I don't care what they say about you.

This guy is dead tired! (hah ha haahahaha!) Look! Look, someone's been pulling his leg!!! (ahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaa.) Mercy. Today was a full day of school-ing. I came home for a couple hours and we all went to church. On the way home the weather was gorgeous so we all four rolled down the windows, stuck our arms outside, and began flapping. I wish I could say we got liftoff, but I can truthfully report we gave each other high fives on the outside of the car, which is almost as awesome.

Rawr! Velocihomeworkraptorsaurus!

I bet your day was a whole lot more interesting than mine....

My little ball-ey!

I have begun the search for my fall classes already. Can't believe it's time for that already...scheduling classes for myself is a bit tricky because I have this problem- I want to take EVERYTHING! Whittling has never been easy for me. I came home this afternoon and Jason and I went out on a 'day date' since the kids were still in school. That was nice. This evening I hung out with the fam, finished up some homework, then went out to bowling night. Matt Y. was there and I got an entertaining shot of him holding a pink ball. Good times, good times.

Texas has the worst airports.

I think this is the first time my blog picture has ever been taken at 5:30am...Anyhow, there's a nice pre-dawn Dallas pic for ya. We got up early and headed to the airport this morning. I got some sleep on the plane then drove home and took a nap, but man I have been tired all day. Like, grumpy tired. The kind of tired where you feel exhausted by the pressure of holding up your own brain. Luckily, I have a large paper due tomorrow. Yay! I also had two rehearsals. Yay! *grumble grumble* Despite all my whining, this trip=still way beyond worth it.

JR in the Big D

The girls are at a horse show this weekend, so Jason and I decided to skip town. There was an improv festival happening in Dallas and I determined that if we flew out on the first flight we could see the town, catch one of the workshops, then hit the shows in the evening. Jason was on board with the plan, so away we flew! We went all over Dallas, explored a few interesting places in the downtown area, hit the flagship Nieman Marcus store, went to the Grassy Knoll, and took lots and lots of pictures. This afternoon we went to a workshop. Yes, we! Jason decided it might be fun to get in on one and understand the craft better. I explained to him that this festival didn't have any beginner level classes so he'd be with me, and he was still on board, so we signed up together. He got in line with us initially but sat down after a bit. Improv can be incredibly intimidating, believe it or not. However, he did observe and even asked questions of the instructor. Questions that made the improvisers go, "Oh.........ooh, yeah, I want to know the answer to that too!" Awesome. Oh, and when I walked into the workshop, Buck and Clint were there! Their other group from OKC had performed the night before and they had all hung around for the final day of the festival! Yay! We had lunch with them and their troupe, which was handy since I met them all last July at their festival and we all know and like one another! They all had festival badges and I mentioned that I was sad that I didn't have one as I was not performing, and Buck was incredibly kind and made one for me! Aww! This evening were the shows. Astounding. Especially Scram! which is the incredible Jill Bernard and Joe Bill. We constantly had to remind ourselves, 'This is NOT SCRIPTED!' Wow. Just wow!

Aim to Misbehave

Bad Rebels had another show tonight. This one was very different, though. For starters, we didn't rush straight to the theater from the airport. Also, it was not produced by KCXRC. It was actually a musical improvisation concert produced by another resident of the Fishtank Theater. Tom and I got there early to rehearse with Peter and Lauren, but then we didn't have to set up chairs or mess with lights or worry about who was watching the box office. That was wonderful and weird! Because we didn't have to worry about five separate jobs, the show was AMAZING. The audience was completely digging on it the entire time and we got some serious laughs. After, they were literally lined up to talk to us. Score! That felt really great. Hopefully we won over some fans for future KCXRC and Bad Rebels shows!

Gimme some theat cred!

This is Matt Yale of Project Improv. He is also and acting student, as am I. A lot of our PI kids are theater majors, in fact. At any rate, the theater students got the chance to get some serious extra credit today as the department scored a great rate to the Kansas City Repertory Theater's production of Bus Stop. A lot of us leapt at the chance. So why the picture with Matt, you ask? Because I happened to sit next to him, not only at Bus Stop, but this evening when a group of us went to see the Unicorn Theater's production of Green Whales. That's right, two plays in one day, both earning me extra credit. Sweeet! Oh, and for you KC'ers out there, both productions are very well worth seeing.

Long, strange, trip.

