2.28.2006

haircut day!

i am happy. wait a minute, correction. i am SO happy that i get my hair cut today. it is one of my favorite things to do. i do it on a regular basis nowadays since i wear my hair pretty short. when week 5 or 6 rolls around, my hair starts looking a little kooked and i can no longer roll right out of bed and look as if style i'm rocking is intentional. nope. by the 5th week, that possibility is long gone.

this month, i foolishly decided to try to stretch my appointment into week 6. stupid. week 6 is insane! this morning i look like one of those boys in elementary school with the weird, slept-on hair. you know the type...the boys with the older mom and and a weird dad. they usually wore thick, coke-bottle glasses and sweatpants every day and had a strange walk. they read encyclopedias and always had crusty stuff on their faces. i'm convinced these dudes are billionaires now. they're out there designing our future through their computers right this very moment...either that or still living with their moms. maybe both.

2.24.2006

part 3.

so i'm inspired...by hunger or otherwise. i'm done with the second part of my day; part 2 of 3. i opted out of the original part 3 due to the fact that my head might've exploded/i was needed elsewhere. so part 4 became part 3...you with me?

so now pasta is cooking, bjork is on the stereo, cats are glad to have me home and i get to spend an hour and a half with myself. wait a minute...maybe this is part 3...and the next part is part 4.

counting is hard...

i rearranged the bedroom this week. it took me less than an hour. i moved the bed, two dressers, and a nightstand. and cleaned. it's nice to have a new configuration, it's like an entirely different room. fresh.

i love our place. i love the term "place." 'cause it is just that. a place where we can go without pants and do a little dance and dream about france...and sometimes doing all those things at once! ha!

i'm really hungry.

stirring pasta...
i woke up this morning and i could hear birds singing...chirping...whatever. that can't be bad, right?

then i almost got run over at a crosswalk.

now i'm at work.

looking forward to tonight. getting to do the show for b as well as a lot of friends this evening. i will definitely be nervous.

that's all i got. i'll write more today if i suddenly become inspired.

2.22.2006

yum.

the night before last on a rare night off from everything, b and i went on a date. we went to a restaurant near our house called 'tank noodle.' this is our second time dining there and it was even yummier than i remembered. the menu there is huge, all kinds of vietnamese noodles (pho), rice dishes...to start, we had delicious fish cakes (they have a little shrimp baked into the top!). we bundled them into wide green lettuce leaves (tucking a sprig of mint inside) and dipped them into their salty-sour sauce. we also ordered spring rolls as well as a whole fried catfish which we promptly picked clean (in between bites of sweet tomato and crisp cucumber). yum.

then we went to the movies.

2.20.2006

sunrise, sunset.

bonkie, bonk...it's monday y'all.

today it is 16 degrees outside. and do you know what? that is WARMER than it's been for the last two days. it was 8 during the day on thursday. 8. ugh. please stop this madness! i think arnie says it best. needless to say, i did NOT want to get out of bed. after almost a year of getting up for work at 6:30 am, i have honed my morning routine down to about 19 (avec shower) or 12 minutes (sans shower). it's strictly the basics for me. contacts, face wash (optional), tooth brushing, clothes, coffee (mandatory).

one good thing about my early mornings is the fact that i get to witness some seriously stunning sunrises. i can't speak to the sunsets; i'm ususally away from the lake at that point in the day. in the morning, as i cruise along a traffic-less lake shore drive, i check out the ever-shifting skyline to my left. today i noticed a major difference...the sun had already exposed itself completely by the time i pulled onto the drive. that can only mean one thing; the days...they're getting longer.

2.17.2006

le radio

we got a new computer monitor this week at work. now we have sound! hurrah! now i can listen to streaming NPR to my heart's content. right now, i'm taking in an old episode of "this american life." i think it's safe to say that we can play this game: you know you're a nerd when...(fill in the blank).

here's mine.

you know you're a nerd when you spend a solid hour of your time placing faces with voices on the NPR website. i love it.

anyone else feel like sharing?

2.15.2006

new review!

...more kind words from timeout chicago:

"The latest revue by troupe Sketchcore does a brilliant job of maintaining a cohesive theme. Each sketch takes off from a rip in the fabric of everyday life...and there's an undercurrent of creepiness to the proceedings. That fact alone is impressive, since so many sketch shows come off as disjointed collections of unrelated bits. But on top of a solid motif, the ensemble has come up with original, funny ideas."

-Mark Sinclair, Timeout Magazine


do come see us soon!
and join us on myspace!

2.13.2006

from desert to tundra

man, is it cold out there or what?

know where it's not cold?

