Best.Blank.Ever?

There's no Felt show tonight. Instead at iO there will be a viewing of the airing of MTV's Real World show. Charna Halpern, the owner of iO, is this season's boss. You know how ever since Real World Miami they make the cast do a job together as a group? Well this season their job is to be a part of an improv team. They take improv classes together and perform together. It's pretty ridiculous. And Charna is their teacher and coach. This.Will.Be.Amazing.Television.

Last week's Felt show was okay but the freeze tag afterwards was the Best.Freeze.Tag.Ever. Whiskey Rebellion was the opening team and we played with them during Freeze Tag. One of the members was dressed in a European style. I/Nathan called him "Euro" in the scene. From then on it was a pretty crazy Freeze. Cesar/Jesse later froze the scene while he was in it, tagged a player out, and then unfroze the scene. In essence, he kicked a guy off the stage so the scene could continue. Amazing.

The topper was at the end. Fellow CSzer Nick is on Whiskey Rebellion. He's the type of guy who loves it when people talk about him, even if he's getting teased. He's the type of guy who actively chose to have "Rebel" on the back of his CSz jersey. In the last scene in freeze tag before lights, he froze the scene and entered it. Jesse was lying down on the puppet stage and Nathan was standing next to Jesse.

Nick: "I can't believe you did it. You killed him. You killed him!"
Me/Nathan: "Yeah, well you killed... comedy."
Lights.

Bike & Brunch

I finally kicked whatever sickness I was under by Wednesday.  I can't tell you how happy I was to be finally well.  Wait... I can tell you how happy I was.  I was super duper elated.  Gone was the gross throat soreness and gone was the nagging cough that just wouldn't go away.  Well, it did go away and I hope I never see it again.

I've kept my word thus far and I've taken my daily multivitamins ah... daily.  I did intend to start doing the ups afterwards.  That promise to myself I've faltered on like a poorly starting motorcycle.  I did do a set of 10 sit-ups Thursday morning.  But I forgot to do more the rest of the day.  And the next day and the day after that.  But one of these days I'll actually remember and then it will be great.

My friend Tamara came up with the great idea of a bike & brunch. We would gather a bunch of people and bike up to Evanston on Sunday and then have brunch at a restaurant up there.  A bike & brunch? Yes please! I immediately sprung to action and called all my friends with bikes to join us on this awesome idea.  The weather at the inception of the plan was pretty good but the weather was supposed to get worse and worse as the weekend approached.  I kept my fingers crossed that it wouldn't rain.  Sure enough, it didn't rain and although the temperature was in the high 40s, it didn't feel all that bad.

The turnout was better than I hoped.  All together we were a crew of 5; Tamara, Gilley, The Ferg, Bess, and myself.  The ride up north was nice although I had back tire pressure issues on the way.  My biking-in-the-city-fearful-friend Dayna met us at the restaurant.  We had brunch at Le Peep and I recommend the place to anyone.  The food was wonderful.  I treated myself to steak & eggs.  Afterwards we wasted time by browsing and shopping as we digested the enormous amount of food we ate.  All in all, it was a pretty great Sunday afternoon event.

Trip to Raleigh, NC - Part 2

To get out of the house and be productive - er, well maybe just to get out of the house - we went to a thrift/antique store. It had 3 floors plus a basement full of knick knacks and crap people no longer wanted. I always feel like my senses are overloaded when I go to those types of places. So much to see and take in; it's too much to process. But it was fun to check out all the old and arcane things on sale.

There was a BBQ at the theater and after that a bunch of us went to the mall to check out more stuff for sale, this time the latest and modern. We got back to the theater just in time to check out the first group of the night. The improv overall throughout the night was better than I expected, which was good. Felt had the last show of the night and our show was good. I'd give it a solid B. It was a well-representative show. People said that the audience enjoyed it, which was nice to hear. After the shows, Rock Band was brought out and people played it throughout the night. The drums were harder than I thought they'd be, mostly because trying to incorporate the pedal along with the regular drums was too much for my mind to handle. The party lasted until 3:30am. I needed to be up at 7:30am to drive to the airport. Ugh.

Jorin once again was a super pal and drove me to the airport. The flight back to Chicago was fine, although I once again had to deal with air pressure build up in my ears as we descended into Chicago. And I had to deal with the Blue line and their love of shuttle buses. But I was back in Chicago and it was relatively warm. Not Raleigh-warm, but warm enough.

Trip to Raleigh, NC - Part 1

I went to Raleigh, NC this past weekend for an improv festival. It was with the ComedyWorx theater. Being there was great. Getting there was a pain.

