Big Break? Update!

UPDATE #2: With apologies to espn.com's Bill Simmons, for Round 2 I kept a running diary of the night's events. Here it is:

Round 2 - 6/26/06

7:00pm - We arrive at Duffy's Tavern, later than last week, so there's no tables available. I take that as a bad sign.
7:01 - We grab two seats at the bar. They have little flat-panel TV's which allow you to change the channel and watch what you want. I take this as a good sign.
7:06 - Monique discovers that her shirt is on inside-out. I take this as a bad sign.
7:12 - I have 4 baseball games and 2 World Cup soccer games to choose from on my little TV. I know this is a good sign.
7:13 - Italy and Australia are tied 0-0 in the 25th minute.
7:22 - In a moment ironic to no one attending this American Idol-wanna be program, a Taylor Hicks Ford commercial comes on the big screen.
7:24 - Getting hungry, we order some "sliders". They're White Castle-esque burgers but in size only. The meat is much more real, and they look less greasy. They're on special for $.50! We order six.
7:34 - Other contestants are milling around. One in particular walks by in 2 layers of tank-tops and a banana clip in her hair. I check my watch to see if A) it's a Swatch Watch, and B) if it's 1982.
7:41 - The music they're playing in the bar prior to the competition starting is apparently "Jock Jamz 4". I don't get it.
7:44 - They announce it's 1 minute til start! Where's my food? Twenty minutes for some mini-burgers? Really?
7:45 - We're under way. Not before the playing of a recorded Michael Buffer, who is imploring us to prepare for an apparent rumble. It's a singing competition, not Ultimate Fighting. I have to wonder if this is this really rumble-worthy. At least tonight, unlike last week, the host is going to introduce the judges. Oh, nevermind. It's a guy from some local band, and 2 others whom I can't understand due to mumbling into microphones. It was better when they went unannounced.

Singer #1 - I swear to God she is introduced as "RahRah".
Singer #2 - Some chick who sings (poorly) "I Touch Myself" by the Divinyls. I think this is a sad attempt to woo the judges, since the rules clearly state "no flashing". This is, in her mind, the next best thing.
Singer #3 - sings some song I've never heard of. It sounds like Fiona Apple, only more boring.
Singer #4 - not memorable. that's not a good thing.
Singer #5 - Sarah? I can't understand, so I'm not sure. She sings "You're No Good". Sarah, you're right.
Singer #6 - sings "Over The Rainbow". Now, doesn't she know that since this is clearly an American Idol ripoff show, everyone here has seen American Idol? Does she think she's going to do this better than McPhee did? She's not even close. Stupid choice.
Singers #7, 8, 9 - eh, not bad. Some decent ones, actually. We get our second Alicia Keyes song in just 9 attempts, that's got to be some sort of record.
Singer #10 - My "favorite". The pretentious girl from last week who sang her original song is back! Tonight this idiot is singing a song in Spanish. I can't make this up. Way to let the judges really get to know you. She's not Hispanic, trust me. I say it's in Spanish, because the few words that are in this song are in Spanish. Mostly it's a bunch of "la la la". What?
Singer #11 - A bizarre, jazzy version of "Play Misty For Me". Really? This is so strange, and ALL over the place melodically. What a strange choice.
At this point, the judges and host have to ask the bar to respect the singers and keep the talking down. It's unreal. Everyone attending is somehow connected to this singing competition, but everyone is so chatty. Rude and annoying.
Singers #12 and #13 - blah blah blah.
Singer #14 is Mo! - She sings "When I Fall In Love". It sounds great. To be honest, I think she sounds better than she did last week, but of course I'm biased.
Singer #15 - I think named Kelly. Starts off great, sounds terrific, gets too comfortable and impressed with herself, starts to "show off" at the end, oversings it, ouch this sounds horrible. Wow, it's less than 3 minutes she goes from "shoo in to the next round" to "home".

8:15 - The first break. I gotta take a leak. I walk in right behind another guy, and this dude breaks one of the cardinal rules of the men's room. There are 3 urinals in there, and they're all open for business. Well this idiot walks right up to the middle one, leaving me no choice but to use one right next to him. If there's an option, you MUST leave a free space in between. Come on, man!
8:25 - We're back. The host thanks his sound guys for, and this is a direct quote, "making the singers sound fantasmo!" Yes, he said "fantasmo". Really. I'm unfortunately too far away to throw something at him.

Singer #16 - Some guy sings a bizarre slow and low arrangement of "Walking In Memphis". The most bizarre part? He spends an inordinate amount of time before the song starts getting the microphone into the holder on the stand. The host has to help. It's borderline uncomfortable watching him struggle with such a simple task that he's turning into his own personal Rubik's Cube. OK, he finally gets it set so that....wait for it....2.5 seconds into the song he can do a dramatic pull of the mic off the stand! Are you kidding me? I struggle to stilfe an audible laugh.
Singers #17-#23 - not bad, nothing too ridiculous.
Italy and Australia still tied 0-0 in 42nd min of 2nd half. Good game going on.
Singer #24 - I don't get this guy. Are you street? Are you diva? It's sort of a "gay thug-life" thing going on. I'm confused.
Singer #25 - Megan steps up to the mic, saying with attitude that she's "gonna rock". Alright! She launches into some Black Crowes, and rocks! If by "rocks" you mean "sings quietly and not to the tune of the original", that is.
Italy has a bicycle attempt on goal in the 44th minute! Just misses! Holy crap, so close.
Singers #26-27 - nothing much going on here.
Singer #28 - dude, you're gonna sing a U2 song? Bye.
I now get to do the stare down after throwing some "shut it" comments to some annoying bitch 3 seats down from me at the bar who keeps yelling to her friends, so she can be heard over the singing. Monique has to keep me in line, but I'm getting good laughs from the people around me, so it's all good.
Singer #29 - chick sings the Theme from The Jeffersons. While holding a beer. If Mo doesn't win this thing, I want her to. I need to set her up with a single friend of mine so I can hang out with her. OK, this is getting uncomforatble.
Singer #30 - guy is very good.

Time for another break, and we take off. I just can't take 20 more of these. It's too hard to tell how Mo is going to fare. There is a lot of crap on stage tonight, but also quite a few good singers. Plus, by leaving when we did, I missed the controversial end to the Italy-Australia game. Dammit!

And apparently the bad signs outweighed the good signs from earlier in the night. Monique got "The Email". Sorry, but you're not moving on. Thanks for playing.

So, no Big Break for Mo. No flat-panel TV and elimination of credit card debt for me. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted, right?

- Corey

Happy Birthday Briette!!!!

Whoo Hoo! You're 21. Today's the day that you can finally drink alcohol. Man, I hope it was worth the wait.

Anyone reading this, tonight, toast to Brie. While you'll be having a nice, normal Wednesday evening. She'll be puking her guts out!

Sketch Show Closes

Sunday afternoon was my last performance of "Don't Quit Your Night Job". It was a sketch show that I was cast in, and I had a great time. It was a cool experience to create a sketch show almost entirely through improvisation, with a group of people that I had just met. It was a very funny show, if I do say so myself, even if it was a little long. The 7 person cast was chosen from an audition, so we had no group dynamic from which to start. Through the reheasal process we became a pretty tight-knit group, and though I enjoyed the show immensely, I'll miss hanging out with the cast the most. I'm pretty sure that I'll see some of them in another project or at the main improv hang-outs of Chicago, or just hanging out socially. I'm glad I had this opportunity to do something a little different, performance-wise, too. I've been doing strictly improv since getting to Chicago, so this was a nice change of pace. We'll see, the show may not be done forever, either. The directors are going to submit it to various venues and festivals, so we may reunite the group together again for a revisit.

- Corey

Pictures!

Big Break? Update!

UPDATE: Monique has made it to Round 2. She got the email today. Round 2 happens on Monday, June 26.

