Poor Neglected Blog....

I have a reasons for neglecting you.

I am lazy.

I have been busy.

I have been out of the country, and didn't bring a computer.

The third reason only excuses about 10 days. It was a great 10 days though.

We were in England and Wales, and saw all sorts of cool stuff:
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Sorry for neglecting you. I will try to keep up from now on.

It couldn't have been said better...

Jon Stewart, the most trusted name in "news", explains why Fox News is not a news station, even by Fox's own admission:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
For Fox Sake!
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Creativity Requires Time

After spending most of this year at a steady, pleasant, but rather dull job, I have been let go; the project I was on was coming to an end, and I had already decided that this was not the company I felt was going to lead me on a fulfilling career path. The little company is struggling, and I basically presented myself to be the first to be let go. Because my spouse is gainfully employed, and I still have a couple of part time gigs, this won't impact us much.

I am aware of how blessed I am. I feel very fortunate.

Since this has happened, I have had a burst of creative output that has been sitting fallow in my mind for months. Writing sketches and one acts, composing songs, and making artwork. I just didn't have time to do it while working, raising a family, etc.

Funny how this new underemployment didn't doing anything for my housework or workout schedule, and so far, not for my blogging...

So we didn't get the 2016 Olympics

Though I was hoping we wouldn't get the Olympics, I was a little stung by Chicago getting 4th place in the IOC voting. This is my adopted city, after all. I know how great it is. This is not a 4th place city!

I was not disappointed though, that Rio de Janiero got the bid--I was hoping they would get it--South America deserves its turn, and the Olympics could be even more exciting in such a beautiful and exotic locale. It will also bring more attention to Brazil, full or rain forests and natural beauty and rare resources, as well as provide an incentive to improve its impoverished urban areas.

Chicago deserved to be in the top four,but getting yet another Olympics in the USA after Salt Lake City and Atlanta seems excessive. I have a feeling I know why we got the dreaded 4th place. Bloc voting. Madrid or Tokyo seemed like the bottom rungers, but then some old guy from Spain who used to be head of the IOC made a plea, and politically, the European voters had to help him save face. Tokyo seemed likely as well for the embarrassing #4 spot, since we just had the Olympics in relatively nearby Beijing. The Asian IOC members gave it good numbers so it was not shamed. For the IOC members from the Americas, it was split. Rio de Janiero got the majority of the votes, and there weren't enough left to save face for Chicago. Not a lot of bleed from any other side towards Chicago, because they take care of their own, and the USA hasn't been exactly cuddly to deal with in the past 8 years. It is silly and political, but basically, I bet that was basically how it went.


You may wonder why I was ambivalent about our bid. On a personal level, I love the romance of being the host city. However, I could see it being a huge inconvenience in construction delays, higher taxes and humongous commute times. For the city, I didn't trust the Daley machine to be able to control itself and not go crazy in corruption and graft. We tax payers were not off the hook for outrageous cost overruns or other issues. The burden of change would be to the south side of Chicago, and the communities there are already stressed with rampant gang violence and poverty related crime. Having the Olympics in Chicago was going to be a major strain for the area fiscally and on our quality of life, with no real guarantee of jobs.

I admire the Obamas for making the effort to go out and make the pitch for an American city--their American city. It was a pro-American thing to do, and the gloating on the part of the GOP pretending that this was a defeat for Obama once again makes them look puerile and insipid. The Olympic bid was not his to lose--it was Chicago's to lose. This just wasn't our time.

Because it makes me happy..

This is posted everywhere, but I love it to pieces. I love this baby dance video. It reminds me of the dance moves my kids used to put on. This is the full version, really the first minute or so is the best. Ah, diaper butts!

Manners are Important-They Show Who You Are

The behavior of the Republicans in Congress was reprehensible last night. Twittering, texting, and then Joe Wilson, the congressperson from South Carolina, shouting "You Lie!" at the President. They did a "silent protest" holding up about 10 pieces of paper saying, "What bill?"

The thing is--these are grown men, who are somehow thinking that acting like petulant middle schoolers is going to make them look mega-cool to their constituents.

I hope that we can all school them on the fact that----MANNERS MATTER. In a civil society, if you don't have manners and use them, no one can take you seriously.

Being so boldly rude and openly contemptuous to the President of the United States during his address is taken as a poor reflection on you, GOP, and no one else. Most citizens do not take kindly to your blatant disrespect to the office of President.

The people of South Carolina already have to deal with "It's all about ME and my penis" Sanford as governor, and now they have to enjoy being associated with a guy who goes to congress to audition for the Jerry Springer show. Even in South Carolina, there are people who take being civil seriously, and will question strongly his fitness for the office. I also hope the military goes after him, since his behavior as an officer in the National Guard makes contemptuous behavior to a superior a punishable offense.

