Home for Christmas!

It's 4:15am and I'm leaving for the airport in 45 minutes....haven't slept a wink because I've been scrambling to finish packing, but I can't wait to go home for Christmas! This is the first time in 5 years that I will be home for the Holidays! I was lucky enough to have my personal day off on Christmas Eve and we don't have any shows Christmas, so I decided to be crazy and add one more city to this tour! I'm bringing my computer with me so I'm hoping to get to some good blogging time in on my layover. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!! :)

Pics from Cinci

Here is the riverboat we took on Thanksgiving....it was the Belle of Cincinnati

I'm wearing the captain's hat and sitting in the captain's chair!
My friend Megan and I were dared to take a pic with our animal handlers from the show....they definitely won the prize for strangest get-up at Thanksgiving dinner! Check out the feather in the guy's hat to the left.....oh ya, and the best part are the cowboy boots that you cant see in the pic. These studs are the ones who take care of our camels and sheep!!

Now don't judge- this is definitely the messiest my room has gotten on the tour- I just thought it was funny because I've been trying to take pics of all my hotel rooms and I forgot with this city to take the pic when I first walked in and the room is all nice and neat....this night I was creatively re-packing for our flight to Baltimore because I knew some of my bags were overweight!!

Cincinnati! ( this was 6 cities ago...)

Our return to Cincinnati was great fun! If you remember, we were there the last week of October doing final tech rehearsals. It felt neat to come back to a place that was familiar...almost like we were home again! The first day back was Thanksgiving and our company management team organized Thanksgiving dinner for us on a river boat cruise! ( We had NO shows on Thanksgiving- this is the first time in 5 years that I didn't preform on Thanksgiving....and it was great!!) We had the whole second floor of the boat reserved for Radio City people...half of them I didn't even recognize because we have soooo many crew/ tech guys I've never even seen! The weather was a perfect sunny 60 degree day. Dinner was okay, good enough, but the pumpkin pie was delicious! They actually ran out of pumpkin pie by the time I went to get dessert, so I asked our waitress if there was any left anywhere on the boat....so she was sneaky and snagged a few pies from another floor! Thanks goodness because my Thanksgiving wouldn't have been complete without pumpkin pie! After the river boat cruise ended a bunch of use went to the movie theater to let our dinners settle. I went to see Twilight with a few other fans of the books and unfortunately we were really disappointed. Maybe I had my expectations too high....or maybe it was that too may things I'd imagined and pictured while reading the book were totally wrong in the movie, I don't know? Anyway, we were determined not to leave the movie theater disappointed, so we stayed to see Four Christmases. Since we were going round 2 for movies, we thought a round 2 of food was necessary, so we grabbed a huge popcorn and large sodas and settled in for movie #2. Four Christmases was cute and funny and it made me laugh....I love when Vince Vaughn rambles on!
It was back to the grind of doing shows for the next few days, but it was so nice because we were already familiar to the backstage area and we had our same dressers back who were really excited to see us. My friend Bridgette, from the baton world, came to see the show with her Mom and Aunt and they all loved it. I took them backstage and they were having fun trying on some of my hats and stuff.
It was great/ dangerous to be right across the street from a Saks for Black Friday shopping! I did some minor damage with a cute top and a sensible pair of heels. I started to feel a little under the weather by Sunday, which couldn't have come at a better time because it was my day off, so I stayed in bed and read about 3/4 of the third Twilight book. ( I have since finished the book, and *spoiler alert* I was dying on the proposal chapter...it was just too sweet and prefect :)
Downtown Cincinnati was cute, it almost felt like a tiny New York City because there was a big tree and ice skating rink out in front of our hotel that was like Rockefeller Plaza. We walked everywhere, and there were cute restaurants and shops and Starbucks on many corners. Maybe that's why it felt so familiar?? Oh ya, and if anyone ever goes to Cincinnati you must go to Nada- an excellent Mexican fusion restaurant with crazy good mac and cheese- and Graeter's Ice Cream- yummy & delicious family owned Cincinnati ice cream....I recommend peppermint ice cream with hot fudge! YUM!

It's late...

Hi! I know I said I was going to try to get caught up this weekend, but I didn't have internet in my hotel room again! grrr!! I'm slummin it in the lobby using the free wireless :( We are leaving Birmingham tomorrow at 6am, so in six hours I will be on a bus heading to Bossier City, Louisiana! I still have to finish packing and get ready for bed, but I thought I'd do a quick re-cap of beautiful Birmingham....
Well, the audiences were fantastic here and we even had a few shouters in the house. This one older man that was sitting directly in front of me in the kickline at the end of New York at Christmas today threw his hands in the air and shouted, "AMAZING! JUST AMAZING!" It was pretty funny. Friday I landed badly in the jump split in Ragdolls and ended up possibly straining the muscle in the bottom of my foot. The arch of foot has been swollen and it hurts to walk and dance on it. The athletic trainers taped it up really well today and it seemed to cut the pain a little. It's not hurt badly enough to call out of a show, which I'm grateful for because in my five years of being a Rockette I've never missed a show...and I'd hate for something to stand in my way of my perfect attendance! The A.T.'s think it will get better with icing in between shows and rest. I hope they are right! As far as fun things to do or see in Birmingham, my list is pretty short. I was poo pooing the idea that Birmingham was a cool place so I slept in on Friday, my only good sight-seeing day. I did go to one of the "Original Pancake Houses" with the girls and I got yummy pecan pancakes with sliced bananas on top. I was told that the "Original Pancake House" is a southern thing so I'm going to count that as my touristy thing for Birmingham. We also went to dinner in this historic district called Five Points South. It had a bunch of beautiful old churches, cute restaurants and neat art deco looking buildings. All the buildings in this district are from 1880- 1930. I didn't like our hotel in Birmingham. It was noisy because the hotel is an atrium style and there was basketball teams and cheerleaders staying here this weekend for a tournament and they were annoying and loud!! It felt the whole hotel echoed. Overall my Birmingham experience has been luke warm...I definitely wouldn't return, but I didn't hate it either. Anyway, I'll have pics later, but now I probably should go to bed!

