There And Back Again: A Joplin Tale by Lauren Elizabeth (Part 1)

Eh? Eh? See what I did there? (Random LoTR references FTW!!!!)

Cast, crew, and friends of "The Importance of Being Ernest", just before heading off on our trip to Joplin
(Not pictured: Julie, actress and BFF; Robert, techie, musician, and irritatingly awesome "younger brother")

It's been two weeks since we got home from Joplin. I use the term "home" loosely here, though not very loosely. Texas is still home, as is my house, my messy little bedroom. Still home. But I've come to think of Joplin as home, too. That little church we stayed in, cleaning, organizing, distributing...

Hanging with my JOY friends (my other family), worshipping, praying, laughing over stupid pictures and stupider jokes, playing Apples to Apples, laughing till we're crying over this:

I'm still not entirely sure why that kid found it so funny, but he laughed so hard that we ended up laughing at him, and there are some pretty weird laughs in the JOY family.

Well, day one: Leaving for Joplin.

We met quite early in the morning in the WalMart parking lot. In the city where JOY is based, there is only one WalMart. It's a very small town. I love it. :)



Maddie, actress, loading up one of the trucks with props and costumes





It was one of those days where, not only was I quite exhausted, but my brain was going absolutely haywire with excitement. And, me being me, and me being absent-minded, I walked out of the door with neither my costume nor my medical release slip. Imagine my embarrassment! I'll admit I cried a bit. I felt absolutely mortified.



Rebecca, actress, getting ready to film the goings on with the all-powerful iPhone

Fortunately for me, not only would my dad be able to fax the medical release slip and two of the actors' parents to bring up my costume later in the week, but my JOY family is incredibly forgiving. As I sat there, feeling bad about myself and feeling terrified that I either wouldn't be able to go, or would make everybody else's trip harder with my forgetfulness, Jameson, actor, role model and "big brother", assured me that I didn't have to be embarrassed; that it was a mistake anybody could have made, and that I just happened to be the one who made it this time. This made me feel much better, as I no longer felt that anyone was angry with me for being forgetful -- I've had some pretty bad experiences with people who got quite angry when I was forgetful. I know I shouldn't have been beating myself up that badly over it (the problem was easily fixed). So, I wiped my face off, lifted me chin, squared my shoulders, and determined to be happy on the trip. Sometimes I have to do that. When my self-esteem drops, I just have to choose to pick it back up again. Fortunately for me, between God, my real family, and JOY, I always have some help.



Anna, techie and real-life sister, smiling before the beautiful WalMart sunrise

We actually ended up sitting around a good bit of the time -- we were all really tired. You can imagine -- croaky, early-morning voiced, half-open eyes, aching legs, teenagers trying to find a way to comfortably sprawl themselves across cars and cement. Everyone was too tired to be at all camera-shy -- I loved it! However... I was too tired to be taking a lot of pictures, so...



Zach, techie and fellow fantasy nerd, and Wil, actor, tall guy, and fantastic weirdo loading up vans

 


Trailer for props -- thank you, Troop 116!

I didn't get a whole lot of pictures during the ride to Joplin -- I got a few, but whaddyaknow?! They didn't load onto my computer. Yay, technology!

I do wish I'd gotten a picture of Wesley, "brother", fellow movie dork, actor, and soon-to-be public schooler while he slept. He's a cute sleeper, in a really hilarious way.

There wasn't much talking during the ride, either. Wesley and his sister Jo napped in the back, me, Anna, and Maddie napped and listened to music in the middle, and our chaperons, Wesley's mom and Zach's mom, napped and drove (not at the same time) in the front.



First sign of damage we saw after reaching Joplin

Everyone had woken up by the time we reached Joplin. At first, we couldn't see any signs of damage at all. We gaped out our windows, half-eagerly, half-nervously craning our necks to see the wreckage. Eventually, we found it.

It was hard to look at.

But we looked at it anyway.

