I've decided to approach blogging in a different way.
The new blog is not blocked, so you don't have to do anything to read it.

You can find it here:
http://www.imafraidofbees.blogspot.com/

Hidden Cove Karaoke

What was supposed to be a day at the beach was cancelled due to sporadic rain.

But Andi, Z, Dan, Ilana and I still went to Hidden Cove for karaoke later.

There was an unusually large and obnoxious crowd, so it took forever to get to sing.

I didn't go until right as we were leaving.

I still had fun though, people kept stopping me to tell me they liked my shoes.

That's really all it takes for me to have fun.

That and whiskey.

Last night = Tired today

I did get to leave work early for a doctor's appointment though.

Then I napped for the rest of the day.

That's a win, folks.

Work Meeting

My company had it's first ever entire office meeting today.

Because there are so many people here we had to walk to an auditorium about 5 or 6 blocks away to have it.

It also ran over, leaving me very little time to rush home and eat dinner before Sketch had our tech rehearsal.

For those not in the biz, a tech rehearsal is when you run through the beginning/end of every scene for the purposes of light cues and not smashing into each other when it's dark.

This lasted til midnight.

We were the very last people to leave the building.

Lights were out, ominous gates were drawn.

It would have been eerie if I wasn't so tired.

Apartment a.k.a. The Slanty Shanty

It may look like the curtain is askew in this picture.

In reality, the apartment is slanted.

It's getting worse.

I'm pretty sure we can start charging people admission soon.

The good news is I will be moving to a new apartment November or December.

With Z.

Hopefully our apartment will be upright with lots of closet space.

Z brought Bearek Jeter a friend from New York.

Look! It's Meerkey Mantle!

Another busy day, Zumba first.
I wish I could get a picture of class happening, but pulling out my phone while everyone is jumping around seems like asking for trouble.

I left a little early to catch a workshop with Joe Bill.



I always have a blast at these. I still really enjoy the learning process that comes with being an improviser.




Then another sketch rehearsal.
This one was mostly spent writing out the scenes that are going in, so we will have set lines.





The show has an official theme now, so we have homework to come up with an appropriate opening.

-- Post From My iPhone

Thanks to YouSwoop I had my first ever facial today.
I was very surprised that I found it super relaxing.
I don't know why, but I think I expected it to hurt.
It didn't.
Some things tingled.

Before that I had Yoga and Zumba. The Yoga class is new and the teacher is very, very calming.
Which is appropriate.
The teacher for Zumba is very, very gay.
Also appropriate.

Later Zach cooked dinner for us.




It was an early dinner, because I had to head to second city for rehearsal right after.







The show is really starting to come together and I'm looking forward to putting it up.
Which is good, since we only have 3 weeks before it opens.


-- Post From My iPhone

Tonight was Zach's first show back with All Skate.
Below he and Mike pose for their A&E original crime drama.




The show was fun, but the only audience members were a handful of frat guys who were very drunk.
They muttered thing during all of the shows that would have been heckling if it had been louder.

In other news, my new iPhone came today.
It's the best.
I'm pretty sure the camera on it is better than my actual camera.


-- Post From My iPhone

Zach got back from the boat today.
The whole thing was a huge mess, not just for him but for every employee on this particular ship.
Even some of the second city cast left, which is pretty unusual.

To celebrate him being home we went to Hot Doug's and to see Toy Story 3.
Both were delicious.

-- Post From My iPhone

Our usual karaoke place was closed tonight because of the holiday.
So Andi & I went home and discovered several karaoke channels on YouTube.

Andi was excited to find 'Hava Nagila', which she had to learn for something years ago.

-- Post From My iPhone

On rare occasions I have to cover the reception desk at work.
They still use the switchboard from when the company first opened.
In 1967.

-- Post From My iPhone

Novelty Golf

Dan, Ilana, and I headed out to Lincolnwood to play some miniature golf this evening.
There is a super fun course there called Novelty Golf; complete with drawbridges, trick holes, and a castle.
And a computerized sex tester...

(Ilana and I both got positive results. Dan got a bad one.)

Before playing, we stopped by the Bunny Hutch.

It's a hot dog stand straight out of 1950.

Possibly named the Bunny Hutch because of the creepy severed bunny head behind the counter...

Then we headed over to golf. They have 2 courses and we opted to do the 'Frankenstein' course.

