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.").