Happy Christnikah

Wow! I didn't realize it had been almost 2 weeks since I last posted. Hope everyone had wonderful holidays. Despite many changes this year and being away from my family, I had a really nice Christmas and even better Christnikah. Granted I had a moment or two where I got sad, because of these changes, but over all it's been nice.
Most of my improv groups are taking a break till the end of the year and the hair bizz has been slow. We're still doing shows but these last two weeks have slowed down. None of this is bad considering how busy my life can get. I even took several naps this weekend without feeling guilty once. Plus, work has slowed down. Well, not really. There's still a ton to do, but the office has been really empty which is nice, because I can wear my comfy sweatshirt and actually get work done, plus I've been able to sneak out extra early on most days.
Last week, work was especially fun. Besides getting a ton of work done and gaining weight by the minute with all the cookies, candy and catered lunched brought in, we also had "kids day." It's basically bring your kid to work day and since I'm part of the comittee that plans it, I ran the activities and brought in a friend of ours to do an improvised kids show. While that was going on, we went in another room and got Corey dressed up as Santa. I'll post pictures later, but it was hilarious! Not only was the suit awesome, Corey did an awesome job. So much so, that they want us back next year which is good because it paid well.

We (and Anne, Corey's cousin) spent Christmas Eve at our friend Ali's new place. It's really sad when you live a couple of blocks away from your friends, but are both too busy to see each other more than once every couple of months. Anyways, it was a lot of fun.
Monday we had friends over for the first annual Christnikah dinner.... Asian themed of course. I must say, the food was delicious (thank you Anna and food network for the receipes) although we haven't mastered fried rice yet. I must take after my Grandmother who ownes and runs 2 Mexican restaurants, but still can't make simple rice. Anyways, between the food,drinks, friends (even Pete from KC came to celebrate), games and IO shows it was a lot of fun. You can read more about the show on Pete's blog.
Now, it's time to get ready for New Year's eve. I'm doing hair and makeup for a friends wedding and then we're attending. Plus Corey's parents are coming into town this weekend. It should be a nice time. After that, short of a couple of out of town gigs, we don't have anything major planned. It'll be nice to recoupe and get back to a normal schedule, no holiday's, no wedding to plan. Just a plain, "normal" life. Ha! Yeah right!

Braces... a Christmas Miracle?

Hoping to put a smile (a normal, not creepy one) on my face, I turned to happynews.com this morning and was surprised to see what they called a Christmas Miracle. While a turtle with braces is certainly strange and funny , I wouldn't call it a miracle. You gotta admire their optimism. I guess that's there job. So there you go Pete you were looking for a dentist. Where's Hermy you asked? Well, he's apparently at the zoo, doing just fine. Maybe you could make an appointment with those dentists.

Now this is something to be happy about!

http://www.happynews.com/

Between all the bad news that's reported daily and our own negativity (not that I ever am) sometimes it can be tough to stay positive . Once in a while, it's just nice to hear about the good things happening across the world. Maybe crazy lady read an article from here.

SOOOOO HAPPY :)

Maybe I'm just cynical, but I always find it strange when people smile for no reason. I'm not talking about someone who's cheerful or friendly. Some people just have pleasant faces and that's wonderful. It's those ooky people who just sit there with a huge, nonstop grin for no apparent reason that creep me out. I got on the train this morning at 7:15 am. At 7:15 in the morning people are sort of stone faced at best, most just looking groggy or grouchy. I am definately one of those groggy people, but I still do my best to give a friendly nod, slight smile or at least turn up the corners of my mouth in effort to make someone feel comfortable. But today, there was quite the little ray of sunshine in our "car." I was thoroughly weirded out by the lady across from me who was beeming with a full on Julia Roberts, toothy smile. It was unatural. What could she possibly be soooo happy about and didn't her face hurt after a while? I mean, we shared the El for a good 20-30 minute ride and her expression never changed. I really tried to do my best to not stare at her, ("keep reading the paper Monique") but I already have the bad habit of people watching and she had me captivated. Maybe she was just happy about life or maybe (since she was looking out the window), it was her first time in Chicago and she was thrilled by the city. There were a few times that I saw her lips move or at least quiver... was she talking to herself? Was she crazy? Was she retarded? I never actually found out, but either way I envy her. She was either too batty to care or she really was just having a kick ass day.

-Mo

I'm not the only one who slid around

At least I know I wasn't over reacting when I was scared to drive last night. I was really pretty surprised at the manners most drivers had, quite unusual for Chicago. Besides the occasional jerkpod pedestrian trying to cross the street as you slid thru the intersection, most people were polite and courteous and understood that things were just going to have to move slowly. I wasn't the only one who slid though. As you've probably read/heard, a Southwest plane slid off the runway and hit a couple of cars out on the nearby street. Unfortunately a little boy in one of the vehicles, was killed. Talk about an unexpected death. It's very sad. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051209/ap_on_re_us/midway_accident

27 Degrees!

It's really sad when you're excited that it's 27 degrees out. Today was much warmer in comparision with yesterday being around 5 degrees. Plus once you factored in the wind it was in the negative digits. Are you kidding me? It hurt, it actually hurt. Once you get downtown, the wind tunnel created by the tall buildings and the lake, feels like it's slapping you in the face. It's impossible to walk into work and look at all decent. First you layer up with a warm sweater (or two) and boots. On freezing days, you even put on cuddle duds. Yeah, cuddle duds. It's a stupid name for these really warm underclothes that are insulating but aren't bulky like long underwear (thanks for the tip mom!) Then, you have to bundle up in a scarf, earmuffs and hat, so you're hair's a mess and your makeup is half way ruined because tears have been streaming down your face from the wind burning your eyes. I don't have too far of a walk from the El to my office (about 4 blocks), but it's days like yesterday that I miss driving to work and parking in a free parking lot right by the front door of my work, like in KC. Poor Corey stood on the El platform last night for over 1/2 an hour waiting for a train that for some unexplained reason was delayed. Once you get to work you roast at your desk, because the cuddle duds have kicked into gear. Being that this is our second winter in Chicago, I remember back in KC a couple of month before we moved, asking Corey if Chicago really was as windy and as cold as people kept saying. I wondered why people kept giving me scarfs, gloves and hats. Corey, "easing my fears" of an unknown city reassured me by telling me that "no, it's not that cold, it's about the same as KC, don't worry." Apparently he was afraid that I wouldn't want to move if I knew the truth. ehhh. Maybe it's not technically colder, but the wind is harsher and you do a lot more walking. Maybe technically Corey was a big fat liar. Maybe it's still worth it to live in this kick ass city.

