Jan. 6, 2008

Friday night I enjoyed doing nothing at all.
Saturday I enjoyed sleeping in before going to shows at CSz and iO.

Later that night I went to the Grafton for a co-birthday party. Real life couple Sarah (in the picture above) and Arnie were having their party together since Sarah's was on Friday and Arnie's was on Sunday. There were a lot of people there and I ran into a girl I dated for a month last year. That made me want a pint of beer. Before I arrived I wanted to just have soda.

Today I've battled a hang over. In the evening I went to Sketch Fest to check out Chewties. Their show was good.

Jan. 4, 2008

Last night's show was a good one. We had 27 people in the audience - so not quite as many as I thought we'd get, but bigger than we had at the Apollo. The audience seemed to love the show and we got a few people coming up to us cast members that they liked our show.

Today's my parent's 33rd wedding anniversary. They're celebrating it in Mexico with my aunt and uncle. Congrats Mom & Dad.

Jan. 3, 2008

Tonight is Pennybear's only show at Sketch Fest. I'm excited for this but at the same time I'm preparing for no one to show up and ending up being disappointed by our failed attempt at capturing the hearts of the festival goers.

Below is Nancy and Marla running lines before the show.

Jan. 2, 2008

Back to work. Ugh.

The temperature was 6 degrees Fahrenheit

Here's a picture from the party I went to New Year's Eve:

Jan. 1, 2008

Slept until 2pm. Went to bed at 4am.

The weather was freakin' freezing and the howling wind sure wasn't helping things. Had tech for Sketch Fest with PennyBear.

Home Sick

Today I'm home from work because I'm a little sick. I'm getting better; I feel much better since this morning. But I'm not able to relax on the couch and watch TV because we've got cleaning ladies here today cleaning up the place. But I haven't had time in the past week to actually clean my room enough so that the cleaning ladies could finish up the job of cleaning my room. But my bathroom is gonna get cleaned and this makes me very happy.

Last week I put in my vacation request at work for the all of Thanksgiving week off. I have to be at work the day before Christmas but I get the day after Thanksgiving off. So I get to visit my parents during Thanksgiving this year but not Christmas. Oh well.

The Halloween show of FELT was a fun one and the costume and talent contest between the puppets was pretty fun. Lauren won the contest with Carrot. She dresses Carrot up as a "carrot bandit" and her talent was giving a dramatic monologue but the monologue was actually the lyrics to "The Little Mermaid."

Boom Chicago was in town last week also and a bunch of people I knew were auditioning for it. A few got callbacks, which is great. Once again I failed to learn about this in time to sign up for a slot. Oh well, maybe next year.

Late Friday night I went to the Hideout where a couple of DJ's were taking turns in spinning some great tunes. It was unusually warm that night and inside the Hideout the dance area was quite steamy. But I had fun.

I did Mr. Voice for the first time at ComedySportz on Saturday. It was a 6pm show and I did an okay job at it. Then I rushed north for an 8pm Rattlesnake show. I thought the show was okay but our coach and others have said it was a really good show. So what do I know? I know that I'm losing the ability to judge whether a show was good or not. I guess that means I'm doing a better job of just being in the moment and not being so concerned with how I think the show is playing out.

Later on in the night I did Rant and that was fun although I thought my positive rant about liking Law & Order wasn't all that great.

Pennybear had our last show of our 6-week run at the Apollo last night. It was a good show and we had a good crowd. I got to catch up with a few friends I haven't seen in awhile so that was good.

Sleepy Time

After I got home from work last night, I only had enough energy to watch Sunday's episode of Dexter (On Demand!) and eat a bowl of oatmeal. An hour later I was super tired and I had a headache. I decided to do what I haven't done in months: go to bed early.

I went to bed at 8pm! I didn't fall asleep right away but eventually I did. I woke up in the dark and still felt exhausted. But I felt like I slept a long time. It must be around 3am, right?

I look around and see some light is getting into my room from the kitchen area. I get up and look and I see that the light is actually a light that's been left on in the living room. I will turn it off, but not before I relieve my bladder. That's when I hear the front door being wrestled with. Panic mode starts in and I freeze in the bathroom. All of my attention goes to my ears, searching out for more noise. That's when I hear one of my roommates walk into the apartment. But at 3am?