You're going to laugh at me, but for me, personally, seeing this, was the hardest part:




Yeah, I know. The closed, boarded-up Taco Bell is what really did me in emotionally? Yes, it did. Because it was something familiar, something I knew well, and there it was, empty, hollow, surrounded by broken homes. So what if I hate Taco Bell? The familiarity of it was absolutely overwhelming. It hurt to look at.

The worst part is that somebody lived there once.

After a while, we finally pulled up in front of what was formerly the Stained Glass Theater. Of course, what you're seeing is the now-famous Joplin Hospital, where so many people took refuge after the tornado destroyed their homes. It was like a breath of fresh air to look at it. Despite the damage the building took, it was such a relief to see a standing, working building in the midst of the surrounding wreckage. Especially considering what was once standing in front of it. (Look down.)

Yes, that little brown concrete slab was the Stained Glass Theater. The upper-stories have been completely flattened. We are standing in the auditorium -- where the audience used to sit. The pile of broken wood in front of us used to be the stage.




Some poor character is in need of a shoe

Gosh, this hurt to look at. I was standing there on the concrete slab, staring at the emptiness of it all, and I could almost see the way it used to look -- walls, a lovely ceiling, chandeliers, spot-lights, a tech booth. For a moment, I felt as though I was standing in the wreckage of our very own theater, the one we perform in that has become our second home, and wasn't able to breathe, or even cry. I just stood there in shock.

But then the group was moving off the upper story (yeah, you can just walk off of the upper story now, and hit grass) and I had to collect myself and follow. I was glad to get away from the nightmarish vision above, until we actually walked around to the lower story -- the basement. Backstage.




Holy friggin' cow. People were hiding back here. This used to be an empty space where an entire cast could take refuge from a tornado -- and while they hid, the tornado shoved all this down on them.

The stairwell where members of the cast and crew of "I Remember Mama", the last play put on by the Stained Glass Theater, cowered in fear, unable to reach the basement.

This chair intrigues me. I wonder what it was used for. Was it a prop for plays? Or was it just a place to rest their legs from the heavy costumes once the cast-members ducked backstage? It must be a strong chair, to have withstood the tornado.


Wil, Maddie, and Jo taking in the wreckage.

Cast and crew members of Stained Glass wrote notes on the theater doors. They made me cry.

Sorry you can't read this one... It says something like, "I am so thankful for this... The... is gone, but the family (?) is still here..." After that I can't make it out. I wasn't able to get close enough to it to get a really good shot, but what I can read is just too sweet. :)

Another one you can't read. Sorry, guys! :/

Standing around, trying to take it all in.

From left, top row: Jameson, Wil, Zeke, Wesley, Anna, Miss Eve (director), Morgan, Zach, Sarah, Me
From left, bottom row: Joseph, Jo, Wesley's mother, Zach's mother, Maddie, Rebecca
Still not pictured: Julie, Robert

Some quick photos in front of the theater. I'm glad I wasn't the only one having some trouble smiling.

After a while we piled back into our respective cars and kept driving. The passengers of our van got really excited when we saw this -- it's become a sort of symbol of joy to us. It was like a beacon -- when we saw it, our spirits immediately lifted a bit. Did you know that the high school is now officially recognized as "Hope High School" in the district? Pretty darn awesome.

We finally reached our church! Mt. Hope Church is just that -- a mountain of hope. I didn't see one frown when we stepped inside -- some tired smiles, sure, but no frowns. The people there are determined to keep happy.

The girls' dorm, or part of it, anyway. In this picture it looks a mess, but we were so tired and so ready to have something resembling home that within minutes each bed looked like something out of the girls' own hearts. Morgan's patchwork quilt, Anna's neat little pillow, my own pillowcase I inherited from my great-grandmother and a little stuffed lion that I got from church camp... It was already feeling like home.

Speaking of pieces of home, how about those yellow sunglasses? Or this fabulous yellow-and-zebra-print bracelet? The sunglasses I got at camp, the bracelet at a gas station on the way up. They immediately lifted my spirits. It's completely impossible for me to stay depressed when I see the color yellow.