Happy December

Happy December everyone! Can't believe it's here. I was reading my friend Randy's blog who was talking about how he already has everything he wants as far as a Christmas gifts goes. When asked by mine and Corey's family what I want for Chrisnakah, I feel the same way. While I don't have as many fun electronic toys as Randy does, I don't really feel a want for anything (especially after all the wedding gifts)... well not anything realistic. I mean, I'd love to buy a home, but that's pretty unlikely with Chicao prices and I'd love to get a dog, but that's not happening because we're too busy and it wouldn't be fair to the dog. Plus we've got Corey's dog Ted, staying in KC since our 3 1/2 flights of stairs would be too much for an 11 year old dog or a 25 year old Monique to go up and down several times a day. This of course doesn't stop me from bugging Corey for a puppy. Still, it's pretty cool to not feel like I "need" anything. Plus, we're getting a new couch soon due to the extra work w/shows, hair and photoshoots we're doing and I do want an I-Pod, but ehh it's not a huge deal to me. I think the hardest thing for me this year will be to spend Christmas without my family. A lot has changed this year and it can be a little tough to get used to sometimes. Looks like Corey and I will be creating our traditions this year, which may or may not include reindeer hunting.

Fine Pete

Since Pete doesn't want me to be a lazy ass, I will go ahead and post...

We just got back to Chicago from KC at about 1:30am this morning. Being that Corey and I both have to work an 8 hour day, we're dragging. Thanksgiving was overall pretty good. Lots of changes and some sad stuff going on, none that I want to go into as I am trying to stay positive, but it was great seeing family and friends. It was awesome getting to spend time with our nieces who are hilarious and other family friends. Our Comedy City friends all got together Saturday night. I'm always thrilled that so many people come out when we're in town. Not that we're the center of it all or anything, but really, Corey and I are the glue that holds it together... just kidding. It was just nice seeing everyone together. I also got to go to my first Chiefs game. It was Awesome! I had so much fun. It's a good thing I waited so long to go because at least now I can follow the game. It would've pissed me off to not be able to understand it with as much money as we paid for the tickets. Oh well, it was worth it. Pete was officially my hero that day for bringing ponchos.
Now I'm back at work and hating it. Not the job, it's still good... well for an office job. It's just rough coming back from vacation, though after this one part of me is glad to be home. After missing 2 days of work, I had 86 emails. I never had that many as a receptionist. Guess that's what I get for having a real job.

Post- Wedding Party

A couple of weeks ago we threw a post-wedding celebration party, soiree, hoopty, bash. Our friend Greg was gracious enough to let us hang out at his restaurant, Joey's Brickhouse. We had great drinks, food and of course karaokee. It's been proven to me time and time again that improvisors do the best karaokee. We had a blast.


THE BLAZER BOYS!

Crispy Fried

Thanks to some Target gift cards we received as wedding gifts, Corey and I now have "The Sims." Really it's mostly Corey's games, because I don't play that often, but whatever, not the point. The family that we have created are the Jerkpods. Corey and Monique Jerkpod. Well, the other night after having an argument, I went to bed. Corey having insomnia (don't worry Pete, you're not the only one) stayed up and played The Sims. Since he was mad, Corey Jerkpod decided to get real "friendly" with one of the neighbors, Betty Newbie. When he told me about it the next day and I was shocked, "What, Corey cheated on Monique?" Technically they're not married, but still it was the principle. However,Corey Jerkpod found out that cheating never pays off. Turns out that he bought himself a stove, because the food we were making in the microwave wasn't very nourishing. Apparently he wasn't the most skilled cook, because he started a fire. It was actually his second fire, the living room went up in flames the other night after Corey lit the fireplace and then went to sleep. With that one Monique, Corey and the fire department were able to extinguish it. This time he wasn't so lucky. Not only did the kitchen catch on fire, but so did Corey....And then he died. See...that's what you get for cheating on Monique.
I was concerned for Monique Jerkpod who would occasionally go to the urn that rests on the fireplace and cry over her loss. Corey told me not to worry about her, because apparently now Monique and Betty are really "friendly" with each other.

-Mo

Finally, someone gets it!

Life update... Things are still hectic. I've cut back on a ton on how much I do, almost to the point of boredom. I'm not doing many side jobs and haven't been to a rehearsal in about a month or a show in almost as long. My health is still being weird. We still don't know what the abdominal pains are, but they're possibly kidney stones. What a blast! If things haven't cleared up (or cleared out technically) by Tuesday, I have to get more testing done. But this isn't just about me talking about my health issues like an old lady. This is about the awesomeness of pH.

pH is an improv/theater company that I am involved with. Now I've noticed that many groups aren't very understanding about missing rehearsals/shows, even if it's legit. It has been my experience that for some reason the improv and theater community have a tendency to not treat their cast very well. I've been pleasantly surprised though, because pH has been the most understand group I've ever worked with. They actually get that improv (especially free improv) isn't the only or highest priority thing in the world. When I explained why I was missing so many rehearsals and that I wanted to scale back as much as possible for a while, they weren't upset. They were kind and willing to work with me. It just makes me want to do more for them. This is one of the first groups that I've seen do it right. They truly care about their cast and not just box office numbers and money. This (besides the talented group) is what will take them to big places. It's just a refreshing thing to be involved with.

-Mo

Too Soon?

