The Court Jester - The Court Jester

Summer 2011 - one of the best yet!

8/9/2011

How was your summer? I had a great one with my family, and I thought I'd take a minute or two as it winds down to share that with all of you. Here are the things that were great about this summer, in no particular order:

1) Our visit to Arizona

We had a blast in Arizona visiting my parents. They still live in the house I grew up in, though now they have a remodeled and much improved kitchen. My kids love going there in the summer because of the fabulous outdoor pool - which is too cold to dip into in the winter, even though as a snowbird in training I might prefer it to the 115 degree heat we encountered while there.

Highlights of that trip included the mini-trip to Tucson where we visited old University of Arizona haunts, old (but not that old!) professors, and more than one trip to the The Sausage Deli, the best sandwich manufacturing establishment on earth.

We also loved attending my father's retirement party, as he was appreciated by so many in his work as HR Director for the United Cerebral Palsy of Central Arizona. This man walked the walk he talked, and I'm really proud of him. Also fascinating was that two of Sadie's biggest fans from her appearance in the "Sunday" video parody came all the way to the retirement party just to see her. Awesome.

note: Our trip to and from Phoenix will likely require a separate blog post at a later date, as the wacky hijjinks our family endured to get to Phoenix on time and in one piece created some "first class" comedy… more to come...

B) Small Group parties

My small group is the best, and throws the best parties! (They're so good, and we are having such a good time we don't have time to take pictures!) We had a great time this summer gathering at our friends houses and enjoying each other's company - it's such a blast to be able to do life with this group.

2) The Mystery of Irma Vep

As many of you know, working on this two-man show with my brother Elic has been some of the most satisfying work I've done. It was the most exhausting work, but such a blast. One of my favorite reactions was from Sean Bublitz, one of our Arts Directors at Community. He brought his 3 year old daughter, and midway through the show, she whispered to him, "Dad, I think they are boys." Classic. Pictures below will illuminate the three-year old's confusion…

note: a separate blog post should come soon on the dress rehearsal night and what it was like to perform the show in front of a hundred or so junior high and high school StuCo kids. Wow!

c) Paul McCartney at Wrigley Field

I had never seen a Beatle perform live. Cross it off the bucket list, and in fine fashion, as Sir Paul played for nearly 3 hours straight running through 30 some-odd songs in sweltering heat. Seriously, he's 69 years old and I'm exhausted? One of our church friends clipped together some highlights of the show we saw, and they turned out really nice - (click the "720p" feature on youtube to see it in full HD quality.)

H) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2.

It was a special treat to see this fantastic film with my daughter Sadie (just the two of us), since she and I had read the books together several years ago. What a great way to wrap up and incredible piece of storytelling.

3) Kristi graduated from College

Yay! I get my wife back full-time! Seriously, Kristi worked super-hard over the last eighteen months to walk away with a masters certification in dance movement therapy, which will help her immensely in teaching actors what they are doing with their bodies while trying to pretend to be other people. I'm very proud of her and the hard work she put into this degree. She earned it!

D) Mom's Birthday

The fact that we were doing Irma Vep meant that Mom and Dad came back to see (almost) all the performances. That led to us being able to celebrate at the "Buckeye Bramletts" for Mom's __th birthday. Best part was realizing in the cool summer with a fire aglow and Sadie serenading us all.