New Adventures in Public School

Bus stop selfie, amiright?

Yesterday was another FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! That's basically what I say any time I go to a new school for a residency, which is what I did yesterday. (It was not technically the first day of school, it was the first day of the last quarter of school for these kids).

I am still working with American Theater Company's Mosaic Program, but this time, instead of working with three classes at Kelvyn Park High School, I am assisting just one class at Roberto Clemente Community Academy. I kind of got thrown into this one at the last second because they needed a replacement TAA but luckily for me, I already know the program!

Yesterday was my first time going to the school and it is unlike anything I have ever seen before. I couldn't even fit the whole building into one photo! (There is actually a sky bridge that leads to the annex building). It definitely has a different vibe than KP (which was built in the 1930s for the record).

After class was over, I got to enjoy some nice sunny weather because spring has sprung here (at least for the past couple of days -- I've been told not to trust the weather here EVER). I'm going to enjoy the warm for now as I'm headed to the SECOND DAY OF SCHOOL.

Pencil Skirts Mandatory

Technically, no, that is not what the job listing said (nor was there an actual job listing, I got called in for a temp gig), I just look really good in pencil skirts.

I'm temping today and since my readers (*cough* Mom and Dad *cough*) demand blog posts about the most boring tidbits of my life, I thought I would oblige (and by oblige, I mean, I've been here for 45 minutes, answered three phone calls but am already bored out of my mind).

I'm temping at GATX again! They specifically requested me! #Famous. This is my fourth time filling in with them for a total of six days out of my 9322 days on this green(house gas emissions) earth. It's finally warm enough that I can ditch the dress pants (or black jeans masquerading as dress pants) for my preferred business casual pencil skirt. I look great in those bad boys!

Need proof? No worries, I took a selfie in the bathroom to kill some time when I arrived 15 minutes early.

Business awesome

Yup, I rock that look (who else can work a pencil skirt with their bright pink middle school backpack? Just me? Damn straight).

Yesterday, I went to a play that Mandy's roommates were involved in (not just involved in, her roommate Kalli was the director and producer of the whole thing). While we were sitting there, I started telling her about For the Love Of (or the Roller Derby Play). The guy in front of us turned around and said that he'd just seen that show too. He'd seen it on Thursday! I asked him if he meant April 6th, because I'd seen it on Thursday as well. Turns out, he was sitting right behind me four days ago. He even remembered me as "the girl in the corner with the backpack." Yup! That's me! Small friggin world, amiright?

Post-show, we all went back to Mandy's, where I ended up with a glass of champagne in one hand and a slice of bacon/pickle pizza in the other. (I'm a bad vegetarian, I know, but late-night celebratory pizza definitely trumps self-imposed dietary restrictions!).

Now, today, I had a meeting at 11 and a doctor's appointment at 3. These two things happened to be an eight minute walk from each other (but roughly 40 minutes from my house) so my plan was to hang out in the neighborhood in between. The meeting was with the teaching artist I'll be working with for this second round of the Mosaic Program, which starts next week. We were meeting at a café called Delicious (promising name!). I timed it out perfectly! I got there RIGHT at 11 sharp! I didn't have to walk around the block an extra time like I normally do when I go somewhere because I'm always too early. Nope! Today was my day.

Now, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is, because after ordering my hot chocolate, admiring Delicious's sloth logo and marveling at their floor made of pennies, I sat down and waited. By 11:15, I was pretty confused. I didn't have my fellow teaching artist's phone number so I was trying to figure out how I could reach her. My first step was to reread our email exchange and this is where I discovered my blunder -- she asked if I would like to meet on Tuesday, April 11 at 4pm, which my brain read as Tuesday at 11. Good work, brain. I was not my standard early, I was extra super duper insane five hours early!!

Well, I finished my hot chocolate and decided I could still be productive with my day! I walked 30 minutes to CTW to do a little bit of work there, retraced most of my steps and got a cupcake lunch at small cakes (this month's special -- brownie red velvet! Ohmigawd!!!) and then decided to visit the small town that is Lakeview's newest Whole Foods. Well, who did I bump into there but the legend herself, Amanda Belscamper! She and her boss had run over for coffee and we all just happened to be there at the same time! Insane.

Well, post walk-thru of Whole Foods, I visited another branch of the Chicago Public Library to get some quality computer time (and have a place to sit where I wasn't expected to spend money). Does this particular branch smell like a stale fart and BO? Yup, pretty much, but is it free? Yes and free currently beats my burning nose hairs.

And that is where I am writing/posting from. Enjoy your reading material, I will now be enjoying mine (a book courtesy of CPL, obviously!)

Be Still My Reading Heart

One could argue that Chicago Theater Works is my home away from home. They could argue that. They would be WRONG! My home away from home is the Logan Square branch of the Chicago Public Library!

This is where I go when I need something to do or a change of scenery. It's where I go when I want to get books! The one problem with this branch is that it doesn't have every single book I want! But, having a library card means that I can have any book at any library in CPL delivered to the Logan Square branch. This is obviously extremely useful! I put holds on books all. the. time. Like everyday! One of the best days of my life was when I discovered that CPL has an app that you can put on your phone and use to find books! One of the next best days of my life was the following day when the official CPL twitter retweeted my tweet about them having an app!

Photographic evidence

Both the CPL website and app have added a banner at the top of their pages (yes, I do sometimes still use the website) saying that website logins and holds will be unavailable from April 13-21 and that you will need to use your card at the library. This means stocking up! So I went to the library today to pick up a book on hold and grab another book that they did happen to have in stock.