Pics from Dayton

Here are some of the girls from Joyce's dance studio that came and saw the show. The question I was asked over and over from the girl's that night was "How did you learn to kick so high?" Haha!! All I could say was "I don't know, you just do it?!"

My return to Dayton, Ohio

Dayton, Ohio was our seventh city to hit on the tour. We were there less than 30 hours, we rolled in on the bus at 3:30 one day and left the next day after our last show about 9:00. We preformed at the Nutter Center Arena, the same arena I competed at in the 1997 & 2000 National Baton competition! It was funny returning to an arena in such a random part of the country that I had already preformed at. It looked the same, maybe a little bit nicer then I'd remembered it- and there was no practice gym with baton twirlers crowding the floor or judges in black suits- just our stage! I met up with 2 baton professionals while in town, Julie and Joyce. They took me to lunch before they came and saw the show. Joyce actually owns a dance studio in Dayton, and she brought her whole studio...there were about 65 people that came to see the show! I came out before the show in my 12 Days costume and did a little meet and greet with the girls, signed autographs and answered questions about Rockettes. After our last show we hopped onto our bus and drove an hour to our next city, Cincinnati, so that we could wake up on Thanksgiving and not have to travel. It was fun to travel at night- we were all wide awake, normally we are sleepy on the bus. I'd picked up a Christmas Mad Libs book at the gift shop in Grand Rapids the week before that I was dying to do, so the girls and I did Christmas mad libs the whole way there. It's been a while since I've done mad libs- but it was great fun! We laughed so hard!!

Playing catch up- Detroit

Oh my gosh- Detroit seemed like so long ago! It was 4 cities ago! That's how terribly behind I am. My goal is to get caught up this weekend. Quick update- we are flying to Birmingham, AL tomorrow! City #11! The tour is headed for the South. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this means warmer weather!! It's been so chilly, all I'm asking for is a sensible 60 degrees :) We are flying there, this means annoying group travel day...about 100 of us Radio City people all on the same flight hanging at the airport. We make the lines super long for everything- check in, security...even the lines at the good airport food places! We have a 2 hour layover at the Chicago airport and we have bet going that our flight will be delayed out of Chicago because EVERYTHING is always delayed through that airport! We get our buses back in Birmingham- and I never thought I'd say this- but I'm happy to get the bus back! It's just easier to hope on a bus and sleep. We've been in Columbus, OH the last 2 days. I really like it here. There are lots of fun things to do hear. More on that later...first I'll give you the skinny on the Motor City.

We were in Detroit for a while, about 5 days. The city was kinda grouse and scary and not a ton to do in walking distance. The only thing that was really close was Greek Town, this street with all these yummy Greek restaurants and a Greek casino. It was colorful and busy and I ate saganaki for the first time. Saganaki is this Greek dish, its just cheese on a plate then they light it on fire right in front of you and yell "OPA!" Flaming hot cheese spread across pita bread is irresistible! I loved it! Other fun activities I enjoyed while in Detroit was shopping at an amazing mall! We had a cast day off there so our company managers coordinated a shopping trip one day so that the buses could take us because the mall was about 20 minutes away from our hotel. It was the best mall I've ever been to hands down. I about had a panic attack in it though because there were SO many shops! It was actually 2 malls that was connected by a long sky mall. I spent the majority of my time in one of my favorite stores, lululemon!! I also went to this awesome chiropractor that my friend, Erin- who is from Detroit, hooked us up with. The chiropractor had this crazy machine that "read" your bone alignment with this gun thing. After he zapped you, a diagram came up on the computer showing me just how messed up I truly was. It was fascinating to see the before and after alignments and the differences the adjustment made. I felt great that first show back after my adjustment, however I'm pretty sure I went back to my normal busted self after that first jump split! The final night in Detroit, the girls and I traded our backstage passes for tickets and went and saw the Broadway touring production of Irvine Berlin's "White Christmas" at the historic Fox Theater. It was so much fun to watch another Christmas show! And I love "White Christmas!" The cast was awesome and I was overwhelmed with how beautiful and interesting the Fox Theater was. One last funny story about our 6th city. During one if the shows we had a small fire on stage! During the "New York at Christmas" number we have little fireworks on stage at the end. I guess one of the fireworks got too close or a wire intercepted our pretty red show curtain and it caught fire right there on stage! (One of the girls said she saw someone in the front pointing at the stage at the end of the number, but she didnt think she would ever be pointing at a fire!!) I was clueless, as was most of the other Rockettes, and we finished the number without knowing anything was wrong. As we were backstage changing into our next number, Santa's, we heard our stage manager over the loud speaker saying something about a momentary hold on the show. They stopped the show for 15 minutes as they fixed the curtain and put the fire out.....then we went on with the show! Luckily it wasn't a big fire and nothing got seriously damaged because I guess they had some flame retardant on the curtain already. It was exciting though, it shook things up a bit!

It's bed time for me...goodnight!

This is a pic at the arena that we preformed at....this is a Hall of Fame wall for the Detroit Hockey team...I got lucky that my name was "sort of" on there!

Who knew I was a good hockey player! :)

This is one of the views of the lobby at the Fox Theater. This is no way captures the extreme detail and beauty of this theater. The theater looked like what a Hindu temple would be like.

"OPA!!" Amy, Nita and I are outside of Pegasus, one of the Greek places we ate at in Greek town.

so behind...

I'm so behind in my blogging! We just got Baltimore today, which means I'm 3 cities behind! I'm going to Charm City Cakes tomorrow.....cant wait! First impression of Baltimore is really good, they have a lot of stuff to do! We only had one show today, after two days off...it felt really weird, my body was all fresh and my legs felt weightless. Weird!! I guess I know the feeling won't last long because it will be back to busted body tomorrow, honestly I think I'm more comfortable with that. Some of my friends from the NY gold cast came down tonight for our show. It was awesome to see them!! I didn't want them to leave! Anyway, just thought I'd do a quick blog. I need to head to bed soon, but my room is freezing cold and I started the fourth Twilight book and I think it's calling my name......

