposed to cross the street.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like.....?

Do you ever feel like being on the other side of the world? Me, too! So here I am. After a very productive chunk of time at home on vocal rest, I am officially back on board. Have no fear....what I once thought was going to be a career changing affliction turned out to be nothing more than stupid acid reflux. Who knew? Anyway...I am back in shape vocally and here I am down under in Sydney, Australia. It's amazing how far you can travel in a mere 20 hour flight. YUCK. I have to say, though, that the view from my port hole made the whole trip worth while. Because of the direction the taxi came into port and the position of the ship, I wasn't able to really see the Sydney Opera House. Then....trudgingly...bags in tow...I fall wearily into my little room only to look out the window and see the most amazing view of the Opera House. Maybe I'm tired, maybe I'm sappy, or maybe I'm just a little girl, but I actually got a little weapy. My whole life I've wanted to come here and see the beautiful things this country has to offer, and now here I am. Sadly, I'm ship bound at the moment because they haven't given me my crew pass to be able to leave the ship, but I'll get that tomorrow. In the meantime, I get to unpack and redecorate my quickly deserted room that I left behind. Oh, and maybe I should work on trying to remember the shows. That's a good idea. So....that's all from me. I'm gonna look out my window some more.

Flash worward two days. So I got my crew card just in time to set sail and not to get off in Sydney. Wah wah. Oh well...we'll be back in a couple weeks. It is Christmas Day here and it is 5am. Clearly someone is still jetlagged. As it stands now, I become deathly tired around 8:30pm and wide awake at 5am. Trying to regulate with the Ambien, but to no avail. Oh well.

Today is my first sea day back and it is rough seas. Yuck. We do our first show of the cruise tonight. It's weird being back. It's like I never left. Well...I hope everyone has a great Christmas. Here I sit...."Floating in a choppy waterland".

Mamma Mia...here I go....AGAIN

I have just returned from my first long distance train ride.  Of course I thought it would be all romantic with big billows of steam blowing past me and someone chasing after the train as I drop my handkerchief for them to remember me by.  Needless to say...it wasn't much like that.  It was, however, pretty enjoyable.  It was comfortable and spacious and FAR better than driving.  Plus, with the snow and ice lately, it was some nice scenery.  Where did I go you ask?  Well, I got a call last week from the folks at Tara Rubin casting to have me come to Chicago and sing for the production team again for Mamma Mia.  I've been in there (I think) four times over the past few years.  They're always super nice.  Anyway...I went up, sang some songs, read some scenes and went on my merry way.  It went really well and...like always...they were very gracious and kind.  I can't really think of anything worse than trying to do a realistic British accent for actual British people.  Oh wait...yes I can.  Doing an Australian accent.  I always feel like the Crocodile Hunter when I audition for them.  Like the Crocodile Hunter...only less dead.  

 I was actually a little nervous.  Not so much for the audition, but for the simple fact that I haven't sung in about a month.  I'm feeling SO much than I was a few weeks ago and my voice is pretty much back to normal.  I highly recommend the Nexium.  :)  I'll be heading back to the ship on the 21st I think.

I had a great time in  Chicago.  The hotel I stayed at was AMAZING...which is actually surprising because I got it relatively cheap on hotels.com.  Anyway, it was beautiful and really convenient.  Hotel Blake...check it out.  It was great because I got to see some old friends I hadn't seen  in a while.  My friend Rob lives there with his partner and our friend Randy was also in town for the weekend, so we went out for dinner and drinks Sunday night.  Was great catching up.  Monday I had my audition, then Monday night I met up with Rob at a place called Petterino's  to watch some cabaret.  We then walked back to my hotel and stopped at a Dunkin' Donuts where we ordered a couple donuts and the guy LITERALLY gave us like 7 extras.  We tried to explain that we didn't want 10 donuts, but apparently that didn't translate to whatever language it was that he spoke.  So...there we sat with a giant  bag of donuts staring at us.  Since Rob and I are now both fitness models, we just ate the donuts we ordered and left the rest.  It's HARD being a supermodel.

It's nice to be home.  I'm a little hungry.  I think I'll snack on an Ambien.  Goodnight!

Baby It's Cold Outside.