Now, while I was checking out the book, I got news that would shatter my world! I thought that even though the website would be unavailable, any books that were in transit to the branch (I am currently waiting on two) would still be available for pick up when they arrived. WRONG! Nope, any books on hold that arrive at the branch will have to be stored until the system is back online! That means that if my two books (or even more since I always have several books on hold at one time) arrive after Wednesday, I won't be able to get them until the 22nd! This is awful! I currently have three and a half books checked out (I technically have four, but since I am halfway through one of them, it doesn't count) which will probably get me through the first two days of this insanity!

I'm working on a list based on my reading list of books that are, in fact, available at the Logan Square Library branch. I picked up one today obviously, but I'm going to have to go get more tomorrow, before it's too late!*

*I will be able to check out books after April 13, but I won't have any way of knowing that the books that are on my reading list/that I want to read are available at the Logan Square branch.

A picture is worth 15 words

Hello Sun!

The sun graces us with it's presence and warmth yesterday! We are blessed!

It was a two show day for Tony N Tina's but it was also over 60 degrees out! Insane. I opened both of the doors at the church to let the light in and today is supposed to be even nicer!

(Although we all know that after the awful winter at the TnT church where my fingers basically froze and broke off, I am going to melt without any AC at the church this summer, but let me enjoy it for now).

Writing the Comedy Memoir

Well, say goodbye to all of my expendable income! I just signed up for a class at the Second City Training Center called Writing the Comedy Memoir. It is, obviously, a class for writing about molecular biology and quantum physics. Just kidding! See? I'm already writing funny stuff!

It was a pretty chunk of change, but that's what savings bonds are for, amiright?

Just kidding again, I don't know what savings bonds are technically for, but I'm going to cash mine and use them for this.

Or the Roller Derby Play

Yesterday was my half birthday and I celebrated with theatre and cupcakes (actually, that sounds like just about every other day in my life... but I promise I was celebrating!).

Photographic evidence

It was a nice day out, so I actually decided to walk a large portion of my journey (which ended up being two miles according to Google). The play was north of Chicago Theater Works so I ended up taking the bus to where I would normally get on the train and walking from there. It was really interesting to see things that I had been passing on the train for months up close and get a new view of things. I also ended up going closer to Wrigley Field than I ever had. I took a picture to prove it. (I also think I ended up being closer to Wrigley Field than I ever have been to Fenway Park, which is a little embarrassing for someone whose spent almost an entire lifetime in Boston...).

Now, I take my half birthday very seriously. It is like my regular birthday except better because there are zero expectations but I still get cake. You would think I've sampled every cupcake in Chicago at this point, but I was just as surprised as you are to find out that I have not! Jennivee's Bakery! Just a few blocks north of Chicago Theater Works! (South of Wrigley, I figured I would take some poetic license and get my Wrigley Field bit out of the way before writing about things that I actually care about). The bakery is fairly new, opening between when I created the Cupcake Crawl list and when we actually began our journey, which is how we missed such a conveniently located spot.

I was at a crossroads (Sheffield and School St to be specific). Do I stop at this bakery and treat myself or do I return to my non-cupcake sampling ways until Mr. Ryan Lind makes a triumphant, but currently undetermined, return to the Windy City? (I swore off trying new bakeries between October and Ryan's visit so that we could try them together). I decided that it was my half birthday and I obviously could not have a proper half birthday without a cupcake so I went in.

I didn't get a good pic, so I stole this from their Instagram.

Honestly, everything in the bakery looked delicious. I decided not to get a monstrous slice of cake, although it would have been well within my right as half-birthday girl (although I'm not sure my wallet would have agreed as a slice cost twice as much as a cupcake!) I probably would have ordered the "Bad and Boujee" cupcake on the name alone (the sign did proclaim it to have the best name ever) but I couldn't resist a chocolate cupcake with a champagne-infused raspberry mouse! It was a celebration after all, and it wouldn't be a proper one without champagne! (Although I'm pretty sure I've never celebrated anything with champagne in my life, unless you count mimosas at brunch, where I am celebrating the weekend ritual of overeating at mid-morning meals).

This cupcake was UNREAL! The mousse was perfection and the chocolate cupcake was very dense -- almost more muffin like -- but didn't make me feel like I had a cement in my stomach once I'd devoured every bite of it.

Perhaps the best part of Jennivee's is that it is kitty corner from one of the cast of TnT's favorite post-show hangouts AND it's open until midnight, so maybe next time the cast wants to grab a beer (or five), I will fill my stomach with the one thing I love more than alcohol.

After cupcakes, it was on to the Pride Arts Center to see For The Love Of... (Or the Roller Derby Play). Yes, that was the show's real title (it also came with an equally wordy tag line "A show about women who skate hard and love harder). I was going to see a play about roller derby! The show had been written and directed by women, along with having an entirely female cast.

The show reminded me a lot of a play I did in college called Shooting Stars about an all-women's basketball team in the 1960s. I played a character named Gay and there was also a character named Butch but it definitely wasn't a play about lesbians, unlike what I saw last night. I would say that For The Love Of... was 95% modern-adaptation of Shooting Stars and 5% what Shooting Stars would have been if Gay and Butch had been lesbians.

It wasn't perfect but it's great to see women represented in all of those creative and on-stage roles. We can always use more of that! It also made me consider strapping on skates and finding a roller derby league for what feels like the zillionth time.

