Monroe, Louisianna

this is the first time in quite a while where I've had a good internet connection, and some time to blog. So here's some catch up...

After North carolina, we headed down to south carolina, were we did our last private performance in a high school. The people were wonderful and told us we were the best chamber tour that they'd ever seen. Yay, I'll take it whether it's true or not.

then we found ourselves in rome, georgia for a weekend (blew). There was not much to do in that town other than see a movie, which I did. Saw JACKASS 2 on opening night. ROCKED!!! Unfortunatelynatly for reasons I don't remember, we had to switch hotels and towns on Sunday. So we ended up splitting the weekend up and found ourselves in cedartown, Georgia on Sunday. This little blip of a town has less than nothing to do. But we did fascinating local while dining out at the only restaurant in town. His name is Paul. He's from the czech republic. And he's got a half czech half southern accent. Awesome!! Turns out, he came over here, got scared in new york when we saw barrels ablaze in bed-stuy brooklyn (I can relate), then went down to miami, florida where he came across his first group of black people...who then mugged him. (Yikes). Then he got aboard a greyhound bus headed for california. But about mid-trip, he was kicked off for drinking beer. So he stayed. And that's how he came to live, fall in love, and call cedartown, georgia home.

next we traveled to albany, georgia...which by the way...is different from the albany, new york.

next we hit up montgomery, alabama where we met a couple of interesting people...to start with carrie rose...at an olive garden. She’s a very free spirit with a crazy streak right down the middle (our kind of people). She was so happy to here that we weren’t from around there, that we drank for free all night. She had just moved to montgomery from LA to be closer to her 3 small daughters. She's way too much of a west coast girl (also she's a wicken) to be happy in the middle of the deep south for long, but we all wish her well. also in montgomery, we befriended our tech crew. these guys were awesome. a few of these boys would have gladly followed meagan and me around the country if we'd asked...(there were a few crushes). but really, they were very cool, and marc and i geeked out talking about the movie THE BOONDOCK SAINTS so i think i may have made a friend for life. also, they asked us out to lunch after the show where i got to eat alligator!! woohoo!! yum!

flash forward to last Friday, when we found ourselves in hattiesburg, misssissippi for the weekend. Also it was payday, so we were determined to spend some money on fun...local fun! We found the hottest spot in town, called Shinanigens. It’s truly a double wide trailor, but inside is jam packed with locals drinkin’ beer and singin’ kariokee. Perfect! Meagan and I got stares from all directions, she got cat calls (seriously they meowed at her in the parking lot), I used the ol' "i'm with him" line when one of my suitors came over and joined us. His name was dave? I think? Nice guy, in a big ol' cowboy hat, tight redneck jeans, and blousey button down shirt. He came from the "big city" too...somewhere in tennessee. He came here to go to school, but dropped out, and stayed. The next song he sang he said he sang for me. Thanks dave.

this morning we met another wonderful local. Her name is mary, and she was our server at the cracker barrel for breakfast. She said she loved us and hugged us all goodbye. She also said she knew we were actors because the 4 of us were so beautiful and had good souls. Her son is the general manager of the chilli's resturant (the only one) in staten island new york. I plan on going back to that one and telling him I met his mama down in louisianna on a random Tuesday in october.

Now I find myself in yet another hotel, with a little bit of downtime. I should be in the middle of “the legend of sleepy hollow” play, but our show got cancelled for today, so I’m lounging on a couch admiring the view of the hooters across the street. It’s about 95 degrees right now, at 10:30 in the morning in monroe, louisianna and hopefully I will get to see a bijou while I’m down here.


THE GOSSIP YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR

As we get farther and farther into this roadtrip extravaganza, there's become an increasing amount of bickering among the 8 of us. I've been trying my damndest to stay positive, but we are all at fault...some more than others. This shit has got to stop. It's toxic to the group and I refuse to play into it any more...if I can avoid it. I've been gravitating to a select few of my fellow castmates for the simple reason that I LIKE their company. Within this small group there is an even smaller group of 3 other people that I feel I can really connect to. Not to say that I won't ever be able to with others, but it hasn't happened yet. There are a couple people that just plain hate each other, others who's personalities clash like oil and vinigar, and if only we had a camera crew following us around we'd have a hit reality show on VH1. What doesn't help, is the fact that the production side of CTP doesn't seem to want to help us. They've tried nickle and diming us to death over something as simple as fucking bottled water, and minor safety issues regarding the set- like it's leaning at an unsafe angle, the platforms don't/aren't locked in place when we need to be on them, and it's literally breaking off in our hands- the other day a fucking door BROKE OFF in zach's hands and he could have truly been hurt when falling off the stage. What the hell?? All I hear from lanny, our stage manager, is that jen at production says "well fix it". And that we're being the "problem cast". At this point I don't give a shit if chamber ever wants to work with me again. I'm not one for burning bridges, but I'm also not one to lie down and let myself be walked on. If there is a problem, I will speak to production myself, get the real story, and voice my concerns...in a constructive way of course.

keep your fingers crossed...