A nice story.

Yesterday a woman wished me a Happy Thanksgiving and I politely replied with a "you too" or "happy holidays" or something.  She crossed the street she had been previously crossing and she stopped on the opposite side.  She turned around and said, "wait a minute!  I've been saying that to everyone I meet and you're the first one to respond with anything and not be thrown off.  Thank you."

To me, this was a nice moment in time and one that I've shared more than once with others in Chicago.  I like saying hi to people that say hi to me.  I have trouble NOT talking to people that approach me on the street, including yesterday while walking down Michigan avenue and Environmentalist Annie starts in asking how much time I have and I can't help but get out the sentences, "Oh, yes I am an environmentalist, but I work at the museum of science and industry in the smart home teaching other people how to be environmentally friendly and I have to go because my boyfriend and I are having a day.  Bye."  Ok, a long sentence.  

This is obviously a chronic problem.  One that maybe stems from coming from Rochester, MN, small-town big-city.  Everyone knows everyone and if they don't then they know your brother.  Or in my case my dad.  I say 'hi' to people.  I can't help it.  Sometimes people just want to talk and have no one to talk to.  

I'm still going to say hi to people.  Even if they're crazy.  I'm sorry.

Have a great day and thank you for taking the time to read!!!!

L. M. Burton

I didn't NaNoWriMo this year like I was hoping.  BUT I've heard it takes a couple of years of want to motivate yourself to actually do it.  I've got a year or so.  I'm still alright.  Though I have not been NaNoWri-Ming I HAVE been keeping a keen notebook of my thoughts about things.  Not a journal or a diary per se but a notebook of sorts.  Notes about class or shows I've seen.  Ways I could make the world a better place and character observation.  Little jokes or quotes I pick up here and there.  I've found this notebook to be a good way for me (scatterbrained L. Burton) to gather and keep thoughts I like.  

I got a little frustrated last night thinking about my finances because it always works out this way:  The holiday season is filled with frustrations and I don't end up able to get anyone gifts and then three months or even a month...no we'll say two months after the holidays I end up rolling in cash money so this year (those of you expecting gifts from me) I'm going to be gift-giving a month to three months later than Christmas.  I'm sorry.  That's the only way I can see it working out.  I love gift giving, don't get me wrong, but I don't have my craft stuff to make anything (except pictures and if you email me your address, I'll color you one and send it to you for Christmas.  That's a promise) nor do I have yarn to knit anything.  I suppose I could just start giving my stuff away.  Possible, but honestly when most of my stuff is second hand anyway, thirdhand sounds just gross.  Oh dear!  How much dirtier that sounded than what I had intended!  

I hope you all have a pleasant day!

I'm off to enjoy Millenium Park with my handsome visitor.

SIDENOTE:  after spending copious amounts of time on dictionary.com I may start speaking less concisely and using the lengthy definitions of words instead of the word itself, for example my last sentence, if we replace handsome, would be:  "I'm off to enjoy Millenium Park with my attractive, well-proportioned, good looking visitor who has an imposing figure looking of health and strength.  

I hope you have a sort of day that arouses astonishment and is amazing!

Thank you for reading

Ciao!

Lis

party time good weekend

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Thanks to those who made it out to the party on Saturday!  It was a super-blast of a hit party!  Very fun.

The closing of "Are you There God?  It's Me, Satan."  went very well, thank you for asking.  

Now onto the next show, "Behind the 08 Ball" opens Friday at Donny's Skybox.  $12.  You'll like it, I'm sure.  It's funny.  Come see it.

I get to go to work today at the museum.  I also might get to go grociery shopping tonight, but not JUST grociery shopping, grociery shopping with my favorite visitor!  

I'll blog longer tomorrow.  For today, I'm cramped for time.  Hope you have a pleasant Montag!

Thank you for reading!!!

Lovesies,

Lis

ramblings and quickies

Jeepers I'm always wakin' up too late to write a blog nowadays!  Yipes!  Things are busy, I'm trying to juggle my schedule around a little bit so I can actually have a social life.  It's tough but I'm learning necessary for sanity's sake.  Tonight I'm off to the IO theatre to watch me some improv so I have something to talk about in class on Sunday and tomorrow is payday.  Yippee!  I get to pay my landlord tomorrow (fingers crossed) and maybe get my phone working again (for those that have either tried to message or call my phone it got turned off because I couldn't pay my bill...apologies and embarrassments).  I have some items on my agenda for today and tomorrow that may or may not alleviate stress in my life currently.  I'm in high spirits as I have a job.  Next week is Thanksgiving and I was fortunate enough to find someone to switch some schedules around with me so I get Tuesday off meaning more time with M. Fotis who will be in town.  My novel writing efforts are slim to none, so don't bother asking.  I swear if this turns into something that you all pick on me for I will write a book in December and just be done with it.  I realize I won't win a prize at the end of it, but the way I see it, the prize of Christmas would be enough.  I do so like the dazzle of Christmas decoration.  The museum is looking awfully festive this year, and they make fake snow on the inside every half hour.  Come check it out.  Also, this weekend is your last chance to see the first sketch show that I've done in Chicago, "Are you There God?  It's Me, Satan."  $12, Gorilla Tango Theatre at Milwaukee and Western, 10pm.  Be there.  

