My Bike

The bike in front is my road bike that I use when the weather is nice to get around Chicago. I love it and it is tied with my computer as my favorite material possession. The bike behind it is my hybrid bike; the first bike I got in Chicago. It's definitely the unloved step-child.

I had hoped to use my hybrid bike in a Build-A-Bike class at West Town Bikes but, of course, the class I wanted was full and has a long wait list. And they don't have a class on my one free week night. Bummerville.

Spilled Milk

I like to eat breakfast. Breakfasts are awesome. And I cannot function without eating breakfast. I think it has something to do with having food in my system and being able to not pass out from lack of energy.

If I wake up early enough (read: when I'm supposed to wake up) I have breakfast at home. Usually a bowl of cereal. If I don't wake up on time, I have to decide which is more important: taking a shower or eating breakfast. Sometimes taking a shower wins. Sometimes eating wins. Sometimes the choice isn't up to me because I've run out of milk and wasn't smart enough to plan ahead and buy milk the previous day. So on mornings I don't eat breakfast at home, I buy a small bottle of milk (Milk Chug) and bring it to work. I have at my desk a box of cereal and Silo cups that I use as a bowl. I also have spoons.

Yesterday I had no milk so I took a shower.

I also spilled a cup of milk and corn flakes into my lap. I had only take a couple bites of cereal when I accidentally knocked the cup off my desk and into my lap. Long story short, my pants, chair, and the carpet around my chair had a large wet stain for much of the day.

I left my camera at home so I wasn't able to take a picture of the colossal mess.

Status Obsession

I've become addicted to changing my status on facebook. I only signed up to this thing a little over a month ago and I've already got more friends than my myspace account, which I've had for about 2 years, I think.

Here are all my statuses since joining this thing:

Jon:
is going out of the country
is having fun in Edinburgh
is glad to be back in Chicago
is sooooo ready for the weekend
is tired of being tired
is finally getting that overdue haircut
will huff and puff and blow your house down
is amused by his roommates
is doing a Pennybear show at the Playground at 10pm. Come by, won't you?
updated his f*ing blog. Are you happy, Martin?
remembered to set his clock forward an hour
is not the worst host; Cesar is
pities the fool
is totally wasting his off night
is really addicted to changing his status daily
is in the midst of a sexual scandal
cannot believe it's not butter
is anti-poke, bite, chomp, wizz, clang clang, tea party or any other fake or real applications. Except for the ones that aren't annoying
isn't listening and waiting for his turn to speak
has that special something... but only on the dance floor
is lightly basted
is easy like Easter Sunday morning
is on a vision quest.

Felt

Above is Nathan, he's the puppet I puppeteer in the show Felt. In a few months we'll celebrate our 2-year anniversary of doing the show at iO. I'll go ahead and plug the show for any strangers that somehow come across this blog.

every Wednesday night at 8pm
iO's Del Close Theater (the upstairs stage)
3541 N. Clark St.
Chicago, IL
tickets are $5

The show begins with an opening improv group of humans. Then we take a short break to set up the puppet stage with our black curtain to hide the puppeteers. Metallica's "Enter the Sandman" plays for our intro and then Nathan gets the suggestion. I'm not really certain how it always fell to me to get the suggestion, but it's set now and I'm not going to question it. I imagine when I'm not there for the show, that Cesar/Jesse probably gets the suggestion.

With puppets, the laughs are easier to get. As such, we really have to remind ourselves that we don't have to do too much to be funny. If we try too hard or overanalyze the scene then it becomes too much. So it's good to be able to dial it down and slow the scene down a bit.

Hurt Toe

Comedy Sportz had a rehearsal devoted to dancing last night. It was a ton of fun and I think everyone had a good time. However, I stubbed my toe during the first part of the rehearsal. When I got home I took off my sock to see what was the matter. I was surprised to find a toe that was pretty darn injured. It's definitely bruised but its color is more red right now than black and blue. I thought it might have been a large blood blister but it's not. It just a large red spot near the cuticle of my toe.

