Snow, Snow, Go Away...

I really hate winter. As soon as the weather dips below freezing, I just want to crawl into bed and stay there until spring comes. But society won't let me. What gives, society!? Anyway, that general malaise is why I haven't written anything new in a while. (Does that count as an apology? Probably not...)

The view from my office today (why!?)

To make it up to you, I'd like to do a quick run-through of some things I wanted to blog about last fall, and never got to. I also have a few "real" posts in my head. I'll work at extracting them for you soon.

Kick the Debt Party
In October, four of our friends threw a party to celebrate finally paying off their student loans. (...a joy I hope to know myself someday...) There was a bouncy castle, and kangaroo meat, and there were lots of old friends. It was like a family-of-choice reunion!

Rooke Wedding
The next weekend was the most beautiful and amazing wedding I have ever attended. Our friends, Amber and Dylan tied the knot on his family's farm. They did everything themselves, and on the cheap. It was absolutely genuine, and truly their style. The warm glow of it made my whole life sweeter! Amber has put up lots of posts about it on her blog if you're curious. (Her pictures are much better.)

Parental Visit
At the end of October, my folks drove all the way from Minnesota for a visit. They took the whole week off so they could spend two weekends with us, and the in-between days touring the East Coast. By all accounts, they had a fabulous time! We visited lots of nice Pittsburgh restaurants, they brought us farm-stand apples from Ohio, and we went furniture shopping at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore.

Me & Mom in our natural environment: a coffee shop

Murder Mystery Dinner Theater
Remember last year's show? This one was done a bit earlier to accommodate a Christmas theme. I played a wreath. Jim described the character as like the furniture in Pee-Wee's Playhouse. Shane got into the act too this year. He played grown-up Cindy-Lou-Who's damaged boyfriend. I got to put together both of their costumes. Yes, got to. I LOVE making costumes!

In Charge? Me?
That's right. I'm an officially ordained ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church now. Crazy, right? I was nominated to serve on our church's finance committee. After much careful consideration, I said "yes". It is a big commitment. The term is three years long, and I'll be helping make some difficult decisions. Furthermore, I had to kneel in front of everyone at the all-church meeting and promise to do my best to be awesome.

Coming Up
(Hopefully!) I plan to catch you up on my Christmas and a couple of projects I've been working on lately. I have lots of exciting things planned for 2014!!

Murder Mystery Dinner Theater

I go to a strange church with a long name: Hot Metal Bridge Faith Community. It is crazy, vibrant, and awesome. It is often disorganized and chaotic. It doesn't shy away from controversy. It is constantly changing. It is full of people who love each other, even when they don't agree. Sometimes especially when they don't agree. It took me a while to get used to how loose and spontaneous things can be there, but now I  am proud to say Hot Metal is my home.

I spent a good chunk of time there at the end of February preparing for a special annual fundraiser. In 2008 we started a relationship with a community in the Chiapas region of Mexico. Every year, we send a group South for an intense mission trip. I will never have the chutzpah to join them. Lucky for me, just about every year we support them by hosting a Murder Mystery Dinner Theater. That I can do. Our pastors met at acting school, so theatrics are a part of our church's heritage. Also, we don't take ourselves too seriously. I think that's important if you're going to joke about death over food.

This year's setting was a circus freak show. Here is our writer/director/sound engineer Rv. Jim Walker explaining to the audience what's about to happen:

Photo by Tammy Weins (Swiped from Facebook)

Check out those set flats! They were all painted by artist, church handy-man, expert do-gooder (and my neighbor): Dylan Rooke. I joked with my housemates about having him paint the living room like that. I was only half-kidding.

The first act of the show was all about establishing the setting and meeting the quirky characters. Here's my mug-shot:

Photo by Jim Walker

I played Tulip Marcella; wife of the ring-master. She was sort of like Miss Piggy, but without any redeeming qualities. And here's the whole cast in that unavoidable mush-together pose:

Photo by Jim Walker

At intermission, the audience was fed a delicious Pittsburgh-style dinner made from scratch. After the plates were cleared way, the second act began. That's where the fun really started. Pretty much everyone on stage spent the second act finding a reason to want to "off" the main character:

Photo by Jim Walker

Dennis Bateman took up the mantle of pretend murder victim this year as Georgio Marcella, the ring-leader of a failing freak show. He delivered the demanding role with pizzazz despite a nasty head-cold. The show ended with a literal "bang" as Georgio staggered onto the stage covered in soot from the explosion of four cartoon-style bombs.

