Traditionally it is PAPER!

HAPPY 1ST ANNIVERSARY!!

For the first time in my life, I have someone in my life who fully completes me,

someone who knows my hidden secrets but looks beyond to the big picture.

For so many years, I spent my life running and running

and running.

From life.

From rest.

Trying to grab life by the bootstraps and all the while screaming at the stars,
"WHERE ARE YOU, my Prince Charming?

Why can't I find that right true person who brings me joy and bliss?

Where is my one true love?"

Anger.

Hopelessness.

Sadness.

All the while, never realizing that it would take a higher power encouraging a move to a new part of the country, finding a new adventure,

to find you.
I have seen your smile in the dark.

I have felt your wink from across the room.

I have watched you chase my neices and nephews all through the house.

And I can finally dream.

I can finally hope.

I can finally love with all my heart...

and never look back...

Thank you for being you.

Thank you for your love and for giving me your heart.

I love you with all of mine.

Tales from the River's Edge

I can remember sitting in the back of Grandpa and Grandma Higdem's Lincoln Mercury travelling the wooded northern Minnesota roads on our way to Lake Itasca State Park. Grandpa Higdem proudly served on the park's Board of Directors for a time and so we would have to drive down for meetings.I always loved going along, hanging with Grandma, taking in a little hiking, great food, lakes galore...afterall, Minnesota is the Land of 10,000 Lakes!! And I believe it!

However, this particular state park is also the birthplace of our nations longest, largest river. The Mississippi River begins as a trickling brook, water tripping over a few rocks, and it's headwaters are merely a bubbling area that you can cross with your barefeet. Many a time did I cross this area. Many a time did I bring friends to this site to experience it for themselves. It was always an experience hiking the back trails, seeing deer cross your hiking path, and going through the woods carefully on the lookout for the patch of poinson ivy or the occasional rabid badger.

This was the closest Justin and I got to the Mississippi River on our summer excursion...It was not the bubbling crossable headwaters...but it was definitely an adventure and a moment to stop by the roadside for a photo op.

Medora Memories #102

You ever heard the idea that usually your first professional theatre job will always be your most memorable...for some crazy reason...usually entailing some sort of humiliating costume or crazy role that requires you to don a full body suit shaped like an extra large cowboy hat donning EGG ecouraging the people of Bismarck, North Dakota to buckle their seat belts???

YES FOLKS...I PLAYED THIS ROLE TOO...

B.U.B.

(For Buckle Up Bismarck)

And THANK GOD there are no pictures out there!!!

However, I could not escape it even for my first professional gig. So when we found out that we were going to be a singing salad bar, I thought, "Okay". And then the costumes arrived and they included a satiny-silky lettuce headpiece AND a carrot puppet...and I thought, "Alright, I can do this. Save face. Save face...Make them laugh...".

I made it through the summer and calmly forgot about it...thinking...First Job has been achieved and I have made it through the crazy costume mode, have amazing first year memories, and can move on...

And then the picture appears in the brand new Visitor's Center celebrating the Medora Musical and its beginnings and Wah-lah...

There's the LETTUCE HEAD....

GAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Maybe Avenue Q will call???

WORLD'S LARGEST

It is amazing to look at lists. We all need them, especially when we get older.

But on my recent trip back home to North Dakota, I reminded Justin that this trip was full of a list of many adventures, and then sarcastically said, "But Honey, all lists will pale in comparison to the sights you are about to see along this stretch of I-94." I could sense his excitement!! ;)

So in researching the world's largest list of "things", here is what I have found:

World's Largest McDonald's is in Orlando, Florida.

World's Largest Fiddle is in Nova Scotia.

World's Largest Beaver Dam is in Wood Buffalo National Park in Alberta, Canada and can be seen from space...

World's Largest Pheasant is in Huron, SD.

World's Largest Pineapple is in Nambour.

World's Largest Clothespin is in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

World's Largest Hairball is in Garden City, Kansas... Ummm OK. GROSS!!

You can find more of the World's Largest Roadside Attractions on Wikipedia.

