"Nope, just got a case of the McDonald's."

You know those nightmares where you end up onstage in a musical and you have absolutely no idea how you got there and what you're supposed to be doing? 

Oh, you've never had those? Well shoot. I have and that happened in real life tonight. It also involved chugging a fake beer stein and dressing up like a 1800s townsperson. Good thing the real life musical turned out much better than in my nightmares. It involved a lot more singing and laughing and swing dancing than expected.

Kara, Julia, Mal, Kendall, Christi

This afternoon Mal picked me up so we could get dinner and go to Young Life leadership. We obviously had to go to Noodles because it is tradition, and get Wisconsin mac & cheese and giggle about how funny it would be if you tried to tell the Noodles cashier that it was actually Nevada mac & cheese and could you please learn the names of the food you are selling already.

Also in the plan for the night: starting our off-off-Broadway careers at the play Kara is directing this weekend, Beauty and the Beast. They needed more townspeople for the bar scene and obviously 4 extra girls under 21 are perfect for the job!

 

You could say we got pretty into character. 

Arriving 10 minutes before the show starts without any of your lines memorized is musical theatre protocol, right? What about writing the lyrics of the song on your hands? Okay good because that's what we did.

We got the best seats in the house and seriously loved the show. Especially the interruption of scheduled programming for the tiny tot performance of Zip Ah Dee Doo Dah. The performers: cardinals, bluebirds, and a skunk. We were wondering why we weren't cast in this scene instead of the bar scene.

 Intermission was photoshoot time. The girls of Magnolia got a little bit crazy.

The best photo ops happen in big group hugs. We are hyped up on nachos, popcorn, fruit punch and being really proud of  Ms. Director Extraordinaire, Kara Fleharty.

Then it was time to drop Julia off and drive through the mean streets of Chicago until we found more food we wanted to eat. If you ever want to participate in a seriously hilarious car ride (hint: you do), please hop in the car with Mal and Christi at 11pm on a Friday night. Of course we ended up at McDonald's and of course they messed up the order. And of course I decided to take a picture of it. Also: don't get a McWrap. Ever. They come in cardboard straitjackets. You have been warned.

In other news, today I got to Skype with Carolyn and besides us both looking smokin' hot in this picture, she is as wonderful as ever and newly rockin' some bangs. I love them and her and cannot believe that our next pie date is only a couple of weeks away!