UCBNYC

For those of you who know Tim Marks, please mentally photoshop him in between Brandi and Jim. So this morning I did the standard 'wake up too early and go to the airport' thing that I do. You're probably tired of rereading that sentence by now if you follow this blog regularly...sorry about that. At any rate, this time the afforementioned airplane landed in New York City this time. Improv-Abilities was accepted into the Del Close Marathon at the Upright Citizen's Brigade theater in Chelsea. It's kind of a big deal, and I adore New York, so I decided to take a couple days to be here for it. I started the day out by hopping from La Guardia to Manhattan, then shopped in the West Village for a bit. I got a new carabiner to replace my old one from the same store I got the first one at. It's blue with cartoony flowers all over it and I have been getting complementary comments on it ever since I bought it a couple years ago. The spring on the hinge broke and it got pretty beat up, but it had three keyrings on the bottom of it so I continued to make use of it 'cause it's so cute. Luckily, the store still had cute and colorful carabiners, so I bought one that looked just like the other one did when it was shiny and new. Yay! I also managed to find Tastykakes. When show time drew close, I got a seat in the theater and watched a few shows, then IA took the stage. They did a great job and Kansas City should be very proud of them. I was happily thinking 'I know them!' the whole time. A couple shows later, when I had been joined in the audience by IA, we all got to watch Bassprov with Joe Bill and Mark Sutton! There were two other people with them, Mark Walsh and a lady with red hair whose name I didn't catch. I regret that, as she was quite the show stealer! I don't believe I've ever laughed harder at anything in my life, and I have seen some GOOD improv in my time. Fantastic! After their show was over we went to a little pizza place nearby and enjoyed a long evening wind down of gourmet salads, bread, and pizzas. Good food, good drink, great company. Everyone was letting out little contented sighs. I think we sounded like a basket of well-fed puppy dogs by the end of the evening.

Tattoo much?

I'm going to officially call it. My kids are ready to go back to school.

Namesake

I took pictures today, and I mean lots of pictures. The improv group Holy Cow! asked me to take some photos of their show as part of this evening's Fringe Festival activities. I agreed and spent the entirety of the show trying to steady the camera through my laughter. I also took some neat shots of downtown, as the sunset this evening was just beautiful. But still, of all the photos I took today, my favorite is little Princess Leigha. She and Bri decided to cut their own bangs a little while back, so I took some scissors and corrected them so they weren't three and a half super short pieces of hair that stuck straight out from their heads, which was the way that they had cut it. Leigha braided her own hair this morning because she likes the way braids look with bangs (so do I.) and I offered to jazz the braids up a bit. I looped them a few different ways and then she said, "Can you make it look like Princess Leia?" Oh yes. this is happening! So I pinned it up in the distinctive 'honeybun' look, then told Leigha to find her favorite squirt gun. I have a feeling that between her and Spartacus my house is a very safe place to live.

Musician Friends.

Tonight we showed up for music practice just before Dustin got there. Seeing an opportunity to prank and annoy (something Dustin does well and we love him for it) Dustin pulled his car up RIIIIIIIIIGHT on our bumper and parked. We laughed, he laughed, and we all went inside to play. While we were practicing, Mike showed up to help us out with the soundboard. He saw what Dustin had done, and since he's also really great at the whole 'prank and annoy' thing, he decided to block Dustin in. We discovered this upon exiting the building and we all had a great laugh. Unfortunately, we were the first to want to leave. Go figure. So Jason took his four wheel drive and simply went over the curb, despite my urgings to just back over Dustin's car. Dustin walked out and saw Jason's vacant parking space and Mikey's vehicle practically ON his drivers' side door, and his face was priceless.

YOU SHALL NOT PASS!

