:)

...tech week for the golden truffle by the by...looong nights this week. it's all culminating in an epic 12-hour rehearsal on saturday. then we start previews. hoorah!

i will take a moment to let you know how very lucky i am to be part of a very kind and caring cast. i think the palm springs trip really locked it in bonding-wise. i'm glad i get to spend the next three months with them...should be a fun ride.

...last show for "urban legends" on friday and i do believe we're already sold out. i'll be sad to see this show go, but we may do a remount of it sometime later this year. we'll also try to get another show up before the end of the summer. a big thanks to those of you who came to see it.


also,



















sweet crap, he's cute.

ren.

baby!

there is a new baby in the world as of saturday march 25th. well...i'm sure there's a whole mess o' new babies in the world as of this saturday, but the one i'm interested in belongs to a very dear friend who lives far, far away.

this baby is called...something. no name yet, but he weighed 8 pounds and one ounce when he made his appearance on the scene this weekend. it will be july before i get there, but i am so looking forward to meeting him...

no, i'll be the judge.

here's the glaring difference in the way dean and i choose to express ourselves: his actions are based on invention and mine are rooted in truth (scroll down a little to see the truth).

ladies and germs, it seems that dean has finally discovered pitchfork.com! welcome to the interhipsternets, deano! now you can revel in the glorious sarcasm and blisteringly honest album reviews on this lil' ol' site (to which there is a link on the right of this very page).

to clarify, dean mines fiesta for trifles and novelty posts that i have placed there for the people's enjoyment. then he "borrows" them and posts them as his own findings, all the while fabricating the stories you'll find on his blog.

now if he could only discover spell check...

the clearing

b's play opened last night to much acclaim. i strongly suggest you see it. beautiful and simple and lovely. i'm so proud.

i'm also very tired. these monday night press openings are tough for a gal gettin' up at the crack o' dawn the next morning. it feels a bit like a large rock is lodged inside the front part of my head. a nap can't come soon enough.

weirdities

man, people are weird.

i re-learn this on a daily basis. and it's not that i'm not one of these people, but that i'm constantly amazed by the many variations on weirdness that are out there.

people say that kids are weird, but that's not really true. kids are brutally honest and incredibly astute. they have little tact (depending on the age, i suppose) and almost never edit themselves. when you have a huge, obvious zit (that no adult would ever point out) a kid will ask "what happened to your face?" i believe that this is out of genuine concern for your well-being. they really just want to make sure that you are ok.

one of my favorite things about teaching was watching 2 and 3 year olds interacting. their empathy for each other was overwhelming. during an art class i was teaching, a little girl stubbed her big toe right before circle time. there were a few seconds of frozen silence, the 'i'm actually hurt' gasp for breath followed by an avalanche of tears. within seconds, the rest of the kids' faces went blank as they watched her cry and then, one by one, they joined her in her state of stubbed-toe misery. in under a minute, the entire class was inconsolable. they were crying for her.

it makes me wonder at what point people stop looking each other in the eye during conversation. when do people start to talk at you, instead of with you. how did we forget to feel what it's like for our friends?

...and when is our circle time?!

fyi.

hey dudes!

a deep apology for those who were having trouble viewing my blog. it should look nice and shiny and new for everyone now.

i've added a couple of new linkies...one to the golden truffle which is the show i'm rehearsing with redmoon theater. this promises to be a spectacular show which will include singing, dancing, and lots of chocolate. yum! please do check it out.

also fyi, b is directing the upcoming show at the gift theatre. the clearing opens next thursday. it's a lovely play and the gift does not disappoint. if you want to be disappointed, don't go see this show.

you will be disappointed if you miss URBAN LEGENDS. sketchcore has just three fridays left and i strongly encourage you to reserve your tickets now. let me know if you want to make a reservation...

true or false.

morning, all!

i hope everyone's weekend was full of fun and frolic. it was unseasonably warm here in chicago most of the weekend; i wish i could've spent more time out-of-doors...

last night there were crazy thunderstorms. blazing lightening and gigantic thunderclaps. rain, rain and more rain. i didn't mind it a bit. it sounded wonderful.