However, North Dakota has a pretty amazing "World's Largest list" as well...all along the stretch of I-94 on our way to Medora and back to Bismarck. We can honestly say that we saw, in awe, all three on our trip westward. The list includes:

The World's Largest Buffalo in Jamestown, the World's Largest Scrap Tin Sculptures in Gladstone,

AND...Drumroll please...

The World's Largest Holstein Cow is in New Salem, North Dakota, affectinately known as SALEM SUE.

I do have to say that there is nothing quite like being that close to an udder or a tail...and it could be quite considered quite fearful...

The black and white bovine sculpture is tucked away almost as a beacon to the buttes of the Badlands...serving as a Gateway to the Rolling Prairie hills.

And then came the hunger for a Quarter Pounder...which became a personal World's Largest of my very own...

Medora Memories #101

So, as many of you may not know, I just celebrated my 20th year of being out of high school with a reunion back in Bismarck, North Dakota for a wonderful celebration...
I had not been back to Bismarck and the surrounding area for many years...
What follows are a large collection of photos and stories of events that transpired...STAY TUNED...

Medora Memories #101

Yes the picture is real.
Yes that is the signature BIG MOUTH smile...
And YES that is a doll made out of my likeness... please note the scary Exorcist BLUE eyes...

So here is the the story...

I performed in North Dakota's Number 1 Tourist attraction, "The Medora Musical" from 1991 to 1994, for four seasons. It was and still is a huge highlight of all of my years of performing, for so many reasons. From clogging out underneath the Badland starry skies to hiking in the buttes and being out amongst the buffalo and prairie dogs.

Medora is this amazing town nestled in the buttes of the Badlands of North Dakota. This sleepy little town comes alive every summer with the arrival of the Musical cast and crew. This town is not without it's crazy cast of characters. One of the campgrounds in town is run by this odd family, we soon affectionately called the IBTPG- The Inbred Trailer Park Gang...and every vision that comes to your mind is upheld in all its grandeur upon meeting this family.

You come into the park and go to check into your site and are greeted by this couple performing right by the door of the General Store. They are there, day or night, performing on their 18 key synthesizer and accordion/ drum set/ tuba/ tambourine/ karaoke combo. Just a husband and wife, much like the high school teachers of SNL days by alums Will Farrell and Ana Gastier...only SNL is MUCH MUCH MUCH more entertaining...I digress...

The daughter was pretty much a social introvert and yet was crowned North Dakota Miss Hospitality for 1993, 1994, 1995...yes it seems talentless wallflowers who have the personality of a door, with the right amount of Grandma and Grandpa's money, can have a sash and feel like they have the right to do pretty much anything... Can you sense the oddities going on here???

1993...The IBTPG decides they are going to spend lots and lots of money on creating life-like porcelain dolls of the Burning Hill Singers, the cast of the Musical, in their clogging costumes for that year. They painstakingly searched for the exact fabric AND created and baked each porcelain head and hand set with loving care. CREEPY, to say the least.

Rumor had had it that they were going to raffle off each of the dolls as a couple, depending on which ones clogged together during the dance. I had heard tell that they had decided to raffle off mine and Mary's dolls first. It seems the production company found out and issued a cease and desist order to this family, as the Burning Hills Singers, Co-hosts, and anything dealing with the likenesses of the Medora Musical were property of the production company and could not be used for monetary gain... IBTPG stopped, finished the dolls, and decided to place them under glass in their General store, a place that sells postcards, Vienna sausages and twine. ODD COMBO?? Uh YEAH!!!

So I have said for years, in telling this story, that Mary and I are under glass somewhere on a television set in Montana somewhere...the effects of the production company not getting there soon enough...

Jump ahead 17 years...I am finally able to get back for a much needed visit...and after being gone for 11 years...Medora had changed. My dear friend, Emily, whom I have known since 1993 is back this year as a Co-Host. We decided to go in search of the infamous dolls...To our surprise, there they were...and Emily then mentions...Huh, one of those dolls has a blonde moustache...I look up...and THERE I AM! Holy CRAP!!! That is just plain freaky...

Thought you would like to know...