DON'T PANIC!

Hey folks, we're still alive. You can stop your worrying.

So, it's been like a week and a half since our last update. Sorry about that! We've been busy!

Let's see.... We have now performed our show 32 times for roughly 7,345 students (but who's counting?).

Last Saturday, we went to a Charlotte Bobcats vs Chicago Bulls game. The game was enjoyable, though obviously Dan was more into it than I was.

Oooh, pretty colors!

We were seated next to this girl who kept talking to us (despite the glowering guy she was with). Near the end of the game, some cheer dudes came up to our section carrying t-shirts to throw to people who cheered loudly. They led cheers of "DE-FENCE, DE-FENCE!" and "LET'S GO CATS! LET'S GO CATS!" Well, the girl really wanted a shirt, so she, Dan, and I all began chanting, "T-SHIRTS!, T-SHIRTS!" and "WE WANT SHIRTS! WE WANT SHIRTS!" Totally worked. We got her the shirt. Huzzah! Dan²: Crusading for Happiness (1 T-shirt at a Time).

After the game, we were meeting up with some of our fellow NTC actors to go see a play--Hedwig and the Angry Inch. We had a bit of time to kill before heading to the theatre, so Dan and I wandered around downtown Charlotte. We walked into a bar, looked at the dance floor, looked at each other, shrugged, and got our dance on... by which I mean, we left because Dan² are many things, but we are not really dancers (at least not when we'd be the only ones on the dance floor).

Having left the bar, we wandered around the area and found, well, Waldo.

Indeed, a plethora of Waldo!

Apparently, there was a Waldo bar crawl going on. It was pretty fantastic... except for this one female Waldo who said to a male Waldo, (and I quote here verbatim): "Ugh! I feel like my inner-thighs are really hairy tonight!" That was disturbing. TMI!!! Feeling quite accomplished with our finding of Waldo (except the hairy one), we walked the several blocks to the theatre through the frosty Charlotte night.

Unfortunately for us, Hedwig at 11pm is apparently very popular and was sold out. So... We turned around and trucked our way back to the car and turned in for the night.

Now, jumping ahead a bit... Monday afternoon we went to see the movie Lone Survivor, which was pretty well-done, appropriately intense and depressing. Guns were shot, things blew up, guys swore, Taliban were not nice. Not too much to report on it.

Then, Tuesday afternoon, we had our second show of the day cancelled due to weather so we went to see the appropriately named Frozen, which was very adorable and a lot of fun. We agree that it definitely lends itself to being adapted for the stage and suspect the Broadway version will be really cool--so much room for awesome effects! NYC road trip anyone??? A solid, uplifting film. It warmed my heart (ba dum che)!

Okay. So, at this point in this post, I have some very unfortunate news to report. A terrible tragedy has come upon us during our adventures. I... I... This is hard. Just a moment.

*deep breath*

Gollum has walked out on us. Despite the love and open arms we offered him, he apparently decided that he had better things to do than hang out with us for another couple months. He told us that it was him and not us... Kept muttering something about "precious"... not sure what that's all about. But Dan and I are brokenhearted at his departure. Our travels certainly have a grim shadow over them due to this terrible loss. I suspect we shall be grieving for many days to come.

We miss you so much, buddy!

Alrighty. That's all for now.

NEXT STOP: CHERRYVILLE, NC
Kowabunga, dudes!