Philadelphia/Wedding Shower #2

For 2 weeks the Grease Tour has been in Philadelphia! The weather was beautiful for the most part and everyone was in great moods with being so close to home and NYC.

A fun little fact - Philadelphia is the home of Tastykake Pastries! Therefore, they have been our corporate sponsor for our run in Philadelphia, since we use their product in our show. Therefore, they sent us BOXES of Tastykakes and we have definitely gotten our fill of them! Everyone got a “welcome back” Tastykake on their dressing station on opening night and we have had them in all of our offices for anyone who needs a snack.

While everyone else was enjoying the city of brotherly love and making day trips back to New York, Brian and I were making day trips to Delaware and wedding planning galore! Also, our first weekend in Philadelphia, I headed home for our 2nd wedding shower!

This one was in Maryland at my parents house, hosted by my mom's best friend Sherri. It was another fun time with more good food and good company! Here is Bridget in front of the beautiful sign we forced her to make...

This is the awesome GREEN antique juicer that Bette - my amazing future mother-in-law - got me!

One exciting thing about this wedding shower was that 6 of my 7 bridesmaids and Olivia (the flowergirl) were able to make it! (Don't worry Hannah - we'll photoshop you into the pictures!) They made me a bow bouquet to use at the rehearsal!

And here is the totally cool hooded sweatshirt that Bridget and Stacey (the 2 bridesmaids on the left) got me:

Once everyone left and we cleaned up, everyone who was still left - Mom & Dad C, Mom & Dad R, Dave & Chrissy, Aunt Lex and Arlene, Grandma Clara, Beth & Brian - all sat on the back deck enjoying the evening and chatting. It was such a great day and night.

I know I said this in the last post as well, but Brian and I cannot be grateful enough for all of the wonderful people we have in our lives, helping us to start our future together! We are quite the lucky couple! Thanks to all of you - we can't wait for the wedding!

Week Off/Wedding Shower #1/4th of July

Hello faithful blog readers!

No - we didn't give up again - it's just been a WHIRLWIND few weeks for the soon to be Mr. & Mrs.

On Monday, July 29 we left Detroit and headed to Baltimore. That night we stuffed wedding invitations with Mom C., Grandma Clara, Patty (Maid of Honor), Chrissie (Bridesmaid) and Olivia (Flowergirl).

Yup... that's pretty much Beth & Brian in a nutshell...

(Meanwhile, Dad C. and Dad R. were on a guys golfing trip together for the week.)

Tuesday morning we got up bright and early, drove to Hoboken to do a few things, had lunch with our friend Will from the Grease Tour who also lives in Hoboken, and then continued on to Attleboro for the rest of the week.

We had a great week - very busy and productive, but still relaxing to be on our own schedules.

Friday night, Mom R. threw us a FABULOUS wedding shower! It was at the Renoni's house in Attleboro and lots of fun.

We got lots of wonderful, generous gifts that we can't wait to use! And we will never, ever run out of spoons! Bette (Mom R.) and I (Beth) have an ongoing joke involving wooden spoons and she had everyone bring a spoon to the shower, which she put in a big measuring cup...

Some other wedding shower highlights...

Chrissy's "BLT on a chip" appetizers

the cool reusable box from Joanne

the "Bliss-ini's" (champagne, pomegranate and orange juice cocktails)

the mini orange cupcakes (sadly no picture) and the bow bouquet & hat!

Thanks to everyone who came! Brian and I are so lucky to have such great families and friends to help us start our life together!

Saturday was 4th of July! In the afternoon we stopped by Cotsalas cookout to say hello to everyone, and then headed back to the Renoni's, where Dave and Chrissy were having friends over for a cookout. We spent most of the day hanging out in the yard - the weather ended up being BEAUTIFUL!

Once it started getting dark the boys started a fire in the firepit and we waited for the fireworks to start. The great thing about the Renoni's house is that you can see the fireworks from the end of their driveway, above the trees. (Apparently you used to be able to see them better, but then the trees grew.)

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July too!

Monday we headed back towards New York. Brian dropped me off in midtown where I was spending the night, before traveling to Philadelphia with the cast on Tuesday morning, and he continued on to Philadelphia to start load-in.

BIRTHDAY SHOUT OUT!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM R.!

I hope you had a great day! We'll celebrate in person when we get into town this week. Can't wait to see you!

One Show Moooooooore!!

Still in Detroit... but we are currently at intermission of the last show before a WHOLE WEEK OFF!

This past week was pretty busy, but lots of fun things happening. Last Sunday night after the show, Brian and I hopped in the car and drove to Cleveland to visit my family. We stayed at my Aunt Lex's house.

