"This song is nothing without George Michael."

What a fantastical four days I've had.

Thursday night took the fellas (Sam, James, Sean) to Creole Creamery. Had my favorite flavor which is the delectable Oatmeal Raisin Molasses Cookie. Yum.

Then, Friday was Sam's birthday. 

And I got a new job! Which I'm super excited about. 

I think it counts as an actual grown up job. Nine to five, five days a week. I never have to again request off nights or weekends for my shows.

What a lovely feeling.

Saturday was Sam and AJ's Birthday Extravaganza since they both turned 24 two days apart. They decided their theme would be: "Sam and AJ are 20 Years Older Than Katrina." Since, it was indeed, on the anniversary. 

A very lovely distraction indeed. 

Brought my record player over to the house and played DJ for as long as I could, before all the whiskey kicked in. 

(The said whiskey.)

(Speech & Debate all grown up)

(The more drunken I get, the more I smooch people.)

Some of the finer moments of the evening included, but not limited to:

When I was sitting on the couch with AJ while Elton John's song "Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me" was playing, and AJ just says, "This song is NOTHING without George Michael." 

True that.

When Shannon Miller, former TD at JPAS and current TD at UNO came in, dropped off a huge box filled with liquor, told everyone hi, and then peaced out.

Or when Martin and Cecil Covert came in, started pulling out giant bottles of booze from their bags. Martin pulled a giant bottle of vodka out and just looked at me and went, "We knew you'd be here."

And lastly, Suzannah just yelling loudly, and turning to me to say, "It's fun to yell!" 

I have some peculiar/spectacular friends. 

I got quite intoxicated, but not nearly as bad as Mr.Glazebrook. His behavior was similar to when he was drugged up after his surgery. It was pretty hysterical. I had to put him to bed for fear of furthering the drunken embarrassment he would inevitably eventually face. 

All and all. Successful party. 

Then yesterday morning we went to breakfast to celebrate AJ's actual birthday, and by breakfast I mean we went to Slim's at about 12:30 in the afternoon once we had all crawled out of the dark caves of bedrooms, regained enough balance to walk, and found our voices we had apparently smoked away. 

Then last night, District 9. 

Really wonderful film. So detailed, and gross, and awesome. 

I thoroughly enjoyed how every time something disturbing and gross would happen AJ would just cower into himself and mumble, "I can't take much more of this." He managed to man up, and stay through the end. 

And the SAINTS won!

Something bad is going to happen, isn't it?

Damn it!

 

"Your's Forever, Mr.Marmalade...."

So.

Mr.Marmalade came with a fury, and left in a hurry. 

A grand total of three weeks, and we are all done.

I'm kind of sad. I

 wish we could have just done one more 

weekend. Especially, since we had gained so much momentum by the second go round. 

Damn you, AIDA.

Ah well. We all had a blasty.

And I think Kristin is actually considering moving her wonderful little self down here for an extended period of time. Which will be quite the great thing because I just adore her. She has single handedly restored my faith in the state of New Jersey.  Which is no easy task, believe me.

 

Now for the next two weeks I'm back to Boring Natalie, where all I do is complain about my stupid job, complain about how UNO jerked me around all summer, and now won't let me go to school this semester, and watch too much television. 

Then, luckily, Damn Yankees will begin, and I'll have something to occupy my free time with.

Because we all know once I start sitting around my house, by myself for too long, I start busting out the old VHS copies of Beaches and The Way We Were. 

Then it's all down hill from there. 

P.S.

Inglourious Basterds was fan-fricking-tastic!

Best World War II movie I've ever seen.

Eli Roth is my new boyfriend. 

Go see it. Immediately.

"Just like John Wilkes Booth, our prices are going to sneak up behind you and KILL YOU!"

I've already gotten off to a terrible start with my upcoming fall programming.

I missed Mad Men on Sunday due to a brilliant (If I may say) performance of Mr. Marmalade.

(Check out our first review!)

Then, I missed the repeat of it last night because after doing the WWII Museum read-thru, I sat by the pool with Sam, Kristin, Alex, and AJ, drinking Amstel Light and cheap white wine out of the bottle, and smoking far too much.  It felt very Mad Men-like of us, though.