PALM SPRINGS.

palm springs is a magical desert place with huge mountains, low shrubbery and dry heat. when we walked off the airplane upon arrival it took me a few moments to realize that the airport was actually a tent-like structure and that we were outside. this was difficult to comprehend since it was a very room temp.-like 74ish degrees.

the resort in which we stayed had three or more pools. there were also hot tubs (see post below). there were birds that flew around inside the lobby of the hotel and a boat docked inside as well. the concierge gave us a semi-helpful map to help us on our journey to our rooms, but most of us got lost anyway. see my friend dean's blog for some pics.

on our second day in the springs, we got some relaxing done. a few of us spent the day poolside soaking up the gentle rays of sun. three of the guys decided to walk west in an attempt to reach the foothills of the mountains. they made hats out of newspaper and took two bottles of water each. three hours later, they reached their goal. while they ventured out towards nature, we ladies took it upon ourselves to focus on procuring some beer for the evening. we walked east toward ralph's which took us about 15 minutes. we bought many cases of beer, threw 'em on our shoulders and made the trek back to the resort. we got a lot of strange looks from drivers on the way back. i'm pretty certain it was due to the fact that the average age in palm springs is approximately 68. as we crossed the main drag, one older fella called our from his car window, "where's the party?" we took the somewhat less conspicuous side entrance and deposited our beer in the bathtub, filling it with ice from the machine down the hall. as we drank our precious treasure by the enormous fire pit later that night, people were thankful that we had made the trip.

the performance went well. i'm not sure what the mortgage brokers really thought of us. it seemed like a pretty reserved affair in spite of the unitard-clad dancers encased in blocks of ice (not me) and the ladies on stilts serving hors d'oeuvers (me). they seemed to be kind of afraid of me. i mean, no one really ate off my trays. what the heck was the problem? who knows...maybe they were intimidated. i suppose an 8 foot tall corseted woman in a huge metal skirt might be sort of scary.

the next day we flew home, dreading the rapid transition from desert to tundra. i slept and read and lost two hours of my life. once we flew closer toward the city and spotted the chicago skyline, i was glad to be home. we may not have palm trees and pools-a-plenty, but we've got hot dogs and skyscrapers and lots and lots of people (of all ages).

i mean...70 degrees 24/7 would get boring...right?

2.10.2006

where's my hot tub?!

i'm back.

and it's too soon to write about palm springs. too soon. you'll hear about that later.

i'll take it all the way back to last weekend (which seems like ages ago). sketchcore opened our show on friday and it went pretty darn well considering all of the technical difficulties. we had a nice audience who consisted of most of our sig-oths, close friends and a couple reviewers. our review from today's chicago reader:

URBAN LEGENDS Five affably quirky performers make up Sketchcore, which presents this send-up of the stories regularly debunked or reified on sites like snopes.com. The cast delivers its best work in two-character scenes. Lauren Sharpe and Dunbar Dicks shine as lovers in conflict: she adores telling scary stories, and he has an unfortunate personal history that includes encounters with hook-handed serial killers. Sharpe and Molly Hale also stand out as two dorky high schoolers on a scavenger hunt, determined to score popularity points by bringing in an actual zombie. The performers are strong, but the show could dig even deeper into the dark side of our efforts to scare the bejesus out of one another. --Kerry Reid Through 3/31: Fri 10:30 PM, Oracle Productions, 3809 N. Broadway, 773-780-9174, $8-$10.


ok. fine. i've seen many a worse review in the reader. i just really want people to come see our show. sooo, why doesn't everyone just pretend that we're "recommended," hmmm? we're a "don't miss" in timeout chicago! don't forget that!

...then palm springs (which i promise to write about within the next day or so) and now back to chicago. dark, gray, dead chicago. but as i awoke this morning and took my shower at 6:32, i noticed that it was a bit lighter outside than it usually is. the days, they're gettin' longer.

and it turns out people at work missed me...actually noticed that i was gone. that's nice to know. apparently there was some relatively creepy dude that was temping for my shifts. i bet my co-workers are just happy to have their regular old creepy gal back in action.

and it's friday! i wish that every week in february i could fly away on monday to a tropical or desert-like locale and fly back on thursday for one day of work and then right into the weekend. wait a minute, if i'm wishing here, then i should wish for a work-free, hot tub filled, full-buffet life of leisure.

but i'm sure that would get boring.

2.03.2006

fridaydayday

well, people always say "go with your gut" and i am inclined to agree. i just had a weird feeling going into our tech rehearsal last night.

i didn't get home until 3:30 am.

i made it to work on time. 7:00 am.


have a lovely friday out there, people.

2.01.2006

morning thoughts 02.01.06

i think it might be nice outside.

wait a minute...the sun just went away as i typed that sentence. whoopsie! anyhow, i'm sitting here at work thinking of the rest of my week and the next week after that and i'm starting to get excited. "urban legends" opens on friday and then on monday i get to go to california! man, what a lucky lady!

i'm especially excited about the show because it's one of the only times i've been totally involved in the creation of something from start to finish. i really love our stuff. the writing is good, the people are great and by george, it's funny! it feels very cool to have put in so much work and see it come to fruition. oooh, fruition! look ma, i wrote about fruition!

and on monday, to palm springs! i get to walk on giant stilts, wear an elvis wig and swim in a pool (not simultaneously, of course)! i've not been out of the midwest in over two years...wait, maybe its been longer...i don't even remember! shameful!

i'm hungry.