There were officially 360 contestants in Round 1, it's now down to 100 for Round 2. The odds of me getting that flat screen TV just got nearly 4 times better.

As per the rules, Round 2 works like before in that the singing is a capella and considered by the judges only. No audience voting yet. Also, contestants cannot sing the same song twice in the competition, so the search for Round 2's song has commenced. Feel free to post your suggestions in the comments here.

I'll be back with an update on Monday night or Tuesday morning. Or Tuesday afternoon. Get off my back!

- Corey

How to become popular

It's official, Comcast are dicktugs. Eventually we got fed up with their shenanigans and decided to go with DirecTV. DirecTV is the opposite of Comcast. They're not dicktugs, they're... what's the opposite of a dicktug?

Anyways, we're hoping they will be awesome, they're coming to install on Saturday. What we're most excited about: NFL Sunday Ticket baby! When the cost is broken down, it'll actually be cheaper than going a bar to watch the Chiefs play, like we used to have to do. So Sundays will be chips, beer, chili, taco soup or other delicious wintry football foods in our new awesome place with football..all..day..long.

We'll be the coolest house on the block. Finally, we'll have friends!

Big Break? Um...in what way?

Monique entered a singing contest. It's called "Bar 1's Big Break". It's basically a local American Idol type copycat. Except for a few major differences. One, there are a lot less contestants. This contest has about 400 entrants. Two, this contest is all held at a bar. With food, booze, and smoking. A perfect set up for a singing competition. Three, this contest has a grand prize of $10,000. Not a bad sum for the winner, but certainly a far-cry from the huge payoff/free car/endorsement deals/record deal/etc. that you get from winning American Idol. Four, this contest is only being held in this one location in Chicago, and not in multiple stops throughout America and televised worldwide.

Did those differences stop many people at last night's First Round of competition from acting as if this was American Idol? Of course not. Our world has become "American Idol-ized". The popularity of that show has changed the way people act at competitions, karaoke nights, open-mic's etc. Now don't get me wrong, Monique sounded great and I completely encouraged her to enter this thing. The $10k payoff is incentive alone. It's free to enter, there's nothing to lose. And if Mo makes it past the first few rounds and it starts getting serious, I have no problem changing my whole tune on this thing. (See what I did there? Change my tune. That's great.)

Last night was pretty ridiculous. They break the first rounds up into seperate days of competition. About 60 people sing each night. Last night Mo was #10. Now keep in mind, this is not karaoke. Lord no, the contestants sing a capella the first rounds. Much more difficult, but certainly seperates the haves from the have-nots. Of the 20 or so we witnessed last night, about 3 were "have's". The females way outnumbered the males in the competition. And of the men, only 2 of th 5 we saw sang songs by men. One dude sang Tracy Chapman's "Gimme One Reason (To Stay Here)". I saw no reason. Certainly not the nasal stylings reminiscent of a Junior High School production of "West Side Story". Another guy sang some Fiona Apple song. Not even a well-known one. Seriously, a big guy singing Fiona Apple. Next!

99% of the contestants fell into one of two categories. Category One was the Zero Stage Presence group. It was like I was attending "Zombie Idol". Just stand there and sing. Don't smile. Don't engage your audience. And for the love of everything holy, don't move! Category Two was the I'm Taking This Thing Way Too Seriously group. These people were acting as if this thing was televised, that the judges were celebrities (who, by the way could have been. I'll never know. There were three - a la American Idol, with 1 female judge between 2 male ones - sitting with their backs to the crowd, and were NEVER INTRODUCED. And their credentials for being the judges are...?) , and that this was the most important thing they had ever done. People, it's ROUND ONE! Even if you make it through, there are like 5 more rounds to go! You don't need to bring your whole family tonight. There's no audience voting yet. You didn't get SELECTED to perform tonight...you SIGNED UP! So your friends can stop holding back the tears of pride and enough with the overdramatic hugs once you've finished your poor rendition of a boring Sarah McLachlan song. And please, girl who sang her hello's to the judges, you're not on TV. There are no record producers here, certainly not tonight, one of several Round 1 nights. So singing your original song that you wrote a few weeks ago was not impressive, it only came off as pretentious and smug. For that crap alone you should be eliminated. Thankfully, Monique has been on stage enough to know to just have fun and not take things too seriously. After all, this is really just good audition practice, especially if you have the right attitude going into it.

Speaking of no record producers there, why is this competition called "Big Break"? Read the contest info. The winner gets cash. A nice chunk of cheese, sure, but how is that considered a "Big Break"? There's not promise of a recording contract or of radio play or even a meeting with a producer or anything. It should be called "Chicago Idol" or "Big Money Sing-Off" or "10 Grand Talent Show". Maybe a name that's a little less misleading, no?

That said, I'm obviously biased, and I make no bones about that, but Monique did great. She sang "Killing Me Softly" in the style of The Fugees. She was smiling and warm and got the crowd into it with the "one time, one time" stuff. It was fun to watch. She finds out if she made it to Round 2 on Thursday or Friday. I'll keep you posted. If she makes it to the rounds where audience voting starts happening, you'll definitely know so you can come help. At that point, it's like the real American Idol and it's just a popularity contest. However, that close to $10,000 and this becomes the most important contest ever.

- Corey

Elvis hasn't left the building!

Work is finally getting done around our place. We found out that our neighbors were having just as many problems with getting work done around their condo as we were. Mostly they were small things like getting a key to the main door, or lights in the foyer, but there were some bigger issues as well. Things escalated and got to the point that we all had to call our lawyers... really it was a precaution more than anything, just to make sure we were covering all our bases. Well what do you know? That must of scared them enough. Next thing we know, we're given a new contact name..
Elvis! Yes, really. In fact, that's how he introduces himself, "Hi, my name is Elvis, yes really." Turns out he's the builder's son. All of the sudden things are getting done. Within 1/2 a day, we got a key to the front door, our shower door is being installed on Wednesday, the cable's ready to go and we have a light in the hallway. Maybe when they start working on the landscaping, they'll bring in John Wyane.

On another good note, I realized how much I love this blog! A few months back, our computer crashed. We lost everything, most upsettingly, our pictures. I didn't even think of it until now, but I went back through the archives and saved a bunch of pictures from here back on to my computer. I'm so happy that I didn't lose all the pictures from Vegas or of KC visits, parties or other any of the other stupid pointless stuff I like to take pictures of.

-Mo

You're welcome to stay too!

Just like when we first moved to Chicago, Dan Walsh was our first out of town guest in our new place . On Monday he was in town on business, so unfortunately it was a short visit. A couple of beers and off to bed. At least we got to enjoy some time with him. I had already left for work, before they got up, but I'm sure he enjoyed a nutritious breakfast with Corey.
I love having guests! Even if it meant them seeing me with bedhead. Who's next?

Take A "Brake" For Some Education

My brake pads were starting to wear out yesterday. They were making that squealing sound that lets you know, but you forget that they're supposed to do that, and instead you freak out a little that your car has suddenly turned against you and major problems, equalling a major pricetag, await.

So Mo and I take the car to the service station a block from home, and for probably the first time ever, I'm able to pull right up and into the garage. The mechanic gets the car up on the rack, takes a quick look, and tells me (through his thick Greek accent) that it's just the brake pads. He then informs me that he can replace them but he'd have to order the parts, meaning leaving the car there for a day or two, inconvenient but taken care of, etc. OR I could just walk the 4 blocks up the street to an auto parts store, buy the brake pads myself and bring them back and he would install them that night. Yes, you read that correctly. A mechanic was suggesting a way I could get my car fixed, for less money, and sooner. A mechanic!

So that's what we do. Four blocks up to the parts store. $18 for brake pads. Four blocks back. It's about 7pm at this point, and Nako (the Greek mechanic) tells me he'll take care of it, "give me 30 minutes" he says. I told him there's not a huge rush, we're hungry and want to grab some dinner, so I ask about the 9pm closing time which is on their sign. "Give me 30 minutes!" he yells back in his Greek accent. OK, off to dinner.