Last night Corey and I went to a couple of Halloween parties. We personally didn't end up dressing up, though I did wear orange in the spirit of the holiday. Unfortunatly the night didn't end up being a blast as we had hoped. I was in a weird mood, partially because of there was a chick at the first party that, to put it mildly, I really don't enjoy being around. At least at that party we had fun people watching. The second one was a huge loft party. There was a $10 cover for all the drinks you can handle and there were at least 300 people there. I'd probably safe to say the 90% of the partiers there were improvisor. The problem is that when it's that big of a party,it's hard to actually party. We spent a majority of the night just looking for cups and the kegs and the other part trying to squeeze through the crowd and not lose each other. It was just too hard to really talk to people. Maybe it makes me a geek for not enjoying it, but it was just too much. After an hour and a half or so, we went home, with our 2 beers cost us $5 each.

Best costume of the night? Well, I don't know if it's the best, but the one that stood out to me the most were two people (at the first party) who wore grey long underwear with black lines all the way down them. One person had a plane that had "crashed" into her and the other a plane on a wire headed towards him. They were the Twin Towers.... ooohh, yeah...I don't know. Too soon? I can't tell. On one hand, it was creative and a little awesome. On the other, it was wrong and a little offensive.

Please let it be November

I have had a great year filled with many wonderful moments. The biggest, obviously, being that Corey and I got married. But there's also been time spent with family and friends, getting on an IO team, fun shows, parties, my promotion and the list goes on and on. I'm mentioning these things so that I can remember the bright side. For the sake of staying positive, I will also end this post on a high note... The lower end of this year has been the month of October. One of the main reasons being all the sickness. You've all been patient with me as what seems like post after post I talk about how I (or Corey and I) are still sick. Well, finally last Thursday I got over it. I left work early, went home and pretty much slept for 13 hours straight. I woke up the next day, renewed, refreshed and thrilled to be back in the game. This weekend was awesome (more on that later) I actually had energy and got a ton done. However, it is October and October is apparently the month that is determined to be bad to me. Monday night, I spent the evening until about 11:30pm in the emergency room. Long story short, they thought it was appendicitis, then possibly some sort of ovarian or other "ladies" issue. Luckily I wasn't in a ton of pain and actually felt better than I had most of the month, but there were just some weird symptoms going on. Anyways, as they are hooking me up to fluids, all I could do is throw my hands in the air. Of course I would spend the evening in the hospital, of course it would be my appendix, this is the kind of month I'm having. If I had a puppy, it would've been hit by a car, too. I also learned how much I use humor as a defense mechanism. As they were hooking me up to an IV and tears were streaming down my face out of frustration, I was still making Corey and the doctors laugh..."just because you call it an 'appy' doesn't make it happy, doc." Turns out it wasn't an appy. I was discharged with no answers. The doctor reminded me that they aren't God and don't always know why we have pain. They don't think it's anything serious or obviously they wouldn't have let me leave the ER. I just have to do some follow ups with my regular Dr. to find out why I still have this weird pain in my abdomen. Unless, of course, it gets worse. Sigh... If only it were November. Stupid, jerkpod October.

On the upside to this month, we had our post-wedding celebration in Chicago this weekend. Since we weren't able to bring everyone back to KC for the big day, we threw a party here. Lots of drinking, dancing and karaokeeing (sp?) was done till 3am. It was a blast and again such an amazing memory to see all our friends supporting us. I'll try to post pictures of it later.

First Day

Today is officially my first day on the new job. I should be really happy. I get to wear jeans, I have a lot more independence and freedom in this job, I'm busier, more challenged, and my new boss is going to be gone this first week and a half, not to mention half of the rest of the year. Then why aren't you happy, Monique? You may ask. Well, because I can't get rid of this God-forsaken sickness. I've been sick with some sort of sinus infection for 3 weeks now. I finally thought I was over it the last half of last week, but then out of the blue, I woke up yesterday with a sore throat and head congested. This later turned into body aches and a fever. Why am I falling apart? I never get sick, so apparently I'm making up for years worth of healthiness. This sucks so much balls. My head feels like it's going to explode. What's worst is that I will likely have to miss my rehearsal tonight since I can barely see straight, let alone jump up and down for warm-ups or have energy for scene work. I know though that my team is going to be annoyed that if I don't make it, because that's what those Jerkpods (along with the President of Jerkpods, our coach) do, since they don't like me. I shouldn't feel guilty about staying home if I'm legitimately sick. I only decided to come to work since it's my first day in this position and at least now I don't have to answer phones and greet guests like I did at the reception desk. Now I can just sit in my cube, by myself and not talk to anyone else. Another plus of this job! For some reason, every since I started working here a year and a half ago, I've had health issues. I never did before, maybe it's just Murphy's Law. Once I got insurance, my back goes out, I have sleep issues, I get this F-ing sinus infection that won't go away! I'm just waiting to break a bone or get stitches, might as well top it off right.

Movin' on up

"You can't have your cake and eat it too" Ok, so I know what this means, but where does it come from? I just don't understand the concept. If you have cake, of course you're going to eat it. Why wouldn't you.
I'm not trying to be cute here, I really want to konw.


Anyways, I've got 2 more days left of this hellish job and just one more weekend until freedom. On Monday I start my new job in my new position. It's still not total freedom, but I can already tell just from this week of training a little that I'm really going to like it. My boss is very nice, patient and not a female with raging emotional issues. Not that my old boss is bad, she just crosses the line of personal and professional too often. I hear however (from the girl that's training me) that I'll have shit to deal with from the 17 Regional Managers I'll be working with. Looking forward to fun adventures (and probably some whining) later with this new department.


-Mo

Jeff teabags ice cream

Spent the weekend with friends in Rock Island. Our friend Pete went home to visit family, so it's always a good excuse to meet him down there and hang out. Since we couldn't get off work early, we had to leave Chicago from downtown during rush hour on a Friday. Real smart. It took us about 12 hours to make the usual 3 hour trip. Ok, maybe that's an exaggeration, but we were still in stop and go traffic for what felt like forever. Then again, I slept through the first hour or so of the trip, so it wasn't so bad on me.

