A Year in Pictures of Living Together

Yep, there's more...

2010-05-25T13:36:00.002-05:00

It was only a matter of time before the inevitable blog about the wedding which, if you're interested, you can find over here.

2010-03-01T23:53:00.001-06:00

It's good to be home.

I asked Sarah what I was like to live with.

Sarah: I feel like whatever I say is going straight into the blog.
Me: Pretty much.
Sarah: Uh... good. It's been good. We're building our life together.

Then I tried to take a picture of us, sitting on the couch, holding the camera out at arm's length, snapping, then bringing the camera back in to look at the picture, seeing Sarah made a weird face, trying again, another weird face, hearing her say, "This time I'll do it for real," another weird face, repeat, repeat.

Sarah: You know, I had an idea of how you should end your blog, but I'm not going to tell you until after it's over.
Me: Okay.

Honestly, I don't really have any idea of how I should end this blog. Maybe it shouldn't end. Maybe that's the point. We keep on living together, here, and eventually somewhere else, being goofy, sometimes annoying each other, building our life together, and maybe... someday... actually hanging that mirror up on a wall.

So, the living together continues, just without the pictures.

But here are a couple extras to enjoy on your way out the door. Maybe we'll have you over again sometime.

2010-02-28T23:28:00.000-06:00

Tiny fancy chair!

2010-02-27T23:59:00.000-06:00

This is one of those rare travel shows where we actually have a little extra time to explore the town we're visiting. Looking through the brochures in the hotel lobby, we picked the oddest thing we could find.

Reptiland.

Snakes. Alligators. Lizards. They were all pretty cool, but the biggest source of entertainment for us was watching how scared Steve is of snakes, alligators and lizards.

2010-02-26T23:41:00.000-06:00

Off to Pennsylvania for another Whirled News show. Here we are in the limo to the airport.

During our layover, a waitress said to Glynn, "There were some guys in here from Chicago earlier this week. Or maybe it was Detroit. I just know it was SOME city I'd never go to."

2010-02-25T12:56:00.000-06:00

Sarah and I have been catching up on the show ‘Breaking Bad,’ about a high school chemistry teacher who turns to cooking meth after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. It’s good. Depressing, but good.

Sarah: Don’t ever get sick. You’re not allowed to get sick and die.
Me: You either.
Sarah: Oh, I won’t get sick. I sort of know that I won’t.
Me: You know that you won’t?
Sarah: Yeah.
Me: But you think I will.
Sarah: It’s crossed my mind.
Me: Why… why would I get sick?
Sarah: Because you’re so nice.
Me: [laughing] What?
Sarah: The worst things happen to really good people. Am I saying this out loud? [looks at wine glass] I must be buzzed!

2010-02-24T12:28:00.000-06:00

We've been having some problems with our DVR. I called the cable company and they offered to send someone out to switch it with a new one, but remembering remembering the eight hour technician visits that happened when we first moved into this place I decided to just take the DVR to their offices and swap it out in person.

The sad part of getting a new DVR is losing the recording of my Dad's national championship game (and my appearance on Friday Night Tailgate) that had been sitting at the bottom of the queue for most of the last year. Would I watch it again? Probably not. But it was nice to have.

And maybe it's good to let go a little of having physical documents of every memory. If Buddha had a DVR he'd probably delete shit all the time.

We have a lot more memory space now for new stuff (mostly the dozens of 'Dog Whisperer' episodes that Sarah records daily).

2010-02-23T17:22:00.000-06:00

Of course, I lived with a girl once before. It didn’t end badly, but it did end. I kept a blog about what happened after it ended, A Year in Pictures Following the Breakup. It seems very long ago now.

And when I say “I kept a blog about what happened after,” I mostly mean what happened after to me. In the interest of making a clean break, we didn’t communicate much with each other after I moved back to Chicago.

I did email her (let’s call her N) a yearly update, just a quick hello to let her know what I was up to. She rarely responded. About two years ago she wrote to tell me she was happy and married and had a daughter. I wrote back that I was happy and happy for her, which was the truth.

After that I stopped sending updates. Maybe I finally felt like it was safe for me to stop worrying about her.

A month or two ago, though, it did cross my mind that maybe I should write to her. “Hello. I’m still doing well. I’m engaged!” That’s what people do, right? “Just to let you know from me…”

I even sat down and started writing something. “Dear N. It’s been a while.” But I didn’t get very far. It just sounded awkward. That time is past.

Mostly, though, I think I worried that I was secretly fishing for blog material. An interesting quote. Didn’t I really want to just write, “Hey, what was I like to live with?” And it seemed wise not to open that can of worms.

2010-02-22T23:27:00.000-06:00

Sarah and I keep passing the same cold back and forth between us. Sarah's got it pretty bad right now, so I decided to sleep in the extra room with Bear and the chicken.

Luckily I didn't have any night terrors.

2010-02-21T23:20:00.000-06:00

For Christmas, Sarah gave me this framed ticket from the showing of 'It's a Wonderful Life' that we went to right after we got engaged. I love it. And the fact that I still haven't gotten around to putting it up on the wall doesn't mean I love it any less.

Every day for the past few weeks I've had a moment where I thought, "I should put that up today. Take a picture of it. Put it on the blog. It would be a nice thing to blog about here near the end."

Today I just gave in and took a picture of it on the table where it sits waiting to be put up somewhere.

I do love that ticket.

2010-02-20T22:40:00.000-06:00

I asked Young what I was like to live with.

Young: You were a great roommate. I mean you are one of my best friends and it was a really fun time. Watching 'The Wire,' eating pizza, playing Rock Band, and just generally cracking each other up. I’m sure we got on each other’s nerves sometimes, but it was never insurmountable. I don’t know if I ever told you this, but when you moved back from Arizona after your break-up when we moved in together, I thought you would be really upset and I was, in a weird way, excited to see you through this difficult transition. In reality, you seemed somewhat more together than I had guessed and I realized how cut off I had become. It was one of the most fun periods of my life, but I really think we needed each other too.

2010-02-19T23:16:00.000-06:00

Drinks at Glunz, a German beer place.

Bringing the bill to our table, the jovial bartender (and I suspect, also the owner) said, "Any of you know how to say one in German?"

Me: Uh.. eins, zwei... Eins? Right?
Bartender: [pointing at leg] And how do you say this is German.
Me: I don't know.
Bartender: The leg is...?
Martin: Bein?
Bartender: So... put it together.... Ein...
Martin: Ein Bein?
Bartender: You're bine? Alright. [hands bill to Martin]

Ein Bein. Sort of sounds like "I'm buyin'." Must be a classic German American bartender joke.

Meador: Well, Martin, he got you.

2010-02-18T21:42:00.000-06:00

I don't tend to have nightmares, but recently I had what can only be described as a night terror. Sarah woke me up.

Sarah: You were yelling "help" and "no." You started off quiet, but got louder. Jerking around. You sounded so sad and scared. I wanted to wake you up but... I thought you were going to bite me, like how a dog does if you wake it up from a nightmare. That's all I kept thinking..."He's going to bite me"

I don't remember the dream. According to Sarah I said, "Someone was in the house." All I remember is being terrified, stuck, frozen in place from fear, almost midscream, locked-in.