After the play, I didn't walk home, just to the train station (and I talked to my sister while I walked because while I might be a big bad feminist, I'm not a naive big bad feminist and I was walking in a neighborhood that, while not appearing too shady, is not one I often visit). We discussed binge-watching Netflix's newest series 13 Reasons Why, which you didn't really need to know but I've included because when I take the time to write a long-ass post like this one, I like to make sure it is overly detailed. Whitney might come to visit me at the end of the month, along with my dad, so that would be very exciting.

The plans for today include hitting send on this blog post and going to work at CTW tonight. I have no idea how I'll fill the time between now and then, but if it is blog-worthy, you shall be the first to know (or maybe you'll know in a month or two, depending on how I am feeling...).

Flashback Friday

I was deleting old photos from my phone when I found this guy! A literal Flashback Friday from today to the fateful Friday when I fought swarms of Cubs fans on the subway to get to my internship at Lookingglass, got to go to their victory parade and the only thing I cared enough to take pictures of was this very cute puppy.

(That was also the Friday where I decided I would call out sick if I ever needed to go downtown on a day where there was any type of sport-related tom foolery happening).

It is a lovely spring day so I have decided to walk a portion of my adventure to the play tonight. I'm walking a part of my commute where I would normally be on the train, and it is already very interesting to see things at the street level.

I also downloaded the Blogger app for posting on the go. You're welcome.

Research

Earlier this week, I met a friend for lunch at a Thai place (my suggestion because I'd been there before and knew that it was within walking distance of his apartment). We had crab rangoons with real imitation crab and then because he is working on a show where he, as the props master, needs to create the "perfect ice cream sundae" decided we should find some ice cream... for research purposes. Surprisingly, there aren't a lot of places to get ice cream in Chicago! The results of a Google search for ice cream are about 99% Baskin Robbins and the last 1% of ice cream is like five miles away. We ended up at Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream, which is a mini-chain that actually started in Columbus, OH, but has rapidly expanded into the Windy City (and probably other places too). You can buy pints of their ice cream at Whole Foods for like nine bucks, but luckily, purchasing a scoop is not going to empty your wallet at quite the same velocity.

Jeni's is splendid though but neither of us actually got a sundae though, so I guess there is more research in our future.

So, updating you on EVERYTHING that has happened since I last really wrote has turned out to be more than I can chew, so here are the highlights (actually, really the only thing I have to share because March was mainly working 24/7).

My best friend, Mr. Ryan Lind came to visit in March! He was supposed to visit in February but every flight leaving NYC was cancelled thanks to a giant snowstorm, so we postponed. While he was here, we gorged ourselves on cupcakes and did lots of touristy things along with some not-so-touristy things.

We went to eight different bakeries and the best cupcakes we had were these tiny bundt cakes we got for free at an event we attended at CTW! Yup, the best cake in life is free apparently. I didn't take any pictures of the mini bundt cakes (they were very cute), but I did take lots of pictures of everything else we ate during our hunt for Chicago's best cupcake (which like I said, were the free mini bundt cakes from Everything Bundt).

I don't think we ever decided what the best cupcakes were, but I think the most disappointing was Goddess & The Baker's rainbow cake. This is what we were most excited for because rainbow! But it was just really plain cake in the end.

Cuties!

The other highlight of his visit was when Ryan finally got to meet Mandy! They'd met via Skype and have obviously heard all about each other, but it was their first time meeting face-to-face. Mandy is a working fiend so we just got to have a short lunch (at the brand new Whole Foods that is bigger than my entire apartment building) but it was nice to see two of my favorite people together at last!

And that was March, at least, the only part of March that I care about.

Today is my half birthday, which means I need to figure out where I can go to get cake in this city where I haven't already gone... I have the next few weeks to do nothing again, before my next gig starts on April 17th, so maybe you'll have more reading material between now and then, and maybe not! We'll see!

I told you that we also did the touristy stuff. 

WOW.

It has been almost a month since I last blogged. But I have a good reason for my radio (internet?) silence. I have worked every day this month EXCEPT for two! But I have the next two weeks off, so I will begin to update you on what has been going on and hopefully keep up posting with more regularity moving forward.

Oh My, You Should Eat!

I won't say that the past week has been a crazy one, just your average busy-I-have-no-time-to-blog week, but some interesting stuff happened over the weekend that I am happy to report on (as I procrastinate getting ready for work today).

Speaking of work, that's where my story begins! On Sunday, I had a mid-session check-in for the Mosaic Program... that I completely forgot about! Thank goodness I set a reminder (I normally don't) otherwise, I would have missed it entirely. As it was, I had about two minutes to shower and get dressed before calling an Uber and paying $11 to make sure I arrived on time.

Post-meeting, I decided to support the entrepreneurship of young America by being the last customer for a group of Girl Scouts outside of Starbucks. First off, these cookies have gotten expensive since ye olden days of scouting girls! And they have less cookies in the box. Also, I'm in the midwest so instead of being called Caramel Delites, they're called (the completely politically incorrect name) Samoas. I still ate them.

After that, I didn't have time to go back to my apartment before I had to return to the same general geographic location for a performance at CTW, so I instead decided to try out one of the restaurants on Belmont that I've always wanted to try, but haven't because I work at a dinner theatre and get to eat for free!

Clarke's has been staring at me as I stand on the train waiting to go home for months now! I was seriously craving a milkshake (despite having recently purchased cookies) and figured that any place with a 1950s housewife on their sign could probably make a good one so I decided it was time to go in.