Once in Rock Island, we had a blast as usual. Saturday during the day,after yummy soup and ice cream from Mama Comptons, we went to West Music store to find sheet music for an audition I have tonight. I'll let you know how it goes later. Anyways, while at West's I picked up a saxaphone for the first time in probably 5 years. It's a lot like riding a bike... a bike that's broken and out of tune. I was horrible, sigh. Oh well. We got to play a show on Saturday night at the Comedy Sportz. Jeff (the owner) brought in a live band to play for the show. Overall, I think the show was really good, Corey was definately on. Either way, it was a ton of fun as usual. We spent the rest of the time drinking and laughing.
Looking forward to the next trip guys!

-Mo

STOP! READ THIS FIRST!

OK, here's the deal. Monique and I just posted a bunch of pictures from our honeymoon in Vegas. They kind of tell a story, and we feel are best viewed in the order that we posted them. However, Blogger puts newer posts above older ones. So, to see these postings in the order intended, you should scroll down 4 posts to the one titled "Honeymoon Pictures!". If you get to "Corporate Suck Ass", you've gone too far. Try and scroll real fast, so as to not see things out of order. Then again, you could just scroll down right now, completely ignoring these instructions. I bet you're the kind of person who reads the last few pages of a mystery novel right off the bat, too. The kind of person who gives away the endings to movies, as well, right? Well fine! Be that way!

- Corey

The Fremont Street Experience

The last night of the honeymoon, we hung out with our good friends Tom and Bridget. They live and work in Las Vegas, and know the cool spots to hang. They took us to "old Vegas" to get to experience Fremont Street. It's awesome. If you've never been, you should. They're all about giving you a good time, and any enticement to get people away from the Strip, they have it. The four of us had a blast, got good and drunk, and learned a new blackjack game, Blackjack Switch. Here's what that night looked like:

Montage Day - part 2

More from Montage Day!

Montage Day

On our third day in Vegas, Monique and I had what we like to refer to as "Montage Day". To fully experience these pictures as they were intended, you should pretend that you're watching a movie. It stars Monique and Corey as a couple of co-workers that always seem to butt heads. They're on a business trip in Las Vegas, and due to circumstances beyond their control, woulnd't you know it, the hotel is all booked up and these two must end up sharing a room. Well maybe it's the moonlight or maybe it's the wine, but wouldn't you know it, they fall in love. And here's the day they spend discovering all the fun to be had in Las Vegas. It's best viewed with upbeat, fun montage music. May we suggest you play something like "Daydream Believer" by the Monkees or "Walking on Sunshine" by Katrina and the Waves or "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor.

More from the wax museum

Honeymoon Pictures!

No, not those. Pictures from our trip to Vegas, after the wedding. There are some limitations to the Blogger picture posting, so it'll get broken up into a few volumes.

Volume #1 - Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum - It's always been a dream of Monique's to see one of these. Luckily for her, there's one located at the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas. Some of the figures were amazingly life-like! Here's a selection of our favorites....

Corporate Suck Ass

So I'm sort of at a crossroad right now with my "career." God, I can't believe I'm old enough to have a career. Today I was offered a promotion at my job, meaning (most importantly) more money. It's not that it's a huge deal, I'm still at the bottom of the barrel, ok maybe 2nd to the bottom. Anyways, on the side (besides performing etc) I've been working my ass off with my side jobs of hairstyling out of my home and being a stylist for a photographer. I'm making pretty good money at that too. The problem is that I'm at a strange in between stage. I'm too busy to continue at this pace of basically two jobs, but I'm not quite busy enough to cut down to just one job. My eventual goal is to work out of my home and on a freelance basis so that I can not be so crazy busy and can focus more on theater and someday a family. The problem is that it can only grow so big when I don't have the time to fit everyone in. If I were available more in the day or not so exhausted at night to take on more jobs, I could expand quicker. I debated for a while on whether to take the promotion or to quit my job at Harley and find a part-time job to substitute while I build my hair bizz. In the end I decided to wait things out and tuck aside the extra money until my day comes. I'm going to take the promotion and hope it makes life at my boring office a little more tolerable and even fun while I learn new skills and hopefully go to the Sturges bike rally, see how it goes and later down the line solely work for myself. In the meantime, it means staying in corporate suck ass world when I'd much rather be my own boss and not have to be up in the mornings at 6:30am. I really am a pretty fair boss. Oh well, worst case scenario is that I hate the new job and I quit. Wish me luck!

Just thinking out loud here and out long because I'm a little high off my antibiotics and cough medicine. Oh yeah, that's another side effect of working too much...getting sick (and on my birthday no less). Whoo Hoo.

-Mo (happy Craig?)

Wedding Pictures

Finally got the wedding pictures back. You can check it out here. Click on the wedding link and follow it to "Corey and Monique." I haven't been able to get rid of the not so good ones yet and there are a TON, but enjoy! I especially love the Hava Nagila, which are in the "reception" link.

Hairmaster

As I mentioned before, I cut my own hair Sunday night. So the hair looks good.... now. I realized yesterday that the length in the back was really pretty uneven. You try to cut your own hair. It just wasn't laying quite right and was driving me crazy. Well, welcome to the world... the expertise stylist, Corey Rittmaster! or Corey Hairmaster as I like to call him. After I got home from rehearsal last night, I begged and whined and pleaded with him to fix the back for me. Of course he'd never done this before and was reluctant, but I showed him exactly what to do. He was sooo nervous and each time I'd put a new layer of hair down for him to even out he'd scrunch his face up and whine himself. He looked like an old Chinese man. In the end, he did a great job and now the hair is much better. Thank God, I wouldn't have been able to sleep.... no really it's so stupid, but it would've kept me up.
Next up, highlights!

