Merry Christmas!

To those who celebrate it, Merry Christmas!

I had a really nice holiday season, and I hope you did, too. I got to spend time with family, I ate way too many Christmas cookies (although, is there ever really such thing as too many?), and I watched more cheesey holidays films than I care to admit. I absolutely love Christmas movies, but even I couldn't stomach the bad acting and corny story lines in some of them (for example, kittens having to steal Santa's sleigh in order to save Christmas when Santa comes down with a spontaneous cat allergies).

I took my daughter to see Santa not one, not two, but four times. She hated it every single time. So, as a result, I ended up getting my picture with Mr. and Mrs. Claus instead. I'm still waiting to see if my parents will be hanging these photos on their fridge and sending them out along with their next Christmas newsletter.

I guess you're never too old to sit on some random stranger's lap?

I also checked out Christmas at the Corunna Historical Village for the first time. I had seen the buildings (all of which are from the 1800's, I believe) during the summer, but for the holiday season, they are open to the public. It was really interesting to look inside and imagine what life must have been like.

Some of the buildings:



We spent Christmas with both Dan's and my sides of the family, which was nice. Santa was quite good to me. At the top of my list of favorite presents: a vegan gummy bear kit and THIS:


Debbie Gibson is my childhood idol (and first concert), and I was seriously dying when I opened this video!

I didn't take any pictures of our tree this year, but I did get a shot of us attempting to pose in front of it.

Self-timer problems.

Different tree + selfie mode = that's more like it. 

After Christmas, I headed up to the Upper Peninsula for a show. Thankfully, it wasn't like two years ago in that there were no car accidents involved. Although, what would performing up north in the winter be without driving in ice? So there certainly was some of that.

Christmas decorations at my gig. My kind of tree!

Football, but more importantly, sugar!

I went to my first NFL game yesterday. I can't say I really understood what was going on for several reasons: 1. I just learned what a down is in 2015. 2. Our seats were so high up, I could barely see the ball. 3. I prefer people-watching and would much rather watch the drunken, screaming fans next to me, and I also wanted to make sure they didn't throw up on me.

But, I had fun! It was wonderful that I remained vomit-free, and I also really enjoyed getting to see Ford Field for the first time.




After the game, we, unfortunately found out that Chili Mustard Onions (Detroit's all-vegan coney island, i.e., diner for all you non-Michiganders) was closed that day. Sad face. But, we did, fortunately, find our way to For the Love of Sugar, which is one of my favorite bakeries of all time! The cake we got was heavenly! We also tried the vegan pizza at Blaze Pizza, and it did not disappoint.



To be honest, I don't even remember who won the game. But, I sure as all get out remember that frosting! Priorities, you know.

Thanksgiving and Harrisburg

Thanksgiving weekend was a whirlwind, for sure. That may or may not be because I was likely in a pumpkin pie-induced food coma for most of it.

Since we're on the subject of food, here's some of the things that went into my belly.

Main course and mini-cheese plate (P.S. it's probably pretty obvious from reading my blog, but I've been doing a vegan Thanksgiving for the past 14 years, so everything pictured in plant-based...well, in theory, anyway).

We decided to forego fake turkey this year and instead went with lasagna. 

And the desserts...

If you've ever wondered what Heaven tasted like, I'd venture to guess this is pretty close. 

Thankful for this one because he 1. made the above chocolate pie, and 2. he puts up with my constant picture-taking and still fakes a smile like he semi means it.



On Friday after Thanksgiving, I woke up at 3 am to hit Black Friday sales the road. I worked at the Comedy Zone in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania for the first time, and it was a blast! Not only was the club fantastic (really nice staff and packed house of great laughers), but the town was so cute. It rained most of the weekend, but I got a couple shots of buildings around town.



Thanks for the great weekend!

Halloween

Halloween is my favorite holiday! I always get so excited to dress up, hand out candy, and go to parties. Although, in reality, what usually ends up happening is, I realize my grand costume ideas require too much work so I end up throwing together some sort of last-minute pun costume, and I sit at home in my PJ's eating all of the said candy I intended to hand out.

This year, I did make it out to trick-or-treat. Of course, I went under the guise of my daughter trick-or-treating. The problem is she is a 1-year-old who cannot speak. Thus, I went up to the houses myself, held out my her bag, and sheepishly said "trick-or-treat" the way a person in their thirties does when asking for free candy. Luckily, most people were happy to oblige, and as we were walking home, two people handing out candy demanded that "mom and dad take extra" since they didn't have nearly as many trick-or-treaters as they anticipated.

Well, twist my arm.

As I was walking around collecting candy, I realized my neighbors go all out on the decorations front.



I have some serious work to do.

I didn't even carve pumpkins this year. I just used a sharpie and called it good.



This was also the second year (of what’s sure to be many) of me making my child wear matching Halloween costumes. Barristers in 2017. Cows in 2018.





I'm going to be seriously sad on the day she's able to dress herself and inevitably starts objecting to my costume ideas.

One Crazy Story

I recently got to be a guest on Nate Armbruster's podcast, One Crazy Story.

I've known Nate for a long time, and he's not only incredibly funny, but so nice, too. It was so much fun catching up with him and chatting about my adventures in Peru and New Zealand. If you'd like to take a listen, the link is here.