I was right about the milkshake thing! I also ordered a grilled cheese sandwich. They're basically a dressed up diner so they had a lot of breakfast things that looked good too, but I wanted some salty french fries to go with my cool vanilla dairy confection, so grilled cheese was the perfect fit.

After that, I went to the theatre, did a play and the rest is history!

First Day of School and WGN

This would be the week where my life decided to explode. After nearly a month of chronicling daily nothings, I finally had things to do this week. And boy, did I have a lot of things to do.

Actually, I didn't really have much to do on Monday. Mandy came over and I made us a breakfast pizza for dinner (this is what happens when you end up postponing brunch for weeks and then even end up postponing brunch until dinner time). For those of you who don't know, a breakfast pizza is like a regular pizza except instead of sauce, you used scrambled eggs, so it's breakfast for dinner but also pizza for dinner.

Obligatory "First day
of school" pic

Tuesday is when things really started up! It was my first day working for ATC's Mosaic Program. I think I've sort of spelled it out here before but basically I am working with three classes who, at the end of six weeks, will come together to put on a show! The school is walking distance from my apartment which is like the best set up ever. This first week of the program, I was in there every day, for the rest of the program, it will just be three days a week (although, this was only a four day school week, so there isn't really a HUGE difference). It was a pretty solid first day, if you ask me and I'm really excited for this opportunity.

Wednesday was the final dress rehearsal of CTW's new/old show Flanagan's Wake. They did Flanagan's last year before I worked there but they brought it back for St. Patrick's Day. I had to be there for the final dress to a) see the show and b) check in the few random patrons, because it was a dress rehearsal with an audience. I was also the bartender, which is always an interesting experiment for me. The show is pretty funny with the added bonus of not including dinner (except for the Wednesday matinee performances) so that means less clean up for me!

Thursday, I was back at KP High School (well, I was there on Wednesday too, but nothing note-worthy really happened). Today was the day of a truly Thomson Thomson-story. For those of you who do not know, a Thomson-story is a story of such insanity that it could only happen to me. Yup, my name is an adjective to describe outlandish improbable disasters. Part of my job for the Mosaic Program included making all sorts of supplementary materials. The cooperating classroom teacher, Mr. Montoya, decided that he would like his whiteboard back and cleared off a bulletin board for this. He gave me a stapler and the free period to get to work. Well, wouldn't you know, I failed spectacularly! You would think that it wouldn't be hard to staple posters to a wall, but then again, neither did I. I managed to break the stapler IN HALF. Yup, the top and bottom were completely separated by the time I was finished with them (and by that, I mean after my first attempt at stapling).

Fancy stuff.

Luckily, the evening at CTW went much better than the classroom supplies fiasco. We were doing something that we'd never done at CTW before -- a live radio broadcast. We have been working with a local radio station, WGN 720AM to promote Tony N Tina's, and as part of a trade, they decided they wanted to a radio broadcast with a live audience in our space. It was a first for them as well. It was this guy's talk show -- he had three different guests (including a guy whose new show is up on Amazon) and the band, The Smoking Popes, who apparently really legit but I don't know them. I was there to do some crowd control and clean up!

In a strange turn of events, I found out about a different non-dinner theatre event we'll be hosting in a month in a most unusual way. I am a monthly donor for The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and so they send me emails. Well, on Thursday, I got an email for an event called Her HRC Chicago. I looked at the date and thought "I'm free, I should buy a ticket" and then I scrolled down and saw the location: Chicago Theater Works, and suddenly my thoughts changed to "Well, I guess I'm going for free now." I checked with my boss and yup, I'm working. (He asked if I wanted to go as a guest instead and I was like, we both know that there is no way I could come to something here and just not work at this point).

No school supplies were harmed in
the making of this educational tool.

Friday was the last day of Week One of the Mosaic Program at KP. I bought my cooperating teacher a new stapler and got to work. The kids finished reading the play and we did some character analysis which was great because it means that we got our five days worth of work done in four days! (Other schools involved in the program started a few weeks ago and had a full five-day school week when they started, but we, as you know, had Monday off).

Friday was also the official opening night of Flanagan's Wake! It went really well and as I've said, it has the added bonus of less post-show clean up for me!

Yesterday was a two-show day at good old Chicago Theater Works (yup, I'll have been there five days this week!). One performance of TnT and then we flipped the house for Flanagan's. I'd like to say that things could not have gone smoother, but we avoided disaster at the very least!

So Saturday might have been a big day at CTW but today is even bigger with a private performance of TnT at 6:30 tonight and a confirmed 208 people coming. And then tomorrow, it's back to that teacher grind at KP and we do it all again! (Ok, we won't do it all again, we'll be doing new stuff this time).

Peace out, girl scouts! (Actually, if someone could direct me to the nearest girl scouts, I am looking for some cookies...)

Well, At Least It Didn't Start Raining Until AFTER I Got to My Destination

Me at the bus stop today

What Is This???

More blog posts this week! What a time to be alive!

You know how I posted about Chicago being the 50 Degree City? Well, yesterday, we continued to prove the theory of green house gases and the hole in the ozone by not just being the 50 Degree City -- not even the 60 Degree City -- but the 70 Degree City!

Snapchat says it all:

Goodbye to My Impulse Control

Three blog posts in one week?! Wow, I am on a roll (actually, I'm on a chair. Sitting on a roll would probably be pretty weird).

 Another lazy (read super boring) day for me here in the Windy City. Although they should have renamed it the 50 Degree City because we had some crazy high temperatures here today (but don't worry, global warming is fake news).