-Mo

So life is getting back to normal. I finally got some rest this weekend. Last week was full of appointments, rehearsals and back aches, so it was a little tough. Saturday Corey went to Kansas City to do a show. I had many plans to clean the apartment, work on my scrapbook, generally be organized while he was gone. Well, that didn't happen. I did nothing and it was AWESOME. I laid around and just rested. I didn't apologize and didn't worry about it. At the rate I've been going lately I'll either get sick or go crazy(er). I finally did a little house work and went out with some girlfriends late Saturday night. Hopefully Corey wasn't doing the same on his trip. I also had Thai food for dinner both Saturday and Sunday night before he got back. I figured when Corey's around, he won't "let" me eat Thai that often, so I took full advantage of his absence. Oh yeah, and I cut my hair. Call it the typical post wedding chop or just Mo changing it up again, but I now I have just barely shoulder length hair. I've never done such a drastic cut on my own hair. It took forever, I recut parts of it twice, but in the end it looks great. It was a lot of fun surprising Corey at the airport with the new me. He likes it a lot. Next up, color change... any suggestions?
I'm back to work for my second week post wedding. I feel much more refreshed this then last week... maybe it's the new look. Maybe I'll even start working out again. Those buffets in Vegas didn't help my figure much. I'm also working on a promotion. Keep your fingers crossed for me. I have one more interview today and hopefully will find out in the next couple of days if I'm the new Admin. for the Sales and Marketing Department. If not, then I'm looking for a new company. I'm done being a receptionist. Oh and good news, Jenny McBoringass quit. She came in an hour late on Friday, quit and left an hour later. It was weird. Apparently some sort of family issue came up. The good news is that now I work with Katie (the temp that sat in for me) and she's great. My job is much more tolerable now.

Sorry this isn't the most exciting post. I'll get back later with some real gut wrenching excitement.

-Mo

Corey can break his leg!

No, literally.

In less than 3 weeks, he'll be on my insurance! Knock on wood that he doesn't actually hurt himself, but at least now he can. Just one more reason why marrying me was good.

From the Mr. and Mrs.

I'm sure you know what this post will be about. We got married! All the hard work and planning paid off. Everything was great. Sunday, September 4th was the big day, but really the whole thing started the Wednesday before. We flew into KC and Wednesday morning and headed off to our separate families. I had dress fittings and other wedding related tasks to accomplish, Corey had similar errands to run, minus the dress of course. That evening my mom and her best friend Mary, threw a "Spa night." Basically it was a bunch of girls getting pedicures and manicures and drunk. The night was a blast! I don't know what Corey did that evening, but I don't know if I care either... I was drunk. Thursday night Corey and I met up with one of Corey's (and now my) best friends, Brian Schwartz. We ate dinner at Han Shin...mmm Japanese steak house. Afterwards we met up with Brian Thalblum at Johnny's Tavern. It was fun, but a little pointless for me to be there since I just watched the guys play Golden Tee, not to mention I had to get up early the next day.

On Friday I woke my ass up early and headed back to Independence for yet another dress fitting. My sister was already in town and my cousin JoRae arrived that afternoon. This night was the bachelor and bachlorette parties. Corey and the guys played golf in the morning, BBQed in the evening and prayed with orphan children that night. Us girls ate (and drank plenty of wine) dinner at Bucca de Beppos where we enticed the cute waiters to dance for me. Thanks mom! Afterwards we went to Mi Cocina's for more drinking and dancing, where Nikki Dupont and her "tassles" were the life of the party. Pretty much the night continued with more drinking and hanging out at various parts of the Plaza. A few of us went back to our hotel at the Fairmont to hang out more. The night was great. Some of those girls I hadn't seen in years.

Saturday was the rehearsal dinner. BBQ at Zarda's, hey we were in KC, what do you expect? Corey's brother Aaron put together a trivia game for us to see who knew each other better and my sister Briette gave a wonderful speech. I, of course, wasn't ready to go to bed any time soon so I went out with Corey and a few people for a while and met up with Briette, Anna and Ali late that night at the Embassy Suites where we were staying. They were all asleep when I got in. Luckily I fell asleep fairly quickly, but not without getting some good giggling in once I woke them up. I can't imagine how Corey fell asleep. He was by himself at his parents and already suffers insomnia on a somewhat regular basis.

Sunday morning the girls had to start getting ready at 10am. That's right, a whole 8 hours before the wedding. We had a great time though, getting our hair done, laughing and eating lunch together. I haven't hung out with my girlfriends like that in such a long time. It was such a good memory.

The wedding started at 6pm. I honestly wasn't nervous. Well, maybe a little about my vows (we wrote our own). While I was waiting to start, the girls kept asking how I was so calm, but you know, when it's the right thing to do, there's nothing to worry about. When the doors opened and I saw Corey for the first time, I was blown away. He looked soooo handsome and the reaction I got from him was priceless. I pretty much remained intact until the vows and at that point I finally started crying. The ceremony was beautiful. We had asked our friend Dan Walsh get ordained so that he could officiate the ceremony. It was really special having someone close to us bring our new lives together. I could go on and on about the wedding, but the best way to sum it up would be to say it was the best day of my life. These memories are priceless and it is so dear to my heart that so many of our loved ones could share this day with us. The wedding went off flawlessly and the reception was pretty close, but none of that matters because there was so much love in the room that that's the part I will always remember.

I'll post pictures later as I get them.

-Mrs. Rittmaster (hee hee)

Game Night

Friday night was game night, part duex at our place. Last time we partied at Jaime's place, but she has a cat and Corey's allergic. So, there were about ten people at our place, which I believe is the most we've ever had over at once for that long. Our place is small and there wasn't much elbow room, but it didn't matter. We had a blast. I was also excited because I got to play host and serve snacks on some of our new serving platters (thank you Steve and Tracy Jones) and drink margaritas out of the new goblets.

Nick, Larry, Dan, Corey and I started off by playing Clue before the 2nd wave of people came over. I have no idea how we did it as kids. That game is hard. Good thing we played early on, alcohol wouldn't of helped.
When the rest of the group arrived we moved on to Catch Phrase. No, not Strip Catch Phrase, Dan and Junior, that's reserved for you guys back in KC. We also played the name game or whatever you call it (everyone calls it something different). It's the game where everyone puts a bunch of names in a bowl. The first round you can say anything to get the others to guess the name you drew, the second round you can only say 2 words and last round is mimed. Anyways, that's what these pictures are from. We're in the miming stage. I think Owen is starting to mime that he nicked his face shaving.... as in Stevie Nicks.