More than that, though, I remember the rush of relief and gratitude after she woke me up. And I remember thinking, "You saved me." It's seems melodramatic during the light of day, and maybe even unhealthy if extended to some kind of overarching relationship metaphor, but in that moment in the dark I kept thinking, "Thank you. Thank you for saving me."

2010-02-17T22:27:00.000-06:00

With only a couple weeks left, I'd like to return to an idea I had... to ask other people I've lived with to tell me how it was. How am I to live with?

Here's Eckart, backstage at iO among the coats. For years and years Eckart lived in a huge apartment with a rotating cast of roommates, mostly fellow improvisers. For three months, I occupied one of those rooms, during a transitional period between a lease ending and another bigger move.

Me: So the question is, how was I to live with?
Eckart: [thinks for a long time] Agreeable? [silence, and then realizing maybe he should say more] Uh... easy going. It was good. You were easy to live with.

Eckart gave up the apartment equivalent of a La Ronde a couple years ago to move in with his girlfriend. Now they're actually in the process of trying to buy a house together.

Eckart: Fingers crossed.

2010-02-16T14:11:00.001-06:00

And... I had to move my desk again at work. Back downstairs to a different room.

A lot of moving for a year I'd decided not to move.

Still, as much drudgery as goes into moving even just a desk's worth of stuff, it's actually a very good thing. I just can't officially talk about why yet.

Also, Poland is on a big fancy flat screen TV now. So, upgrades all around.

2010-02-15T21:50:00.000-06:00

Sarah: Did you notice the candle I put in the bathroom?
Me: Yes. I'm going to go take a romantic dump.

2010-02-14T23:26:00.000-06:00

Valentines Day.

With saving up for the wedding to think about, we decided not to go out to dinner.

So, we stayed in and looked through giant binders of wedding invitation sets. The endless options of papers and fonts and colors just about gave me an anxiety attack.

We also agreed not to exchange gifts. I played it safe, though, and got Sarah a card.

Sarah: I like that you signed it Future Husband.
Me: You like that?
Sarah: Future Husband! You're from the future!
Me: I've come from the future with an important message about your wedding invitations! No one remembers them!

2010-02-13T23:01:00.002-06:00

I took this picture at Young's show. Hawley and Shad were in the audience, Hawley looking good but already long overdue on delivering their first baby.

Me: Maybe it'll happen tonight. It would be funny to go into labor while watching a show about impotence.

Then I saw them again at Megan and Alex's Super Bowl party. Still no baby.

Shad: This baby just refuses to come out.
Me: Hawley, if you could pick any time to have the baby, when would you want--
Hawley: Now.
Me: Yeah, but I mean, you know, is there a time of day that you'd prefer to go into labor---
Hawley: Now. If I could choose I'd go into labor right now.

Quite a few more days passed, but last night, about two weeks past the due date, Hawley finally went into labor.

Shad: [via Facebook]: "Anna Jane _____. Born Feb 13th. 7lbs 13oz. 21 inches. Quiet, Tall, Healthy. Very difficult to get out. Hawley is fine and recovering. Dad is a mess."

2010-02-12T17:16:00.001-06:00

A Brief Guide to Video Games For Couples To Play Together Pt. 3

New Super Mario Bros. Wii - We've been looking forward to this one for a while. Classic sidescrolling Mario for up to four players at the same time? Perfect. Except that it seems to be designed for friends to screw each other over during the game rather than to work together. In fact, it's very hard to not knock each other off cliffs or accidentally bounce on eachother's heads.

The special red box may make you think of Valentines Day, but really it stands for the pure rage that descends when trying to play this game together.

We had to stop playing it entirely.

2010-02-11T13:45:00.000-06:00

Seeing this in the back alley, I like to imagine that yesterday, in the middle of a day of near-blizzard-like conditions, one of our neighbors just snapped and said, "Fuck this chair."

2010-02-10T20:49:00.000-06:00

Sarah's feeling sick, which means laying in bed, watching movies on her laptop.

Sarah: [looking through our Netflix Instant Queue] What's 'Keep the River on Your Right'?
Me: A documentary about cannibals, I think.
Sarah: What's 'The Girlfriend Experience'?
Me: That Stephen Soderbergh movie.
Sarah: What's 'Wendy and Lucy'?
Me: You know, every time you go through our queue you ask me about the exact same movies. We just did this last week. [pause] It's that movie with Michelle Williams.

2010-02-09T22:03:00.000-06:00

With lots of moving around at the office, some areas becoming more crowded, others less, the long standing conventional wisdom on which bathrooms are best for pooping in has changed dramatically.

To help with this transition period, Chris (pictured) sent out a company-wide email breaking down each of the five "pooping options."

Here's an excerpt:

"Bathroom 1 (closest to the kitchen): While sporting the best selection of reading material and general supplies (so changing the toilet paper roll is easy), this room has a particularly tiny seat. Definitely a finesse target.

"Bathroom 3: If you enjoy well-worn golf magazines, this is the spot for you. As a warning though, the sense of seclusion gained by walking all the way into the back and down the little hall is illusory. Many long-haul poopers have found themselves walking out of the john in the middle of a major meeting that started 20 minutes earlier.

"Bathroom 5 (The one with NO FAN): I’m not saying you can’t let fly here, but keep in mind that the only way your left-behinds will clear it is by slowly diffusing through the doorway, into the hallway, and out toward Ivan’s desk. This bathroom is the Worst. Possible. Choice. of all the bathrooms."

Taking a picture of Chris outside bathrooms 4 and 5 we realized that someone was actually in bathroom 5.

Chris: Is someone in there? I can hear you peeing in there. Who is it?
Whoever Was in Bathroom 5: [silence]

2010-02-08T22:58:00.002-06:00

Sarah decided to dust off the Wii Fit Balance Board to weigh herself. She called me into the room because the Wii was asking questions about me, saying it hadn't seen me in a long time.

Sarah: It's trying to get me to rat you out!

The Wii asked if I looked slimmer, heavier, more toned or the same. Sarah said I looked the same.

Then, and here's where it gets weird, the Wii said, "Maybe you're not paying enough attention to Arnie!" And then, "On a side note, did you know that dogs become more motivated when their owners pay more attention to them?"

What?! Is the Wii implying that I'm more or less Sarah's (fat) pet?

2010-02-07T18:27:00.000-06:00

Looking at venues during the wrong season takes a little imagination. What would all this look like without snow?

Me: For a second I thought that deer was real.
Venue Owner: Ha. Yes. I keep telling my husband not to leave his target out where all the brides can see it.
Me: Target?

2010-02-06T23:53:00.000-06:00

On the road with Sarah, looking at venues.

2010-02-05T23:59:00.000-06:00

Closing night of Young’s funny and very personal one-man show, “Impotent.”

As he says early in the performance, “I'm sure some of you came here tonight assuming the title of this show is a metaphor. Sorry.”

