Ben[adryl] there, done that

Hello.

I just wrote that fake Wednesday post. I'm not very good at keeping secrets, huh?

Well, today was a pretty interesting day. We were supposed to have a team retreat at work. Then it got canceled this morning. Then, when it was physically impossible for me to be in the office in time for the retreat, the team decided it wasn't canceled anymore. So, that being said, the day got started off the wrong foot and has just kind of coasted since.

I performed improv last night for another sold-out crowd. CRAZY! I played Script in Hand, Oscar Musical, Narration Switch + Sounds Like a Song, and Meet the Experts. I busted out my newly developed character named Willy Nilly. She was fun! I wished I'd had a little more energy, but it had been a long day...

We had our bowling tournament at work yesterday. I got the highest score on my team, which was a 101. That is very good for me! We didn't win the actual tournament, but we won Best Team Name/Theme, which was quite the honor. It was my responsibility to come up with both, so we were "The Bowled and the Beautiful" and dressed as celebrities. We had black shirts and wore flashy scarves and sunglasses. Our clapper board was what sent it over the top, though. We were pretty obnoxious with that board. Here's a shout out to KW for letting me borrow the board (AKA the key to success).

I guess that's about all. I've been feeling sick, so I took a Benadryl and am about to pass out. Tomorrow is going to be busy!

WiLLY NiLLY!

So, I came up with a new character idea today. I'm not prepared to announce details yet because they're still being finalized in my head. However, I am super-excited about this character's potential. It looks like Dottie has some competition!

Today was an okay day. I intended to get up and work out this morning, but sometimes things don't go as planned. I opted to sleep instead. I took my gym clothes to work in case I had a burst of energy, but I'm still waiting on that as I type...

I had several meetings today, totaling about four hours of my day. The new character was born in one of the meetings, so that was very worthwhile. :-)

Some colleagues and I (LT and BC) went to Panera today, and it really hit me how much nonsense I'm not supposed to eat anymore. I realize I can eat these things in limited portions, but dang! The list is so long. I ended up going with a chicken ceasar salad so I didn't eat too much bread.

After work, I headed to Starbucks to meet a friend (MV). I enjoyed our time together, per usual. I then went to El Azteca (with MM) and got a quesadilla and a margarita. Bueno!

It's bedtime. Actually, it's past bedtime if anyone's counting.

Easy like Sunday moooornin'

I am up earlier than I should be.

Well, yesterday was a good day! I got up and did my morning breathing treatments before heading to the gym. I exercised, then came home and showered so I could meet a friend (MV) at Starbucks. We had a good time chatting and laughing; I love when she and I crack up about random stuff.

After that I headed to Goodwill to meet one of my fellow actors to look for some costume gear. I ended up purchasing Dottie's outfit in case I wanted to be her in last night's show. I guess that's the perfect segue into last night's show...

TONS! O'! FUN! The show was sold out and the crowd was pretty awesome! I had some people there supporting me, so that always makes me happy. While Dottie has not yet been birthed, I played Buzzer, Repeat Scene Family, Phones (on-stage), and Remote Control Styles. I just had so much fun with my fellow castmates. There's nothing better than having just as much fun as the audience.

Although I was worn out from the show, I decided to hang around to watch one of my friends make her mainstage debut (KW!). The show was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed being a patron; it's been a while since I did that. I was like a proud parent out in the audience! I also ran into two people I know (separately). Atlanta can get pretty small sometimes!

Well, today's gonna be a relaxing day. I plan on takin' it eaaaasy. I think I'm about to read some more of my third library book. READING IS FUN!

Kick it to the curb

So, Thursday was an eventful day; that Cortisone injection made it more painful than I imagined. I took some Aleve in the morning, hoping that the soreness would wear off as the day continued. However, I was horribly wrong. By 2:00 p.m. when the pain wasn't subsiding any, I decided to take half of a Vicodin. I'll tell you that definitely did a trick or two. I was at least able to relax a bit, so my shoulder stopped twitching and my neck loosened up a bit.

I met a friend at El Azteca before Thursday night's show. Dinner got started a little late considering the zebra running around on the Downtown Connector, which held up traffic quite a bit (it's no wonder Atlanta was just ranked third in the worst traffic among metro areas). Anyway, we had to move quickly, but we got in some good catching-up before we headed to the improv show. It was super-fun being spectators together, and the show was quite amusing!

I was relieved to work at home Friday so that I didn't have to sit up in a chair and/or walk around as much. Thankfully, I woke up Friday feeling remarkably less sore, but it was still nice to get to work from bed. I got a lot accomplished before I headed downtown to meet a friend at Willy's. We were both on the volunteer schedule, so we got to visit over dinner before we went to fulfill our duties. I was originally slated as the camera girl with her doing suggestions, but we flipped responsibilities since I knew my SC joint wasn't going to be happy about having to work the camera.

Today has been a really lazy day. I'm not sure if I'm just exhausted or if I'm still kind of fighting something, but I haven't felt up to much today. I slept in pretty late, which was nice since it's been a pretty jam-packed week. My mom ended up heading this way and we went to the Goodwill to do a little character-outfit shopping. I got a few good things to solidify some characters. Then we swung by El Toro (third Mexican reference in this post - I also forgot to say I had Willy's for lunch Thursday) and ate a late lunch.

This evening I haven't accomplished much. I dozed off for over an hour. I tried cleaning up a bit, too, but that didn't work out quite as planned. I got a bath, which was nice, but honestly I have no idea where the night has gone. All I know is that I'm feeling pretty drained.

Tomorrow I think some of the apprentice actors are meeting for lunch. Then, in the afternoon, a friend and I will be doing some filming for my CF video. I'm pretty excited to see the outcome of this; it's gonna be cooooool!

Red roadside wildflower

Well, I just got home from the Braves game where I improved my season record to 5-0. Pretty impressive, I must say. I'm hoping to extend to 6-0 Thursday night. Tonight was fun, although it's the only game I've been to in the last week where I didn't see someone get arrested. Last Tuesday at the Yankees game, there was a fist-fight near us that resulted in intervention from the Atlanta Police Department. Then, Sunday at the Red Sox game, a drunken fan ran onto the field and got absolutely pummeled by the security officers. Wild stuff! I really thought I saw a fan run onto the field today, but I may have been hallucinating.

I had a doctor's appointment today and I was there from 1:45 p.m. to 5:35 p.m. It was absolutely absurd. I'm not even sure how it's possible to wait over an hour and a half to see the doctor. I started to get extremely impatient and confrontational. Thankfully, throughout all of the waiting, I had time to go through the cycle of frustration many times, so I wasn't too rude when I actually got face-time with the doctor.

Hmm, what else?! Improv was pretty fun last night; we had a character workshop. I did two characters for the first time and I think they went over fairly well. I could definitely use some improvement and get more into my comfort zone with the characters, but it was pretty successful. I'm actually pretty bummed because I just read that tomorrow's practice is canceled. It's a long week anyways, so I guess I could use the break.

Well, it's time to get my sleep on because I. AM. WORN. OUT. I hope that accurately emphasized how tired I truly am. Good night, fans.