Corey and I continued the gaming on through the weekend . We played Doctor on Sunday.... no not like that. Larry gave us Operation along with some other fun games as a wedding present.
Thanks Lars. Fun stuff. Fun stuff. Can't wait for Game Night part three.

And Happy Birthday Josh

Man, what was happening 9 months ago? A bunch of my friends celebrate their birthdays in August. This past weekend it was Josh. He hit number 30 finally. Pete turned 40, Josh 30...it's milestone year, too. Well here's some fun trivia for you. My pal Josh is the same age as:

* liquid soap
* Pop Rocks
* Rubik's Cube
* the laser printer
* the push-through tab on a soda can
* the first truly personal computer

So there you go. Happy Birthday, my man. Now here's a picture of Josh rocking out at karaoke the last time I was in KC. He blew the damn roof off the place.

I love dumb people

Question: If you could live forever, would you and why?
Answer: "I would not live forever, because we should not live forever, because if we were supposed to live forever, then we would live forever, but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever," --Miss Alabama in the 1994 Miss USA contest

"Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can't help but cry. I mean I'd love to be skinny like that, but not with all those flies and death and stuff." --Mariah Carey

"Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life," --Brooke Shields, during an interview to become Spokesperson for federal anti-smoking campaign.

"I've never had major knee surgery on any other part of my body," --Winston Bennett, University of Kentucky basketball forward.

"Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country," --Mayor Mario n Barry, Washington, DC.

"I'm not going to have some reporters pawing through our papers. We are the president." --Hillary Clinton commenting on the release of subpoenaed documents.

"That lowdown scoundrel deserves to be kicked to death by a jackass, and I'm just the one to do it," --A congressional candidate in Texas.

"Half this game is ninety percent mental." --Philadelphia Phillies manager, Danny Ozark

"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it." --Al Gore, Vice President

"I love California. I practically grew up in Phoenix." --Dan Quayle

"We've got to pause and ask ourselves: How much clean air do we need?"--Lee Iacocca

"I was provided with additional input that was radically different from the truth. I assisted in furthering that version." --Colonel Oliver North, from his Iran-Contra testimony.

"The word 'genius" isn' t applicable in football. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein." --Joe Theisman, NFL football quarterback & sports analyst.

"We don't necessarily discriminate. We simply exclude certain types of people." --Colonel Gerald Wellman, ROTC Instructor.

"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure." --Bill Clinton, President

"We are ready for an unforeseen event that may or may not occur." --Al Gore, VP

"Traditionally, most of Australia's imports come from overseas." --Keppel Enderbery

"Your food stamps will be stopped effective March 1992 because we received notice that you passed away. May God bless you. You may reapply if there is a change in your circumstances." --Department of Social Services, Greenville, South Carolina

"If somebody has a bad heart, they can plug this jack in at night as they go to bed and it will monitor their heart throughout the night. And the next morning, when they wake up dead, there'll be a record." --Mark S. Fowler, FCC Chairman

Messages

A couple of nights ago, Corey and I watched our friend Clay Morgan's independent movie, "Messages." For those of you that were in it... Smashing Job! I particularly liked the "club" scene. Nick Rigoli in true Rigoli fashion cracked me up. I was a little disgusted by Nikki and Dennis' makeout scene, but that's to be expected of the DuPonts. Anissa played the Carrie Fisher, best friend role quite well and Kaia is adorable as was Rob Grabowski. It was all very touching. It was really nice seeing the group from KC together like that. I was jealous that I didn't get to be in it and that I missed the original screening. Nice work Clay!

-Mo

Garrett's birthday pictures

1. Amy, Christopher and Tyler, "look, something shiney." Yeah, Tyler doesn't quite understand that there are different rules of etiquette for different situations.


2.Garrett, the man of the hour, "mmm, steak."



3. I can't remember the name of the waiter. It was quite unusual. He had quite the lovely voice and said the words, "bone marrow" quite hilariously.