Which includes an elephant.

Dan became very competitive when he realized I was beating him.
Then sort of furious.

Dan: How are you beating me?? How? Girls aren't good at sports.

Then he tried to cheat.

Despite getting hit in the head with the windmill blade(yep, that happened)...I still won.
Since if you can pinpoint the moment on the score card when that happened.
(Note: Dan is Iceman, Ilana is Dan Gordon, and I am Helicopter).

Did you find it?
I bet you did. Great job!

Bearek Jeter has a new home in my cubicle.

So far no one has yelled at me.

SketchCo Poster

My first attempt at using real photoshop went pretty well, and this poster is the result.

Sure, I was up til 3am to try and get it into Second City on time and came to work on 3 hours of sleep, but it was totally worth it, right?

The show opens July 30th at 9pm in the Skybox.

It's mostly about sex and death...as you may have guessed.

Dentist Waiting Room

I finally went to the dentist about the tooth I chipped ages ago.
I have a great fear of dentists, but this one was amazing and nice and made me very comfortable.

I have to go back and have magic new teeth pieces put on the chipped tooth, plus another tooth that has the wrong kind of filling in it. I imagine this happened with the dentist in Texas who is responsible for my fears.

Guess what's expensive?
Magic teeth pieces.
Great job, other dentist. Now I can add this anger to the memories of you roughly scraping at my gums while I saw the reflection of blood filling my mouth in your glasses.

While doing laundry this evening, I suddenly noticed a mysterious blotch on my arm.
It got lighter and lighter and itched quite a bit.
I was starting to wonder if it was a spider or bug bite when it disappeared.

Things like this happen to me more than they should.

SketchCo Running Order

Our show tonight went really, really well.
We only have one more in-process show next Saturday and then we go on a show break until we open July 30th.

Some things are pretty solid to go in the final show, others we are still working on.
Overall, I'm very happy with everything and I'm excited for the review to go up.

After shows Andi & I headed to...karaoke!

I didn't have much of a voice, from being sick and all. But I still had a blast of a good time.

Here, Andi sings with an older fellow that insisted she do a duet with him but would not tell her what song he chose.

It was "I Got You Babe".
Watching put me somewhere between unbelievable discomfort and pure glee.

Matty joined us after Skinprov...

For the life of me, I cannot remember what he sang. I do remember that it was lovely.

The Mixer

I laid around all day and was feeling much better by the evening.

The doctor assured me that, while the symptoms last 7-10 days, they lessen dramatically after 2 or so.

I was feeling better enough to go coach The Mixer this evening.

It was fun, as always. It's nice to get to do a show with a bunch of enthusiastic people once a week.

Doctor's Office

I woke up at 4am with the worst sore throat of my life and a fever.

I called into work immediately.

I slept most of the day and was only able to coax myself into visiting the doctor with the promise of a frosty on the way.

The diagnosis "the virus that's going around".

There's no antibiotics for this virus, which lasts 7-10 days and I was instructed to stay home tomorrow.

I went home and slept 15 hours straight.

Blegh.

Commercial Audition

I had an audition today for a commercial that was improvised "in the style of those Sonic Commercials".

I'm pretty sure my improv experience is the only reason I was sent on the audition, because I do not look old enough to play a 12-year-old's mother. Older sister, maybe.

But I went and was happy to do it anyway.

When they called my name up for the group, the dude playing the 'father' looked around, confused.

DUDE: Wait, do I not get a wife?

CASTING LADY: Yes, Tabitha is playing your wife (points).

DUDE: Oh. OH. I'm so sorry, you just look SO YOUNG. Like, way too young.

ME: Yep.

The dude then proceeded to barrel through the audition, doing everyone's parts for them.

On the way out, he gave me his business card and a handwritten flyer to the party he is having this Sunday.

I did not book the commercial.

Ribfest

The winner of ribfest was, you guessed it, ribs.
Andi, Alan, and I went in the afternoon and had our fill of ribs.
We ran into Nikki and Ross and had a lovely chat.
There were puppies everywhere.
On the way out I had funnel cake.

It was a big win, all around.

Sketch Run-Through

Today was super busy.

I had a dance class (which was a blast) followed by haircut and then Sketch did a brief run-through before our show.

Things are coming together quickly now, the picture above is of one of my favorite blackouts in the show.

Almost everything got a good audience response, so that is promising for when the run opens.