Check this out!

Check out this video...it's a promo video that was created the days before we opened when we were in Cincinnati for final tech. It's really cool- its talks about everything!

http://www.cincinnatiusa.com/Attractions/detail.asp?AttractionID=438

Grand Rapids

I wish we could have stayed one more day in Grand Rapids. Like Peoria, we were also in this city less then 48 hours, it all went by too quickly. The arena and our hotel were right in the center of downtown, so it was great because there were beautiful buildings, shops and great restaurants all in walking distance. Our hotel was AMAZING! I think its by far the nicest hotel yet. We stayed at the Amway Plaza, and I lucked out on my room because I got a junior suite!! My room was very fancy- I felt like I was royalty in European country or something. And my bathtub....wow....it was huge! I enjoyed a nice lavender bubble bath one night fit for a princess! The two bad things I didn't like in Grand Rapids was; first- it was freezing cold!! Like ice beating wind on your face! And second- a very stupid, but important thing- I couldn't find an egg and cheese breakfast bagel for breakfast the morning we left town!! I searched 4 different coffee/ cafe places, running around town like a crazy eyed breakfast bagel girl, and nothing!! I was craving one so bad! :) After the fourth place I gave up and settled for oatmeal. I did do some shopping in between shows on the second day. My friend, Kathleen, and I ended up getting the same pair of purple rounded toe pumps! That is one of the things I'll really miss about being on this tour...it's so fun to shop in big packs of girls, everyone in the store shopping you know because the whole dressing room migrated on the break to the boutique around the corner.

I did my first real PR gig in Grand Rapids. I had to talk to and take pictures with this girl who won a walk on role in the Nativity scene in the show. It was silly, but super easy and it was fun to talk to someone about being on stage who had never been! I guess this girl won a radio contest for tickets to the show and a walk on part....funny huh?

I also had my first baton visitor come to see the show in Grand Rapids. I was telling some of the girls that day that I had someone coming to see the show that night. They had asked who and I casually mentioned that someone I worked with in baton.....and I couldn't even finish my sentence before all sorts of questions came up! They wanted me to demonstrate (even though clearly I had NO baton) and they were asking me all these crazy questions. Anyway, now the cat is out of the bag and the girls are bugging me to load a video on you tube. Anyway, Kyle Kieser, came with a good friend and watched the show.....it was great to catch up on what was going on in the baton world. It's going to be so nice to see people along the way in all different parts of the country- Kyle was the first of many baton visitors. It's nice to know that you so many different friends all over the place! :)

This view is outside the the hotel....there are actually rapids in Grand Rapids,

who would have thought!

My friend, Kathleen, and I out in front of the Van Andel Arena....we waiting for many minutes in the freezing cold wind to wait till the light-up board got to our sign!!

Peoria

We were in Peoria for less then 48 hours. We did three shows then we drove away to Grand Rapids. Our hotel wasn't fantastic, however there wasn't really a whole lot to choose from. We preformed at the Civic Center that was right across the street from our hotel. Most people didn't like Peoria, and it wasn't had to know why, because on the surface it was a boring town. However, I did my research and found a few fun historical sites and other things to see. The people in Peoria was truly the best part of being there. They loved us! At lunch my friends and I got a free plate of chocolate chip cookies because they were so happy to have us in town. Many times we got stopped on the street and people raved about the show and how wonderful it was. We also got a total standing ovation for all 3 shows!! One city has yet to beat Peoria's record!

A couple fun facts about Peoria...

1. Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous Peoria speech a few blocks from the hotel. His 3 hour speech was the first major address on slavery, setting in motion his run for Presidency.

2. Peoria was huge in the Vaudeville circuit, they even had a phrase "Will it play in Peoria?" coined in the 1920's because how well shows did in the city. Peoria people must still love show business because they LOVED our show!

3. The current site of the Peoria Civic Center (where we preformed) was once a prominent stop on the Underground Railroad.

Here are some fun pics of my adventures in Peoria.....Here I am in front of the Civic Center in Peoria.

We walked down to the river front, this is the Illinois River with the Spirit of Peoria riverboat....the river boat is very similar to the one that I just was on in Cincinnati for Thanksgiving.

Abe Lincoln statue....it's kinda funny because this is just right outside of a bank, a big historical thing is just hanging on a street corner outside a bank!

Apparently they named a restaurant and lounge after ME!!! haha! This was right across the street from the arena.

on the road...

Last week when we were traveling from Milwaukee to Peoria, we had to stop for one of our 15 minute breaks in the middle of nowhere at a gas station. And guess how much gas was?? $1.34 a gallon!! I couldn't believe it was so cheap, but we were definitely in the middle of nowhere because I even checked at this stop to see how far we were at that point to Peoria on my iPhone, and it couldn't even determine my current location on google maps! The cashier at this fine establishment also had 3 front teeth that I could tell. Classy!
Our bus driver is getting on every one's nerves. He wakes us up over the intercom with an annoying, "Ding dong- ding dong.....iiiiiiiitt's your morning wake up call! Wake up your neighbor, but before you do, snap a picture of them drooling!" EVERY TIME! This alone is annoying, but it's especially bad when it's about 15-20 minutes before our actual stop. He also has a bad habit of swerving when he talks on his radio/ cell phone to the other bus driver. (we travel together with another Rockette, little people and Santa's bus) They tell each other bad jokes and stupid stories, and then our bus swerves and we get woken up, then we are mad again!
Traveling on the day of a show has been rough. I don't like it at all. Sometimes we get on a bus at 8am, travel for 6-7 hours, check into the hotel and go right over to the arena for opening night festivities. By the time we actually preform the show at 7:30pm, I feel loopy like I'm in a weird dream or something. We had a same day travel and show today....at least I had my Twilight book to keep me company on the bus ride. I don't know if any of you have read any of the Twilight book series, but I love them! I'm about 45 pages from finishing the second one, New Moon. It took me a while to get through this one....actually I haven't even picked it up since Hershey. I didn't like where the story was going so I stopped, but I knew I had to read it if I wanted to get through the third and fourth books. Anyway, I started readin it again a couple nights ago and I didn't put the book down most of the day because it roped me back in! I have to go read the other 45 pages tonight...more on Peoria, Grand Rapids, and Detroit tomorrow.