A little calmer

This week has been much calmer than the last two weeks of hell. Though we've been busy, it's not nearly as crazy. I've even been able to work out again a couple times this week during lunch rather than pass out in the nap room at work. I haven't been about to run though, because someone stole my sports bra. The break in hecticness started on Saturday. That evening after I had a couple photoshoots, we went to Drake Brothers restaurant in the Drake hotel. It was our friend Garrett's birthday and our other friend Amy works for the Drake so we got a sweet deal on our meal. It was sooooo good. The waiter was wonderful. He was very over the top, but really treated us well and even sung for Garrett. My filet minon was particularly amazing, as was the chipotle corn, onion rings and chocolate cake. We all left the restaurant fat, happy and a little wine buzzed. On Sunday I had another client, but then I got to rest. That night we saw The Aristocrats. It's dirty, raunchy and hilarious. We even got free popcorn and a drink because no one was there to ring us up. That's what they get for hiring 17 year olds that are more interested in flirting with each other than the customer. Man... I'm so mature.
Anyways, Tuesday was my second I.O show. It wasn't too bad. Granted it wasn't the best show I've ever been in, definately your typical sophmore effort. This team has a lot of bonding to do. I'm honestly not sure how long it'll stay together, but I hear that's pretty typical of your first team with I.O. They change teams around like it's dirty underwear. So if the teams are like dirty underwear and me and many of my friends are in teams, does that make us turds? Man... mature and hilarious, Corey's a lucky man.
Last night we went to dinner with Corey's cousin, Anne in Chinatown. It was both of our first times down there. For those of you that have never been, it pretty much just rows of Chinese restaurants and little stores filled, and I mean filled with Chinese chachkees. The food itself was definately the best we've had since moving to Chicago, but I wouldn't say it was necessarily any better than Chinese food I've had in KC. You'd think that in a city with such diversity, you'd be able to find decent Chinese food...hmmm. Last night was one of the first nights we didn't do any wedding stuff in the evening. We're 17 days away and pretty much all that is left are small things. I'm sure we're forgetting something though. I just know we're going to get back to KC the weekend of and we'll be blindsided by a huge part of the wedding that we completely forgot about. I didn't care about that last night though. I was out like a light by 10/10:30pm on the couch, which is the earliest I've gone to bed in a long time. Corey on the other hand had another case of insomnia and was up until who knows when. Hopefully he won't be too grumpy tonight. I just don't know if I can handle another beating.
Last night in my sleep I had my first wedding nightmare. Apparently this is pretty common for brides as the big day approaches. Basically in my dream, the girls in the wedding party were getting ready. We were supposed to meet at Figlio's (the place we're getting married at) at 4pm for pictures. Well in the dream I look at my watch (because it goes so well with a wedding dress) and it's 5pm and no one is ready. I start telling everyone to hussle, we have to go take pictures and be ready by 6pm when the guests arrive and expect the ceremony to start. Next thing you know, we're standing in front of these aluminum garages (nothing like Figlios) and all the guests are staring at me in my gown, which has suddenly turned into a weird, cheap, fluffy thing. I'm upset because the pictures still haven't been taken. My sister is trying on 3 different dresses and I'm turning into bridzilla in front of everyone because it's a bridesmaids dress and the fact that she's trying on other colors and styles at this point is pissing me off. My mom is making me cry because she's not ready and she's mad at me for getting mad that everyone's not ready. So the photographer decides just to take my pictures, but the suddenly cheap gown keeps bunching up and looks ridiculous, so I get even more upset. I finally run "out" of the ceremony to go back to the cabins (? don't know why cabins) that we were getting ready at to smoke a cigarette and find Corey so we can just get married by ourselves. I woke up panicked, a little out of breath and pissed off. I'm better now, but it took me a while this morning to collect myself and remember it was just a dream.
-Mo

Glam Girl

I don't know about you, but I spent my Friday night at Marshall Fields annual Glamorama.
If you're thinking, wow that sounds like fun... well, not so much when you're working the after party as a glam rocker elevator girl. 7 "actors" were hired to help create a glam rock ambiance and I was one of them. Basically, I spent 5 1/2 hours in an elevator escorting scantily clad women (and some men) to the after-party on the 7th floor of Marshall Fields. The food and liquor were flowing freely as over 2000 of Chicago's coolest people partied the night away. The music was amazing, though I could only hear parts of the songs as my elevator door would close and I'd head back down to the first floor to pick up more partiers.
I started the night by getting "glammed" out by a fabulous gay man from MAC cosmetics. My job was literally to stand in the elevator on the 1st floor and as guests arrived press the 7th floor button and bring them to the party. As the night progressed and people got drunker, me and the other 6 elevator girls rotated which floors we "sat" at to bring people up and down.


It definitely got boring at times and by the end of the night (1:30am) I was exhausted and my feet were killing me. However, there was some great people watching and hilarious moments I got to witness.
There was a wide range of outfits, from ball gowns and tiaras to barely there shimmery, glitzy little numbers. A few people looked good, but overall most looked pretty ridiculous. They were like teenagers that finally had something to get all dressed up for. I particularly liked the 60 some year old women with mini skits and gigantic boobs. They came to Marshall Fields from the fashion show at the Chicago Theater. They started out very polite and friendly. Of course they got drunker and drunker, louder and louder, more and more obnoxious as the night progressed. I was spilled on (and consequently wiped down in places that I hadn't been spilt on) by strangers, kissed and flirted with by all sorts of characters. One of the elevator girls got her boob punched like a punching bag by a gay man. Ha, he played with her fun bags! Man I wish I could claim that story as my own.
The models from the fashion show were also at the party. There's nothing like 6 foot tall, 100 lb model with legs as tall as me entering the elevator to make me feel like the fattest midget in the world. These gorgeous women with their rich men would get into the elevator and I'm just the dorky girl smooshed against the wall pushing an elevator button. High light of my career...really. I also can't tell you how many times I heard from the passengers "Lingerie... 5th floor....ha, ha, ha." Dude, you aren't the first one to think of that joke...and it's not funny, nor is it ever going to be funny.
Some of the great things I did hear though were...
From a regular, average looking women to a male model : "So why did you move to Chicago, to model?"
Male model: "Yeah, for work, what do you do?"
Women: " Oh, I work for a book distributing company."
Male model: (way too enthusiastically) "WOW!"
Women: "Yeah, we've been distributing books for over 100 years."
Male model:" Yeah, I just started reading."

Another now classic involved an elevator full of strangers...
Woman to man: "Hey, I know you... you're my gynecologist!"
Man: "Uhh.. yeah, hi"
Woman: "Do you remember me?"
Man: "Uhh...yeah, you dyed your hair."
Woman: "How do you know I dye my hair...Oh, I know how you know." "So, do you remember how I had those two miscarriages?......"
The rest is not important. It was just great to be the fly on the wall in an extremely awkward situation.

Other fun sightings of the party (as I "sat" on the 7th floor waiting until someone needed a ride down) were the 2 very young girls dancing and practically stripping for an old man, a few thongs, a boob and some middle aged guy that had to be a computer geek, dancing his ass off in what looked like some sort of mating call for wet noodles. Being one of the only sober people there, it really makes me think twice about getting drunk and dancing with my friends. Man we must look stupid half the time. I just kept thinking about the Red Balloon last weekend and wondering if we were that retarded to outsiders. Yeah, probably.
I also met a couple celebrities. I met the guy, Fred something of the B-52's. Well, ok, he didn't notice me and actually rudely bumped into me in my elevator, but still. DJ Tony from the Ellen show was also there, he was the DJ for the party and was great. I did get to meet him and tell him something stupid like, "I liked the music" or "Good job" or something equally lame.

