2013 Kat Recap

2013 can be defined by my realization that I truly enjoy staying busy and active most of the time. Much of the year was spent trip planning, traveling, dancing, and enjoying time with friends, and taking advantage of the beautiful city we live in where there is always something interesting to do.

Here are the 2013 Quick Stats:

• Trips that required a flight: 8
• New [to me] books read: 12 (Hmmm...let's try to kick this up in 2014)
• Weddings attended: 2
• Musicals attended: 34
• Other performances attended: 8

Here's the abbreviated report of the trips I took this year:

• LA with AJP - February
• First trip of the year was an incredible trip to SoCal to visit Beth and the four of us had a great time running around doing all things LA. Santa Monica Pier, Chinese New Year, Cupcakes/Champagne/Pitch Perfect, Walk of Fame, Hollywood Sign, Rodeo Drive, and touring the Warner Bros. Studios. The studio tour remains one of my top vacation experiences of all time!  #HeyYo
• San Francisco with my Parents for my Birthday - March
• A long weekend trip to San Fran at the end of March was the perfect way to celebrate my birthday.  Highlights included eating at Boudin's almost every day (and them retweeting a photo of mine), hearing the Glide Church gospel choir on western Easter, having ice cream made fresh in front of me at a Smitten (they use liquid nitrogen), and visiting the Walt Disney Family Museum (didn't even know that existed!)
• New York with Lindsay - May
• Lindsay and I decided to do a repeat NYC extravaganza this year - only this time with a little more sleep involved.  We even skipped a potential show times (what?!?) in favor of taking it easy (the fact that it was raining buckets helped make that decision too). We saw 8 shows in 7 days and highlights included seeing a play I actually liked (Lucky Guy starring Tom Hanks!), the fact that we scored autographs from both Tom Hanks and Bette Middler, taking a boat tour almost all the way around the island, exploring Brooklyn, Schmackary's cookies, and walking the High Line.  Celeb sightings included JLo sitting near us at Pippin, and sitting behind Tony Bennett at I'll Eat You Last (Lindsay talked to him after the show!)
• Sitka with my Parents - May
• I'm always happy when I'm able to join my parents on a trip up to Alaska.  This trip included a lot of walking around enjoying the beautiful scenery and quality time with Vanessa, Tucker, and Amara.  We were even there for Tucker's first birthday party - what a treat!
• North Dakota with my Dad and Grandma - September
• Wow!  I haven't been to North Dakota since I was around 4 years old.  I took advantage of some found vacation time and joined my dad on a trip there my with grandma to visit some of her friends, meet some very distant relatives, and get the good ol' tour of Williston where my North Dakota family is from (and where my dad was born).  I got to witness first hand what a modern day oil boom town looks like (spoiler alert - it looks like a whole lot of construction) and see where the family farm used to be.
•  LA with Jared - October
• Round two in LA!  Jared and I managed to score stand by tickets to a taping of The Big Bang Theory, so we flew back down in October to attempt to be in the audience.  This was a NON-STOP trip that included a 17 hour day in Disneyland, a trip to the San Diego Zoo (OMGPANDAS!!!), taking a dance class from former SYTYCD contestant Donyelle Jones, and making it in to see TBBT taping!!!!  We waited in line for 10 hours to make it into the show and it was worth every minute (it may have actually been the quickest 10 hours ever).  I really can't say enough about the taping - it exceeded my expectations of awesomeness AND there were two guest stars that week - Bob Newhart and Bill Nye!
• New York with Lindsay and Jared
• Because we are absolutely crazy, Lindsay and I decided to do a fall weekend in New York, and because he's crazy too, Jared decided to join us.  I think this idea came to be because LW and I REALLY wanted to see First Date on Broadway.  Landing on Friday and leaving on Monday, we saw 5 shows each (8 different shows total), saw a total of 12 friends and family, and purchased over 30 Schmackary's cookies. Meeting Zachary Levi, Kristina Rodriguez, Jane Carr, and Norbert Leo Butz (he touched my arm!!!) were broadway celebrity highlights of this visit. There was even time to eat a lot of great food and visit the High Line and Chelsea Market.
• Disneyland with my Mom
• This is the third year that my mom and I have gone done to Disneyland at the beginning of December. We enjoyed some things we had never done/seen before like learning to draw Olaf in the Animation Studio (ummm...we did horribly...), seeing the new winter themed World of Color (not impressed), and seeing the Viva Navidad street performance (very enjoyable!). The most magical moment of the trip was watching the Buena Vista Street Community Bell Ringers and them doing an extra, personal performance for my mom.  We looove visiting Disney at Christmastime, but it may be our last for awhile....we may opt for a warmer getaway next year.