Well, after breakfast, minimal cleaning and maximum red lipstick, I decided to head back to the Chicago Public Library -- my go to place to prevent me from binge eating on boring days. My resume is in need of some serious love so I spent the first hour of my allotted 120 minutes of CPL computer time doing that. I spent the rest of the time on Facebook and reading my latest library book, We Were Feminists Once. I'm still going to be a feminist when I'm done with it, but boy, the first chapter has already revealed how consumerism has cornered the market on feminism.

After that, I was on my way back to Logan Theatre, my new four-screen obsession. They'd wisely replaced La La Land with Lion and even though Lion hasn't been at the top of my movie going list, I like going to the movies.

On your right.

On the way there, however, I passed a bookstore that I have passed many times. The one difference was that today was the first time I had ever seen it open! I'm not sure that this was really cause for celebration, but their signage, as you'll see on your right, was.

Books and dogs! A dream come true. They tested my strength and wallet by having a buy-two-get-one-free deal happening, but considering that I already had three books in my backpack, I had to walk away (but not without petting the puppy, of course).

I can actually eat that
without vomiting later!

Ok, so apart from being historic and having a glittery marquee going for it, I am seriously falling in love with the Logan Theatre. Their tickets are cheap, their snacks are actually human sized (I got a small that was sized for a human and not a small whale) and while I was waiting for my movie (I was 30 minutes early), I heard the previews start for another movie and decided to check them out and an employee saw me and told me that it was fine and I could just stay there until my movie started! How awesome is that?!

And just like that, there goes my impulse control and expendable income, because as long as these guys keep cycling through movies while I have time off, I know where I'll be.

Also, Lion was the best damn movie I have seen in a long time INCLUDING The Lego Batman Movie and that is really, REALLY, REALLY high praise coming from yours truly. (Skip Blah Blah Land, go find Lion --movie review by me).

Bored Blogger

I forgot to mention getting
cute for V-Day cuz I <3 me

What am I supposed to do with a whole free day? Update you, of course!

Well, technically my day isn't completely free because I'm going to a show with one friend and a birthday party with another friend tonight, but that isn't until after dinner, so I'm free for now.

The last time I wrote was on Tuesday and you wouldn't think that a lot has happened since then, but you are wrong. Ok, maybe you're technically right, but I am still going to blog about the things that did happen.

After hitting "Publish" on my last post, I went to meet the head teaching artist I am working with on my latest gig -- The Mosaic Project with American Theater Company! We met at New Wave Coffee and it was a brief meeting but made me more excited to start working (and we're getting close now because it starts next week!).

After that, my options were to either go home for a few hours before heading to an appointment or kill time until my appointment. I chose to kill time. This resulted in me getting lunch at Guy Fieri-approved BIG & little's. BIG & little's has several locations but the one closest to me is on the same street at Chicago Theater Works, so I've never gone (because why pay for food when I can get it for free at work?!). I changed that on Tuesday.

I ended up getting the Big & little's fish taco and an order of fries. (They had a lot of different types of tacos but I had to go with their signature one, after all). It was fried whitefish, cabbage, lettuce, tomato, their special sauce, tartar sauce and lime juice. Definitely NOT the best taco of my life but passable and the fries were good. I've heard they had a deep fried grilled cheese which I would love to get my hands on, but their menu only said regular grilled cheese, so maybe that location doesn't believe in adding a million extra calories to an American classic.

The rest of my wait time was spent wandering and spending some time in the Lincoln-Belmont Library (a new CPL location I had yet to visit). I guess this library is home to the National Vegetarian Museum, which was very confusing, because it was basically three large signs in a very small library.

It didn't seem like much of a "national" museum to me and I didn't even read their materials -- choosing instead to surf the internet for plays about women's basketball (I saw a sign for a play called The Tall Girls that seemed like a historical drama about a women's basketball team, and as a tall girl who starred in what is probably the only other historical drama about a women's basketball team -- Shooting Stars -- I was very curious. The Tall Girls, I discovered, is about a women's basketball team in the 1930s while Shooting Stars is about a women's basketball team in the 1960s. I might have to treat myself to a ticket to The Tall Girls just to compare them and also because who knew there was a market for theatre about women's basketball when there isn't even a real American market for women's basketball?!).

It came w/ a spoon so I could add my own sugar.
Blech.

Those were my Tuesday adventures! My Wednesday adventures started with a 6am bus ride because it was time for Poetry Pals! I was meeting my ride at a coffee shop, La Colombe, and ordered a hot chocolate. It looked great, but it wasn't until after I'd paid and they were passing it to me across the counter that they told me that their hot chocolate isn't sweetened. I'm sorry, what?! A) If you aren't going to sweeten it, then what is the point? and B) Why didn't you tell me that before I paid?! Oh well, I added some sugar and took it to go because my fellow teaching artists were ready to hit the road (we were suburbs-bound for the day, hence why I needed a ride).

Poetry Pals is one of my many jobs but is probably one of my favorites right now. I don't know if I've talked much about it on my blog, but we were recently featured in the Chicago Tribune, so we're kind of a big deal. You can read about it here. Yesterday, we all got new Poetry Pals shirts with the new logo on them! I called dibs on the pink one. We took a picture of all of us in our new gear for our boss to post on social media, but she hasn't done that yet, so I can't show you how great we all look.

As much as I love Poetry Pals, it really tired me out, so the rest of the day was spent doing... nothing. Seriously. I basically slept away the rest of the day. And now, it's Thursday. As I said, I have plans to see a show and hang out with some friends tonight, but until then, it's a whole lot of walking around my apartment aimlessly in the hopes that I'll miraculously find something to do (I won't).