We are already in city #5!!

Time is flying right by! I didn't have a good Internet connection in the last hotel I was at, so I couldn't blog! So, if Green Bay is where I left off, that would mean Milwaukee was next. I loved Milwaukee! The city was really fun, our hotel was beautiful and in a great downtown location. They had a river walk that was lined by cute shops and restaurants, and the Bronze Fonz!!! (Apparently I'm hitting all the Nick at Nite TV icon statue's on the tour!) We went out to this place called The Safe House, it is a "secret agent" themed bar/ restaurant that you have to give a password to get in. We gave them the password that we found online, however we made the mistake of telling the doorkeeper we'd never been there, so they made us dance around like chickens for 15 seconds just to get in! The funny thing is that inside this place there are video cameras and screens posted up all over, so people inside can actually watch the people outside doing the crazy things to get in! Once we were inside, we watched our musical director, drummer, and other band members give an outstanding performance doing the hula on the monitor. Also, when we were ready to leave, we went upstairs to a vacant phone booth- put in a quarter to dial the operator- she gave us a code to type in the phone- and presto, a secret door opened and we exited through a dark hallway! It was so fun! Fun theme idea!

I had my rotated day off in Milwaukee, so I went to see the show that night because I'd not seen it yet....it was so fun to watch my own cast and see how the show really looks! It was amazing! I loved it! It also snowed one night when we were in Milwaukee, just a really light flurry, but it was so beautiful the way it hit all the lights downtown. Here are some fun pics of my 4 days in Milwaukee.....

Thumbs up for Milwaukee and the Bronze Fonz!

Secret Agent Lindsay-calling for next assignment! In the phone booth at The Safe House.

This is from our last night in Milwaukee. We went out to dessert at The Capital Grill and this is what our waiter brought out for us! We were having a hard time deciding because everything sounded so yummy....so he brought us a whole spread. There are 2 coconut cream pies with wafer cookies, creme brulee, chocolate hazelnut cake, and the best cheesecake I've ever had!

Thumbs down for Green Bay

We only spent 2 days in Green Bay, but I think that was more than enough! There wasn't anything to do there, no cute restaurants or shopping, and our hotel we stayed at was all by it's self in the middle of nowhere. It was rainy and icky weather both days, so we had to make our fun inside.....we did take may photos in the hotel gift shop with anything cheese related! :) We preformed at the Resch Center which is next to Lambeau Field, home of the Packers! (Which is probably the only historical landmark worth mentioning in Green Bay.) People are crazy for the Packers here...we passed so many green and yellow painted fences, signs posted outside houses, and Packers blow up lawn decor...it was a little nuts, and tacky. The great thing about Green Bay was the audiences were fantastic! We had standing ovations, people crying in the front row, even an old lady tap group coming in full out costume to the show. Farewell Green Bay...2 down, 16 to go!

Pics from Minne....

Who can turn the world on with her smile....... I'm posing by my rack of costumes...my Shine costume kinda looks like a Vegas version of Xena the Warrior Princess?
Backstage tour with the fam....my Mom and sister, Kate, are to the left and my Aunt Michelle and Uncle Steve are to the left.

More fun about Minneapolis

So I never finished all my fun stories about Minneapolis! I was actually really sad to leave Minneapolis, it was a really fun city and there were so many things that I didn't have a chance to do.....like go to the Mall of America!!! There was also a cool sculpture garden that was nearby that I heard was amazing, and many hip restaurants downtown I never ate at!! Not enough time! (However I can't say that about Green Bay....get me outta here!) The one fun touristy thing I did do in Minne was take a picture by the Mary Tyler Moore statue! This statue is outside of the building where Mary throws hat into the air at the end of the opening credits of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Confession- I used to love watching The Mary Tyler Moore Show on Nick at Nite when I was younger. The building is now a Macy's....so that's kind of boring, but it is a beautiful building, just like I remember it! :) My family also came to see me in Minneapolis! My Mom, Sister, Aunt Michelle and Uncle Steve! It was great seeing familiar faces and having them there for all the excitement of the weekend! My mom and my sister actually got to see the show 3 times; once in dress rehearsal, opening night, plus one show on Saturday! Opening night was actually kind of a weird show- the bus in New York at Christmas lost power mid number and they had to stop the show due to the technical problems. We started up half way through NYAC, but skipped all bus choreography.....it definitely felt strange, but made the show a lot easier because we actually got a chance to breathe!! The bus had random little problems all weekend, but they must have fixed it because it's working seamlessly now. Another great thing about Minneapolis is that it's the Target headquarters, so they had the largest Target I've ever seen right downtown in walking distance to everything. Another confession- I love wasting time in Target and I always leave with stuff I don't need, but it;s okay because it's Target! The last thing I'll always remember about Minne were the AMAZING churros I had (twice) at this trendy Mexican restaurant called Masa. Seriously- if anyone is in the Minneapolis area- go straight to Masa on Nicollet Avenue and order yourselves the churros! The yummiest dessert I've had in a while, they just melted in your mouth...and it came with this bitter chocolate drizzle sauce...YUM! Okay, so that's the wrap up on Minneapolis, and possibly one of most embarrassing blogs I've posted yet! Haha!
It's my last night and Green Bay, tomorrow we head to Milwaukee. 2 cities down, 16 to go! I'll give you all the details about my adventures in Packer country soon.....
Also, I'm having trouble loading pictures....so the ones that go with this posting I'll try to post tomorrow.