Other random highlights of the year included...

• Co-choreographing a fun black light routine with Richard for Dare to Dance
• AJP "road trips" to see the tulip fields (a first for Sara and me!), strawberry picking (where, once we got out of the car, Jared asked, "why are we here?", and to the pumpkin patch/corn maze.
• Watching the filming of Macklemore and Ryan Lewis' White Walls video near my apartment
• The video I posted after is now my most popular YouTube video
• Being one of the daily Pajaggle champs at PAX
• Witnessing some dear friends getting married
• My parents moving to a beautiful new house
• Not a great highlight, but in the tradition of my apartment, I had a water leak that prevented me from sleeping in my bedroom from April until September. (I could have slept in my room, but I didn't feel comfortable doing so.)  This process included finding someone to repair my dresser, which sustained quite a bit of water damage, and getting a glorious new bed that I LOVE sleeping in.
• Running. Even though I've always hated running, I started running with a team and now I...don't hate it ...(but I still refuse to say I like it)
• Meeting Allie Brosh of Hyperbole and a Half
• Seeing the Macklemore and Ryan Lewis concert from the floor at Key Arena

And now on to 2014!  Plans are in the works to make it a wonderful year, but to be honest I'm equal parts of excited and apprehensive.  Fingers crossed!

Warner Bros. Studio Tour - Outside of The Big Bang Theory Set

Warner Bros. Studio Tour - On the Friends Couch in Central Perk

Once of my favorite pics of the year - posing with our sock puppets!

Glee with some of my favorite gals - I love dancing with you ladies!

Tucker's First Birthday

Tim & Emily - Back in Westlake Park

B&C Wedding Weekend - AJPR Glasses Shot

Mr. Byron and Mrs. Christine

Success! This photo was taken right before we made it in to see a taping of The Big Bang Theory!!

With Allie Brosh of Hyperbole and a Half

With my mom at Disneyland - You don't even want to know the trouble we went through to get this photo!

Macklemore @ Key Arena. Love this picture so much because I feel like any picture I take at a concert is an accident, and this is an awesome accident!

2012 Kat Recap

Soooooo.....2013 is almost over!  Thanksgiving has passed and now it's full speed ahead through the (super short) holiday season that will end with ringing in 2014.  I'm not exactly sure why it took the entire year to post the previous year's recap on the blog, especially since it has been posted on Facebook for almost the whole year.  I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the photos.  Dealing with photos is a pain. (Update - yes, it's definitely the photo situation.  I need a better filing system and/or I need to post this recap immediately after posting on Facebook.)

Anyway - here you go...this is what happened LAST year.  Stay tuned for a 2013 version in a little over a month from now.

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A couple years ago I started writing annual recaps on New Year's Day. (I did start writing this on the first but didn't have a chance to finish it until a week later.)  2012 was another year of travel and musicals!

The year started with an epic (and you know it really was, because I can't stand that word and wouldn't use it unless it were true) trip to New York with Lindsay to see shows.  I haven't been to New York since my mom and I went to see Lion King on Broadway in 2004.  Lindsay and I saw 9 shows in 7 days!  Did we eat?  Barely.  Did we sleep?  Not really.  :-)  I could go on and on about the shows but in an attempt to summarize I'll saw that the highlights were seeing the original cast of Book of Morman, meeting Alan Rickman, seeing a preview performance of the breathtaking cast of Once, seeing our friend George in Godspell, his Broadway debut (!!), and having him take us back stage and ON stage after the show.  There were so many amazing performances, and words simply can't do them justice.  

I do need to share that the SECOND Once ended, the entire house was up on their feet.  It was pure Broadway magic, and stage dooring that show was a blast.  It was only the third night of previews and only about 6 of us were at the door.  Some of the cast seemed surprised we even wanted to talk to them - let alone their autograph or their picture.  We had a lovely chat with Steve Kazee, where he told us his [now ex] girlfriend was from Bellevue (and then we felt incredibly stupid a couple months later when we realized we didn't IMMEDIATELY make the connection that he was referring to Megan Hilty #BroadwayFanFAIL).

