"happy new year!" or "the ramblings of an uninspired blogger"

well, hello there my friends!

i hope your holidays were merry and bright. i hope you are about to embark upon this impending new year with hope and happiness.

i have enjoyed my holidaytimes and continuing in my own new year's tradition, i will make no plans for the ol' new year's eve.

i find that any plans made for this holiday end in disappointment. you could plan the night of your life and still end up feeling empty. i like to leave new year's plans to the last minute, allowing spontaneous whim to rule the night. i might end up at a party, i might end up babysitting...i just don't know. what i do know is that each time i get my hopes up, new year's is there to dash them against the rocks of reality. another year, another year, another year...

oh god...did i already blog about this?

o, the sweet loss of memory that comes with the combination of time and life experience!

i find it mildly startling that just a couple of months ago, i was closing the door to our little storage space and noticed a huge package of paper towels.

i asked b, "did you buy those paper towels?"

"no," he replied, "you did."

"right, right...i bought them. at target. i remember."

scary.

it's strange and unsettling how fast the years go as you get older. i now know what all parents everywhere mean when they say the time flies...

alas! 2006! bravo. you were a good year. a solid year. 2006, you were fun and silly and serious and a source of constant discovery and i hope we can do it all over again...next year.

avery.

canada.

last week i visited canada. i performed in a large-scale spectacle created to celebrate the opening of a casino ballroom. for my small part in this event, i walked on stilts inside an iron skirt/cage holding various hors d'oeuvres while the high rollers of the casino imbibed to their heart's content.

you know...the usual.

i got to spend the majority of my visit with two friends and we made quite a mini-vacation out of it. we had some hotel pool/sauna/steam room time, drank canadian beer (see digi-pic), and relaxed. it was a fine getaway.

i also learned a few things about canada.

a list!

what i learned in canada:
-the people are really nice.
-molson canadian is a pretty good beer.
-trucks will try to run you down/no pedestrian is truly safe.
-the money is much prettier.
-canada's favorite city is chicago.

had i been there for more that three days, i would've learned much more...alas...so is the life of a stilt-walking, beer-drinking wanderer of the world.

28 1/2

as of today, i am officially 28.5 years old.

bravo.

sometimes, i think my friends are famous. i'm in awe and awe and awe of what they can do. i am lucky to know a lot of great people that create art in various capacities and i'm constantly amazed by their guts and guile.

we went to a friend's poetry performance yesterday evening and i was blown away by how utterly spectacular she was.

i should've known.

after seeing lots and lots of theatre over the past few months (some really good, some downright...not good), her performance was the simplest, most honest and fullest-of-heart that i've seen in a long while. when i see a great show, i have the feeling that i want to be in it, a part of it somehow. watching mary last night, i knew that only she could be doing what she was doing. and how!

i'm so very glad that i know her. i'm so glad i know all of you. you are all wonderful.

hi.

how are you?

i hope all is well in your collective worlds. lauren-land has been busy with thanksgiving travels, teaching the children, seeing plays, watching movies, and rehearsing for a new show ("blithe spirit" at the gift!).

its been as cold as hell in our fair city of chicago. actually today was the first day that it's been over 25ish degrees. it was a whopping 34 degrees! hurrah! and the snow that fell over a week or so ago is still frozen, all cracked and glass-like on the ground. on some sidewalks, you can kind of ice skate. i suppose those people must feel ok with the idea of an elderly person slipping and breaking all kinds of hips on their icy deathwalks. when i start to feel like i can't believe that it is ONLY DECEMBER and REAL winter hasn't even started yet, i think of this:










luckily our little apartment is nice and cozy, radiators radiating and cats curled up on couches. b is about to cut a friend's hair. we have a barbershop in our kitchen. tonight we will see our dear friend's show and have a little party time.

stay warm.