holy crap, that was a little crazy, now it's time to catch up a little and get back to business.
Wednesday - my wonderful wife's birthday:
the boys and I tried to make everything perfect for mom for her birthday, they spent Tuesday night saying they were going to sleep in the next day so she could rest on her birthday and I spent time trying to find a second to sneak out to pick up her gift.
We did have a very nice dinner and a quiet evening out before the madness that was....
Thursday - the twins' birthday:
Our little miracle kids turned five on Thursday and I still cannot grasp that they are almost kindergartners. That seems like saying they're almost centaurs at this point. Can't be.
They are so excited to be five and because they're crazy geniuses they were looking forward to 'growing up' more than presents and parties. They do everything they can independently now and will take any opportunity to tell you that they're five now and can do it themselves. They have been looking forward to chores and all the exciting benefits that taking one small step closer to adulthood had to offer. Also....toys.
Their birthday was a mad dash toward the party and most of it spent racing the weather.
I got up early, finished digging my trench for the new garden as the bouncy castle arrived, the boys bounced until they were exhausted, we ran to play mini-golf at the science museum before the rain and picked up snacks and birthday cake on the way home to decorate. whew.
then, of course, just before party time the rain rolled in. The bouncy castle was unplugged and deflated to keep it from tearing loose in the wind and the guests took over the house instead. No plan B but it was all very fun.
At the "end" of the party we decided that the rain had lightened up enough and plugged the muddy bouncy castle back in and let the kids in to play. Everyone got completely soaked and dirty, hence the manufactured "end" to the party. Your kids are sugared up, covered in mud and completely wiped out. Now go home. You're welcome.
My boys are five. that is crazy.
Friday - the Chicago trip:
got up early in the still-birthday-decorated house and prepped to hit the road to Chicago for the Chicago Improv Festival. Got underway early and made the trip in good time, rolling up to the Playground Theater about 10 minutes before my tech rehearsal thanks to my genius plan to arrive on the Kennedy Expressway right in the middle of Friday rush hour. Anyway.
Loaded in, killed time, saw some great sets. Jill was terrific, of course.
Went to the Annoyance Theater for the Friday party and saw lots of people that I wanted to catch up with but, since it was a festival party, couldn't because it's a little bit looney. Still a great time. Got to talk to Pitts, Jon from Dirty Water, Jesse Parent and a few others I hadn't seen in a long time. About halfway through the night I realized I don't enjoy the weird social aspect of social time also being work time that comes with now being a festival producer. I'll have plenty of time to worry about our festival starting today and it was nice to be at someone else's festival on their work time and just hang out and be social. Ah.
Saturday - Chicago continues:
HUGE was invited to perform Saturday night so the day was spent connecting and hanging out with Mike and Joe (Jill was busy being everywhere, as she does for festivals) and fighting off the insane heat and crushing humidity of Chicago. Had some good food, hung out in the Clark/Belmont area for the day, ate pizza with Mike's family and new nephew and then made our way to the space to wait to go on for the 12-20 people that showed up for HUGE. The big drawback to being invited to perform on a Saturday at a festival (which feels like a really sweet time slot and a big compliment, I'm not complaining about that) is that you're also up against the mainstage Saturday night entertainment - which in Chicago means people from MadTv and the Colbert Report performing at the Lakeshore Theater down the street from you at the same time. I remembered this as we paced in the Playground waiting to go on and hoping there would be people there watching.
Our set was fun. Improv sets aren't worth belaboring in hindsight or funny to read about so I'll leave it at that. i had fun (even though I have a giant bruise the size grapefruit that I picked up mid-set) and the energy was groovy and silly and we had a good time. On top of that I think it was "good improv" so in all the ways that matter I think our set was a success.
Afterward we had some good Thai food and exhaustion set in. The old men of HUGE ended up skipping the big CIF party and turning in for the night. I know. We know how to party.
Caught a good amount of sleep before...
Sunday - the trip home:
Woke up early on a couch and headed for Dunkin Donuts, collected Jill and hit the expressway. Then realized our mistake, backtracked and hit the expressway again headed toward home. There's not much to say about the drive from Chicago to Minneapolis beyond the fact that Jill and I had more time to sit and talk about future plans than we ever do so some emails were sent from the road and things were hammered out more clearly and in general I couldn't wait to get home to Minneapolis, see my kids and my wife and get back to the task of putting up our festival and planning for our theater.
the biggest thing I miss about going out to other cities, as well as one of things I make sure to tell other performers that plan on coming to Minneapolis about is our audiences. I think our improv audiences are the best anywhere and not only are they going to enjoy the hell out of what we're bringing to the stage in 17 short days but I know everyone that comes here to perform is going to have one hell of a time as well. Building a place for that to happen all the time, that's fun to work toward. More on that tomorrow when I can start thinking again.
for now I'm at the office working toward.....something else.
Waiting for the webcast of the WWDC keynote to unveil all sorts of techno-goodness for me to lust after, even though it'll mostly by iPhone stuff I already know about and I'm already sold on the iPhone so much that I'm trying to save up for buying out of my plan and getting one. It is the rare device that I really want, not because the impossible-to-satisfy modern man's problem of needing to have the latest and fastest gadget. I just really want to get my hands on an iPhone to centralize some of my communication and take one more device out of the ridiculous arsenal of devices I have to use on a daily basis. As I sit at a desk with 3 computers, 1 iPod and 4 phones on it that seems to make only too much sense, with or without the expected Slingbox features they're adding.....
on other fronts - the teenager is out of school for the summer, living at grandma's house and has a mohawk. he's really rebelling now. I'm glad he's doing better, I have my doubts he's doing as well as his grandmother believes (but she's a grandmother and has a probably normal level of difficulty with the concept that her grandson is lying to her) but happy he's doing better. We're moving his room to the basement where all teenager boys dwell and I'm getting an office out of the deal.
too much for one blog. More easily digestible tomorrow.
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