Improv and Chicago

Troy's in town, bad audition.

2009-03-30T05:19:00.000-07:00

We've got small events, medium events, and big events in our lives. It seems sometimes that the small events carry more weight because no matter which event passes, they all take about as much time, time passes just as quickly past them, and if it's an "event" often it will effect our person fairly equally. The size of the event is almost solely weighted on how big we make it before going in.

I had a medium event on Saturday, but my medium event was only based on the way it turned out and not on how I viewed it going in. I auditioned for Baby Wants Candy (www.babywantscandy.com) on Saturday. Now I knew some about BWC going in, I knew it was musical, I knew they were great, but what I didn't expect was how much I was going to suck at my audition. Ok, before you can do the "oh but Lisa, I'm sure you did great and you're just your harshest critic", I will say for my ego's sake that the last two years of auditioning have been really good to me. I'm not terrible at auditioning, I go in with a lot of energy and I've landed auditions even when I'm having a rough day. This audition, however, was terrible. We were supposed to come up with a rhyming couplet about a celebrity and instead of coming up with something socially/news/or general knowledge about Brad Pitt relevant, I came up with "oh brad pitt you're so dreamy, have some pie, here's some whip creamy". Yeah.

Ok, then I tried improvising. I couldn't think of anything besides transaction scenes with the inspiration Walt Disney. Why? I simply don't know.

For my grand finale I had a scene where I loved my sister who co-owned what I lovingly named a "Fireshop". We were firefighters and I sang about how much I loved her. I sang, I spewed, I didn't rhyme but I sold the hell out of it.

The audition was not very good, I had a lot of fun, didn't expect to get a callback and I didn't get one. The bright side, however IS that, like I said, this was the first bad audition that I've had in a loooong time. That is good. I now know that I'd love to do more musical improv. The end.

Hope you have a great day!!!!!

Lisa B.

A puppet was purchased today

2009-03-24T11:38:00.000-07:00

1. Indiana trip was a blast. I got to ride a dirtbike, drive a go-kart, sit next to a bonfire, see a full sky of stars for the first time in a couple years, and aside from all the super fun activities there were, we still got treated like royalty, they put us up in an almost completely finished apartment, slept in beds/couches, fed us, and then we got to do our red cross benefit show which it seemed everyone loved, and now I will stop this run-on sentence of joy, bliss, and Indiana. It was fantastic.

2. Worked Sunday. Was sick.

3. Interned last night at IO. Again, I'm pretty sure Monday night internshipness means that after the one show we have there's always going to be some special event. Last night it was what's known as a diamond dance. Four people onstage, music starts, people follow the person they're facing then when the dance takes them all into a different facing direction, the person they're now facing leads. It's ever-changing and then like an open-gym or something, anyone can get up and tag any of the four out. Super fun!

4. Tyler bought the creepiest doll I have ever seen today. It's in my picture.

Hope you have a great Tuesday!!!!

~Lisa

Indiana here I come!

2009-03-19T12:42:00.000-07:00

Got into O'hare today on a jet plane and realized you can get free wheelchairs on request just waiting for you when you get off the plane. I'm not a hundred percent sure why all people don't do this at the airport. You don't really seemingly have to have a problem with your legs either, you can just waltz off the plane and sit down and have someone wheel you over to the Great American Bagel place to purchase a $7 bagel if you want (I know what you're thinking and the answer is no, they're not the best fucking bagels you've ever had in your life, they're just overpriced normal airport bagels).

Tonight I've got one last rehearsal that I'm going to Indiana for this weekend which ought to be superduper fun called "Between Rock...And A Dead Place". I'm pretty stoked about it, we're going to be riding four wheelers and having a bonfire I guess at some point in the weekend. A little bit of country time for the city girl will be welcomed with open arms.

I'm going to be a part of the Harry Potter exhibit for the summer, which will also be very fun! I do so like the Harry Potter movies, and I get to dress up in costume and speak in a British accent all summer and pretend to be magic. Oooooo magic.

I'm a little bummed out that I don't get to play softball this summer with the Skirt Turtles, but I'm thinking I may try and get on a team here. It did turn out to be 'bout the most fun part of my summer last year, so we shall see. Maybe some 16"? Ok, well I hope you have the best day you possibly can and thanks for keeping up (I realize I've not written as often as I want to....trying to change this).

~Lis

My weekend and a Lisa's physical health update

2009-03-09T05:26:00.001-07:00

Not 100% sure how I did this, but about a week ago I burned the roof of my mouth (I think) and it hasn't been the same since. It's tender whenever I put things in there like oatmeal or pizza. The reason why I put 'I think' in parentheses is because the feeling of the roof of my mouth is either that I burned it or that I ate three entire boxes of sour patch kids in a row and the sugar has scraped off a layer or two of skin up there that's hard to grow back or something (and yes, I know what eating three boxes of sour patch kids in a row is like *hangs head).

On another note, money is still tight.

On a third note, I've been just busy enough this last week. It was a good week, overall. Lots of chillin' at home, getting some personal work done. I have gotten most of my taxes done BY MYSELF. That's right, folks. You're talkin' to a girl who's not done her taxes by herself ever because she's been afraid. Well, I faced down my fear and did it. The process of doing them was, well, taxing (wacka wacka) and nerve racking. I was afraid if I clicked the wrong button (I did them online) giant spiders were going to crawl through my windows and eat me. You know, the tax spiders, but I must have done something right because I'm still here. I don't know if my tax return is going to be as good, but I think I'm in the ballpark. If you think you might know approximately how much I should have gotten back this year, email me or something because I'd love to know if I did in fact do as good a job as my tax people would have done. I just couldn't justify spending $50 on something I can do for free by myself at home.

Fourth note; Tarantino closed this weekend! We had a party on Saturday night which was pretty darn fun, if I do say so myself! Lots of people were there, drinks were had (I was super responsible, didn't drink because I had to work the next morning early and I feel really good about my decision). We pretty much sold out the show, it was video taped, everyone did a smashing job and I'm really really looking forward to taking it to TCIF!!!

That's all for now, hope you also had a fun weekend and thank you for reading!

Ciao!!

~~Lisa

Thoughts on Harry Potter, Jimmy Fallon

2009-03-05T04:33:00.000-08:00

Ok, so Thursday is here, it's a pretty nice day outside as far as I can tell, and I've got an audition this afternoon for the Harry Potter exhibit at the museum. Yes, I am a little nervous, thank you for wondering. We just have to show off that we can do an authentic British accent, whatever that means. I also have to bring a resume I think....yikes! There's a guy or two from Warner Bros. that's going to be there overseeing the audition so they get accurate people to run the exhibit. I guess originally they were only going to hire people for the exhibit that had grown up in England but they had to nix that idea. I'm not 100% sure why, but I'm sure it had something to do with Great Britain being a small island and even though there are people from England in Chicago, they all probably have much better jobs that working an exhibit at a musuem that is just an exhibit about movies that were based on books that Americans don't read so they need an exhibit to tell them what the movies were about that were based on those books.

The last few nights have been surprisingly low key, nothing pressing to do, just be able to hang out at home, it's been nice catching up on some programing. I checked out the new Jimmy Fallon show. I don't like it much. I will tolerate Jimmy Fallon so that I can see the Roots, but that's about it (how did he get such a cool featured band, btw?). I watched the Tina Fey interview and that was enjoyable, but I don't get into Jimmy Fallon, though I realize he's probably really nervous to have his own show now and everything, his tv personality that shines through seems to be one of a rich kid who nobody likes who saw the Late Night Show with David Letterman and said, "Daddy, I want THAT! I want my OWN Late Night TV show!" And daddy said, "but Jimmy, I already put you on SNL, and you left that show....I already gave you one" and he threw a mighty fit and eventually got his way because Conan went to another time slot. It seems as though I'm coming down hard on Jimmy Fallon here, I just feel like they could have chosen a more charismatic host, though perhaps he'll come into his own....who knows.

Progress on everything else is coming....memorizing the benefit show I'm in for our show in a few weeks, working on sketches for MC and my show, in a couple improv thingers, Tarantino is this weekend again (last one, get out, see it....Playground Theatre, $12, 10pm, totally worth it!), class at IO starts this Saturday, class at SC starts next Wed, aaaaannnddd that's it. Money's tight, but where isn't money tight?

Hope ya'll have a smokin' awesome Thursday! Thanks for reading!

Lis

Alright, so welcome to March....SHIT you guys!

2009-03-03T09:54:00.000-08:00

March really has rolled in like a Lion, snow snow snow and now it's gone gone gone. Make up your mind, lake effect!!! Last night I had the pleasure of watching the roast for Bob Kulhan and I just wish I was much more quick witted. Half those guys didn't even write anything down, just got up and started ripping on people in the room and though I don't necessarily need the ability to make fun of anyone at the drop of a hat, even a fraction of that fast-paced funny would be appreciated.

I spent last week in Minneapolis and had quite a nice, relaxing week. Lots of cable television, saw some family, spent time with the bf, overall decompressed a little. I didn't realize until those first couple of days how tense I am in Chicago. It's not just me, either, my roommate shared with me the other day that he, too, get's defensive in this big city, tenses up a bit. I need to maybe find my time to relax or find an activity that's going to really relax me sometimes and I think that'll happen when it gets warm enough to go running, honestly. Or at least to ride bike down the lakeshore.

Started my first box office intern shift at IO last night! Woot! Good stuff there, I really am enjoying interning. I like being around the theatre all the time and seeing the shows is always a treat!

