the art of being cool

Step one: hang out in a walk-in freezer.

Step two: pretend its normal to be there

Step three: warn each person who enters the walk-in freezer to buy beer about the conspiracy of global warming and scream at them to leave your igloo!

Or... you can simply enter yourself into a "coffeehouse" performance slot with no marketable talents.

Tonight my younger sister Clare and I will perform "Any Dream Will Do" before a hopefully small audience and other performers, all of whom are taking their performances quite seriously. Clare will be playing the part of Joseph and wearing jeans, a yellow/colourful housecoat with a gold bomber jacket overtop and cowboy boots. Very Egyptian. I will be playing the part of the Narrator and will wear a black dress with gold sparkles and a big bow in the back.

Neither Clare nor I will ever be asked to join a choir. Our singing lessons were typically combined with dance-offs in our kitchen at home. We have also never been asked to join a dance troupe. We will be acting out the song quite literally tonight, and I just hope everyone takes our performance very seriously also!  That would be ideal.

Los Angeles - Sun, Sand and babies?

Three weeks have passed since I ended my term as WYA president. Supposedly retirement was to usher in an era of free time and relaxation to visit with friends, explore NY and finish off un-finished projects. HA!

Finishing a job I've been personally invested in for the last 4 years continues. I've been involved in answering questions, contacting people, wrapping up and handing over projects, etc. I won't deny that my day has become more flexible, but it is not yet more free.

My first week as an ex-president was spent for the most part working :) And sending off a good friend from Calgary who visited for my "retirement party". In week two, I took off to Toronto for another good friend's bachelorette party! Those details shall remain untold except to say that it was AMAZING! I returned to NY at the end of week two for a different friend's wedding shower :) That weekend I then attended yet a different friend's wedding!

This past week things finally started to calm down. I finished 90% of my ongoing WYA projects by Friday leaving me with much more time to finally embark on all the personal things which have piled up.

This past Saturday I had my second performance as part of Chicago City Limit's performance class. The first performance I was terrified and messed up one of the scenarios we did. I then spent the last two weeks practicing all sorts of scenarios in my head to prevent that from ever happening again! I was only 50% terrified for the second show, with 50% excitement - much better odds. The second show was SO much better than the first. We all had more energy, passion, showmanship, and we all made fewer mistakes. It was so exciting to see such improvement.

Now, I'm in Los Angeles! I'm visiting my brother and his family for two weeks and am already enjoying it immensely. I flew in yesterday around noon and we went to a little Carnival where Caleb rode on some rides. Specifically two: once on a car ride and then about 8 times on a motorcycle! He's so hilarious and serious. He would stare straight ahead or look at the other kids, and we only rarely got a smile or wave out of him, but after every ride he was so excited and wanted to go again!

Today Maria and I jogged along the beach while she pushed the two kids in the stroller. She told me she goes slow and is out of shape - lies. I haven't jogged that fast in quite a while and was definitely dead by the end of the run, and I wasn't pushing a stroller full of kids... I hope to finally relax and enjoy my "retirement" these next two weeks. My plan is to do lots of exercise, tanning and spend my time in between hanging out with the family and sipping tea - hope I achieve it!