Today Jason and I visited a friend of ours who had a beautiful baby girl the other day. The kids had a blast entertaining Trent and Tommy while all the adults in the room stared at little Emilee and wondered why television was invented when there are perfectly good babies in the world to watch. At any rate, I forgot to get a picture, mostly in part due to the large amount of people in the room at the time. We didn't want to stay too long and get in the way, either. So here's me, simulating a wide-eyed, blanket swaddled baby for your creep-tastic enjoyment. I don't suppose there's much chance in me pulling off the 'cute and cuddly' vibe with this one...Nobody ever says, "Aww, look at the cute little stalker in the bushes! Honey, go get the camera!"

Merschk?

Austin and I have a few friends from school in one of the Fringe Festival shows this year. Well, we have a few friends in several shows, but one that opened tonight, so we went. Since the Fringe is such an overly huge thing here in town, they have to get rather creative about where and when they hold their shows, so Austin and I found ourselves being instructed to go across a parking lot into an alley to the back door of a building, then put on a freight elevator that took us to the third floor, where the performance was to be held. (It was broad daylight and there were official Fringe posters and staffers everywhere. Not to mention this is a new performance space I am familiar with, although I've never had to go the back way in.) The show was compelling and we congratulated our friends afterward. It was so great hanging out with Austin tonight, I think we both needed that. I don't believe either of us feels we've gotten to hang out enough this Summer, so it's nice to be able to catch up when we can.

Chi leading

VBS was this week at our church. Unfortunately, due to traveling, our girls only made it to two evenings of it. We had a sports theme and when they came on Thursday they were each told to choose the sport of their choice. Leigha chose baseball, which has become more and more of an interest with her lately, and Bri chose cheerleading. No shock there. Due to the built-in performance opportunity in her group, Bri and the rest of the cheerleaders got to stand on stage and do a cheer for everyone. Too cute! And speaking of sports, my softball team lost our two games this afternoon, which is total bummersauce, but we are in first place in our league so we're still doing great. One more game and a possible championship game left! I went straight from softball to improv, all sweaty and gross. You're welcome, fellow playmates!

My crew is better

It's been forever since I've gotten to hang out with Corin! So when she texted me wanting to know if I'd like to go out and about, I said, "Uh, yeah!" We went to the Power and Light District, a 'renovated' section of downtown that seems to breed tourists from Nebraska. But Corin had a friend in town from Texas who really wanted to go to one of the places there (a piano bar!) so we went. We also went to Angels Rock Bar, since it's right there. We ended up having a blast, surrounded by artificially manufactured ambiance as we were. Sometimes it's fun to break out of your usual territory and try something new.

Coffee and ice cream

Today I hung out with Austin and I fully intended to get a picture of the two of us together....so I did! Austin, my dear, you hang out on the computer too much. We got coffee and caught up with each other, both of us talking at 215 wpm at least. I think we managed it! When I got home I wanted more coffee but my air conditioner went out so it's super hot in my car. So I grabbed an ice cream sandwich in one hand and my hot coffee in the other. Problem solved!

SET IT ON FIRE!

So...I told myself today that I should take a picture at rehearsal this week. I reminded myself on the way to rehearsal that I should take a picture at rehearsal. On the way home...yeah. That's when I remembered. But hey, my heart is in the correct place...right? (In my chest! Yeah!) But it was a loooooot of fun tonight. We ran rampant through a ton of stuff and got some great and shiny new toys to play with. Trish is an excellent coach and I have great teammates. I can't wait to play with them on Thunderdome night!

Hold me secure in flight

I'm so, so glad we decided to take that day long detour. Yesterday there were MASSIVE storms going into Kansas City and planes had such horrendus turbulence that they had to be diverted for medical attention. In once case, turbulence was so bad a person actually HIT THE CEILING of the plane!! Thank goodness for my raging spontenaety gene! At any rate, we did actually decide to go home today. We're all exhausted after our tri-city tour and couldn't wait to come back and kiss the humidity hello. Woo hoo!

Stop Needlin' Me!