The lovely added touch to the evening was that AJ would randomly become infuriated with something in the Damn Yankees script, and would have to halt our conversation to read the ridiculousness aloud. 

I, fortunately, WILL be able to watch Top Chef Las Vegas tomorrow night.  I hope Trina is free so we can have our weekly get together.  Especially, since I have neglected most of my friends recently because of rehearsing, and shows, and excessive rockstarness. 

Then on Thursday, I miss the Project Runway premiere because of the show.  I am really looking forward to it, being as though this is the first episode on the new network.  I'm very curious to see how Lifetime destroys something perfectly wonderful.  I'm convinced it's going to be no good due solely to the horrible commercials I have seen.  They do these silly profiles on all the different contestants talking about their trials and tribulations in life, how their parents died, and all they could do to get over the pain was sew a sequined minidress. Bullshit. 

I don't want heartfelt. I want bitchy queens yelling, "Where the HELL is my chiffon?!?!?!" and Santino imitating Tim Gunn.  

Oh, the glory days of PR. 

I hope I still love it. 

The sad thing is, even if I don't, I'll still watch it religiously.  

And just complain about how terrible the production quality is.

On a completely different note.....everyone notice how performers and workers at Disney World keep dying?

The latest died today trying to do some stunt for the Indiana Jones live show. 

And a couple weeks ago two monorails collided into each other.

I didn't know death at Disney was even possible.

Except, from maybe so much joy of riding the Tower of Terror over and over till eventually the bellhop's rehearsed puns start repeating. Or you just start making up new ones to tell to the performers, who then become increasingly bitter and angered by you every time you walk up.

I'm not saying I do that....it just seems like that could possibly get annoying.....after a while.....probably.

Nobody Likes a Quitter!

So. Yay!

Mr.Marmalade opened, and it has been nothing but full houses, laughing people, and a grand time.

And by grand time, I mean an incredibly drunken, stumbling back to the car, kind of a time.

I have this problem that started quite some time ago, when I was about 21, and has just recently resurfaced. 

I do not enjoy being called a quitter. In any aspect of my life, but especially when it comes to adult beverages.

It all began with the McGuigan brothers telling me to just man up, and drink the Jameson.

(Which is when my tolerance and love for the whiskey first started.)

Then, this past Mardi Gras, two of my good friends, (who happen to be large men, one well over six feet tall), kept calling me a quitter.

They realized this was the easiest way to get me to keep drinking with them.

I'm always game for a good drunk time, but to try and keep up with grown men, when I, myself, am but a five foot two tiny woman. 

Not the smartest thing I could be doing. 

Luckily, it was Mardi Gras, and my birthday. So the fact that I had drank an entire bottle of champagne, and half a liter of Jameson before noon was almost acceptable. 

After those fellas had left for the summer, I decided that there is truly no need to keep up with people bigger than me. Or just because they call me a quitter. It's ok to not be a drunken hot mess all the time.

And then the play opened. And our friend Kristin, from Jersey, wants to do nothing but go out and get wasted. 

Naturally, I feel obligated to show her a good time.

Opening night we all went to the Boondock.

It was quite nice. I didn't pay for a single drink. The perks of being a local celebrity. (And guilting friends who take all your cigarettes into buying you drinks.)

My favorite quote of the evening was when Kristin kept asking me if I wanted to get some food, and I repeatedly told her, "No!! I don't want to ruin this drunk!"

Towards the end of the night, four shots and four Purple Hazes in, AJ and Casie decided we needed to be doing Car Bombs. 

Apparently, I wanted nothing to do with that. 

But, with enough coaxing, they managed to convince me that just doing two more shots of Jameson, while they drank the Car Bombs would be an equal trade off.

I agreed of course.

Thankfully, all my friends made sure we got to my car, and Kristin drove home for me. I don't really remember this.

But when I got in my car the next morning, my seat was moved up, the rearview mirror was all askew, and the parking break was on. 

Fucking midget northerners!

All and all, a good time was had by everyone.