this morning the crocuses in the garden were peeking out. little yellow ones. i fear for their safety.

in other (and more upsetting) news, our dear friend dean's blog has struck back with a vengeance, hurling false accusations at my friendly blog left and right. he has also chosen to involve innocent bystanders in this "war." dean's blog, i implore you, leave the others out of this.

now, i didn't want to sink to muckraking levels of pettiness, but dean's blog has simply forced me to do it. it seems as if dean has been drunkenly copying and pasting pictures into his blog entries and deeming me responsible for the actions within them. friends, it saddens me to know that if i had not introduced dean to the charming world of cute animals, these accusations would never have come to pass. i am immensely distraught by dean's blog's actions and hope that you, the discerning, fiesta-reading public will see them for what they are: a load of crap. however, i will not force you to adhere to any of my beliefs. i would hope that you, the public, will decide for yourselves what is true and what is false.

last i heard, dean was spotted closing the bar at the macaroni grill in schaumburg. apparently, he had been cut off by the bartender after digressing into a long diatribe during which he berated innocent patrons, repeatedly calling them "lefty loosies" and "patron saints of the apocolypse." then, dean staggered out of the restaurant, haphazardly urinated on the north side of the building and disappeared into the night. he was found beside a dumpster early the next morning by a member of the waitstaff.

my dear friends, let me leave you with this simple equation:

dean's drunken blog + lies and deceit = bush's america.

nine times.

yesterday i decided to give my friend heidi a call. her boyfriend is out of town for the next two months and i wanted to check in with her, see how she is holding up. when i dialed her number, no voice mail picked up so i figured i'd just call her back a bit later.

then my phone rang. the caller id said "heidi" and so i answered it. the connection was pretty crackly and i could barely hear the woman speaking on the other end.

"heidi?" i said.

"yes, this is heidi!" said the woman (who sounded absolutely nothing like heidi).

"...ummm...i'm sorry...i think i have the wrong num-"

"no, this is heidi! how are you?" she continued in an undetermined accent.

"i'm fine. i...um...i'm not sure this is the right number."

i was 99% sure that this was not my friend heidi and guessed that the chances of me mistakenly calling another person with the very same name were pretty slim. then i thought that the woman was just messing with me. trying to pull a fast one one on the old lauren. but this lady didn't seem to be joking at all. she sounded very sure of herself. she seemed to think she actually was (or had become) my friend heidi.

"i'm sorry, i dialed the wrong number."

i hung up and continued on about my business. i went to the store. i deposited a check in the bank. i walked back home. i fixed my real friend heidi's number in my phone, called her, left her a message...

then, the calls began.

the faux heidi proceeded to call me 9 times, leaving three garbled messages that said (roughly), "hi lauren! this is heidi! can't wait to call you...talk to you. i will call you back. this is heidi, ok?"

yes. that's right...nearly 10 calls! now, i've had some people crazy-call me a ton of times, but those were from people i knew, never from a stranger. it was freaking me out for reals! so i called cingular and asked them if i could block a number on my phone. jackie, the polite customer service rep, said 'no' they couldn't block a number, but she would waive the $36 fee if i wanted to change my number. i told her thanks but no thanks.

the phone continued to ring. and ring. and ring. finally out of utter frustration, i answered.

i blurted out, "hi...listen, you're not my friend heidi. please don't call this number anymore, ok?" and hung up before the faker had a chance to answer.

she called back once more. then the calls stopped.

unless of course she's on her way to find me.

right NOW!

monkey business

howdy y'all. sorry it's been so very long, i've been felled by the most bizarre ailment in history...well, not all of history but in my history...i won't go into it on the blog. however, if you see me and want to know more, i'll fill you in.

anyway...last night i went to see a barrel of monkeys show directed by my friend (and palm springs roomie) halena. it was awesome. the creativity and energy of these shows always amazes me. if you live in chicago and you have not seen one of their shows, i encourage you to do so. it's cheap and great and written by the kids. go. you'll be glad you did. i mean, aren't you always saying how you need to go "do more stuff?" you're always saying "i live in chicago and there's so much to do!" and "why don't i go see something fun and different!?" well, what's stopping you? that's what i thought.