We got up waaaaaaaaaaaaay too early this morning. Ugh. Our flights out of Sacramento were sketchy on the most direct routes home, so we got creative. We looked them up again and found out that we could get home via Seattle! As we were waiting for our flight, they had mechanical issues and we had to switch planes, which caused us to be delayed for an hour, which caused us to miss our connection. Fortunately for us, we had another option in four hours. Ugh. We went to get a bite to eat and an idea popped into my head...Jason had been wanting to take an extra day off but the flights out of Sacramento were worse Wednesday than they were today. What if they were good still out of Seattle? So we looked into it and found out that they were great for tomorrow...and just like that we found a super cheap hotel online (WITH an airport shuttle), called his boss to make sure the work load was easy enough for him to take off time, then listed ourselves on the flights for tomorrow and left the secure area for the wild expanse of Seattle! We hit all the big touristy spots as Jason and Brianna have never been here, except coming through the airport, and the last time Leigha and I were here was about eight years ago when she was about two. Pike Place Market, Space Needle, the original Starbucks, Pioneer Square, and the Waterfront, all conquered. We ended up finding a cool Cajun food restaurant for dinner that had live jazz and people started swing dancing, but I was too exhausted to fully enjoy it. We came back to the hotel, beyond ready for a good night's sleep.

A presence I haven't felt since..............

This morning we woke up and set out to explore San Francisco. We started out by walking to Fisherman's Wharf and then back over to Pier 39. We walked back to the car at that point, then called Jon as we drove down Lombard Street. (Seriously, people, the road curves so much that tourists wait 20-30 minutes just to drive down it...you WANT your driveway to put you right out in the middle of that? I don't get it.) Jon directed us from there to his place of employment...Lucasarts! He got us checked in and took us on a private tour of the studios. (First thing I saw was a life sized Boba Fett and Darth Vader in the lobby. YES.) It was fantastic! We got to see all the mock ups for various characters from films and a few actual props, including the giant painting of that guy from Ghostbusters 2 and the mansion from A Series of Unfortunate Events. No plexiglass or anything, you could reach right out and touch if you wanted...but we didn't. We had a great lunch in the cafe on the campus shortly thereafter, then thanked Jon and headed back to Sacramento. I had been wanting to stop at an IKEA to see if I could fit a lamp into my suitcase that I knew I wouldn't be able to last time I went (I couldn't) so Anika decided to meet us there and follow us to Heidi's for dinner and swimming. Yay, Anika! I missed her so much! We found out that Holly (Heidi's twin sister) used to work with Anika not too long ago. Small world!

A mysterious fog is lifted

After a lovely morning with Heidi and Pat (and co.) we headed out to meet up with my folks. Leigha has been staying with them this past week and they brought her to us at a Round Table Pizza in Sacramento. We grabbed all her stuff, hugged our goodbyes, and parted ways. Them, up and over the mountains into Nevada. Us, across I-80 and into San Francisco! I grew up in California but I have never been here before! We met up with Jason's brother, Jon, and Jon's girlfriend Emily. They have the most FABULOUS apartment with a bay window that boasts a stunning view of Alcatraz. We walked around their neighborhood before heading out to dinner on Pier 39. Brianna stalked a seagull with the intention of petting it...surprisingly it flew off before she could touch it. (*whew!*) We watched the sea lions sun themselves for a while, and they were talkative buggers tonight! After our amazing dinner (at a window overlooking the bay just as the sun set) we came back to the apartment and watched Avatar, which none of us had seen before. If you're one of the other two people in America that hasn't seen it yet, do so. It's really awesome. After bidding goodbye to Jon, Emily, and Harrison Ford (their dog), we headed over to our hotel for some much needed shuteye. I can't wait to go exploring tomorrow!

Pirates of the Pantry!