Tune in tomorrow when maybe I'll talk about the new Harry Potter exhibit coming up at the museum...oooo....or perhaps the new smart home additions.....thrilling, I know..... I'm so boring you guys. How can someone be so busy but feel so boring? Hope you have a great Tuesday!!!!!

Thank you for reading....sorry these have been so few and far between....

Lisa

DANG! I let this week get away from me again.

2009-02-13T15:45:00.000-08:00

This week has been busy again! Apologies. Tomorrow I'll be writing a blog updating specific improv stuff. Back to that. For now, have a great Friday night and a pleasant Valentine's day! Also, your heart is just a little larger than the size of your fist. And 6.5grams of dark chocolate a day is good for your heart.

Hope you have a pleasant Friday eve!

Lis

Running and mush-brain

2009-02-10T04:53:00.000-08:00

Running is an activity that I had, previous to this past fall, reserved in my mind for athletes, men, and mothers who used to be athletes or men. Usually, these people who I associated with running in my imagination were very spindly and can just run for miles, using godlike energy to keep their legs moving. They have all the money in the world to buy as much sporting equipment as they can drape or strap onto their impecable bodies so that they almost look like darting fish underwater, only they aren't underwater at all. I have, over the years, tried my hardest to be a "runner". I've drug my sluggish body out of bed at all hours of the day to try and force it to activity. I gave up on running for a long time. I find it boring unless I have music, but I have found that once I have music, running might be my favorite free activity to do alone (well, almost). I need to conserve all the money I possibly can at this point, so I've been running again, not to mention the weather has been ridiculously warm and spring-like (we have been mislead by that groundhog) and so, I am very sore! I've been stretching and drinking water, but I think my body is just getting used to it all again. Also, there was another article in Science News about birthing and mothers, having to do with Postpartum Depression. I find these articles to be interesting, but I'm wondering what the fascination with children is all of a sudden on Science News. Is it because it's spring and people have babies in the spring, because technically it's not even spring yet. Ok, my mind is a little mushy after having written for two days straight........I hope you have a pleasant Tuesday and thanks for reading!

~Lisa "Cornwallis" Burton

Parenthesis are used to distract from my lame excuses

2009-02-09T05:05:00.000-08:00

Oh, blog, I know. It's been too long again. I guiltily slump back to you as though I were a dog who has just strayed too far into the woods and gotten into a porcupine. My nose is swelled in humiliation and I have learned my lesson. For now. I won't stray from my blog until at least....next week or something. And now for excuses!!! I've been busy. That's about all I've got. I'm in Tarantino (*shameless plug alert) which is an improvised Tarantino form happening every Saturday throughout February at 10pm. Bring your loved ones this Saturday for V-Day! Yippeesters! Also, started rehearsal for the sketch show I'm in which will go up in Indiana in March and at Gorilla Tango in May. I improvised with Mustang Repair this last weekend at the Playground, super duper fun, I think I may just do it again! I've been working nearly every day, I'm still in class at IO, starting to think about level 3 and all that brings...still interning at IO, subbing for other interns at IO, and now here I am at Monday with Sunday having been spent with Marge D watching Batman and eating pizza! Not too shabby. I've recently discovered megabus has codes to get you (me) home cheaper. The code from Jan-March is GREENBUS, however it doesn't work on any of the trips you (I) try. (I'm not sure why I used those parenthesis, I know they aren't necessary and now I've just used parenthesis completely inappropriately to do an aside to an already lame diar----I mean blog entry....(get over yourself, Burton) ok.) So things have been busy. Planning on blogging all week, though. Couple things of note since last we spoke, big snake was found. Biggest ever. Hope you already knew that. Also, women who are on the pill can often spot baby cuteness easier. A woman who responds to her child's cuteness is more likely to form a stronger bond with their child. This was a serious science news story and I'm not sure if it was because they were in want of science news or because they also could not believe someone submitted such a subjective study to a science publication. Even a web publication. I'm talking of course about my favorite Science weblication: www.sciencenews.org check it out!! Have a great Monday!!!!

Thanks for your eyeballs!

_B. Bad. Burton_

The Great Grey Beast Of February

2009-02-02T05:00:00.000-08:00

It's this time of year or so that I don't want to do anything. I don't want to go out at night. I don't want to pay my bills. I don't want to do the work to tie my shoes to go outside. I don't want it to be cold out. I can't go running to get my spirits up because it's too cold. I feel happy, but it's a dulled grey happy feeling. My favorite way to describe this time of year is from a Clive Barker graphic novel called the Thief of Always where the main character, a boy, describes his feeling this time of year with, "I felt as though the great grey beast of Febrary would swallow me whole". That's the way I feel in Febrary. That's why I like Valentine's day. It either makes people angry or lovey. Even if you're decidedly against V-day, at least you've got some spice in the middle of an otherwise downer of a month. Thankfully, it's short! February often marks for me the beginning of some huge diet scheme or my get healthy quick plan for the year. I think this year I'm saving that for March. Until I typed that I didn't realize just what kind of hold this winter had on me but whew! I should take a mini vacation to the tropics or something....or just do that thing where I lie around in my swimsuit with pictures of palm trees and turn up the heat in the house and pretend I'm in Costa Rica. Hope you all have a splendid Groundhog's day!!!!

Thank you for taking the time to read ma blog!

~Lis

My captain hook of a wednesday

2009-01-28T22:17:00.000-08:00

Today, was sort of a day of bad form. My day started with my alarm deciding not to go off, or me turning over at 7am and turning it off only to roll back over and go to sleep, or one of my roommates sneaking into my room at 7am and turning it off because I've obviously not heard it.......regardless....I woke up about an hour and a half late, jumped out of bed at 8pm (when I normally have to leave the house by 7:30 to get to work on time) and rushed my ass out the door to get to work by 9:15am. Pretty good, if I do say so myself. I strode into work just as they were announcing my name as Employee of the Month. Perfect timing. Employee of the Month Lisa Burton striding in at a cool 15 minutes late. Primo. I then had a mediocre day at work, the most awkward encounter with a guest EVER (what kind of 40 year old man stands next to you with his hands behind his back just smiling in your direction and mumbling under his breath what I can only take to be conversation directed at me, but I wouldn't know because i was keeping a safe distance from said creepo). Then I had writing time with my friendo MC Princeton, funtimes, then went to the IO for some improv, didn't realize it might be close to sold out and took one of two remaining last seats in the theatre, Bad form, Burton. Bad form. Minor bad day, but a weird feeling day nonetheless. Anyways. Bees still can't count past three, so I guess I've got a one up on bees. Or maybe like 997 up on bees. That's on a patient day when I want to count that high. Hope you had a great humpday!!! Thanks for reading, homies!

Lisa B. Urton.

Filamentous Tangles of Tubulin

2009-01-27T21:03:00.001-08:00

Been a while, eh? It gets tough to write every day when things get busy. And things HAVE been busy! I've been working a lot at the museum, doing a lot with Tarantino, working towards this team at the playground, taking classes, doing my internship, planning my trip back to MN for a bit. It's getting pretty exhausting! By the end of the day the last thing I want to do is sit down and write a blog that I'm sure no one reads but me (and all I ever end up doing is going over it thinking how I could have written it better). Add to that trying to have a social life and I've got a full plate. I've been writing a two woman sketch show with my friend MaryCait and we meet tomorrow night which is exciting! We need to send out our submissions by tomorrow so they get back on time to MN for MN fringe festival so I think I'll do that tomorrow night as well. If we get in, then I'll be back in MN for a lot of this summer. That'd be great. I miss people in MPLS and I'm excited to be back. I really feel too that I need to start traveling more. I'm catching a really bad travel bug. If I could find a job that sends me around the country, that would be ideal. I'd love to get paid either to travel, or to do something that allows me to travel while I do it, like writing or painting or photography or math. If someone paid me a ton of money just to do their taxes yearround I'd do it if I was getting paid enough to travel. A couple science tidbits for you: Bees can understand the numbers 1-3. That's not many numbers, but when you're a bee, I suppose you probably can only visit two or three flowers before you're overloaded with pollen and need to drop off your shit to the hive. One through three is all you'd need. Also, the science news website is a little ridiculous sometimes. Sometimes the news stories are great and profound but today one of them was about how when cells get old they let in the "bad stuff". Duh. That's why old people end up in hospitals and retirement homes. Because they're weaker. Their cells weaken, allowing for easier disease transmission. Come on! Science news, you can look at the big picture and figure that one out, I'd like you to put more interesting articles up please. You know, the kind that make me go "what?! Wait a minute...I want to read the rest of that article because I'm sure you explain how that works..." Thank you all for reading my evening rant....I'll write tomorrow morning!

Hope you have a great eve

Lis

Slept like a Superstar today

2009-01-21T21:44:00.000-08:00

It was what turned out to be sort of a lonely hump day for the ol' El Bee. Work was fine, stayed a little later to tour the 2B folks (those that work upstairs in the offices of the museum) then came home and slept most of my night away. For about three hours in fact. I don't know if I just needed the sleep or what but upon waking I can't help but feel like I've just wasted a night. I have to work tomorrow morning so there's no use in going out at this point though I have gotten three calls and/or texts tonight from folks that are out on the town (or in another town, as it were) that are having fun and I can't help but feel left out or something. To trudge after that float on the pity parade, I've been making excuses for myself NOT to go to the gym, even though I get three free gym times at YMCA this month, and then I can pick up my scholarship app to go on a discount hopefully. Basically, I just feel fat or something. On the plus side, not today but every other day before that recently, I've been feeling uber-motivated to do stuff like write and look up fringe festival info and get things rolling for a few months from now and all that. ALSO we should note a few sciencey things (yes, I promised for the last couple days and I'm finally delivering)

1. Antarctica is warming. We've known this for a while but I couldn't help but wonder today what is going to happen to the fortress of solitude.