Sorry this is so poorly thought out.

I hope you had a wonderful day.

Thank you for taking the time.

Lis

Winter cleaning and balance

So this morning was a wonderful sleep in morning.  I needed to catch up pretty badly, too.  I'm starting to feel that way, that parts of my life are slipping in that great balancing circus act with the spinning plates and I have to quick grab the one from my foot before the one on my nose falls but finally I have a grasp of the ones on my forehead and hands.  Now that I have the left hand, a job, the right hand, money, should start to spin correctly again.  Slowly, but surely.  Now that I have a job, I haven't been running every day which has become kind of a big deal for me.  I really enjoy my time spent outside and unfortunately now that it gets darker sooner, I get home and I just want to go to sleep.  I have been trying to get up early, but those who know me understand how much I enjoy mornings (in otherwords, SNOOZE is a worn button on my alarm clock).  I'm thinking that now that I have a job, some of my stuff needs to be reorganized again.  I need to go through my things and get rid of a bunch of stuff, consolidate and sell off things.  It would be really good for me, methinks.  Winter cleaning of sorts.  

That's all I've got for today!  Thanks for reading.

Lisa B. 

Monday, Monday. so tired to me.

Hope you had a great weekend!  I don't feel like I got one, but that's a choice and I made it.  Worked all weekend, yesterday had NO voice, IO class, and then a rehearsal.  Tonight I've got an interview for my internship at the IO.  Wish me luck!  Shows went great this weekend, thanks to those of you who came!  Those who did not....there's one more weekend to see Are You There God?  It's Me, Satan.  which is my Chicago sketch show debut!  10pm, Fridays and Saturdays $12 at Gorilla Tango theatre.  

The more stuff I get busy doing, it seems, the more stuff I think up to do.  It happens in such a way that if there's any down time at all at work or in rehearsals I end up just thinking overtime like, "oh, I should go home and clean my room right away and then write a couple of sketches and then send of this and that or do this" and then I just end up feeling guilty about not doing any of those things when I wake up the next day and realize I didn't do them.  Oy.  Then.  At this point in the day I feel kind of guilty for not doing all the things I kind of wanted to get done.  

I guess I can be a little accomplished that I cleaned my room last night.  Well, the clothes part anyway.  But my calendar still says September.

Hope you have a great Monday!!!

Thank you for reading.

Lis

Wilbur Friday

Today has been a day full of characters.  People have just been off-the-wall weird today.  Two stories:

1.  I give tours of the Smart Home at the Museum of Science and Industry.  Today, one of my tours was given by Collin, who wanted to get "checked out" of the smart home so that he can start giving tours on his own, so supervisor Kate decided Collin would give my tour and since it was just two old men from just outside of Rockford, IL. that I would take my labcoat off and go as a tourist as well.  These two old men were just like the muppet show old men.  They were hillarious.  Collin did great because these guys talked the whole tour.  They were either talking about how the nurse the other day dry bathed them so much they thought they were going to have a hole or about the 80 acres they own but don't farm, or how they are 74 years old on the fourth of july or about how different things are today than they were forty years ago.  One of the men decided that when Collin left the room, he was going to see if the scale in the bathroom really worked and he got on it, checked and mumbled how the screen didn't light up so it must not work, and then Collin had to backtrack to find the guy.  Poor Collin, he really did a great job for his first tour considering how many things the guys were asking him.  They really got a lot out of the tour, though and it was really neat to see how they marveled at the technologies that are in the home.  

2.  A man downtown at the redline station is yelling after me, "Hey, pretty lady!"  I don't hear him for a while as I go down the stairs and when I finally do, I pretend not to hear him.  I get down the stairs and stop and this guy is persistent so he sidles up next to me and here is our conversation:

"Hey, I was talkin' to you."

"Oh, you were?"

"yeah, I says to myself, now there is a woman."

"Well, thank you"  I look away.

"I like me a woman who is booksmart and you got glasses and all that, and I like that."

