Turandot Opening Night Gala Performance

Lyric's blurb for this one is "An exotic Chinese princess beckons all suitors: Answer three riddles and she is yours. Get them wrong and you die." Dramatic, no? Even more dramatic were the music by Puccini and set saturated with reds and purples. I've heard Nessun Dorma many times before, but after seeing production it makes a lot more sense. Calaf (Vladimir Galouzine)= Love :)


Act I



Vertigo, anyone?


I'm not at the senior home, honestly ... And time marches on :)


Smelling the roses at intermission


Finale (their capes make a heart)


lobby




good night

COD EMT-B MTRF

Future EMTs: Coming soon to a town near you.


Way to go with BSI!






Number crunching ... times a lot


Extrication Day


He lives!
















Osmosing

A night off at work

is the way to cap off a summer stint. My gig has been working from W to Sun. at Drury Lane (a dinner theatre) as a restaurant server. I've always wanted to try waitressing, and this was my big shot. And the experience hasn't been half bad. At all. I've met some wonderful people from around the world -- Albanians, Chileans, Columbians, Czechs, Romanians, Russians, and lots of Mexicans :) I really used the Spanish that I learned in the past few years. The funny thing is that the latinos would talk about me as I walked by, thinking that I had not a clue about what they were saying. I did, but stayed quiet about it until one day when I had to ask the Spanish-speaking dessert chef to leave off cherries, nuts, and put extra syrup on a piece of NY cheesecake. Then all the guys were like, what, you speak Spanish? And so I said, si, un poco. Haha, I had a ball watching them smile sheepishly at me like kids with their hands caught in the cookie jar.

So on my night off, I saw the finale of the show, Nunsensations, about a convent of nuns who go to Vegas to headline a song-and-dance show so that they can earn $10k for money to donate to an elementary school. The set and props were fabulous -- my favorite was the red pump chair, which you can see in the pictures I steathily took at curtain call :)

I also won something! The CLERGY, do not ticket, sign was my prize for spinning the Holy Roller, also photographed on set. The Holy Roller was a wheel with the five virtues -- hope, charity, faith, and will and grace. Will and Grace were pictured for the last two virtues :)

Also, the cute Albanian manager who had hired me in the first place bought me a drink. A perfect night.



light as a feather


ba and me


I want my future living room to look like THIS


The loot



Curtain call



The cocktail lounge


Overlooking the dining room (where I worked) bathed in darkness


Drury Lane: For those interested in visiting, go to<http://www.drurylaneoakbrook.com/>. The next show is a mystery comedy, Agatha Christie's "Ten Little Indians," playing from August 3 through September 24, 2006.

B+J's Birthday Party at Drury Lane

was on a day that I finished up my station early. O grabbed me and told me not to leave becuase we were having a surprise birthday party for two of the servers. It's nice knowing that people do sweet things like this after college. This put a big smile on my face :)


The birthday girls


My reggaeton buddy


Blowing out the candles


Opening presents


My favorite busman


My adopted Czech dad

Taste and Ribfest

Turkey legs, polish sausages, ribs, and curly fries. Yummmmmm. I must have ate like 10 lbs of food today. Ha, take that, healthy eating!


Backstage at FOX my50


Nexxt Level


Walking to Train Station from the Taste


Blink


Walking over the river


Onto Ribfest


Ribfest entrance


Mojo's



Mojo's chefs


Mojo's prizes


More ribs


Cream-a-lot

Blackwell Forest Preserve: Silver Lake

The Canoe


Two's a couple


Three's a crowd

Hey guys, wait for me!

Bookends



Land, ahoy!