Today was odd and wonderful. We had a tornado drill that was mostly just testing out the sirens. It happened during my German class and we all got up to leave, poked our heads out in the hallway, determined that no one else was leaving (they had announced it was a drill) and sat back down. When we did, we noticed that one of our classmates had mysteriously disappeared. Nice. I got in a lot of acting work for my honors acting class and did a ton of research for my English paper. I spent pretty much all day at the school, and wrote a facetious message on the back of my hand. This evening was spent singing and eating cherry crumble, followed by popcorn and a movie. God bless America!

Run away!

Free scoop day at Ben and Jerry's! Jason and I met up there after I got out of school. Nice. Gorgeous day for ice cream, too. I'm not so good at the eating part, apparently, because I crushed my cone trying to get the wrapper off. Nice, Jess. I had a volleyball game tonight in which I wasn't completely terrible, but we still lost. Oh well. I served a ton and they went over the net every time but one, which is great! Serving has been my weakness thus far. I'm thinking about writing a book on how to suck slightly less at volleyball. People will read it..............right? Bah, who am I kidding. It's boring when I'm writing it as a small snippet now! But at least I'm not as awful as I was to begin with. Progress means I'm trying. Yay!

Monday morning letdown

(we open on a board room filled with suits containing lumpy businessmen. There are doughnut crumbs and half a bear claw in the bottom of a grease-stained flimsy pink cardboard box in the middle of the table. A low murmur fills the room)

"All right everyone, let's get started. This meeting of the Wal-Mart 'confusing marketing techniques' division will commence immediately. I'd read the minutes of our last meeting, but we want fresh confusion out there, which means having a logical path to follow from our last meeting would defeat the purpose entirely. So, without further ado, does anyone have any ideas to throw on the table?"

"Uh......yeah. So, like, what if we just didn't mop any more?"

"I like your style, Jones, but that's already a given. No, no, don't bother raising your hand. We already camouflage managers to blend in until they sense somebody wants to shop while minding their own business, at which point they incessantly ask if they can help you find something."

(Jones's hand timidly sinks back under the table)

"Anyone else? (pause, silence) Well, come on guys. I know it's rough thinking up new and confusing things to do to people who just want to get 'Nillas and bananas then eat themselves into a food coma while watching The Simpsons, but somebody has to do it."

(a timid female voice pipes up)

"Well..........this, uh, may seem strange...."

"Ooh! Then I'm definitely listening!"

"Okay, so.........what if we set up a large cardboard viking ship as a display with absolutely no merchandise, signs, or labels on it to explain why there's a viking ship in the store."

(a very pregnant pause as all heads swivel toward the head of the table where the boss is doing that annoying finger steeply thing with his index fingers jammed into the fold of fat that passes as his chin)

"I like it. (tangible release of tension in the room) But........we need more."

"We.........we could fill it with soup and various crackers and snack products? Maybe some cranberry sauce?"

(low, excited murmurs fill the room)

"That's great, yes, I like it! But it needs to be even MORE absurd....."

(the room goes silent again as all heads swivel back expectantly toward the young woman. The camera tracks their movement in a swift pan, then slows down and pauses in a close up of her face, deep in thought, eyes lowered. Suddenly her head snaps up and her pupils bore directly into the camera with a look of fierce determination. A vampish smile curls her red lips upward and her eyebrows arch.)

"We get a cardboard viking ship. Fill it with soups, snacks and cranberry sauce.......(everyone leans toward her, breathless) and put it in the front corner of the women's clothing department!"

(The room erupts with excited babbling. We hear snippets of conversation such as, "People will have to completely change course with their carts!" And "This opens up new worlds! Let's put cribs in the sporting goods section!" Suddenly the room goes silent again as the boss stands up. He pauses dramatically.)

"It's perfect. Make it happen! Meeting adjourned."

(Babbling with excitement, the room empties as if a bathtub drain has been unstopped, a few papers curl up and float gently back to the low, ugly carpet of the board room. The camera makes a slow pan from the door back to the doughnut box........which is now empty.)

Spring breaks

Oh man. Spring break is over and I'm tiiiiiiiired. This weekend MAY have had something to do with it. Worth it! Twinprov left this afternoon with well wishes and a hope that some of our crowd will go down to the OKC at some point. I hope we can get that to happen soon. That'd be sweeeeeet. The above picture is of Peter from Bad Rebels (on the sax) playing with his band tonight at Westport Flea Market. They were really really talented! I was impressed! A great way to top off an amazing weekend.

