long days

Yesterday, I was the Pie Fairy. I made three beautiful strueberry-blawberry pies and then drove them to both of my cousins who now live in Chicago and saved the third to give to Him when I return his drill. My one cousin and cousin-in-law who just moved here have and absolutely gorgeous incredible place. It's kind of ridiculous, especially considering right now neither of them are making much money, but I guess he used to be an investment banker so they probably still have a bit of savings.

Last night was fun. It's always nice when my sister and I are able to get along and have fun together. She no longer likes my dog because he nipped her elbow last weekend when she was in "his" spot, so she made me lock him up the whole time she was around. I wish he could be as sweet for everyone else as he is for me, but sister unfortunately trumps dog so he spent the night in his crate in the kitchen and she spent the night taking up 3/4 of my bed.
Weirdest thing of the night: at one of the bars, a bunch of people came in handing out McDonalds coupons and pseudo-vintage t-shirts with Mayor McCheese on them taking pictures and video of us young partying folk. I've seen people do that sort of promotional thing at bars before for, say, an alcoholic beverage, but McDonalds? Sorry, still not "lovin' it."

This morning we were both randomly wide awake by 10 AM and went to Ann Sathers for breakfast. Much deliciousness followed. Then I threw her out and showered and headed to my improv class. I had a Sliding Doors moment when, after taking the stairs up to the platform two at a time and running my little brains out, the El doors closed before I could get a hand or foot in to stop them. My banging did no good as it drove off. Very annoying.

Class itself was much fun, though the last exercise we did proved the suckiness of some of my classmates. The instructions were simple: two people per scene, one starts off as the cab driver and sets some sort of persona (sad person, angry person, ditzy person, or whatever), the other then enters the scene as the passenger and mirrors the driver's persona. The point of the exercise was to be able to give take cues to and from others and mimic personalities. Now I'm not some great brilliant improviser and I don't expect my classmates to be, either, but if the person being the driver is acting obviously sad, you should not then take on your own random angry personality because that is what you feel like doing. The point is to listen and copy. Three of my nine classmates just reacted as some random character. BB was the worst, taking on the exact opposite persona of his "driver." Our instructor actually stopped him, suggested that he look and see the driver's body language and listen to how happy-go-lucky and bubbly she was being, and then had them continue the scene. BB didn't change a single thing. Dumbass. After class as I was listening to my voice mail he kept saying (pretend to himself) "Ugh, it's so frustrating. I'm so torn." When I didn't take the bait and ask what was so frustrating he continued anyway, "I can't decide if I should sign up for the next session since I already know I have to miss the first class and I'd hate to miss the first class." I continued ignoring the bait, so he continued adding more to the cornily metaphoric hook. "I mean, I guess I already know the other classmates, but it's a new teacher."
"Yup," was the most he got out of me. I don't like worms*. So he went and found another classmate and started the same exact dance over again! "Ugh, it's so frustrating."
I feel bad, since it's not like he's a terrible person or anything (as far as I can tell) but he's completely oblivious and I fucking hate that.

Seven of the ten people in my class (of the three who didn't come, one's the homophobic kid who spends most of his time complaining about "Emos," one lives in Michigan and has been terrified of missing her train ever since she got stuck in Kalamazoo a few weeks ago, and BB went home at the last minute) ended up going out to eat at this shmancy Mexicanesque place. It was fun but I spent too much money. Oh well.

Ran home to walk the dog with just enough time to run back out to go see Seussical with my cousin and cousin-in-law (yay comp tickets). After waiting a solid 30 minutes for the bus from my El stop to the theatre, I hailed a cab with minutes until the thing was supposed to start and put the $7 on my credit card since I'd blown my cash at dinner. I justify spending the money by reminding myself I didn't have to pay anything for the tickets. I ended up liking Seussical way more than I expected to. It was lots of fun, the music was catchy, and there were some excellent people playing most of the leads. The costumes and stage design alone were worth the $7 cab fare.

All in all, good times, spent too much money, need to be asleep now.


*Bad joke on the bait metaphor. Sorry, I couldn't resist.