Last night she said...

Today shall forever be known as the day my memory card freaked out and I lost all my pictures. Yeah, really. Class was amazing, Rebecca Sohn then Mick Napier. He gives really personal notes. Mine was to be more aggressive and grab the scene. Tried it, he was so right. Nice. After class Nifer and I went to Giordano's for some deep dish Chicago pizza (amazing!) then Grant Park to see famous Buckingham Square fountain, then we went to the Annoyance to see Susan Messing in "Messing with a friend." Fantastic show. About half my class was there. I introduced Nifer to Susan and Mick, she was so amused that she got to shake hands with Mick Napier. Two guys hit on her in the lobby before the show, it was hillarious. We hung out with my classmates after the show. I'm going to miss them, it's been such a great class.

For the first time I feel......Wicked.

Wonderful class session today. Susan was back!! I seriously LOVE her. I do! We did the most amazing stuff today. Stuff that made me think, why on earth don't we do this in Kansas City? I got to sit on the shoulders of two guys (who were standing fully upright, as in about six feet off the ground) while someone supported my legs and someone supported my back and another guy from the class was raised up in the same fashion as we waved to the empty cabaret tables and chairs as "King an Queen." Serious fun! This afternoon we had Mark Sutton again. We worked with emotions and status. Super intense, good stuff. Today I took five pages of notes. Awesome. Nifer and I have been her long enough to settle into a good routine and really be able to laugh at the other tourists. Our hotel is across the street from the Hancock building and at least four times a day we hear, "Oooh, isn't that the Sears tower? That's the fourth largest building in America!" *eye roll* Tonight we were going to see TJ and Dave, but unfortunately it's been sold out for weeks (I guess a Tony and Pulitzer award winning playwright is playing with them tonight) so we decided to try for the Wicked ticket lottery and yeah, my name got drawn! I saw it in New York (yes, by winning the lottery) a couple years ago and have been dying to see it again, so I figured I'd ask if Nifer if she wanted to see it and she was game. The ticket lottery is where you put your name in the hat (literally, it's a witch hat. Wicked witch of the West and all that.) and if they draw your name, you can buy up to two tickets in the first two rows for $25 each. We happened to get front row center (ahhh!) and it was incredible. Love it! We grabbed a coffee on the way back to the hotel and were walking up Michigan avenue when we heard a long, loud honk that went on forever. We looked over and saw two cars, a sedan (honking) and in front a small convertible with the top down. The guy in the convertible was just sitting there holding up the finger. This went on for probably two blocks. The situation was so ridiculous we were holding our sides laughing.

Midwest Metropolis

Okay...so, today we had Mark Sutton and another session with Rich Sohn. Lots of environment and object working today, fun fun! (that was indeed a sarcasm free statement.) During lunch about nine of us went across the street to a Chinese restaurant. It was so amazing sitting there talking with everyone about improv and what it's like in all the cities we come from. There are people in the class from Chicago, Boston, Toronto, New Mexico, Oklahoma, New York, Ohio, and of course, me from Kansas City. After listening to what everyone has to say, it is becoming more and more apparent to me how very lucky I am to live in a city with a thriving community. Some people were even saying how the people at their training centers don't teach them anything, as if they would really rather you just come to watch them rather than do. Yowza. After class I came back to the hotel and Nifer and I set out walking. We hit a couple stores then walked across one of the beaches to a Chipotle for some dinner, then went to Second City. There was a free improv show there, didn't catch the name of the troupe, if there was a name. It was pretty good, there was only one scene that I felt was REALLY great, but there were a lot of fun moments. Afterward we went out with Matt Reiss, which was fun, then he showed us his place on the 31st floor of a high rise that overlooks the river. (Sweet!) We chatted for a bit then remembered that we all have to get up early tomorrow, so it was time to get going. Sorry for the "we did this then this then this" nature of these blogs, but I am exhausted and pretty much have been coming back to the hotel, unloading on the computer and crashing. And right now, it's crashing time.

She's not messing around!