I will hope that the congresspeople who were Twittering and texting will also be getting an earful from their constituents. We have to let these regressed adolescents know what is not acceptable behavior.

Random insomniac thoughts

I am more than disturbed by the amped-up hate rhetoric from the Fox "News" Network.

Sure, it gets ratings, revving up the right wing leaning folks, enraging the left wing leaning folks. It endlessly gets called out for lies, fabrications, racially inflammatory hate speech and plain craziness by the highly popular "Daily Show with Jon Stewart."

The "Tea Parties" that were sponsored and promoted by the Fox Commentary Network where covered as if they were news and not a sponsored event. Not as well attended as they hoped, but a great organizing tool for the reactionary folks.

Then, people were encouraged to act like Jerry Springer show wannabes at town hall meetings in order to get coverage and get on TV. Fox promised to cover it, and nothing else, and followed up with that. Shouting down and intimidating people with real concerns and questions was also encouraged. No First Amendment rights for anyone, but a great spectical!

Now there may be no public option to health care reform, taking care of some of the folks who have no care--like the idiot who tried to take up a collection for his medical bills after getting into a fight with someone at a town hall meeting because he was unemployed.

Beck and Hannity really seem to be digging this attention, but they have a tiger by the tail. There is a huge difference between catering to the lowest denominator for ratings and sound bites, and irresponsibly inciting them to violence, hatred, and crazy action.

The tabloid web site for Fox called "Fox Nation" goes all the way to crazytown and is commented on by some of the most vile and sick people who seem to be ready to go do civil war. They have their guns locked and loaded. They are ready to create one hell of a Fox News sponsored homegrown terror event.

Is it no wonder that I consider FOX the leading threat to our democracy?

Living with temporary slight disability

Earlier this summer, I thought I pulled a muscle in my back while weeding. However, it didn't go away.

I thought it may be an alignment issue, and since I had a good experience with the chiropractic school in Lombard, I decided to give the chiropractor/physical therapy unit of my medical group a try. He is a professor at the school, as well as being a naparopath and acupuncturist and a medical doctor.

He gave me the bad news that he thought I had a herniated disc. An MRI confirmed that a had a pretty significant one.

So, a couple weeks ago, I started chiropractic treatment. At first I was amazed--I didn't need to take any pain killers any more after just 2 treatments. I started to feel very optimistic. I was on my 5th treatment when I went to go work out afterward and the next day something was different.

I don't think I was crazy or anything, but I was getting more of my usual movement back and feeling like I could do a light non-weight bearing exercise, like use the stationary bike. I did a great half hour on it. Felt great.

But now I have a shooting pain down my leg. I have sciatica. It sucks!

Movement is improving, but the pinch is quite aggravating, and I am back on ibuprophen.

It is better today than it was before a weekend of rest, but I am getting impatient and a little self pitying. This is the best running summer ever here in the Chicago area, and I can't run even a little bit.

Mostly, I am concerned with my lack of physical activity. I had planned on running the Chicago Marathon, and getting really buff. Instead, I am barely doing more than walking around and I am starting to look like a doughy "before" picture.

I realize that I don't really have it that bad, other people have it worse. I just want to get back to feeling good again, and this is putting a huge crimp in my lifestyle.

I just thought I would share these. Paul Thomas went through the Second City Conservatory with me many years ago. and he is one of the funniest writers I know. The song "Tighty Whiteys" debuted during the Conservatory years, and the "Questionable Beef " song is performed with his band, "Lola Balatro." Musically sound and catchy, these odes are to common things made zany and hilarious.

Short notes

I was expecting the Michael Jackson Memorial Service to be completely L.A. (false, crass, and smarmy) but somebody engineered a little taste into it. Still, I wished that someone had been caring for him better so that this did not have to happen. He was a gifted, odd and needy person, but the people around him only cared what he could do for them. Fifty concert performances from a guy in fragile health who was over 50...someone wanted him to go crazy or die trying...

Sarah Palin. Ah, so much has been written. What else can I say? Buh bye? Go away?

I pulled a gluteus medius muscle a few weeks ago weeding the garden, and it isn't healing as fast as I would like. We are having some of the best running outside weather, and I can only walk or use the extremely boring elliptical machine. What a pain in the ass.

Today is an important day--Twenty years ago, my husband and I tied the knot. I am not making a big deal out of it for some familial reasons, and also because I don't feel like I am old enough to have been married that long. It has been really a happy time. Dan is the best, and if I could clone him and hand him out to all my single friends, I would make them all happy too.

