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!

#Famous

It's common knowledge that I'm fabulous and famous, but now I'm #Famous and that's an even bigger deal!

Why am I now so famous that I've earned my own hashtag? Tony N Tina's Wedding, obviously. Not only did the print new programs that include a mention of the house manager extraordinaire (and my name is spelled correctly -- I checked), but TnT now has it's own geotag on Snapchat so everyone whose there can share the fun with their friends! It's a good marketing technique. I actually suggested  it months ago, so I'm taking credit for it!

Literally obsessed

My First Post Hot-Cocoa-Crawl Hot Cocoa

Yes, it's hard to believe that I have not had a hot chocolate since the infamous Chicago Hot Cocoa Crawl of 2016 and that was the truth, until today. I went 12 days in 2017 (and actually the last entire week of 2016) without my favorite beverage but today, I broke my fast. There wasn't really any particular reason I was abstaining from hot chocolate, I just haven't needed to get one recently.

Feeling gray and mushy after a week of gray and mushy weather, I decided I would stop in Lovely on my way home from my internship with Adventure Stage. I've gotten exactly one hot chocolate from Lovely prior to today, along with one of their sandwiches at another visit. Up until today, I would say that everything there has been... lovely. BUT (I'm sure you were sensing that there was going to be a "but" so I made a big deal of it) my first hot chocolate of 2017 was nothing but disappointment. Whoever made it today burned the milk and the whole thing tasted bitter. I'm really hoping that this is not an omen for the new year. Fingers crossed for better hot chocolate tomorrow.

Adler Planetarium

No Latin inspired titles this time, friends! (Although, there were a lot of conversations about Greek and Roman mythology given where I spent the morning).

Today, I braved the weather (a lovely 45 degree day if you ignored the rain that splashed down on us and the wind that blew through us) to go to the Adler Planetarium. It was a free day for Illinois residents and I am one of those (even though I don’t have an IL ID yet).

When I arrived at the planetarium, I was ready with my library card to prove that I am a resident and they could not have cared less. They didn’t even look at it! They just handed me a white wristband and sent me out into my space journey. Parker had beaten me there – because my bus drove right past me without stopping – so once I found him, it was time to go exploring. (Short sidebar: I did not realize that like all of Chicago’s biggest museums are lumped together on what they call the Museum Campus. The Planetarium, Field Museum and Aquarium are all neighbors!).

Space selfie

Honestly, this was not the most impressive planetarium/space museum I’ve visited but I had a good time there. I figured out a challenge about how they got the Apollo 13 back to Earth all by myself, so basically, I could be an astronaut. The discussions about Greek and Roman mythology were inspired by the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions and we even got to see one of the Gemini capsules – which really reinforced how little legroom they had and how little I want to be an astronaut. 

Lost! Lost! Lost! IN SPACE!

We stopped at the gift shop on the way out (ok, you sort of had to go through the gift shop to leave, so why not?) and discovered that they had astronaut penguins! Like the little penguins in MCT’s Aladdin were lost in space! (Totally working on a sequel now).

The planetarium only took an hour so we had time for lunch, or brunch, as we ended up getting. A quick Google search revealed a restaurant called Chicago Waffles that was within walking distance. I was sold. Parker did not take much convincing either because waffles.

They had so many waffles! Including a waffle sampler plate that let you get little mini-waffles! That was tempting, but I ended up going with the red velvet waffles (they came with strawberries and cream cheese -- can't beat that!). Parker got waffles with bacon cooked inside and chicken on top (meat is murder but damn those waffles looked good). I was really happy with my choice and was actually able to finish my whole meal without needing to loosen my belt while still being satisfied, which is probably the mark of the best brunch ever.

I had an appointment at 3 and after lunch, I didn’t really have enough time to go back to my apartment so I went to Parker’s, which was much closer to where I needed to be. I had never been there, despite the fact that Parker and Claire have now lived here for three whole months! Parker prepped for his job as a trivia host and attempted to introduce me to one of his favorite shows – I charged my cell phone.

After that, I was a victim of the elements once again. I was too stubborn to close my umbrella and just get soaked so I was basically blown the distance I needed to commute. Post-appointment, the weather had settled down a bit but I was still ready to go home and collapse, which is where I am now! I am safe from the rain here but the wind is working hard to make sure that I still feel it by trying to bust through my windows with thunderous gusts. I’m toasty warm with my mermaid blanket, heated mattress pad and glass of wine, so no worries, just prayers that tomorrow will be dryer!

Panem Et Circenses

It’s been a while, my dear readers. I feel like that is a recurring theme of this blog, but you know what, sometimes I go out and do interesting stuff and other times, I watch teenage comedies in my bedroom wearing my mermaid tail blanket for hours at a time. This blog has become a sort of bi-weekly experience, but the great part about my use of the term bi-weekly is that it can mean every other week, but it could also mean twice a week and you have no way of knowing what I’m up to and you can’t get mad because I’m technically right.

