Double Fat Latte

My principles are much more lax than those of my little sister, so I took her Starbucks gift card when it was offered to me. I'm sure there are really important, relevant reasons why I shouldn't patronize Starbucks, but sadly at this turn in life a few weeks of free coffee seem much more important than abstract objections.

I know a lot of you probably boycott Starbucks and it begs the question, why? Please, be specific. Is it that they're the amazon.com of coffee? Or is it more serious...like child labor laws serious? I know they take good care of their employees (at least the in-store, bespectacled twenty somethings that use the company for health insurance and their wages for art supplies). Until I get a good solid reason, I'm going to use this gift card until it runs dry. Then go back to Dunkin Donuts.

In a completely unrelated turn, I had my first physical in eight years yesterday. Yup, eight years. Why? Because the last time the doctor called me fat. Which, you know, I kind of was, but it still wasn't very kind.
Basically, I put my health at risk for nearly a decade to avoid an unpleasant conversation about my diet. Great. So, now I've downgraded to a little chubby and I had more confidence walking in. She was actually very nice and gave me some good pointers about what to eat. My heart's healthy and I don't smoke now, so she loved all that.

She made another appointment with me in four months and said that I should try to lose a pound a week. She kept saying, "You are so pretty, I want to see you beautiful." I'm not taking it the wrong way this time, though. I'm only a little overweight now and it's totally do-able. I'm going to the gym, so I just have to stop eating tons of crap food (goodbye Dominos cheesy bread...I'll always love you.)So, if you see me abstaining from pizza or fried oreos, you'll know why. Wish me luck!

This is going to be me in four months...if the gift card doesn't run out.

Being Green

This week has been crazy, and not in funtimes crazy way. I promise to start blogging (and working, and improvising, and existing, generally) better next week.



Three day weekend, fools!

Dasariski was amazing. I need a workshop like that every week. They were easily the nicest guys in the world, too, which is a treat.

I'm going to go out for some pizza after work and win $25,000 in a California Pizza Kitchen promotional contest.

Happy Long Weekend!
Erin

That's Risky

All Mass dwelling improv dorks will want to be in or around Improv Asylum this weekend because we're hosting Craig Cackowski, Bob Dassie, and Rich Talarico (Dasariski) for a Friday 8pm show and workshops on Saturday. I believe the public workshop starts at 1pm and is $125. Sign up!



Although I've never seen the three of these guys perform together, I was lucky enough to catch Bob Dassie and his wife Stephanie Weir (MadTV) perform their two person show Weirdass at the Del Close Festival a few years back and they were phenomenal. Like, some of the best improv I've ever seen, phenomenal. Stephanie Weir is one of those women who just own everything on stage. She's effortless and brilliant. I'd love it if she were coming to town too, but I'd probably get over-nervous and make a fool of myself.

But anyway, Dasariski. Brian has seen these guys and still talks about the show in detail as being the best he's seen. I'm very excited! It often feels like we're in a bit of a vaccum here in Boston, and it will be surpassingly refreshing to see some new, totally fresh, talented folks do their thing.

This Friday, 8pm! Bring your little sisters.

Late to The Party

The New Pornographers got together in 1997 when I was in 10th grade and exclusively listening to Fiona Apple. Eleven years later I feel like I've discovered something magical. By "discovered" I mean, am the three millionth person to listen and be totally delighted by their music.

Their "new" (2007) album Challengers is by turns choral poppy fun and annexed, melancholy solitude. It's title song, Challengers, is so quiet and strong and pretty -- it gives me deja vu in this way that has nothing to do with anything I've lived through. Other highlights are Myriad Harbor which some sly tech person at Improv Asylum has been playing between shows sounds like it should underscore a montage of some mixed up cigarette kids trying on skinny jeans in the East Village, and All The Things That Go to Make Heaven and Earth Are Here will make you want to grab a tambourine. But don't. There's not one around you right now.



I basically love this album and am out of my mind excited that there is now eleven years of work that I get to explore like it's new. Thanks, itunes.

Also, I just finished reading Mick Napier's book for the second time and I think I absorbed a lot more of it this time around. I'm feeling super creative and am very excited to improvise. August, where are you?

May Resolutions

I'm determined to not be miserable waking up in the morning anymore. Here are some things that I'm going to do to ensure this:

1. Go to the gym more, for a better night's sleep
2. Start drinking tea before bed
3. Stop drinking beer before bed
4. Eat less crap that's fried
5. Try try try to stop having meta dreams where I wake up in my dream and into another one in which I'm telling dream people #2 about dream #1 and so on with dream #3. I assume I'm having crazy dreams because of poor sleep and high anxiety, so I have to...
6. Calm the hell down.

Happy spring!