2. Scientists are finding more and more genetic similarities between twins on a DNA level. Duh. Come on, scientists, they come from one egg.... Duh.

3. Three seperate families of fish were classified as the EXACT SAME FISH today. Whalefish. So it's Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species....and marine biologists got three different Families for the same fish because the male, female, and larvae look so flippin different...can you believe that shit?! This is deep-sea fish territory we're talking about, the kind of crap that I go ape for....I could have been the bitch to figure this out and then the Whalefish could have been renamed from Cetomimidae to Burtonimidae. I want to discover a fish. A fish no one has ever heard of. Oy. Not to mention the two other steps to classification (genus and species) that were below Family that these fish had previously been classified with as well. At least somebody noticed it right away. I bet there are hundreds of bullshits like this, bugs and worms and lizards that are the same animal at different stages of life that scientists just named different to be all, "there are thousands of this type of animal" when there are really maybe only three with thousands of life cycles or something.

Ok, I hope you had a fabulous Wednesday!!!! Adios, amigo.

Thank you for reading.

Also, I think I want to try riding a mechanical bull sometime. It sounds like fun and looked like a lot of fun in the movie Urban Cowboy.

Lis

Diagnosis: New Presidentosis.

2009-01-20T20:41:00.000-08:00

What a day! Ladies and gentlemen, I don't need to tell you all again what happened today that we all experienced, so I will tell you what I experienced. I was walking down to Starbucks (yes, sue me, all the small coffeeshops in my area close after 7:30pm in the wintertime) and an older African American man started walking with me and at first asked me to purchase an Obama Pin. "no, thank you" I politely replied, and was then nervous that this man kept following and talking to me until he said, "oh, hell, everybody's done with this shit for the day, I may as well get some cookies for my kids and go home...you mind if I walk with you for a little bit?" We had a nice conversation about Obama, Change, Change not happening overnight, what I was doing in Chicago, if I was from New York (I was wearing my New York City hat and the man seemed disappointed to find out I was not, in fact, from NYC); but I was then surprised to find out that this man was a substitute teacher. He was talking to me about his day and how one kid got up in his face today and how he lived through the Vietnam war and the Civil Rights Movement and what right did this high school kid have to get in his face and get mad about nothing in particular on possibly the most historic day this kid is ever going to see in his lifetime. It was only about a ten minute conversation before I reached Starbucks, but it was a great Inauguration Day gift, and I'll pretend it was from Obama. Thanks, Pres B-O. I'll take it!

Hope you all had as great a Tuesday as I did, and I'll hopefully see you again tomorrow!

Lisa Patriotic Burton

holes in the socks of my weekend inauguration

2009-01-19T21:51:00.000-08:00

I have holes in both the socks I'm wearing today. I feel this is perhaps a metaphor for the day I had. Though the socks kept my feet warm, my big toes were left cold and estranged from the rest of my warm foot. My shoes were great. They kept my feet from getting wet today, but still there seemed to be something just a little off about my step. From the outside everything was perfectly fine and normal but I was just going through the motions, secretly knowing that the holes existed. I think the holes in my day could perhaps translate to the sleep I lacked this morning. My body woke me up at a shockingly early 4:45am and I was unable to get back to sleep. No one else knew this about my day, and I'm sure I seemed perfectly fine today but I felt weird and I think it was the lack of sleep. This changed my morning routine. For example, I was able to dress myself a little matchy-matchy today and I curled my hair and made a lunch that I didn't have to pay for in the cafeteria. Don't get me wrong, I liked it. I felt pretty good about the amount that I got done this morning, but I still felt weird. Then I forgot it was MLK Jr. day because I'm a pud. I thought maybe I was just lucky that the trains weren't crowded, that maybe karma had caught up with me or something and somewhere down the line I had done something great for someone and that it was coming back to me in the form of an easy commute. Turns out not to be the case. It was MLK Jr. Day. Then we got slammed at the museum, which is always good and bad. Good because the day goes by fast. Bad because we're super busy.

My weekend was very great! The folks from the Brave New Workshop Theatre came down for sketchfest which was super fun! The shows I did at sketchfest went really really well, and I thoroughly enjoyed having the passes to get to see some other sketch groups. I even got to spend some time with Mike while they were all in town!

On that note, I hope you have a great inauguration Tuesday morning and I thank you for reading and I'll write tomorrow!

Lisa b.

I don't really like water

2009-01-13T05:05:00.000-08:00

I don't like the act of drinking water all that much, or maybe it's that I don't like the taste or something. I'm probably just effing weird, and yeah it feels good to have water after a run or other high energy activity or when it's hot but if given the choice to quench my thirst with water or orange juice, apple juice, kool-aid, watered down flat diet coke I got from McDonalds for lunch yesterday, or nasty lemon-lime gatorade, I'll choose any of the latter and leave the water on the table. I can actually feel the difference when I start drinking more water, my body feels better but it's getting it into a glass to put into my mouth that I have trouble with. I'd rather taste something, maybe? Or maybe it's that the Chicago water doesn't taste very good? But this has been a recurring problem throughout my life. Hrm. Anyhow, today I'm going to "check out" of the U-505 and get my pewter pin and be able to give tours for realsies. I'm excited for the show on Thursday but have not yet found an intern to fill in for me at the IO yet, which is a little nerve-racking. Even if it's just for two hours so I can bust out and do the show and then come back, that would be enough, I just need to FIND somebody! Sooo busy! Ah well, I like it that way. Hope your Tuesday is smashing!

Thank you for reading!

Lisa B.

P.S.

Tomorrow I'll get back to science, I swear!

Just what I did on Monday. That's it.

2009-01-12T21:11:00.000-08:00

Today I did some things:

1. Gave my first tour of the U-505 all on my own, with NO help from anyone. I should be getting my pewter pin in the next day or so.

2. Sat at home thinking about how my socks are all dirty because it's been so wet outside and I should really invest in some good snowboots but I won't.

3. Went to Gingers after having chatted with my friend Tina online and ended up running into a bunch of people I know and playing set at Gingers tonight, which was fun and some of the first improv I've done onstage in front of people in months.

4. Did tech rehearsal for show at Sketchfest on Thursday....went awesome.

That's what I did. That is all I have today. I am tired.

Hope you had a great Mondaytacular!!! Thanks for reading, as always.

Lisa B.

historian fantasy rant

2009-01-08T15:31:00.000-08:00

I wish I was a spy. Well, sometimes I wish I was a spy. I just wish I could do everything because there are so many things in the world that get my engine turning! I've recently turned over in my head the thought of becoming a historian. There were these two drawings in my parents' house growing up that pictured an old man in a huge library with thousands of books all over the place, large bookshelves from floor to ceiling and a comfy armchair in the middle of it all. I want to be that old man and I have a feeling the only way to do that is to become a historian. That would be the only feasable way I could be interesting and long winded but justify having an enormous library where I spent most of my days. I could sort of introvert myself into my library and make huge creative discoveries and connections between ideas. I could know about scientific history as well as world and social history (sometimes the same thing) and write large interesting volumes that many people would of course want to read because hey, I'm a historian. "This was writ by that great historian, Lisa Burton" they'd say. Perhaps it would be long after I was dead and gone. People would come in and discover my bones in a secret passageway with all my writings strewn about me, put them into a book and say, "goodness, this woman had an incredible grasp on history!" And wait! I would have super secret information about the world because people would need to connect the dots to tons of discoveries and why use a computer when they could just come to me, the garbage center for useless knowledge, and I could use my brain to connect the dots for them and tell them what book they can reference it in so that their discovery of the masks of the Guadelahara can be archived with the correct artifacts because they are said to have mysterious magical powers. Hm. I'll sleep on it. Hope you had a fun Thursday and I'll probably write tomorrow! Thanks for reading!!!

~Lis

History, Coal Mines, and Billy Corgan

2009-01-07T15:38:00.000-08:00

History is sooooo so so so interesting. To everyone. Young, old, rich, poor, everyone loves history. Something about it is wonderful, magical even. I get to give tours now of the U-505 submarine at the Museum and I'm totally digging everything that goes into it. It's like previous to this I had never heard of a submarine or something. All of a sudden doors have opened up and wars seem interesting to me. Never before have I been so intrigued by military machinery, no offense all the boys I know, but I just never have up until this point. I have three books that I'm going to try and get from the library so that I can read through them. Three boring-sounding books about submarines that I am so excited to read I could pee myself. I got to walk some kids through the submarine tonight and I decided that at the point I'm at now that was maybe a bad idea because the kids and I just kept going back and forth about how totally sweet it was to be on the inside of a real life submarine. I then realized that maybe I need to do my research and get over this fantasy of old-timey war. Most of my friends will be excited to know this spark of history interest has ignited a fire that may be difficult to put out anytime soon because not only am I now interested to know more about WWII (not that I didn't know a lot before I mean come ON we're all required to learn about that stuff in school just now I WANT to know) but I also am excited about US history in general. Ok, enough.