Semantics aside (but seriously, who came up with that bi-weekly thing? There were some serious flaws in that plan), 2017 has been good to me. Yes, it is a new year and this is technically my first post of said new year. I said it’s been a good one, but that does not necessarily equal exciting.

New Years itself was blah. I’m not a big fan of that holiday. I mean, imagine if we celebrated the passage of everyday in the same over-the-top fashion – that would be a lot of champagne. Speaking of champagne, we had a performance on Tony N Tina’s and an after party that the audience was invited to. Several members of the audience decided that spraying champagne all over the dance floor was totally appropriate. I did not appreciate this. I left the theatre around 2am, which was later than I would have liked, but not as late as other people.

Now, the only thing I’ve really done that has truly been blog-worthy was the very busy Tuesday I had last week. It involved a job interview, a farewell lunch, a doctor’s appointment, a dinner date with myself and an improv show. My feet were very sore at the end of the day. Spoiler alert: I got the job, which isn’t really a job so much as an unpaid teaching artist assistant gig with a really good company. But don’t worry, it could eventually turn into a paying job and I get a $30 stipend for travel expenses, which is really just $30 for me since the school I’ll be working at is walking distance from my apartment.

The farewell lunch was actually farewell drinks at Starbucks with my bosses at Lookingglass. It was fancy networking business-y stuff with a snowman cookie (yeah, I networked, so corporate of my little frees-spirit self).

Thanks to HIPAA, I get to keep all of the information about my doctor’s appointment top secret. (Ok, yeah, I know that isn’t technically what HIPAA is for but don’t tell me that that wasn’t a good turn of phrase).

After that, I had four hours to kill and since the improv show was a six minute walk away from where my doctor’s appointment was and my apartment was 46 minutes away, I couldn’t exactly justify going home. (I also knew that if I went home, it would be nearly impossible to get me back out again but I’d already spent $5 on a ticket to this thing and told my friends that I would be there).

This brought me to the Bread Café. I went to the Bread Café a few months ago and honestly, I was within walking distance of several other tasty looking places, but this past Tuesday, January 3^rd was the 25^th birthday of one extraordinary woman, Ellen Kristen Kuhl, best friend and college suitemate. Ellen’s favorite food is bread. I once bought her a loaf of French bread as a gag gift and she ate the entire thing before the night was over. My previous experience at the Bread Café was promising enough that I told her I would take her there whenever she comes to visit, but I realized that this was the perfect little way to celebrate her birth, even though we were separated by several states and time zones. (This is the Panem part of the post).

I got the Veggie Cabra sandwich. The menu said it was spinach, yellow squash, goat cheese, mushrooms and Mediterranean dressing. It was a decent sandwich (the bread was really good, obviously) but not as good as what I got the first time I went there. Next time (and I’m sure there will be a next time), I think I will try one of their pizzas or pasta dishes, even though those aren’t bread.

I stayed at the restaurant long after I’d finished my sandwich, but the place was pretty empty so that wasn’t an issue. I debated getting a dessert but no one was at the counter when I went back up so that saved me some money and calories. After that, I was left to walk around until show time. The show was at 10, which is distinctly past my bedtime, but my friend, Claire was performing with her improv troupe (yup, I know someone who made her own improv troupe) and I’d missed their first performance and had promised not to miss the next one.

The show was at the Playground Theatre, which I’d walked past several times in my Chicagoan adventures and was very curious about. I got there an hour early, which gave me plenty of time to look around… the one room. It’s a one room theatre.

Anyway, Claire and her group were the last to go and they totally killed it. (As marvelous as they were, this wasn't a talent based thing as you might expect. It was because the girls in the troupe all had class before the show and requested to go last to insure that they were able to get there for their set). It was actually a fun night and I ended up sharing an Uber home with a guy who’d also been at the show and knew Claire through their improv class. (And that was the circenses part).

The rest of the week was mainly work stuff and boring stuff and apartment stuff. I made a new recipe of soup which yielded more leftovers than I had plastic containers for but it was delicious and I was able to grab some Tupperware from my roommates to put the rest in the freezer. Oh, and I watched Hercules on Hulu while I did it. I wouldn’t want you to miss out on that detail.

On Sunday I went to the movies by myself to see Hidden Figures which was pretty interesting and then I got Golden Globes updates through the internet because I don’t have cable.

I was supposed to work today at my Adventure Stage internship, but my boss’s son had different plans and I woke up to a text saying that her son was sick and she was working from home so I had the day off. Exciting news, except that that left me without anything to do except drag my laundry down the street to the laundromat. (No, I didn’t actually drag it, that would be disgusting).

I’m going to the Adler Planetarium tomorrow, so that should be worthy of my writing time and your reading energy. I will keep you posted with my bi-weekly posts and maybe my next blog post won't have a pretentious Latin title that only I think is clever.