We come back well fed, and Nako hands us the bill for the labor, we thank him and go inside to pay. Inside is where we get our educational lesson for the day. I ask the cashier guy about our mechanic, how to pronounce his name, etc. The guy says in a scruffy voice "Oh yeah, that's Nako (pronounced nay-ko) he's my best guy. He's from Mastadonia, you know". I say, "Really, Macedonia?" trying to subtly correct the guy. He doesn't hear me. He follows with this gem: "Yeah, you know why it's called Mastadonia? It's because of the mastadons, those prehistoric elephants, like mammoths? They're called mastadons because that's where they're from -- Mastadonia."

Of course they are.

I Want My MTV!

We found out this weekend that Comcast won't be able to hook up our cable until at least the end of July. End of July? That's ridickle-dackle! Given their track record on timeliness and promise keeping, this means we can safely estimate that we'll be able to watch TV just in time for "A Charlie Brown Christmas."

We could read, but all that the gossip magazines talk about is what's going on in the entertainment world which I've been deprived of for over 2 weeks now. I could try a book or newspapers, but too many words. We could play a game, but come on isn't that what we're already doing in this thing called marriage? We could go outside and enjoy the sunshine, but I try to reserve that strictly for when I'm forced to, such as walking to the El for work or when I lock myself out of the house.

Now we're stuck TALKING to each other. Ugghhh. I didn't plan on doing that until we were in our 80's and the conversation would be centered around stool-softeners, the rising price of bread and "those damn neighborhood kids!"

Comcast can suck it.

Happy Birthday Emily!

Though her b-day isn't technically until later this week, the celebration was Saturday. Karaokee at The Brickhouse! Man, I do a mean rendition of "Hello" by Lionel Richie, complete with choreography.
Aww, Em as you turn 23, your wisdom and maturity continues to blossom. Take for example the other night. Emily, Amy and I had girls night. I was coloring their hair when we decided that we NEEDED some wine. Since I was still working on Amy's hair, Em was elected to make the wine run/bike. She didn't want to embarrass herself by going to the store with foil in her hair, so she figured this look with a towel would be better. The Curious George bookbag was so she'd have something to carry the wine back in. It's the only bookbag I had around (that's not true I have another more normal bag, but don't tell her... this was funnier). The best part was her trying to explain to the barely English speaking clerk at the liquor store that she didn't have cancer. "I'm dyeing my hair."... "Oh - you die - you have cancer?"... "No, it's hair dye! Hair dye!"

I love new stuff!

This weekend was jam packed with running around, plus the sketch show Corey is in opens in 4 days. This is the stage where it seems like the show will never come together, you're exhausted, sick of everyone around you and ready for it to be over. Not that he's complained to me, that's just the way any scripted show goes. We moved last Sunday and pretty much said goodbye to each other until Saturday. He's had rehearsal every night until 10pm or later. Since Saturday was our only day off together, we got as much done as possible. We ran all over town, spending money on stuff for the home, including another closet system from The Container Store for the pantry. Man, that place is awesome. I don't know why organizing makes me so excited, but I could spend all day in that store.
The fun "toy" that I'm the most excited about is my new salon chair. What a strange coincidence that my friend Emily happened to have an old barbers chair that she found in a dumpster outside her apartment. She needed a vacuum, I had a vacuum and so once again the barter system prevailed. It's pretty awesome in my "salon" room. I'd post a picture, but we still don't have internet at home.
Emily also sold me a bike. I've been wanting one for quite a while now. She gave me a great deal. It's practically new, came with a ton of add-on's, a lock and a helmet. I went on my first ride last night to Blockbuster. You know riding a bike really is just like riding a bike! I haven't been on one for years and somehow it was second nature to me. What isn't second nature to me is riding on the scary-ass streets of Chicago. Since you can't ride on the sidewalk, you have to share a lane with cars that just zoom past you and don't leave you much room. I tried to be a good biker and follow all the rules. I just couldn't remember my hand signals for turning. I tried to remember back to the Berenstein Bears book where Papa Bear taught Brother Bear the correct way to ride, but alas it's been too long and the only thing I remembered was how Papa Bear rode on the wrong side of the street and ended up in a tree.

Moving, Corey and Monique style

Corey and I have a good life. We've been blessed with good family and friends, a happy marriage, we laugh alot, love living in this city and generally enjoy life. Of course we're also us, which means bad luck follows us. I'm not being ungrateful, but man stupid stuff just follows us.

So... we've moved into our condo this weekend. Of course it didn't just happen easily. First we had some issues with the developers not telling us about changes in our place, such as putting up drywall over the bottom quarter of our brick wall in the living room. After going round and round with them, we were able to settle on things and were ready to close and move in on Friday.
We did the walk through and put together a "punch list." This is a list of small items such as touching up paint or cleaning up the brick. They have 30 days from closing to complete this. We put together the list and planned to start moving little things like clothes on Friday night. The truck was rented and our friends were ready to help with the big move on Saturday morning. Well, during the walk thru, the contractor and realtor told us that we couldn't move in on Saturday because they had to put the finish on the hardwood floors. This takes "6-8, maybe 10 hours to dry." This was frustrating because I had literally called the realtor every week for the last month or so to make sure the place would be ready in time. I told her that we could push the move date back if needed, but I just needed to know ahead of time. She reassured me that everything would be good to go by Fri, May 26th. Of course it wasn't, so we scramble to get the moving truck on Sunday instead and made sure that our crew was still willing and able to help out a day later.
Since the floors were supposed to be dry by Saturday night, we decided to get some light moving done that night. We show up to the condo 10 hours after the floor finish was put on and it still wasn't dry. Annoyed, we went back home, finally Sunday morning it was dry.... we thought. I walk into the bedroom to start hanging up a closet system we bought and felt stickiness under my feet. That's right, ruined the floor right off the git go. Luckily the rest of the place was dry, they'll just have to come back and touch up that room, because I'm not paying to fix it.
Next up was the actual move. Chicago seems to be having an unusually chilli season this year, except of course for Sunday. It was the hottest day of the year. Going up and down three flights of stairs to move out of the old apartment in the hot sticky weather was miserable. Tyler claims it was the worst day of his entire life.
Still, we got everything out and everyone is still alive. At least the new place is airconditioned - WRONG! Not yet at least. Nice of the builders to tell us that our A/C wouldn't be in right way. Supposedly it's going to be running this week. Until then, Corey and I have been sleep on the couches because the living room is the only room with a fan. This fan/light is turned on and off by remote control. Pretty cool, except that we're apparently on the same frequency as our upstairs neighbor. So, if they turn their lights off, ours go off too and visa versa. At 7pm last night they turned their lights off. I could only play tug of war with the lights for so long before I had to give up and unpack in the dark.
To me, these types of issues don't seem like "punch list" items. They're items that should be listed as "we need to complete these before we tell Corey and Monique that the condo is ready to be moved into" items. It'd be nice to have cable or for the hallway lights not to be connected to the outdoor light so that it would work in the daytime and not just the night like it does now. Also, on that "ready to move in" list I'd include a deadbolt that works or a shower door. Hey, maybe I'm being picky. This is the first time I've bought a home, so what do I know. Maybe homeowners don't need a toilet seat. Geez!

Wasted time

Two weeks to go till we move into the new place. Much of our efforts have been concentrated on looking for creative ways to utilize the little storage we'll have in the new place. This is the perfect job for Ikea. That's if we can find it. Effing Yahoo Maps doesn't know what it's talking about. Last night we wasted the whole evening looking for the damn place. We were coming from a different direction than normal and according to our directions we just needed to follow a single road all the way to Ikea. Seemed simple. That was until the road that was supposed to lead us directly to the store just stopped. We drove, drove, drove and then no more. Then when I tried calling the store to ask for directions, I waited on hold for 15 minutes and when I finally talked to someone, they said they didn't have directions from where I was. Last night was just a huge waste of time. I wouldn't mind so much, but with Corey gone so much with his rehearsals lately, we have to take advantage of any extra time he's off. This was one of the only chances we'd have this week to get the organization stuff we needed.