Aside from that, I went on a coal mine tour today, also very interesting. The machinery coal miners use is heavy duty stuff! Man alive, to think so many men got paid so little money to do so much work, and right here in Illinois no less!!! Yikes! Also, Billy Corgan was in the Museum today.

Hope your Wed was spectacular!!!

Lisa B.

Twyla heck am I asking so many questions in this blog?

2009-01-05T15:16:00.001-08:00

I am currently reading Twyla Tharp's "The Creative Habit" and though I'm finding a lot of the book to be self-helpey, I'm really enjoying some of the basic points about harnessing the creative power within and using it on a regular basis. Today I'm addressing a section of the book having to do with muscle memory as compared to improv as an art form/skill. I'm going to open the floor for discussion on this because I'm not sure how I feel just yet....and I'm not even sure I'm making an accurate comparison here, but these are the wires that connected themselves in my head as I was reading:

If you learn skills while learning improv say.... how to just react to whatever "gift" is given to you, or how to spout out the first thing that pops into your head....and if skills learned for dancers that are like that, how high to raise a leg for a certain dance move or how to spin around without vomiting all over the first row....are all of these skills grouped into the category of MUSCLE MEMORY? Because we're then applying those skills to other structures or forms in the improv world, and for dancers it would be to different dances. We should be able to do those things without thinking about them but to do so we really had to work at it at first...well, for most of us. IF THIS IS TRUE I ask you this.....is that a good thing? Aren't we, in improv, constantly trying to stretch ourselves to break out of habits and patterns to be ready for whatever is thrown at us? Don't we do messed up extra hard excersizes to warm up to scramble our minds to accept the impossible every time we step out onstage?

I hope I didn't confuse you too much today. For my small mind, this question is like wondering about the size of the universe.

I hope you have a pleasant Monday evening! Mine will be filled with grilled cheese and tomato soup!

L. Burton

A letter to the early morning CTA train operator

2009-01-02T04:52:00.000-08:00

Dear CTA train operator,

You are a wily fox if ever wily a fox should come. You are the designer of daily destinies and 90% of the time you are the god I curse. Though for the most pare you are the witch that snatches away my hopes of being early or on time to work, this morning you are the savior of my sore bag-heavy arms. After being shoulder to shoulder on a full megabus, not getting sleep, waiting 15 minutes in the cold for my bag, cursing myself for being the idiot who wore jeans with holes in them, and sorely missing the city from whence I came, I was not surprised when I walked up the stairs onto the platform where my brown line train sat, doors freshly closed. But you saved me. You noticed. You opened the doors and I thirstily scrambled inside.

I thank you.

L.M. Burton

Oy, what a year and welcome 2009

2009-01-01T16:56:00.000-08:00

This last year I lived in three different cities, created and met many of my goals, have started to take my creative education to the next level with writing and taking more and more classes, been really poor and really rich at points, purchased my first laptop and my first awesome cell phone, promptly lost that cell phone three months after I had it, started a blog, started reading blogs, saw the conclusion of one relationship and the beginning of another, met countless new friends, been depressed for maybe the first time in my life (oy, money!), saw history, had some of the happiest and proudest moments of my life, and overall, I think 2008 was productive, but a rough one for me. I'm really looking forward to do more in 2009 and try and figure out what the honkin' heck I really want to do. Do I want to keep pursuing the funny knowing there are millions of funnier people out there? Do I want to go back to school and get an education degree and be a teacher? Would I rather spend my life traveling or settle down and then travel to my little heart's delight? One day at a time, people. For now, I'm pretty happy doing what I'm doing but I'm looking forward to being in one place. I know what I want and how to get there, this process is killing me, though. I'm pretty impatient. I'm dealing with the risks I've taken thus far and I'm excited about more risks. 2009 will be another good year for me. A life-changing year perhaps? Isn't every year? Don't we come out different? Or are we the same person we started out as? I like to think I'm a little different than I was last year. For 2009: I'd love to get a camera. I'd love it. Ok, it's time for me to watch some tv until I have to get on the megabus and go back to Chicago.

Hope you all had a pleasant New Year!!! Happy 2009!

Lisa M. Burton

Happy New Year's Eve! Update on how I'm doing.

2008-12-31T09:58:00.000-08:00

'Allo all! So here's my thing about this New Year: I've been a little nervous about the New Year, I don't hundred percent know why but I'm betting it has something to do with how stressed out I was last New Years Eve. I decided to be kinda girly this New Years and dress up, that's right folks, I've borrowed a dress and I'm going to look shnazzy! My shoes even match the dress that I borrowed from Emy (thanks again!) and I got some jewelry, I'm going to do my hair and be the prettiest little Lisa I can be! Aside from that, things have been great! I've been having a nice, low-key, relaxing time with the bf and this seems like it was exactly the mini-vacation I needed. I'm going to get back to Chicago with a renewed intrest in the things I really need to focus on (being writing my show with MC, making some money, saving some money, and taking my classes) and hopefully work hard enough to earn myself some vacation time to travel or something this summer. I'd like to visit a friend in Ireland perhaps? We'll see. I'm going to go talk Fotis into letting me buy him lunch or something. Hope you have a great New Years'! Thanks for Reading!

Lisa B.

P.S.

Stay tuned....tomorrow might be a recap of this year? Or something equally as cliche.

Sweet Lady Minneapolis

2008-12-30T10:35:00.000-08:00

Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen I am in Minneapolis but just for a few days and it WAS kind of a last minute decision to be here so please don't feel bad that I didn't go contacting everyone willy nilly about seeing everybody because sometimes you just need a low-key trip back home to relax a little bit. A mini-vacay if you will. I am however trying to put a week long thing together or something to get to MN and see my fam and friends. And so. I hung out at the BNW last night, the Christmas Show is hilarious, so you'd better see it before it's over. I've lost my voice, so I'm hoping that comes back soon so that I can do my job at the museum when I get back. I'm slowly but surely getting all my debts paid off....YAY!!!! Come Friday (payday) I will have most of them gone. Scientists are wigging out right now because half the universe is a different temperature than the other half which may count against the big bang theory. I don't know. We can't see the whole universe, so maybe overall it's pretty even? I dunno. I hope you have a great Tuesday!!! Thanks for reading!

L. B.

Coral Christmas

2008-12-29T06:13:00.000-08:00

The Corals of the world are all supposed to be gone by 2050. This is one of many reasons I want to get down to Australia to see the Great Barrier Reef before it's all gone. Another reason is how stinkin' cool corals are! I had started to write my big bio thesis on corals before I chose to go the theatre route, and so I will proclaim my love for them here in blog-form. Corals, similar to most naturally occurring stagnant living beings, record history over time. Not many people know this, however, which is why no one has done a "save the corals" campaign or whatever other type of bullshit you would have to do to keep them from dying. The coral animal is, in itself, a cnidarian meaning he is an interesting emmer effer, check it out up top. He's in the same phylum as jellyfish which makes them both stinger-hunters. They eat small animals, plankton, etc. in the water that they sting and those little animals get entangled in the tentacles and they eat them. Corals will deposit Calcium Carbonate to create a great shell/skeleton that they live in. Wouldn't that be FREAKING SWEET?! You'd never have to pay for an apartment again. Each person sort of builds their own apartment on top of their family's apartment or on top of their friends' apartments! Yowza! So here's what happens, as things like hurricanes, tornadoes, runnoff from farmers on the coasts happens, corals will deposit calcium carbonate (this is for their skeletons, people) with trace amounts of whatever the predominate chemical/element to the land is, whether it be illyum, iron, phosphorous, whatever. If that element is too acidic or too basic (which is basically anything over or under pH of about 8 or 9, generally depending on where the coral is) the coral dies and/or deposits that substance into its skeletal makeup. The coral animal itself is what give the coral reefs their color, so when the animal dies bleaching occurs where the skeleton is left, and it's white. My point here is that I should've stuck with Corals because now they're coming out with studies that prove exactly what I had started writing about in college.

Little Holiday Recap From Yours, Truly:

Christmas Eve I had Chinese food and made cookies while watching Love, Actually. I was waiting for Mike to arrive (I was waiting less patiently than he or I would have wanted, I think). He got here on Christmas Day and we went to his family's Christmas. That was very fun! Met all his family and actually his Yia-Yia's basement was almost exactly like my grandparents' basement growing up where we always held Christmases! It was a wonderful jaunt down memory lane for me while at the same time meeting a while new crew of very loud, fun, Christmas-spirit-filled folks! Also may I say, for the record, Nils (Fotis' nefew) is pert near the cutest ever.

Then I worked. ugh.

Now I've got a break! Yay!

