Life is good:  I'm seeing someone, I'm taking French tomorrow, I'm in a new improv troupe, I will visit the Madre Patria, I own a good-fitting bra.

Life is bad:  There's a rat in my ceiling that won't let me sleep.  I have to renew my driver's license soon.  I should / have to visit three kinds of doctors soon all to perform three kinds of different tasks that will all cost three kinds of $ I don't have.

Oh life, how you do carry on.

I went to the mall on Friday, and every time I went to purchase something, I was inevitably asked for my phone number or email address.  I made a conscious and strict decision to not give out anything to anyone.

Clerks acted like I was a paranoid freak, but honestly, do THEY even know where my number goes?  I bet those companies sell our contact info to marketing companies like hot cakes.

My favorite line was a chick who said, "Well, if you don't the coupons emailed to you, you could give us your mailing address, and we could mail them to you."

I told her, "That's exactly what I'm trying to avoid."  People sending me more shit in the mail. 

It's so hard being a movie star sometimes....

I don't remember what I used to do in the summer time in high school.  I think I mostly sat around, and slowly went insane, peppered with trips to Splashtown.  As I grew more and more blind, those trips became more of a blur.  I wouldn't wear contacts because I didn't have any, but no one wants to be the person wearing glasses at the waterpark.  In fact, that sounds illegal.

Now, in the summa-time, I apparently eat lots of beef, ice cream, burn instead of tan, sweat, and chill out in the lovely city of Austin to music that is served hot with a side of Shiner.  Best of All?!?!  I can see!

Spain won the Eurocup, and I teared up when Torres scored the winning goal.

This is the closest I will be to sports euphoria, and yes, I recognize its power. 

For a second, I wanted to love everyone in the sports bar. 

Then, I wanted to move to Spain.

Thank you for fucking with my head, soccer.

Improv nuggets of wisdom.

I started taking classes at Coldtowne theater, and it's been a real eye-opener to be in a level one class, with some who have never done improv before.  In total, I have felt humbled, elated, ego-stroked, and wide-eyed all in two classes.  This is exciting!  I realize I've come a long way, and that there are certain things I must vow not to do when improvising:

1.  Never ask questions that put all the work on my scene partner.  "What are we doing here?"  "Who are you?"  "What is that?"  Improv should be creating, but not negotiating.

2.  Don't be negative because there's really nowhere to go.  And, it stings!  It hurts!  It makes me realize how cruel we can be.  If you start a scene with the attitude, "Everything you do is stupid," how are you expected to create a scene from nothing?  It's abusive, and it sucks for the audience.

3.  Teaching scenes.  No one wants to see you "learn" to do something in a scene.  The audience gets bored very quickly because these scenes are not dynamic.  They know the ultimate goal is for you to be able to do something, so why not just do it and get it over with?

4.  Denial.  If the whole point is to create something, why destroy?  If someone says they have an apple in their hands, it's a fucking apple.  Throwing someone's idea away keeps re-starting a scene and we don't have that much time.  Plus, it's rude.  When everyone creates together, that's where the beauty lies.  That's what people are paying for.

5.  Connection, relationships.  People should know each other on stage because relationships are one of the most fascinating aspects of society.  They are necessary, and they make the world go around.  If two people don't know each other in a scene, what you do can be *funny*, but not necessarily fulfulling.  Only the good improvisers who have a lot of experience can pull off those kind of scenes, and they usually end up using those "unknown" characters who become known later on.

These are the main tenants I can think of from this class.  I've tried to internalize them over the year and a half that I've been improvising, but through this class I've been able to flesh them out a bit and really put them in my pocket for all of my future scenes.  I really do love this stuff, and it's probably the closest I'll ever get to religion, only because you are working almost on a zen level with other people to create and revel in your creation.  I can't wait until the next time I improvise (approximately four hours).