World Premier of the Christmas Spectacular Arena Tour!

This weekend was so much fun! And so exciting! I can't even describe how amazing it is to preform in a huge arena with over 10,000 people cheering you on! I got actual chills during our curtain call on opening night as we were doing our final kickline because it was just such a surreal moment! All sorts of emotions hit me on opening night; relief, exhaustion, excitement, joy, pride- just to name a few. I'd love to ramble on about all the fun festivities of the weekend, but instead I'll give you some pics that do a better job.....I even have some pics of the show!!

This is us getting lined up to do our opening night event for publicity. We marched out as wooden soldiers in front of the Target Center, where the show preformed, and did a little salute and posed for pictures for a local charity, Tickets for Tots. Top of the show- Reindeer Rockettes! This is what you first see as the curtain rises.

This is end of 12 Days- the crazy 8 minute long tap number!! Look at that kick line! It's amazing we are still able to breathe let alone kick eye high!New York at Christmas! This is the beginning of the dance where we hop a ride on the New York City tour bus to see the sites of the city. Can you spot me?? I'll give you a hint, I'm not on the bus yet...Here we are as silly Ragdolls! The 6 tall girls are on the runway and everyone else is behind us on stage. This is one of my favorite numbers right now....this will probably change many times through the season....but its fun because we get to improve a little and be silly, plus this number goes by in a flash! My box has the "F" on the side, I'm in the second row.

More pics tomorrow....right now I've got to pack because tomorrow we are moving to Green Bay!

I'm in Minneapolis...finally!!!

Woohoo! We arrived in Minneapolis today! This means that finally we are in our opening city! Only 3 short days way until we are kicking to an audience of 14,000!!
We flew from Cincinnati this morning, and boy was that a production! The entire cast was on three different flights throughout the day, but the Rockettes got to travel all together. We literally took up the whole plane, with the exception to a few business men- and I don't think they minded.
I had a great day off yesterday shopping and going to the spa. I ventured into Saks, which I knew was dangerous territory, but had a blast shopping with some of the girls. The salesman was loving that we were there, and he picked out cute outfits for us to try on and model all afternoon. It was sooo much fun! The Saks man then arranged for the girls and I to have lunch at this yummy English tea room for lunch, and I had the most delicious pumpkin pie tea!

countdown continues....

Only 5 days and 3 dress rehearsals left till we officially kick off the Radio City Christmas Spectacular Inaugural Tour!!! Be there or be square!

Happy Halloween!

It's Halloween! I can't believe that October is over! I was online last night and I came across this....http://radiocity.shop.musictoday.com/Product.aspx?cp=1040_4551&pc=6RAM80
You can actually be a Rockette for Halloween! I couldn't believe they had a costume and everything! They have a kid and teen size too! Funny!! You know you're big time when you have a Halloween costume after you! haha! :)
We did our second dress rehearsal last night. It went much better then the first one, but still some of our costume changes didn't happen. The good thing is that stage managers and the head of the wardrobe department listened to our concerns and suggestions so hopefully things will get resolved soon. I messed up on the countdown- we actually open a week from today, so the official countdown is 7 days!
I'm super exhausted!! Hopefully Halloween will bring me some energy!! Hope you all have a fun and safe night!

First dress rehearsal

We did our first dress rehearsal yesterday and it took about 7 hours to complete! We have to get that 7 hours down to the 90 minute show in only 9 days! Yes, the official countdown has begun...we are only 9 short days away! Some of our costume changes have to be made in as little as 2 minutes!!! (Between you me, I'm a little doubtful that we'll make some of the changes unless they switch our dressing area.) I don't have a ton of time to finish the costume drama story before I have to dash to rehearsal, but because we were going at such a slow pace yesterday I was able to grab some pics!

It's attack of the Ragdolls!! These are such silly costumes! I'm on the top right.

This is our part 1 of our NYAC costume. We do all the bus-ography in these jackets and hats, then take them off right before we step off the bus to start dancing! This hat royally messes up my hair after i take it off! :(

Cincinnati here we come!

We made our second bus travel of the tour today, a 10 hour adventure from Hershey, PA to Cincinnati, OH. The "on the road" lifestyle is just beginning, and I think I over packed for it! I found myself today with 4 pieces of luggage, my bus bag that has all my travel essentials; magazines, books, snacks and pillows, plus my purse! It's too much! This week I must find my way to a post office or UPS store and send a large box home. I'll definitely be able to send a good chunk home now that we are getting into dress rehearsals because I don't need all of my dance shoes and rehearsal clothes. My whole goal with this tour was to edit my wardrobe and to simplify my life by eliminating the need to shop, but I think it's had the reverse effect. I already hate all of my clothes that I brought with me because I'm tired of them, so I find myself wanting to shop for all new stuff......this is particularly bad because Macy's, Saks 5th Avenue and a mall are connected to our hotel!!! Speaking of our hotel, it's pretty awesome. It an old historic hotel with beautiful details and a grand elaborate lobby. Something felt very familiar about it, so when talking with the concierge tonight I learned that the architect for our hotel is also the person who designed the Empire State Building. He designed this hotel in Cincinnati first, then went on to build the Empire State Building!
Quick recap from my last few days in Hershey.....
We ended the week of rehearsals doing 2 run throughs with our hats and shoes. I was exhausted by Saturday, which is funny because I felt great up until Friday night. When we left the arena Saturday I told my friend I felt like a washcloth that had been wrung out. The other thing we got to see in rehearsal last week was our video footage from the LED shoot. There are about 8 "billboards" that show different kicklines from all different angles with all different people. There are a few times where you can see me....it's funny to see yourself on screen that big! I got to do some pretty fun stuff outside of the show. On Friday morning I went to the Central Market in Lancaster County where Amish families bring their goods to sell. I got all sorts of treats, my favorite was a slice of shoofly pie! The Central Market is the first indoor farmers market in the US. On Saturday night after rehearsal my friend Beth and I went to the Spa at the Hershey Hotel for some much needed relaxation. This was amazing! I sipped hot cocoa and indulged in Hershey Kisses and chocolate muffins all evening as I waited for my appointment. I got a peppermint scrub with a cocoa massage, so when I was done I smelled like a peppermint pattie! Sunday the girls and I did a cute brunch at the Hummelstown House, then went to the Hershey Park for some coasters. Somehow Beth convinced me to ride this crazy one that went straight up at 90 degrees then inverted as it plunged down! And we rode front row! It was crazy when we where climbing straight up because all we could see was blue sky and nothing else....I definitely closed my eyes for a little part of that! I've got some funny pics from the weekend that I'll put up once I get situated in Cincinnati.