It was one of the longer nights of my life. I went home exhausted, but I think it was well worth the $175 I got paid and the hilarious stories and mental images I'll have in my memory.

- Mo

Happy Birthday Pete

Our good friend Pete Calderone celebrates 40 years on this earth. 40! As you look at this recent photo of Pete, you'll notice he sure don't look 40. And even more so, he sure doesn't act it. You can check out his online musings by clicking on the link in the right column for "Our Friend Pete". Also, you can go see him perform comedy, live, in Kansas City at ComedyCity doing improv or sketch comedy in Monkeys With Hand Grenades.

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to also point out how much has changed since 1965, the year Pete was born. Lyndon Johnson was President, Canada adopted it's familiar maple leaf flag, and the first US forces landed in Vietnam. On the positive side, the St. Louis Arch was completed, Disney launched Epcot, and "The Sound of Music" won the Oscar for Best Picture.

Celebrities that also turn 40 this year include: Sarah Jessica Parker, J.K. Rowling, Scottie Pippin, Andy Dick, Stuart Scott, and DJ Jazzy Jeff.

So Happy Birthday Pete, founding member of the KC Optimist Club and recently named "Kansas City's Most Eligible Bachelor".

More karaoke pictures

Nothing to add here. Just more pics. I'm not really sure what the deal is with that last one of Monique. It just makes me laugh.

- Corey

KC Trip - Aug 5-7

So I guess you want to see some of the pictures from this weekend trip to KC? Well, fine. Here you go. These are from karaoke night at the Red Balloon. If you've never been, get a group of friends together and go. It's the kind of dive that other dives strive to be. Cheap, enormous beers...pool...darts...and horrible versions of country songs sung by people taking themselves wayyyy too seriously. Enjoy the photos...

- Corey

Mission Accomplished

We're back from Kansas City and we're alive. This trip was the most successful yet. There was no fighting, no yelling, no crying. It wasn't even that stressful. It was definately busy, but everthing ran smoothly. Our appointments were on time and each vendor took care of us. And let me say, this wedding is going to kick ass!
We got into town late Friday after a bit of a delay. We each went to our own family's house to sleep. I of course had to get my Orange Flurry from Sonic. It's just cruel how the advertisers tease us in Chicago with all the Sonic commercial here. I've done the reseach and there are no Sonics within 90 miles of Chicago. Retarded. Anyways, I hung out with my parents for about an hour, going through baby picture and other photo albums. I must say... I was adorable! In the morning I had a dress fitting and I didn't get lightheaded this time, like on my last trip. I think that's due to actually having food in my stomache. Then Corey picked me up and we went to the florist, the salon beauty supply, the tasting and to his brother's house to scan some pictures from the wedding and met with our officiant(Dan Walsh) to discuss the ceremony.
After dinner and a couple of margaritas, we met up with the rest of our Comedy City friends for karoke and drinks. I'm on a karaoke roll lately. They served humoungous beers that were bigger then my head! Corey and I had told ourselves that we were leaving my midnight, because we had an early morning the next day, followed by more running around. Well, yeah, that didn't happen. We didn't even leave the bar until around 1:15am. Not good.
I was feeling it in the morning, plus we had to drive from Overland Park to Lee's Summit to meet with the photographer. I was tired, but doing ok for most of it, that is until the ride back home. I occassionally get car sick anyways, so being hung over on top of it didn't help. I felt much better after yacking at the Rittmaster house.
Luckily it helped, because we had to be presentable for the shower Corey's mom's friends threw us. It was really sweet with good food, friends and great gifts. It's an extrememly weird situation to be put in to sit in front of a bunch of people and open presents. Definately awkward, but a lot of fun.
The last appointment was after the shower. We met with the DJ, who again is great. Eddie Hall...Fast Eddie. Some of you guys know him. We finished the weekend by paking up the gifts and spending a little time with Corey's parents. Though we were tired when we left, we weren't nearly as worn out as the last time. It's such a relief to know that so much is done and it's all going to come together. Oh yeah... I also got sick on the plane. I didn't get sick ON the plane, but I hurled once we got off. I had been feeling fine for most of the day, but again I think it was the motion sickness and lack of sleep adding to it.
Alright, so lesson learned. There will be NO drinking the night before the wedding. I don't even know if we can trust going out the night before. We don't have much will power to leave the party when we're with our friends. You guys are too much fun, so what do you expect. So yeah, I blame my hangover on Nikki and Junior and Dan and Dennis and Julie and Mandy etc etc etc. Thanks a lot guys.

30 Days

Yey! Today marks 30 days till the wedding. Personally I am not nervous at all about getting married, who I'm marrying or being married. I am a little nervous though about everything running smoothly. It's not so much about that things will go wrong with the ceremony or any on the "technical" side. Something is bound to go wrong and I'm fine with that. I just don't want to have any drama the day of.
We're going back to KC tonight and so far every time we've made a trip home (especially) for planning there's been fighting, stress and crying. Quite frankly, I'm done with it. My goal is get along with everyone and get shit done. I know that it's going to be stressful, there's nothing we can do about that. It's always exhausting running around to about 87 vendors and stores, so crying on top of it just makes it worse. Come on, you guys saw the picture of us from the last trip. I really don't want to look like that walking down the aisle.
Overall I think I've been quite the trooper. I've really been cool, calm and relaxed. The only time I get upset is when people just don't listen or make it harder on me by pretty much refusing to be helpful. You're either a part of the wedding planning or you're not, you can't have it both ways. Oh yeah and the melt down I had because of the world's worst "florist" in the world. Seriously, I don't know how she sleeps at night.

I guess overall I shouldn't worry about it so much. It's always nice to see family and there will be a night of entertainment with the likes of karaoke and the likes of beer!

fine, here's MY list

Well, then here's is my list. And I provide it in vivid color. Keep in mind that these are in no particular order, plus my list changes from time to time, so this is simply what my list looks like at this very moment. - Corey


Aisha Tyler
Salma Hayek
Any semi-cute girl w/ tray of White Castles for me.
Catherine Bell
Adriana Lima