Dog days of winter

Today Clint and Buck led an 'improv rap' workshop. We also got a freak snowstorm. (What??? It was totally like 65 yesterday!) So attendance was low, but those who showed up were hardcore, and that made it a lot of fun. After the workshop we went to Jerusalem Cafe to eat before setting up the theater, but as we were ordering, Tom got a phone call from a group that was supposed to perform tonight. They live outside of town a ways and decided it would be a bad idea to drive out. Understandable.......but it was super close to show time. What to do? So Tom and I (as Bad Rebels) joined forces with Clint and Buck (as Twinprov) and together, we formed Slush Puppies! A four person group born out of a blizzard! We didn't even rehearse, we just decided, "Okay. Let's do this format." And went with it. It ended up being really successful and a load of fun! Love it! The twins had great sets as well (we had two shows tonight) and I got to come up on stage and freestyle rap with them during their second set. Awesome! We are already talking about bringing them in for another set of shows at some point. That would be sweeeeeeeeet.

Sistah Lady Jade

My good friends, Clint and Buck rolled into town today. I met Clint a couple years ago when I did a Summer intensive improv workshop in Chicago. He and Buck are identical twins and they do a two person group called 'Twinprov.' As soon as we started KCXRC I said, "I want them to come here!" This is it. The whirlwind tour of KC! They are from Oklahoma City, so they said, "We're from OKC, coming to the KC. We took the 'O' and we're bringing it with us!" Tonight they had a show at the Roving Imp. Awesome. Can't wait for tomorrow!

Robins bring spring

Absolutely gorgeous day here in Kansas City! Beautiful! One of those days in which the midwest says, "Yeah, so........all that ice and cold this winter? Sorry about that...." Lovely! We opened up all the doors and windows and cleaned up today! I took a nice bike ride this afternoon as well. Sweeeeeet. I missed my bike. For dinner, we decided to keep the 'Awesome! It's Spring!' train rolling, and we grilled steaks out on the back deck. On the grill, of course. I also made an amazing fruit salad. See? Sometimes I can be incredibly domestic! P.S.-Have I said lately how incredible this guy is? 'Cause it's still way beyond true and then some. He's vacuuming! Without me saying a word! *lovelovelove*

I wis that.

The girls and I went to the Kansas City Saint Patrick's Day Parade today. It was fun! We stood at the corner of 39th and Broadway among the crowd and watched an awful lot of cars filled with waving people. There were also big balloons and such, and on that particular corner is a rather low hanging wire, so we got to see everyone struggle to get their balloons under it. Amusing! Especially the GINORMOUS Saint Patrick balloon, which they actually have to tilt downward so he's limbo-ing under it. Fantastic! When the parade was over, Leigha expressed disappointment that Keyboard Cat was not around to play them off. Nice. Since we were right there we enjoyed Jimmy John's for lunch. I had an extra rehearsal tonight with Project Improv as well. We have a show this Saturday night and needed to get the format down. It ended up being a huge blast and incredibly productive. Woot! Hooray for giant confidence boosts!

Life imitates art...because it is.

Brianna is totally photo bombing me. Snot nosed punk. Either way, this is me before the v-ball game tonight, which we totally won. Rock-awesome. Like bacon.

For such a deep thinker, you're really shallow.

First non-weekend day of Spring break! Look closely, there are two children in this picture. I walked into the room and just saw blankets, then one by one their little heads emerged. Strange place to build a fort, girls..... We had to go out to get a few things this afternoon and Leigha and I were walking across a parking lot when I noticed her pockets were chiming loudly with loose change. I said, "My you're jingly today." She replied very nonchalantly, "Yeah. I ate a bag of quarters for lunch." My kid has the sarcastic gene.......I'm so proud I could bust!

This reminds me of a song....

We went to see the school's production of 'Ming Lee and the Magic Tree' this afternoon. It's a children's production and they had all the kids sit in the middle of the stage. Very cute! The girls enjoyed it. Brianna said it was just like going to Panda Express. The guy in the middle of the stage with the hat on is Joey from Project Improv, he played the title role of Ming Lee! He did a great job, too! I'm so glad I was able to catch the last performance today!

