Snow, slush, and socks.

I keep having these blogworthy moments.. and I'm not writing them down!

Speaking with another friend that is also in London, who used to be one of my interns, and who also lived in Chicago... we had a great exchange about our former cities..

"Chicago is an amazing city. And you know that when you live there. But you really REALLY appreciate it when you move away. There is a greater appreciation for Chicago once you live in another city. Its like you know it when you live there, but you REALLY REALLY know how GOOD it is when you move away."

Its not like you take it for granted, you know how good something is, and you appreciate it. But once you don't have something for a while, you know its there, and you don't think about it so much.. but when you do think about it.. it really hits you.. wow.. that IS something I really enjoy and love!

Kind of like Portillo's cheeseburgers. When I lived in Chicago, I KNOW I loved it. I know how much I enjoyed it. But you really don't "appreciate" it as much because its just there and you can eat it anytime. Then sometimes I'll have this craving for it over here. And you know what? I can't have it. This is frustrating. You then think to yourself... wow, that really is a good cheeseburger. Chargrilled, dripping with grease, bread gets all soggy if you don't eat it fast enough.. Mmm Mmm good.

Or like snow. My parents told me that Chicago finally had its first proper snowfall this year. I was thinking to myself. Wow. Snow. It doesn't snow here. Yeah, sometimes snow is annoying, especially when it starts melting and turns into slush and then you don't wear snow boots and it gets into your socks. Then your socks are wet all day and this is the absolute worst. I can't think of anything worse than wet socks. Well maybe getting a paper cut between the webs of my two fingers, although, that's instant pain, whereas if you were in public you can't just take your socks off and walk around barefoot. You have to just bare the cold wetness of it all after each and every step.. URGH.. But anyway, I digress.

So yeah, snow, I miss looking outside and watching snow fall. It doesn't happen here. And if it does, all hell breaks loose and apparently the city completely shuts down. I think that would be funny. After all, people wear scarfs here when its like 45 degrees Fahrenheit. Its not that cold!! Sheesh.

Anyway, I guess I'm just mentally excited since I'll be home in two weeks. Sorry for the ramblings, but like Abby mentioned, I need to "just write."

I'm crap.

Happy December!!

Yeah, I know, I haven't updated this as frequently as I want to. I always try to keep it London-centric, but perhaps I may take a different approach and even blog about my stupid daily experiences that are not so london-centric... and maybe that will inspire more blog posts...

Surprise!

I love surprising people. I love the expression of people's faces when they experience something totally unexpected.

My latest attempt was last night.

I surprised my family by coming back home for Thanksgiving. I'm happily back in Chicago!

I haven't been back home for Thanksgiving in 2 years. For my family, its the biggest holiday gathering we have for the year. Even bigger than Christmas. For some reason, the family attendance is a lot higher in Thanksgiving, so I'm excited to be part of it this year.

I didn't really tell anyone that I was coming back as I didn't want to take the risk of the secret being revealed. I bought tickets a while back and pretty much kept it to myself. At the end, it was all worth it.

The look of my family's faces when I walked through the door was priceless. One of those images you don't forget for the rest of your life. My sister was screaming so loud as if I was Justin Timberlake or even Rainn Wilson!

I'm not here long, but I'm already taking advantage of the break. Yes it cold, and its snowing, but its home and I'm with family. I've been relaxing, doing some sudoku, blogging, and reading and just loving the slower pace of things. I'll be looking forward to the big Thanksgiving spread tonight, catching up with family, and the hectic shopping of black Friday tomorrow!

Hopefully I'll have time to catch up with some friends. If not, I'm back in a month anyway!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Anything for Now

A very memorable night.

I participated in a charity event for the Make-A-Wish Foundation in a "Theatersports Cup" Exhibition Match. If you don't know anything about Theatersports, its basically another show format for Impro by Keith Johnstone.

The format is very simple. Each Impro team takes turns challenging each other on different scenes. One team issues a challenge, and the other team accepts. At the end of each team's performance, the audience rates the scene from 1 to 5. 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest.

Our team was called "Anything For Now" simply because we couldn't think of another team name for ourselves!

Anyway, we challenged the other team with "A scene that is inspired by a Beatles song."

We asked the audience for song titles, and the Beatles song we chose was:
Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey.

I volunteered to participate in the scene and I'm glad I did!

The scene was short, sweet, and ended with big laughter! I'll never forget it.

The audience even rated us a resounding FIVE! Writing about how exactly the scene unfolded won't do it justice, so you'll have to ask me about it next time!

In any case, tonight's performance revalidates my love of being on stage!

Luckily I've got two more performances in the next week! I wish you were all here to support!

Not it!

So I was talking to a colleague about planning future work, and we came to a task that I didn't want to do. We were already in a joking mood, so I yelled out:

"Not it!!"

And involuntary raised my hand and place my thumb to my forehead.

My colleague busted out laughing...

"What the hell does that mean!"

I guess she's never played "Not it" before.

I then said,

"Hmmm.. maybe its some game only played in America?"

We both laughed and I thought to myself how stupid I must have looked from her perspective. =) Happens to me all the time.....