It takes a lot of bravery to put that all out there (so to speak), but it’s just the kind of “nobody talks about it” theme that can get people interested in your show. He’s gotten some great press like this NBC Chicago article, 'Chicago Comic Finds Humor in His Impotency' which you can read here .

Of course, if you’re going to do it, if you’re going to expose yourself like that (so to speak)… it better be good. It better be a good show.

Luckily it was. Well written and acted and genuinely funny.

The NBC Chicago article ends, “In case you're wondering, doctors were able to diagnose Young's problem as low testosterone, and he and his very supportive girlfriend are doing very well, thank you.”

It’s funny how they feel compelled to end on a note of, “don’t worry, he gets boners now.” Then again, that’s how I’m ending this post, too.

2010-02-04T19:55:00.001-06:00

The view from my desk in the new upstairs space at work. You can see where my new desk is in relation to Tom's.

Not as close as we used to be, but still pretty close.

2010-02-03T19:42:00.000-06:00

And how has it been for you? How have you liked living with us living together?

Nearly a year in, invisible roommate, did we get on your nerves? Did we lose that spark, us and you? Did we grow closer?

And to push the relationships-and-leases metaphor to its breaking point, maybe saying that entering a new web address into your Feed Reader is sort of like signing a lease (but not really but whatever), would you sign up for another year?

And isn't it about time you chipped in at least something for the rent?

2010-02-02T13:59:00.000-06:00

No moving on the home front this year, but there is some moving going on at work. Basically, with some expansion going on, everyone in the room where I work is moving to a new space in the building.

It's kind of exciting, a new work space can be reinvigorating. But I'm scheduled to be one of the last to move, so... it's just me and my desk in a progressively more empty and depressing room.

The only upside to being alone down here is occasionally looking up and yelling, "Oh my God! We've been robbed!"

2010-02-01T17:37:00.000-06:00

The engagement train keeps on rolling. This weekend we went to Young and Natalie's engagement party.

Young's Friend: Hey, and congrats to you on your engagement.
Me: Oh thanks.
Young's Friend: Wait? You're engaged too? I was joking.
Me: Yeah, I'm engaged too.
Young's Friend: Wow. Everyone's getting engaged. Well congrats for real.
Me: Thank you.

More importantly, congratulations to Young and Natalie on their engagement.

2010-01-31T23:08:00.001-06:00

Sarah’s been dealing with the death of a family member for the last week, and yesterday we went out to the suburbs for the funeral. The only suit I own these days is my Whirled News suit, and it felt slightly wrong to be wearing my comedy clothes to such a solemn occasion.

The sister of the deceased wrote a letter to him, that she couldn’t bring herself to read aloud, so she asked Sarah to read it at the ceremony. Is it strange to say that Sarah did a wonderful job? I guess you shouldn’t review speeches given at funerals, but if you did, everyone would agree that Sarah did a wonderful job.

Sarah’s Aunt: Great work Sarah. When I die I want you to read something at my funeral.
Sarah: No. No.
Sarah’s Uncle: Yeah. Me too.
Sarah: I’m not going to be the person that speaks at everyone’s funeral.

Later, in the car, she cried and asked, “Did I do a good job? I just wanted to do a good job for Dan.”

Then later still, in bed, she cried again, saying, “I just don’t want you to die. I don’t want to see you dead.”

2010-01-30T23:29:00.000-06:00

Martin and Marianna's housewarming. A nice sophisticated evening with drinks and quiche.

Meador: Is your house sufficiently warmed?
Martin: Oh yeah. It's warmed. It's warmed as shit. I'm sweating my balls off it's so warmed.

2010-01-29T16:51:00.000-06:00

Biggest Loser weigh-ins continue.

During the week, when I'm tempted to eat something bad, I think of the Excel spreadsheet that gets sent out on Fridays after everyone steps on the scale.

I lost four pounds this week, which was a real shocker considering how much barbecue I ate in Florida.

2010-01-28T23:47:00.000-06:00

Sarah's out of town so I have the bed to myself. It's nice to have all the sheets I want, going back to selfish cocooning, but it's lonely too. All these sheets and no one to share them with.

2010-01-27T15:43:00.000-06:00

Maybe it's the the cold here, but I find myself thinking back to the Gainesville trip.

Here's a picture of one of our shows taken by Ricky Klopfenstein.

Our shows were a hit, standing ovations both nights. The first night we even got more applause from the people still hanging out in the lobby when we left the theater. A testament to the great crowds at the festival, but my own unavoidable self-criticism had me thinking, "The shows were good, but did we deserve a standing ovation? I mean, did we deserve it?"

It was fun hanging out with festival-goers afterward. "It's so great to see a group be funny and not just rely on dick jokes," one of them said.

I didn't have the heart to tell him that warming up behind the theater before our show, the cast spent fifteen minutes adding the words "fart" and "queef" to movie titles and giggling. 'The Defarted.' 'Mr. Magoriums Wonder Queeftorium.' 'An Officer and a Fart.'

Good times.

2010-01-26T19:42:00.000-06:00

Looking off the back porch into our back yard, I feel flashbacks to the day we moved in (about eleven months ago). Looking down and seeing the movers trudge through the snow.

And as is usually the case with time, I feel it both ways, as if we just moved in yesterday, but also feeling that we've been here forever.

2010-01-25T19:17:00.000-06:00

Back in Chicago where it's terribly terribly cold. We've put this towel down by the back door, hoping it will block some of the cold air seeping in.

During my workshops in Florida over the weekend, I had a brief discussion with some of my students about how 50 degrees seems cold to them.

Me: It's around 30 in Chicago right now.
Student: Oh god.
Me: And that's good. People are probably talking about how nice it is that it finally got up to 30 degrees. [laughs] So, if you can take only one thing away from this workshop it's that Chicago is a miserable place.

2010-01-24T23:20:00.000-06:00

This was one of the rare Whirled News roadtrips where we had some extra time to hang out and explore, instead of just rushing back to an airport.

So we decided to go to a nature trail to see some alligators. Unfortunately, we got confused and went to the wrong nature trail. So... no alligators. We did see an armadillo. And a frog. But we mostly just took pictures of ourselves.

2010-01-23T16:35:00.000-06:00

We were a little late to the workshops we taught because Marla couldn't remember how to get around the campus she'd gone to college on.

Marla: In this building is where a little Marla was first introduced to improv.
Me: Wow. Such an important event that effected the rest of your life. You think you'd actually remember how to get there.
Marla: Shut up! This campus has changed a lot since I went to school!

[In case you were wondering, I actually had full workshops despite the fact that they were titled, "How to Be Not Funny." However, I did hear through the grapevine that the workshop that filled up first was "Be Funny." Lesson learned.]

2010-01-22T23:27:00.000-06:00

Florida.

Before doing our show for the Gainesville Improv Festival, Glynn kindly ties Adal's tie for him.

2010-01-21T20:59:00.002-06:00

Office prank.

Chris, who sits near Tom and I at work, took a two week vacation with his fiancee. This, plus the fact that he has four monitors on his desk (I have two, the head artist has three, he's the only person with four) makes him the obvious target for a prank.