b has a cold and i'm falling apart and we've got a wal mart audition to make out for today. we are a "couple in a car." wish us luck...

i pity the fool.

i borrowed this link from tracy's blog...do yourself a favor and just view it.

check it.

i've added some more incredible photos and captions to the post below (with all photo credit to arnie...thank you!).

feel free to add your own comments or names to the cast of characters below...

a response.

good morning.

as i expected, my friend dean has found it necessary to keep up this self-imposed war on my happy little blog. in his alcohol-induced haze, he has managed to type out a few sentences lambasting my blog's beliefs and dragging my blog's good name through the muck. that is dean's prerogative; he can do what he wants to do. however, i know in his heart of heart of hearts, dean knows that this is not about a blog. this is about dean. dean and his "war."

i will continue to support dean through this difficult time. as he navigates his way through the terrifying twists and turns on the road to recovery, i will be right by his side with a puke bucket and a pack of smokes.

as for his lurid accusations, i will say this: we all have skeletons in our closets. we all have secrets buried deep in our blogs. you see, i did indeed play a cat piano once. once. it was during a very dark time in my life when i thought i was desperate for some sense of control in a world that seemed to be unravelling before me like the yarn on a loosely woven sweater being batted around by a tiny kitten. like dean, i have struggled with my own inner demons and i have come out the other side with newfound knowledge and personal peace. that is why i am especially equipped to aid dean in his time of need. we are all here for you, buddy. as for "painful spikes in fuzzy rears," we know that you are the real expert and we'll leave it at that.

people, let's band together to help this broken man-child. i implore you to avoid enabling him by "click[ing]" on his "google ad" in order to fund his habit. however, i encourage you to visit his blog to show your support for him in all his endeavors.

let's stick this one out, folks. viva la fiesta resistance!

gandy gras 2006 (or the bay of wigs invasion)

last night at otis's fourth annual gandy gras celebration (aptly named after our ever-cookin' host, jeff gandy) after eating our king cake, we decided to try on a wig.

i will let the photos speak for themselves. if you listen closely, you can hear them. shhh...

starring...


"randy!"













"madame ruby!"


















"studio 54's jack steinberg!"










"mom!"











"rickie lee & bosco!"












"officer rob & a street tough!"













"the head in the jar from 'silence of the lambs!'"














"big guns!"















"joe!"

an intervention.

it has been brought to my attention that fiesta resistance! has come under attack. this, my friends, is a paltry attempt by my dear friend dean to sort out some confusing personal issues he has. his righteous anger and vicious frenzy of hate have descended upon fiesta like a sad, sad plague. this is especially upsetting because the very nature of my blog is kind and good. if you've never said the name aloud, then you probably haven't thought much about my philosopy. say it out loud: fiesta resistance! (fee-est-a ray-siss-tahns). that's right. it's a party and a protest. and while i advocate both partying and protesting, i do not advocate war. i advocate a peaceful pink party protest.

therefore, i have decided to stage an intervention.

dean,

first of all, you need to know that you are a good person. you are surrounded by friends and family who adore you and know how incredibly talented, hard-working, and bold you are. anyone with two eyes can see that. hell, even people with just one or no eyes could tell that you are exceptional, but dean, my friend, you have a problem. just look at yourself:









you're drunk.

again.

...slurred words, inability to hold your focus...look at kasey, she's laughing at you, dean. julie can't even look at you. worse yet, you're preparing to climb into a giant martini glass. dean, dean, dean...albino koalas and barking dogs of war won't save you now. it's up to you to save yourself. we'll all be there for you of course, but it's time to take a long, hard look at making a serious change. i know you're angry, but declaring "war" on colors and accusing me of communist tendencies is not the path to enlightenment.

so, when you decide you are ready to have a calm, rational discussion about cute animals, let me know. i will be here, ready to talk.

dean, this is war peace.

your friend,

lauren

p.s. "swayzie" is spelled without an "i."