I woke up super early on Saturday after 3 hours of sleep and got my things together for my trip. I missed a bus and then waited 20 minutes for another westbound Belmont bus. I got to the Blue line station and just missed an O'Hare bound train. I waited 20 minutes for another train. Once on the train we are made aware that there's Blue line construction going on that weekend. At Harlem, we had to get off the train and board shuttle buses. Then drive slowing to the station in the middle of the construction before being driven to Cumberland to get BACK on a train. Then we rode the train - which went super slow - ONE STOP to O'Hare. I raced to the American Ticket counter but missed the window when I was supposed to check in before departure. Throughout the journey I told myself I should have taken a taxi to the airport. I hate when I'm right. They put me on standby for a flight 2 hours later. I got a seat because somehow there's not much of a demand for flight from Chicago to Raleigh.

The flight was fine expect I had to deal with a hyper 9-year old girl in the seat in front of mine who was traveling alone for some reason. I was also still sick - sinus stuff - and this made the landing tough because the air pressure in my ears built up to a crazy amount as the plane descended.

Raleigh itself was beautiful. The thing that struck me about it from the plane as we were coming in for the landing was how green it was. It was so green. The weather was gorgeous. Low 70s. Slight breeze. No humidity. So great. Jorin picked me up and I crashed - along with a ton of other people - at his mom's place in Raleigh. Before we had to do anything, it was nice to just sit in the veranda/sun back porch of the house and just relax and enjoy the beautiful weather.

Shake, Rattle, & Snore

A 5.4 earthquake hit southern Illinois and apparently people in Chicago felt it. I did not. I was asleep and I slept right through it. This dispels the myth I have about myself, the myth that I'm a light sleeper. But maybe it's because I'm still sick and my body knew I needed sleep.

I was pretty close to calling in sick today, going to the doctor's office for a visit, and to find out if I've got anything stronger than the common cold or flu. But after I took my daily vitamin pill and my antihistamine pill, I was suddenly much better. The pressure behind my ears broke. I poked around my left ear and it felt wet. I'm not sure if this was because actual water was stuck in my ear or it was the residue water from my morning shower. The the incredible sinus pressure was gone. My ears didn't hurt and I could breath out of my nose again. And my throat felt better.

On the way to work I started mildly coughing, which I've been doing ever since periodically. That makes me hope that the phlegm in my throat is finally going to go away soon.

I was worried I was going to have to miss work, go to the doctor, possibly find a last-minute sub for my CSz show, and maybe even not go to North Carolina for the festival that Felt is in. Now I feel much better and all might be fine and normal again soon. Here's hoping.

This Concludes the Silence Test

And stop. Pencils down.

I lasted until 9:30am when someone handed me some overdue reports and I needed to find out about these other reports are are overdue.

Other moments I've talked today:
Ordering a bagel and cream cheese.
Talking to a co-worker about still being sick.
Ordering a hamburger at the Billy Goat.
Answering the phones while covering for the receptionist during her lunch break.
Asking another co-worker about why my cork board installation work order hasn't been put through yet.

I'm going to try to see if I can get through the rest of the afternoon at work without talking.

Silence Test

My throat feels like a cheese grater went down it. It could be something serious. Or it could be that I hurt my voice in last night's Felt show. Either way, it hurts and it sucks. I'm going to try to speak as little as possible to give it a rest. So far I haven't uttered a word since I've gotten up. Let's see how long I can go without speaking.

Annnnnd...
[Pushing START on stopwatch]
Go.

Slow Recovery

I'm feeling a little better. The shoulder and neck pain is still there but much less so. I've got 95% of my energy back and I don't feel like I have a temperature anymore. My throat does feel gross because some phlegm has decided to take up residence in my vocal box. I happily await for the moment either tonight or tomorrow when a cough with dislodge the squatter.

I have been taking the daily vitamins every day (daily, duh) and that's good. When I'm fully recovered I think I'll actually start doing the "ups."

Body Moving, Body Mooooo-eeeeerrrrrrrkshpt

Pardon the interruption but the 80 year-old man in my body would like to speak.

I woke up this morning with slight back ache near my right shoulder. I had trouble moving my neck to the right. By noon I knew I was sick. I think I have a fever. My body is hot/overheating, I also get chills now and then, my muscles ache, my throat feels like an oven, my ears are bright red, I have no energy, and I didn't have my Advil with me when I went to work.

The bottle I have at home is practically full so I decided not to buy another bottle at lunch. Instead I bought orange juice and one-a-day multi-vitamins. Luckily I have the night free so I can crash in my bed right after work.

I really hope I nip this thing in the bud tomorrow.

Headaches

I get headaches from time to time.  Probably too regularly so.  I know I probably should have it checked out but I don't want to.  I feel that most of them are preventative and if that's the case, then I doubt they're migraines.  Thought their intensity, when they do come along, does feel pretty strong.

