and so it begins

okay. catch up time. and i thought i was bad at this last year - now i'm even busier. agh. i'll do my best though.

so i left off at wednesday. i think. we did the showcase show, and then party at the erleys. good times (not in the maritimes though - cait i always want to say this now but i can't cause i'm not in the maritimes. sad day)

my host family went camping for the long weekend, so i celebrated independance day on my own. i did get to see some fireworks though . . . and let me tell you, they are hardcore here. lasted like three hours. whoa. i also drove to the flatirons mall to buy sneakers . . . and didn't crash and die on these crazy colorado highways. our highways back home are a joke. i was a little nervous here. but i made it there and back in one piece with no damage to the stonesmiths car so all it well.

saturday i headed out early in the morning cause we had our staff retreat!! yay!!! so i met matt and we drove into denver to meet up with everyone else and head up to the mountain town, Evergreen.

so i'm going to stop here for a sec and let you know who the staff is. cause i'm sure i'll be talking about them a lot. so here's a little mini bio on all of them:

martin - cast manager (traveled as CM for my cast)
scott - assistant cast manager (married to ellen)
ellen - education manager (married to scott)
aoife - education coordinator (traveled as staff with my cast, we call each other sister cause we were roommates three times last year)
mitch - education coordinator (also traveled as staff with my cast)
celiana - business manager and marketing coordinator (traveled as staff with my cast)
dave - admissions coordinator (traveled as student with me)
matt - business administrator (traveled with cast B last summer, so we were in denver at the same time last year) NEW STAFF!
molly - logistic coordinator (just got off the road with cast a) NEW STAFF!
nathan - technical manager and sound tech (from canada! yay! is new) NEW STAFF!
anthony - lights tech (just got off the road) NEW STAFF!
rafa - video tech (traveled with cast b last summer) NEW STAFF!
gabe - show manager (traveled as staff with cast b last year)
yui - dance captain (traveled with my cast)
me - music coordinator! NEW STAFF!

so as you can see there's an awesome mix of oldies and newbies. and so over the weekend we hung out and got to know each other and stuff. talked about our goals and what we want to been seen as as staff. we were sadly missing nathan and celi - both stuck in the respective countries or canada and venezuela. nathan got here last monday though and celi's getting here this week! yay!!!

we ate lots and talked even more. at one point matt and i sat down at the piano and started singing and playing around - singing realize by colbie calait (sp?!?!) and hallelujah by leanord cohen. good times (not in the maritimes though.) we bbqed over a fire and roasted marshmellows, played a crazy game (jesus gnomes against the flamingos) and then headed off to bed.

sunday morning we all woke up and made breakfast together. i was in charge of pancakes . . . and it was just like home! hahhaah making over 20 pancakes for a full house. it was just a lot of fun . . . some of us have known each other for a year or more . . . some for no more then a week . . . but we all seem to mesh really well and i know we've got a kick ass team going on here. yeah!

so then matt drove me home and i was super lazy and then the stonesmiths came home and i caught up with them and then off to bed again.

so there's the first week. i'm going to try and write this last week tonight but right now i promise sienna a games a cards so i'm going to peace out.

<3