What am I doing?

Finally subbing again. Before I got to the school, I forgot my ID badge, and realized that I hadn't been in front of a classroom in 7 years. Did it show? I don't know, but during the health section of the day I was reading what the teacher instructed, and a kid said, "I want to go home. What time are we done?"

View from our balcony.

Don't be jealous.

The neighbors in the bottom right hand corner are the ones with the kid that rang her bike bell in the courtyard for a solid 15 minutes. One day, their other kid yelled for someone by the name of Anton for 5 minutes.

"Anton. Anton. Anton. Anton. Anton. Anton. Anton. Anton. Anton. Anton. Anton. Anton. Anton. Anton. Anton. Anton. Anton. Anton. Anton. Anton. Anton. Anton. Anton. Anton. Anton. Anton. Anton. Anton. Anton. Anton. Anton. Anton. Anton. Anton."

I wanted to yell, "For God's sake, Anton, ANSWER HIM!"

Problem solved.

I interviewed today at the Burbank School District for a Substitute Teacher position. I was telling my interviewer, herself a Principal at a school with many deaf children, that I was hoping to go back and study sign language to become an interpreter. It wasn't a lie, I've wanted to continue that study for years.

The principal smiled at my response. "That's great," she said, "and, you know, with those cochlear implants curing it, there won't be a need for long."

It was a polite way of saying, "Good luck, idiot, they cured deafness."

Cured? News to me.

At Disney.

This goes all around the hotel rooms at the Disneyland hotel. Once we finally got here, Erica surprised me with a 12-pack of beer. Now it truly will be the happiest place on Earth.

Hope your family's not from the East coast...

Santa Monica.

Driving around town trying to find an apartment, and thought I'd take a detour down to Santa Monica so Erica can see it.

Back in California.

Looking for me?

Where have you been, you're asking me constantly. I know, I know dear nobody, I have been blogging somewhere else. Don't be mad, just head over there to check it out. I just wanted to give another site a try. But you're always going to be my number 1. Don't worry.

♫ http://fulanodetal.wordpress.com/

That's what I've been up to. Read every entry before you come back here.

Great, now I really have killed any readership I might have had.

Fourth Annual Goodbye (Again) to Erica and Ryan

It's time to leave on a boat, so we decided to have another get-together. We almost didn't, but at the last minute sent this out to all our Chicago peeps:

Hey! What're you doing Friday? Why not join Ryan and Erica as they officially leave Chicago to do another boat and then move to LA! This is the Fourth and possibly final goodbye so don't miss it! This Friday, venture over to Sheffield's Bar, 3258 N Sheffield Ave at School, from 9pm onwards to drink and say goodbye to two people you've barely seen over the past two years.

See you there! Otherwise, see you at the Fifth Annual!

Thanks to all who came out, several times over! I can't wait for number 5!

Rain, Sleet, Snow and Cold.

We finally have finished packing. The conditions have been a little less than ideal. The first day it was freezing cold and we had to take breaks to get inside and warm up a little. The next day, snow had fallen, but it rained all day and today it snowed, so we kept the door partly closed and kept brushing snow off our stuff as we deliberated our packing.

We're done. California, here we come.

In five months.

It followed us!

We drove away from the snow in Chicago, but it found us in Lawrenceburg.

We're not in San Diego anymore.

Snow fell all day today, and while it makes walking and driving difficult, I do miss how snow makes a city look, hanging onto the branches of trees, and covering the city like a blanket.

My Kind of Town

I've been pretty melancholy lately, thinking about our move from Chicago to Los Angeles after the next ship contract. I miss Chicago and have wanted to get back there and work with my friends and it's the first time I've wanted to return to a city after moving from there. I miss performing with the improv teams I was on, so when I got the email that Otis was going to celebrate the annual "Gandy Gras", a Mardi Gras celebration put on by Jeff Gandy every year, and we would be in town, I was so excited to attend. I guess the team wasn't sure I would show, so when we walked in, we got a huge reception. It was so great to see everyone, most of whom I had not see since we left for the Honeymoon.

I miss performing with this team, but even more, I miss the camaraderie. While Otis does not perform in Chicago anymore, besides occasionally shooting short movies, the team still celebrates holidays together every year. We're family.

A slow drive.

We drove up to Chicago, and could barely see as we got closer to the city. Is it crazy that I miss this city so much?

A night at the Casbah

Got to see Black Heart Procession at the Casbah, and opening for them was Darryl, a Neil Hamburger-like comedian with really bad jokes about getting laid, smoking weed, etc. ( My favorite: "If I was a dinosaur, you know what my scientific name would be? Snack-a-lot-a-pus")

We went with Andy and Black Heart's violinist Matt. When we went to pick up Matt at his apartment, Andy went to introduce Erica and said, "And this is Ryan's wife...Stacey?" We had just hung out with Andy in his house the night before.

Then we did a very Californian thing. Though Matt lived right by the Casbah, we still drove to the venue and subsequently all over the neighborhood looking for parking.

Erica remarked on it later: "Why didn't we just walk? We would've been there in a shorter amount of time."

Me: "That's California for you."