Yours Truly (and thank you for reading)

L. MF. B.

Competetive vs. Noncompetetive inhibitors

2008-12-17T08:00:00.001-08:00

Keep happy friends, everyone. It will keep you happy, studies prove it! Ok, ok, so maybe they don't necessarily prove it, but the people you surround yourself with definitely impact how you're feeling on a day to day basis. Surround yourself with positive, happy people, it'll do you some good! Ok, now that that's out of the way, how are you? How've you been? On my relaxing days, I tend to get irritated with myself for not getting things done, is that weird? Yesterday, for example, I really didn't do much. I had planned on going shopping, doing laundry, getting grocieries, maybe even making cookies but I ended up sleeping a lot of my day away. Sleeping is great, but when I'm bored and I don't want to just eat when I'm bored, I'll just get sleepy and nap for four hours at a time. Last night I finally got out and had a beer but with my procrastinator's mindset of "I'll get all this stuff done tomorrow". Eesh. I love getting stuff done, and the way it feels at the end of the day, but on my days off I have trouble doing it! Ack! I actually DO tend to get a lot more done if I either have someone to do my mundane life things with, or if I have people coming over soon, both of which are the case today. What are the catalysts in life? Motivation, Drive, Propulsion to move ahead and achieve whatever large or small goals are in place for that day. I have a tendency to get stuck revising my planner and budget when I should just be DOING. I suppose those things would be the noncompetetive inhibitors of my enzymic lifestyle and in order to break down and get to work, since I don't have competetive inhibitors (like work), I need ADP to get me jumpstarted. Temperature is certainly a factor here. It's now cold and snowy outside so I'm less likely to want to get out of bed, but to make these chores fun, I've got friends to go with me. My ADP. Alright I'm off to do my stuff for the day! I hope you have a great Wednesday!!!

If you need some inspiration, watche Amelie today, or read a good book and tell me what you learned via email or commenting on my blog! I love to hear about that stuff!!!

ADP for the day=Jeremy Kanne and MC Princeton

Thanks for reading!

L. Burton

Science and Creative Mind

2008-12-16T07:52:00.000-08:00

It is incredible Earth is even freaking here, you guys. Seriously. Think about it, there are billions of planets, trillions even that have been and are being created AS WE SPEAK. Have we found life on any of them yet? No. Might there be? Sure. Maybe. Even if there is, they too are very lucky. I mean, the atmosphere created by a planet like this is so specific to our situation. The thought process that goes into understanding the why of all this is mindblowing, and I'm not just talking about the "we're all ants, look at all those stars in the sky at night" bullsnot, I'm speaking specifically to our living environment. Imagine if we had just a hair more nitrogen in the atmosphere. Dead. OR we'd evolve into some weird-looking nitrogen-breathing humans. Wild! In space now, they've discovered the presence of what they're calling Dark Energy, which is the constant that will inevitably control exactly how big the universe can get. Now, I'm not trying to put ideas into anyone's head, but if you were a super villain and heard the news about an identified force/energy/substance that could CONTROL how big the universe is, where it stops expanding, wouldn't you do everything in your power to obtain that substance? Einstein apparently identified the constant of Dark Energy when he was doing his theories of relativity, but disregarded it as his, "greatest blunder". He was too smart and creative for his own good. That makes me think of the creativity in children and how I wonder how many creative kids are running around right now with answers to the universe and they don't even know it. Maybe Joey in Hutchinson, NC. is playing spaceship with his 8 year old brother, Marcus and Joey has a pink blanket that cuts their universe off at the garage door. Dark Matter. Creativity is what? Originality, Inventive, Getting an idea with no definable source of reason. It's the opposite of fact. Fact comes from observation. I can see that my computer screen puts out light because my hands are washed in a creepy bluish glow. I can only assume my screen might put out some heat because of the facts I know about light bulbs and trying to make that connection. If I were to say my computer can float, however, that's a creative thought. There's no reason for it, and yet if I really thought hard right now, I might be able to use fact to make my creative thought become a reality, perhaps using hollograms or projecting the screen onto my wall in such a way that my shadow could be the mouse to click on the icons. We cannot have innovation in science without creativity. If you're an uncreative scientist, then you're just a computer.

Thanks for reading!!!

Hope you have a great Tuesday!

L. Burton

A small morning think

2008-12-06T05:21:00.001-08:00

The cold air next to my bed draws my ear outside to listen to the brief bursts of moving vehicles explode past. The noise has been sound-numbing enough for me to have to turn up the volume on my alarm clock to maximum capacity for me to even hear the thing. This morning I wake up with feelings of gratefulness that I live in a country where I don't have to worry about getting blown up or held hostage every time I walk into a large building. I'm thankful that I have an imagination and that I keep friends with similar thinking patterns. I'm excited to work at the museum today, although I loathe the negative guests that will innevitably make their way onto MY tours today. I shouldn't say that, keep the positive, keep optimistic, I'm looking forward to the challenge of making those guests happy! That's genuine. Ok. Time to start my Saturday.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Thank you for reading.

Lis

It's....Thursday?

2008-12-04T16:43:00.000-08:00

The people I surround myself with are well rounded. I forget sometimes that there are people who are not that way, or aren't wired in every different direction like I am. What I mean to say is that I was at a museum employee program tonight on how to think more creatively and the majority of employees there that struggled with creative thought. Honestly, it surprised me. One woman got depressed because one of the definitions of creativity was to come up with something original from your imagination and not by imitation and she realized that as a girl all of her childhood play was imitating TV! This brings me to my second point that these people got really stressed out that they weren't creative thinkers and took it very seriously. My next thing I want to say about the museum is that it's FRICKEN AWESOME. I get to see a live heart surgery. "WHAT?!", you say, "You didn't just say LIVE HEART SURGERY." Yes. I did. June 3rd I get to see a live heart surgery because they do them at the museum every now and again and June 3rd they're doing one just for employee observation. Apparently, you can even ask the doctor questions while they're performing it. I don't know how comfortable I would be if I was the patient, and I'm not sure just how comfortable I'm going to be asking the doctor questions as they are cutting someone open, but I'll sure go and we'll see what happens.

Hope you're all having a great Thursday!

Thank you for reading.

Lisa

Just an update, really. Not a good blog entry.

2008-12-03T09:41:00.000-08:00

Today is my sleep-in day! Laundry will soon ensue, as will an update of my budget worksheet which I am keeping up-to-date. I found a pretty slick spreadsheet on my computer that will calculate how much I will save if I spend only what I NEED to spend and save the rest. Awesome. Now, if only I could discipline myself to never spend an extra cent, I'd be golden. I've been having really vivid family dreams lately. That's where I'll leave it for now until they get super interesting.

I started my internship at IO last night and it was super fun! I was a little worried about no one liking me but I made, like, eight new friends. Among my new friends, I met the notoriously good headshot photographer John Abbott who also happens to be the bartender upstairs.

I'm thinking of joining the YMCA and seeing if I can't get a super discounted income-based membership or a free membership if I volunteer or something. I was going to try and just go the winter without running, but then I just feel like a blob. I really like running and it's a great stress relief for me.

Do you have a meal routine? I'm curious to know if other people do because for the longest time it was nearly impossible for me to have one and now that I'm out of money, I have oatmeal for breakfast, a sandwich and yogurt for lunch, and ramen for supper. Just about every day. It's good, but I fear it will get old quick. How can I affordably change up my shit?

Thank you for reading!!

Lis

My bills beg to be paid

2008-12-02T15:17:00.000-08:00

They're begging me. "Lisa, pay me, you'll love it."

I'm sure I'll love it.

I can't wait to have the amount of money when I can just pay all my crap and be done with it. That'll be great.

Today, I spent some time doing different things like going on U boat tours. That was super fun for me and I'm looking forward to giving those tours because I have found I like submarines.

I start my IO internship tonight, hooray!!! I'm so excited I could puke! I'm not going to puke but I might get a free membership at the Y for volunteering, we shall see!

Hope you have a great rest of your Tuesday, I'll write tomorrow!

I dig you.

Lis

A little Catch-up

2008-12-01T16:27:00.001-08:00

I had a really nice Thanksgiving week, as M. Fotis was in town we did quite a bit of walking about, relaxing, stress-free. Thanksgiving was spent working at the museum. I came home and had a quiet night of watching AI and making cake which was just fine. I knew I was going to be bummed out about not doing the holiday thing, but I was pretty sad about missing the Thanksgiving mess at my grandparents house. Even if they're spent with other families, it's kind of nice to feel that frazzled holiday thing once or twice a year. For some, maybe it's just something to complain about that we can complain with other people that go through it to, thus bringing us closer to other people through complaining about our families. For others, they genuinely enjoy the loud voices of grandparents shouting at children and the arguments over political candidates or the quirky nature of those that are blood related. For me, I've discovered, it's that I only really see those people once or twice a year anymore so missing this Thanksgiving and Christmas is like missing an entire year with them. The next time I see them, my baby cousins will be in elementary school and my elementary school cousins will be dating. That may be a little dramatic, but time flies in the areas of your life that you aren't focusing on. I genuinely love them and I'm not saying it's merely an obligation, quite the opposite, I do like all the noise (not all the time, mind you, but a couple times a year it's very entertaining). I mean I'll go back for Easter and that will be ok but I still haven't seen most of them since last Christmas. Families change and people grow in different directions, but sometimes I wish they didn't. Up until this point I wondered why or how it happened that individual families end up having their own Christmases or Thanksgivings together, without all the extended family. That's just another tally on the board of life questions that got answered this year. This past weekend working at the museum was somewhat hellish. People people everywhere and no sleep to be had. People were just dicks this weekend too. One woman came in two days in a row just to complain to ME. I mean, I'm flattered that she spoke to me specifically but COME ON! Today, Monday, was a nice break from all that. No screaming babies on tours. No angry guests to comment to me about the screaming babies on the tour. No teenagers to break the stuff in the smarthome. It was a great low-key day. Can't wait for Wednesday, my day off when I get to do laundry! It snowed today in Chicago and the waves on the lake were crazy huge!!! I can't wait to take my snowboard out.

Hope you had a great first day of December!!!

Thank you for reading!

L. M. Burton

A nice story.

2008-11-26T10:56:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-25T08:27:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-24T05:44:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-20T19:54:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-19T09:20:00.000-08:00

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.