And what about this inflatable McAlister's cup of sweet tea? McAlister's Deli is one of my favorite restaurants -- seeing it was like being back in Texas for a minute. I was so glad to see it, I couldn't resist giving it a hug. (Also, in case you're wondering, my traveling outfits were far from fancy! Today I wore a patterned, cute, but oh-so-comfortable t-shirt, my flip-flops, some easy khaki cargo pants and a gray knit sweater. My purse is huge, black, hand-me-down, and a perfect carry-on, and the blue thing on my ankle is a bandana. We all got them back in the WalMart parking lot.)

After I said a tearful goodbye to my inflatable friend, we all headed to The Orange Leaf, a frozen yogurt place which finished off the cup of happiness that had been so depleted by the wreckage, and so filled again by the sight of yellow, old friends, and sweet tea inflatables. I had wedding cake flavor with M&Ms and cookie dough. It was beautiful. (In the picture above: Maddie and Julie, who met us back at the church. Also, Morgan in the back, or rather, half of Morgan, giving the camera a very creepy look.)

Maddie and Robert (Julie's younger brother) who also met us at the church, having an intense discussion (not)

The beautiful Morgan (all of her)

Joanna met us at the Orange Leaf. She is a member of the Stained Glass Theater, and an absolute darling.

Here's Wesley, the Heath-Ledger-look-alike I keep telling you about, being... well, being Wesley.

And here's Wil being Wil...

... and Zeke being Zeke. Look at him rocking those shades!

There was a mirror on the wall...

And it was see-through! Here's what's behind it.

How amazing is that?!

Joanna and Wesley

Julie and Joanna. What beauties!

We did eventually have to leave and head back to the church. We were sad to say goodbye to our new friends (there were more than just Joanna, she was just the only one who wasn't camera-shy. Joanna is not camera-shy AT ALL. And this is a good thing) but we were so looking forward to sleeping. And sleep we did.

Until 6:00 AM the next morning, that is.

Not many pictures of that day. We spent the whole day working. There just wasn't time for picture-taking.

First, me, Sarah, Jameson, and Wil were the designated toilet-cleaners (I enthusiastically christened us "The PottyPals". It didn't catch on). We scrubbed, sprayed, swept, mopped, and danced. I know that last one doesn't fit, but Wil brought his all-powerful iPhone and turned on Skrillex and Owl City. There is very little in life that is funnier than watching two of your white homeschooler guy-friends pretend to try to dance. Sarah and I were in stitches.

And then, while we were cleaning, it started raining!

Rain, glorious rain! We hadn't seen it for weeks and weeks... Wil and I dashed outside with Maddie, Anna, Jo, and Julie, the window-washers (whom I had lovingly christened "The WindowWimps" -- that didn't catch on, either) to dance in it. It was divine! Jameson and Sarah, being the responsible ones, stayed inside, but believe me, they missed out.

When we were finished (and we finished early, despite our little detour into wetter waters), we headed to the distribution center, where the church members had stored and piled donations of clothing, diapers, shoes, food, toiletries, etc., for tornado victims who had lost possessions in the storm. We worked and worked and worked, trying to keep our energy up by singing worship songs and being in constant prayer. It worked! I stayed cheerful and excited the whole day.

I did manage to squeeze in a few pictures in the afternoon, before going out to organize boxes of more donations, but unfortunately this particular blog is too long already. I will continue it later. I hope you've enjoyed it so far!

TECH Week



The cast of "Importance of Being Earnest", as well as family members and friends who have helped us out along the way (not pictured: Julie, actress, and Robert, techie)



First of all, this time I'm NOT going to apologize for taking a week off from blogging. I used to do that with my diaries, too. I would put them down for a week or a month or even a couple of years, and then pick them up and feel like I had to apologize. The fact was, I always had a good reason for not writing. This week is no different, and the reason is one that I definitely don't feel requires an apology.

This past week has been...

TECH WEEK!!!!


DUN... DUN... DUNNNNNNNNNN...

