Blog Assignment #1: Top 10 best MOMENTS of the first 10 years of the millennium

Suz and I are on to a couple of things. During a conversation in which we decided we should start two more blogs ("Things We're On to" in which we predict new trends and good ideas and "Ho, No You Di'int" in which we list things that women should not be doing if they don't want be categorized as a ho), I told her about Micah's Top 10 movie list that actually included 41 movie mentions. Somehow in noting how difficult it actually IS to commit to a finite favorite anything, we decided that not only could we beat Micah at being selective, we could top him. Thus this blog assignment!

The Top 10 Best Moments of the first 10 years of the new Millennium!!!

(Note: "Moment"= Snapshot of a memory or feeling. No all-encompassing general moments like theatre or family or love. That's lame and non-specific, nor does it challenge the blogger. Note 2=I am doing 1 per year so as not to have current perspective overwhelm the entire decade. This was not a pre-requisite rule, just me being organized.)

1. 2000=Epic Dance-off at the Mardi Gras party at Nick Blake's basement. Nickie, Laura, Carrie Hill, Charlie, Nick and I danced our faces off to Outkast's B.O.B. It was epic, overflowing with joy and we danced in a way (and for the reasons) that I imagine the first people who ever thought of dancing, danced.

2. 2001=March, Spring Break in Arizona with Jordan, Martin, Jason and Derek (? I think that was his name?). Eve and I were called up to the roof to find all 4 boys stark naked, sunbathing, with their girlfriends' initials in sunblock on their right buttocks. We laughed, took pictures, grabbed their swim trunks, threw them in the pool, and left the roof.

3. 2002=Memorial Weekend, 4th Street Blues Festival, my first full-blown Root City show at the Twins Bar. If having to pick a moment from that show, I'd say "Pinch Lover" and having Al dedicate a song to me for the first time. It signaled the beginning of a long run for me and many other RCB family members to come.

4. 2003=The moment of getting cast as Nickie in "Sweet Charity," knowing it finally meant I would get to be a triple threat on stage.

5. 2004= I am tempted to just say Italy, but I need to pick a moment. Damn rules! Okay! In Pompeii, I went for a walk away from others because I had hit my limit on too many theatre folk. I was looking at a flower bush and the old gardener came up to me and we had a lovely conversation in full Italian. At the end of this impromptu, long and personal conversation, he gave me a flower from this bush, which he planted for his daughter when she was very little and who had since married and moved far away. He said that she and I had the same eyes. It was one of those amazing moments in life that are 100% magic. Wow, I haven't thought of that in a really long time. Gratitude.

6. 2005=Jan. 12 around 1pm. As Jill Scott's "Golden" played in my ears, a one-way ticket cashed in, I sat in a plane as it took off for Boston, Mass. I knew in that moment that I would live the life I'd imagined, fearless and on my own terms.

7. 2006=April 21, opening night of Bye, Bye Birdie watching my production number "Honestly Sincere" earn a standing ovation in the middle of the first act. It was the moment I realized I was good at what I did.

8. 2007=March 22, Bruegger's in Uptown. Ben and I fell in love that morning, starting with coffee and bagels. My heart has never been the same, blessedly.

9. 2008=Sometime during the fall of that semester, Eric Mayson and I created the opening number of Abiyoyo in less than an hour, in one of the most organic, collaborative and inspired creative processes that ever graced this earth (I'm convinced). We started that afternoon with a chord and a fable and ended an hour later with a 4 minute production number, a strong concept, a full blown musical and a community of people all on the same page. Irreplaceable. I've been chasing Cocolee ever since...

10. 2009= In March, the exclusive Green Door Bar of Taunton, MN, witnessed the karaoke stylings of three siblings drunkenly performing some re-imagined Garth Brooks, before one of them was to be sent to war. Well, Bree and Chris sang, I did creative movement (which was so good, a regular dubbed me "Helen Keller's great grand-niece" by the by), and Mom took pictures and laughed until she couldn't breathe. Right now, it doesn't feel like we'll ever be in that place again, so happy, so in the same place at the same time...so it's pretty damn special to me.

There. Assignment complete! I feel grateful and accomplished in this moment, to tell you the truth. I also just made a bunch of realizations about myself. Like love trumps India, Birdie trumps the Lincoln Center, and Abiyoyo trumps LaChiusa in my heart and spirit. Huh...Who would have thought that? <3

Now...your turn! CHALLENGE!!!!