After the show, dessert was served while murder suspects wandered from table to table giving their defense. The audience used these statements to track Georgio's final moments on a paper map. The first table to correctly guess the murder was awarded gift certificates to a local restaurant. To avoid temptation, only Pastor Jim knew who the real culprit was. I was surprised (mostly) to find that the first night's murderer was little old me. That was momentarily terrifying, but ultimately a blast.

My house came to see the second performance, and I'm proud to say I didn't let slip that it had been me before. It's never the same murderer twice. I'm even prouder to say that they came in second-place even without insider tips. That time, the mermaid did it. (By the way, major props to the costume volunteers for pulling off a mermaid costume. Holy heck, folks.) I'm sorry I don't have a good picture of the mermaid costume right now. I'll search my camera later to be sure I didn't get one myself.

After the second, and final performance; I went out to karaoke at a local bar with the house, the mermaid, a magician, a dancing bear, her keeper, the spectre of death, and conjoined twin bank-robbers. It was the perfect way to unwind after a crazy time at my crazy church.

Photo by Carrie Oakley (Swiped from Facebook)

Neil Gaiman: An Evening of Stardust

Late last August, the four lovely people I live with and I bought tickets to see Neil Gaiman speak. There are few warm fuzzies as warm as a collective "squee" with four of your favorite folks! Mr. Gaiman is my favorite author, and I've been following his tweets for almost as long as there's been a twitter. On Nov 14th, (three Wednesdays ago) the long-awaited event took place; and it inspired me, in part, to make this blog.


The show (can we call it a show?) was hosted by "Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures" which is a joint venture of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh. The main library branch and the natrual history/art museum(s) are neighbors. And sandwiched between them is the beautiful Carnegie Music Hall where the event was held.

Carnegie Music Hall Exterior

Before the show, three of us had dinner in the library. (They have special areas for food, and I'd brought Chipotle.) I couldn't help but wonder if Mr. Gaiman had taken a tour of the place. (I dreamt of finding him reading in a tucked away corner somewhere.) My housemate who works there said she wasn't aware of him visiting though. That makes me a little sad, because he's such a huge fan of libraries and an advocate for their survival. This is the biggest, prettiest library I've been in, and I think he would like it.

Anyway, the theater is spectacular! I had never been inside before, but I have ogled the lobby from the Museum lobby, and I'd bought a post-card of it. If I were made of money, I would've had my wedding reception here. So Pretty!!

Blurry pictures of the lobby full of Gaiman fans

I was sort of surprised by how young the crowd was. But it's in the neighborhood where all the colleges are, so I guess that makes sense. There was also this fantastic sense of kinship. We were all here for Neil.

Blurry pictures of the theater proper

We arrived super early because our seats were the cheapo, general admission, top balcony kind. I was so excited that it didn't seem like waiting at all! We managed to score front row seats too! I think we had a better view than a lot of folks with spendier tickets, and I felt rather silly for wasting so much time hunting for my opera glasses.

Our view of the illustrious storyteller
(...making a weird face in my only non-blurry picture of him)

The event was called "An Evening of Stardust" because Gaiman wrote a book called Stardust. It's a lovely book which has been made into a swash-buckle-y movie. Originally published in 1997 as a graphic novel with illustrations by Charles Vess, it was later re-packaged as a plain old novel. This year it was released for the first time in hardcover.

Special 15th Anniversary Hardcover Edition

Neil told us how he wanted it to read like a book from 1922, and he asked his publisher to make this hardcover copy look and feel like that too. He read us a passage and told us about how he'd been inspired by a shooting star in the Arizona desert. I love listening to Mr. Gaiman read his books aloud!

Then he read us an excerpt from his newest book, The Ocean at the End of the Lane which won't be out until June 2013. It was a special passage which had never before been shared with an audience! He explained that it involves characters he made up as a child, and as such, is a bit more personal than the things he's published before. I am super excited for this book! It is an adult book with a child protagonist, which may confuse some people. But it was charming, and surprising, and exciting, and very pleasantly weird.

After all this talking he took a few questions. Of these, I was most excited about news of his next Doctor Who episode. (It is easily my favorite TV show.) He shared a secret spoiler, and then asked all ~2,000 of us not to tell. I just did a quick Google, and it looks like no one has told yet. Now that's a fan-base!

After I got home, I sent @neilhimself a tweet. I told him it felt like he'd just sat down in my living room for a chat, and it's absolutely true. It wasn't a show. It was just a friendly storyteller doing what he does best.