Pictures from last week

Here we are at the TENT! We are doing a bad kick leg to show our dislike for the tent!! Ok, here is the skinny on the tent....Basically we are sent to the tent when we are messy and need cleaning or we actually get a break in the tech schedule and they don't want us sitting around having free time. I think our first time we went to the tent was the worst because it was later at night and about 45 degrees or colder outside and the tents heater wasn't working, in fact I think the air might have been on. We were all bundled up with our coats, sweatpants, gloves and scarfs....we looked a silly. The other thing to picture is that the tent is located in the middle of the Hershey theme park, so we are surrounded by rides...in fact one of the wooden rollercoatsers whooshes right over the tent making it wonderful when trying to hear our dance captain. On the plus side, like I said in the last posting, we did get to ride the fun slide on our 10 minute break on my birthday! The good thing is we are done with the tent! We will never go back there again! My friend Jenny and I are racing down the fun slide. Yes, the day I turned 24 I raced down a big pink slide, I'll always be a kid at heart!
The girls and I are being silly, it's like we cant go anywhere and not take a dorky Rockette picture! Our Gettysburg adventure was great! I had idea that there was so many things there! There was over 14,000 historical landmarks! I'm really starting to appreciate being on tour because it's been so wonderful being able to visit all these neat places that I would have normally never gone to. I'm looking forward to all the adventures to come in the next 2 months!
Look! We are twins, down to the tall boots and long jacket.....I guess certain fashion does come back around! haha! :)

Still kicking in Hershey....

Ahhh! What a crazy week, I know its been a whole week since I blogged! We are actually almost done teching the show, we will finish up today with the nativity and then our curtain call. This is good news because we are way ahead a schedule....they planned on us getting done on Friday! There are many things I'm sure we could go back over, like the Santa number because it has so many elements to it; there are 3 turntables, trap doors, elevators, the bells....its a slight chaotic! I cant wait to add costumes! I actually got to wear my "Shine" costume yesterday for lighting while we teched the number. Usually 3-4 girls wear their costumes for each dance so that the lightening guys can get the look they want with the colors of our costumes. You all know I've talked about this costume before, its amazing, we are just dripping in diamonds!
I celebrated my 24th birthday last Saturday! My first birthday to ever be celebrated in a Rockette season! The girls were awesome! They totally made my day! My friends surprised me with a cake at the end of rehearsal and they all sang "Happy Birthday" to me and I got to blow out candles! We ended up in a circus tent inside the Hershey Park (long story....may have to save that one for another day) to clean sections of some dances....anyway, on our 10 minute break we all ran out to the fun slide that was right next to the tent and slid down! It was hysterical to think of riding an attraction on our 10 minute break! The birthday celebration continued to our day off on Sunday, and my friends and I went and visited Gettysburg! It was really interesting, I enjoyed learning about all the different people and battles and experiencing it in person. I've got some pictures from the weekend that I will get loaded up here in the next day or two! Miss you all and hope everyone is doing well!

Day 2 of tech

It's only been 2 days of tech, however it feels like much longer! Our schedule is much different in tech then rehearsal....we don't start till 1pm and can go up until 11pm. So far its a lot of standing around so that they can get the lights and special effects all cued up in right time. We starting working on the bus today. (We start NYAC riding on a New York City tour bus, and we have all this bus-ography that is totally strange now that we are actually on the bus because we've been practicing it in regular open air, now we have all these handles and railings and things to worry about.) The fun thing is we are teching in the old Hershey Arena, which is on Hersheyland property, and I'm not joking when I say that we could totally go ride a roller coaster on our dinner break because we are that close!!!!! I think we may try it on the weekend, try to sneak in! The other awesome thing about this tour is our caterer. We have a caterer that just met up with us in Hershey and will be traveling with us on the road. I had heard all these great stories of how good this caterer, Gordy, really was but I just wasn't convinced. Well, let me just say that I had duck tonight for dinner and gelato out of a coconut for dessert. It is gourmet fancy food!!! We have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich station, a cappachino machine, fresh bread for our salads....it is bananas!!!

I'm in Hershey, PA!

We had our first of many travels today...we are now in Hershey, PA for our tech rehearsal! 9am this morning we loaded up the buses and said goodbye to New London and hello to the open road! :) We finished up last week at our rehearsal studio in Connecticut with full show run throughs, Friday and Saturday were 2 show days! It felt great to finally bring the show together with the whole cast and do it from start to finish! But this is the hardest show I've ever done.....the first time we ran 12 Days I honestly had flashes in my head of passing out before the kick line!!! I need stamina!! Yikes! Today we got photos from one of our assistant company managers who saw the stage today and sent us the pictures, so you are all getting a sneak peek! I can't believe how HUGE the stage is!! It looks so cool! Can't wait to see it tomorrow!

Part 2

So I'll finish with all the fun details of Tuesday, then fill you in on whats new!