We even managed to fit in all of the major sites, taste the best cupcakes (Georgetown), visited Mood, and saw some old friends.  I was able to see my Semester At Sea RA, who I haven't seen in 11 years, and had breakfast with his family on our last day in the city.  It was a crazy, wonderful trip

Over the summer I flew up to Sitka over the 4th of July weekend to visit with family.  This trip was extra special because I got to see (and hold and play with) my Goddaughter's beautiful newborn son, Tucker.

The next big trip was in the fall.  My mom and I met up with my Aunt Laurie and cousin Rachel in Florida for a week at the Disney World resort - a place I haven't been since performing there during my senior year of high school.  I learned that I could never live in Florida - the weather would eventually kill me, but it didn't kill the trip!  Highlights of the trip included the best meal of my life at Kouzzina (so great that we re-arranged our dinner reservations for the week and ate there again), visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios and seeing Disney World with an intent to actually *remember* it.  The Epcot Food & Wine festival started toward the end of our trip - we highly recommend it!

We ended the year with a family vacation to Disneyland in early December for "Christmas."  It rained EVERY DAY.  Highlights included seeing the new Cars Land, going to the newly opened LA Georgetown Cupcake, visiting Universal Studios and seeing Beth & Connor's new apartment.  Plus it was the first family vacation with all four of us since 2002.

I'm not feeling inspired to do a full stats list like I did last year, but as you can see, I took four trips this past year.  I saw 35 performances of musicals in 2012 and 8 other performances that were not musicals.  (43 total vs 28 last year.) 3 of those 8 were plays, which I think I will continue to see each year, but I still haven't found one that I've actually liked.  :-/

I was in approximately 15ish flash mobs.  (Flash mob math is tricky.)  This is actually right on par with last year - interesting.  Our Glee mob was outstanding and included a surprise proposal which has since been featured by today.msnbc and Huffington Post! http://youtu.be/nZqsVk4XYKk What on earth are we going to do to top that this year??  There were lots of mobs that introduced something new, different, or personally challenging, which I really enjoyed.

Other random things about 2012:

• Blueberry picking in Bellevue + ice cream maker = Blueberry Ice Cream! (so delicious)
• Met The Pioneer Woman (.com)
• Went to PAX for the first time
• Did the Puyallup [fair] for the first time
• In search of loukoumades (and other Greek fare) Jared and I drove to Greek Festivals in both Bellingham and Tacoma (since we were out of town for the one in Seattle)
• Video I shot with my phone on election night is on its way to becoming my most viewed video on YouTube: http://youtu.be/lpDk6NUrtGg
• I tried a handful of new recipes this past year...excited for more in 2013!
• There was a short time frame in 2012 where I belonged to 3 different gyms.  If you know me you'll know that this is hilarious.
• Instagram for Android :-)

As always, each year has its share of sadness but I'm grateful that as I look back over 2012, I see a year full of friendship and lots of laughter. 

One of my favorite pics of the year! This was a big deal because I rarely do costumes - let alone coordinate them with others. It ended up being really fun :-)

Love More, Hate Less

A collage of Once - starring Steve Kazee and Cristin Milioti. You get an upgraded version of this pic because I didn't make the collage until mid 2013.

Another favorite pic from the year - taken at a flash mob rehearsal in Cal Anderson Park

Another Fave - Glee with the Quiet Zebra Girls. We have no idea who they are, but this picture is framed in my apartment.

One of my best phone pics of the year - Seattle Center at Christmas

December 7, 2012 ~ Photo by Steven Kahn

Thankful Thursday

Welcome to the first Thankful Thursday post!  I thought that having themes would help keep me on a blogging schedule, which I know is important for all of my faithful readers. (I'm looking at YOU Inventory Bear!!)

Thankful Thursday can be serious or silly - just anything in the world I'm feeling thankful or grateful for.

Tonight I was fortunate enough to view the preview performance of the first regional production of Spring Awakening.  What a treat!  I already have tickets to see two of the regular shows, but I was really excited for this sneak peak. :-)  For starters, I was able to sit in the front row, which is great because for the other shows I'll be sitting on the side of the stage.  I enjoy stage seating, but the sound is better sitting in the front.

Some elements (that were different from the touring production) were really enjoyable.  I liked some of the staging and choreography choices that were made.  The ensemble is large(r), and used on stage a lot more, which was very interesting (especially during Touch Me).  I really enjoyed Ilse's monologue - a LOT - which is something I'm really picky about.  All of the group numbers sounded great.  As for the few things that weren't so great (in my opinion) I'm excited to see how/if they change or grow on me when I see the show again.