I got up faaaaaaaaar too early this morning, grabbed Bri and headed to the airport where we met up with Jason and boarded a plane, Sacramento bound! We arrived shortly before lunch, grabbed a quick bite at Carl's Jr, then headed to Jason's cousin Heidi's house. She married a Japanese man and they have four adorable children, the youngest of whom turned five today! Happy birthday, Landon! We celebrated by joining their party at a gymnastics studio where the kids ran around on balance beams, flipped on parallel bars, and jumped into a pit full of foam blocks. Heidi and I also dove in for a bit and it was a blast! We came back to the house and had a California style cookout (hooray!), hung out playing guitar hero, and about midnight we all jumped in the pool. I don't know how I managed to stay up and do so much, but oh man was it ever worth it!

Friday night with the power out

Today was and odd mix of things. To begin, I went out and had coffee with Sarah Menez. We decided to meet on campus since it's close to her and she hates driving. We talked of improv, boys, and my hectic travel schedule. It was nice! Jason was getting a haircut at the time before heading to work, so I decided to spend a little time at the mall before proceeding to my evening plans, dinner and a movie with some good friends! We ate at Red Lobster (aw yeah!) and then went to the theater, but there had been a huge storm that killed the power to the cineplex, so while we waited for the rest of our party, Corin and I made use of the huge puddles left behind from the thunderstorm. After we were all assembled we went to another movie theater that hadn't lost power and saw Inception. FYI, GO SEE IT! It's really really good. We hung out after that, then I came home and did some laundry in the wee smalls. Best time to do laundry, in my opinion.

Every day I thank my lucky stars I'm a city gal

Jason got soaked in a rainstorm last night, so all day today he went barefoot. On both feet. Yes, even the fake foot. (*Squee!*) Distracted by the plastic looking fake foot as I was, I did the only logical thing I could. I painted his fake toenails. (Yes!) I took some pictures of the leg after I finished and heard a half-joking, all-real inquiry of 'You're not going to put that on the blog, are you?' Bowing to his wishes, I cannot display said picture. No big, I figured, I have a rehearsal with my Thunderdome team tonight! I'll get a picture there! I played hard and had fun, and came back with the realization that no, no picture was actually procured. Curse it all! So instead, here is a picture of myself...taking a picture. It's a little blurry (flash wipes things out) but yes, I'm making a stupid buck toothed face. I figure it's my due.

Hit Thing

BAM BOO BA DOO TA DA DUMP BUM *CHING!* RAT A TAT A TAT TAT BOO DAT DA DOO DOO DUM *TING!* DOO DAT DA DOO DAT TA BURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRUMP BUMP! DA DA TOO TAT BADA BA BUMP DA DAT DUT DAT DOO BA DA DA DUMP *CHING!* DAT A DAT TAT A TOO DAT BLATA BAMP DAT DAT BRRADDA BADDA TAT DOO DUMP BA DUMP BAP BAP! *TING!*

Crafty crafty me!

I've been in a super domestic mood lately. (Except for cooking. It's too hot to even contemplate.) This is a chair I refurbished over a few days recently, and today I started on two end tables. I had all this furniture sitting in my garage waiting for the day I was free enough to refinish it. It's Summer and I'm between trips, so no better time than the present! I also sewed myself the most delicious Lolita-style skirt this evening. Look out, knee sock department of Target! Imma gonna raid you like crazy!

A girl's best friend

Today Jason took Leigha out to Nevada to spend the week with my parents. With her older sister out of the way, Brianna immediately took off for Leigha's room and began playing with her toys claiming 'Leigha asked me to take care of her Zhu Zhu Pets.' I honestly believe her. Brianna spent a glorious day getting to do all the tiny pink things she enjoys doing with nobody to tell her how to play. I basically spent the day doing housey things, watching Zombieland, and keeping my little princess from torturing the cat. It's nice to pretend to be normal sometimes.