Actually, it's not quite that dramatic. I mean, despite the fact that it is, you know, drama.

That's one of the weirdest-yet-coolest things about JOY. There is literally NO drama there -- not even in the drama class. It's like a little world all its own, separated from the rest of the catty, superficial planet by a huge wall of Jesus.

Anna and I like to say that we left public school because of the drama, and now we refuse to leave our co-op because of the drama. Har har.

I'm having the greatest time. I'm playing a mean old lady whose age remains unknown -- I'm going with about a million years. Unfortunately, my make-up hasn't shown up in any of the photographs taken from the audience-level, which worries me. This is going to sound weird to any of you not in drama, but I don't particularly want to look fifteen. I want to look about a bajillion years old. And I don't. Look about a bajillion years old, that is.

My director (who, BTW, cast me in this role -- we didn't even have auditions) says it's because I'm too pretty to play an old person. I'm feeling a mixture of exasperation, flattery, and indignation. Like, I'm exasperated that she cast me in this role if I can't even look the part, I'm flattered that she thinks I'm so pretty, and I'm rather offended that she thinks I don't look old.

Um.

So, Tech Week. (DUN... DUN... DUNNNNNNNN...)

Monday! I posted on Monday, multiple times, I believe, because at the beginning of Tech Week you actually still have some semblance of energy once you get off the stage. I didn't tell you, however, that we spent about three hours after rehearsal at South Beach Taco with our director, our friends Rebecca, Maddie, and Morgan, and some familiar faces from the cast of Music Man!

That's right -- Mayor Shinn and our spotlight guy returned to celebrate Maddie and Morgan's mom's birthday. They're complete country boys, of course -- big, brawny, short-haired, tan, and with excellent manners -- but -- imagine! -- the don't like Frodo! THE HORROR!!!!

Actually, they're really great guys, so I do like 'em a lot, despite their lack of Frodo-love.

After three hours of talking, mainly about movies -- I disagreed with them on almost everything, but oh well -- and me dosing off multiple times from exhaustion, we finally left.

Anna and I spent the night at Morgan and Maddie's house -- they live much closer to the theater than we do. Plus they're fun. We spent most of the night in Morgan's room -- totally the cutest room evaarrrr -- and watched a movie -- totally the cutest movie evaarrrr -- except for "Ponyo" -- called "Underneath The Greenwood Tree" for no apparent reason, except that they keep showing random shots of a greenwood tree that has nothing to do with the story at all. *sigh* Oh well. The movie critic side of me just had to deal with it, because I did like the movie a lot -- it was kind of dumb, but the main guy was a complete dream (he had blue eyes and thick dark eyebrows -- um, yeah. Morgan and I died every time he came on-screen) and everyone except the snobby preacher character had a very happy ending. Certainly won't go down as one of my all-time favorites, but still the perfect movie to watch with some of your favorite girl-friends.

We did actually manage to go to bed on time, with lights out and no talking (SHOCK) but for some reason I could not go to sleep for the longest time. I don't know when I finally dropped off, but it wasn't until I'd spent what felt like hours just staring up at the ceiling and trying to find a more comfortable position. You'd think after such a long, hard, mentally exhausting day, my brain would have a little less energy. But no. Not my brain. My brain is not like that. My brain likes to work like any normal person's would during the day as long as I'm with people -- and I was with people, all day -- and then kick into gear at night, when I least need it to. Come on, Brain. We talked about this. This is why I left public school -- because you never functioned like you're capable of during the day, when my grades were suffering and my teachers were frustrated, but at night, when I was exhausted and needed my sleep, suddenly you go revving up to 10th gear -- there may not be such a thing as 10th gear in cars, but in my brain, there certainly is -- and start making up stories, creating imaginary friends, and basically transforming my bedroom into a storybook. But during school? No! During school you were so tired from staying up all night before that you couldn't remember simple things, like when to bring your homework, or whether the answer is A or B on your multiple choice test, which you just studied for yesterday, and your grades suffer, but do you do anything about it? NO!!!... But I digress. Sorry. I'm still quite frustrated with my brain for keeping me up all night on Monday and giving me a splitting headache on Tuesday morning.