Oh well. Besides this little glitch, things are going well so far. The big "Ravenswood Manor" garage sale is on Sunday. Those of you in Chicago should come over and buy some of my crap from me. I never realized until this move that I'm quite the pack rat. I had no clue. I've changed my ways though. Every week, I throw out or give away bags and bags of junk that others may need, but after keeping it around for 2 years and never using whatever the item is, I've finally realized it's time to let go.

Yeah, last night was wasted in some ways, but at least we got some much needed business out of the way. On our endless search for the Swedish wonder that is Ikea, we debated over a very important topic. "Which is the more disgusting phrase? Among a few of the options... 'Gas coming out of my butthole,' 'Gas coming out of my sphincter,' 'Gas coming out of my ass?' " I voted on the first. Seriously, Corey is really lucky to be married to such a sophisticated, classy woman and I have never met a more gentlemanly man than him. Keep your jealously aside people. I know it's hard, but try to resist.

-Mo

Zzzzz

I finally made the jump and decided to try Ambien, the sleep medication. I've been sleeping horribly at night, tossing and turning and waking up every few hours starting at (almost to the minute) 2:00am. I was and still am a little nervous to take sleep aides, because I already talk in my sleep and sometimes walk in my sleep. I hear Ambien can make you do crazy stuff, especially if you're predisposed to doing stuff in your sleep. I'm desperate though, I have to get some sleep.
Last night I took my first pill. Unfortunately it was at about 7 hours before I needed to wake up, not the recommended 8 hours of sleep. Now I understand why they say that, because I woke up an hour late. At least I didn't wake up all through out the night like usual, still I don't feel rested. Maybe it was because I jolted out of bed panicking this morning. Tonight I'll take it even ealier and hopefully all will go well. Maybe the meds will make be do something crazy in my sleep, like pack up the apartment. That'd be nice, just get it all done while sleeping. You know me, I like to multi-task.

-Mo

$20,000

The Billy Brimblecom Benefit was this past weekend, on Saturday April 29. At the risk of sounding immodest, I'm calling it a resounding success. The night so completely exceeded my expectations, I can't begin to explain. The short version: Monique and I talked on the plane to KC and were of the opinion that if we pulled in $8,000 - $10,000 it would be a huge deal. What an enormous help to Billy and his family if we could bring in that kind of money.

Then Saturday came, and it all began to roll in. First in the afternoon we get word that the shows were selling out. Then people arrived and start buying raffle tickets and bidding on auction items, and the thing just becomes this unstoppable force! It keeps rolling on until by the end of the night we've tallied somewhere in the $19,000-$20,000 range. Re-read that last sentence. I'll wait. Yeah, exactly.

There were so many great stories from the weekend. Here's just a sampling:

• Like the friend of ours who I booked to do a teambuilding workshop a month or so ago. He calls and says "Remember that check you gave me for the workshop? I'm tearing it up. Put it in the Billy fund."
  
• We did a huge media blitz before the show. The Friday, April 28th cover story on Billy in the Lawrence Journal-World. Great article, you should read it.
  Jason and I are at Mix 93.3 on Friday morning promoting the show, and "Rocket" the morning DJ guy, gave us a CD of "Popo Zao" that was actually autographed by Kevin Federline. We then raffle that off at the show. Hilarious.
  
• Jason has one of my favorite lines of the weekend. He, Billy and I are at 98.9 The Rock promoting the benefit on Johnny Dare's morning show. Johnny was terrific, really interested in Billy's new leg, which is very high tech looking, with a clear shell part. The boys start talking about ways to decorate that and Johnny recommends filling it with water and goldfish. Billy mentions skittles. Jason says "Fill it in like a rainstick. Then people will be all 'Is it raining? No, it's just Billy doing crunches.'"
  
• Some amazingly generous people came to the show and bid on the auction items. We sold nearly everything! The auction itself accounted for about $10,000! It was helped by the brother and sister who got into a bidding war over the 2 tickets to next season's SNL Season Premiere. The sister won out in the end with a bid of $2200. So the brother tells Jason that if he can hook him up with 2 more tickets, he'll match his sister's bid. Done.
  
• My friend Ryan Dolan procured 4 VIP tickets to a taping of an episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. We live auctioned them from the stage. The bidding started at around $250, but quickly grew to $500. Then it ramped up past $600, then $700, then $800. I thought it was going to end up there, a nice sum certainly when a bidder finally yells out "$900!". Everyone cheers, there's a pause, and the same guy yells again "ONE THOUSAND!" I yell , "Sold!" and we get a cool grand by the man who outbid himself.
  
• Billy had probably the best idea which came to life at the benefit show. A few months back, Jason did a bit on SNL called "The Young Chuck Norris". It was one of those SNL Digital Shorts, and it was a video for a song. Jason played a character named Doug Brogar, the prototypical classic rocker with ripped jeans, long hair, American flag bandana, fingerless gloves, etc. It's a funny song which you can view here. So Billy has Jason email him an mp3 of the song a few weeks before the benefit so the band can learn it. And at the show, Blackpool Lights closes out their set by inviting Doug Brogar and his backup singers, The Liberty Belles, to the stage. Jason, accompanied by his wife Kay, Billy's girlfriend Ali, and Monique sing the Young Chuck Norris song, in full wig and costume. It was incredible! Here's a picture from the rehearsal:

I could go on and on. Suffice to say, the band sounded amazing, the comedy was hilarious, and everyone had a great time. We sold over 40 items in the auction and raffled off another 25 or so prizes. Along with donations that came in before the show, the overall amount raised for Billy is around $32,000 or so. And that number is growing. The website is still up, and online donations can still be made there. Though we've got enough to pay for Billy's prosthetic leg, there is still the enormous debt accumulated from a year of chemotherapy and surgery and hospital stays, etc. So feel free to keep donating!


Thanks again to everyone who volunteered, donated prizes, came to the show, performed in the show, bought tickets, promoted the event, bid on auction items, maintained the website, and overall gave of their time and effort and money to make an unforgettable night go from a crazy idea to a beyond-our-wildest-dreams reality.

- Corey

P.S. - More pictures from the event are coming soon!

Zombies

I don't know what our deal has been lately. Sunday night, Corey dealt with horrible insomnia and only got a couple of hours of sleep. Last night I had trouble sleeping. I tossed and turned all night long. Mostly I just kept getting uncomfortable or had aches and pains that would wake me up. I took a pain killer before bed, but that wasn't working, so I ended up taking some Tylenol PM. I still woke up several times during the night, but at least I got a little bit of sleep. The other problem was that you're supposed to take the Tylenol PM when you can get 8 full hours of sleep. I took it around midnight, which meant at 6:15am when I was supposed to get up, according to Tylenol, I still had 1 1/2 hours to go. I finally got out of bed around 7am. I still made it to work on time, but I was definitely a zombie for a while.

The other strange thing about today is that it's almost May, yet I had to break the winter coat back out. It's pretty cold today. I looked out the window an hour ago and there was snow coming down. It's pretty much stopped now, but man it makes you wonder what we're doing to our environment to make the weather act so crazy.

Yesterday I was harassed by a toothless thug wanna be on the "EL." He saw my Harley shirt and kept asking if I could get him one. I tried to explain that I didn't sell the shirts, but he was convinced that I had a closet full of them and could get him one. He even offered to pay extra for one. Luckily a friend of mine happened to be on the train with me at the same time. I'd answer his question and then turn away from him to face my friend and talk to her. I even put my hand up in front of my face to shield him away and give off obvious body language that I didn't want to talk to him, but he kept bugging me. After the guy wouldn't catch on, I had to be rude... well more like blunt with him. Eventually I said, "I don't know! Look, I'm talking to my friend here" and I turned back to her and finally he left me alone.