Sublime inclusion

It rained super hard this morning so my softball games were cancelled, which was a bummer, but it meant I got to go to Project Improv this afternoon! We played a fun game that's a theater kid favorite, 'Ninja.' It's super simple and can be played with 2-infinity people. Love it! Zak had to split early, lucky duck scored tickets to a Sublime concert. Incidentally, wouldn't 'Below Citrus' be a great name for a Sublime cover band?

It's like an umbrella for your upper lip!

Jason went down to pick up the girls today. I had a meeting during the day so I stayed behind. My friends have been dying to see me this summer, since being at home is a few and far between thing for me, so we made plans to go to Thunderdome tonight! I met up with Austin, Matt and Sarah at Jerusalem Cafe beforehand and we had a great meal, then we made our way over to the theater. Austin and I had found some fake moustaches in Manhattan so we decided we would wear them tonight. Unfortunately, I couldn't find mine so I made one. Our moustaches were a big hit! One of the improvisers actually came out during the show to borrow mine for a scene. Nice! The show was fantastic, all three troupes had an excellent performance. It was hard to determine who to vote for! New York City Pigeon crew came out the victors, woo! We all went out to McCoys after the show was over and it was a blast.

Hiding in plain sight

Today I bid a fond farewell to my little sister and the West coast as I flew home. I arrived in the late afternoon/early evening time frame. I was talking about the trip with Jason and I pulled out the little mirror I got from IKEA so he could see it and I could confirm that, yes, the little blobby cartoon guy was still in the instruction manual. That guy is awesome. He stares cluelessly at the pile of furniture ingredients for one panel, and in the next he is faith healing it into whatever room adornment it is supposed to be. The mirror was quite small, thus the packaging was of minute status. Jason left the house briefly to grab some things from the store, and while he was gone Spartacus did that spooky cat 'cardboard' radar thing and headed straight for the small packaging on the floor and tried to crouch in it and, in his mind, blend right in. Seriously, cat? You stand as much chance of blending in on that as Cyndi Lauper would in the cartooning division of New Yorker magazine.

Top me off, please!

Today was the cherry on top of the ice cream sundae that has been my visit to Orange County. Janina took me to Seal Beach where I spent a happy little while running in the surf and collecting sea shells. We drove around Long Beach after that, walked around the downtown and the area by the Queen Mary before heading back to her place. She had some friends who were celebrating the end of their Summer semester tonight so we played a few fun card games and got ready, then went to the most amazing karaoke bar I've ever been to! We walked in and it looked like just a lobby area with a bar at first, then when we were all assembled they led us down a back hallway and showed us to our own private karaoke room! We controlled the TV's and music via a remote and there were two mikes up in the front 'stage' area, and the back was completely taken up by a u-shaped booth with a table in the middle! There was also a button we could press for service. It was an absolute blast! Nina and I sang 'Bad Romance' and 'Thriller' at the request of the group, but the hands down hit of the night was 'I'm on a Boat.' Aw yeah! We left the place and headed to one of her friend's house and hung out in the hot tub for a while. What a fantastic way to round out a great trip!

Elvis has entered the evening

Nina had to work today, so I borrowed her car and headed, sans map, to Costa Mesa to visit the IKEA. Aw yeah! If it wasn't for the restraints of my carry on suitcase (and, oh yeah, budget) I would have gotten a ton. As it was, I walked out with one five dollar item I've been wanting for a while. A mirror that comes out of the wall and when you flip it the other side magnifies. LOVE it! I need to plan a trip up to Minneapolis (our nearest store) soon. After leaving IKEA I met up with Justin and we spent the afternoon in downtown Fullerton. They shot many parts of the movie 'That Thing You Do' there. I love that movie! It was cool getting to see the real deal. That's one thing I love about Cali. After Nina got off work Justin and I met her at Slater's 50/50, a restaurant with amazing burgers. They are famous for their 50/50 burger, which is composed of 50% beef and 50% bacon. Oh yeah. Soooo tasty! Nina and I came back to her place and dressed for the evening after that. We went out to a couple places, eventually meeting up with some of her friends at The Continental Room, where it was Elvis night. Yes! We got a picture with 'The King.' Absolutely marvelous!

