Standby for Great Theater...Great Theater Standing-by

At 7 p.m. I'll be donning my headset, calling places, and standing-by for my cue.


IT'S OPENING NIGHT!

All the hours or practice, line notes, making enormous sandwiches, running scenes, and then re-running scenes are about to be put to the test! So broken legs to the wonderful cast and (my favorite people, but then I am biased) crew.

If you'd like to laugh 'til you cry then cry 'til you laugh, check out The Duluth Playhouse to see show dates, times, and buy tickets!

We're going down to alphabet street.

My parents have given me so many fantastic gifts in my life. Perhaps my absolute favorite would have to be my car.

It's a 1999 purple Dodge Stratus. His name is Prince Rogers Nelson

See what I did there?!

Well, I thought I was clever.


During my recent drive back to Duluth, Prince (my car, not the Artist-formerly-and-now-again-known-as-Prince) celebrated a cool milestone.

That's right. Prince reached 123,456 miles! I'm praying he decides to hold on until after I graduate to go into retirement at a lake home in Chanhassen.

You Betcha I'm from Minnesooota.

So, I'm going to talk about the weather.

It's freakin' nuts!

So far we've had down-pouring rain, sun, wind, hail, and cartoon-looking clouds. And that was just the last ten minutes! There is a lot of truth to the saying,
"Don't like the weather? Wait five minutes!"

Even with this craziness, I still love the land of 10,000 lakes. Even though we are the ridicule of many other states (Yes, I am shooting you a dirty look, Abele) it's just because they are jealous. City Pages agrees with me and published 50 reasons why Minnesota is the best state EVER! (we are also super hipster, apparently)

A friend knows you, and still loves you just the same.

I have been blessed with so many beautiful people in my life. There are six fantastic women who, if they were not in my life from second grade to now, I would probably be that odd kid who collects various belly button lints to make murals with whilst muttering to myself. Yea, they are that important to me.

After high school I had no idea how we would all stay close, but thanks to the internet and visits home I still feel connected to these lovely ladies. Changes happen, but we still love and accept each other for our uniquely wonderful selves.

Yesterday night a few of us spent some time indulging on junk food, catching up on life during the school year, talking about the future, and laughing. There's always so much laughing.
Do you want to know why I know these girls will be my friends to the end? Well, I'll tell ya.

But first, a quick side note (that is relevant, trust me.) I have a condition called retained femoral anteversion in my right hip. It means I don't walk in the "normal" sense seeing as my hips don't fully rotate. Yea, it's strange, I'm strange, whatever. I'm just a bit pokey when it comes to running and walking.

Back to the story...
We were creating a strategy in case of a zombie-Apocalypse and, because of my hip, I offered myself as a sacrifice. In my mind, they have a chance for a long, fulfilling life if I slow down the hoards of brain-munching un-dead. Instead of readily agreeing to my plan, another was formulated which involves placing conveniently located motor scooters for me to ride and/or riding upon the back of our dear friend, Emmy. (Oh, Emmy if you are reading this post, yea we decided this...without you...sorry)

I love these ladies and it's going to be strange not living in the same city. But, that just means we must have traveling adventures instead!

Yes, we are all dressed up for the final Harry Potter movie premier.

It's about dancing in the rain.

For the past few days it was down-pouring in Duluth. The bright side in this cloudy situation was I wore my trench coat and looked like a detective, which is always a good thing. Always. Then as I traveled south for a home visit, the rain followed me. It's a good thing I love rainy days. Weather like this is sort of a free-pass to play chill music, wear comfy clothing, grab a cup of coffee, and just be lazy. Check, check, check, and check.

Currently I'm listening to this playlist from 8tracks.com

I want to marry these guys (and their voices) from LittleLionWoman on 8tracks.

Feel free to stay a while on my page and listen! I don't mind, really.

Mom made me a delicious iced coffee, which thankfully has a straw in the glass allowing me to type and drink at the same time. Impressed? I would be. Her iced coffees always turn out better than the ones I try to make. According to Mom, I do everything right, yet I have a feeling she adds a secret ingredient, like blood of a unicorn, to make it so delicious (and give powers of immortality!)