In Other News...

...Last weekend's show went just fine, and my early onset dementia seems to have been cured by antibiotics and the renewed ability to breathe.

...I am shocked and saddened by Michael Jackson's death, because his music was in the background of my life for most of my teen and college years. I never had to buy his albums because all I had to do was turn on the radio and one of his songs would come up within a few minutes. His life seems so terribly sad. RIP Michael.

...I feel sad for Farrah Fawcett too, but she had given it the good fight, and also wish her well in the afterward.

...What, now Karl Malden? Well, he was 97. That is a pretty good old age. I hope he was ready to move along as well.

...Closer to home, my friend Jesus's mom passed away after a 7 month fight with brain cancer. For him it is sadness, but also relief, because it is no fun to watch someone suffer so much, and just have to wait for the inevitable. I hope she is exploring whatever it is that comes next, and that he gets to have some freedom from worry and strife. Grief will be natural, but so is feeling unburdened and lightened to a certain extent. RIP Chuy's mama.

To get away from death, this weekend we have a celebration of the birth of our country, so make the most of it! It's not perfect, and we are still some of the most ornery cussed people around, but we have a new beginning this year, and time will tell how it all goes. Have faith, and try to keep from dying so we can all see how it turns out.

A little bit of actor hell...

This weekend, we opened "Bounty of Lace" a very nice new play at the Lincoln Square Theatre in Chicago. I play "Geula" who is this wonderfully complex character in a play about Israeli women dealing with life, loss and choices.

The director is a young guy who is personally going through the seven circles of hell right now in his personal life--I won't go into it, but trust me, it would be really hard to be him right now and be able to cohesively put sentences together, let alone direct a show. But he did, and it was difficult, but we all worked together and got the play going where it needs to go.


So, last night, Sunday, was opening night. Here is where my little bit of hell came in--

I have been having a lot of coughing lately, left over from a cold a few weeks ago, and on Saturday it started to become something more than just a cough. My chest hurts. I am so freaking tired. And I can't often get a full breath.

This play was very hard for all of us to memorize, but for some reason, me most of all. I fear early onset dementia. My husband, going over the lines with me, noted that my character is not consistent in phrasing, and sometimes sounds like a native Israeli speaker and sometimes is very American sounding. This could be because she lived in America for a while, but the upshot is, it makes it difficult to memorize, especially with potential early onset dementia. And Geula talks a lot. In fact, she starts the show with a 6 minute monologue.

Before the show, I was terrified I would cough uncontrollably or wheeze or faint during the show. I was also feeling lethargy and chills. So, since I have no understudy, I took all the meds I could safely mix together without getting the shakes. I got them anyway, but I wasn't coughing and I could breathe.

I had my first bout with stage fright just before I went on. I breathed and reminded myself my heart was racing because of the sudafed and albuterol, not fear. I got out on stage and actually felt pretty good. I clipped through the monologue, going fine, then I got to the very last phrase of it, and blanked. Hard. Time slowed down. I stood there like a deer in the headlights. A halo of dark surrounded my vision. An eternity passed before someone dimmed the lights and the actress playing my daughter went up, as she should have once I finished the phrase, that I could not remember to save my life.

Talk about feeling stupid and humiliated.

The rest of the show went fine. In fact, people seemed to really enjoy it, and Dan, who is my audience safety blanket, was actually very flattering in what he had to say and said that it looked like a missed light cue to him.

It wasn't a missed light cue. It was a worm hole in time that went right through the memory centers of my brain, and the whole cast and crew knew it. Humiliating.

Little did I know there was a reviewer there. Once I found out, I felt even worse. However, this is all they had to say:

New Review (Theater and Comedy)

Bounty of Lace

Through 7/18: check with theater for repertory schedule,
312-458-9170
Theater & Performance

The most intriguing character in Susan Merson's drama is Guela, a weary Israeli mother and walking tangle of contradictions. At once adopting the yoke of tradition and chafing against it, she's envious, resentful, and proud of her independent-minded stepdaughter, whose affair with a Palestinian man has left her pregnant. The conflict between these two has promise, but Merson dilutes it by introducing two ancillary female characters--a goofy American ex-pat and a wise Ethiopian university professor--presumably meant to show a wider cross-section of women and the choices open to them. The effect, though, is an intrusion that bars us from fully delving into Guela's conflicted emotions. Jesus Contreras's production has a few nice, quiet moments, but too often the cast opts for yuks and bustle. Part of the Alcyone Festival. --Zac Thompson $10-$20, festival pass $50

To be fair, the show will probably not be as tending towards "yuks and bustle" in subsequent performances. Because of the place in his life that the director is in, at first he was directing the show to a very dour and loveless and dark place--once the artistic directors had a look at it, and had the playwright talk to him about where she saw the characters, we had to do a complete 180 degrees in a lot of ways in the space of a week. It could be that we swung a little too far the other way. I am sure that it will settle down by the next performance.

