i will wear purple

weeks ago these women were walking in front of me, arm in arm. they were polish, maybe, speaking in thick accents. i walked behind them for a few blocks. i loved them, for really no other reason than the fact they seemed to be facing the world together.

a friend was recently telling me how many women he's noticed ya-ya-ing up. i wonder why there is a surge for this: is it something positive like female/all friendships continuing to be a source of positivity and strength, something just wonderful like they're older, happy lesbos, or something negative like their counterparted dudes dying too young?

i hope they were just on a stroll and their lives are happs.

ain't just a river in egypt

...i'm really bad a t blogging right now. i'm sorry, everybody.

there's so much junk going on.

my friend sam claims that january is leftover 2006 that isn't so good, and we get a new start in 2007 starting with february. i hope he's on it, because i am feeling really overwhelmed this month. lots of friends going through hard things. debt keeps escalating. work is sporadic and patchy, ebbs and flows. i have very little energy. i am frustrated with a lot, personally and otherwise. two pals parents very ill, making them nervous. even more breakups for important people in my life. come on. come on.

halestorm, can we get a chart reading up in this piece? you love that shit. tell me something good.

press yer luck

...more press regarding seven8nine at Sketchfest. USA!

if you tune into this video from CLTV and Metromix, you'll see some good clips. hey, you'll even see this ol' mug around 1:15 in.

thebastion.org gave us a shout out for our vids too, even though they thought we were part of the sketchfest crew. that's okay - real nice of them anyway!

let us know what you thought... they'll be showing all weekend again.

mixed bag

you know how there's that one question mark dum-dum?
and, you open that junk and sometimes it's like, cherry (good)- and sometimes it's root beer (mediocre)... and sometimes it's something wouldn't have guessed like cream soda (surprisingly okay).

i feel like this year has been a real mixed bag already. i almost don't want to pin it on the year, because i feel like it's too much to label it already. i want this year to be really awesome. last year, i made a lot of professional leaps, and i'd like to keep doing that. however, the past ten days has also been full of a tough breakup, a difficult decision to take a mini-break from csz, a strange, painful injury, and most notably, a death in my extended family.

how do you keep hope when there's already so much bad?
my friends rance and deanna said it was just a walk through the valley... and right now, i feel hopeful enough to continue to believe that must be so.

otherwise, what's the point?
getting cream soda when you were worried about root beer is all i'm hoping for right now.

p.s.!

nina metz gave us some press in the tribune! i think she thought we were linked to the production staff (which we aren't), but who cares. how awesome of her! look!

Arrive early, but expect delays. Last weekend, the later slots started 20 minutes later than advertised, and the sly video intros got chucked. Too bad -- they were entertaining with their swipes at "egotistical actors; that is, all actors" and offered handy advice on how to bed a sketch comedian: "Hey, I really liked your show. Wanna get outta here?"

Nice.

She also said great things about our pals in sketchcore! go here to see the full Chicago Tribune article. up with comedy, y'all.

sketchfest '07

this week is chicago sketchfest. it's an awesome gathering of lots of people from all over North America who come and do their shows for extremely friendly (and privately discriminating) audiences. this year, my video troupe seven8nine productions was chosen as the official "welcomers" to each show. we wrote 5 original videos that lead into each show slot. they were a lot of work (thanks cast, and esp robyn and sam for editing), and a lot of fun to shoot and write. so fun.

become our friend on myspace! we just started a page.
http://www.myspace.com/seven8ninecomedy

come see our three main videos - and tomorrow, our sketchfest videos as well:
http://www.seven8nine.net

there's some fun stuff there. we'll be so happy if you come by!

maid to order

my roommates and i buckled and decided to grow up in the new year and raise our quality of life. we got a cleaning service for our apartment. every three months or so, no matter how much cleaning we individually do, it's not a bad idea to have someone come in here and shake this place up a bit and clean things we're not good at (read: showers, gross things).

you may have read my roommate tim's blog, but the day after the new year hit, i was itching for change. i got sick of my room being hard to clean, so i moved my bed out of the corner, moved all my furniture, and got down and dirty. my bed is now facing the windows and isn't tucked into them, which is warmer and - as we've all agreed - more "adult". something about having your bed in a corner is college-y to me. i'm still adjusting to the change, but i really like it.

after i cleaned my own space from top to bottom, i got annoyed with everything else. it's just the trail of tears of a thousand roommates. luckily, the boys (scott, jon, and tim) agreed.

they come at 11:30. i feel like a kid on christmas.

moon over my hammies

you guys, i think i did something bad to my back/hamstros.

in new year mode, i redesigned my room to have the bed away from the windows, which now has suddenly transformed my room into "adult". i talked to roommate tim about this, and he's with me. what is it about having your bed out of a corner that makes you 45?

anyway, when i was moving stuff around, i got agressive with my dad's old heavbot desk, and YOW!, i am in pain. i went to the gym the last two days to stretch and jog and strengthen, but nothing is helping... not ibuprof, not rest, not noth. luckily, on-again-off-again (we can joke about this, right?...right? OH GOD) boyf rich got me a deep-tish massage for c-mas. yes! usually, i'd save that for a real rainy day, but due to circs, i'm using it after one more attempt stretching at the gym this morning.

any other home remedies i should know about?

happs NY!

...oh yeah!

now that i'm all caught up and have been back for almost a week, happy new year everybody! wishing you love and happiness and health for you and your loved ones this year. 2006 was decent to me... professionally, i made many huge leaps; romantically, is was oookay; a pretty good year. a lot of friends had a shitty one last year, so, i'm hoping this year is even nicer for all of us.

last year, we had the slogan of "suck some dicks in 2006". this year, i'm waiting for a new one...

YOU DECIDE:
2007 slogan?

1. feels like heaven in 2007
2. 2007; this one goes to eleven.
3. ...your write in.

name it.

to be a(n american) gladiator

one of the perks of being home is simply my niece sophia's birthday. it's the day after christmas, so she faces the curse of the forgotten, but the fam does a good job of remembering and doing fun stuff every year to knock it out.

this year, we went to columbus standard Max and Erma's for dinner*, then proceeded on to the most painful fun i've had in years, barring the gym and whirlyball. my brother vince's girlfriend, candice, works at a place called supergames. it is a center of inflatable obstacle courses. yep.

during this evening, i learned the importance of ditching socks to climb effectively what is a balloon, lost a stud earring, and sprained a pinky. it still made me laugh the whole time, except for the time my brother nick schooled me in one of the obstacle courses (dino entrance, pictured).

happy birf, sophie! being home ruled. i miss it there. how do you top a great fam and the chance to pretent you're Blaze from AG? you don't.

(*p.s., why aren't these everywhere? they're really not super good, but when i was little, we all wanted our birthday parties there because they had phones on the tables. you could call other tables and prank them! IT! IS! A! KID'S! DREAM!)
(p.p.s., they took the phones away.)
(p.p.p.s., nothing was sadder.)