Holy Maquoketa!

Happy Valentine's Day!
It feels like it's been ages since I've blogged as so much has happened in the past few days. Our first show in Denver was on the 9th and we had over 2000 people in the audience, including my lovely parents. For me personally, the dress rehearsal was tighter. For the cast overall, thankfully, the actual performance was tighter. I got to dance the gypsy dance, which is pretty much my favorite part of the show. Who doesn't love flowing skirts?

I'm starting to get used to the idea of working all day. I still get a little freaked out when I see our drop-off time is 7:30 a.m. and our pick-up time is 12:00 a.m., but I know that I will at least be standing at the end of the day (though support may be necessary for the aforementioned action).

This week has coincided with a lot of firsts.
-First show
-First 9 hour bus ride
-First city on the road
-First time dancing Daddy-oh in front of a crowd
-First time dancing Daddy-oh with proper timing
-First time interviewing prospective students
-First visit to Nebraska
-First visit to Iowa
-First freak-out over possible loss of items (Don't worry, I found them)
-First host family dog

On Monday morning we left Denver for Lincoln, Nebraska. It was there that I met my new host family. In typical midwestern fashion, our family was incredibly kind and went out of their way to make sure things went well while we were there. They have a dog, a shih tzu, named Bolt (see flickr pictures of a smaller, lighter version of Gizmo when I get them up) who was so sweet she would come right up to us waiting to be pet when we walked in the door. Our host mom made delicious meals (and compliments on grandma's salad as well) and even peeled and sliced apples for a mid-day snack every morning! On Tuesday night, one of the family's sons took us to a pizza restaurant where we played pool. They were hosting four of us, all girls, so my host mom was excited that her daughter finally had some girls in the house (they have 3 sons who are grown and out of the house, so they don't usually have that many females at one time).

My host mom also gets major points for willingness to call campus security once I realized I'd left a bag with my camera and show costume at the university where we'd performed. It wasn't there, so I figured someone must have seen it and grabbed it, and wasn't panicked too much. This morning I stepped out of the car to see the person in the car next to me step out holding my missing bag. I ran up to him, gave him a hug and shouted "I love you," as I went to get my bag. He looked at me and then said, "Do you know whose bag this is?" I said, "Mine," to which he replied, "So THAT'S what that was for. I just thought you were being nice." Sure, that too :-)

Valentine's Day on the bus was full of excitement. There was a valentine box where people could put notes and candy for other cast members, and people kept offering up goodies from their bags. My host mom had baked fresh oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and stuck them in our bag along with our lunches. She also snuck in a paperweight with a globe in it, which is quite neat.

Now I'm in Maquoketa, Iowa staying in a really cool farmhouse. They have two dogs here (outside dogs, not house dogs) and also some cows and piglets, which we have yet to see.
The snow is about two feet deep right now and more is predicted every day we're here. According to our advance team, it snowed 11 out of the first 12 days of February in Maquoketa.

Tomorrow I'm doing show promotion, so hopefully that goes well and we fill the house. I'm also hoping I don't freeze in the snow without proper boots.

And that, my friends, is my update. Feel free to leave any questions or messages for me.
~Molly