Lucky 13

Yesterday when we were driving in we encountered a TON of rain, just as we were hitting the Georgia border. We had to slow down big time and it added about an hour to our trip. Apparently Atlanta was also hailed on at that time, and the airport shut down for a while. Thanks to all that funness, a lot of flights were cancelled and people were rolled over onto the flights we were supposed to take home, yikes! So this morning I was woken up by a phone call from Jason. "You're not going to be able to get home today." Great. I had a show in Kansas City tonight! So I told Tom and Matt (Joe drove home, he likes solitude) we weren't going to be able to make it, and universally we decided that that just sucked. They decided to go out and get some breakfast, but I stayed at the hotel. Where there's a will, there's a way, and I have a pretty strong will! I checked flights on my laptop and found cheap tickets for that very afternoon! Tickets so cheap, in fact, that when you figure we didn't have to book the hotel for yet another night and their buddy passes could be refunded, it worked out about right! So, for the first time in my adult life, I bought plane tickets. Bonus-the flight didn't leave until later in the day so we got to walk around downtown Atlanta! Score! Cool city, I need to go back. Oh, and btw, they have security to get into the Coca Cola GIFT SHOP. Laaaaaaaaaame. We touched down at 5pm and I went straight to the theater for the world premiere of Bad Rebels! (because Bad Rebels do the right thing!) We had a phenomenal show, too! Improvised singing is rather challenging, but it makes the payoff so much greater when you nail it. My adrenaline rush over, I came home and passed out. It's great to be home!

This is how the magic happens

After a longer than it should have taken drive, we arrived in Atlanta! Woo! Joe peeled off because he's staying with family so the rest of us went to the hotel to unwind for a bit before checking in with the festival. I love improvisers! We hung out for a while then got a warmup room and started playing. They came and got us after a while and we did our show. It was so weird performing in a space you've never seen before to a completely different audience than you are used to playing for. Every city has it's own flavor and we get used to how our people respond to things. We got some good feedback during and after the show and it was a lot of fun. So glad we could be here! Thanks for the great evening, Atlanta! Stay cool!

The quest for Atlanta

Anomaly Orange is on the road! We decided it would be great to leave Thursday and get most of the driving behind us, so we went as far as Nashville so we could go see some live music tonight. I do believe this is my very first time ever having a hotel room to myself. Sweet! This will make a pillow fight more or less interesting. I haven't decided yet. At any rate, there is a giant Superman statue in Metropolis, KY. LOVE it! There is also a fantastic Dippin' Dots parlour right across the street from him. Very cool! Tonight at dinner I tried fried green tomatoes and found them to be quite tasty. We are having tons of fun, but we really wish Zak was here. Good luck on your exam, Zak! We miss you! Atlanta, here we come!

A modern day folktale

Rachel and I have known each other for a couple years now, and lucky me! We go to the same school now! Every Wednesday we have a free hour or so right around the same time, so we hang out. So much fun! It's like being back in high school without the intense insecurity and also it's fun. So...I guess it's not like being back in high school at all. You get my point...erm, right? Anyhow, this is us. Hanging out on campus like the two carefree (care full) kids we are. Whee!

I have to hit it AGAIN?

I had a BUSY busy day! Here is a cross section of what I did:

-Ate a chocolate rabbit

-Had a full day of classes

-Coffee. Lots of coffee.

-Played volleyball

-Went to Target for a bunch of stuff

-Settled airline tickets for the guys

-Finalized details for Atlanta

-Played a volleyball game

-Made an *amazing* road trip mixed CD

-Producer stuff for KCXRC (including an in-depth entry for the blog)

-Homework (including making a 10 page children's book and finalizing my 6 page essay)

I still found time to dance to the music on my iPod and enjoy time with the family. Bam. How's that for amazing multi-tasking skillz?

Now with extra riboflavin!

This afternoon I had a phone meeting pertaining to KCXRC. It's so funny when I do 'business'ey type things in the name of our teeny production company. (if indeed it warrants such a title.) It just seems ludicrous to have a phone meeting with a theater in Chicago when you have a ladybug and a daisy on the charm dangling from your technology. Oh well, eh? The meeting was quite productive and informative, though, so......win! I was playing around with the girls earlier and I blew into Brianna's ear. She giggled and squealed, and I motioned to her that I wanted to tell her a secret. Trusting little thing that she is, she leaned in (aw) and I said, "Psst....do that to Leigha." She caught my ear and whispered back, "Do what?" *facepalm* "This *blow*" Giggling she got up and made her prancing way over to Leigha. She choked on her own hiccuping laughter as she said, "Hey Leeeeeeigha, I have a seeeeeeeecret for you!" And she leaned in close but was giggling too hard to be able to actually blow, and it came out, "f-f-f-fuh-hahahahahaa!" Leigha's face became overcast with big sister evil as she said, "No, Bri. THIS is how it's done!" And blew right into Bri's ear. Bri giggled wildly the entire time. Poor, sweet thing.

Einmal Wochenende!