Ryan, who you can see waving in the background, hid the four monitors and replaced them with this one giant old monitor. Then, just to rub it in, set his screensaver to be a picture of his desk back when it had four monitors.

2010-01-20T20:52:00.000-06:00

My youngest sister, Allie, is enjoying that brief period between graduating from college and entering the working world (she has a job lined up that starts soon). Like so many young people these days, she's passing this time by... going on a cruise with my mom.

Here's a picture Mom sent of their tour of Tulum, a Mexican ruin that Sarah and I actually visited last year when we took a relaxing Mexican vacation. At that time I wrote on my blog, "[Tulum] was really beautiful and I'd love to say that Sarah and I learned a lot about ancient Mayan culture, but honestly, we mostly took wacky pictures of ourselves, many of them involving Sarah punching nature."

Allie and Mom, though, were maybe smarter tourists, and took the guided tour.

Mom: [via e-mail] Carlos was our guide and he gave a great deal of info about the Mayans. We couldn't go inside any of the ruins. There was a red handprint on one building where the hands had 6 fingers! This was someone of royalty and Carlos thought it was because of all the family marriages.

2010-01-19T20:11:00.000-06:00

This Edward James Olmos shirt I got Sarah for Christmas finally came in the mail.

You can't tell because of the screwy perspective in this picture, but the shirt is weirdly tiny. It's a Large, but in some crazy, "I ordered this off the internet" sizing.

Sarah: It's okay. I'm losing weight for the wedding anyway. I'll be able to wear it on our Honeymoon.

I feel bad. Here's a belated Christmas gift to make you feel unnecessarily weight conscious! I'm such a terrible boyfriend!

This is the smallest Large I've ever seen in my life! I know it uses a Twilight font, but this shirt isn't for children, is it?

2010-01-18T14:11:00.000-06:00

I'm heading down to Florida this weekend with some of Whirled News Tonight, for the Gainesville Improv Festival. Our second year there of doing shows and teaching workshops.

I wanted to teach a different workshop than the one I did last year, so the one I'm doing this year is "How To Be Not Funny."

(It's actually listed wrong on the festival web site. They posted it as "How To Not Be Funny" which is, I guess, a fairly subtle distinction. Could be worse. Glynn's workshop, "The Way In" is listed as "In The Way.")

Now, I know I know, "How To Be Not Funny" is a terrible title for a college improv festival workshop. As former Whirled News member, Jordan, said when I mentioned it to him, "How to be not funny? What college student would want to take that? You might as well do a workshop on not having fun, not getting drunk and how not to get laid."

The idea, though, is to offer a workshop on relaxing and not being so worried about being funny that you become manic.

But yeah, I'm starting to suspect I may have record-low attendance for my workshop. Or, certainly, I'll have a lower attendance than the workshop "Be Funny" which I see on the website, is also being offered.

2010-01-17T23:29:00.000-06:00

You get one guess as to what Sarah is buying.

2010-01-16T23:03:00.000-06:00

I went to see the Backrow's yearly show at Sketchfest. The Backrow is a sketch group made up of a number of my good friends (Nick and his wife, Katie; Trupe and his wife, Wonak; Meador; Alexandra; Holper). They all went to college together and they still perform together now, even though it's just one show a year at Sketchfest.

Trupe: This is our ninth Sketchfest show, can you believe it? Next year might have to be our last one. It's getting too hard to get anything done with all our kids at rehearsals. Ten, though. Ten would be good to go out on.

Family and friends went out for drinks at Sheffield's afterward, thinking it might not be too crowded. The place has three big rooms. But the back two rooms were booked for birthday parties. As one of the waiters explained, "This one's for a 40th birthday party, and this one's for a 50th."

So, the one open room was pretty packed.

Meador:They'll be out of there soon, right? A 40th and a 50th?
Me: That's what I said, but the waiter said the 40th was booked until midnight and the 50th was booked until 1.
Nick: What?! Those old people are going to stay up later than us!

2010-01-15T14:06:00.001-06:00

I've done a couple of these blogs now. A couple "Years of..."

I like to have links over on the side, you should be able to see them there on the right, links to the blogs or websites of people who have appeared in that year's blog. It's satisfying as the year goes on to see that list of links get longer.

As the end of this blogs draws near(ish), I've noticed that this year's list is significantly shorter than from years past. Part of that is laziness, I'm sure there are a number of links I should have put over there but forgot. But still... it seems pretty clear that I saw less people this year.

Of course, the theme of this year's blog suggests a limited focus, but it's more than that. There's no getting around it, I'm becoming a homebody. I go out less. I stay out less late. I see less people. Part of getting older, I guess. Settling down.

Sometimes I worry that there's something sad about that, and maybe there is. But there's something good about that too. It's good to be happy to be home. It's where the heart is.

Ironically, I almost called this blog 'A Year in Pictures of Travel' (just like I almost used that theme for my last blog before settling on Comedy), and I have traveled some, sure, but usually, and increasingly, I'm right here at home.

2010-01-14T16:02:00.000-06:00

Sarah: I was looking at this side of my ring today, the one inside my hand, and I was like, "Oh yeah, this means I'm getting married." I know that's obvious, but when I look at THIS side my mind goes, "Diamond!" This side... "I'm getting married." [flipping her hand over and back] Diamond. Getting married. Diamond. Getting married.

2010-01-13T22:41:00.000-06:00

Back to the deathcicles for a moments, it doesn't help that the ground beneath them is a long sheet of solid ice. Once at the bottom of the stairs you can't just run past the drop point. You could slip and break your neck. So, instead, with 4 foot icicles dangling overheard you have to quickly shuffle forward, feet never leaving the ground, arms out at your side, eyes forward.

2010-01-12T23:37:00.000-06:00

Trying to find the origin of a strange beeping sound in your apartment, the kind of beeping that may come from, say, Sarah's ComedySportz stopwatch that she'd forgotten she'd taken home, can be disorienting at any time. More so late at night. More so right after you've watched 'The Hurt Locker,' a tense film about soldiers defusing IEDs in Iraq.

Sarah: [looking at stopwatch] This was beeping last night and I couldn't find it.
Me: Well, we found it now.
Sarah: Although... I'm not sure if I turned the alarm off or not.
Me: I guess we'll find out tomorrow. Maybe we should watch 'Blown Away.'

2010-01-11T12:09:00.001-06:00

They may not look like much in this picture, but those icicles dangling from the top of our back porch... are terrifying. Sarah calls them deathcicles. They're jagged and about half my height (and I am tall).

Walking off the back steps and into the back yard toward the garage, I wince a little, bracing myself for a deathcicle to plummet and impale my brain, leaving me dead and giving my neighbors an excuse to paint a new novelty tombstone on their back wall.

2010-01-10T21:32:00.000-06:00

Sarah: Is it weird that I use my Snuggie as just a normal blanket?

2010-01-09T23:19:00.001-06:00

Since our birthdays are so close, Sarah and I have a joint party every year. This party consists of inviting a bunch of people to bar to have some drinks with us. For the last three years that bar has been the Grafton (which we both like, but oddly only ever go to during our yearly birthday party).