After the show I was able to chat with Justin - he was on the second national tour as the cellist and is now in this production as Hanschen (and cellist).  It was fun to surprise him, quickly catch up and chat about how the show is different.  He snapped a super cute pic to post on Twitter:

I don't feel compelled to go to every performance, but a nice solid 3 shows will do me good.  How fitting that it is my first show of the year.  It is almost the anniversary of my Spring Awakening journey from last year - which started in Tacoma on January 22nd.

I'm very thankful that I was able to see the show tonight, and grateful that a friend put me in touch with her friend who is one of the stage managers - and that he was kind enough to invite me to the preview.  It never hurts to ask! :-)

2011 Kat Recap

I will remember 2011 as a year defined by Spring Awakening and travel.  I traveled a LOT this year (for me) and while I like to pretend it was in honor of it being my 10 year anniversary of Semester at Sea - a lot of it happened...almost by accident.

In January I saw the 2nd National Tour of Spring Awakening in Tacoma, WA - sitting on stage for the first time.  I watched the show twice in one day (hey, they were only in Tacoma for one day) - I LOVED IT!  I already knew that I loved the show, but I fell in love with the cast and a couple of weeks later, I realized I needed to see them again, so I flew to Phoenix and then drove to Tucson to see them two more times.

 I thought that was the end, I really did, but in March I found myself in Charleston, SC for two more shows.  It was the farthest I had ever traveled completely by myself, and I had a blast.  I adored Charleston and could've easily stayed longer than the 3 days I was there.  After the second show I said my good byes to the cast (again - since I had already told some of them that Phoenix was my last show) and went home, content with my little mini tour of the US.

However...the day I got home I saw that Broadway in Chicago was holding a contest - the prize being 2 on stage tickets to the opening night of Spring Awakening, plus a meet & greet with the cast.  My immediate reaction was that I was *not* going to enter - you had to make a 1 minute video about how you were the biggest fan of the show.  Well, *obviously* that was me, but I was NOT going to make a video of myself pleading to be picked as a winner - plus, I had never made a video before. But....what if I didn't enter....and then other people won....people that weren't "good enough" fans?!?  How could I live with that!?!?  Over the next few days I came up with an idea that would allow me to create a video without actually filming myself and ran with it.

 My Ultimate Guilty One Contest Entry: http://youtu.be/9PRKa3sI2qU

Thankfully, I was chosen as one of the winners and that's how I ended up going to Chicago for a week in May with Lindsay!  Oh...My...Goodness - I LOVED Chicago!  What an amazing trip! We saw everything we wanted to see and then some!  Chicago was REALLY the end of my Spring Awakening Tour - but what a perfect ending it was.  We actually extended our trip by a day to see the cast perform a benefit cabaret.  It was totally worth it.  It was great to see them all in a relaxed environment and gave us time to chat and say proper good byes.

Spring Awakening Cabaret: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB4EC52A47C2CA0A4

Other trips this year included:

• Disneyland twice (once with my mom, my aunt Laurie and Jill and another with just my mom)
• Cedar Rapids, Iowa for work
• Las Vegas for Lily's bachelorette party
• Sitka, Alaska for my Goddaughter's high school graduation
• Maui with my parents

Here are some other stats for the year:

• Weddings Attended: 3
• Spring Awakening Performances Attended: 7
• Other Live Performances Attended (Dance, Concerts, Plays, Musicals): 21
• Flash Mob Performances: 15
• New [to me] books read: 18
• Number of weeks it took to watch all 6 seasons of Bones on Netflix/HuluPlus: 5
• New [to me] shows I started watching: 7 (Mostly Sara and Jared's fault!)
• Miles Flown: 26,936

Flash Mobs continue to be a huge part of my life.  I'm so grateful for this hobby and the wonderful people I interact with as a result.  A highlight of this year, in addition to the Glee Flash Mob being on my birthday AGAIN was being able to assist with teaching at some rehearsals, which is something I've always loved to do!

No year is free of trials, but I feel blessed to look back upon so many great experiences and memories of 2011!

This is [almost] everyone who sat with me on stage at Spring Awakening in Tacoma!

The gifts I delivered to the cast of Spring Awakening in Charleston "Fans From a Fan" :-)

Saying good bye to cast members Devon and George at the Spring Awakening Cabaret in Chicago

Chicago - The Bean

Pondering things in Disneyland with Jill

Angels in Sin City!

Flash Mobbing at PrideFest

On a boat celebrating Byron's birthday

AJP on Ice!

Christmas time at Disneyland. This may be my most favorite picture EVER of my mom and me.