When Family Comes to Call

Last weekend my parents, little sister, and grandma came to visit Chicago and it was quite a treat! Without asking for it I had Friday off, so I had a full four day weekend with my parents and it was fabulous!!

Look! Here we are waiting for Let Them Eat Chaos on The Second City Mainstage

My parents and sister (Mary) got in late Thursday night. So we started all of our adventures bright and early(ish) on Friday.

Friday: 

My Mom, Dad, and Sister ventured all the way from the loop down to my neck of the woods to see my lovely apartment and eat at "a cute little ethnic place" by my house. I had yet to eat at any of the "cute little ethnic places" by my house, so I had no idea which one to take my parents to. Thankfully they stopped a "cute little mexican bakery" on their way to my house and got a recommendation of a Mexican Restaurant close by. It was pretty delicious, and as a matter of fact I just finished off the home made tortilla and fajita left overs as I sat down to write this blog. 

After Lunch we ventured on down back to the fun and exciting touristy areas of Chicago. We decided since we didn't have much time before we had to leave to go get my Grandma at Midway, we went down to the Navy Pier and walked around. 

Ohio Street Beach. I have very vivid memories of playing on this beach as a 10 year old the last time my family visited Chicago

Navy Pier

On the Navy Pier they have a Fun House Maze, which I remember going through as a young child when we vacationed in Chicago. So just for the heck of it my parents paid the outrageous $20 for my sister and I to do the Fun House Maze. Now I wish I could tell you that it was really lame and the maze wasn't really a maze and we didn't spend 20 minutes running around in circles and running into mirrors. I wish I could say that my sister and I whose cumulative age is 36 could reason our way out of this maze, but alas, that would be a lie. My sister and I got so lost that we spend probably 20 minutes running around while many other people came and went, finally we got a hint from the people who run the house that you have to push. After that is was easy peasy (although again I would be lying to you if I told you that I didn't scream at the silly little noises and gusts of air...).

 After our adventures on the Navy Pier my Dad and I hopped a couple of trains to Midway to pick up my Grandmother. And after we were going to meet Megan at Giordano's (deep dish pizza), however, we did not have the forethought to think there would be a 2 hour wait.. So after much confusion we ended up eating delicious barbecue at Jake Melnick's Corner Tap. 

Saturday: 

Being in my early 20's and the person that I am I could not fathom making plans before 11 with my family. They on the other hand toured the Tribune building and one of the bridge houses before our 11 o'clock meet up at Lou Malnati's (a better deep dish pizza joint as recommended by several people on the train ride from the airport). 

After our delicious and filling pizza our plan was to head down to Shedd Aquarium, however, apparently all of Chicago also had that plan. The line was an hour and half long just to get tickets (why can't we get away from lines?). So in a quick change of plans (seems to be a recurring theme on this trip) we headed next door to the Field Museum. 

Here we all are again (Dinosaurs!)

The Field Museum has a rad Ancient Egypt exhibit, an enormous amount of Native American stuff, and a pretty decent dinosaur exhibit (which we rushed through as the museum was closing). But what I really wanted to see was the Chicago Worlds Fair exhibit that wasn't open until October 25th (coincidentally today, the day I am blogging) so we didn't even get to see it :(

Oh well! There was also a giant fancy party being set up throughout  the day. Beautiful tables with gorgeous center pieces, waiters in tuxes with white gloves, and a red carpet amongst other extravagant things. As we were leaving we started to see the lucky guests arrive in their limousines in their fancy ball gowns and tuxes (NOTE: this is not an exaggeration). 

We had planned to go down to the Twin Anchors in Old Town for dinner, but we were all pretty much pooped so we headed to a little fast food(ish) restaurant called Pockets (cue concierge at hotel sticking his nose up at the very idea). So yet again our plans changed. 

Sunday: 

We woke up bright and early (6 am for me) to make it to the Aquarium a solid 30 minutes before it opened, just to be sure! But to be clear... it was totally worth it! Shedd Aquarium was everything that I wanted it to me and more, I more or less turned into a 5 year old at Disneyland! 

Outside the Aquarium

Yes, my parents did buy the souvenir, green screened photo of us at the Aquarium because "It was just such a good picture... everyone had their eyes open."

The Aquarium was fantastic!! We got to see the special jelly fish exhibit where I learned more about jellyfish than I ever thought possible! There were some that were so tiny and clear and looked like little contact lenses, and they talked about some that get as big as mini vans, weigh 450 pounds, and can capsize a boat easy! We got to go and touch the sting rays, which is a first for this Colorado Girl!

We spent a while here and my sister and I were forced to leave by our bored parents. 

We got to see the Beluga Whales and Sea Lions getting fed. We caught the aquatic show where they showed us how easy it is to train a dolphin (in fact it is just like training a dog... and they proved it!). We even got to see the 4D Sea Monster movie, which was my Grandmother's first ever 3D, let along 4D, experience complete with something hitting your legs, bursts of air on your face, getting splashed in the face with water, and a rather jarring punch to back during the Shark Attack. I couldn't stop laughing it was so much fun.

For lunch my parents ran down to one of the hot dog vendors and I enjoyed my very first ever Chicago Style Hotdog. 

Mmmmm.... Delicious

After Lunch I had to duck out of the Aquarium to rush down to Wrigleyville for class at the iO. After which I rushed down to Second City for Let Them Eat Chaos. The show was fabulous as to be expected and my mom bought me a rad Second City sweatshirt (which I happen to be wearing right now). 

I didn't include my face because it is quite a hot mess this Friday afternoon. 