Creepy El ride, creepy sleeping, creepy weather!

-Mo

Help My Creative Friends

We are fortunate enough to have some really creative and talented friends. A couple of them are currently taking part in contests, and you can vote for them!

First is Clay Morgan's commercial. Clay is an actor, improviser, media magnate and aspiring filmmaker. He has entered a contest to create a TV commercial for 98.9 The Rock, a radio station in Kansas City. The winner of this contest wins a huge grand prize of $20,000. To vote for Clay's entry, go here to the 98.9 website. There are over 300 entries, so don't waste your time going through them all, just vote for #66.

Next is Dan Telfer's shirt design. Dan is also an actor and improviser. He's also an amazing graphic designer. He designed one of the Billy Brimblecom Benefit posters you've probably seen around town. He has submitted a design for a shirt and you can vote by going here, and voting his design a "5". The winner gets a nice $2000 paycheck. You may have to register, but it's free and by now you probably have a junk mail email account at a free site like hotmail or yahoo for things just like this. If you don't, now's a good time to start that.

Thanks for your support.

Not much exciting (which is exciting)

Not much new to report. So far everything is still going smoothly with the condo. We should be officially locked in by Thursday. In the meantime, we've kicked into major savings mode. You don't realize how much money you waste with going out, ordering in and just not paying attention to your checkbook. Not that we were throwing our millions of dollars around or anything, but by being a little more careful, we're able to save a lot. For example, I've learned that I love Aldi's. There I said it. We spent almost 1/2 of what we'd normally spend at the normal grocery store on food that was just as good. Plus, we stopped by a little local Mexican grocery store in our neighborhood and bought green peppers, carrots, apples, pears and deli cheese and only spent $8. $8!!! Awesomeness! Plus, since it's relatively close to our apartment and the weather's been nice, we've been walking there for added exercise.
It's been nice that for the first time in 2 years, I'm not crazy busy. I'm still dealing with back pain, which leads to hand and arm pain as well as my hip and leg. I'm in physical therapy again, so that's helping and I'm trying to stay relaxed and get more sleep than normal. It's the first time in my entire life that I've made sleep a priority. I don't always get to bed as early as I should, but at least the effort's there.
The timing of not being as busy has worked out so that we can spend more time working on Billy's Benefit, which is going to be an awesome night. So many people have stepped up to help him out. It really shows what a great person he is. I'm really looking forward to my trip home, not just for the event, but to see my family, friends, the nieces and my sister who is coming in town from NJ. Hope I get to see all you KC folks out there.

-Mo

Do you have hair on your back?

Last night Corey and I did a show with another girl for a group of middle school boys and their dads. We didn't do this show in association with any theater. Another improviser had a friend who did stand-up and was looking for a 20 minute improv act to go along with him. The original improviser had to work and couldn't do it. She started asking around and the word got passed along to us. We figured it'd be a good way to make a quick buck.
I'd have to say that last night was one of the weirdest shows I've ever been a part of. Let me start from the beginning... We were told to show up at ___ address at 7:30pm, that the show started at 7:45pm and we'd go on for about 20 minutes, maybe a little more if we wanted to and something about highschoolers. The weirdness started when we got there. The so called address wasn't listed on the building. The problem was that there were two schools next to each other, neither with numbers on them. We were about 30-40 minutes early, but wanted to make sure we were at the right place. I called the stand up guy (who had never contacted me the night before with details like he was supposed to) and said, "We're here, which building is it." His answer was, "I don't know. It's the one assigned to the address I gave you." No shit... thanks for pointing out the obvious.
Eventually the stand up met up with us. However, he didn't introduce himself and explain what the order of the night was going to be, or why these kids were here... nothing. He didn't communicate with us at all. He just hurriedly shook our hand and started walking towards the building. He offered to pay us a little more if we performed for 30 minutes and said we should pay attention to what the kids were talking about. Now mind you, at this point we still have to meet up with our 3rd player to figure out the line up and we still don't' know when we're going on.
At this point, we peek into the gym where there are about 50 boys and their fathers to get a sense of what kind of group this is. I hear the speaker asking questions like, "Do you have hair under your armpits yet?" and "How many of you have had a wet dream?" It was a sex-ed class! Apparently these boys were all 5th graders about to go into middle school and were having a sex-ed class with their dads to prepare for the new school. Nothing wrong with that. In fact, I encourage the openness. What was awkward is that we weren't told anything about it and here's two girls (me and the other improviser) awkwardly standing there as the poor embarrassed boys have to be asked about theirs and their dad's first erections.
The stand up dude kept telling us to make sure we incorporate what they were talking about into our show. I don't think he understood what we did, because it would be highly inappropriate to act out some of the subjects they were discussing... be it men or women improvisers. After he did his act (which was just him standing up there saying, "wow, you guys just had some awkward talks with your dads... ha ha. I had a wet dream once, when I slept in the bed with my grandpa. ha ha. It's good to be open about this stuff... ha ha") Then he introduced us. This was finally the point when he communicated to us, not before the show... right then and now we found out... um okay I guess we're on.
We ended up just playing 5 games and kept it themed to school, not sex. They actually really loved it and were an easy crowd to play for. In the end, we even got a little bonus money. Next time though, I'd send in 3 guys to improvise and I'd give them a heads up about what to expect.

It's ours, All ours!

Whooo Hooo!!!!

We're buying a condo. I'm freaking out, excited, scared, thrilled and happy all at once.
Since we're on a month to month lease in our apartment, we started checking out bigger apartments to move to a couple of months ago. We just felt like it was time to upgrade. Never did we think we'd be able to afford to buy a place in Chicago, let alone a place in our neighborhood. We were stunned and excited that there was a two bedroom condo in our price range just six blocks away from where we live now. It was too good of a deal to pass up. It's just a block and a half from our cousin Anne. It's a gut rehab, so everything is brand new, it's an older sturdy building but everything is very modern and we fell in love with it immediately. As long as this 5-day attorney period goes as planned, we'll close on May 26th. This is such an adult step!
It's not a ton bigger than our place now, but the kitchen and bathroom are huge upgrades. Plus we'll have a dishwasher and washer and dryer. And most importantly, it'll be ours. It'll be a great investment.
Here are some pictures of the model condo (the one directly above ours)....

The kitchen - The sink is in the right corner, it’s missing the faucet at the moment, but it’s the kind with the extending hose nozzle thingy.

Here's the bathroom, again the faucet isn't in yet, but you can see it
it's the kind with the above counter sink (which I love!). You can see the tub/shower. What you can’t see is that to the left out of frame is just a shower stall. There are two showers in this bathroom, and much more space than this picture shows.

Another view of the awesome kitchen - and Oh My God - Counters!
This last one is of the living room (love the exposed brick!) Since we'll be in the garden unit, instead of a door to the porch, we'll have french doors opening to an extra little room where I'll probably do hair.

Now with the 2nd room, there's no excuse for you people not to visit.

-Mo

Team Building

In about 10 minutes I will be doing a bunch of improv warm-ups and games at Harley. Joey Greene is in town today from Michigan to run a Team Building Workshop for the admin. group at my company.
Our group has had some issues with getting along, communicating etc. When HR wanted to do some team building exercises or something to help out, I figured that rather than let the business go to someone else, we could do it. Obviously I couldn't run the workshop from the inside and besides not being able to take off work it would be a little strange to have Corey do it. So... in stepped Joey.
To be honest, I'm a little nervous. I'm sure it's going to be fine, I definitely trust Joey. It's just always weird when you bring in the talent, show or whatever. Everyone will turn on you if they don't enjoy it. It's a weird mix of women, especially the oldest two, who are the ones that caused problems in the first place. There are definitely other people I'd rather spend 2 hours with. Oh well, it's not a bad way to spend your work morning and it'll be fun. The goal is for us to have a good time, not talk about any issues or anything weird. Plus we get free lunch!
Hopefully this will lead to other opportunities to do workshops either in my company or branch out to others.