Night of the Venomous Lego Batman in La La Land

Well, not having my best friend here didn't stop me from having an eventful past few days.

Slayyy

I handled my disappointment like a champ on Thursday and went to Improvised Shakespeare (I even wore my epic Romeo and Juliet shirt). For those of you who don't know, Improvised Shakespeare is a group that improvises a show in the style of a Shakespearean play after getting a title suggestion from the audience. I went once in September, where I sat in the back and they could not hear my epic title suggestion (although the title they did pick -- The Coughing Lumberjack -- turned out to be pretty awesome). This time, however, I was in the front row and not only could they hear me, but they picked my suggestion! So Thursday was the one and only performance of The Night of the Venomous Squirrel. It ended up being a play about a boy named Squirrelio, a girl with a propeller hat and a Burn Book worthy of Mean Girls.

Friday was probably the most disappointing day with Ryan. We'd planned an epic Cupcake Crawl (the third sugary chapter in our quest for cupcake domination) but almost more importantly than that, we'd planned to go see The Lego Batman Movie together! We love Lego Batman. Ryan is 100% the Lego Robin to my Lego Batman (meaning he's the wide-eyed, glittery-cape wearing soprano optimist to my dark-and-brooding, sarcastic, feelings-phobic self). Ryan went and saw an early preview on Thursday night and encouraged me to go on Friday instead of wallowing in depression all day (but like, wallowing in depression is exactly what Batman would have done here...).

I love Lego Batman so much that I have a Lego Batman key chain! And if I couldn't bring my best friend to the movie with me, I was definitely bringing my best key chain.

I couldn't miss out on a cute photo op, and made sure that my key chain had the best seat in the house. I propped him up on my ginger ale and even made him hold the straw with his little claw hand! And that is where he watched the movie from, because I actually left him there until the movie was over. We both liked it a lot (he liked it a little more than I did -- I think the original Lego Movie is better overall, but Lego Batman gave me exactly what I was hoping to see).

Saturday was insanity. It was a two show day at Chicago Theater Works which are the days that most often threaten my sanity. Not only did we have two performances of Tony N Tina's but both of them were essentially sold out (185 people at both shows -- we can technically sell to 200, but I consider 185 sold out because after that, we need to start pulling out the extra tables). As I said, these days threaten my sanity no matter how many tickets we sell, but do you know what might actually push me over the edge? A broken oven... at a dinner theatre. Yes, our warming oven broke as we began the first show. This led to me running up and down the block to find somewhere that would let us use their oven and yes, I actually ran.

Now, normally, I can actually enjoy the second show -- even if there are 185 people there -- because I'm no longer worried about flipping the house but nope, I was on the run again because Tina sprained her ankle during the first show and someone needed to go get an ace bandage (I don't know why no one went to get one between shows but they didn't).

I basically slept away Sunday and then yesterday, I decided to treat myself to a trip to La La Land. I wasn't really interested in seeing La La Land (despite all of the award show buzz) but it was the only movie I was interested in seeing at the movie theatre that is walking distance from my apartment. That theatre, by the way, first opened in 1915 as a one screen theatre! Today is only has four screens but has definitely kept the charm (and the smaller screens). I liked it a lot and will definitely be back (especially because they do a lot of different late night specials that I think would be fun).

Today is a pretty light day. I have a little business meeting and that about sums it up. So, there you have it! Congratulations on reading my words. Peace out, friends.

Sad Update

Remember when I promised you all that my best friend was coming and there were lots of blog posts in your reading future? Well, that promise has been postponed.

Thanks to whatever snowstorm is happening on the east coast, Mr. Ryan Lind's flight was cancelled. And then his second flight was cancelled. And then he couldn't get another flight that would make it worth his time to come because the airlines have cancelled something like 3000 flights today alone, so no happy fun times with my best friend this weekend.

The airline did give him a voucher to use in the next 60 days, so he will be here eventually but that leaves me visitor-less for the weekend and you blog-less for now.

I did buy tickets to see Improvised Shakespeare with Ryan and I'm not letting those go to waste tonight. I've lured my friend, Parker, into going with me and there may or may not be several alcoholic beverages in our future... (Not that I would ever post about that because drinking to forget is wrong. PSA over; post over).

WAIT!

Have I mentioned that my best friend, Mr. Ryan Lind is coming to visit this week? He gets here on the 9th and leaves in the super duper early morning on the 12th. This means that there will be all sorts of bloggable stuff going on (but no posts until after he's gone because he deserves all of my love and affection while he is here).

Tour Partners Past and Present

No one should visit Chicago without deep dish and so obviously, I could not let Blaire and Sam leave the city without any!

Ms. Amanda Lauren Belscamper (known as "Mandy" to TADs -- and me, although I've been instructed to call her Amanda now) and I had planned on taking them to Pequod's for dinner on Thursday night but Amanda is currently hitting the books to get her master's in nursing (very proud) and needed to submit all sorts of assignments and things that night, so the plans changed.

We had a lunch date at Chicago's Pizza instead. I had never been to Chicago's Pizza but they had deep dish and were in walking distance of Little Marvels, the day care where Amanda works, so she was able to meet us on her lunch break. Blaire and Sam ordered "baby pizzas" which were essentially personal-pizzas, I ordered a slice of their stuffed spinach deep dish and a salad and Amanda, who has been there numerous times, apparently, ordered a burger.