It hurts to go up on my toes when I walk on my right foot. So I hobbled to work today. And I'm hobbling around the office. My motility is slightly reduced. I have a CSz March Madness show this Friday and I hope the swelling goes down by then so I can run around and be active for the show.

~~~
Speaking of March Madness, our MM CSz team won our first round of shows, so we're in the second round. After helping the team win last Saturday, I got myself a beer and stayed around to catch a bit of the Hot Carl. Then I and a couple friends went to a birthday party at someone's apartment where I had some more drinks. After that we headed to my place and before I knew it an impromptu party broke out. It was cool to have people over, even though I was super tired and resting my eyes on the couch while other people were mingling.

In the morning, my two friends and I (who both crashed at my place) had brunch with one of my roommates. I then spent the rest of Sunday just relaxing. This was one of the most fun weekends I've had this year.

Pennybear

This is the poster for Pennybear's last show at the Apollo Theater, which was this past Fall. Pennybear, for those that don't know, is the sketch group with whom I do sketches. I did a lot of sketch in college. In fact, by the time I left my college improv group, I had become the most prolific sketch writer in that group's then 10-year history. Something like a little over 100 sketches. But when I came to Chicago, I didn't do sketch, just improv. I did try to be a part of a group back in 2003 but I really didn't take it seriously or put in any effort at that time.

A year ago at this time I was in an elective class at iO where essentially we got a taste of the Second City style of creating a show. It was a lot of fun and very challenging. To my surprise and delight, the stuff I helped create were good. My friend Nancy was in this class as well. She and a couple of my college friends had just started a sketch group and she thought I'd be a good fit for the group. So I was invited. Again, to my surprise and delight, the group was fun and my level of involvement was much greater than 4 years before.

I've been really proud of the material we've created and I enjoyed our first run at the Apollo. Last Friday we tested out a few sketches at Graffiti (a show at the Playground Theater specifically for sketch groups to show off their stuff) and they seemed to go over well. Our next run will begin in June, and I'm looking forward to seeing what new material we produce in the coming months.

Warsaw

My friend got married yesterday in Edinburgh, where he lives. He met his wife while backpacking through Europe; she's Polish. They decided to just go to city hall and have it done that way. Later on this year they'll visit her family in Poland and his family in America. But they decided to have their bachelor and bachelorette parties in Warsaw.

I had been promising for a whole year that I'd visit them in Edinburgh but hadn't done it yet. So I decided to join them and others for the bachelor party in Warsaw. I first went to Edinburgh and crashed on their couch for 4 days before we all went to Warsaw. Warsaw was a nice enough city, and as well as could be expected in February. The bachelor party was fun and it was even more fun later in the evening when the bachelor and bachelorette parties merged into one party when we all met up at a super small and cramped dance club. However, the most fun on the trip wasn't the sites that I saw, but reconnecting with my friend, who I hadn't seen in over a year.

Newbie Brunch

I met with my fellow Summer '07 CSz newbies for brunch yesterday. I have to be more specific than just "newbies" because there wasn't just one newbie class last year and because another group of people have been hired after us. It was good to regroup with these guys.

Comedy Sportz

I've been doing shows at Comedy Sportz for a little over half a year now. The shows are a lot of fun and improving there is a fun challenge. Doing short form exercises different improv muscles than long form. You have to almost always be hitting your stride in short form if you want to win over the audience. I don't mean be crazy emoting guy, but just be "on," attacking the scene, constantly making strong and bold choices in the scenes.

I'm weak at singing and rhyming, but I'm really pushing myself to get better at both of them. I'm getting better, but in baby steps. Just last weekend I had one of my worst shows ever. I wasn't making strong choices and I was getting eliminated early in elimination type games. And both the owner and the artistic director were there for the show. But on positive about that show was that I finally truly felt comfortable during Da Do Run Run; I was thinking of rhymes easier and faster. The very next day I captained the red team and had one of the most fun shows I've ever had there. We really brought our A-games that day. We even did a pretty good job in the game called Audience & Hammerstein ("Hello, I'm Chocolate.")

I got to play in the first show at the new space. It was one of the two Friends & Family shows. I got to play in the second half of the show. The show was probably THE BEST show I've been apart of there. The first half crews were on fire. The second half crews were also bringing it. I played Word From Our Sponsor for the first time in a show and it was great.

Rehearsals are also fun, though there isn't much stage time since the ensemble has about 40 people in it. Here's a picture of some people having fun during rehearsal:

2008 Summaries

I've been yelled at for not maintaining this blog on a regular basis. All I can say to them is too bad.

Here's a summary of 2008 so far:
January

• Why do I keep running into ladies that I dated in 2007?
• Another Second City audition where I do uninspired scenes and don't get called back.
• Sketchfest was fun
• 31st birthday
  

February

• Get a passport
• Sign on to yet another online dating site.
• Go on a couple of first dates; feel no spark.
• While drunk, sign up on Facebook
• Perform in the newly opened Comedy Sportz theater on Belmont!!!
  
• Use the passport
• Take in the beauty of Scottish and Polish ladies
• Think about how neat a vacation affair would be
• Don't make any kind of move
• Come back to America
• Deal with jet lag.
• Facebook is silly.
  

March (so far)

• Man, I'm really tired a lot.