And I mean  it.  It is COLD.  For those of you who don't know, I'm home in KC for a few weeks on vocal rest from the ship.  Nothing serious...thought it was...but it wasn't.  Actually quite silly really.  Anyway...it's a long story, but the short of it is that I'm going back Dec 21st.  So, while I'll miss Christmas with my family, I will get to be in balmy New Zealand for the next three month.  I get the pleasure of the 24 hour flight to Sydney, which I'm sure will be less than awesome.

I wasn't going to do any decorating this year since I won't really be here, but as I was at the Home Depot the other day, I broke down and bought a little Frasier Fir.  Not my usual giant 9 footer, but a tasteful little 5 foot guy.  It was actually kind of nice not having to spend three days decorating.  It was up and lit and shiny within an hour.  

So today we got our first real snow here in KC.  I just went out to get the stuff to make my Butternut squash soup, and poor Chet couldn't make it back up the driveway.  Wah wah.  So he's resting comfortably next to the curb in front of the house.

I spent the majority of today installing a bathroom exhaust fan and working on my attic conversion.  Slow and steady wins the race, right?  I'm already tired of working on the attic, but I know that the end result will be so great.  Master suite....it sounds so fancy.  Anyway....back to the grind.  That floor isn't going to install itself.  Would be cool if it would, though.

My toes are cold.

Everyone's a Little Bit Jewish

I've never actually been inside a synogogue.  That is, until last night.  Now before anyone goes running to tell Ceil I'm converting, I was seeing a show. It was called "Neil Berg's 100 Years of Broadway."  Cause....you know I don't hear enough showtunes.  It was actually a bit of a misnomer considering that about 95% of the songs were from the sixties, so it really could have been called "Four Years of Broadway...and that One Billy Joel Song".  Anyway...it was a private function for the synogogue, but I went with my friend, Dana, because his friend, Carter Calvert was in from New York performing in it.  It was a REAL TREAT!  I love watching other people perform.  Especially when you know they've song those songs one hundred million times before and secretly would rather birth a calf than sing them again.  But, there were some great voices and the audience really seemed to enjoy it. They were all, of course, about 97 years old, but that's about par for the course.  Carter was GREAT!  We'd never met before, but we have many mutual friends because she's done Forbidden Broadway for years.  She reminded me SO much of Cathy Barnett, it was crazy.

Now, not really knowing much about being Jewish, I wasn't sure if I was going to get struck by lightning or something because I wasn't wearing a yarmulka in the synogogue.  They were everywhere.  Little satin ones, elaborately embroidered ones, and even one leather one.  That was weird.  But...I managed to escape unscathed and filled with pilfered dark chocolate covered strawberries.  Tasty.  It was, if nothing else, an EXCELLENT evening of people watching.  My friend and I agreed indubitably, that money, does not in fact, buy taste.  But apparently it can buy safari prints and gold lame.

Happy Saturday

So...my computer tells me it is 12:45pm and I'm still sitting in bed. Thank goodness for laptops. Last night I went to see a new show at the Unicorn Theatre with my friends Teri Adams and Jerry Jay Cranford in it called rightnextto me. Yes, I typed that right. It's the new piece by Gregg Coffin who wrote the show Convenience that I did a couple years ago. They were both great! There's some really excellent music in the show. He writes some really cool melodies and his style is really cool. Since this is the world premiere, there some stuff that needs some refining I sure, but it's a really interesting show and I'm anxious to see where it goes.

I went to the show with my friend Dana (he's Jerry Jay's partner). We had a great time. He took me to a cool new resaurant called Mixx which makes these amazing salads. Then we went to the show then out for drinks afterwards. A good time was had by all. And by "good time", I mean Kettle One, dirty, on the rocks. Yum.

That's it for me. Time to drag my ass out of bed and finish my home improvement project du jour. I'm putting a new floor in my mudroom. Should be finished today! I'm tired of living in a construction site. If I get the floor done, I might put my new window in my attic. We'll see. It's kind of chilly.

Don't forget...two weeks from today is my birthday.  I'll be as old as Jesus.

The First Blog of the Rest of My Life

So...in the midst of putting my website together, my friend Ann (www.annbrownphotography.com) suggested that I add a blog. And I thought...what the hell?  It's easier than sending mass emails with updates and stuff.  And anyone who REALLY cares about what's going on in my life would probably call anyway, so why not blog?  So here it is.