Road Trippin'

Dan and I had the brilliant idea to take a 9 day, 6 city East Coast road trip with an eight-month-old in the middle of the summer. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, as it turns out, a lot.

Our original plan with to visit New York City. 1. Because I went to college there and haven't been back since 2012. 2. Because Dan has never been there, and wanted to experience it.

So, we figured, why not stop along the way and take in some other cities?

First, we stopped in Ashland, Ohio since I had a show at the American Legion there. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures, but it was a ton of fun. I shared the stage with Bill Boronkay and Andy Beningo, who are two of my favorites.

Then, it was off to Pittsburgh. This is right around the time we found out we would be traveling in one of the worst heat advisories in quite some time. Hello, 90+  degree weather with 1,000 bajillion percent humidity! We pretty much only had time to make a quick stop at a look-out in the city before our bodies became completely taken over by sweat.

 

So, we piled back in the car to find out hotel in Washington, Pennsylvania. Randomly, Dan said, "hey, why don't you try to find a vegan restaurant in this town?" Thinking the only thing that was there was the casino we were staying next to, I still gave google a whirl.

And man, am I ever glad I did! We stumbled upon this place called Fortuitea, and it may have been the best restaurant I've ever been to! The food was seriously unreal, and the owners were as nice as could be. It ended up being within walking distance to our hotel, so we didn't have to make too much effort after stuffing ourselves with burgers, pizza, mac and cheese, and an Oreo cinnamon roll (yeah, that's a thing).

Here's Dan trying the Impossible Burger for the first time.


We then drove to Philadelphia, where the temperatures topped 100 degrees. Since we couldn't bring the baby out in that heat, we took it upon ourselves to get take-out and try a vegan Philly cheesesteak at every restaurant that offered them. When in Rome, right?

Thankfully, we had a nice view from our room as we stuffed our faces with delivered, cheesy goodness.



We did manage to sneak in a few touristy things though.



Not only was it hot as all get out, it was also around this time that our daughter decided she hated the car seat. So, we pretty much had to stop every half an hour to keep her happy. Oh, and we had to listen to this song on repeat. Let me be the first to tell you that hours upon hours of nothing but Baby Shark is about enough to make someone go mad.

We also looked at the weather report and noted the heat advisory in New York City. Fearing we'd get trapped in the hotel again, we decided to make a detour to the Jersey Shore instead.

We were kind of disappointed about not making it to the city, but finding a vegan ice cream place at the Shore helped quite a bit.


As did the ocean.


The road back to Michigan was looooong! But, luckily, we broke it up a bit with a stop to see Dan's brother and sister-in-law in Ohio.


We survived! And...now, sleep! And air-conditioning. Lots of lots of Baby Shark-free air-conditioning.

Veg Fest 2018!

Today is one of my favorite days of the year. Today is VegFest.



When I first started volunteering and attending the Detroit-area VegFest, it took place in a school. There were maybe a few hundred people who showed up, and I remember speakers standing at podiums that were in front of children's toys.

Wow, times have changed. Now it's at a convention center, and it is HUGE!

Like last year, I volunteered with Attorneys for Animals.

Shout out to Meg and Krishna for taking this not-at-all-staged photo with me.

And like pretty much every year in the past, I had to get a picture with my carrot buddy Daniel.


The food was incredible. Despite trying to be a bit healthy. I totally splurged on vegan Ben and Jerry's, a coney dog from the Russell Street Deli, and macaroni and cheese from GreenSpace.

File these under "why I weigh more now than I did two months after giving birth":



It just feels so incredible to see people who are interested in plant-based living all coming together. I always get so inspired there! If you haven't been before, I highly recommend it!

Vegas! And even more VLOGGING!

This weekend was just what I needed! I was craving some serious sun, and I also wanted to see my brother since I hadn't seen him since Thanksgiving. Since I was lucky enough to get booked into some gigs in Nevada and Arizona, I packed my bags and flew to Las Vegas (where he lives).

My trip started off with a trip to the oh-so-delicious VegeNation. My brother had vegan quesadillas, and I had the mock chicken gnocchi pot pie. Both were pretty amazing!

We walked around downtown for a bit before I met up with Keith Lenart, and we headed to Laughlin, Nevada for our gigs at the Edgewater.

I always dig playing the Edgewater. The shows are fun, the casino is right on the water, and they give way too many free buffet coupons.

On Saturday night, we had the night off, so we drove back to Vegas to see Lionel Richie, who was absolutely fantastic. Keith even got us an upgrade on our seats, so we got to feel like VIPs for the night.

After the concert, we hung out with a couple of other comisc who live in Vegas. This is us with Geechy Guy having a little Michigan comedy reunion at a karaoke bar in Henderson.

After our show on Sunday, we got to see a great ABBA tribute band, ABBAcadabra (and we even got to hang out with them after the show).

On Monday, before our show in Pinetop, Arizona, we took an impromptu trip to the Grand Canyon since I had never been. We were running late, so we only had 15 minutes, and since I wasn't prepared, I'm pretty sure I was the only one wearing flip flops. But, it was still absolutely breath-taking. Unfortunately, my camera crapped out on me, but I did get a couple of shots. And I made a quick mental note that I must return soon.

Proof I was there.

Oh, and I also vlogged my adventures, so if you'd like to watch, it's here. I apologize in advance for the complete overuse of 80s-esque electronic music for the first minute or so.