Wwwwwwwwipeout!

The Eldon High School drama department's fall play was a musical comedy called Wipeout. It's about a family who is about to lose (foreclosure, how appropriate!) The Shack, a hovel of retail on Avalon Beach, and the local raggamuffins try to win a surfing competition to raise money to save it. Of course, there's a love story in there, too. Both leads performed well, but for me, it's always the secondary, My-job-is-to-make-you-laugh characters that get my attention. EHS has a German foreign exchange student with a lovely voice (I would argue she should have been the lead.) and due to her acting, her character was more zany and charming than annoying like the other girls' characters. My other favorite was the tall boy who sported a dark mohawk and can be seen in the middle in this video:



But top honors for backstage help goes to my sister, the best stage manager ever!


Flat Jason gives it two thumbs up, but reminds everyone to bring earplugs...just in case!

Sunday night = bowling night

Sweet, starry bowling shoes...two plates of seasoned fries to mooch...talk of getting the soundtrack to Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog...ahh, it's bowling night!




This time Flat Jason and I made a new friend. Her name was Shaylene. (I don't know how to spell it, but that's what it sounded like.) She offered to share her 6-lb. bowling ball and all but forced me to use it. We did pretty good, she and I. I got close to 100 the first game and broke it the second game.

Mizzou Collegiate 4-H invites Flat Jason to dinner

Mizzou Collegiate 4-H recently hosted the North Central Region Collegiate 4-H Conference at the University of Missouri. College students from several states came to Columbia to participate in workshops, hear speaker Patty Hendrickson, volunteer at the Central Missouri Food Bank and just have fun...and they invited Flat Jason to attend the Saturday evening banquet and dance.

At dinner we heard from a few speakers, including MU Chancellor Brady Deaton. He recognized Flat Jason and his service and managed to tie-in that the university was completing a new veterans facility. The evening's entertainment was a hypnotist. Mildly amusing, but definitely a creeper. After dinner, Brady and his wife, Anne, posed with Flat Jason and me. And even though the photo would suggest otherwise, I promise I am not a giant, even if I tower over the Deatons.

Later, it was time for the dance, which was interesting. Flat Jason and Kelli Jo got the party started, even though the DJ got off to a rocky start and never really recovered. Then some drunk women from the bar crashed the dance. I totally tattled on them and either Ina or Melissa kicked them out. Ha, ha! I realized that I only know the dance to the music video version of Thriller. And I realized that I have a lot of friends in town that like to dance...sounds like a dance party at KC Country is in order!

One Day at Forum

On Sunday, Flat Jason and I went to One Day at Forum, which technically was at the Columbia Performing Arts Center. It was the first time all three services of Forum had worshipped together in more than 30 years. I was amazed at all the people. It's so different than my home church, Hopewell Union, a country church where a good day sees 30 people in the pews for one service. At Forum, there were so many people, they even handed out pre-packaged communion!

Even though the service was in a different place, with way more people, it still felt like Forum to me. And that was the point. Scott reassured us that as Forum expands to another campus on the north side of town (by me!), it will still be the same, just in another location.

And worship was awesome! Here are the last few minutes of the service:

Rock the Vote! Flat Jason hit the polls on election day.

Flat Jason celebrates Real Jason's Birthday

Sunday, Nov. 2, was Jason's 26th birthday. Flat Jason celebrated by staying busy. After church, we went with AshLee and JR to Shryocks' Corn Maze. None of us had ever been to a corn maze before so we didn't really know what to expect, but it's just like how it sounds: people wandering around a big cornfield.

This year's theme was Race for the White House - oh the elections! Will we never be rid of them? Shryock's made the maze more interesting by adding checkpoints with trivia questions that we had to find and answer. We started the maze by just choosing a path, left or right, but after unsuccessfully locating checkpoints, JR developed a systematic approach to the maze. We thoroughly covered the maze, located all of the checkpoints and turned in our sheet in good time. Masterful job! It's a good thing, too, because someone (I'm not naming names) on the team was getting a little hot and tired of the game.

After the maze, Flat Jason and I went out to eat birthday dinner at Huhot Mongolian Grill. We had a coupon for free birthday dessert, but our lovely waitress Sydney told her manager Jim that we were there and he said that Huhot would pick up the tab. What an incredible gift! Then a Marine came over with some money. "Here," he said. "When he gets home, take him out and buy him a beer." Another lady also came over to say thank you for Jason's service. On the verge of tears, I thanked everyone as best I could. I hope they realized how much their kindness and generosity meant to me. I felt incredibly blessed.

We met the Sunday evening crew for some birthday bowling goodness around 9 o'clock. I beat Brian both times with scores of 101 and 90. He'll say he was injured if you ask him, but the point is I beat him twice. It was the shoes...and Jason's birthday magic.

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Real Jason didn't have as much fun on his birthday. He actually had to go into the office for a little bit, but it was ok because he had decorations to remind him how special he is! Real Jason also wants to tell everyone thank you for the birthday cards and packages.

The day before his birthday

Flat Jason has officially attended his first baby shower. I know it seems kind of like a girls-only thing, but his presence was requested. And he got to hang out with the guys all the way up to the point that they decided to go shoot guns. It was then that I decided it would be best if FJ stayed with the girls, just this once.

He was very disappointed he had to stay. To prove his masculity, FJ guarded Michelle's presents and opted out of any game-playing.

Later, we met AshLee and JR at Cold Stone for some birthday ice cream. The guys that work there are pretty much amazing. They even sang to Flat Jason in honor of his birthday.



We finished eating our ice cream in Peace Park while we watched the squirrels play and the people walk by. It was a gorgeous afternoon.







Later that evening, we headed to KC Country for some line dancing. Our usual crowd was absent, but we were fortunate enough to be invited to join a birthday party. They were celebrating two birthdays, Betty's tonight and Joyce's tomorow. They were very excited to learn that Flat Jason's was tomorrow as well.

Mary Lou and Joyce were both Army wives, so we had a nice chat about the military. Before they left, Mary Lou gave Flat Jason a hug, and Joyce posed with her birthday twin.