"hmm"  I am still looking away and now noticing that he has a plastic cup filled with what looks like coke but smells suspiciously like rum.

"I'm going to 95th, where you goin?"

"Home"  I coldly reply (I'm terrible with this sort of thing because he's not threatening, he's just drunk and I'm bad at saying go away to drunk or homeless people, I don't know, they're people too, I'm just trying to kind of passively ignore him and if he had been reading my body language or silent signals he would know I didn't want to talk to him)

"Well, that's great."  pause.  "I saw you and I just said to myself, she knows how to carry herself, you know?  She walks in here like she owns the place and I would compare you to....well...."  and he's thinking...hard...."to a stallion."  *yes he compared me to a horse "the way you pranced on by and the way you walk and going down those stairs and how pretty you are, you're like a stallion, whew."

SILENCE

My train comes, thank god.

"Well, here's my train, bye."

"can I come witchu?"

"No."

I get on the train and leave.  Oh downtown Chicago, you never fail to be full of interesting people.

Thank you for reading.

Lis

This day, this weekend, this music

Wow, today was long and exhausting.  From megabus to home quick to drop off my stuff to work right away to rehearsal to home to running to home.  Whew.  In Chicago and up and awake from five pm until about eleven thirty.  I'm pooped BUT there are things going on this weekend:

*I'm in a show!!!  ARE YOU THERE GOD?  IT'S ME, SATAN. Gorilla Tango Theatre, Friday and Saturday 10pm, $12, be there!!!  This weekend and next and that's IT!  

I've got improv olympic class which is a miracle.  Money stuff, you know.  I'm so happy to be in that class and absolutely pumped too!  

I get to rearrange my schedule tomorrow with the museum a little bit to accomodate holiday spending time with Fotis.  Hooray!  

I'm also a little proud of myself for getting my ass outside and running tonight.  This may very well be the last nice week of the season in Chicago (although you never know because as we were leaving it was twenties and now it's fifties and beautiful) but I went running tonight because compared to MN, Chicago is downright tropical right now.  I was far overdressed getting off the bus this morning and it was kind of a nice feeling that magically my fall was back.  

That visit to Minneapolis was exactly what I needed to recharge the motor for Chicago, I think.  I'm re-motivated to do some cleaning, work extra hard and make some money, get rid of some junk, decorate for the holiday a little bit (or at least for the fall, coziness in the colder months is key to keep sanity for moi), and write more nanowrimo.  Oh yay! 

 I realized this weekend what home means or feels like, rather.  That sounds so silly, but honestly I've never felt so much like I belong someplace like that.  Minneapolis is such a neat city, it's very clean, there's no anxiety driving there, and the people can't be beat. I sure do miss those people.  Ah, well, I plan my return around new years.  See you then, Minnesota!

Thanks for reading!!!

Lis

Wednesday Shmendsday

What a pleasant last couple of days I've had!  Much hello-ing and hugging has occurred!  I have run into just about everyone I could have hoped to see.  I've also been inspired to start writing kids science sketches/plays.  Why didn't I think of that sooner?!  I was at the science museum and noticed some familiar names associated with the theatre stuff and thought to myself, 'hey, Lisa, you should write silly sciencey things, you know stuff about that.'  Oh, NaNoWriMo.  I've not said anything about it in my last couple of blogs because, honestly, I haven't had the time to write much for that since I've started my job.  I know.  "But Lisa, you were so excited and hopeful" and I still am, folks.  I just need to get my time travel watch to work and then I'll pace myself and write the darn book.  Or I'll just extend mine to be NaNoWriMoOrTwo.  Hope you have a great day!

Thank you for reading!

Lisa

Chilly Minneapolis and Money Monday

The drive to Minneapolis from Chicago isn't too far until about Wisconsin Dells.  That's the point where you realize you've been driving for five hours or something and that you still have a couple hours to go.  Then every gas station we stopped at (total of four) got considerably colder with every mile closer we got to Minnesota.  By the time we got into town the temperature had gotten about thirty degrees colder, yikes!  

Today is Money Monday for me!!!  I'm going to get some finances in order and today that includes calling the bill collectors and extending some deadlines!  Woo!  I plan on being caught up financially by the first of the year.  That'd be great!  If anybody has any money advice or systems that work for them besides the normal "don't spend your money" thing, do let me know, I'd love to hear it!  

Thanks for reading and have a Happy Monday!