2008-11-17T05:15:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-14T17:06:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-13T21:19:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-12T11:13:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-10T11:40:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-05T08:49:00.001-08:00

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!

2008-11-04T05:39:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-03T04:57:00.001-08:00

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

Snowboarding and Halloween

2008-10-31T09:51:00.000-07:00

Oh, man you guys I LOVE Halloween! There's no real reason. I don't ever do much for the holiday and tonight's really no different. I've got a show tonight, "Are You There God? It's Me, Satan." (Gorilla Tango Theatre, $12, 10pm) so I probably won't dress up or go out or do anything that cool. I don't have the money to go out drinking. I don't have a house to pass out candy from. I might just come home and watch the Emily Rose movie I have, or maybe Saw. I wish I had the movie Rosemary's Baby, because it's been a while and I sort of like that movie as a creepy classic. Regardless, the point of what ended up being an unintentional pity rant was that I'm simply not doing much, but I still LOVE Halloween. Maybe it's getting the opportunity to watch grown adults behave like children for a night, or that a lot of children try and behave like grown adults. Maybe it's that pavlovian instinct of "This is the holiday where I get candy" when really, I probably won't get much candy this year. Well, until Monday when the care package my grandma sent me gets here. She called me this morning to let me know it was coming, that adorable woman. Today I'm probably going to go running again (even though my legs are sore as HELL from two days ago when I ran 2.9 miles (that's right, farther than ever in the city) and then came home and did the floorwork portion of this excersize video I have...holy Shit!) or maybe I will watch movies ALL DAY until I have to go do the show tonight. Who knows?! What I DO know is that I'm super pumped about this winter because I found other snowbunnies in my improv class and they also snowboard!!! I haven't been the last couple of years because of random "I don't have money" or "I don't have anyone to go with" or "I don't have a proper vehicle" but now I will at least have people to go with and a vehicle to get me there. Money will be tough, but I want to go at least once or twice this year. Every time I think about it I get super excited because I like doing it so much and I have a board and brand new boots and bindings so I really had better get my ass out into the snow this winter. Sheesh, I sure have been swearing a lot this blog. Sorry, team. Well, I hope you all have a splendid Halloween, try not to get slaughtered violently by anyone in a mask and I'll see you on Monday! Be Safe, Be Smart, And have a great weekend! Thanks for reading ~~~~ Lisa

don't let The Man get you down

2008-10-30T11:06:00.000-07:00

It's Thursday. I had an interview this morning with the Container Store. They make that place seem like the best fucking place to work EVER. They keep talking about people that just came on to do temporary stuff and then never leave and how they hardly have any turnover rate at all because everyone loves it so much and how they have a whole bunch of people on staff but they only are going to take about 9% of the people they're interviewing right now and I don't know. I just know that if I get hired there, I'm going to take it. Seems awesome, it's just a bunch of organizational stuff. Hell, who knows, maybe I'll find my secret career there. They are all about letting me be who I am at work and they were like, "We're not afraid of the word sell because for us, it's the same as the word help. We work in organization!" and the thing about it is, in any other retail store that would sound skeezy, but in the Container store, they're right. They have great benefits for part-timers, in fact they said in that huge store with over 100 people employed, they only have about 16 full timers. I don't know how they did it, but they got me all jazzed up about crap. I start at the museum on Monday, which I'm ever so excited about. It's about time. I calculated it out, and if I get fired from Vicky-S for not sticking to the availability I put down when I got hired, I'll still have enough money to make it if I'm working as many hours as I want to at the museum (being 30 hours a week) because that's still part time. So now it's just juggling everything. I found my dream planner, too. Oh...planners. I get a hard-on for planners. The one planner I stuck to really well I just lost about a month ago and it's driving me bonkers. So my dream planner is from a website called starthereny.com which a friend of mine introduced me too since that's where she got her planner from. I was looking at hers and I freaking love it. It's the perfect size and has both monthly and weekly planning junk in it. That's all I ask and you'd be surprised at how many planners do NOT have those things. It's stupid. So. I think things are right on track again....well, for the most part. I'm still super nervous about getting my money shit together but it will all work out eventually. It may take some time, but I'm actively trying to get it done which means this frustration only stems from a helplessness that I feel about now being able to control my income at this point. Damn. Thanks for reading!!! Hope you have a great rest of your Thursday, I know I will!

~~~~Lisa

Technicolor mind bubbles of spewy goodness

2008-10-29T07:22:00.001-07:00

I'm living in a little slice of bliss right now. Sipping on Dunkin' Donuts coffee, morning sun pouring through the three corner windows into my welcoming living room in Chicago, the street below abuzz with commuters and I'm warm inside in my pjs listening to the Current, and I'm writing. Today's going well so far. I just need to keep my mind off money and money off my mind and I'll be ok. I want to take a sentence and thank those of you who have been endlessly supportive and positive when I've been very negative.....thank you so much, you have helped me shorten the time that I am stuck in an attitude that I don't want to be in. I'm getting geared up for NaNoWriMo, I'm getting a little nervous about it, ten pages or so a day, but it'll be fun and I can do it I think. It'll at least jumpstart me into writing all the time like I want to. Blogwriting has helped me get used to putting words somewhere daily, which is great, but now I'm going to be putting together a comprehensive story. I don't know how good I am at telling a story on paper. I know I'm not very good at it when I'm talking to people. I often am just inspired by something they've said to tell a story that usually has no point and then we share an awkward silence at the end of my story, until they struggle to pick something out of what I've said that will continue conversation. I'm, of course, left to bang my head against the imaginary wall in front of me and say "goddammit, goddammit, goddammit". You'd think as an improviser I'd be good at being consise with my language and when talking to people, but it seems to be just the opposite. I have this problem of, well, it's not even diarrhea of the mouth as much as vomit of the mind. I just end up spewing forth all the swelled thoughts that connect themselves to whatever we're talking about. I like to think it's part of my charm but I'm sure it just gets annoying a lot of the time and frankly it's something I'm working on. I have class and rehearsal tonight, getting some new sketches from the writers this evening for the show that goes up at the end of November. I am rather impatiently waiting for my headshots to get back to me. I'm so excited, I can't help it! I hope you're having a great Wednesday already, I know I plan on it! Thank you for reading what I've written!~~~~Lisa

A Confession

2008-10-28T12:10:00.000-07:00

It's been over a month since my last full work day. It's not for a lack of trying, work-father. Chicago is just.....big and hard. On my days off? Well, I'm online a lot. I know, internet can be a deadly sin even to those who are working but it's become a comfort. Let it go? Are you crazy?! Maybe I'll try to cut back, but can't just go cold turkey, facebook is the smoke-break for those who are unemployed ok? So I've got a few temp agencies and now I've finally got two jobs! That's right, two jobs. How do I explain why I'm not at work right now? They haven't given me a start date, yet work-father. If you could talk to them- well I HAVE called them. Yes, every day for the last week or so. I realize it's rocky on the economical battlefield right now, I'm sorry. That doesn't take back the embarrassing episode last night in the grociery store when I got misty eyed when the man ringing up my grocieries used a special card to cut my grociery price in half so I could afford some oatmeal and soup. No no no, I'm not whining, I'm sorry. I've done enough of that with my time off. No, I've seen some museums and parks around the city. I've familiarized myself with the city enough to help others find where they're going as well. I've read a couple of books. I've written countless letters. Heck, I even got into a couple of shows to fill my evenings! But those don't pay the bills, in fact, they don't pay at all. I'm ready for something new, and I guess I'll just hope and pray that you give me something by Thursday. And I do want to thank you for the paycheck you unexpectedly sent in the mail yesterday. I very much needed it.

Lisa

Pretty fun weekend

2008-10-27T07:48:00.000-07:00

I got to babysit a cute baby, I had a final dress rehearsal for one show, went to a party where I met some people, had a first rehearsal for another show, a class at IO, and went to see shows on Sunday night, overall it was a pretty fun weekend, nice and busy, just the way I like it. Though I'm not working NEARLY as much as I'd like to, I am enjoying having the free time to do whatever the fuck I want to with, which means I can go to whatever shows I please. Awesome.

I'm getting pumped about NaNoWriMo, though I'm not nearly as researched yet as I'd like to be. I need to do some looking about robot creation and the industrial revolution and I should be a-ok. I get so excited about parties sometimes but when I'm there, there are usually periods of time where I really do just want to sit on the wall and watch people. Especially at parties where I hardly know anyone. I found the perfect halloween costume to do just that, I dressed up in a big sweatshirt and jeans and went as a rapist. Though most might find this offensive, I figured it would go over well at an improv party and I was right. I walked into the IO last night and three people walked up to me and said, "Hey, I saw you at the party on Saturday, you were the rapist, right?" or "Hey, look, it's my favorite rapist!" so, I'm thinking that is going to do wonders for my social life here in Chicago (for better or worse, only time will tell). My favorite costumes of the night: Hunter S. Thompson, Gallagher, Batman, Spirit, Little red riding hoodrat, Mac and PC; and I think those were the most memorable for me at the party, I'm sure there were more great ones, but those were the ones I remember here on Monday morning, sorry guys. I hope you all have a splendid start to your week! Appreciate you takin' the time!