I guess I didn't really mind that I wasted all of yesterday by just sitting on my couch, and watching When Harry Met Sally.

Oh wait, I went to Walgreens. 

NOT a wasted day after all. 

Do YOU Know Mr. Marmalade?

SCENE 5!

Nailed it.

That fucking disaster.....pardon me, that scene that used to be a fucking disaster, all finally came together (almost perfectly) last night.

Allegra and I ran it before the show, which was seamlessly done, to which AJ responded, "Fuck yeah, fuck yeah! It's like a polaroid just developed!"

So yeah. I'm happy about that.

The show actually, kind of, almost is a complete show.

The best thing that happened last night was the fact that we finally had whipped cream in a can for me to squeeze into my mouth.

Well, I got a little overzealous with the stuff and put so much into my mouth that I couldn't say my lines, and then I just started laughing, so it was difficult to swallow.

All of that sounded quite dirty, but seemingly appropriate.

If we had to open tonight I would feel confident.

Which is pretty damn impressive I might say, since we started working on it a week ago.

Considering we have two whole rehearsals left, I feel excellent about the whole thing.

In Gambit this week there is a little preview article in the stage section, a big ad in The Minute Magazine, and Aura Fedora had a blog interview with Allegra the other day that is now on BackStage Bayou.

 Allegra and I also did the morning show yesterday, which got us about 25 tickets closer to reaching our goal for 100 tickets sold before opening night.

I must say, if I had to be awake at that ungodly hour, and had to be lovely and talkative, AJ was the best person to have with me. 

The boy literally never, ever shuts up. Just punch line, after pun, after inappropriate joke.

It made the experience far more pleasant than it had any business being.

I promise after I finish this show I'll have more stimulating things to type about.

That's probably a lie.

But I will try.

Ooh, ooh!

Top Chef Las Vegas starts uber soon, Project Runway starts on the 20th, and MAD MEN is this Sunday!

Oh, and I bought a car. Huzzah!

"They're moving in herds, they DO move in herds."

We had our first tech rehearsal for Mr.Marmalade today.

It was pretty productive, and not half bad.  

Well the first run was pretty god awful, mainly because it was 11am, and none of us particularly wanted to be there.

But the second run through was significantly better.

Enjoyable, one might say.

I have a huge problem with this one scene, the dreaded Scene 5.

I don't know why it's so difficult for me to memorize this damn scene. Probably because all the lines are the same, and often repeated just in different parts of the scene.

I hate it. 

But I vow to be completely perfect for tomorrow night.

Because I'm very afraid of A.J. and Andrew.

Especially after today.

We all sort of hated each other today, it was weird.

Alex even mentioned at the end of the night that it would probably be best if we went our separate ways, but we went to Mona's. And had quite a splendid time.

All we did was quote Jurassic Park. 

It was a pretty stellar way to cap off the evening. 

Tomorrow, at 6am, A.J. and I have to go on the morning show for ABC26 and perform, and get interviewed and such to promote the show.

I don't think I'm going to be a pleasant person to be around tomorrow midday, but we'll see what happens.

I'm having a really awesome time doing this show, despite the fact that I live in constant fear that Andrew hates every choice I'm making, and A.J. is fed up with Scene 5.

I hope they let me play with the Project, again.

I'm also thoroughly enjoying their friend Kristin, who is in town from New York playing my mother in the show.

She's just a little ball of sass and good time.

She, A.J., and myself had a riproaring good time the other night at The Boondock, and the Kingpin. 

We talked drunkenly about everything from musical theatre, to bikini waxing, to threesomes. 

Matthew Mickal had the best quote of the night, though, when he simply looked Kristin straight in the eye and said, "Your shoes sparkle, I NEED A DRINK."

On a completely separate note, why does VH1 have a show called, "Megan Wants a Millionaire?"

Really?

I mean, I guess it's better that they are just putting the fact that Megan is a gold digger and, truly only wants to marry for money, not for love.

Seriously, though? Why is this on television?

And why the hell can I not stop watching it?

This is why I can't remember my god damn lines.

Because my head is filled with bullshit reality tv show programming.

What a tough life I lead.