Monday, we drove downtown to order our wedding bands! Then we headed over to surprise my Nana and Papa with a visit. We visited for a while, checked out Pop's new tomato plants, heard all the gossip at the assisted living home and then headed home for a nap. That night we went over to my cousin Jon & Arlene's house to eat pizza and hang out with them, my cousins Bobby & Mallory, Aunt Lex, Uncle Bob, and the latest, most adorable addition to the family, Brandon! Tuesday, we visited some more and then headed back to Detroit for that night's show.

We also taught everyone how to play BANANAGRAMS! (Officially our new favorite game.)

Here's a picture of Brandon that Brian took...

On Friday, Denny and I planned a “Grease 2” Hawaiian Luau pool party at the hotel for the company. There is a great patio and pool area outside that has a grill and tables. We decorated the patio area, bought leis for everyone, and overall had a great afternoon!

Brian was in charge of the grilling...

In continuing the rubber ducky theme we started back with our Cinco de Mayo party, we bought mini hawaiian themed rubber ducks for everyone. Denny also had coozie drink holders made that say “Grease Luau 2009”.

The weekend has flown by, but we are almost done! Looking forward to a busy, but exciting week off!

Bowling Night!

Last night we had a company bowling night at Thunderbowl in Allen Park, Michigan.

Here's our team:

Brian "Fastballs" Renoni

Kelly "Gutterball" Felthous

Jack "The Knife" McDowell

Kelly "3 Beers" Levy

Jason "Blue Ball" Harper

Beth "9-Pin" Cochran

Mike "Big Ball" Eickmeyer

B&B in NYC!

This past Sunday we had a matinee and then were free until the show Tuesday evening - however, we took off Tuesday night so we didn't have to be back until Wednesday. Brian and I hopped on a plane to New York City to visit friends and go looking at condos in Hoboken, NJ.

Bright and early Monday morning we left my old apartment in Astoria (I still own the couch so we have visiting rights whenever we want), stopped at Brooklyn bagel for a long-awaited bacon, egg and cheese on a mini sesame bagel, and hopped on the N train. We took that to 34th street and then attempted to tackle the PATH train to New Jersey.

The PATH train is surprisingly easy - you can even use your Metrocard from the subway. And Hoboken is much closer than I even realized! In 15 minutes we had gone from Midtown Manhattan to Jersey. And aside from the PATH train, there is a bus that gets you to 42nd street is 10 minutes or you can even take a water taxi if you're feeling adventurous!

As soon as we got off the PATH train in Hoboken and had walked around for about 5 minutes we were in love! Hoboken is a charming little town that feels sort of like Astoria, but more like it's own community than part of a big city. It's full of young 20 - 30 somethings who mostly work in New York City, and young families.

We met up with Stuart, our real estate agent we had been chatting with over the past few weeks, and went on a whirlwind tour of 7 different properties in Hoboken. It was a highly successful day and we saw 2 places we really liked. We planned to meet at the same time the next day to see some new places and go back to the 2 we liked for a second look.

When we got back to the city we met up with a few friends for dinner at Blockheads, a popular mexican restaurant with $3 frozen margaritas. (What is with us and the margaritas lately?!) It was so great to see some of our friends, since we hadn't been back in the city in 9 months!

On Tuesday, we got up early again, made the obligatory stop at Brooklyn bagel, and headed to Hoboken to meet Mom and Dad C. who were going to join us for our 2nd day of condo hunting.

We went and saw 7 new properties and then went back to the 2 we had liked the day before. We managed to rule out the 2 from Monday that we had liked, and found 2 more that were on our minds.

After a lunch at a local restaurant called The 4 L's, which incidentally serves the BEST sweet potato fries I have ever had in my LIFE, we chatted about everything we had seen and said good-bye to Mom and Dad C. who were headed back to Baltimore for a Diana Krall concert.

We headed back to Astoria for a quick power nap, and then walked down to the Bohemian Beer Garden where we planned to spend the evening hanging out with friends. It was much more fun than we could have even guessed, as a huge number of our friends came out to see us! It was so great to finally see everyone again and it made us really excited about the upcoming wedding!

This morning we headed back to Detroit to finish out the run of Grease. There is still one condo property that we really liked and is stuck in our minds, so we will see what happens!

We're Back!

Well, it's June. It's been 6 months since our last blog post. In fact, the chances that anyone is actually reading this anymore is probably pretty slim to none.

BUT - that aside - we are currently in Detroit. For 3 weeks. This is my first time in Detroit, and while I wasn't really looking forward to it to begin with, these days it's definitely not the happiest place on earth. (Although tonight IS the Stanley Cup final game starring the Detroit Redwings, so there's hope for some peppiness around here.)

On top of that, the beginning of this tour has had so many long sit-downs (i.e. 2, 3, or 4 weeks in a city) that I am so caught up on work and bored silly. In fact, stage management and company management have started doing puzzles to entertain ourselves. During Seattle and Appleton we finished one of a Van Gogh painting, last night we finished the Elvis montage (see below) and now we are working on the cows drinking out of a fountain.

Basically what I am trying to say is, the blog has been revived!