Leaving the Winter Behind

Well, almost. This is our last week in New England. Today is my last day at the Wired Monk to enjoy coffee and good internet service. Lots to catch up on.

Last Thursday I had a delightful time with Andrew in Boston. We met up near his school, had coffee and caught up on his newly serious academic life. It's great to see him doing something he cares about and something that means so much to the world. Meanwhile I'm making vibrator jokes to amuse a lounge full of people checking their watches so as not to miss the chocolate buffet. But who's counting? Bits aside, G-d bless Andrew. It was great to see him.

Friday: Peter and I nearly died in the tender boat on the way back to the ship. Ok, that's dramatic. It was rough weather, and we had to wait to get close enough to the ship, so we floated around rather violently for nearly an hour. Yikes. It was determined that if we had been the victims of a disaster and there was a movie made about our tender, Peter and I would want to be portrayed by Ben Affleck and Salma Hayek. Our fear was that it would turn out to be Kevin James and Janeane Garoffalo. Bottom line: Martha's Vineyard is lovely, but not worth the terror.

Saturday: NYC! We signed off and spent the night in New York. Everything was awesome. Katy and I got to the discount Broadway ticket window early and I scored a pair of tickets to Cyrano de Bergerac starring Kevin Kline and Jennifer Garner for a ridiculously low price. Tabetha joined me. The show was really good. Kevin Kline was made for this role. Jen was a respectable Roxanne. I couldn't have been happier with my Broadway experience. We checked into our "economically sound" hotel room and then went to Soho to see my friend Paolo's art in the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art. Let's be honest, it was nerd central. But it was great to see Paolo, who has been a friend since high school. He's a hugely talented and successful artist for Marvel Comics, which I am proud of...it's a commodity to have a friend like that in the improv world. I've made many a geek-out occur among my friends. Thanks, Paolo! After that, we walked around the Village, observing the Halloween revelry. Headed to UCB to see what show we could catch and oddly enough ran into a Toronto friend of Tabetha's who was able to rescue us from the stand-by line. Hooray! We saw a team called Ruben Williams, and they were pretty hilarious. After the show, Tab's friend Mike gave us a walking (and eating) tour of the Village, where he's lived for the past year. For the record, Cones is the best ice cream in the city. The weekend finished with a beautiful morning in Central Park, great bagels, and brunch at Bobby Flay's Mesa. OMG. Yes, I actually just typed and irony-free OMG. Bobby Flay, you sir, are a genius.

Yesterday: at sea day. Improv rehearsal, Ugly Betty (finally finished the season 1 DVDs), and the crew Halloween party. Lamely, no costume, but we had a good time.

Here's to New England. It will be missed.

Boston 13, Rockies 1?

I don't get to see the World Series on the ship, but boy did I see the score. Ouch. Come on, Rockies! Prove you can do it on your first try! My Denver roots are really pulling at my heart right now.

And ironically....I'm in Boston today. It's a great city, I can't be too upset. We walked into Quincy Market from the port this morning, and I walked into fire alarms going off (a theme for this week) but no one reacting one bit. Clearly a false alarm....or so I hoped. Seems to be, since they were eventually shut off. Weird.

Yesterday was good, despite my having slept about two hours the night before. The ship hit some weather and the rocking was violent. I finally fell asleep as we approached Bar Harbor, only to be awoken by the announcements to go through immigration. I sleepily entered Bar Harbor and was charmed by the little town. I got some great pictures which I haven't gotten the chance to transfer to the old computer yet, but I will soon. Rest assured, dear reader.

Last night's scripted shows went quite well. We got a huge response from added bits regarding the false fire alarm from earlier in the week. Yes! Shared experience bits = failsafe humor.

I get to see my friend Andrew today! He goes to school in Boston, so we're meeting up before I head back to the ship. It's nice to see friendly faces along this journey.

I hope all my friendly faces back in Chicago (and elsewhere) are well!

Looneytown

Halifax day yet again, and I am in arguably my favorite place in Canada. I admittedly have seen very little Canada in my day. Nonetheless, the Wired Monk has provided me hours of internet and lots of coffee. Bless them.

Today began pretty strangely. I didn't sleep very well due to a too-firm pillow and some weird dreams, then I was awoken at 5:45 by the voice of the cruise director telling us to disregard the alarm sounds, there had been a small fire in the buffet that had been contained. WHAT? They make a very big deal about fire on the ship (no open flames allowed ever), so it was a strange thing to hear in the morning. I got up with my phone alarm, which had changed to local Canada time, so I unwittingly got up an hour ealier than I planned, but I worked out and went to breakfast anyway. See, the thing about this ship business....I sleep a lot. I am easily making up for 4 years of not sleeping. My body is thanking me for it.