We don't make a reservation or anything, just show up. Every year I get stressed about it. Every year it ends up fine.

This year the back of the Grafton was even more packed than past years. In fact, a birthday party was already in full swing when we showed up. We were lucky to snag one table.

In this picture we're sitting around our one table while the party in the back sings, "Happy Birthday, dear Shaw--awn!"

But, like each year before, as friends showed up, space magically opened, and there was, for the most part, enough room for everyone.

2010-01-08T15:01:00.000-06:00

With the holidays over, a new Biggest Loser challenge has started at work. This is actually the third time we've done this this year. I don't think I bothered to blog about it, the second time around. It was pretty half-assed. To put it into perspective, I somehow won with only six pounds of weight loss. Most people gained.

Still, everyone seems more serious about losing some weight this time around, and instead of a one month challenge, this time we're doing it for ten weeks (which, I believe, will put us a few weeks beyond the end of this blog).

My initial weigh in was depressing. I've gained back all the weight I'd lost in the first two challenges. All the more to lose this time, I guess.

2010-01-07T21:49:00.000-06:00

I never knew this, but apparently Meador was in an issue of 'Weekly World News.' You know, the absurd tabloid that would have front page headlines about things like, Bat Boy, half bat, half boy.

Anyway, I guess about ten years ago Meador was on vacation and somehow met a wife of a family member of a friend (something like that) who worked for 'Weekly World News' and took his picture and added it to their photo file. A year later he's in the paper, under the headline TITANIC ICEBERG KILLS AGAIN! He's Martin Van Vechten, a Dutch man and one of the few survivors of a shipwreck caused by the possibly sentient iceberg that sunk the Titanic.

I'm not sure how I've known Meador for six or seven years and didn't learn about this earlier.

Thanks to Google Books you can read the article here.

2010-01-06T22:26:00.000-06:00

My 34th birthday.

Sarah gave me this card. Inside she wrote, "I made this card funnier. Enjoy the gift of my hilarity on your birthday."

Sarah: I like the card but Butt is so much funnier than Keester. Why use Keester?
Me: Well... I agree. But I think it was supposed to be a pun on Easter Island.
Sarah: Oh.
Me: Keester Island. The giant stone heads?
Sarah: [looking at card] I get it now.
Me: I still do prefer Butt Island.

2010-01-05T14:44:00.000-06:00

We still need to take our Christmas decorations down.

2010-01-04T15:13:00.000-06:00

Sarah's 30th birthday.

Last night we went out to the suburbs and had a nice Italian dinner with her family. They made this posterboard of pictures of her as a child. I'm not sure if it was intentional that she was screaming with her arms in the air in all three pictures. Maybe she spent most of her childhood screaming with her arms in the air.

There was some discussion of dates of birth and the old rhyme about Monday's child which predicts what your life will be like depending on what day you were born. You know, "Monday's child is fair of face," etc. Sarah was born on a Friday so she is "loving and giving." I was born on a Tuesday so I am apparently "full of grace." Luckily, neither of us were born on a Wednesday which would make us "full of woe."

[Interestingly, while trying to look up what day of the week Sarah was born on, I came across this article that explains that, "Many computers think that time began on Jan. 4, 1980," the day Sarah was born.]

2010-01-03T16:36:00.000-06:00

I sometimes wish I had a better, fancier camera. But I know that as awesome as SLRs are, if I can't fit it in my pocket I'm unlikely to carry it around.

I also sometimes wish I had a "worse" camera. Rather, an old 70s film camera. Old pictures somehow always look more real. Film, though, gets pricey.

I did find a cheap alternative, though. A new app for my iPhone that takes 70's looking pictures, like this one. This might be the first iPhone picture I've taken in over a year.

2010-01-02T22:44:00.000-06:00

Bitterly cold. 5 degrees with a 15 below wind chill.

I wrote on Facebook, "Current Chicago Temperature: Oh My God I'm Going To Die! Overnight Temp: Oh Please Please Let Me Die!" and 14 people "liked" it.

But later, walking around out in the cold it occurred to me, that these are the kinds of temperatures that actually do cause deaths around the city.

2010-01-01T21:41:00.000-06:00

A relaxing New Year's Day. We had some of Sarah's friends over to the apartment to play cards, specifically a very long and complicated game that Sarah loves called Phase 10.

Somewhere around hour 2 Sarah caught me checking Facebook on my iPhone while someone else was dealing. "You're friends are here," she said, as she does whenever someone is checking their phone in a social situations.

"My friends are on Facebook too. I'm reading status updates from people here who have posted about how they're doing in this game."

2009-12-31T23:59:00.000-06:00

New Year's Eve.

Leaving ComedySportz, where Sarah had a show, on our way to a party, a stranger stopped in front of us on the street and said, "Happy New Year. Do you two have any resolutions."

"Not really, not yet," we said.

Although, we actually kind of did. Lose weight. Save money. Really mostly wedding resolutions.

"What about you?" I asked, "What's your resolution."

The stranger thought for a second, then said, "I do have a resolution. I'm gonna keep being me."

"Well, good luck with that," I said as he walked away.

2009-12-30T23:38:00.000-06:00

Hansen: Congratulations on being able to invite me to your wedding.

2009-12-29T23:30:00.000-06:00

I got back to Chicago to find Sarah feverishly doing wedding research online. She seemed a little stressed out.

Me: Look, it’ll be okay. We’ll just prioritize. Here’s my list of importance. One… your dress.
Sarah: Really? You’re not just saying that?
Me: It’s important you look good. Two… booze. Three… friends, having our friends be there. Four… venue. And then everything else.
Sarah: Do you want to hear my list? One… everything. [laughs nervously] And two.. everything I haven’t thought of yet.

2009-12-28T18:08:00.001-06:00

Since I've been in Ohio a while, I thought I'd try to record an installment of my Stupid Nerd podcast. The only problem is that no one in my family is all that nerdy.

So I did a short interview with Ty and Will a cartoon show they like, 'Ben 10.' Ty explained the concept of the show and a few of the episodes, while Will mostly giggled and occasionally said nonsense like, "Cha-cha!"

Me: Is there someone named Cha-cha?
Ty: No. Will's just saying weird stuff.

Afterward I let them each listen to the a few minutes of the recording. Ty seemed slightly hypnotized by his own voice, occasionally smiling a little to himself. Will didn't seem that interested, taking the earbuds out fairly quickly.

Me: Didn't like it Will?
Will: It's okay. Some of it is silly.

The podcast probably won't be up for a couple weeks, but in the meantime, you can listen to some of the old episodes here.

2009-12-27T22:10:00.001-06:00

For Christmas I gave Dad this framed picture, taken the second after his team won the national championship game (on a last second Hail Mary three-pointer, no less). You can see my mother and my sister, Sherry, having a sort of religious experience.

Julie: I like it. It captures the moment.
Mom: Oh, I look terrible. Ron, that is not going up in your office.
Sherry: Wait... why were you taking a picture then?
Mom: That picture might disappear.
Dad: I like it.