I go to my night stand alarm clock to check the time. It has a wash cloth draped over it because I don't like how bright the time shines in the pitch black of my room. I uncover the alarm clock and find out that I was mistaken: it's 10:45pm. I only got a 2 and a half hour nap.

Luckily this nap didn't prevent me from falling asleep and getting a proper night's sleep. I went back to bed at 11pm and this time slept soundly until my alarm clock woke me up this morning.

Notes on the Past Week

Last Tuesday I had CSz rehearsal and it was fun to feel like we were actually rehearsing things. It never hurts to work on practicing the games we do in shows. It definitely never hurts to practice musical improv. Especially for me since I'm not so good at it.

Trivial Pursuit is fun at first but if it takes too long to finish, it becomes like Monopoly which no one really wants to play ever. But at least with Trivial Pursuit you can exercise your brain muscles.

Felt is having a Halloween show this Wednesday... on Halloween. It's nice that it'll be the actual holiday for the show. Our puppets will be in costume and there will probably be a puppet talent show to see which puppet goes away with a prize. That should be fun.

I was hoping the Rockies could have at least made the World Series somewhat exciting. But they didn't.

Sent happy birthday wishes on Friday to: my roommate, my sister, and my best friend.

I'm glad I decided against Critical Mass last Friday because I would have been soaked to the bone. Instead I was safe and warm in my apartment getting hooked on Stranger Than Fiction when I told myself I was supposed to be cleaning my room. I need more TV watching discipline.

RHS show was fun and I did a great pratfall that was 0% prat and 100% fall. But it looked great and I didn't get hurt and I played it off like I did get hurt which means I'm a great physical comedian.

Saw the movie Control on Saturday. I liked the beginning of it a lot because they didn't hype it up but made it look real and ordinary, the beginning of the band. But I didn't love the movie either. I'd say if you don't want to spend $10 to see it in a theater, then wait for it to come out on DVD.

Later that night I had a CSz show and it was real fun. I'm getting comfortable playing with this theater and that's great. Then much later I went to a Halloween party in Wicker Park and was one of maybe 3 other people not in costume. The other 50 people there had really great costumes that were all very creative. I went with non-improvisers and was sort of surprised to run into a couple people I recognized.

Channel 101's Yatch Rock is a wonderful show and I wish I could do something like that.

Pennybear's show was a fun one but it was also a little wild. Another great audience, which is nice. Next week is our last show so hopefully we can sell out the theater next Sunday.

Week Abbr.

Poss. last TM Felt show. 2 silly.
Sub Nahnsen 4 RHS. Fun charac., lil 2 much same energ.
Fri. 8pm CSz. Good T's.
Bike to WP. Meet up w/ VB. Bike to LSq.
Pub crawl 4 JN; totes fun. 4 beers + no nachos. Graffton, Daily, R. Vill., Oakw.
PMU Sat morn w/ VB.
2pm lines.
Sat. 6pm; almost compl. 5 Things.
Cray-z warm weath. sweat. bike.
1030 RHS. Fun t's.
Midn Rant. OK.
Bess bd par-t @ J's. Sup tired.
Goldn Ang w/ JF.
2 nites n row: 3am bed-t.
Good sleeps. EZ Sun.
Pennybear: 19 paid, 2 comp = 21 people! Energ., respons., laughn. Good t's.
Friend hang out aft sho @ LH. Sup warm.
CLE 2 BOS 11
Cold front, rainy Mon.
Dexter On-D.
Thea bd par-t @ Brauhaus.

Pretty Darn Busy

These past few weeks have been pretty busy. Because I've been puting myself down as available for all my free weekend nights, I'm getting what feels like a lot of ComedySportz shows. Last week I had 3 shows (2 on a Saturday) and this weekend I have 2 shows. Add on top of that the start of the show Rant at iO, which opened this past Saturday at midnight. Add to the mix sketch rehearsals that involve running lines and tweaking moments during sketches. Not to mention Sunday night shows of Pennybear.

And that's just the weekend.

Between Tuesday and Thursday I've got 2 nights of rehearsal and one night of puppet improv. As such, I'm doing absolutely nothing on Monday nights and I'm going to hold onto that free night as long as I can. That's why I haven't gone over to iO to catch the Armando for that night.

My day job is also getting me down because I've been having to take customer service messages due to an understaffed CS department. While taking messages from irate customers, I have to fight the strong urge to quit my job on the spot. October would not be a good month to be without a job because soon it will be the holiday season and many places take a break from looking to hire people during this time.

