These chips are yummy

I have decided that these chips are delicious and that you should all try them.

The Search is On . . .

You know that Twitter/Facebook commerical where the guy is sitting behind the news desk reading status updates like they're world-wide, ground-breaking news? And he says, "This just in . . . the search is on for cute boots."

Well, my search has just begun.

For cute brown wedge sandals.

Loosely translated, this means that I have a new skirt, but low and behold, no shoes to go with them! Oh, no! What shall I do?! How can I possibly wear my new skirt without the proper footwear?!

For those of you who know me and my shoe obsession (I believe the count is somewhere close to 200 pairs now), you probably wonder how this could be possible. (Don't judge. I know it's a problem. But I'm currently seeking professional help and taking injections. Electroshock is not as bad as everyone says. The only bad thing about it is . . . they make you take off your shoes to receive it.) How could I possibly not have shoes to go with any piece of new clothing?!

Confession:

I'll use any means possible to buy new shoes.

And I would apologize to my husband for this, but we all know he's the same way with almost anything that has the U logo on it.

So . . . time to go shopping?

The Tony Awards

Okay, okay.

I freely admit that I love the Tony Awards. I look forward to them all year. Yes, that might be extremely nerdy of me to admit, but so what?! Big whoop? You want to fight about it?!

Having never been to New York (the sniffling begins), the Tony's happen to be the closest way I get to experience Broadway. So, I'll take the trash talk and the being made fun of in order to get to experience it, even if just for a night.

Yes, Mike hates it.

But I tell him that if I can watch football for 6 months, he can give me 1 night and watch the Tony's with me. He played on his computer most of the night.

Here's the thing I'm starting to resent about Broadway (insert GASP here!):

Hollywood has taken over.

It seems that every star in Hollywood wants to come and be on Broadway (not that I blame them. I want to be on Broadway). So, naturally, in order to entice more Hollywood names (that will bring in money) to Broadway, we must give them Tony Awards, so they'll tell their friends to come to Broadway, because they give you an award if your name is big enough.

Case in point:

This year Denzel Washington, Scarlett Johansson, Kelsey Grammer, Jude Law, and Sean Hayes (who hosted) all made their Broadway debutes this past year. And every single one of them were nominated for Tony Awards. And Denzel and Scarlett won.

And specifically, Catherine Zeta Jones. She won the Tony for Best Performance by a Lead Actress in a Musical for her performace in A Little Night Music. And she sang "Send in the Clowns." Badly. But, she's an Oscar winner, so let's give her a Tony. (Apparently her voice was going out.)

See, here's the thing. It's not that I don't think these people are talented (I thoroughly believe that Catherine deserved to win her Oscar for Chicago), but I just hate it when people from Hollywood come and take over from the big names that only those of us who are true fans and love Broadway would recognize.

Like Kristen Chenoweth:

And Idina Menzel:

But you would think Mike would have been some-what entertained, because Green Day's musical American Idiot was nominated and performed last night. And he likes Green Day. Although American Idiot didn't take home the prize for Best New Musical (Memphis took that honor), it just goes to show that there really are no original ideas anymore (ahem, Spiderman, the Musical?! Yes, I'm serious. It was supposed to make it to Broadway last year, but has been postponed . . . and postponed . . . and postponed).

All in all, I think the Tony's were slightly disappointing this year. But, I still find it hard to wait another 365 days until I get to "go to" Broadway again. Maybe this year Mike will actually take me to the real Great White Way (hint!).

Worst dressed? I think Scarlett Johansson looked like a Christmas Tree:

As a lead producer of Broadway shows, Barbara Manocherian said: “As much as I love stars, we as a theater community must, must get back to having excellent theater actors in leading roles, and not let everything rise or fall on having a star name in the cast.”

Well said, Sister Suffragette.

Stage Freeze! (Don't Say "Stage Freeze," Just Do It.)

I feel like crying.

You may ask yourself, Why would Melissa want to cry? I thought she was dead inside? Could she possibly be . . . the P word?!

You wash your mouth out with soap for even thinking that!

Go on.

I'll wait.

Now that you've been punished for your dirty thoughts, I feel like crying because it's over.

This is the set:

And this is my "station" where I spent most of the show:

Inside fact: I spent 90% of the show on stage. And I'm standing for 99% of that time.

