Mich and IL- Family week

Our biggest trip/tour this season was a full week traveling from CT to Mich and then to IL and then back to CT.  We set off on Sat after a professional photo shoot and drove to PA.  We found a hotel and crashed.  The next morning we all got up and got back in the car and drove to MICH.  This was a home stay for Joey.  After two days of driving we were able to relax on Mon.  Tuesday we had an early show at Joey's high school.  Post show we had lunch with all the kids from 4 different schools.  It was crazy!!  They were so excited to talk with us the three of us barely had time to eat our sandwiches!!  We loved it, and are not complaining.  It was fun for me to watch my two cast mates give the junior and seniors advice about college.  My two cast mates went to the two most popular college for the deaf.  Both had very different experiences.  It is fun to watch them "debate"  :)  After lunch we had a bit of down time and then had a public performance.  This was fun for me because my family was able to attend.  This was the first time that my family had seen this style of work.  My mom said her favorite part was after the show and watching the 3 of us interact with the audience.  (its one of my fav parts too).  This was also the first audience that guessed all our "Puns".  Very smart audience.

On Wed we got up early and drove from Mich to Southern IL.  I was driving the first leg and many times I tried to turn the car north and make a stop in Chicago, but my cast mates and GPS said no  :(  (Next time right!?)  We had a wonderful day for the drive.  Lots of sunshine and warm weather.  We arrived at the IL School for the Deaf.  This was Chrissy's school, and she quickly took over tour guide duties.  We were able to stay on campus for the night, and the next day eat in the cafe with the students.  We had a show Thurs am for all of the school (elem-high school) and a few near by schools/colleges.  After the show there was a small talk back.  Naturally I jumped into interpreting mode (some of the visiting schools were students learning ASL).  At the end of the talk back the sponsor was giving instructions on what classes/hour to go back to etc and I continued to interpret.  (bad habit) WELL I over heard one of the interpreters who works at the school say "Wow, Impressed how well to stayed caught up and handled that talk back!"  "and you were able to follow ______(name of sponsor)."  I said "Thanks!  I did not know if I was to interpret that or not.  Sorry if I stepped on your toes"  The interpreter said "oh no problem glad to have a moment to enjoy and not work!"  Felt good to have some positive feedback from a fellow interpreter!  After the show we had time to meet some of the students and some of the teachers.  After lunch we again loaded up the van and drove further south.

We arrived at John A Logan College.  Here we were able to see the space we were going to perform the next day.  For this leg of our trip we were invited to stay with a host family.  It was an amazing host stay!!  We learned that many guests stay with this host family for the "Deafest".  And this next part is going to sound a bit weird but in a geeky way.  This host family has hosted many of the presenter's and on was Chuck Baird.  He is a deaf artist who also worked with NTD.  Well the bed that I slept in was the same bed that Chuck Baird slept. HOW COOL IS THAT!!  hahaha  OK well the next day was a two show day.

What a fun day!  Our morning show has many young audience members.  Sometimes part of our show involves an audience member joining us on stage. For the particular show we had two members join us.  After the show we found out that one has never interacted with other deaf people before, and is in an a special one on one program and does not even attend school with any other deaf people.  This person tends to be shy but they jumped right up on stage and joined us!!  That is another part of my job that I love!  Due to many of the audience members seeing the show both times we were able to do our full repertoire.  The first time that had happened.   After the two shows we again loaded up the van and started our trip back to CT.  We drove a few hours into IND were we were invited to stay with Chrissy's family.  It was a short but fun stay!  The next day we drove back to PA, and ended up in the same city as the past Sat.  It was a full week but one that we had the most fun with.  It was great to meet all our families and has a bit of time with them.

After this long week we were planning a trip to New Mexico.  Well the trip fell through  :(