I was also able to clear off some serious shelf space by giving Amanda her Christmas gifts, which she loved and everyone was impressed with my sewing skills as I gave her a mermaid blanket that I actually made!

We found it!

After lunch, I climbed into a "little red truck" for the first time in almost a year as Blaire, Sam and I went on the hunt for edible cookie dough. (Having me in the truck might have been a blurred line since there is a company policy that says no non-TADs in the truck, but it doesn't say anything about former TADs, so I think we're good). (Edible cookie dough, by the way, is "cookie dough" that is meant to be eaten straight. There aren't any eggs involved so no worries about salmonella and honestly, while there are probably a million calories, there are only about a half dozen ingredients and I can pronounce all of them, so I think that it might be a healthier junk food than most). I impressed them both with how I was able to navigate us sans GPS because yup, I can do that now! Well, I can do it some places, but those places included where we were going!

After we found sugary success, the ladies dropped me off and we said goodbye -- for now. Amanda spent lunch hassling them to move here while I just told them to visit again soon and said that the next time they come, they're welcome to stay on my couch.

It isn't a TAD Reunion if we don't take a selfie, so I present to you "Tour Partners past and present."

I Went to the Zoo

Do you want to know why I love the Lincoln Park Zoo? It's free and I love free stuff. This is why I take basically everyone who visits me there and yesterday was no exception.

Two of my friends from Missoula Children's Theatre are touring through the midwest right now and are unbooked this week, which means they are free to play (and I have a weird work schedule, so I was also free to play!).

I started off yesterday with some job training. I'd call it boring except that it's really only boring for you -- it was exceptionally overwhelming for me because I had seven weeks worth of work shoved into two hours worth of attention span. I'm sure that the pieces of that gig will make sense once things get started but for now, my brain is very full.

After that, I hung out in the library for a few hours since it wasn't worth it to go home. The library was actually great because they had some free magazines and I need magazines for this new job!

And then it was zoo time with some wonderful ladies. I met Blaire and Sam right when I started with MCT. Blaire had already been touring while Sam was a newbie with me, but all of us were working on The Little Mermaid. Getting to see them was pretty fantastic and they really enjoyed the zoo. I also got to see the penguins there for the first time ever! (All other trips were either pre-penguin exhibit or the penguins weren't out for some reason). I'm also meeting with them and Ms. Amanda (my OG tour partner) for lunch tomorrow.

Not much to report really, just wanted to share some happy times in the city with me and some awesome ladies. (Although I did manage to stretch out one day into quite a few paragraphs. I feel like Jane Austen -- I made you read all of that just to sum it up by saying "I went to the zoo.").

Women's March and More

Bad blogger in the house! The last time I posted was a whole 10 days ago (which has been enough time for Trump to turn the world upside down but not destroy everything I hold near and dear).

Parker was a good sport.

The March was pretty fantastic. Getting there was an adventure that included a crowded train platform, the decision to ditch the CTA and take an Uber, an ambulance pulling up, someone stealing my Uber ride (how does that even happen?!) and finally getting a ride to the rally.

They guess there were 250,000 marchers there, which is about 200,000 more than they'd anticipated or something crazy like that. The group was SO large that they apparently cancelled the "march" portion, and we were no longer supposed to walk through the streets of Chicago as had been planned.

Nasty Girls become Nasty Women

Except no one told us this. After standing for about 90 minutes, people started walking and I started walking with. I didn't even know that the march had been cancelled until I got to work after it was all said and done. My response? "Well, the march might have been cancelled, but I definitely marched somewhere."

It was a really marvelous experience, in my opinion. I definitely felt like I was making history. Speaking of history, I happened to find a picture of myself dressed as Susan B. Anthony for a third grade history project. Nine year old me would be very proud of 25 year old me (25 year old me is proud but knows that this is just the beginning!).

That day was a busy one for me though! I went from the March directly to be a volunteer at PuppetFest with Adventure Stage. My internship is coming to an end there very soon which is sad but also good because I am distinctly tired of working with puppets.

But, not tired enough because after that, it was time for Tony N Tina's Wedding! Woah! Crazy day!! Another fictional wedding on Sunday but luckily, I had Monday and Tuesday off.

Me and my puppet "friend"

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week were spent back at ASC with the puppets as we had student matinees. My job for three days was "the runner." After almost five months of never having to run to pick up someone's coffee, I was finally getting my cardio in. My job (for three straight days) was to lead groups of students up the three flights of stairs from the lobby to the theatre and then head back down to collect the next group. At the end of the show, I had to do the process in reverse. I did get a walkie talkie, but no code name (and it took me an embarrassing amount of time to figure out exactly what button I needed to push so people could hear me. Oops!). After the show on Friday, the ASC team went out for lunch because it was the other intern's last day. We got Thai food, which has never really been my thing but I got eggplant in oyster sauce with tofu and it was pretty good!

Solid advice.

After that, I had to go to the post office. BUT, the post office happens to be near Katherine Anne Confections, which you might remember as the first stop on the Hot Cocoa Crawl. I was a bigger fan of KAP than my mom and sister but it did help us confirm that marshmallows are way better than whipped cream. Either way, I gave them a second shot and treated myself! I got their milk chocolate with a salted caramel marshmallow. As I had suspected, the milk chocolate mixed with the salted caramel was a much better blend than the salted caramel hot chocolate/salted caramel marshmallow that we got as part of the hot chocolate flight we'd ordered. That had been TOO salty. My new order gave me the best of all worlds -- great chocolate, a puffy marshmallow and a hint of the salty caramel flavor that has taken over the world.