-Mo

Things that irk me

* People walking down the left side of the sidewalk, not the right. - Don't crowd my side, I gots somewhere to go!

* People walking up the middle of the stairs (especially getting to the El) - You can't move past them and are forced to walk up all slow ass like and miss your train.

* People talking loudly on their cell on the El. - Dude, I don't need to know your business. Well, unless of course it's funny or dumb enough that it would make a good story or sketch.

* $1200 Handbags - Really, is it that good? Come on!

* Rude waiters - It's not that hard. Even if you're super busy, just tell me you'll be with me in a few. I'll understand

* Parents that let their kids run around with snot on their face. - Must I explain?

-Mo

The Game of Life

This weekend was a strange mix of fun and pain.

Corey's Aunt Judy and cousins Margo (age 9) and Sarah (age 11) came in town for a visit. We had such a good time with them. Aunt Judy spoiled us by taking us out to eat at great restaurants and the kids were very excited to see us and a lot of fun to hang out with. The girls stayed the night with us on Friday. They played The Simpson's Game of Life, which is a hilarious game and even more fun when you watch two little girls play. They were very serious about buying home owners insurance, collecting their salaries and being little grownups. They had a blast! The adults on the other hand (Aunt Judy and Anne - the girl's aunt, Corey and I) went through a more painful ordeal as we watch the Jayhawks play like crap in the tournament. I must say, I'm very proud of Corey. This was the first game I've ever seen him watch his language, especially in a game where we lost because of being so piss poor. He didn't have to make the girls put on "earmuffs" once.

I was in double pain because my back is hurting me again. I've been dealing with it for almost a year and a half, along with other issues, and still don't know what's wrong. I'm continuing to see doctors about it and it looks like we may have an answer which equals treatment (more on that another time).

Also, partially because of the back issue, I have resigned from one of my improv groups. I was a member of pH for a year. I love the show and adore the people, but the 11pm and 12:30am shows were getting to be too much to handle. I'm sad that I won't get to hang with this group on a regular basis, but I also know I did the right thing. I've learned that I have to put my health first and that means getting enough sleep as well as regulating my stress levels.

I'm actually looking forward to having some down time in my life again. Though I'll continue to build my hair biz, I'll also just enjoy having a Tuesday night to lay around and watch TV or a Friday night to hang out with friends. I feel like I hit the ground running when I moved here and now it's time to stop and catch my breath. I know it won't stay this way for too long, but as long as my body tells me to slow down, I'm going to listen to it.

-Mo

200 Sammiches!

This weekend, Dan came into town. He was the first overnight guest we've had since getting the new couch. Yay! More comfortable for him.
Anyways, he was in town for a home and housewares tradeshow for his company, which manufacturers and sells footstools. It's a buyers only show, not for consumers, but since we helped set up the booth we not only got a nice dinner courtesy of Dan's company, but we also got passes to the convention. Corey and I had a blast. It was at the McCormick Center, which is HUGE. There was no way we'd get to see everything, so we stuck to the important parts, mainly the food items. Basically everyone is trying to get other companies to carry their products. In the beginning, as we walked up and down the isles, we tried to be nonchalant about the food samples they were handing out. I even tried to act like I was interested in purchasing for "my company." After checking out stuff for a couple of hours we got to watch the big demos with Alton Brown and then a little later, Mario Batali from the Food Network. If you're at all a fan of the Food Network, you'll know that Alton Brown is pretty entertaining. He teaches in a fun way, while cooking, sort of the Bill Nye of the food world. Needless to say, he was definitely the more entertaining one of the two.

After the demos we decided to go back and say goodbye to Dan, who was working at his booth. Well, we got distracted, because now it was around lunch time and there were even more samples given out. Screw being nonchalant this time. We walked up and down the aisles trying dips, spreads, candies, cookies, popcorn, beer, lemonade, even a grilled ham and cheese sammich. We didn't even bother pretending like we belong. "We're just here for the samples." This time was a lot less awkward trying the samples, since there were a lot more people there. It was like Wholefoods on steroids.

We even got a couple of give aways to take home. Corniest - the fake rose made out of feathers (I gave it to a little girl). Most Nostalgic - A crazy straw. Yummiest - A package of awesome Hawaiian beef jerky. Coolest life changing - a toaster bag. Ok, not life changing, but still cool. It's a little baggy made out of the same material as the McDonald's conveyer belts. You can put anything from a sammich, to pizza, bagels, tortillas...anything really in the bag and then put it in the toaster. This way all the crumbs fall in the bag, not your toaster. You can make a ham and cheese sammich in the toaster! Are you kidding me? That's awesome! We got 2 bags to take home, each with up to 100 uses. That's 200 sammiches!

Spreading the awesomeness

A good friend of ours, Nick Wagner is an aspiring filmmaker (among many other talents). You have to check these out. Vidiocy is a contest created by Jason Chin and Jeff Griggs of Chicago's IO to challenge themselves and their friends with video equipment. Anyone can sign up. The contestants are given randomly chosen titles and 30 day deadline. "Vidiocy challenges both professional and amateur videographers to create touching, hilarious, and sometimes outrageous 10-minute movies!"
I got these from Nick's website www.veryclever.org. I'm assuming he'll continue to update it with new films as he continues to create them (including one that Corey had a small part in). Enjoy and feel free to pass them along!

(Be patient, it might take a couple minutes for them to download, but it's worth it)

Free For All
2nd Place, Vidiocy 6
A Film by Adam Portilla, Nick Wagner, Chris Rathjen, Carroll Cottingham, and Jeremy Blodgett

In the Sheets
1st Place, Vidiocy 9
A Film by Jeremy Blodgett, Adam Portilla, Chris Rathjen, and Nick Wagner

Could be worse

I am doing absolutely nothing at work today. It's really shameful that I'm getting paid to play on the internet. Fortunately it's not always like this. That'd get boring after a while. There are a couple of things I'm putting off, but otherwise I've just been super organized and gotten ahead.
I know this is boring, but that's my day so far. BORING. I've already surfed all the Oscar stories online. Every movie star has been adequately judged - thank you.

My back is also acting up again. It's been over a year and a half since I first started having pains. For the most part, especially since I've moved to a different desk, I've been back to normal. Once in a while though it'll flare up. I don't know if it's my bed, my desk or what, but it sucks. It scared me because they say that once you have a major back issue, you'll have to deal with it for the rest of your life. Great!
It could be worse though. Last night we watched "Miracle Workers" on ABC. It's a show about people with debilitating physical ailments. The Doctors on the show come in and perform various miracle surgeries that the people could never afford otherwise. The medical staff's interviews were a bit overdramatic, but otherwise it was a good show. I placed my bet at 15 minutes for Corey's first tear to fall, but since the stories weren't specifically about kids, he didn't' cry until the end.

They followed two stories. The first was about a woman with horrible back pain. She had already had five surgeries, but nothing worked. The cartilage between her spinal disks had disinegrated. Her spine was just bone crushing bone. Thank God, my back isn't that serious. I can't even imagine. She had to be in a wheelchair just to get around and would likely eventually be paralyzed. In the end, the new technology they used cushioned her spine and took away her pain and she was able to lead a normal, healthy life.
I actually first teared up at 16 minutes. It was because of the second story about a man who had been blind for 22 years, since he was 11. He had never seen his wife or three children. His sister offered to be the live donor of eye tissue stem cells. She risked her own eye sight so that her brother could see. - TEAR- When they were able to restore his sight, it was amazing to watch him light up as he saw his daughters dimples for the first time or his sons blue eyes. - TEAR - He was like a little kid, lighting up when he saw the ocean and all the amazing new things he was able to see. -TEAR- It was really sweet. Anything involving kids and family and it's gonna make you cry. We're sucked into the series now, so Monday nights will be rough in our house. If you call, expect a sniffling voice to answer the phone.