It's hard to follow up an undefeated championship season. So far it's gone okay. They're already not undefeated, but they're winning more than losing.

Sarah flew back to Chicago yesterday for a family event, a christening. When she was gone I thought I'd have a few days of not hearing, "let me see the ring," but I realized that, out in public, the same thing happens to my dad. People want to see the championship ring. Sitting in a booth at Outback Steakhouse, men walking by stop and say, "Coach, I gotta see the ring," or, "The ring. Show me the ring."

2009-12-26T19:36:00.000-06:00

The usual holiday tradition of the family taking Grandma out to Pizza Hut.

"Is this the one?" Grandma asked, meeting Sarah for the first time, and then, "You did good," referring, I think, to both the ring and Sarah in general.

I take this compliment to be sincere since she is usually pretty straightforward.

Me: What do you think of my new haircut?
Grandma: Well... it's not really my style.

On the way out I handed my camera to Mom and asked her to take a picture of the two of us. We must have been confused about exactly when the shot was being taken, because we're not even smiling politely.

Me: [showing picture to Grandma] Oh man. [laughing] We are not smiling at all.
Grandma: You're not even smiling.

I think we look like an ad for a cheap family law firm, or some strange syndicated detective show from the 80s. 'Jake and the Grandmother.' 'Anne Marie for Hire.'

2009-12-25T19:19:00.000-06:00

Christmas Day in Ohio at my sister's house.

Julie said that Ty and Will are really into 'Star Wars' and superheroes right now. Sarah and I decided to get them something that doesn't make noise, and something that doesn't have a lot of tiny parts that will easily get lost. So we got them these oversized cartoony versions of semi-obscure (to little kids anyway) Marvel superheroes, Ghost Rider and The Thing.

They didn't seem to know what to make of the toys (as you can see in the bottom left corner, neither did Allie), but Will started calling his toy Underwear Man, which sort of turned everything around. Little kids might not care about The Thing, but they sure do love Underwear Man.

2009-12-24T23:58:00.000-06:00

Christmas Eve in the suburbs with Sarah's family.

There were lots of congratulations and compliments on the engagement and ring, even though I think everyone already knew it was coming. In fact, I think her whole family knew by the end of the day that I asked for her grandfather's permission. That's the way families are.

During the White Elephant/Yankee Swap/Dirty Santa gift exchange last year I thought it would be amusing to bring Sham-Wow as my contribution to the swap. It wasn't as big a hit as I'd hoped, and frankly no one had heard of it before. You always feel bad for the person saying, "Hey... don't forget you can steal this things. This... uh... this Sham thing. Still up for stealing."

This year I just brought a bottle of scotch, and it was stolen three times (the game limit). So, I'm learning.

2009-12-23T16:41:00.000-06:00

I don't think either of us are particularly happy with the way we look in that engagement picture I posted. I say, "You look cute but I look terrible." And then Sarah says, "No. I look terrible. You look cute."

I mentioned that I think I sort of look like a Muppet in the picture, thick-headed with a gaping mouth.

So our friend Gilley did this reimagining of our engagement photo if we really were Muppets.

2009-12-22T11:34:00.000-06:00

After the proposal on Sunday we went to see 'It's a Wonderful Life' at the Music Box, a beautiful old Chicago theater. It was a nice film to see in the first hours of our engagement, about how the support of family and friends can make you "the richest man in town" (and only slightly about how a man feels so trapped by responsibilities to work and home that he's driven to suicide).

An organist led the packed house in singing Christmas carols beforehand and it was all very Christmas-y and we-just-got-engaged-y.

My still-recovering back ached a bit from sitting in the theater seat for so long. I had to get up a few times during the movie to walk around.

My back is mostly better now, but I was a little worried during the days leading up to the engagement, most of which I spent laying down, resting, worrying about the fact that my proposal plan involved climbing three flights of icy back porch stairs. Saturday night, the night before the proposal, I hobbled into the bathroom, locked the door behind me and secretly practiced getting down on one knee and getting back up, just to make sure I could do it, and that I wouldn't get stuck, clutching a ring and clutching my back.

2009-12-21T11:14:00.000-06:00

All social announcements and exchanges seem to be funneled through Facebook these days. We had to put a little thought into when exactly we'd update our relationship statuses (stati?), because it's like setting off a "we're getting married" bomb amongst our friends, friends of friends, and random improvisers who we don't really know.

Sarah had to send me a "change of relationship" request, which I confirmed. Her own little online version of asking me to marry her.

By the way, if you get engaged, and your fiancee sends you a Facebook request about it, it may take you a little while to find it on the Requests page. You'll have to scroll down below Friend Requests, Friend Suggestions, Event Invitations and Group Invitations.

Sarah's Facebook Status: "Sarah has decided that Arnie will now be referred to as 'The fi-ARN-ce.'"

2009-12-20T23:13:00.000-06:00

And… we’re engaged!

I proposed on the back porch of my old apartment that I used to share with Young, where Sarah and I had our first kiss. I got down on one knee and said, “Sarah Christine ______, will you marry me?”

Meanwhile, she immediately burst into tears and started yelling, “I knew it! I knew it!”

[It did occur to me though, that getting engaged would make a decent ending to the blog. There are, however, several months of blogging left. Oh well, I guess I'll have to come up with something else to end the blog.]

2009-12-19T18:36:00.000-06:00

The chicken has been tucked away in my closet since we moved into this apartment. Sarah recently noticed it and said, "That's kind of sad. Poor chicken. We should put him in sick bay." (We call the guest room sick bay.)

So now the chicken and the bear are keeping each other company.

2009-12-18T18:57:00.000-06:00

Going back to Sunday for a moment, during the Christmas dinner with the guys, Hansen got Young (and all of us) a pretty wonderfully ridiculous gift.

He's had a long standing joke, mostly aimed at Young, to annoy him, that he's going to write a terrible sequel to 'The Lord of the Rings' called 'Return to Elf Island.'

And his gift? He wrote it. (Well, he's halfway through writing it)

Hansen: It'll be out in April. You'll all get hardbound copies. And I'm sending two copies to the Library of Congress so it'll be officially listed, and you'll be able to request a copy from any library in the country. Also, I think you'll be able to order it from Amazon and a copy will be made for you.