I never did hear back from the Onion girl. Oh well. Too bad. But don't feel sorry for me, because things are looking good in the horizon.

Celebrating 7 Years of Serving Chicago

Seven years ago yesterday I moved to Chicago from Florida. I celebrated it by going to work and then watching TV at home. I also went to Home Depot with my roommate Tim get get fluorescent bulbs and a few other things for the apartment. Once back home we changed the old fluorescent bulbs in the hallway and the common area bathroom.

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I brought my bike to the bike shop Sunday after finally throwing in the towel in trying to find my missing key to my bike's wheels. So I'm having an entirely new wheel lock system put in. This time I'll actually register the key with the wheel lock company so that I don't have to go through this again. I have learned a valuable lesson. Thankfully doing this won't be too expensive.

But... I'm excited because that means after work today I get my bike back and then I can ride around Chicago again! Freedom! It really feels like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders.

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This week I've been reminded just how busy I actually am and how it makes finding an open night for scheduling a date with a lady super hard. Especially when one weekend she's out of town and then next weekend I've got a wedding and the opening of a sketch show. This latest Onion girl seems great... now if we could only actually meet. Someday... someday this will all get easier.

To-Do List

Yesterday I made a To-Do list for myself, hoping it will motivate myself into action. So far so good. This list has 61 items on it. I'm not going to publish it here, as it would take too long. Suffice to say it involves cleaning my room, buying new stuff, selling or giving away old stuff, and getting more organized.

The list has only been in existence for a little under 24 hours and I've already got 3 things done. The biggest of the 3 was cleaning out all the shit underneath my bed. There were a lot of old Readers and envelopes under my bed. And a shit ton of dust. But it felt good getting it done.

I plan on getting another 7 things done today. Yay productivity!

Day 31 - Last Day

push-ups and sit-ups: I really blew it this last week on this challenge. I totally forgot to do any ups this day.
One thing that is interesting, my abs have been aching for about a full day now. Perhaps they are trying to tell my body to keep doing the sit-ups and that the inactivity is hurting them.

alcohol: none.

So this concludes the August Challenge.
On the ups, I did good up until the last few days.
I successfully didn't drink a drop of alcohol.
I successfully didn't log on to my online personal ad to check to see if anyone had been checking out my profile.
And I successfully woke up before noon on the weekends.

Good for me.

Day 30

push-ups and sit-ups: none. From waking up to getting back home from a delayed flight back to Chicago, I didn't have any time to do any ups.
alcohol: after the funeral we went to this American Legion place for the reception. There was a bar next to it and I was offered a drink by one of my cousins. I had to decline. I also didn't feel like drinking. So: none.

Day 29

push-ups: 11. Even remembered to do them despite being in Minneapolis for a funeral.
sit-ups: 30.
alcohol: none.

Day 28

push-ups: 10. Guess taking a day off wasn't such a good idea.
sit-ups: 40.
alcohol: none.

Day 27

push-ups & sit-ups: I got a huge headache later in the day, which is when I do my ups and so I decided to go to bed and not do the ups. So no ups done on this day.
alcohol: none.

Day 26

push-ups: 14.
sit-ups: 40.
alcohol: none.
weekend wake-up: 7:15am; from a call from my dad telling me of my grandmother's passing away. After being up for an hour, went back to bed and slept until 11:30am.

Dark Day

My grandmother passed away today. She was 78. She was a great lady and had this great jaded way at looking at the world. I always got the sense that when things went wrong she was able to deal with it as if she expected it to go wrong. Kind of a "what can you do?" attitide. A been-there-done-that kind of thing. But she wasn't jaded all the time. She loved her family - for better or for worse - and she loved to laugh. She also had been a smoker for decades - I think she started smoking when she was around 13 years old. I always expected her to get lung cancer but she never did.

In the end it was heart failure; my guess caused in part by the smoking. My grandpa, her husband, who is also 78, is a great guy and my heart goes out to him during this painful time. His sister died about a month ago and now he lost his wife. Just not fair. They were married just over 50 years.

My grandma is succeeded by 5 children, 14 grandchildren, 8 great grandchildren, and various other friends and family. I will miss her.

Day 25

push-ups: 14. Better.
sit-ups: 40. Also better.
alcohol: none.
weekend wake-up: 10:30am.