After the show, Keith had a party at Lincoln Karaoke:

It was fun, as usual, but pricey. So we checked out at midnight and went to what will surely become a regular hangout for Andi and I. The Hidden Cove. They were having karaoke as well and it was easy to get on the list without having to wait forever. We were there well into the morning.

At one point, a stranger came up and asked me to sing a duet with him.

I assured him I was terrible and he said that no, he had heard me sing twice earlier and that I was great.

I told him that rapping is not singing.

But I did it anyway and had fun.

Even though I did sound terrible.

Dan's "Special" Margarita

Thursday is friend date night, so Andi, Dan, and I took Collin (our houseguest) to Garcia's and to the comic book store.

At Garcia's, Dan insisted that his margarita be "somehow more special than everyone else's".

So he got some girly fruit set-up.

We were once again helped by the comic sales puppy...

She recommended more Walking Dead and Johnny the Homicidal Maniac.

Today Z also got his official return date from the ship - October 2nd.

Which is just in time for my birthday the following day.

We're trying to figure out if I'm going to be able to go visit him sometime this summer. With work and shows and other trips and visitors here, scheduling gets overcomplicated.

Plus the ship wants crazy advance notice.

The ship seems to be generally crazy though.

Everything from 13 hour work days to several fires on the boat.

Fires.

On the boat.

Custom Art!

I have a houseguest this week, a former Four Day Weekend student who came up to see improv and get a feel for the city before he moves here this fall.

As a thank you for lodging he offered to draw me "anything I wanted". I asked for a picture of Batman fighting zombies. I had no IDEA this guy was so talented. I mean, look at that picture.

He brought me a print of it that will be hanging in my room soon AND offered to make another one.

Which means I will soon have a series of comic covers hanging in my room, all from the imaginary 'Batman vs. Zombies'. Squee.

Skate Workshop/Rehearsal

All Skate had a workshop/rehearsal with the lovely Bill Arnett.

It was a lot of fun, but it's been a little adjustment to get used to playing without 2 of our teammates.

But we are really proud of them, even if they abandoned us to be on important boats.

Skate is currently in the process of applying to be a member team at The Playground. Which means we have a showcase show this Friday at 10pm. It should be a fun night of very fast-paced shows (each team gets 10 minutes).

So...if you wanna come see us...

Short Shorts

Friday, June 11th

10pm

The Playground

Shopping

Andi & I went out to the big mall in Schamburg, where we had several shopping montages (pictured) and then Andi lost her phone (we did find it).

I did not purchase the headband in the picture.

But I kind of wish I had, in case I ever get cast as Ms. Peacock.

Maifest

Maifest is a German festival. It lasts for 3 days. It happens in Lincoln Square. Literally in my backyard.
Oh, such singing and puking and yelling and breaking glass and peeing on the side of my house...

Then it goes away. Until Oktoberfest.

Dan Cooks Broccoli

I had dinner with Dan tonight, it's our "date" night.
He cooked fish and broccoli and we watched the most terrible movie we could find.

I believe it was called "Animals"...Sayid from Lost was in it.
It was utterly terrible and basically porn. I've never seen so many graphic sex scenes in a "regular" movie.
In the movie, people turn into werewolf-type creatures that are made of electricity and fog. Then they attack people. I can't give you much more of a plot then that...because there wasn't one.

Dance Studio

Through the lovely deals that come from Living Social, Andi & I were able to get a month of unlimited Dance-Workout classes at a studio down the street.

It has been a great experience so far - there are so many different kinds of classes - that I think we will keep going once our deal is over.

Our first class there was Cardio Bounce.

It was a lot of fun, but man has it been awhile since I've danced at that pace. There was a brief moment where I thought I might die. Then I was okay.

Ilana tries to work a lighter.

Today Dan had a bar-b-que to make up for missing the big one on Saturday.
It was a lot smaller and very silly fun.

Ilana confessed to us that she couldn't light a lighter so we took turns showing her how.
It was more because she was afraid she'd burn herself than anything else.
Dan: "Fire scares her like scorpions scare me." (If you know Dan at all you know that scorpions scare him a LOT. Even if it's just a picture.)

We agreed that no one could leave until she did it, but she got it after a few tries and everyone cheered.

The party died down and the remaining few of us went to see...

It was TERRIBLE.
I loved it.