Here are the incredibly easy steps to Mom's perfect iced coffees:

1. Brew a large pot of strong coffee. (We prefer the caramel-flavored stuff, but only for iced coffee. I think flavored coffee is disgusting when it's warm)
2. Allow said coffee to cool to room temperature.
3. Pour coffee over a glass filled with ice. (This ice is going to melt, so you will want a lot of it. First, it waters down the extra-strong coffee, and second, it makes the iced part of the iced coffee.)
4. Add a shot of flavored syrup (I suggest caramel if you decided to go with the caramel coffee), some flavored (or not) creamer (again, caramel is delicious), and unicorn blood (just kidding...not really)
5. Stir, sip, and enjoy

So my mom says it's not unicorn blood, but mother's love. Sure...

Sometimes I wish I was Shakira.

I mean, honestly, wouldn't you want to be able to dance like that? Or be able to call up Rafael Nadal to handsomely pose in a music video? Plus, I wouldn't have to stress over sounding like such a gringa when I speak Spanish.

WORD.

Yesterday I needed to relax. Currently I'm working an eight to four job and assistant stage managing a local production called The Royal Family. Needless to say I am a bit swamped. So I headed through the down-pouring rain to Barnes & Noble.

Bookstores are my secret retreat. Everything about them calms me. The blend of hushed conversations, coffee smells, and endless opportunities for getting lost in a story work perfectly together. I ended up spending far more money than I care to admit, but, in my mind, it was worth it. Being a mild magazine junkie, I picked up three travel magazines and the latest edition of Lapham's Quarterly.

I have never read LQ before, but according to its website, every three months a new issue is released full of historical documents, pictures, data, etc. related to a specific theme. The Spring 2012 theme is "Means of Communication." How perfect! Communication major Michelle GEEKED OUT! My eyes were bulging with wonder, hands rapidly flipping through the pages, I may have even squeaked. The copy I initially picked up had a disgusting mystery smudge on the cover, so I exchanged it for one with the white cover in pristine condition. If I had discovered LQ the same time I went to the Newseum, my head would have imploded with joy.

I also picked up a new cookbook titled The BrokeAss Gourmet. Every recipe looks incredible and I can't wait until I have some time to look at the book (perhaps I'll try a few recipes as well!)

Words are incredibly intriguing. It is mind-boggling to me how many different languages there are and the various means people use to communicate. One of my favorite communication quotes (yes, I do have more than one) is from Emperor Charles V,

I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men, and German to my horse.

Our words constantly change, morph, and adapt.

Recently, I discovered popsicle should actually be Popsicle because it is a brand. The true name is an ice pop (thank you Wikipedia) and Popsicle became a generic trademark after its surge in popularity. Of course I had to do more research on generic trademarks, which lead me to click on a page about metonymy, and, eventually, I ended up reading about heroin on Wikipedia. How I got there, I have no idea, but I did discover that heroin was originally owned and branded by Bayer.

Everybody was Kung-fu Blogging--HI-YAH

New design, new content, but still the same Michelle.

So, you may or may not have noticed how on top of my blogging game I've been lately. And by "on top of my blogging game" I mean I have been terrible at trying new recipes and documenting the process. Absolutely horrible. I still eat and sometimes I cook, but nothing worth a new post. Unless you really wanted to hear about me purchasing a #13 from Jimmy John's for the past couple of days, then I apologize.

From now on this isn't going to be solely a food blog. I'm traveling soon and would like to document all of my fun adventures! Plus, I'm spending my first summer away from home in a wonderful city that I love. Just a Chef's Daughter is now going to be full of adventures, fun stories, and occasionally some recipes.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT
Actually, this news is fairly relevant.

Remember my darling friend, Kelsey?

Besides being an excellent Viking explorer, she is the author of a smart, entertaining, and all-around beautiful blog which can be found here: Ramblings of a Hypothetical Giant. Too bad I'm about to beat her blog into a bloggy pulp.

That's right, folks. We're having a blog-off. Her latest post is relevant to my culinary pursuits, so I'm (attempting) to do a witty-styled update a la Kelsey. Hopefully this battle will encourage us both to write and perhaps communicate more with each other. Crazy, I know, but it just might work!