Directionally Challenged

This is another Jeanne classic. My BEST friend Russ went to college in Michigan and after while I decided it would be nice for me to drive up and visit him. So I convinced my Mom to lend me her car for the weekend and oddly enough my sister Chrissy volunteered to come with me. We got some basic directions from Russ' parents something like this:

Take 294

to 94

Take the blank rd exit

dead ends to the college

How hard could this be right????

So Chrissy and I start out on a Saturday morning and I am thinking Michigan is north of us basically so we get on 294 N. We drive and drive and drive...into Wisconsin...hmmm this does not seem right. So we pull over at a gas station and ask them where we went wrong. Now you MUST keep in mind that Wisconsinites and Chicagoans are basically enemies. SO this gas station attendant tells me to get on 94 going WEST. Now again I am pretty dismal at directions and did not really think about where we were. So we head onto 94 WEST and drive for about 10 hours. During this time it’s gotten dark and foggy VERY VERY VERY foggy. And we keep seeing a sign for Detriot. So obviously I assume we are getting closer! However once it gets to be about 10 pm and we never see the sign for blank rd I know we are in trouble. I pull over and find a pay phone to call Russ because remember this is back in the dark ages before cell phones and GPS. Russ oddly enough is FREAKING out and I have to spend about 10 mins talking him off a ledge. Then he asks me where I am...so I look around me and I see a bunch of postings for happenings in Minnesota?!?!? Wha..what?!??! *GULP*. I tell Russ I need to go and I'll call him back. I drive a little further to a gas stop and the kind man behind the counter tells me we are about a mile from the North Dakota border and that sign I was seeing was for Lake Detroit! Ummm what the...?!?!?? So Chrissy and I discuss next steps, stay at some random motel for which we do not have money or turn around and drive home. Chrissy says she does not care and jumps into the back seat to sleep. I go into the gas station get a GINORMOUS coffee and muffin, call Russ to tell him we are not coming and drive another 10 hours back to Chicago. I am not making this up!

Hannah's new trike!

And the award goes to...

Well after the big video tape incident and getting caught ditching sectionals I was kinda on the list. But then the Fruma Sarah role was such a success that I must have been taken of the list or moved to a "new" list. At the end of senior year an awards ceremony is held for the Fine Arts students. They are given awards like outstanding actress or actor and speech coaches’ award...like a mini tony award. Well again I did not have high hopes for me receiving an award from our Fine Arts director. I figured the speech coaches’ award would go to Russ...the speech team captain and the outstanding actress to Talia for her role as Tevya's wife in Fiddler. Well shock of all shocks I was award outstanding actress (as was Talia and Jen and a few other seniors). But most importantly I was awarded the speech coaches’ award for the many tedious hours I put in recalculating ALL the speech points that I had lost during the middle of the year!!! I was shocked and honored...if only they had allowed us to make a speech!

Fruma Sarah

Well needless to say after my little outburst caught on tape about my mistreatment in the drama department the roles did not immediately come flooding in. Add to that I lost all the speech points and had to contact every school and recalculate ALL the points, I was convinced that I was not going to get any more parts in any plays. I joined the track team which was another dismal failure on my part but at least I felt I was doing something. I even got my picture in the yearbook as a track and field member! I also decided to be a little rebellious...I would sneak out during choir sectionals and go to the cafeteria to eat donuts! I know I know I was terrible! Well when it came time for tryouts for the spring Musical I told everyone I was not even going to bother trying out...I mean really did I need that kind of rejection AGAIN?!??! Another posting of a cast list without my name on it...no thanks! But then our choir director announced that everyone who was in choir was REQUIRED to tryout. HRMPF! So I tried out but was very lackluster about it. The day the cast list was posted my friend and I had snuck out of sectionals and gone to the cafeteria for our morning doughnut. When we figured they were about over with sectionals we headed back up to the choir room to find the director and the entire choir waiting for us at the top of the stairs. Mr. B the Director was red faced and fuming..I really think he even stamped his feet and clenched his fists and shook them at us. Other than a parent I had never seen an adult that angry! He shouted at us that he could not believe the day the cast list was posted we had ditched sectionals. I was a little nervous but ultimately I felt like what else can he do to me?? Then I saw the cast list and there is was Jeanne Carey cast as Fruma Sarah. I was a little shocked for 2 reasons. 1. I got cast. 2. I got cast as Fruma Sarah a ghost come back to haunt Tevya in his dream who had a very operatic voice (VERY out of my range). Hmmmmm
Well rehearsals began and I was a bit nervous about my role. I had to sit on top of a 6 Ft Korean kid and screaming PEARLS PEARLS while the Korean kid who was covered by a really long dress ran me around the stage!! Plus I was not at all comfortable with the range I had to sing in!!! I felt like I had been setup for failure. But as the show came together and I became more comfortable with the singing and the running around I started to really enjoy my role! We had a professional makeup artist come in and give us tips on make-up. When he got me he was all hmm this one is going to be very hard because we have to take a very lovely young lady and turn her into a hideous ghost. I was blushing! The Fine Arts director spent around $800 on my scene alone to get the costumes right, the bed that spins, the fog machines, and the make-up artist!! He even said to me if you really think I don’t like you why would I put this much time and money into your scene??? Then when we opened and my scene became the most acclaimed scene in the show with everyone at school talking about my performance I was overjoyed!!! Not only that but my Mother who has a tendency to be a bit critical told me "Anyone could play the roles of the daughters they are vanilla, but Fruma Sarah, Jeanne no one could pull that role off but you!!" W.O.W!!! To this day I look back on that role and those performances with the fondest of memories!