~~~Lis

The saddest love story

2008-10-24T11:56:00.001-07:00

There was a man named Maurice. There was a woman named Shante. They loved each other very much, and in so many ways. Maurice didn't have much money, but he loved that woman so good that he would take her out to fancy restaurants on his last pennies. He didn't have a job, but he was makin his bread. Shante loved him, but she didn't quite feel like it was time for them to get married until Maurice could get on his feet. Then Shante was noticed by a mutual friend of theirs, Bennie. Bennie wasn't the best looking or the most romantic of gentlemen, but had money. Bennie owned two Popeyes Chicken Shacks on the south side of Chicago and he didn't know how or when, be he was gonna get him that girl because little did Maurice know, Bennie loved Shante, too. Maurice again was down to his last dime and took Shante out to a nice romantic picnic on the river and he pulled out the $50 ring he bought her at Kmart and he said, "Shante, hows about you and me get married?" and he gave her that charming cocky grin of his, and she looked at him and laughed. "Mo-rice!" She said through laughter, "I ain't gonna marry you. Not till you get yourself a real job and we can settle down a bit, you know? Oh, baby." The next night, Shante stood Maurice up on their date. Turns out, Shante had been wooed by Bennie and not two months later, Bennie brought Shante to a fine restaurant, and said, "Baby, I have something I want to show you..." he took her to the south side of Chicago and opened the car door and when Shante stepped out she saw the Popeyes with a ribbon around the door and Bennie said, "This' all for you, baby, will you marry me?" And now they're living in some suburb somewhere, but that's good for 'em ya know? I was happy she is taken care of, Bennie is good to her, she's got a good man. Me, I drive the bus. That's what I got. I like it. ~~~~ I tried to tell that story as closely to the way the busdriver told it as I could. He was a riot and he was in very very good spirits about the whole thing. I really want something to go really right for him because his good mood made my day.

Thanks for reading!

Lisa

Really, it's me venting job frustrations....again. You may want to skip this and come back tomorrw.

2008-10-23T07:18:00.000-07:00

I'm still nervous about jobs and crap today. I haven't heard back from the museum and Victoria's Secret doesn't really care. I don't think. I also lost my funding on my metro card so I'm not sure how I'm getting around yet. I don't have a bike helmet, but my bike may have to do until I can afford either a helmet or the metro card for another month. Still no money on the money front. Looks like another day of running ahead of me. Then watching a new episode of pushing daisies. Then maybe another three hour nap? Then go see a show toinght. Check THIS out to see a recently discovered dinosaur species. It looks like something right out of a science fiction book. Bizarro, right? How can that shit have four bird claws? Weird. I think the most frustrating part about not having a job is that I'm trying. It's not for lack of trying. I've been going from business to business trying to find a job, and no one's hiring or they're hiring friends of friends (who you know) so it's not like I'm just sitting on my ass all day not wanting a job. I want one. Oh, god I want one, it would make me feel better just knowing that I'm actually DOING something about my pile of overdue bills even if I couldn't pay them for the next MONTH at least I know that I'm DOING something about it. Gah! Frustrating! I'm only six weeks in and I feel a little like I'm drowning. Ok. That's enough. I also keep going back and forth from extreme anxiety to deep breaths and calm down and you can't do anything about it so shut the fuck up mode. As far as acting goes, I'm fine. I'm doing a show, possible show right after that, classes are great (if I can get them to let me work off the classes) and I get to see a bunch of free theatre with my student passes. If the fun things in my life could pay the bills, I'd be living in one of those high rise condos with a view of the lake. Thanks for reading my blog, you guys ~~~Lisa

Improv: Art or Craft?

2008-10-22T09:24:00.000-07:00

I saw The Reckoning last night. They're so good. They just are. It's the way they identify a theme without it seeming forced and they just play the shit out of every aspect of that theme they can think of. They don't plan out the scenes in their head, it's obvious, they just play the character in each situation. These are hard things for me to do. Sometimes, NOTHING happens in their scenes, but the characters are engaging enough that it's fantastic! Example; 2 women talking very snobbishly about "the people down there" refferring to the peasants below. One woman obviously does not know a whole lot about them and is asking questions. The other woman, who seems to know more about them just talks about them as though they were highly developed ants. The whole scene was just this game of 'What is that woman going to say NEXT?! She's so mean...' There were a couple of moments that could have been construed as disconnect, but because these players have on their game hats, everything is accepted, they never "call out" the other people, it's all within the piece. It's obvious that the IO is artsy. Everything is a Piece meant to show the audience something, meant to make them think in a new way, which is in no way a bad thing, and yes, the groups that have been stellar have made me think about some theme in a new way or about a situation differently, but I haven't decided yet for myself if I think improv is an ART.

The way Gellman is teaching us at Second City is that it's a CRAFT. It's a way for actors to experiment with character that has turned into a way to play together. It can be honed and taught. Art is created with a vision in mind. Improv is a skill. Don't read into it so much, folks. He says that's why there are unions for it. Being that acting and improv are essentially the same thing. Improvisers are actors, if they're not, then they're no good and it's obvious.

I haven't decided for myself yet. I realize as I'm writing it, this would be a far more interesting blog if I could definitively state for myself "I BELIEVE XYZ..." but I can't just yet. Maybe it's the difference between the skill portion and the, ahem, magic (?) that steps improv up to the level of greatness. Some brain function that skips and frolics from one lobe to the next, allowing humans to suspend reality if only for 15 minutes and pretend within the realm of fact and then beyond into a world of unimaginables. Either way, I like it. I'm still enjoying it.

Thanks for reading

Lis

Tuesday is a funday

2008-10-21T09:54:00.001-07:00

I had to lengthen my run today which felt pretty great! Added a couple blocks, putting my run closer to three miles. It's getting colder outside, and I should probably take the air conditioning out of my window. It's becoming increasingly more difficult to crawl out from underneath my nice warm down comforter into the sharp stabbing cold air of my room. I worry about dropping the appliance onto someone below my window. I'm sure I won't but what if I did? Or what if I just dropped it NOT on someone? I can't afford another air conditioner. I'll try it soon. Maybe not today. But soon.

I start at Vicky-S tonight. Bra and Panty city. I'm pretty excited. Then after that I am going to see some improv at the IO. Yay for being forced to hang out with classmates, because that means friends. And I like hanging out with people sometimes. I don't have much for you today. I'm trying to get used to writing on blogger here. I don't think I like it, which is too bad, but I'll get used to it.

Thank you for reading!!!

Lisa

boo.

2008-10-19T17:57:00.000-07:00

My mac.com free trial pooped out. I'm stuck with this until I can figure out the money to get the site up and running again. Thanks for being patient with me, guys.

Lis

I miss biology

2008-08-15T12:16:00.000-07:00

I helped a bat out of Mikes house yesterday.

After that, I have been really missing biology. I've been doing a little research about bats and am finding fascinating things about them, things I already knew but had forgotten in the hubbub of life. *Also know that you will feel a bat bite if you're bitten...it's a common misconception

"But simply seeing a bat in one's home isn't usually cause for alarm.

'People sometimes mistakenly believe you couldn't feel a bat bite,' French said.

'I've had lots of bat bites, and they hurt. They feel like sharp needle jabs. Any conscious adult is going to know if they're bitten.'"

~national geographic

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/08/060815-bats-rabies_2.html

I love facts. I love knowing things. I love learning.

Makes me want to start discussing science news in my blogs, so maybe I'll do that. Once a day, do a little blip about science. That might keep me motivated to be in the loop and keeping up on my science news.

Aside from all this, this morning the class of kids that I've been directing in Wizard of Oz performed today. A-fricken-Dorable. They were great. From the classic kid-talks-to-director while the performance is going on, to the kids getting lost mid-show and turning to ask me what the next scene is. They were wonderful. The parents were happy.

That's what I got. I get to watch movies tonight. Yay! Hooray for nights off of work!

franks for reading

Lis

spammers and phishing

2008-08-14T14:49:00.001-07:00

I got spammed/phished on facebook.

It happens to lots of people, but it's kind of embarassing when it happens to you. People pick on you about it, and not that I can't take some picking, but the thing of it is....it's my fault. I didn't double check my address bar to make sure it said "www.facebook.com" and I am the one to blame. *shakes head and looks at floor in shame. Sorry friends, I would never EVER type like a nine year old girl that just found out what texting is. I wouldn't want you to think that I intentionally am selling some website where you purchase the name of someone who has a crush on you.

Apologies.

I'm over worrying about Chicago. I mean not over over worrying about it, but as soon as all the plays were done I got crazy with worry because I found time to worry about it. I'm over it. I know it'll be fine, and I'll have the money by the time I go, but I don't have the money now, and THAT worries me. But not as much as it did yesterday. Ok. That's all I've got today. I'm tired and I'm going to go have dinner with my grandmother. Have a great day.

Thanks for reading.

Lis

2008-08-12T11:52:00.000-07:00

Jeepers.

Jumpin' Jellyfish.

I'm a little wiped out.

There's been so much going on lately, what with getting done with Hamluke a few weeks ago, doing this fringe show I was in, going to see a TON of fringe this last week, planning for Chicago, working at the workshop, teaching in the mornings, AHH! Not to mention money. Ew. Money. Trying to make it, keep it, spend it wisely. It's the stuff nightmares are made of. I'm pretty sure every time I have that dream where I'm being chased in the dark and I don't know what is chasing me or where I'm going or how to get out of it.....it's money.

