3. book that makes you laugh out loud

Once upon a time, I wished my Dad was Bill Cosby.

(Sorry, Dad. For what it's worth, I think you are at least as cool as Bill Cosby. And definitely better-looking.)

Then, I realized my father is Bill Cosby.

(At some point, we should talk about that whole sweater-vest thing.)

Several years after that, my boyfriend (who does a fairly decent Bill Cosby impression, although thankfully sans sweater vests) introduced me to a book written by Mr. Cosby, called "Cosbyology: Essays and Observations from the Doctor of Comedy."

In what was, for him, a remarkably poor judgement call, he decided to read to me from this book while we were driving home from school one day. Well, I was driving. But pretty soon I was laughing, so hard my face hurt, so hard, in fact, that I was gasping and crying actual tears and could not see at all and very nearly killed us.

(Sorry, Josh.)

It's a really good book. You should read it. But probably not while driving.

and now, the hard part. (or, GAH YETIS ARE EVERYWHERE)

Hello, my lovely readers.
While I have not actually been ambushed and devoured by yetis cleverly disguised as snowdrifts (or rather, it being 86 degrees in Chicago today, city buses), it is certainly beginning to feel like it.

We all know that moving to a new place - and following your dreams, and being a grownup, and blah blah blah all those associated things - is hard. People who have done so tell you this all the time. It is a widely accepted fact in most of the circles I move in, including but not limited to theatre people, middle-class folk, recent college grads, and In-Denial Twelve-Year-Olds Anonymous.
What most of us don't realize until it is much, much too late, is that simply being told this is not doing diddly to prepare us for the reality. We think, "Okay, it's gonna be hard. That's okay! I will be strong! I will believe in myself! I am a Strong, Independent, More-Or-Less-Grown-Up Professional, and I can totally do this!"

Hold up there, tiger. Here are five real for real things that you had better be ready for.
You're welcome.

2. least favorite book

This is a hard one. I’ve started a lot of dumb/boring/time-wasting books, but two in particular come immediately to mind, and I can’t decide which one I detested more. Both of them were things I had to read for school. Both have clueless, indecisive protagonists with bad attitudes. And they were both – to use my best, most thought-out literary academic language – incredibly lame.

Catcher in the Rye…do I even have to explain this? Cool cover art aside, Holden Caulfield is the proto-hipster (no offense to any hipsters in my audience, but seriously, this guy makes y'all look pretty bad). He doesn’t stand for anything. He doesn’t care about anything. He knows nothing about the world he lives in, and he drifts through it with a complete lack of motivation to do anything but take up space and smoke cigarettes. Just having to spend an entire book (albeit a fairly slim book) riding around in his head pissed me off so much, I had to go have a lie-down. I have a hard time putting up with useless, apathetic people. Especially when I have to write papers about them. 

yeti-free for all of six days now...

Hello, friends!

I've been in Chicago for a little over a week, but it feels simultaneously like it's been barely a day or two and like it's been years. I'm really glad that I didn't know beforehand how exhausting this transition was going to be, because there's a pretty good chance I would have chickened out!

Anyway, first things first: I have an apartment now! I have one roommate, but there will be three of us by October. I moved myself and my two travelling suitcases in on Monday, and my absolutely fantastic boyfriend came up on Tuesday with the rest of my belongings from home.

Here's the photo evidence:

My room, and the air mattress that is my new best friend.

Note the Lookingglass theatre poster. They seem pretty awesome.
I want to see ALL their shows this season.

onward and upward. please, God, don't let the yetis eat me.

Source: fun-gallery.com via Larissa on Pinterest

HOLA, COMERADES.

That is not usually how I begin my blog posts, you are probably aware. Honestly, I stole that just now from Amanda F. Palmer, who writes the rawest most exciting Kickstarter Project Updates ever. (Other Kickstarter-ers: take note!)
I am sitting at someone else's kitchen table, in South Chicago, at 7:30 in the evening (which for me, since I have hardly slept since for the last two days, feels like 2 in the morning), and I thought I was tired until I read her post about what she's been up to.

(Oh, and that link is, if you scroll down far enough, quite NSFW.)

I stand corrected. I am far from really, truly tired. I am merely fortitudinally inconvenienced, that's all.