Saturday was a crazy long day for me where I worked two jobs and eventually 15 straight hours! I had training for my new job at American Theater Company (where I found out that my teaching partner has a recurring role on my favorite show, Empire) and went straight from there to house managing at CTW. It a two show day at TnT. Our first two show day actually. I've had days with two shows there, but this was the first time we did TnT back to back and I thought it was a great success actually. The crowds were pretty moderately sized and I did have the three bitchiest women I've had to deal with during the entire run, but no real drama (apart from the scripted stuff).

They say that Sunday is our day of rest but they also say no rest for the wicked (awesome! Boston babe over here!). I spent yesterday cooking and cleaning in preparation of my first real adult dinner party! I had invited the crew from Poetry Pals over for dinner because everyone had been talking about doing something but no one had ever put it together. I changed that. I made mac and cheese and cookie bars and had a really great time. People brought their own contributions and I ended up with enough leftovers to get through the next two weeks (including my boss's fresh made guacamole and some beer that has a guy with six arms and two cats on the label! Complete win). To finish off with all of that adulting, I actually used my oven's self cleaning function for the first time ever last night (there was a minor mac mishap, but I took care of it).

Today I was supposed to be back at Adventure Stage for my last full day but as I was getting dressed, my boss called to let me know that I was sick. This gave me the time and motivation to write this post. I'm also working on doing some career things, which led to me finding and downloading the study guide I'd worked on while I was at Lookingglass Theatre.

Now, I knew I'd written a lot of the content but I didn't know I was getting quite as much credit as they gave me! I'm super excited! Like not only will it be amazing for my portfolio but it's just really damn cool!

Just in case you're wondering about the kind of credit I've gotten at ASC, don't worry. They credited me on their study guide as well -- they just used a smaller font! I also got to make this awesome lobby display that looks pretty incredible.

Some MCT friends are going to be in Chicago this week so I will be seeing them at some point and I'm sure that will give me some blog worthy stuff but until then, enjoy this because it's way more entertaining than whatever is happening in the real world and way less likely to make you want to move to Canada!

Men On Boats; Girls In Box Offices

It hasn't been a particularly busy week but I haven't been in a particularly blog-y mood, so here are the updates from yours truly.

Monday: I worked at ASC. Nothing crazy.

Insane, right?

Tuesday: I worked at Poetry Pals. Well, technically, Poetry Pals worked at Queen of All Saints School, which is a Catholic school in an upper-class neighborhood that is so far to the edge of the city that it's basically the suburbs. Now, every one of the schools that Poetry Pals visits has some place of worship affiliated with it, but the church at QAS was a bit different... because it was a basilica. Now, I thought that basilica just meant fancy church but it actually means that it is a Catholic church that the Pope can visit. This place was insanely large and it was attached to a freaking school! Mind blown.

After that, I had a doctor's appointment but didn't have enough time to trek back to my apartment in between so I ended up at Burrito House. The name was definitely promising and the portion sizes were insane. I got their junior burrito for less that $4 and it was more than enough for me. I added on a soda and the whole meal cost $5 plus tax!

After that, I still had time to kill before my appointment and realized that I was walking distance from Smallcakes (where the cupcakes are never small) so I made my way there, only to discover that it was closed! Rude! But do not fear, because on my walk back, I passed Dinkel's and they had cupcakes. They tried to catch me in a Buy two-get two free deal but that would have been insanity. It was a good cupcake. Not as unique as what I've had at Smallcakes -- just your standard red velvet -- but a solid option for a good price.

Wednesday: Tony N Tina's matinee! The cast was actually featured on the local news and had to be at the theatre at 6:15am. For once, it pays to not be the talent because I didn't have to come in until my usual 9am call time! I also got another post-hot cocoa crawl hot chocolate from 7-11 and let me tell you that whatever that toxic sludge that comes out of those automated machines is was wayyy better than the garbage I got at Lovely last week. It was also free because yours truly has the 7-11 app and they had a free drinks on Wednesday deal (upgrade that small to a medium, please!).

So happy to be awake

Thursday: I spent most of the day at ASC, putting up a bulletin board for PuppetFest this weekend. Honestly, I have spent too much time with puppets at this internship, but I'm going to miss it when it's all over soon. After I was done there, I went back to my apartment for a few hours, where I made some lemon-raspberry protein muffins and ate leftovers for dinner.

Post-dinner, I braved the rain to go see Men On Boats at American Theater Company. I just got a job as a teaching artist assistant with them and so they offered me a free ticket to the show. I love free stuff so I happily accepted. The show was cool, it was about the Powell Geographic Exposition of 1869 and all of the men were played by women. ATC's big thing is examining "what it means to be an American" and this did just that. The lighting on this show was incredible -- absolutely stunning (literally at one point, they just shined a really big light straight at the audience).

The craziest thing here is that the day I got hired by ATC, my friend Claire told me that she was their new box office associate, so I got to see her when I went to the show. Back at DeSales, a very popular thing for students to do would be to hang out with their friends who were working at the box office -- usually standing in the way of any patrons who happened to be looking for tickets and we reenacted that as adults at a professional theatre last night! You can take the girls out of Labuda, but you can't take the Labuda out of the girls!

Today, I am attempting to avoid social media and hysterical crying (and also going over to Claire and Parker's for lunch) and tomorrow, I am going to the Women's March on Chicago! Peace and love. Stay safe, marchers. Girl power! People power!