I am going to chicago next weekend for a few days with Dave and Tyler to scope out some living arrangements. Ought to be rock awesome. I also need to figure out how to set up a webpage....still. It's a lot more difficult and confusing than one might expect. Everyone seems to have a different way of doing it, and the more you ask around, the more confusing it is. "you could just pay $100/year and have a webpage....easy" unless you don't have $100. But THEN the other option is "you can have a free webpage with the url www.lisa_!#burton_*105849@j.mac.purgebucket.netbox and that's not very marketable. I'll figure it out, I just need to find the time.

Today will be a day of sending and calling, of working and keeping a good attitude...perhaps I also need to bake some brownies and watch a movie. And just relax.

Lis

I'm a busy kid

2008-07-28T16:02:00.000-07:00

Business. Busyness. Bustiness. Bizarreness. Bisquickness.

July 2nd seems like ages ago as I launch into august with half force. I'm still trying to get finances on track from back in June of 2007 and I finally got my computer back, but lost ALL my files on it, so I get to reboot all that crap or whatever. Lame. What really sucks is all my writing that I lost on it.

Apple Computers. Deemed the most advanced computers among the middle class. I did my research, they have some of the most ram you can get for your buck. Two days ago, however, I was sure my computer had cloven feet the way it kept bouncing me back to the opening screen. How frustrating to be computerless for even a weekend after just dropping fifteen hundred on a computer you carry around with you all the time. Eeh. What I have discovered might end up being my favorite thing about them is that throughout their whole life, you can take them into the apple store and the mac doctors will fix up your little guy. Gave my computer a shot of software this morning, and we were on our way.

"The future you have tomorrow will be different from the future you have today" ~ a quote from the book Rant by Chuck Palahnuk (sp?) Quite a quotable book so far. Looking forward to the rest of it. This is one thing I can thank my computer for shutting down on me for...I got back to reading all five books I'm into right now.

More to come later, now to softball.

Go Skirt Turtles!

Lisa

Thanks for reading.

Unproductive Netty

2008-07-02T19:09:00.000-07:00

So today was a little unproductive in the ways of personal work. Boo.

I'm looking forward to Andy Brynildson's roast on Monday. I'm not sure that I can make it in person, but I'm finding my own ways of being there for sure. If late, than late. And drunk.

I have got three apartments that I am going to email to Davey (as he is in Chicago/Millwaukee now) and see about getting him to go look at them. My resume's are not coming along as well as I had hoped, however, I do have headshots tomorrow morning that I'm looking forward to a great deal! Yippee! Headshots! And they'll be great, I've got a friend of mine that's doing them. She's done a number of other friends of mine, and she's great. I'll let you know how they turn out.

Listening to improv groups practice is sometimes excrutiating. I want to be there with them, creating. I want to be improvising right now. Not sitting behind concessions and blogging. It's relaxing (somewhat) yes, but I'm too interested in getting better as an improviser. Or if not doing it, than at least watching. I like watching too.

Ok, that's enough for today. Just wait for Friday's big essay, it'll be just fine.

Thanks for your time.

Lis

TCIF WEEKEND MADNESS...and the withdrawl that ensues

2008-07-01T13:16:00.000-07:00

Wow. Twin Cities Improv Festival. Wow.

So many talented performers. More importantly, so many great people.

I was completely inspired by the fun, fantastic events of this weekend. I could try to recap them, but I feel it would stain the memory or somehow formalize it into something less magical than what I have in my mind. That's very dramatic, I realize, but seriously, it was a blast. I guess all I can say if you don't know what I'm talking about is you shoulda been there, and the good news for you is there's one next year.

So, I have been thinking a lot lately about how the format of my blog is going to be laid out, you almost have to have a point to your blog for it to be interesting anymore. Some point of focus and though improv seems like it should be pointed enough, I want to put a freaking dilated lens on this bitch so I'm thinkin every friday will be essay day. Throughout the week, I'm going to write a two or three page essay on some topic. Probably most often it will be improv related, but sometimes it will not be, maybe sometimes it will be about other things I love, like corals, which will all be gone by 2050 (so you'd better get off your ass and get down to the great barrier reef to see those, srsly). Though this may seem boring, it will not be. It will be interesting. And if nothing else, we all get to learn a little something along the way.

Alright, so Dave is in Milwaukee/Chicago area. He said he's going to do some apartment hunting for us this weekend. I hope to god he finds something. Anything. It'd be nice to have something nailed down soon so that I can get rid of that feeling of scared. I've been keeping myself busy enough that I don't stress out about chicago yet, but I'm sure mid-august when everything slows down a little I'll be a little nutso about it.

So this weeks essay topic is going to be:

Compare and Contrast The Harold, Cat's Cradle, and The Long Form Montage

By Friday I'll have a solid essay for you.

Thanks for reading!
Lis

2008-06-28T09:03:00.000-07:00

Thursday night the workshop was abuzz. Twin Cities Improv Festival is in full force this weekend, folks, and it is a BLAST! I'm going to be catching as many shows as I can this weekend for sure to see different styles, games, functions of improv.

One of the many things that I love about this art form is that as an artist, you're always growing no matter how many years you've been performing, or how many techniques you know (or think you know). I love watching improvisors I've seen before play with other improvisors. It's almost like they're different performers at times. One player plays particularly well with another, so they have a two person team, but are also on a team of eight people who they play a completely other way with, perhaps more meekly, or maybe with louder character. I love that. Similarly, to recognize one's own strengths and weaknesses within this makes it sort of a sport. You want to be at the top of your game, so you either get a coach, take workshops, watch as much of it as you can handle, observe, play. A friend of mine was recently describing a game he made up called "Kick the ball" in which one player kicks a ball through goalposts to obtain points for himself and the other players of the game try and block them so they don't get points. It's a group game and at the same time, individual. I feel like this is analogous to improv because you're trying to hone your own skills of listening, declaring, responding, while at the same time working as a group or team to get "group mind" or create together a scene that can keep going, is a mirroring of life, like a play.

Last night I was in a wedding (not my own, I was a bridesmaid, most beautiful wedding ever, but unfortunately had to miss part of TCIF), and I was chatting with a mutual friend of the bride and he was telling me about his time in Chicago. He offered advice and support and it was completely unexpected. I think that's what's been so incredible about this for me thus far is that I'm so independent and I'm getting awfully worried about not yet having a job, place to stay, etc. that I feel like I have to do it all myself, but I'm getting so much support and offers of help that I think I've realized my personal greatest challenge. It's going to be asking for help, or even accepting the help that's given without asking. I 172% appreciate every ounce of advice and help that anyone has to offer, and wholeheartedly thank those that I've talked to so far, or who have responded to that first blog. I didn't expect to get such response. Now, I'm going to look into whole foods and some university work around Chicago and also email the three theatres of my dreams and let them know what I'd like to do, and see if they have intern positions. I'm doing this now in hopes of gaining the connection I would need to just walk into something like that, jump right in, and be in the thick of it right when I get there!

So, something about me that I realized this weekend: I look just like my old roommate emy. Her own FAMILY was asking if she had a sister. Wow. We took a picture with her husband Brett, his twin brother, Guy, Emy and I. It was the perfect twin couple pic.

Also, gonna be needing some fun, new headshots soon. Working on that.

Hope you have a good day, I'm gonna go take a Mark Sutton intensive. Eeeeee! :)

Thanks for reading!
Lis

Ok, for real

2008-06-25T12:35:00.000-07:00

Really now, I'm going to stick with this blog. This is my serious writing standpoint. A point of view if you will on where I'm going in the next two years, how I'm getting there, and why. I do improv. I like to write comedy. I'm sure this is what I want to do with my life right now.

Last night we had Six Ring Circus and it went pretty well. Our team, Straight Up, had a great set since we are working on long drawn out scenes and we only got two scenes out in a fifteen minute set. I felt really good about that if not about anything else. Don't get me wrong, we did well with some details, we had good strong big characters, heck even the environment in both scenes was pretty rich, but over all, I think I'm the proudest that we only had TWO SCENES! And they didn't get boring! They were good, strong scenes with character carry through. Yay! This form really works for this team in particular because we all have great characters, I think, and we've all been wanting to do this kind of work for a while, but we've not really been given the opportunity, or we've just been too timid to do it on our own. We often have gotten into a montage, and known we have a good idea, so we'll just cut a scene too short to give our input or while we're in a scene we'll just get everything we want to out right away. I like this trust our team is building with all agreeing to do the longer scenes. Last night it harbored kind of a timid back line which was maybe partly detrimental, but over all, Straight Up's set was a success.

As far as Chicago Goes, we don't yet have a house or jobs or classes signed up for yet. I recently was speaking with a friend of mine who spent some time in Chicago and said that he could possibly get me a job at Ed Debeviks (sp?) which might be fun or hell depending on how you look at it. Rollerskating around in costume serving customers diner food. Could be a blast. Could just be a job. Ideally, I would get an internship of sorts at the second city, the io, or the annoyance and just either make my money that way, or at least pay off my classes! Hooray!

My goals when I'm there: 1. learn all I can about sketch writing and improv comedy. 2. have a different experience. 3. come back to minneapolis because I love the people and the community here so much.
I'm not looking to get famous. I don't expect to get picked up by second city or by saturday night live or anything like that. I'm super pumped to try my hand at a bigger city though. I like chicago fine but I have a feeling the limited time there will be plenty. I love the growing improv scene here in Minneapolis and I love the people and how supportive everyone is. I don't want to leave forever, it's just such a great place to settle, but I do want a different experience for a while.

I'm trying to get into this regular writing deal. I think it'll be good for me.

Thanks for reading

LIS