Still alive and posting because I worry that if I ever go more than a month without blogging everybody will forget I exist.
My non-working/non-sleeping hours the last month or two have been spent mostly at ComedySportz for various things or in my bathtub with my nook.
ComedySportz
I've mentioned before that I'm involved in a sketch group with Trevor and some other ComedySportz guys, which has been a lot of work and a really good time. We had our first show on Thursday, and it went really well. We had an excellent turnout and I've only heard good things from the audience. It's been a really fun/frustrating/exciting thing to be a part of and I'm eager to see what the future brings for our little Oppressive Comic Dynasty. I definitely felt like an outsider when things were getting started (everyone else is male and had performed improv together and I was "Trevor's wife"), but I don't worry about that at all anymore. I've had plenty of important contributions to the writing, directing, acting, props, costumes, marketing, etc. of our show. Like everyone else. It's a terrific group. I'm really glad to be a part of it.
I also started taking the beginner improv workshops at ComedySportz which are awful and a blast. I am a pretty deliberate sort of person and improv is very much out of my comfort zone. I have no worries about being funny enough or smart enough, but being quick enough and confident enough is another matter. I look forward to workshop all week and then hate it most of the time I'm there. I've had some excellent moments but they're scattered throughout a lot of fumbling. Which is what everyone else does at that level, I suppose, but still. It's been good for me to realize that it's not a huge deal to look like a fool in front of people. That's probably my personal #1 take-away.
And I still go to most of Trevor's shows (every Thursday night and many Friday and Saturday nights) because I'd rather be laughing in a crowd than sitting at home feeling guilty that I'm not doing housework or writing. Never guilty enough to actually do anything, but guilty enough that I never truly relax.
Bathtub
Temperature regulation of the water is the hardest part. I'm constantly draining water and adding more warmth. But I've mastered it to a point that I'll comfortably spend up to three hours in there at a time.
I got a nook a few months ago and have been reading quite a bit more since. Lately, I've been reading at the rate I read before the internet was a major presence in my life which is...a lot. I'm behind on my television shows and I don't know what redditor's wife is talking about anymore. People say this is good because reading is supposedly better for you, but it does cut in socially somewhat. You can't read a book with someone like you can watch TV with them. It's much harder to find someone who has read the book you're reading to talk to than to find someone you can talk to about any given TV show or internet meme or whatever. And the internet in general is a social place, of course....but meh, who needs people? Not I.
I've had a rule for quite a while that I always alternate between non-fiction and fiction for my book reading so that I never get in a rut. But if we look at the last six books I've read, there's a definite pattern. All my non-fiction books have been about and/or written by Saturday Night Live alumni, and all my fiction books have been part of George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series. Sketch comedy has just been on the mind and SNL is the most written-about sketch comedy entity. And I just wanted to know what happens next after watching the first season of Game of Thrones on television so...
- Bossypants by Tina Fey
- A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
- Gasping for Airtime by Jay Mohr
- A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin
- Live From New York: An Uncensored History of SNL by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller
- A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin
Note to those who are worried about me ruining my nook with hours of reading in the water (a known enemy to electronics): I've been reading in bathtubs for years and the only time there was a book-ruined-by-water incident was back in high school. I was very sleepy and blame everything on Herman Melville and early-morning seminary. As long as I can avoid those things, we're good.
