Emily Ellet

A firepit, which is about as close as I get to ye olde Girl Scout camping these days. Every year, when the weather veers sharply into what I call “true fall” (after the lazy autumn slow dance known as Indian summer), when you wake to find an entire tree of leaves on the ground, when a chill wind cuts through your coat despite the golden rays surrounding you, when you inhale suddenly to try to catch whatever hint of wood smoke just teased your nose – that’s when I want to go G

The divorce isn’t going well.  I have a long way to go in the grieving growing process, but I’m attempting to focus on the good.  In that vein, I’d like to share the three best ways in which I have processed, handled, and worked through my grief so far.  (Aside from prayer, which is my constant resource and comfort.) Cats – Within an hour of picking me up from the airport, my dad offered me some of the best advice he’s ever given me: “Be a cat,” he repeated a few times. And I

I’ve never understood why I like hiking so much.  (Hiking is a good term to encompass the sort of run/walk/powerwalk thing I do.)  Certainly, it developed living in Colorado, especially in high school, when I’d occasionally drive to the canyon and hike to escape my problems and cry silently into the wind while dreaming myself up into the mountains behind me.  So there’s always been a freedom, sort of a Maria-singing-in-the-hills feeling for me, though I confess I rarely ever

I feel perpetually behind on blogging right now!  Mostly because our last weeks in Alaska were kind of a blur, due to Mike sailing with me and then the Alaska end-of-season clearance sales.  As a quick update, we’re actually in Vancouver today (my first time here), getting a feel for the city and heavy amounts of Starbucks WiFi before we sail today for Los Angeles and the second “half” of our cruise life: Mexico and Hawaii! I won’t be blogging about my last week in Alaska, be

Let’s start with that lumberjack show.  If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you probably saw that lovely photo (right) earlier this week.  That’s from the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show in Ketchikan.  Those are professional lumberjack sports competitors – and yes, that is a real thing.  All of the guys in the show are title-winning lumberjack sports athletes (I think that’s the best term for them), and the events in which they compete are no joke!  Scampering up denuded

Life on the cruise ship has become routine.  Not boring, mind you – but normal, standard, “the usual.”  Just as I’ve found my pre-show ritual or two, my days have found their own rhythm, whether it’s going to Dancercise in the mornings, hiking in Ketchikan, or shopping after church on Sundays. As a result, I’ve noticed, I’m blogging less.  Not because I’m not happy (au contraire!) but simply because there’s not as much new and fresh to share.  I’m sure everything will change

Well, hello again!  I hope you’ll forgive my absence this week.  As I mentioned, I had friends come cruising with me (they were official passengers and everything!), and so the time I usually spend blogging was spent talking with my husband – because the time usually spent talking with him was spent hanging out with them!  Not that I minded too much – it was wonderful to see friends and to share Alaska with them. So, in lieu of the couple of posts I would have written this we

Today can best be summed up with the phrase “adorable railroad town with scrumptious lavender shortbread.”  Or in other words, Skagway. But hold up!  I’ve got several days of exploring Alaska to share, and Skagway comes last.  First, there was Ketchikan. As I promised you guys, I indeed went hiking in Ketchikan this week, having thoroughly explored the town last week.  It was so nice to get off the ship and throw myself into the gorgeous forests of Alaska.  Trees, dirt, fresh

You see, all of our rehearsals so far have been costume-less, prop-less, and light-less.  We’ve occasionally rehearsed with live microphones, but they’re not the same mics we’ll be using onstage.  We’ve had sets to work with, but they’re not the real sets – we’ve been miming the lifts (the pieces of stage that rise and sink out of view), pretending to be aware of the pyrotechnics happening (can we say spectacle?), and approximating the entrances, exits, and numbers we’re supp