So Tuesday rehearsal went okay, I suppose -- at this point I was still forgetting my lines and such. Jameson -- the lead actor in our play and the responsible big brother of the group -- drove me and Anna home. We had quite an experience on our way back... Let's just say that we now have an inside joke that will probably last till we're at least thirty. *HONK* "I'M BORED!!!" *squeak*

Sorry.

This is where the days really start to run together. I know that at some point a lady came and watched the play and gave us ideas for how we could do it better, that no matter how I did my old-lady make-up it never looked exactly old, and that during the last rehearsal my cain, whom I have dubbed "Franz", kept falling over. I managed to cover it, but ugh... That was frustrating.

Oh, and on Wednesday night Anna and I spent the night with Maddie and Morgan again and we watched "Sherlock Holmes" (2009). Ah. Maze. Ing. Sherlock is my hero, and Robert Downey Jr is my new favorite actor -- you know, besides Johnny Depp and Elijah Wood.

Friday we had our first performance. And that is possibly my new favorite memory. Beginning to end, the audience was cracking up, I almost joined them a couple of times -- the audience knew it, too, which made them laugh harder -- and when the curtains closed, it was so dark we couldn't see where we were going or where we were, we just ran around hugging anyone we could find, even if we didn't know who they were, squealing, "WE DID IT!!! WE DID IT!!! I LOVE YOU GUYS!!! WE DID IT!!!"

Saturday we had our day off, and then yesterday we performed at the Artisan Theater, a theater-in-the-round in Hurst. That was weird. We did pretty well, but it was so strange trying to navigate an in-the-round set when we're so used to just being on a normal stage. We did get a lot of laughs, though, and this time I managed to stay in character, even when Jameson had to run off stage and couldn't get back on in time, so he ad-libbed the line, "I can't find my way back!" in full-on English accent. That was far too cruel of him; I haven't decided whether to forgive him for being so funny when we weren't supposed to laugh. Darn teenage boys. Darn homeschoolers.

So, now I've just finished what has possibly been the longest day of my life. I'm sitting in my room, typing, waiting for it to be time for sleep, because...

Drum roll, please!!!

Because tomorrow we're leaving for Joplin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I cannot put enough exclamation points on the end of that sentence. I am so incredibly excited, I keep catching myself grinning. I'll be riding with Anna, Maddie, and Wesley, the Heath-Ledger-look-alike who shares my taste in movies and over-all quirkiness. It's going to be a FUN ride. Of course, when we get there I know it will be hard emotionally. It's already hard emotionally and we haven't even left yet. But still, I'm really looking forward to spending the whole of the ride up there quoting "The Princess Bride" and singing "Stuck Inside Your Head" by Julian Smith. Because as Christian Homeschoolers, that is what we do.

And it is funny.

I'll be posting blogs throughout the week, if I can. If I can't, well, too bad, but I'm definitely gonna try. :)

Make 'Em Laugh 2

"Last night, I lay in bed looking up at the stars and thought... 'Wear the heck is the ceiling?!'" -- Unknown

Outfit of The Day: 8/1/11

I absolutely LOVE wearing this outfit! Feel adorable! :)



My outfit today: Yellow polka-dotted sundress, blue-green t-shirt, black leggings. Ballet flats! Turquoise statement piece bracelet. Hair: High ballerina bun.

Lol, love the squinty smile :) The sun was rising, we took this picture really early in the morning.

I cannot tell you how much I wanted to wear just this dress. It's yellow with white polka-dots, and it is sooo cute! But it's slightly see-through, quite short, and quite low, so leggings and t-shirt it was.

I hope my guy-friends appreciate the lengths I go to to protect them. I have given up any number of deeply amazing outfits in the name of modesty.

It's all good though -- this outfit is so me :)

I felt ridiculously pretty today. More about that in the next post.

Photos taken by: Cousin Carlie