Thursday night I got a pretty strong one.  I think it was brought on by constant computer screen viewing and a lack of hydration.  I started feeling it around 2pm at work and I tried to make it go away.  I drank a lot of water and I took 2 Advil.  And I made sure it wasn't hunger-induced by snacking regularly and eating dinner right after work.  All was to no avail.  I felt awful.  It was not going away.  The weather outside was pretty disgusting too and the inside of my head matched it.  So I decided to turn to the only real solution for these types of headaches: sleep.  I actually went to bed before midnight.

The next day I felt better but I could feel the headache pains in my head just sitting there, waiting for me to slip up so they could return.  They were waiting for me to skip breakfast.  They were waiting for me to not drink enough water.  They were waiting for me to do anything remotely unhealthy to my body so they could return.  I was having none of it.  I ate breakfast, hydrated myself regularly, and drank some caffeine to help the blood vessels in my head.  That was the final blow and the headache pains were gone.  I had won.

I celebrated Friday night by having fun with friends.  I played darts at Mullens and came in second out of three.  I watched my friend Paul do his "Sex Ed" character at Graffiti and it was hilarious.  I then hung out with friends at the L&L and at CSz.  I also celebrated Saturday night.  Rattlesnake High School had a great show and afterwards I again hung out with friends.  However, this time I drank way too much beer and not enough water afterwards.  That's when my arch rival came back.

I awoke on Sunday to a extremely large headache.  Hangovers are the worst, mostly because they are very, very preventable.  They make me question my actions the night before.  Thankfully I wisely stocked up on Starbucks Frappuccinos a couple days before.  I expertly predicted I might drink too much this weekend.  Such good thinking makes me high five myself in knowing myself so well.  I knew I'd make poor decisions and then regret them the next day.  I am so wise.  So brilliant.  I'm so smart it hurts.

Things On My Mind

Last Friday I had a CSz spillover show at the CCPA. It was for two high school groups. They were a great audience - engaged but not too crazy, as some high school groups can get. The show itself was a blast. I also had a good show performance-wise.