Our show changed nights this run for reasons unknown, so we have a free night tonight. The cast has planned to have dinner and then meet to talk about a special video project. It's great to feel creative when you have so much downtime. It's really hard to get motivated when you have so much time on your hands. I'm lucky to be working with such a funny and creative cast. Whenever we discuss ideas, it's like a bunch of puzzle pieces that just fall into place. Awesome.

Tomorrow I'll see Bar Harbor, Maine for the first time (I'm sorry I missed you last time, Rance). Countdown to reposition cruise: 11 days.

Another Week

And we're back in NYC. The free interenet connections are few and far between, but I'm trying to get caught up from the beautiful Bryant Park near the library on 42nd and 5th.

Our week was great. Both shows went over really well, and for a couple of days there, we were celebrities. Then a whole new group comes aboard and our work is cut out for us again. But I have a lot of fun with the cast. Can't complain.

I was lazy and stayed onboard on Martha's Vineyard day. So here's a shot from the deck. I will definitely go ashore next Friday.

A shot of my winter home, the NCL Spirit.

Last night I endured the strangest of the ship life components: the booze cruise. They take the ship out into international waters overnight for duty free shopping and gambling and then bring it back the next morning. This clearly generates a ton of revenue for the ship. The bars and casino are packed the whole night. The downside is that it's a good night for people like me to stay in the cabin and watch movies (Live Free or Die Hard is AWESOME) and generally avoid the craziness. This morning's breakfast was hard enough to deal with between the people loudly announcing their hangovers and the ones becoming violent over the whereabouts of skim milk on the buffet. So yeah, I won't miss this part when we reposition to the south.

But I will miss NYC. Badly. Who won't miss NYC? My blood sugar.

Snack courtesy of Magnolia Bakery. Best. Cupcakes. Ever.

Shipping back out....

Oh Canada

This week we get a bonus day in Canada. I'm sad I can't use my phone. But I did get lost in St. John, New Brunswick. I walked around the "real" part of town before I found the tourist area. Lucky me. I did get one lovely picture from a hilltop that I will post another time, as blogger is having issues.

Show update: we had our second night of the revue last night. It went pretty well, but definitely felt like the second week of a show. A little creeky, but comfortable. Afterwards we went to Maharini's to celebrate Peter's birthday. Happy Birthday, Peter!!!

Slept till 11 today. Finally.

More NY

While I'm in Halifax with a reliable internet connection...more pics!

Beautiful Central Park.

Beautiful (in a digital way) Times Square

New Yorkers are nothing if not honest.

The beautiful cast of the Spirit! Shawn, Tabetha, James, Peter, Katy, me and of course our illustrious director TJ and producer Kelly.

At Sea

Naaaa....na...na..nananana....


Hey Jude.
St. Pat's. Wow.Kimmers!!! Nice room, lady. And thanks for lunch!



Monday is our sea day for this itinerary. With no intention to get out and see a new town, the day could be quite lazy. Or it could be a good working day. Today we have an improv rehearsal to try out new games for our Thursday sets. An improv jam at sea? Come on!

The New York weekend was awesome. I’m pretty much in love with the city. Saturday was sight seeing day with the cast. We visited Rockefeller Center, Times Square, and spent hours walking in Central Park. The day ended with what may be the best pizza I’ve ever had at a place called Ray’s. Oh Chicago, I’ve cheated on you. I love your stuffed pizza, but NY tempts me with its thin, flexible crust. James, while eating two slices and two meatball rolls: “This meatball roll is made out of sex it’s so good.”

Sunday was another beautiful day. I started out at St. Patrick’s for the 9 am mass. It’s a gorgeous cathedral, but it’s geared toward tourism, so they crank out masses every 45 minutes and kindly ask people to move along once they’ve gotten their pictures of the Blessed Sacrament. Either way, I’ve found a church for the next few Sundays.

I got to meet up with Kim later on Sunday and she took me to a great diner in the East Village where she lives. She also treated me to Pink Berry, all the rage in yogurt treats! The big news: I successfully navigated the subway. Sure they’re more complicated than El trains, but they are pretty convenient.

In the end, the Chicago-New York showdown is a tie. The pizzas are basically two different foods. Not comparable. Both amazing. And while the El trains are more self explanatory, the subway was shockingly clean. When I have a million dollars, I’ll own homes in both cities.

Boston

Boston highlights!

Quincy Market. Pretty crowded for a Thursday...I think. I'm not from Boston.
The obligatory Cheers picture

The Old Meeting House. Show Report!! Both were great. First house was full, second was around half, but still great. This is my fabulous cast: Tabetha, James, Shawn, Katy and Peter. I couldn't be cruising with better people.

First "scriptless" show is tonight. Fun!

