What I have done for FUN! - Pt. II - February 12, 2009 ***Now with Pictures!***

How I have Fun, and my first day off.... continues here!

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Now don't let my whining fool you, we DO have days off, and during my rehearsal period I was given quite a few extra days, thanks to various circumstances, such as the inauguration. (I was already happy that Obama was elected, but this sealed the deal- a day off thanks to him! wooo!) During these select days (usually Monday, but during rehearsal I sometimes had Tuesday too!) I would take the chance to TRAVEL! (Since once I started the show, I wouldn't be able to have more than one day off at a time any longer!)

My first Monday off I was invited to a lovely brunch with Kendra and her roommates, Ian and Michael. Trista was there as well as Electra and her mom and Kendra's parents too. It was SO nice- it felt like a really nice restaurant or hotel or something! We went out on the boat their rental house came with (a tiny little battery powered boat, which actually ran out of juice on the way back! We had to paddle back in! Classic...)

Yummy Brunch!

Kendra and her Dad

Kendra's mom, Michael and Trista

Electra and her mom

A toast!

Ian Cruising...

Me and Electra

Nice houses!

Duckies!

Paddling back!

Then I set off for my own adventure.

I decided to go up to Sedona and Arcosanti for the day and a half I had off. Arcosanti is a huge urban design experiment out here in the desert. Paolo Solari was a student of Frank Lloyd Wright, who has a school out here called Taliesen. Solari wanted to explore if humans could live harmoniously with nature, and is a pioneer in urban planning in that he wanted to have as many people living in as little a space as was comfortable, all the while still living in harmony with the land and utilizing it's natural resources in a responsible way.

The architecture itself is striking, and the purpose of the experiment is a vein of environmentalism that I regard very highly, so I was really looking forward to visiting this place. But since I had just had a lovely, lazy brunch followed by a boat ride, I got on the road a little later than expected and found myself outside of Arcosanti around 8 pm, well after they closed for tours, obviously! So I had to find somewhere to stay. (If I had gotten there earlier, I could have stayed in Arcosanti, which would have been fun, but it was not meant to be. Besides, it wouldn't make half as interesting a story as it was!)

So just outside the gates of Arcostanti is Cortes Junction, which basically consists of a truck stop-like gas station, as far as I could see. But I had spotted a motel among the Mac trucks, so I set off in my tiny rental to find it. It was behind the gas station, and the only way to get to it was a dirt road... but there was more than one. The first one I explored was the wrong one, and ended near an abandoned structure straight out of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre." Flustered, I turned around, headed down another steep, dusty road and found myself in front of a little motel.

I checked in with a skeptical motel manager ("Just you?" he said with one eyebrow raised…) and checked out my room. Fluorescent lighting and painted cinderblock walls greeted me in a room straight out of... well another horror movie that takes place in a motel. To make matters worse, there was no deadbolt on the door. So... I improvised. (I think MacGuiver would be proud.) I dragged the little fridge in front of the door, and then put a chair on top. Therefore, if anyone decided to 'check in' on me, the fridge would slow them down, and the chair balanced precariously on top would make some sort of alerting racket.

My High Tech Security System

(I know, when I told everyone this story they all had the same reaction you're probably having now. -As in "What were you THINKING??" haha. I'm used to it.)

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Coming up, after these messages.... More blogs of FUN!