One of the groups was a band from Pelican Falls High School in Minnesota. On Sunday CSz members got an email alerting us to a horrible tragedy that befell this high school. Right after our show, they got on their two buses and headed back to their school. Unfortunately, one of the buses crashed just north of Minneapolis and one student was killed; many others were injured. It just blows my mind thinking back on the show. I imagine an ethereal person coming to that show and announcing that one person in that room would not be alive in less than 12 hours. Of course you don't expect those around you to die, and of course you could go any minute, but you never expect it to actually happen. Especially to a 16 yr old. It's so sad.

~~~

Lollapalooza's line-up was announced Monday. I'm underwhelmed.

I'm caught up on ketchup games.

I'm reconnecting with old schoolmates on facebook. It's nice to find out what they're up to but at the same time I don't want to re-enter their lives. That's terrible of me, right?

I'm thinking this year is going to be great. So far things have been pretty good, despite running into exes in January. I visited my friend in Europe already this year. Next weekend I fly to North Carolina to do a Felt show. Next month Pennybear is probably going to LA for a sketch fest there. I really hope we go and that my LA friends come see the show. Especially my aunt and uncle. Then Pennybear will have another run at the Apollo. My parents might even come down to see one of the show! We've also submitted ourselves to the New York Fringe Festival, which I think we have a chance in getting into. We might film some of our sketches, which I think would be fun and help us get more exposure. And I'm motivated to bike more often and be outdoors more. I might even go to the West Town Bike's open shops on Saturdays.

Oh, and I signed up for the MadSkillz workshop at CSz; it's a improv rap workshop run by the Beatbox's Rene. I'm going to be horrible but hopefully I'll have fun at the same time while I'm embarrassing myself with my terrible rhyming and thinking-on-the-fly skills. I'm much more of a pause-while-I-think-of-the-right-term improviser.

Drunk Brunch

James & Marla hosted a "Drunk Brunch" at their place on Sunday. It was for three different occasions. Marla and Pad's birthdays, and to celebrate the return of Tony & Mikaela back to Chicago. Pad wasn't there, however, due to an illness.

It was good to see Tony and Mikaela.



It was a little weird, though, because I was the only single person there. I was among either married or engaged couples.

Aviator Sunglasses

Since I'm trying to wear my contacts more often, I'm able to wear sunglasses. So I bought myself some cheap sunglasses at Jewel. I was hoping to find some classic brown/tan aviator sunglasses. I'll have to be content with black aviator sunglasses.

Handlebar Tape

My handlebar tape on my bike was starting to fall off. I noticed that underneath the tape was this think gel cushion. So when I went to buy new handlebar tape, I bought the ones that came with gel cushions. Perhaps I bought cushions that were thicker than normal? Now my handlebars look massively thick. And the ends have a large amount of electrical tape which indicates that this was my first try at changing the tape. But that's okay. The important part is that I did it myself.

Funny as it may sound, my favorite part in doing this was cleaning the old adhesive off my handlebars. I took my time and made sure I did a good job getting it super clean. All my focus was on the handlebar. It was like I was in a Zen moment. I was at peace and the rest of the world melted away while I focused all my attention to one thing, one task.

April Resolutions

April 1st used to be New Years Day back in the dark ages I believe. That's how we got the term, April Fools. These days people make resolutions after New Years Day and try to keep them for about a month before they are broken. I wanted to do something similar for April.

I had been wanting for awhile to get some things in order. If you know me, then this will come as no surprise. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I need to clean my room, get my headshots duplicated, and start doing push-ups and sit-ups regularly. I thought I'd start on April 1st. But towards the end of the day, when I have time to get some headway on these things, I generally forget about them.

I would like to still try to do them, just 4 days late.

Public Enemies

Universal Studios is filming just down the street from where I live. It's a new Johnny Depp movie called "Public Enemies." He plays John Dillinger. Michael Mann is directing it. I hope it's better than the last movie that filmed in my neighborhood: "Wanted," the piece of shit movie where apparently a select few have the ability to curve bullets. So dumb.

My Friend's Roommate's Friend's Co-Worker is my Roommate

Here are more of the status updates I've done since my last post about the subject:

Jon:

• is.
• trying to be poetic.

• is ready to be mortified.
• on Wednesday, instead of doing Felt, I went to the Green Mill to see the show Mortified. My friend Sarah was doing a reading in it. For those that don't know, Mortified is a show where different readers read funny entries from the journals they kept as a teenager. It's pretty funny and Sarah did a great job. A bunch of CSz people were there to see it too. Afterwards we went to Fat Cat, a bar nearby. Somehow during the evening we started giving people nicknames. I got "butt slut" somehow.
  

• asks, "what about your love sauce?"
• I got this inside joke wrong. I was supposed to write "what about your dipping sauce" but I forgot the exact wording in it. Basically I entered into a conversation at the middle and overhead someone say something about dipping sauce. I asked them, "what about your dipping sauce?" Everyone thought it was funny.

• has a Rattlesnake High School show tonight at iO @ 8pm. Be there!
• I had a RHS on Friday. It was one of the worst shows I've ever been a part of. I was horrible. The team was awful. The audience was quiet. The host was not good. The dreamer was a student. The second team after us tried really hard to do a good show but nothing that night was good. The day before we had rehearsal and I felt like I was in some sort of slump. Was I burnt out on improv? The Friday show didn't help my mood. The best part of the show was the notes afterwards. We laughed so hard while talking about how horrible the show was.

• is the loneliest number, worse than two.
• Three Dog Night lyric from Joy to the World. I was also feeling a bit lonely. Spring sucks.
  

• fears he is an April fool.
• not really. I wrote this on April 1st.
  

• would throw away the cars and the bars and the war and make sweet love to you. Sing it now!
• another Three Dog Night reference! Wow, two in one week. I'm gonna have to ease up on the Three Dog Night references; I think I've used up my quota for the year already.
• also, I probably would make sweet love to you. Yes, I am talking to you, stranger that somehow came across my blog.
  

----

What these status updates missed, were some other neat things that happened this past week. Pennybear is still working on new material and I think some of the stuff we are generating is really great. Felt will be going to North Carolina for a festival put on by ComedyWorx in two weeks. Battlestar Galactica's season 4 starts this Friday. I won't be home when it airs because I'll be in a show, but Saturday I get to watch it with some other fellow BSG fans. I had sushi this past weekend and it was good to have. I hadn't had sushi in awhile so it was good to have again. The world is indeed a small world, which I discovered during sushi. I met this lady who works with my roommate and she was at dinner because she's friends with my friend's roommate. So to Space Balls the phrase: my friend's roommate's friend's co-worker is my roommate. I've been hanging out more with my friends, which is good for me. I've recently re-read some of my old posts and it's good to see I'm in a better place this year.

Lollapalooza Ticket

One week ago I bought my 2008 Lollapalooza 3-day pass ticket during the Early-Bird ticket process. I missed out on the $60 3-day pass ticket marking things a few weeks before. For that promo, they told you sometime in the next week they'd make those limited number passes available but you'd have to keep checking into the website to find out. I forgot about it until a few days after the rush for those passes.

The line-up has yet to be released but I the rumors of bands in it this year were enough to get me to buy the Early-Bird passes. I'll be going to it again this year (that's 3 years in a row) and this year I'll be going again with my concert buddy Marla. I probably won't try to get really close the stage this year since I've become Old Man Concert Goer and get easily annoyed by these young kids. I've already uttered the phrase "you can hear just as well from the back of the crowd and you have room to breathe."