The boat so far has been a good time. It's a weird life, but so far I've kept structure. I can't sleep late yet and I've been countering the eating with a lot of working out. Right now I'm outside McCormick and Schmick's where Kelly just took us to lunch, full of crabcake and grilled banana split. I've got to shift out of vacation mode before I don't fit in my show pants anymore.

Bar Harbor and Showtime!

Disclaimer: boat internet is not cool. My blogs may be posted all at once when I find cafes. So here is one that should have gone up yesterday....

Here is my lovely roommate, Tabetha, in our lovely room. Spoiler alert, that window isn’t real!

And here is the little piece of home I’ve brought into the room… Snacks from the buffet tend to translate to “cookie time.” No good.

Our show opens tonight, which is awesome. We had a pretty good run through yesterday and good tops and bottoms this morning, so I feel pretty ready. Bar Harbor, Maine is the port today. Since tendering is necessary (taking a small boat into the port) I may just wait till next week to take in the Bar Harbor sights. Either way, it’s nice to be stateside again so my phone works. Woo!

Next time: show report.

Halifax!!

Hey friends! Today I'm ashore for the first time since NYC. Halifax Canada is the port, and I am in a super hip coffee house. I am sans camera today, but hopefully the benevolent internet will allow me to post some photos from the beginning of my journey. Let's see....

Here's me, on one hour of sleep, very apprehensive about being in a metal flying contraption. Yikes! Thankfully, the flight was beautiful.
Speaking of beautiful!! Look at this lady! This was my first time seeing NYC, and this was part of the view pulling away from port. Wow.
Leaving NYC. Don't adjust your screens, my hair is that huge.
Behind that SUV is a real live NYC hotdog stand! I'm a nerd.
Here's where I live now. Bye, New York, Hello Buccaneers water adventure!

That's the story for now. My cast is the best, the show opens tomorrow night. I'm all full of butterscotch latte and pumpkin scone (workout, here I come), so it's time to explore more of Halifax before rehearsal call.

I miss you, friends.

Boattown, USA

I'm here! The flight yesterday into NYC was flawless, which was good news for this Neurotic Nancy! I'm apprehensive about the whole 33,000 feet above earth thing.

I've taken some great pictures, and guess what, the boat internet is refusing to let me upload them. Rrrrrr. I may have to try again when we're in port tomorrow or Wed. Nova Scotia here we come!

In lieu of photos, I'll tell you that I saw NYC for the first time. Hot dogs stands, cabs, Madison Ave, someone actually walked in front of our van and shouted "Hey, I'm walking here!" moments after we did bits about it happening. Our sail off yesterday was amazing. We saw the Brooklyn Bridge, Empire State Building and ol' Lady Liberty herself. (imagine my awesome pictures) It made me giddy about actually going into the city when we're back in port next week.

For today...rehearsal. The show open Wednesday night. We're all very excited for it, and it couldn't be coming together better.

In boat news, I slept really well with the rocking. I'm happily not only NOT seasick, but I enjoy the movement. Note to self, don't get drunk while at sea. The motion would not be helfpul at that point.

All in all, things are good. I miss Chicago tons. But this water thing....not bad.

Hello Goodbye

First rehearsal today. Well, workshop. I met the boys for the first time (Tabetha will be in tomorrow). Shawn, Peter and James are all delightful and wonderfully funny and easy to play with. POB went through some exercises and games with us. It was a really fun time and hugely reassuring that this trip will be great.

Before rehearsal I got to have a really nice talk with my good friend, Devin. We hadn't caught up in a while and it couldn't have been better to share coffee and wax poetic with him.

The perfect end to my day...went shopping (and got surprised!) with two lovely ladies. Thanks, Meredith and Megan. You are the coolest. Only you two can make back to back trips to Victoria's Secret and Claire's seem appropriate.

Another perfect end to my day...

Erin and I celebrated an alternate Halloween by surprise tonight. All the candy in one night? Yes, please!

What a good day.

Parties and Brunches and Visitors!

This weekend was a whirlwind of goings away. It's weird to have a "going away" a week before I actually leave. There was a lot of, "Goodbye, I'll miss you! Maybe I'll see you on Tuesday."

Being the blogging amateur that I am, I took no pictures at my party on Friday. I didn't want to carry my camera. This excuse will not fly when it comes to Mayan ruins, though, be assured.

But I did capture two gems on my cell phone at LC brunch Sunday.


Meredith loves to pour water for friends! And Megan couldn't be happier about it! I'm going to miss these ladies. A ton.

Timmy shows us the real perk of having an iPhone. This nearly made crunchy french toast come out my nose.

An additional treat this weekend was having Stacey and Bob in town for a wedding. They stayed at our place and it was awesome to have them here before I go. They're doing great in Portland, which was really nice to hear. They certainly deserve it.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to my friends who came out Friday night, Sunday morning and via phone and email. You guys all make it easier to embrace this opportunity, but much harder for me to leave. Thank you for both of those things.