I have to admit, when I first was cast in Steel Magnolias, I was extremely nervous. The first rehearsal scared the beejesus out of me. (You try spending every night with 11 divas and then tell me you wouldn't be scared too. For the first month or so, I just sat quietly in the corner and tried not to make anyone mad at me, because nothing is worse than having a diva yell at you for . . . I don't know . . . sitting in her chair, or using her prop, or something even more horrifying, like looking at her wrong.) And I thought maybe I had made a huge mistake and just wanted to get it over with as fast as possible. But then I decided to not be such a jerk and get to know these women. And I'm so glad I did! They are all amazing and I'm intimidated by each of their talent.

I really grew to love these ladies. This is my MWF cast:Yes, that's me in the hideous blond wig, behind me in the blue is Robyn Edwards (M'Lynn), the orange bow is Meredith Gibson (Ouiser), next to her in the middle is Chris Brown (Clairee), the circus performer is Missy Riffle (Truvy), and the purple curlers is Ashley Garner Carlson (Shelby).

This is Addison:Our wonderful stage manager. Yes, a male stage manager for an estrogen-filled show. He is the most amazing person ever. Extremely multi-talented. He sings, he dances, he acts, he paints, he sculpts, he . . . well, you name it he does it.

This is Jamie (and that's Angela Cole Brown next to her, she played Truvy in the TTHS cast): She was our stage manager when Addison couldn't be there. I really loved her, because after our quick change, she would bring our costumes back to the dressing room for us, so we didn't have to go get them after the show was over. I think Addison never did that because he was afraid to touch women's clothing.

This is me and Missy: I can't tell you how completely amazing Missy is. She's the most wonderful, talented, loving, sincere-hearted, capable person I have ever met. (Notice that she's a blond and I'm a redhead, but they decided to make us switch for the show and I was the blond and she looked like Peg Bundy in her red wig. But definitely more classy than Peg.)

The following are pictures from when I "played" with the TTHS cast closing week:

This is Angela Cole Brown with the wig on (Truvy):That's Jillian Tirado (Shelby) in the background, Jane Huefner (M'Lynn) in the blue, and Linda Jean Stephenson (Clairee) seated. That's Addison and Rebecca Hess (Ouiser):Anyway, back to my cast.

On closing night, I took a lot of pictures, so bear with me (okay, you can skip over them. We all know this blog is really for me to remember things anyway).

After the TTHS cast closed their show on Saturday, we had a big party at Chris Brown's house.

She made spudnuts:But mostly we just sat around and talked:Missy and her husband, Scott. Ashley had on these really cute sparkly heels. I want some.

Mike could never understand that whenever I would go out with the cast after a show, I would be out until 1 or 2 in the morning. After the party, I think he understood why. These women are hilarious! It's hard to get up and leave when you know Meredith will be telling another hilarious story any second. Laughter is abundant around her. This is Adrien Swenson:My counterpart (that's why there aren't any pictures of her). Adrien intimidated the hell out of me at first. She is incredibly talented.

I'm really going to miss this so much. Especially the friends I made.

Clairee has a line in the show that says, "If you can't say anything nice about anyone . . . Come sit by me."

True. Too true.

Hell Has Definitely Frozen Over

How do I know this?

Because I went camping this past weekend.

Yes.

Camping.

You can stop laughing now.

(Mike said I looked like Kim Kardashian, so I was called "Kim" most of the weekend.)

Sarah and Ryan have this crazy tradition of going camping over Memorial Day Weekend. And I don't mean my kind of camping. I mean actual camping.

Which means in a tent:

And eating outside:

And especially (and most horrifying to me) using an outhouse: Don't let the sunshine, greenery, or nice siding fool you. Seriously. There was just a hole with a pot on top of it inside it. But I would never stay in there long enough to take a picture.

The weather was much nicer than it was last year (yes, yes, Hell froze over last year too), with mostly sunshiny skies. (It rained the entire time last year, which caused me to say I was never doing that again! What can I say? I'm a total pushover.)

This is Sarah and Ryan's tent. Mike took this picture while I was trying to take a nap. I must admit that it was nice to make yummy s'mores. If there was such a thing as a professional s'more maker, Sarah would definitely be it.

And the boys really got the fire blazing: It did get pretty cold at night:

This is Pip:Our chipmunk friend. He lives in several of the trees by our campsite and wasn't afraid of humans at all. When we left, we could hear him chattering in the trees, probably telling us good bye. (Or maybe good ridance, I don't speak chipmunk.)

The morning we were packing up, I was in our tent with the door open, putting away our sleeping bags, WHEN . . . Ryan came walking by. Knowing what he was up too, I yelled at him, "HEY, I CAN SEE YOU!" But he just . . . ignored me. It's so unfair that men can just pee anywhere, while we women are forced to use the gross, disgusting outhouse.