He brought the first chapter, for Young to read aloud over drinks before dinner. Here's an exclusive excerpt, the first paragraph of 'Return to Elf Island: The Endginning':

"The white boatship creaked, and its creaks were loud, creaking as it was through the thunderous waves and their slappy wavelings that surrounded the ivory boatship as truly an ocean surrounds a boatship as it sails. And this one was sailing. It contained passengers of legend who rode on it and in it, and on occasion, above it, with their possessions in luggage of leather -- several made of beastface -- the very skins of the faces of ferocious beasts -- and with enough foodstuffs to last the expected length of the journey. Six of your Earth weeks, if you must know. And now you do, Dearest Reader. . Every provision had been thought of: dragon shanks, to make one sluggish with satisfaction and magic; cloven-hooved-beastcheese, and various salmon. Barrels and casks and flasks and skins held a veritable encyclopaedia of the thirst-quenching arts: cloudwaters, curly-haired-baa-crying-beastmilks, lakemoists, riverwets, and wines. Many on-board games of jinxcards and spelljacks ended in riotous laughter brought on by these intoxicating elixirs of fruit, and water, and magic. "

Hansen: All of you appear as characters.
Meador: Our names appear in there?
Hansen: Well, you all have weird Tolkienesque pseudonyms.
Young: [laughing] What a weird crazy thing to do.
Martin: But pretty great.
Young: Great, sure, really great, but... it's such a weird thing to spend all this time on.
Me: I feel like this is going to lead to Hansen accidentally becoming a bestselling novelty book writer.
Hansen: Keep reading. Keep reading. You're almost to the part about how everybody's gay.

2009-12-17T18:31:00.000-06:00

The holidays are taking their toll. I've come down with a cold and somehow hurt my back. It's a horrible combination.

Coughing makes my back hurt. Icing my back makes me feel more sniffley.

Ugh.

2009-12-16T23:28:00.000-06:00

So many holiday parties. One or two a day.

I never even mentioned this one from Monday. A small holiday gathering for Diplomat Motel, a team I perform with at iO.

It was the usual improv team Christmas party. Drinking. Eating. Making up a weird game that involved unpleasant physical challenges.

In this picture, most of the cast watches out the window as Tristan runs around a strange parked car fourteen times.

2009-12-15T23:21:00.000-06:00

The iO Theater holiday party.

I ran into Adal and Louie who have recently gotten some internet notoriety for a prank Adal played on Louie. Louie went out of town for a few weeks, leaving a key with Adal so he could check on his mail, etc. Adal invited dozens of improvisers over and wrapped everything in Louie's apartment in Christmas wrapping paper. TV... wrapped. Curtains... wrapped. Toilet... wrapped. Even small things, shampoo, books, all the food in the refrigerator... all individually wrapped.

A YouTube video showing the wrapped apartment has been quickly getting tons of hits. You can see it here. (And here's a video of Louie's reaction, here.)

Me: It seems like it's going viral pretty fast.
Adal: Yeah. You can check the stats on the site and it's the number one most watched video of the day... in the Netherlands. But still.
Me: But still. Mark my words, this is going to end up with both of you on a talk show next week.

Apparently the original idea was to fill Louie's apartment with balloons. So many balloons that he wouldn't be able to walk in. And they'd leave a note and a pin hanging from his front door. But they found out at the last minute that Louie is deathly afraid of balloons popping, so they decided to be nice and go with the wrapping paper idea instead.

2009-12-14T01:25:00.000-06:00

Last night was also the annual fancy Christmas dinner with Nick, Trupe, Young, Hansen, Martin and Meador. We got dressed up and ate steaks at the Primehouse.

Later we went to the Gingerman for beers. Trupe showed us how to tie a windsor knot.

2009-12-13T11:32:00.000-06:00

Glynn and Brooke hosted a Whirled News Christmas brunch at their place.

Eddie brought his second daughter, Amelia, who had just been born 48 hours ago.

Eddie: She's real new. The price tag is still on.
Sarah and Megan: [at same time] So you could still take her back?
Sarah: Hey!
Megan: Yeah!
[Sarah and Megan high five]

2009-12-12T12:31:00.001-06:00

We re-signed the lease (after negotiating the rent down, which I'm kind of proud of because I'm generally not good at those sorts of things).

So, another year in the apartment.

It did occur to me though, that moving out of the apartment would have made a decent end to the blog. When in doubt, book ending works.

Oh well, I guess I'll have to come up with something else to end the blog.

2009-12-11T23:59:00.001-06:00

Second City, one of Chicago's most historic theaters (comedy or otherwise) is celebrating its 50th anniversary this weekend, with some incredible shows and reunions.

Steve, a TourCo performer, got me in to the SCTV reunion show party as his "plus one." A big chunk of the original cast of that classic TV show reuniting for a night of live theater. We weren't in the theater itself (those tickets were crazy expensive) but got to watch the show simulcast on big screens in the fancy new training center space in the building.

Ed Grimley. Edith Prickley. Count Floyd. Pretty incredible.

Sure, there was a bit of a disconnect, watching it projected rather than live. We'd hear the tinny roar of applause through the speakers between sketches, and in our room upstairs, a round of real applause would start and then awkwardly sputter out, people wanting to show their appreciation, but also feeling a bit odd, because, well... they couldn't hear us.

Still, the show was great, as was the party surrounding it. Free drinks, sushi, friends who I don't see that often because they're busy at Second City and I'm busy at a different theater... and of course, every time you'd turn around another moderately obscure comedy celebrity. Hey, it's Larry David's dad from 'Curb Your Enthusiasm!' Look, it's the guy who played 'Sledgehammer!'

And I mean no insult by "moderately obscure." Sure, a lot of bigger names will be in the building tomorrow, but I was genuinely jazzed to see "that guy from 'Not Necessarily the News'!" And yes, I saw several celebrities whose names I do know, but I'm not going to write those here because, like stumbling across a YouTube video of some show that's been lodged in your brain since childhood but you could never remember its name and sometimes questioned if it existed at all... I was a lot more excited to see "that guy from 'Herman's Head'!"

2009-12-10T23:43:00.000-06:00

Work Holiday Party.

We had drinks and an amazing dinner at Roy's a fancy Hawaiian-fusion place.

There was a lot of debate all week about where to go for the after-party (karaoke? bowling?). Numerous company-wide e-mail surveys. Finally we settled on buying a bunch of booze and coming back to the office to drink and hang out.

That may sound kind of boring ("why would you want to go back to your office?") but it was inexpensive and fun.

Chris, by the way, has a (totally deserved) reputation for giving terrible speeches at our parties. This year he was half-jokingly (but half-seriously) forbidden from giving a speech at dinner from the higher-ups. When we got back to the office, though, he stepped up on a desk to make a speech. I'm not sure what he said, because we were all too busy boo-ing him.

2009-12-09T17:26:00.000-06:00

The bitter winter weather is sweeping in.

Someone wrote this in the frost on the front door to our office building.

I imagine it mocks people waiting at the call box to be buzzed in for an interview or office visit. It's clearly written from inside. "Cold? Are you cold out there? Pretty cold out there, huh?"

2009-12-08T22:19:00.000-06:00

I received a surprise package in the mail from Mom. Black socks! I could definitely use some black socks.

I wondered why she sent them to me right before Christmas, though.

Maybe she was thinking that it's no fun to get socks for Christmas, but it's super-awesome to get socks BEFORE Christmas!

2009-12-07T22:20:00.000-06:00

Sarah bought a little tree and some Christmas decorations. We set them up, while listening to Christmas music and watching festive holiday HD Screensavers on the TV.

Sarah: It's like our Christmas stuff is watching the stuff on the TV thinking, "Oh man.. someday I hope I get big like that."

2009-12-06T23:04:00.000-06:00

Went to the fundraiser for the Donna Fund. A number of great comedy art pieces(/sketches) including Lacy's interpretation of Beowulf using 40-some Barbie dolls (pictured).