Tuesday was truly great! It was so much fun to put a costume on and preform! I cant wait to see what they actually use for the show...it would be fun to see myself on a huge screen, or scary?? :) Our director and dance captains were happy with us, which is always a good thing because that means everyone is in a good mood! After rehearsal a bunch of us went to D.F. Clyde's Cider mill, which is the only steam powered cider mill left in the US! It was absolutely beautiful there, it had a small pumpkin patch and the cider was delicious! The drive up to the cider mill was fun also. We passed many large historic homes and drove through the Mystic seaport area where all the boats are docked. I put some more pictures from Tuesday up....and I might have some more coming later.

The last couple days haven't been so nice, it's like everyone in charge saw that we only had a few days left in rehearsals till we moved to Hershey, PA (where we start tech rehearsal) and they totally freaked out! We've been working crazy hard, kicking like crazy...everyone is exhausted and my hamstrings are hard as a rock and don't want to do anything!! I sat on a heating pad today before we got started thinking it would loosen things up before I started to stretch....nope, nothing! Tomorrow we do our first run through of the show. These are always fun because we get to see how everything fits together, plus it will give me a good chance to see where and how I can pace myself within the 90 minute marathon! At this point, the two numbers that may kill me are 12 days and NYAC. These are the longest time wise so it's crucial I start building my stamina now!! After rehearsal today our hotel threw us a farewell party. That was so sweet of them! Everyone on staff has been so great to us, and they said that they loved having us! They had a bunch of games, plus chips and dip, candy, and desserts layed out for us in the lobby when we got home. It was fun! I'm a little sad to be leaving Connecticut already because I feel like I just started to enjoy it, but Hershey, PA comes next and I'm really excited for that!

Part 1

I don't have a ton of time tonight, but I will leave some fun pictures from yesterdays LED film shoot! I counted, and we did 481 kicks, which actually was a lot better then I was expecting! Some positions we only had to shoot once because we were fantastic the first time! :) Not only did we have a great day of filming, but we got out earlier because we had to go in a few hours earlier then we normally do, so we got to do a little sight seeing which was soooo much fun!! This is truly the first time I've done anything touristy in the area. We went to an Old Cider Mill for a apple donut and hot cider, then we went to the Mystic seaport and then had a wonderful dinner in downtown Mystic! I'll describe in better detail tomorrow, I just wanted to share a little today and then I'll finish up later...because I got to get to bed and maybe start some packing. (because we leave on Monday!!!!)

This is some of the girls before costumes...but we do have our french twists and red lips!

Below is Nita, Me and Amy in our costumes!! Its beginning to look like Christmas! :)

This lovely picture is taken at the Old Cider Mill....it was a perfect autumn day in Connecticut!

I forgot one thing....be sure to watch Dancing with the Stars tomorrow night (Tuesday) because the Rockettes will be preforming live!!! I won't be there because I'm already in rehearsals, but it's sure to be an amazing performance!! Tune in! :)

Week 4 begins!

I've been so scatter brained today...maybe it's because it Monday and my week is restarting so I've got all this stuff to think about, plus my hotel room is a mess! (I didn't know what to where to rehearsal today so its dance clothes everywhere, plus my NY weekend bag is unpacked with stuff all over too!) So, I'm hoping tonight to gather myself because tomorrow is going to an early (8am call!!!!) day plus I've got the rest of the week ahead of me! So tomorrow we are actually filming one of the kick lines in a dance so that it can be played on the huge LED screen behind and up above us while we are actually preforming it! On the LED screen it will look like we are kicking in Times Square and other NY sights, plus right there in front of the audience! It's for the NYAC number. Anyway, we are filming from 8:30-12:00 tomorrow...all kick lines....on blue painted cement!!! OUCH!! I can already feel the hammy and knee injuries that will occur tomorrow! There are 8 total positions we have to film, if we get them perfect the first time then we don't need to do them again, however the chances of that happening are slim to none!! Keep your fingers crosses though! I think I will try to keep track of how many kicks we do tomorrow...my guesstimation is going to be around 500 kicks!?! We'll see! The day will be fun regardless because its the first time we get to put our costume and show make up on. I'll take some cute pics! The picture I have today for you is a picture of one of the rehearsal studios being set up for tomorrow's shoot. We are dancing in a blue room so that they can take us and put other graphics behind us, like a green screen.

It's October!

Yay! It's October, the best month of the year!! The leaves are turning to all shades of oranges and reds here in Connecticut and its so pretty! To celebrate the 1st of October yesterday, the girl's and I went to Starbucks after rehearsal to get our pumpkin flavored thing of choice! It was yummy! The last two days of rehearsal have been devoted to the Rag Doll dance. The Arena '08 version is sooo different then any other version yet, so of course it's totally different then the NY one I've done.....for me, I had to reverse the entire dance onto my left foot because each side of the stage is in opposition. Also, I get to do the entire dance on the runway, along with 5 other Rockettes...so we have to be "on" every show! No lazy Rag Dolls! The dance looks really cute. Before we start the dance, we climb out of every part of the stage to get on; I enter from one of the top towers near the orchestra, others come out of secret staircases and trap doors in the floor! Today was also the day of the dreaded jump split!! (At the end, we all do a right leg jump split...yes, that's right...we jump into a split in the air and in one fast gravitational pull we smash to the ground in the splits!) So it's safe to say my hamstrings are going to need a nice hot tub to relax tonight. I've included some pics of other fun events today....a Santa beard wig fitting and flu shots! Here I am with Tony, our wig guy, as he fits me in my Santa beard and hat! My wig wasn't actually curled yet so I look like hippie Santa! Next you can see I'm getting my flu shot. I had to have one of the other Rockettes distract me as I got the shot because I HATE to get shots! But, if this will keep me healthy during the season then it's worth it!

So little time, so little blog!