Map of life

Before high school I was rather shy and quiet. I know I know it's hard to believe! But once I started performing on stage something opened up inside of me and I became much more outspoken and outgoing. As I entered my senior year in high school I noticed that more and more I was not getting cast in plays as much as I had been during my junior year. I was a bit devastated since it was my senior year and in my world my last opportunity to perform. Then as if things could not get any worse I ran against my friend Russ for President of the speech team and came in second...therefore making me Vice President and ultimately the grunt that had to collect all the speech points and tally them. Well at about 3/4 of the way through the school year I had had enough. I came into my acting class one day and seeing no teacher around went off on how unfair my life was currently and launched into a tirade about the fine arts director hated me and was literally trying to make my senior year the worst year ever!! I ranted on and on and on and on and on until I was finally out of steam. Only at that moment did I notice there was someone taping the class *gulp*. At the time I was very naive and stupidly assumed that portion of the tape would get erased and forgotten. I had a note delivered to my next class saying I was to be dismissed to see Mr. Jeffers in his office. *GULP* I slowly walked up to his office and figured I was going to be kicked out of the fine arts program. However I then started realizing that really I HAD been kicked out so who cared. And then I started thinking of all the things I was going to say to him and how I was going to really give him a piece of my mind. Well I walked into his office and his secretary looked up at me sadly shook her head and said take a seat he'll be right with you. I waited about 10 minutes when suddenly he came storming out of office face red veins beating and eyes popping out of his head. He grabbed my elbow and dragged me over to a map hanging on his wall. He said what is this...I took a deep breath and said a map. He glared at me and said this is a map of your life and see this tiny pinpoint here this is high school...that's how much high school means Jeanne it’s a pin point on the map of your life! He released me elbow and stormed back into his office. I stood there dumbly looking at the map, composed myself and returned to class. It was a good lesson about life and something I carry around with me to this day.

Big Blue Truck

When I was a junior in high school one of my closest friends was Russ...actually he is still one of my closest friends. I was also very close with his parents...Mama and Papa, my pseudo parents. Russ and I had a complicated relationship at the time, dating then friends then enemies then friends. You know how it is in high school. During one of the time when we were pretending to be friends we were at a theater cast party and Russ was flirting with some girl and I was jealous. So when one of my friends needed to get home for curfew I volunteered to take Russ' big blue truck and drive them home. Russ was hesitant but he wanted to be friendly and he wanted me out of the house so he could flirt without me glaring at him. Reluctantly he handed over the keys. Now of course this being high school my sister and another friend jumped at the chance to go for a ride. There is now me, my sister and two friends Jen and Jean in the truck. We are driving merrily along and suddenly the truck dies. I see that the tank says we are out of gas. So Jen and Liz run over to a gas station which is closed and of course the pay phone is broken. While we are waiting for them to return a cop car stops to assist. I am totally nervous because if they ask for insurance I am not listed as an approved driver on that car! Luckily they do not. They tell us that we are blocking traffic and need to move the truck off to the side of the road. They tell me to get in and put the truck in neutral and they will push. The policemen PUSH us into a sewer and can't get us out! So now not only are we out of gas but we are stuck in a manhole! I really start freaking out as does my friend Jean who is getting very close to missing her curfew. The police call a tow truck and agree to drive Jean home. The tow truck comes and hooks up the truck. They ask me my address and I give them Russ' address. They tow us home and tell me the cost is $65. I now have to knock on Mama and Papa's door and ask them to pay for the tow *gulp*. I start knocking and realize they are sleeping..can this get any worse? Mama answers the door and I get down on my knees begging for forgiveness and telling her I will work off the debit. Papa Lundberg goes out to talk to the tow guys and would you know it we were not even out of gas the truck had 2 TANKS! All I needed to do was flip a switch..who knew?!?!? Well Russ gets a ride home and is freaking out!!! He had been calling his Mom and Dad wondering if they had heard from me for the last 2 hours. Of course we got a stern talking to and had to agree to split the cost of the tow. It was probably this incident that helped us get over our issues and really become good friends.

Happy BIrthday to you!

Hannah singing Happy Birthday!