And save me, oh save me from any other wormholes in time...

Ohhhh, drama

Well, I seem to have blown my resolution to blog twice a week all to hell lately.

What I have found is that something had to go, and this was not really on anyone's compass besides my own as a must-do. Once things calm down, I should be able to go full speed ahead again.

Starting back to work full time and deciding (wrongly) that doing a new play in a new play festival with only 4 performances would be less time intensive than a full run (not in rehearsal!) while still being somewhat present for my family is just a lot to do. Blogs forgive. I barely have any readers. They probably will forgive too. (Thanks Mom and Dad.)

For information on the Alcyone New Play Festival check it out at www.halycontheatre.org
I am in "Bounty of Lace," which at the moment I cannot be sure if it is recommendable--we will see after this rehearsal.

Today I left work early because I was just too tired to be able to keep going from work to a six hour rehearsal. I would have ruined rehearsal because the first thing to go is my memory--and my character talks and talks and talks. Friday afternoons are usually a bust anyway at regular work. I am still hourly until the end of the month, so I think actually I am saving my employer money. I had a little rest that was sort of like sleeping, and I feel a bit more refreshed and less like a danger to the public when I get back behind the wheel.

So, my few readers, I will be back once I have some more time. I am sure you are waiting with bated breath.

Some suggestions for Thriving in a Cubicle Environment

I was thinking lately about how some office situations can be really decent, where others are like running a cheese grater over your brain day after day. The jobs may be similar, but one makes you dread going, and one makes you look forward to going to work.

Here is what has made working in an office fantastic for me, and should be strived for in all offices:

No-drama bosses. They are the best. Crazy people should never be bosses. I am working for some really cool people right now who are all business and no drama. I can't stress enough how great this is for my office morale and how much more I want to do well for them.

Office friendships and a culture of non-gossip amongst co-workers. Office gossip can be such a killer of joy in going to work. I have avoided getting to know people who even seem like they are gossipy, because it so often turns negative and cruel and someone ends up crying in the bathroom. I prefer it isn't me.

Laughter. Offices where people are encouraged be creative about making each other laugh make work much more enjoyable, and fosters a feeling of creative expression which just might lead to the next big idea. Pass that joke around, post a silly picture for everyone to caption. Make it a contest, make some area of the office fun, like in the break room, or by the coffee machine.
Creating a new Lettermanesque Top Ten list every week from suggestions posted by the coffee machine is also a lot of fun. If people are up for it, start brainstorming sessions with improv games and listening exercises.


This is my wish list for making working in a cubicle situation even less trying;

I would like an option to put a stationary bicycle in the cube for powering all my computer equipment in a manner that makes me motivated to exercise and less in need of walking around every hour or so in order to keep blood from pooling in my butt and legs. It's green, I really think that I would be more productive with this set up, and svelter too.

It would be really nice to have, in an office where no one is allergic, some office cats to lounge around and do cat things like sleeping and purring and occasionally providing some distractions by just being furry, gorgeous, and in need of petting. This will lead to folks being less stressed and less focused on only their own selves.

Vending machines should be outlawed, or only stocked with things that one would only eat if truly hungry, like packets of oatmeal, plain veggies and fruit. No dip.

Coffee makers should be self cleaning, so it isn't left to chance if someone will get grossed out before the coffee turns out terminally skunky and the machine corrodes.

A nap room for 10 minute naps after eating lunch when needed.

Mac environment. PC sucks. Just sayin',

Kooks and Teabags and Fox, oh my.

If anyone is in doubt that the "Tea Party" stuff going on tomorrow is not a totally Fox News manufactured event, take a look at any other news outlet and notice the lack of 'coverage.' On Fox, they are calling for a 'grass roots' uprising, with celebrities, about every 3 minutes if not more. Everywhere else--crickets. Actual news items.

I certainly hope that no Timothy McVeigh types don't take it into their minds to do something to hurt others tomorrow in the name of protesting "the obamanation." I also hope that in the best possible way, the teabaggers just get to have their protests and everyone else just ignores them or makes fun of them without being belligerent.

I will probably just go about my boring job, and read about it later. I don't get into "news" organizations organizing crazy people for manufactured "historical" anti-intellectual corporate driven protests.