Hi everyone! I can't believe how busy things have been! From rehearsal, to laundry, to grocery shopping and sleeping, there just enough time in the day! Let me catch you up....the end of last week went well....the Rockettes were totally exhausted by Saturday, but our ensemble started on Friday so we all learned the Santa number together over the weekend. It was fun to have some new faces in rehearsals! It was like one big cardio class when we were running the Santa number toward the end of the day. Then I went into the city on my day off again, literally for 24 hours, and had a great time. I also went to this "injury prevention seminar" that was organized and held by our awesome athletic trainer, Elaine, who was a Rockette for over 10 years. Anyway, what we did was go around to different stations and get tested and talk to doctors, physical therapist, and athletic trainers to educate ourselves about what areas needed work to have a healthy season. I found out from the podiatrist that I have loose ligaments, which I guess isn't a good thing because I'll never have the strength in my feet that I need....I guess that explains all the rolled ankles that keep happening!?!? Other then that, it was a positive, but much longer experience then I'd hoped for......I was at this thing for about 2 hours!!! So we started week #3 yesterday, and it was one of the best Monday's I think I've ever had! We had a film crew there taping our rehearsals because they are making a documentary on the first ever Arena Tour!! They interviewed our director and a few of the Rockettes...we are still wondering what this documentary is being used for? Someone told us it's for "in house" use, but then someone else had mentioned that they are going to show this thing in all the cities we are preforming in? We'll see! Then, a lady that lives in New London (where we are rehearsing) stopped by because she was a Rockette in 1942 & 1943! She had to be at least 85 years old! She was so funny, she was telling us stories at lunchtime about how the Rockettes used to bunk up at Radio City and how they toured the world with movie stars during the war. She had mentioned that Cary Grant was her favorite because he wasn't high maintenance at all, and he was so nice and generous to all the Rockettes!! She had brought her old photos and newspaper clippings to show us, and I love seeing those because I love all the vintage costumes and things! We are almost done learning the show....we only have 2 more numbers to learn! Today was a pretty tough day because it was mega humid and I started feeling dehydrated, plus we kicked like crazy yesterday and today so I'm soooo stiff! I did pain through a half body ice bath after rehearsal today so hopefully I'll feel rejuvenated for tomorrow! :)

Zzzzz....blog!!

It's super late and I should be getting to bed.....but instead of sleeping and reviewing dances, I though it would be more important (and much more fun) to blog about the last few days!! They keep throwing choreography at us like crazy, but somehow we absorb it and come back the next day ready for more! In less then 2 weeks we have learned 3 whole numbers, 2 of them being the longest we do! Tomorrow we start on the Santa dance....this one is a personal favorite because you just get to have fun! Yes, you have to remember your numbers and depths, but the dance is more like a fun cardio class you'd take at the gym. However my brain is so full right now, I'm forgetting basic things like where I leave my room key and stuff! Cross your fingers that my already forgetful brain can hold out for 2 weeks of learning and perfecting choreography! The other fun thing that happened was I had a fitting for my beautiful "Shine" costume!!! I honestly didn't want to take it off, I would have worn it for the rest of the rehearsal! I brought my camera down to my fitting but when I went to turn it on it was all out of battery!! grrrr!! This costume, like I said before, is literally dripping in diamonds! Funny story- When I was about 10 or 11 years old I had had this dream that Ross Perot sponsored me for baton twirling and that I twirled in this costume that was only a tan leo and the WHOLE thing was covered in rhinestones! This is what I had dreamed only better!! I'll send pics when I can! Also, tonight I had an Office party in my room! I'm so happy that fall TV is back!! Although, something happened at our hotel and in the last 4 minutes of the show all the TVs went fuzzy!! We ran down to this other girl's room to make sure it wasn't just my TV, and all of a sudden all these other girls came out in the hallway and were screaming "IS YOUR TV OUT TOO!!!?!?!?!" Ya, we were pretty mad, so I guess I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see what happens!

Hello Monday!

This morning was a slow morning for me....still tired from the weekend, not ready for another whole week of rehearsals!! Fully knowing that I have 5 more days till my day off is scary! I did have a great day off yesterday though! I went into NYC with another Rockette from my cast and I got see some friends and of course, shop!!! But now it's back to business...we started learning 12 Days today. I think this will probably take a couple days to learn the whole thing because its so long and so complicated! So far I really like my spot because I'm only "dancing" a few of the days. See, at the beginning we have this weaving kaleidoscope of Rockettes and only a few pop out and dance the first couple of days. So far, I only have to do "two turtle doves" and then i get to strut around and pose until I come in "five golden rings!" Anyway, last week we finished "New York at Christmas", the bus number, and we also learned and finished this number called "Shine!" This dance is so fun, and very different then any Rockette dance I've ever done, it's really beautiful....and our costumes are amazing! We are truly dripping in diamonds! It's also my favorite kick line I've ever learned too. It's hard, but I like it! The music gets you through it! Anyway, I must run, I've got to watch Dancing with the Stars!! Yay for fall TV!

Picture time!

It's my ragdoll costume! We are having our fittings during rehearsals in another studio. Our whole costume department is set up there right now! They have got so much to do, especially because this is a whole new show! Our soldier pants are different as well....no more starch!! YAY! For those of you who have seen the NY show know that our soldier pants are this stiff, uncomfortable fabric that they starch every week so that (I'm not kidding) our pants can stand alone! Our new pants are soft, but they look stiff, very toy soldier!

Okay, I'm just putting it out there that NONE of these rehearsal pics are going to cute! We are sweaty Rockettes during rehearsal, the prettiness doesn't come till we are on stage! hehe! This picture is from the second day of rehearsal. As you can see, we are super sore and our muscles just don't want to stretch!!

Haha! This is after a 7 hour rehearsal one day, if you notice we all have bags of ice taped somewhere on us! Yes, this is the glamorous life of a Rockette! These are also all the girls in my car group. From the left; Amy, Nita, me, and Melissa.

Here I am with some of the new Rockettes! One the first day of rehearsal they were asking me for advice because they told me I was a vet....and I was like, can you be a vet at 23?? Anyway, a lot of them are my age so that's cool, but they are all really great!