Lis

Chicagobama

Because last night was indescribable, I'll not try and explain how I felt through the entire evening, only the atmosphere of Chicago, which is likely unlike anything I will ever experience again:

~Most train stations on the way there were booming Obama's voice from loudspeakers so every time the doors opened you could catch clips of speeches past

~People running through the streets all through Chicago, not just in the downtown area, but all throughout with Obama t-shirts on, giving everyone else high fives, with Obama facemasks on

~The uproarious applause, screaming, cacophonous noise that immediately started when the results were officially in.

~The skyscrapers downtown with "USA" and "OBAMA" written in lights on the sides

~Huge tvs throughout grant park so that those of us without tickets could watch our president speak.

~Enormous crowds of people packed in TIGHT as far as you could see

~Street drummers on nearly every corner drumming out fast paced african-style beats and people all around them dancing

~I didn't go with anyone, but ended up talking to nearly everyone that I spent more than five minutes next to because everyone was so abuzz with excitement, myself included!

~Watching the tv in front of me, but listening to the booming voice from behind me, knowing that's the effect of the microphone that is in front of Barack Obama's mouth as he gives his first speech after being elected.

~The music that was played before and after permeated throughout downtown, bouncing off the buildings to create the effect that it was everywhere.  I could hear it even a mile away, literally.  Signed, Sealed, Delivered, Raw Chicago Bluesy style rendition of Sweet Home Chicago, For Once in My Life.

We all knew we had just witnessed history, and that's a feeling I may never be able to put into words.  Way cool experience.  Glad I left work early to go.  Thank you for reading!!  ~Lisa

VOTE bitches!

It's time for you to get out and do it!  Everyone will say it, unfortunately not everyone is doing it, but you need to.  Yesterday was my first day of work at the museum.  It's one of three of the coolest jobs I've ever had in my life.  Yes, I will commute an hour to and from work for that job.  Minnesota, I'll be back in your sweet embrace in about a week!  It's been a couple months now and I miss you.  For whatever strange reason I've been craving me some Green Mill time and awesome happy hour specials.  

VOTE

Thanks for reading

VOTE

~~Lisa

NaNoHallOWriKend

Day THREE of NaNoWriMo!  It's ok, I bet you forgot about it.  I'm a few hundred words behind already but I'll try and catch catch up later this evening.  Last night, got a phone call at 6pm from Vicky-S asking me to come into work at 7pm until 3 in the morning!  Yikes!  I went in until 11pm and spent four hours arranging display cabinets, although when I was six I would have called it "dress up" with the manequins.  It made me feel like an elf or something.  Like a bras and panties elf who sneaks into the store at night and changes everything to feel like Christmas and then when you wake up....voila!  It's beautiful!  I was surprised at how excited I was to hear Christmas music (and yes, retail is playing christmas music Halloween weekend.  ugh).  No no, I know, it's not even Thanksgiving yet but the farther away from my college years I get, the more excited I get about the Christmas holiday, even when it's drawn out for two months.  Maybe that just gives me a bigger window for my family not to be angry with me for not coming home for the holidays this year because there're more opportunities for me to get home on a non-holiday week but for it still to be considered "the holidays".  This past weekend was the opening of "Are You There God?  It's me, Satan."  The sketch show I am a part of with Robot Vs. Dinosaur.  It went really really well, I thought, got a lot more laughs than I expected and of course I didn't realize until we had an audience that the one local reference in the show was given to the out-of-towner (moi) and I plowed through it and drowned out my next line in laughter.  Ish.  But now I know the local reference and I can move on.  Last night, I got home after arranging bra and panty sets at the retail store-that-shall-not-be-named and I sat down on my bed and I had this feeling of excitement and elation.  Where I have been so so so so so worried up until this point, I know it's all starting to work itself out.  This doesn't mean I'm not going to worry in the future.  It's the feelings of worry that make the feelings of relief feel like heroin, but for the first time maybe ever, I trusted that my friends and family would be there for me, and they were.  They pulled through for me even from a state away.  I'm so lucky to have those people to send me care packages (I got two of them this weekend, full of food, just in time for me to have run completely out of my grocieries so thank you Bret and Emy and Grandma!) or to be able to just vent to when I'm freaking out (which has been more often than not, lately, sorry, but thanks Mike!  You've been great!) or to give me money advice and reassure me that I always have a place at home (I'm speaking of course right now of my parental units).  Things have been a little up in the air lately and I'm not quite out of the red yet, but I finally start my job today!  Woo hoo!  Museum of Science and Industry!!!  I've got some year-long plans figured out class-wise and I'm making some friends from my IO class, hooray!  Oof, this got diary on me quickly.  Apologies.  I'll be done.  I hope you have a great Monday and it's ok to start NaNoWriMo day three, you still have time!  Thanks for reading this very long update of my feelings, holy shit.  Gooey-central! ~~~Lisa