This Sunday, we thoroughly enjoyed going to see the musical "Hairspray" at Lake Michigan College's Mendel Center. We all liked the movie, and Cassandra knows the soundtrack by heart, so we bought our tickets soon after they went on sale. Since yesterday was Robert's birthday, it was a sort of "happy birthday" present for the whole family.
After we got our tickets, we learned that there was a "Big Hair" contest coming up. Grand prize: two free tickets to the show, and $100 gift certificate to The Bistro in downtown St. Joseph.
All you had to do to enter was rat your hair as big as possible and submit pictures to prove it.
The potential for humiliation was great, so of course we went for it.
Cassandra and I spent a laugh-filled evening doing the hair thing. (Robert gamely let us do his hair, too, but the pictures I took really didn't do him justice. He's so photogenic, it was a crime.)
We had a ball, though since Cassandra's hair is longer than just a few inches, hers was easier to make "big."
Anyway...
We WON!
We shared our winning tickets with friends and we all enjoyed an evening watching Tracy Turnbladt, Link Larkin, Seaweed, Penny, and the rest of the cast sing and dance their hearts out. Very fun!
In Other News
Various writing projects are nearing completion. My Major Project for my VIP client is in the final stages of editing and fact-checking. All that remains now is a editing a few last-minute additions and illustration captions.
The first draft of the biopic screenplay that I'm working on with my director friend Paul Martin is finished. We still need to finesse it and fine-tune it, but we're pretty happy with how it's coming along.
Ryan Gingerich's book is slowly coming along. I'm hoping to make real progress on it in the next two weeks, so he can begin the approval process.
Several other projects and "Good Ideas" are waiting in the wings, but I've put them all on hold until the current projects are completely taken care of.
Earlier this week, I received a nice e-mail from a young man who attends Grace Christian High School in nearby Watervliet. It reads in part:
My goal is to become a writer once I get out of college. Right now, however, we're doing a vocational research project. The project involves finding out about career paths that we're chosing for ourselves. Part of it is to interview someone we're not familiar with who is already in this career. I'd like to set up an interview with you sometime, if you could find the time.
Of course, I said I'd be honored to help him with his assignment. Anything to encourage someone who wants to make his living with words...
Speaking of making a living, Ryan's unfinished chapter beckons. (So does the beautiful sunny day outside -- but it will have to wait.) I may not be writing the next Tony-award winning musical, but my hopes for the project are still high. Which means I'd better get busy and finish it!