Sunday: 

On Sunday we had a nice brunch at a cute little breakfast place near my parents hotel, called West Egg Cafe. Afterwards we just walked around the Magnificent mile and my grandmother bought me this great hat (which I will not model right now, due to the fact that my hair is a disgusting mess). Hopefully I will post a good picture of it at a later date.

I said goodbye to my family before I had to go to class. I had such a blast seeing them last weekend! It was really great to get to see my family since I wont be able to make it home for Thanksgiving!

Now to start saving money for Christmas... 

Laundromat Thoughts

I posted this on Facebook earlier today. 

I chose to be a real adult (rather than a pretend adult) and do laundry THEN watch SNL and eat cookie dough ice cream! 

I am sitting alone in the laundromat (which is much busier than I would have guessed for it being the middle of the day on a rainy Tuesday) and thinking about my life and career! I know deep thoughts for a Tuesday at the laundromat 

I wrote this blog in a notebook first, who needs modern technology... (also, I don't understand how people take instagram pics of everyday life, cuz I felt so stupid taking this picture.)

Last night after our last Level 1 class our teacher, Megan Hovde, let us ask any and all questions we could think of about Chicago, Second City, Comedy/Improv, and her career. It continued for so long that we moved the discussion to the bar across the street. She talked about a lot of great stuff and gave some really wonderful advice. Here are the bits of advice that stuck with me: 

• Don't quit your day job
• You don't have to be a "starving artist"
• On average is takes 5-7 years of classes and putting yourself out there to get into touring shows
• Get involved
• Don't get too involved (Advice is never straightforward)
• Be a triple or quadruple threat
• learn to dance
• learn to sing
• learn to play an instrument
• take acting classes 
• if you have considered learning how to do something, now is a good time to learn
• You have to be persistent and persevere, it could take many tries at auditioning to get cast with Second City

If you know me at all you know that a couple of things on that list terrify the shit out of me (especially singing). After being told "You have to sing, you got into a business where you say 'Yes and...' not 'Yes, but not that....'" I have resolved to get over my fears (no matter how many dollars and tears I have to shed). First, voice lessons to get over my fear of singing in front of people and then musical improv classes to get over my fear of not having the words given to me. 

Other classes I would like to take in the next few years of my life: 

• Stand Up
• Dance (Which kind? Who knows! Some of everything?)
• Writing
• Movement
• Clowning
• And more... 

I figure if this is what I want to do I better learn all I can about it. I am not entirely sure how all this is going to manifest itself in terms of a career, but what I do know is that I want to keep going and find out! 

On the Prowl

Here we are on the hunt for a job, yet again. Don't worry... I didn't get fired... But my job will be ending in a month. So I  have been hitting the nanny applications hard. So far I have applied for 35 new jobs. And I have had a few bites. The past couple weeks I have had 4 interviews and 2 more scheduled for this week.

One job in particular stands out as being absolutely terrifying! The family has two daughters and they want someone who will speak spanish to them. Now despite the fact that I have no where on my profile listed that I speak spanish they wanted to talk to me. To be fair I have taken 5years of Spanish in high school and college, but I am by no means conversational (what does that say about our education system's language programs... or my inability to learn a language). Anyway, while they seem like a lovely family and in many respects a good fit I am not sure if I can function speaking only in spanish at work.

In a totally different job avenue I have applied for a job at the Goodman Theatre as their Young Performer Supervisor for A Christmas Carol. It would be a great job for me as a stage manager who also takes care of children. It would be combining two of my greatest strengths!! Not only that but it would be great for my professional resume. Unfortunately, due to my improv classes and rehearsals/performances, it would pose a bit of a scheduling problem. But I figure I would apply anyway and just see what happens.

Wish me luck as I am embark on one of adulthoods least fun adventures, The Epic Job Hunt!!

BYOT

Last week I promised I would write a post dedicated to seeing Shrek from the stage manager's booth... To be fair I kept my promise and wrote a beautiful post about how much I learned and how fun it was. But alas, it was all lost to cyberspace..

Because of this unfortunate turn of events I will just say I had a blast, learned a lot, enjoyed the show, and I would be more than willing to talk about it so call me, beep me, message me, email me... You know the drill. But here are a couple pictures for you. 

View from the booth

So a couple of really fun things have been happening in my "comedy" career the past few weeks. 

First things first, a group of friends and I started an improv group. We have rehearsed a few times and performed 3 times at a show called BYOT, (Bring Your Own Team) an "open mic" type situation for improv teams. It has been a lot of fun and we have gotten a pretty good response, which is really encouraging. 

Photo courtesy of Travis

We haven't quite settled on a name just yet, but we have tried out a new one each week including Fare, Prince John III, and most recently Southeast of Wellington. This week we will hopefully be deciding on a permanent name that suites us a unique group of improvisers. 

BONUS: Alli, a good friend from school, visited Chicago last weekend we got to hang out with her and she honored us with her presence as an audience member at BYOT! And most importantly Alli will be moving here in a few short months and we can continue to have wonderful evenings like last Saturday!! 

In addition to rehearsing and performing with a talented group of people that are quickly becoming some of my closest friend, I auditioned for and was cast in a coached ensemble at Second City. So what that means is that I will be rehearsing for the next 10 weeks with an entirely new group of people (who I have yet to meet) and a coach learning a new form of improv. Then come December we will have 3 performances in the Skybox theatre on December 5th, 12th, and 19th (in case you plan to be in Chicago any of those weeks). I meet for my rehearsal tomorrow and I can't wait to see who I will be performing with and what style of improv we are going to do. I am super excited to learn a new form of improv, get to work with another faculty member at Second City, get more feedback and coaching on my improv, get to perform on a Second City stage, and get to put an official Second City group on my resume. 

Look at me taking the improv world by storm... and loving every second of it!!