What a dumb ass!

If someone were to squirt me with water, my reaction might be to chase that person and tackle them, squirt them back, maybe even get them back with an equally harmless practical joke later when they weren't expecting it.

It would not be to THROW SCISSORS at the guy.

Click here for video (warning, it may be a little slow to load, but it's worth it)

I think this is hilarious. What a dumb ass.
Possibly the best part to me is the "squirt guy's" reaction.

The Good, Really Good and What were we thinking?

I don't know what my deal is lately, but I'm a movie watchin' fiend, which is pretty rare for me as I never rent or go see movies anymore. Lately I've watched very inspirational and luckily excellent Indy films. The latest one was "Millions." "Starting anew after the death of their mother, 9-year-old Anthony is ever practical, while his 7-year-old brother Damian uses imagination, fantasy, and faith to make sense of his confusing world. When a suitcase full of money falls out of the sky at Damian's feet, it sets the boys on the adventure of a lifetime that leads them to realize that true wealth has nothing to do with money." It was a great story and was really funny. The cinemetography was especially impressive and the little boys are adorable. - Highly recommended!

Then, this weekend, Corey and I rented "Murderball." "A film about quadriplegics who play full-contact rugby in Mad Max-style wheelchairs - overcoming unimaginable obstacles to compete in the Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece." Again, it was extremely inspiring, funny and overall really well done documentary.

Though both of these movies seem like they could be sad "poor him" type of movies, they were quite the opposite. Murderball showed the real side of these disabled guys. They didn't feel sorry for themselves, they just wanted to play this sport. And man, it's a tough, violent, awesome game. I'd love to be in the stands one day. When the athletes were approached about their lives being documented, the only stipulation they had was that they didn't want this to be a sob story. They said, "just make us look cool." Mission accomplished, and man do these guys score some hot women. Plus, they all have a great sense of humor about their disabilities. Again - highly recommended!

One movie I would not recommend is "Video Voyeur - The Susan Wilson Story." It's a made for TV movie that we got stuck watching last night. Around midnight last night we got hooked on the horribly bad acting by star Angie Harmon and a bunch of unknown actors. True to the nature of this type of movie, it's an overly dramatic, poorly written story based on the true story of one woman's fight to bring justice into the world by changing the law about people secretly video taping others in the privacy of their own homes without consent. We started watching it because it was so bad it was hilarious and though it never got any better, we couldn't turn it off. We just had to see the end, even though it meant staying up past 1:30am. Needless to say, I'm exhausted this morning.

Stuck with it

I'm sorry I haven't posted anything in a while. We've had a lot going on that's kept me away from my computer. First we got iPods. We had debated on whether we wanted to spend the money right now on them, but finally after finding an 1GB Nano online for sale we said, "screw it, let's go for it." A couple days later.... our computer crashed. Apparently they had nothing to do with each other, just a coincidence. However, the hardrive is gone. We had to spend a bunch of money getting a new hardrive and of course we didn't have as much info backed up as we should have, so besides not being able to post anything new, we lost a bunch of pictures, a few sketches we wrote, updated resumes and who knows what else. Luckily some stuff was saved in emails and the most important pictures from our wedding are on disks, but it's still frustrating. A good friend of ours here is going to try to do some disaster recovery for us which is super nice. In the end, saving a few bucks on iPods doesn't really mean much after all that money we unexpectedly spent on the computer.

Luckily my hair biz has really been picking up, so that helped with the money part. I'm going to get a website in the near future, but part of that depends on if we can recover the before and after haircut/color pictures I've been saving on my computer.

Yesterday Second City had a women's only TourCo audition. This was the second time I've auditioned for them. There's a few things to know about these auditions. Every improviser in the city is going after the 3 or 4 spots and pretty much no one gets in on their first audition, often it takes several tries. I know someone who auditioned 7 times and someone else who auditioned 12 times before they got in. You just don't go in expecting to blow the director away and make it on to this big comedy career. You basically audition to get on the director's radar and get better at auditioning. Of course in the back of your mind there's always a little hope that you'll be the exception to the rule and your magical, amazing talents will shine through and they'll put you on the road the next day. This did not happen to me.
Last year when I went to the open auditions I totally panicked. I was stuck in my head the whole time. You pretty much have 3 scenes to "wow" the auditors. In one of my scenes last time, I did a teaching scene (a no-no in improv) in which I instructed my partner to smear brownie mix on the bottom of her shoe. When I realized that this was stupid, I started freaking out in my mind and began inventing stuff, hoping to fix it... "put the brownie mix on your shoe and walk around... you know, so that the mob will slip on it... when they... you know...come into your house". It was embarrassing how horrible it was. Hilarious in hindsight, but still. This time I was much calmer. I wasn't really nervous and though I'm fairly confident in my improv skills, I didn't do a single memorable scene for them. Oh well, no Second City stage yet, but at least a step in the right direction.
The audition was at 11:20am in the afternoon. You'd think that since my company is technically a bank we would've had Presidents Day off, but we didn't. Because it was a last minute audition notice and since Corey had the day off, I played hookey. We had lunch together and I took a long nap later in the day, it was nice. When I came into the office today I had to turn my fake sick voice on. I figured it was more suspicious if I was too sick to come in yesterday, but perfectly fine and back to normal today. So, I greeted my coworkers with a gravely, nasal, congested sounding voice this morning and now I'm stuck with it. I have to use this voice even when I talk to Corey on the phone in case anyone overhears me. Though I am convincing and really getting a lot of sympathy, it's pretty annoying to continue to do. I think I might have gone a little overboard because I really sound like I should be back at home in bed. It's like on Friends when Ross started teaching his class in an English accent because he was nervous. He had to find a way to fade it out. I'm just glad that tomorrow I'll be feeling better.

A beautiful lesson

This weekend I saw a wonderful movie called "Born Into Brothels." It was the Academy Award winner for best documentary in (I believe) 2005. http://www.thinkfilmcompany.com/brothels/
The film is about a select group of children who live in the Red Light district in Calcutta where their mothers and often grandmothers and even great-grandmothers work as prostitutes. Zana Briski a New Yorker, has been living in the district for several years. She's a photographer and while capturing what it's like in this horrible place, she really connects with the children. Knowing that their situation is hopeless without some kind of help, she does what she knows best and begins teaching a photography class for the kids. Their photographs have become world famous. Through their art, she's able to help them get enrolled in boarding schools and get away from the brothels, but most importantly to get an education, which is the only thing that will save their lives.

I fully expected this to be a heart-wrenching, tear-filled movie. I figured I'd be depressed at the end. However, I was really pleased at how inspiring it was. Of course it was sad, but overall it was really uplifting. These children are so brave and beautiful. It's true what they say about the truth coming from a child's mouth. They know exactly what their mothers do, they know the situation they're in, but it's all they've known and they are still positive about life. They know they could be and do more and with the help of Zana, they actually have a chance. Though they're in far worse situations than anyone I've ever known, they are still kids. They laugh and tease each other and play, just like a normal child. It was beautiful to see. I won't give away all the details, but I highly, highly recommend this movie.

After watching it, I was really inspired to do more for others. So often we take our easy, privileged lives for granted. I'm complaining about having an office job that I don't particularly like. Are you kidding me? Life could be so much worse and for so many, it is. Now I'm not saying I've had a huge life altering experience, but it definitely affected me. I'm going to start looking in to charities or things I can do for others. This woman was "just" a photographer, but her little gift changed the lives of these children and will continue to do so for more in the future. I realized that though I'm not sure what yet, I have so much to offer that I could help someone else with. I just hope that I never forget the lesson of this movie.

Blaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh

My eyeballs are going to fall out. I have spent all day long formatting and printing excel sheets. Are you kidding me? This sucks. I've said it a million times, but I just wish I could quit my job. Again, the job itself is fine, the people are overall great and the pay is nice, but man it's so boring. I've really been working on building my styling business. I've been contacting brides through "The Knot" (a wedding website). I've got quite a few interested in having me do their hair and makeup. Plus I'm talking to more photographers about working with them as a freelancer. I think I'm still a good year away from switching careers, but it'll be worth it. The biggest help will be my website I'm going to get. I'm still not sure of the details, but it'll be nice to send potential clients to a professional site with my work displayed on it. We'll see, I'm still toying with the idea.

Though work is boring, at least the past weekend was a normal fun weekend. Normally Corey and I rush out of town to do a show. While it's a ton of fun and fullfilling as an improvisor, it's also nice to know what it's like to have a real weekend. Friday night was the 3rd installment of Game Night this time at Owen's. It was a blast. We actually slept in Saturday and enjoyed Joey's Brickhouse for $12 all you can eat brunch. It's not a buffet, it's all you can eat off their menu. Corey was in heaven! That night Rob Grabowski and Andi Woody were in town from KC. We went out to dinner, to a friend's karaoke party and to see my pH show. Sunday was just resting and watching the boring ass Super Bowl (seriously, it was boring). I can't remember the last time I had a normal weekend like that. I'm really excited because this weekend is going to be similar.

I'd write something more interesting, but my brain is too mushy right now. Back to printing!

Bud - Weis - Er

New Post - little mix up

I put in a new post, but because blogger's being a butt, things are mixed around. So the newest post for 1/26 is dated 1/23 and is located before the last one. Confused? Yes I am. Just scroll down past the 8-track player picture to see the latest. Sorry for the weirdness.

Where's my 8 track?

We finally got our car back last night. Thank God. We needed to grocery shop bad. We paid our deductible to get our shattered window and messed up dash fixed. It also replaced our stereo. As I might have already mentioned, when we bought the car it had an after-factory stereo/CD player in it. Since we didn't have a receipt for it there's no proof of the value of it. So yes, they replaced the stolen one, but the new stereo is not nearly as nice. It's even got a tape player in it. A tape player? Who listens to tapes. The car is an 03,' which means the "factory" stereo for this year shouldn't have a tape player in it... stupid 1990's cheapskates. Corey says we should be glad that there's less temptation for thieves now. The CD player was the whole reason we got broken into in the first place. I guess he's right, but it's still annoying that not only did we pay out a big deductible because of some jerkpod, but now our car is less valuable. It just irks me that along with my cool stereo, the vandals also stole a decade out of my car.

Cleveland Rocks!

This weekend Schticky Situation (The KC based Jewish Improv group consisting of Corey, Jay Lewis, Jim and Karen Montemayor) went to Cleveland to perform for the Jewish Community Center. I got to sit in as the token girl since Karen is due any day with twin boys. The show went well, a nice solid B+ performance. The audience loved it.
The next day we stuck around to go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Well, most of us did. Jay ditched us to visit an old friend who lived in town. Anyways, Jim, Corey and I had a great time at the Hall. If you ever get a chance to go to Cleveland, definately check it out. It was awesome! Unfortunately they don't allow you to take pictures inside, so it put a damper on our montage plan. Instead, here now are the pictures we took in the cab on the way to the airport of what it would've been like had cameras been allowed in the Hall. I couldn't get the pictures of Jimi Hendrix or Michael Jackson's glove (ie: the cab driver and Corey's winter mitten/glove) to post, so you'll be missing those artifacts.

Boo, no pictures allowed inside!

Monique's gonna rock anyways!

Jim and Corey outside of The Hall

Look, it's Art Garfunkel's hair! (Note to self: remember to photoshop in pic of hair.)

Jon Bon Jovi's leather jacket from the "Slippery When Wet" tour

Our New Additions!

This is our new couch! We bough it along with a matching loveseat for Christnikah. The ottoman isnt ours, Corey didn't like it and it wasn't worth the extra money. (This picture is in the store, not at our place.) I was very sad to get rid of our old couch, but it was time. It was an old 70's couch, which had a little extra sentimental value to it, since my dad reupholstered it for me before we moved to Chicago. Luckily it went to a good new home, the home of Tyler and Garrett. Although, I'm a little worried of what these bachelors will do to it. I just tell myself that the couch went off to college, to live in a Frat House where it will do a lot of partying.

Anyways, the new couch(es) are 10 inches deeper than the old one, so Corey and I can both comfortably lay on them and since there are 2 of them, we don't have to both be on the same couch together all the time. The old couch was red, whereas this one is a light camel with orange and brown cushions/pillows, and they look great in our place. I didn't have to redecorate anything, they're a perfect fit. Besides the chair we bought last year, this is the first major new furniture purchase I've ever made. However, because we live in a small place, we had to put the chair in the sunroom because there wasn't any extra space in the living room. Now we have a comfortable place for Pete, Josh or Dan to sleep on when they're in town.

Violated

Though the weather was nice, Thursday turned out to be a not so great day. First thing in the morning, I got a call from Corey who had found out from a neighbor that overnight our car had been broken into. Thank God for the neighbor because neither of us pass by the car on our way to the EL to take to work. The car would've sat there all day with its bashed in window and busted dash completely exposed for more vandalism or the weather which eventually turned cold and rainy.
Anyways, turns out some jerkpod, jagoff, dick tug decided to smash in the passenger window and rip out our stereo, completely effing up the dash. They didn't take any of our CD cases or what looked like a Visa card, complete with Corey's signature, which was really a gift card with less than $4 on it. These A-holes just wanted that stereo. As furious as we were, we had to stop and think... we've lived in Chicago for 2 years (2 years to the day... happy anniversary Corey) and we just now had our first break in. Not bad when you really think about it.
Of course we have insurance, though the deductible is $500, so that sucks. Turns out the damage is estimated at way over $500, so at least that parts worth it. Now we just have to live without a car for a few days. Not that it's impossible to do. A lot of people in Chicago don't have cars (the beauty of public transportation). It just makes doing some things, like grocery shopping a huge hassle. Thanks Jerkpod!

-Mo

My Hero

Miffed man pays bank bill a penny at a time

I read this article on Yahoo news and found myself identifying with this guy. I have a few entities I'd like to handle in a similar fashion. I could pay the rent this way until the landlord fully fixes the front door handle to our building or the dry cleaner across the street for their late and botched work. It just seems so satisfying!

Speaking of the dry cleaners, that reminds me. Our unfortunate experiences at the dry cleaners just across the el tracks from our building forced Mo and I to find another place for cleaning and tailoring. One stop up from us, at the Rockwell stop we found Figo. For every bit of bad service, poor work, and awful experience that is the cleaners here on Manor, Figo is the exact opposite. He's this wonderfully chatty, friendly and funny Turkish man who does good work and really cares about his customers. A real throwback. Mo and I stopped in there last night to pick up her coat. Figo had fixed the zipper for us. I mentioned that a button on my leather coat had fallen off and asked if he worked on leather. He says "Sure, here hand it to me." While I waited, Figo sewed my button back on, telling us the story of how he opened his store at this location. Oh yeah, sewing the button on? No charge.

Anyway, Figo reminded us that the Rockwell stop on the Brown Line is going to be closing for about 8 months starting in February for some major renovations. Obviously, this puts the businesses that are located there in some serious risk. There's Figo's place, a coffee/bagel place, laundromat, Rockwell's restaurant, a yoga studio and more. It's a great little neighborhood corridor and it would be a shame to lose those places. If you're in the area, especially when the Rockwell stop is closed, please make the effort to stop by and frequent these establishments. I think they're going to need all the help we can give.

- Corey

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