Since my German subject line week is now complete, here are the translations:

1. Großjunger Lederhosenpantsen- It means 'Big child pants (pants).' It has to do with a German assignment. I had to write a children's book, it's the name of the main character.

2. Meine Gebortstag!- My birthday! Easy enough.

3. Kurtze Haare- Short hair. Also easy enough.

4. Ich Habe Groß Hausaufgaben gemacht- I have done lots of homework!

5. Am Freitag, wir sind ausgegangen!- On Friday, we're going out (on the town)! In reference to my belated birthday mayhem with friends.

6. Ich brauche schlafe- I need sleep.

7. Einmal Wochenende!-One weekend! (and it really really was!)

The picture is of Leigha at the horse show. The girls did really well, each of them getting ribbons and the like. Way to go, girls! I spent the day doing yoga, getting coffee, then rehearsing. We go to Atlanta this week, no rest for the wicked cool!

Ich brauche schlafe.

We had two shows today, one at 7 and one at 9. I hosted the first show, and spent the second in the tech booth. The above picture summarizes my feelings on being in the booth. On the upside, Bad Rebels had an INCREDIBLE rehearsal this afternoon. We go live next Saturday night, yeep! I can't wait/am terrified.

Am Freitag, wir sind ausgegangen!

Another First Friday flyering and promotion night! The KC Crossroads Comedy team was out in full force tonight, talking to people and handing out business cards (Oh yes, there are cards now!) and handbills, letting people know we're here. Tonight was the first really busy First Friday of the year thanks to the warmer temperatures. Hooray! We all met up at the Fishtank after and saw the show they had there, then I went out and had a celebratory late happy birthday adventure. There was a fruit plate involved, oh yes. And R.O.U.S.'s. (Rodents of unusual size? I don't think they exist.)

Ich habe groß Hausaufgaben gemacht!

Homework, homework, homework! I have a busy weekend ahead of me so I decided to get a jump on it and catch up on everything I've got due until Tuesday. This is what I look like after catching up on:

German conjugation

German vocab

Acting 1 reading

Acting 1 choices and character bio sheets

Honors acting 1 reading

Honors English Comp 1 Essay on the subject of web 2.0 as viewed through the eyes of Andrew Keen in his book 'The Cult of the Amateur,' agreeing or disagreeing with his take on the issue, then strongly defending my stance. (6 pages)

I am tired and my brain is warm and humming. I am going to try my hardest to make sure my weekend is wicked sweet enough to have made it worth my while!

Kurtze Haare

I noticed that my last two subject lines were in German, so I'm going to keep it up for about a week. Sweet. So yeah, if you're wanting to figure it out on your own, use a translator website, and if you just don't care that much, I will post what they all mean at the end of it. I gotsta practice my mad polyglot skillz, yo. Brianna has been bugging me for a little while now. "Gosh...I just wish my hair was short." "I want my hair to look just like my friend Emily's." "Are we going to get my hair cut after dinner?" So I took matters quite literally into my own hands and gave her a quick snip this afternoon. She was pleased with the results and she got some complements tonight from friends. "Oh, Brianna, your hair looks so cute!" She'd just giggle and put her hands on her neck the way she does when she's pleased and slightly embarrassed. Cute!

Meine Gebortstag!

This is what I looked like on my 28th birthday. I had a great day, even though the day itself was pretty standard. There's just something magic about your birthday. It's like the world knows somethin's up. Everyone gave me well wishes and in all my classes they sang to me. (In the case of my German class, a Youtube video of Kermit the frog singing 'Happy birthday to you' in German sang to me. Nice.) I played a close v-ball game, and didn't swallow my own head in sucky playing, which is nice. We lost, but it was really close. Thanks to all of you who helped make my day special, even if it was just a quick comment online! Don't think it's ever unappreciated!

Großjunger Lederhosenpantsen

We celebrated my birthday today since everyone's going to be busy tomorrow. (my actual date of birth) We ended up going out to eat at that Brazilian place on the Plaza where they serve you meat off a sword. (Yes, I know it's called Fogo de Chao, I ate there. I just desperately wanted to write that sentence.) It was amazing. Expensive, yes, but so goooooooooood. After dinner we took a walk around the Plaza. I've always loved this painted tile mosaic. There used to be a payphone on the wall there, but payphones have gone the way of the dodo bird, so there she stands, in all her glory. A relic of a long lost time, just like the Plaza itself. Kansas City is steeped in rich history and has many hidden gems. I'm just lucky enough to get to go out into it to celebrate my own life and write an increment of it's history on my own heart.