Time to be Active!

If you had told me a week ago that I would buy a Wii, I would have laughed and said that I would never have any reason to spend that kind of money on a gaming system. Well, that reason came in the form of snow and ice upon snow and ice which has prevented me from going out for my daily walk for much too long now. I like being active and dislike going to a gym. Last week I reached the breaking point. I’ve been doing way too much sitting recently, so I started looking at compact exercise equipment that would give me a good work out without taking up much space in my small apartment. I talked with one of my friends about what I was thinking about getting. He told me I might think it a crazy idea, but he thought a Wii Fit might actually be the best option. His family has it and loves it. As I looked into it further, it seemed like it would be the best fit. It’s compact, has variety, and would get me moving again. So off to the store I went. I set it up successfully last night, which is a small feet in and of itself since I am not too technologically oriented, and I love it! Last night I went for a short run and played some tennis and baseball. This morning I did a hula-hoop activity and some strength training. The Wii has confirmed that I still have bad hand-eye coordination, a poor sense of rhythm, and not the best balance. Ah well, things to improve on I suppose as I watch the 50mph winds swirl the falling snow around outside once again. Perhaps I should try some yoga!

The Lion King

Last night my sister and I attended The Lion King. I’d seen the Broadway musical when it was in Des Moines four years ago and was excited to see the performance again! My sister and I were about a dozen rows from the stage – far enough away to see the entire stage and close enough to see the performers’ facial expressions as well as the details of the costumes and puppets! It is amazing to think of all the individual talent that went into the creation of the show and was shared with us.

After the performance we stayed for a short Q&A session with four of the performers: two individuals from the ensemble, Tony Freeman who played Zazo, and Ben Lipitz who played Pumba. From them we learned that they actually have two complete sets. While one is being used, the other is in transit to the next location and assembled so when the show closes in one city, the performers can fly to the next city and be ready to rehearse/perform the very next day while the set is being torn down in the city they just left. Something usually goes wrong every performance. Last night, for example, the black curtains blocking the backstage from the stage quit working. The performers had to be extra quiet and had to be careful to stay out of the audiences’ line of sight. While one of the ensemble members, who is single and doesn’t have a mortgage, loves to travel all of the US performing, Freeman expressed how hard it can be to be separated from his wife and daughter for long periods of time. With their performance schedule, if the performers want to see their family, their family has to come to them. The performers only get two weeks vacation a year and often aren’t able to make it home to celebrate the holidays with their families. Despite these challenges, they love what they do. Freeman has been Zazo for nine years, and Lipitz has been with the show for seven years. They each mentioned what an exciting experience it is to tell this story each night in live theater. Hearing more about what it takes each individual to perform their part made me appreciate the show all the more.

Oh, I should also mention the other exciting component of our evening – the weather. When I bought our tickets about six weeks ago, I did so with the realization that with it being January, we could have a lovely evening for the performance or we could have a terrible storm which would prevent Rachel from driving to Des Moines from Lincoln and from us attending the performance at all. I crossed my fingers that it would be the former rather than the later. Unfortunately it was the later. Rachel came a day early to make sure she arrived before the forecasted ice storm. Yesterday morning we woke up to a world encased in ice. We had to skate, quite literally, across the parking lot to my car to chip all the ice off of it so we could go to dinner and then the performance. Fortunately, the roads were not slick, and we did not fall traversing the ice going to and from my car. The storm certainly added an element of danger to the experience, turning it into an adventure