Annie Awards and Hairpsray Strike

True to form, my life double booked itself again.  Hairspray was ending and thus a trip to the Mesa Arts Center to collect the ever sweaty costumes was in store.  Half way across the universe (ok, maybe not THAT far) the Annie awards were starting at Desert Foothills Theatre.  As quick as we could, and even before the show was over, Austin and I loaded the Hairspray costumes into the car.  I honestly thing it was the quickest strike ever.  Sadly, I didn't get to say goodbye to some friends.  :(  It's ok though, now I have reason to see them again soon!  Side note: Hairspray was AWESOME.  Seriously, I think it was the best production (or way high up on the list) I have ever been a part of.  Between the amazing cast and designers I was able to work with along with the fantastic direction and amazing MET team it was just incredible.  I actually had a dream about it last night.  In my dream I was talking to Becky Martinez (president of MET and actor in Hairspray) and she was telling me that the MET group was worried about finances for Hairspray. I asked her how that could be, since Hairspray was their highest grossing production to date.  She then told me about how they had spent all this money on some super crazy stuff (none of it really existed and was all ridiculous).  I was left wondering why they would spend all their money on nutty stuff and we agreed to figure out where all the money went.  We then proceeded to go through receipts together.  Now, if you know me you know I HATE paperwork.  Numbers and little details with paperish stuff are NOT my forte.  I guess that makes this crazy dream more of a nightmare.  Ha ha, but it wasn't.  It was Becky and I just having a good time going through receipts and wondering why they had bought weird stuff.  (stuff I can't even remember but I do know it was super silly to have purchased)

Ok, enough of that rambling on and on about my dream.

So, after loading the car (literally grabbing costumes as the actors undressed), Austin and I made our journey to Desert Foothills.  We got there literally RIGHT after they finished.  Seriously.  We knew we'd be late, and we're ok with that because we had RSVP'd and I was wanting to see some friends I hadn't seen in a while.  Funny thing, as we walked in and started seeing friends people started congratulating me.  I really didn't know why, other than I gathered I had won my very first Annie Award!  Honestly and truly I didn't think I was going to win.  I was nominated for Beauty and the Beast and Music Man - but Lois Meyers did the costumes for another show and was also nominated.  I was pretty sure she was going to win.  And that was super ok with me.  I like Lois, and have nothing but respect for her and her work.  Wandering farther into the crowd we found Meribeth Reeves.  Meribeth is the fantastic woman who runs the show.  She is such a hard worker and so dedicated!  More than that, she is a genuinely kind, friendly and caring person.  I am fortunate to call her my friend.  Meribeth was super excited we were there and told me I had won for the Beauty and the Beast costumes.  Here's a picture of Meribeth and I with the Annie award.

We're so super cute.  :)

After mingling with some friends and seeing Kim CooperSchmidt - admiring her in her beautiful dress and congratulating her on her well deserved win, do you know what happened next?  Well, I will tell you because it just proves how nice Meribeth is.  Meribeth told us to sit down and she replayed the media dvd for us and gave us a verbal play-by-play of who won what and what happened.  Seriously, who does that?!?  Meribeth does that.  It was a bummer that we missed the ceremony, but it was super fun to be there and such a great experience to have a personal screening of the awards!  

After that (and a super fun visit with the Sera family! - LOVE them!) Austin and I got into the car for the ride home.  It took us a minute to get used to the over powering smell of show laundry that had been festering in the car, but we quickly got into some funny and weird discussion on strange, funny and just bad movies we had seen.  How stinky laundry goes into movie discussions I do not know.  

Congratulations to the HAIRSPRAY cast for a fantastic run - and Congratulations to all of the Annie award nominees and recipients.  What a great day!  Now back to the show laundry... my house smells like armpit.  Ugh.