If you would like to make a donation to the fund, which raises money to offer dance scholarships to children and buy portable DVD players for children in hospitals, I have the information in the comments section.

2009-12-05T23:12:00.000-06:00

Marc and Odette's wedding.

Marc: [giving speech at reception] I'd like to thank Odette's parents for raising such a wonderful, amazing daughter. And I'd like to thank my parents... for raising... such a wonderful amazing son!

2009-12-04T23:24:00.000-06:00

Marc's bachelor party.

We surprised him by starting the evening at Medieval Times, a giant castle-shaped building in the suburbs where you eat a meal and watch a medieval jousting and stunt show. Our knight, the Black and White Knight, won, somehow surviving being stabbed in the stomach about four times (by my count). So, he won, but he's probably dead now, right?

The only disappointment was that we didn't think to submit an announcment about Marc's impending wedding. We didn't know it was an option until the King was already reading off a long list of birthdays and anachrostic sounding corporate groups.

King: I am pleased to welcome to my kingdom... [reading] "AKA Marketing, ______ _____ who is celebrating an eight birthday, Nexus Logistics..."

2009-12-03T23:35:00.000-06:00

Well, Officer _____, detinting the car windows wasn't as easy as just scraping it off with a razor blade like you suggested, but I was able to do it myself.

Sarah looked up 'how to' videos on YouTube, which is basically where she goes to answer all questions these days. The best approach seemed to involve using a steamer. We don't own a steamer, and my attempts to borrow one fell through (FYI: if you post something on Facebook about needing to borrow a steamer, you will mostly just get lots of amusingly vulgar jokes in response), so we bought a cheap little handheld travel SteamBuddy.

The side windows were surprisingly easy. But the back window was a terrible multi-day ordeal. Steam a little off, scrape. Steam a little off, scrape. Plus, I started to worry that I could damage part of the back window defroster. Finally I switched to using a hair dryer and it was more effective, allowing me to pull larger chunks of tinting away at a time. This may have been easier going if it weren't frigidly cold outside.

But it's done. And I feel sort of off, after spending so many hours in the back seat inhaling steam, hair dryer exhaust and window glue.

2009-12-02T20:07:00.000-06:00

Long sigh.

This just hasn't been a good week for me.

2009-12-01T23:06:00.000-06:00

Damn these tinted windows.

Me: I know. I know. I've been putting off getting the tinting removed because I'm worried about how expensive it'll be.
Officer: Just scrape it off yourself.
Me: I can do that?
Officer: Yeah. Just scrape it off with a razor blade. Why pay somebody else to do it?

For a second I thought about saying, "But look at the mess on my windshield from all those old city stickers I couldn't get off properly." Then I thought better of drawing attention to the fact that I've lived in Chicago with tinted windows for many years.

2009-11-30T16:50:00.000-06:00

My friend Lacy asked if I'd pass on some info on a fundraiser she's working on. It's for a dance scholarship in the name of Donna, the little girl who passed away in October.

"Good Art for Good Things is a night of fun and somewhat raucous theater to celebrate a serious cause. All proceeds from this event will go to the Donna's Good Things Fund in honor of Donna Quirke Hornik (2005-2009).

"Donna's Good Things is an agency for good works, good deeds, GOOD THINGS in Donna's name: dance scholarships. Portable DVD players for kids going through treatment on long hospital stays. Essentially continuing Donna's special gift of spreading joy and light.

"Tickets are on a sliding scale: $15 - $25.

"Sunday, Dec. 6 at 8pm. Trap Door Theatre.

"Space is limited: RESERVATIONS ARE STRONGLY ENCOURAGED! Send yours in to GoodArtGoodThings@gmail.com!"

Not sure exactly what the entertainment pieces will be, but I know several of the performers and expect good things. I do know that Lacy will be performing her adaptation of Beowulf using Barbie dolls.

I'm going. Maybe I'll see you there.

I'll try to get and post some info soon on how you can make a donation if you can't attend in case anyone's interested.

2009-11-29T21:00:00.000-06:00

Still not sure what to do with this mirror.

It's heavy.

It looks kind of good right there, right?

2009-11-28T22:42:00.001-06:00

More houseguests.

Bob and Stacey are in town from Portland where they moved a few years back to open their own comedy theater. Even though it’s their vacation, there are a lot of calls to be taken, emails to be answered. Theater business.

Stacey: This is the first time we’ve gone away for so long since the theater opened.
Bob: It’s a lot like having a baby.
Me: It’s a lot like having a baby that has a job.

2009-11-27T02:41:00.000-06:00

I wrote back in March when we first moved in that, "the view from our back deck has a lot of 'Rear Window' potential."

While out in the suburbs for Thanksgiving we picked up some rugs that Sarah's grandmother kindly gave us.

Lugging a large rolled up rug up the backstairs in the middle of the night, I wondered if I was giving someone else a 'Rear Window' moment, spotting me, a kind of reverse Raymond Burr, dragging a body into my home under cover of night.

2009-11-26T23:30:00.000-06:00

Out to the suburbs for Thanksgiving with Sarah's family.

Things started winding down around 8. People packing up their kids and heading home.

Sarah's Uncle: Remember when we used to stay up late on Thanksgiving? This family gets lamer every year. We need to rely on the young people here to keep the party going.
Sarah: Oh wait, are WE the young people?
Sarah's Uncle: Yes. You two.
Sarah: Uh oh.

2009-11-25T15:24:00.001-06:00

Our lease isn't up until March, but we've already begun getting long official documents asking whether we'll renew or not.

I lived with a different girlfriend once, years ago, and after that came to an end, I kept a blog about getting over it.

I wrote, "I've been thinking about leases and love. I wonder how many relationships end because the lease is up? I mean literally. For N and I it came down to, the lease is up at the end of June, do we sign up for another year together? The answer was no. I don't think either of us were one hundred percent certain that we wouldn't have been able to make another year work, but the chances were slim. And if we were going to lose each other, we didn't want to lose our security deposit too."

It's nice to feel differently this time. Things haven't always been perfect, Sarah and I even came close to breaking up several months back (cut to lots of blog posts about dying plants), but things have also been good, and we're both ready to sign on for another year.

But will we be here? We like the apartment. The neighborhood could be better. So, we're keeping the relationship, but whether we're keeping the apartment is up in the air.

2009-11-24T21:59:00.000-06:00

Hanging out on the couch, watching TV, Sarah suddently shot her arms up over her head, forming her hands into beaks, and yelled, "These cranes are happy!"

We laughed about this for a while.

Me: We're the stupidest people I know.
Sarah: Yeah, pretty stupid.
Me: It's a good thing we're together, because no one else would find that amusing. Seriously. Imagine someone else was sitting next to you right now. That would have been real awkward.

2009-11-23T14:54:00.000-06:00

Sarah's flattening out her yoga mat, and for some reason it's funny to me that these are the books she used. Satire isn't the opposite of yoga, not exactly the yang to yoga's yin, but still, there's something there.