Got up, took a shower, grabbed a chewy granola bar, and took the red line north to the Annoynce Theater! My first teacher was Susan Messing (pictured) who I learned so, so much from. I took three pages of notes. If you ever get the chance to take a class from her, do what you have to do, just take that class. Anyone wanting specifics, you are so invited to consult me and my notebook, but in the interest of time (yours and mine) I won't go into it here. We had an hour for lunch and ended up at a place near the theater that was SLOW about getting our food out. By the time we got it (and we ordered right away) we had five minutes to shovel it in and run. Rich Sohn was our afternoon instructor and we did a kajillion scenes, some of them five seconds long! By the time we were done I was exhausted, the good kind. I took the train back and met up with Nifer. We hit Juicy Couture so I could drool over the cute clothing and wish I was a size 2, then went north to Wrigleyville so we could catch the Armando Diaz Experience at iO. I'm dissapointed they painted over the white swirly thing on the outside of the building. The show was pretty much the most amazing thing, like, ever. Seriously. While we were in the building we heard thunder, then during the Q and A session we heard POURING rain. We walked outside into sheets of rain and sheets of Cubs fans (rained out) and headed for the Taco Bell to finally, finally eat some dinner. It was midnight by then. After that we came back to the hotel. Exhausted. The good kind. I love this city, FYI.

I'm bean.

Long day. Very long day. Nifer came by at 5:45 this morning and we left for the airport. She hasn't been on an airplane since she was three so everything was pretty much exciting for her. 'Twas cute. We arrived and took the El downtown, dropped our stuff off at the hotel, got some lunch, then hung out in the vicinity which, by the way, is the Magnificent Mile. Sweet. About one o clock we headed to Second City. The founder of Hype 7, Matthew Reiss, is taking the classes there and today was his student show. I had to adjust to the shock of being there, surrounded by pictures of famous people who once took classes and performed there. After the show we talked for a bit, then Nifer and I walked across the city to our hotel, checked in, then wandered the Magnificent Mile again, all the way down to Millenium park where we took a bunch of pictures by the bean/Cloud Gate. As we were walking we heard music, live and loud, and realized it was Lollapalooza, half a block away. The band changed and a new one started playing. All of a sudden Nifer started pretty much peeing her pants....the new band was freaking FLOGGING MOLLY! We sat down on a retainer wall and listened to several songs, then walked down the street to get a little closer and we could see a ginormous screen with live feed of the band as they were playing. It was holy crap amazing, seriously. We walked some more and got a couple sodas before returning to the hotel to relax our poor aching feet. I can't believe I'm here. I can't believe this is real! This is so very cool!

It lasts longer

At the Roving Imp theater there are pictures on the wall of everyone who has performed in the group. They are arranged in order of who has performed the most shows. Tonight my picture was in a different spot for the first time since the pictures were put up. Why? Because there are now enough pictures on the wall to have bumped the top three over to the other wall! That's exciting. Also, Nifer leapt James, which is a pretty big deal. The picture order has been the topic of many lobby conversations over the past year and a half, even causing a performer to come back after several months of absence to keep someone's picture behind theirs on the wall. Anyhow, so yeah, did a show tonight. The high school show was supposed to be tonight but a lot of them couldn't make it, so John padded the numbers with Imps. I stuck around after to see Type O Positive at eight. I was going to see Trivial Prov-Suit at nine, but I was yawning through the (fantastic and hillarious) eight o clock set, so I decided to come home. I do have to be up really early tomorrow after all. I did most of my packing today. Most of it. I'm going to grab a couple more things before bed. Not sleep.....I doubt I'll be getting much tonight. I'm exhausted but really excited.

In the morning, there was chocolate.

Whoever decided to put those train tables in bookstores was a freakin' genius. Seriously. The girls and I hit the bookstore today so I could rustle up some reading material for my trip. I found two books that looked interesting, couldn't decide between them, and bought them both. The subject line of today's blog is the opening line of the second chapter of one such books. In my opinion, it's probably among the top 10 best chapter opening sentences of all time. Fantastic. Jason and I moved the computer downstairs today, FINALLY, and onto the new/old computer desk Jen gave me a little while back. The computer wasn't even invented when this desk was created, how cool is that? *sends out hearts to Jen via Care Bear stare* Did laundry and created a to-do list for packing. I can't believe it's almost time for my trip to Chicago. I've been waiting and saving nearly a year for this and it's almost here!