training day

had a few moments of regret today. well, i don't believe in regret, but i did feel a few "i-should've"s.

today when i arrived at midway, there was no reason to scurry, so i took the train back. as i got to the lip of the stairwell, a woman was escorting a blind man to the stairwell. god bless you, he said to the woman, and she blessed him back. he then started a long journey down the staircase.

i carried my bag down some stairs and carefully scooted by, confusing the drop-off for a desire for autonomy. i never want to assume someone can't do something, so, i just assumed it was what he felt comfortable with. when i got to the bottom of the triple-decker stairs, he was still on the first part. the train holds at the bottom of that staircase and waits to fill. a woman came off the train and offered the man a hand. he took it. i didn't know.

always care to ask, i guess, is the lesson.

yes

sorry i've been such a slack-bot on this thing. there's so much going on. thought i'd try to catch up a bit as i'm here in columbus. i'm home now for nicole - my great friend from high school. it's her wedding day.

nicole is marrying a kind man named mike. mike, among other things, is a fiddle player who composed music for an independent movie nicole wrote and directed. come on. COME ON! they are kind and smart and eccentric and all things good to each other. they have had a trying year, currently living their lives and finding a new place in the world here after losing much during hurricane katrina.

since 14, my favorite poet has been e.e. cummings. there is no one, to me, that even comes close.

their wedding invite is one of my favorites of all time. the front is a map of the us in light blue, with a small wax heart stamped over new orleans. at the top, it reads the following:

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

i hope i marry someone that wants to put e.e. cummings on our invitation.

ridin' dirty

please go here:
http://www.cingularsource.com/music/lipsync/chamillionaire.asp

you'll see why in box one. vote early, vote often.

sweet and low

Been feeling kind of low lately. There's really not much reason, but I think that some of it is just feeling tired. Yesterday, I was in a funk all day, but a strange one. Just quiet. Didn't feel like talking or hanging out, which is a rarity.

Over and over again this week, I've felt the sensation where you don't want to do something, but you just do it anyway. I think I've convinced myself into thinking this is professional in cases of not-feeling-like-doing-a-show, or good for me when it comes to working out, or brave when it comes to sharing myself with someone else, or whatever. This may be accurate in all these cases, but guess what? Sometimes you don't want to don't want to do a show, or go to the gym, or be vulnerable. I just don't when it's okay to say no.

MIA

i feel like i have a lot to write about, but really, it's all show stuff. so, i don't want to rehash all that. lots of changes at CSz, plenty of SC rehearsals and shows, and a corporate gig last weekend in which i played a sales agent, and the voice of a sexy office chair. this is the life.

that's where i've been. doesn't this sales agent look like a frenchie?---->

Boot and Rally

after our show at SC Black Orchid on Saturday, BlueCo entertained how awesome it would be to go to MayFest. MayFest is one of the beginnings of why it rules to be in Chicago in the summer: The Street Fairs.

we got out of our show and over there just as the fair was ending, but were lucky enough to be close to one of Chicago's best gems, the Chicago BrauHaus. for those of you who haven't been there, get there. for Ohioans, it's pretty much Schmidt's, but open 'til 2am with live polka and dancing. it's lit like a high school dance, kind old men ask you to waltz, the food is good, women and men are dressed in full lederhosen, and you are served steins of beer - or better yet, boots (see pic above).

we played a game that whoever could down the last of the 76 oz of beer would force the person who preceeded them in the drink circle to dance. alone. i felt inspired and chugged a ton to force friend tim sniffen to the dance floor. he cried in disbelief as his number was up, and staggered to the floor. super fun polka had been playing the whole hour we had been there, with over 150 people banging their hands on tables in time to the oom-pa-pa. never one to turn down a dare, sniffen got up to stomp around, and the music immediately changed. to lady in red.

slow swaying. alone.
private dancer.

security!

man in the mirror, y'all.

SC BlueCo is fun.

let my people bone

did an after-prom show on friday at 1:30am at SC. pretty fun, even though we ended after 3.

it made me laugh to do scripted material for a room full of hormonios. SC: keeping hymens in tact for 45 years.

Get a Gob

the best day this week was a day we spent doing a photo shoot for CSz. David, our marketing director and a friend of ours, wanted us to do a shoot in front of some notable Chicago places to post on the site and pass along to several other CSz cities.

during this tour, we went to Wrigley, rode the el, stopped at Marshall Field's, ate lunch, strolled through Millenium park, looked at the Bean, and then - HIGHLIGHT! - got on Segways and tooled around farther stretches. Great friend Deanna is a Segway guide downtown, and she can essentially take friends down on non-busy days and check out Segways to jump on.

During the festivities, a freak summer rain-storm came and splattered all over us. Segways are okay to ride in the rain, so we bumped our keys from 4 miles an hour to the 8 mile an hour allowance and rode through it. This is probably one of the moments in Chicago I'll remember most. As rain was attacking us, we all screamed at the sky - THIS RULES AND SUCKS!, laughing all the way back.

cubs, woo, cubs, woo.

My brother and his lovely girlfriend Gina were in for Memorial Day weekend. Excuse my absence from here, but it was a busy one. Aside from the shows, the rest of the busy-ness came from it being a GORGEOUS weekend in Chicago. Sunny, 90 degrees, big, puffy clouds if there were any in the sky.

Vince, Gina and I did lots of fun things while they were here. We went to the Cubs game, which was my first of the season, and Gina's first ever. We did it right - sat in the Bleachers and got Gina a new hat, drank Old Styles and whatever else is expected of the Cubs fan. Vince and Gina were treated to a perfect Cubs experience - even the score. The Cubs were ahead for 8 innings, but then lost in the last 12 minutes of the game to the Braves. Hilarious. Didn't matter, and almost felt more perfect.

Ronnie "Woo-Woo" also graced us with his presence for the better part of a half hour.

We also hit some fun sites that I love in the city - took a lot of drives, went to the lake (specifically to one of my favorite places in Chicago, the Belmont Dog Park), walked around town, and ate and drank at lots of restaurants, including Toast (rules).

It's nice to be a tourist in your own city, because you really get excited again.
Plus, I think Vince and Gina will probably move here next week.

I also know how much of a Dago-WOP I sound like saying "Vince and Gina" over and over.