Home is where the hot tub is

I flew to Orange County this morning. Hooray! California, my home state! I was feeling semi-nostalgic recently, so stepping out of John Wayne International and onto the palm tree lined 'passenger pick up' area was like a breath of fresh air. Janina picked me up and we got some dinner and walked around the mall for a bit before going out to where her boyfriend, Justin, is housesitting for his aunt. Apparently the family has SEVEN kids (yow!) and a fabulous house with the most amazing swimming pool! It was made to look like a natural rock formation with a slide and a waterfall. all surrounded by lush palms. There was also an amazing hot tub on the side, and, oh yeah, the pool was heated as well. We swam late into the night before coming back to Nina's place and calling it a day. Hello, California! I missed you!

When the kids are away....

Jason and I packed up and left his mom's after lunch today, leaving the girls behind for a fun week with grandma! What, oh what, are two young adventurous kids like us to do? After stopping at the house for a brief stuff drop off and cat check in, we were off and running out the door. We went downtown and had a lovely dinner at one of our favorite spots then went to a bookstore for a bit, followed by coffee. We hopped around a bit after that before settling on a place that had karaoke. Wo0t! Though we have been to places with karaoke together prior to this evening, Jason had yet to take up the mike of truth for himself. So, being the bold little brat that I am, I signed him up without his knowledge. They called his name and his face fell. "Oh no...what'd you put me in for?" He asked. I winked in response. To his relief, I was kind enough to choose 'The Joker' by Steve Miller Band for him, and the whole place sang along with him. Go Jason!

America! Aw yeah!

Today we celebrated America in the most traditional American way possible. We went out on the boat and swam for hours before getting caught in a gentle summer rainshower that passed quickly by, just in time to get some meat and corn on the grill. We had a few cold ones and snuck scraps of food to the dogs before heading into town for fireworks, then avoided the traffic jam afterward by taking the back way home. When we got back to the house we lit up a bonfire and roasted GINORMOUS marshmallows for s'mores. I am sunburnt, waterlogged, and I smell of campfire. My camera is full of blurry pictures of halfhearted attempts at capturing the bursts of light from the pyrotechnics show. I believe there is still chocolate on my shirt, and I have counted at least four bug bites.

What a perfect holiday.

This is how America has a birthday.

This morning we packed up and drove down to Jason's mom's for the fourth of July weekend. We got a head start on the holiday by grilling hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner, then taking the boat out on the lake. There was, in fact, a dog onboard. We pulled into a cove and went swimming for a bit, then found a spot to watch some fireworks. Aw yeah.

Interesting sidebar-did you know that roughly 60% of Americans answer the question, "which country did we win our independence from?" wrong? That's pathetic.

Failocopter

If you look closely in the upper left hand corner of the picture, right in the middle of the trees, you can see Jason's itty helicopter. He was messing with it this evening despite its inability to safely traverse the deck in a stiff breeze that longed to carry it away. Whatever the reason, those things are incredibly mesmerizing. It doesn't matter how many times the thing turns on, lifts off, struggles to remain upright, doesn't turn when you want it to, then crashes to the ground in a sad heap of collapseable plastic rotors, you can't take your eyes off them! Mayhap the blinky lights have something to do with it?

July came in with a bang!

This evening I sent Jason to work and started beginning my mental checklist of things to do before bed when I got a text from both Alexa and Matt Yale. 'Come see Toy Story 3 at 9!' So I strapped shoes on my feet and out the door I flew with my little ducklings. The movie was great and the company I kept was even better. We ended up at a restaurant after the fact, all of us throwing straw wrappers at one another and giggling while my girls behaved themselves like decent, civilized human beings. (They are sure gonna have some interesting stories when they grow up.)