Week 13

Hello everyone!

I just had probably one of my fave weekend trips ever, but first let me tell you about something crazy that happened to me during the week.

I went to go see Mamma Mia! because I'm trying to fit in all of the West End shows before I leave (I think Mike and I going to go see Avenue Q tomorrow, and then I'll be done!), but anyway. Mamma Mia. A great show, one I've seen before in the States. But the production I saw in London- I could just tell it was one of those nights where nothing was going right for this poor cast and crew. Being a girl who's been in many a show, I could just picture how nutso everyone must be going backstage. First of all, the main character, Sophie, totally forgot one of her lines within the first ten minutes of the show. Yikes. I have never seen that happen in professional theatre, or if it did, the actors have covered it better. This poor girl just stood there like a deer in headlights for the longest ten seconds of my (and probably her) life, until another actress saved her bacon and tried to cover the slip. Then, the guy playing the lead male role was an understudy and he was just...off. Mamma Mia is supposed to be all fun-loving ABBA-ness, and this guy thought he was in Phantom or something. He kept trying to belt the songs in this weird, faux-opera voice and it sounded awful. Especially when his voice cracked. Twice. Clunk. But then- the worst thing of all happened. In the middle of act two, a techie is supposed to wheel out this tropical bar with like three shelves of drinks and a huge umbrella on the top. He did so, but in the middle of the scene, this bar (on wheels) starts rolling towards the audience. Before anyone can even react, it rolls right off the stage and lands on this girl who's like six seats down from me! It was so scary! There was this huge crashing noise, and then everybody just froze. Like no one knew whether to laugh or scream or anything, so everyone (including the actors) were just frozen in place. Finally, they snap out of it, and the techies and actors pulled the bar off this poor girl, who's now hysterically sobbing and clutching her head and obviously hurt. It was terrible! So they like escort her out of the theatre, and after ten minutes, make this announcement that she's okay and that the show will go on. But she never came back, so I don't know if she just went home or went to the hospital or what. I just kept thinking, I sure hope she got some free theatre tickets or something out of this whole deal. And that if we were in America, she would have sued the pants off of that theatre.

So anyway, that was insane. But on to the weekend:

Me and Stace went to Nice, smack dab in the middle of the French Riviera. It was such an ideal trip- perfect weather, miles and miles of beaches, an amazing bed and breakfast, and such a good time together. We honestly had our first trip that felt like a bonafide vacation- we didn't have to do anything, be anywhere at any specific time, or stress about anything. We could just lay on the beach, shop around, eat crepes and pastries, ride the bus around...it was so wonderful.

On our second day, we took a daytrip to Cannes, home of the famous Film Festival. I, of course, loved this and Stace just kinda had to bear with me while I geeked out and bought t-shirts and postcards from the festival. It was so cool- they were preparing for this year's festival, which is in May, so we got to walk by the auditorium, and see all the decorators getting stuff ready. It was just so randomly awesome because I had no idea Cannes was anywhere near where we were going to be until Stace suggested it as a day trip.

After that, we went back to Nice and had more good times just hanging out, chatting, reading magazines- basically having girl time. So nice. It felt like paradise- palm trees and sunshine everywhere.

It was a wonderful answer to Spring Break's craziness, and I can't believe I have now swam around in the Mediterranean Sea. It definitely felt surreal to be eating dinner with one of my best friends on the French Riviera- we just kept looking at each other, like "Can you believe this?"

Anyways, now I'm at work, and Friday morning, Stace and I leave for Paris! Yay! I can't wait to see the sights!

Two weeks until I'm home!
Love you all
Everlee