As I lie here, now in Milwaukee, when I should be asleep, I feel I need to write about my road trip now before I forget all about it...

After ComedySportz World Championship ended in Indianapolis Saturday 23rd July, I went to bed by 2am... knowing that by 8am I wanted to be on the road to Florida. 

Yes, Florida.  I had no real desire to see Florida as such, but I have friends there, I had a week spare and a car at my disposal.  Rachel Wareing was also up for this crazy road trip, so 8am the next day (Rach had only had about 2 hours sleep to my 6) we filled up the car and headed out.

Sunday 24th July
Just as we were leaving Indiana for Kentucky we decided we would step foot in every state we went to and take a picture. here we go on our epic drive!
As we were already in Indiana, we managed to find our first stop....
  Southern Indiana.  Straight over the bridge we were in Kentucky, and on our way to breakfast with my friend Josh and his wife who now live there.
 This was a fun breakfast full ofjosh realisations and a few years catching up!  We concluded that if it weren't for Josh I may never have got interested in ComedySportz, the first time I ever saw a ComedySportz show was at my School in WIsconsin, the High School League, and Josh was in it!  Kentucky didn't seem too big a state, KentuckyI don't remember being in there for too long..  Next up was a state we were going to be seeing a lot of, probably more than we really wanted to, one of the longest (widest) states i think there is - Tennessee.Tennesee.  There was a freaky part to this ride.  Just as we left Tennessee to get into Georgia (with no warning!) we were back in Tennessee again!  Turns out the freeway dips into Georgia, back out again, and then into Georgia again... freaked us out, we were convinced we went the wrong way.  So, into Georgia... by now we were probably driving about 8 hours.  We got excited!  Georgia is only one state away from Florida!  We're nearly there!
Georgia Erm.... wrong.  Georgia took us into the night to drive through!  What a long state,with nothing but peaches and scary billboards about how we're going to Hell.  We didn't stop in Georgia, I'm pretty sure Rachel slept through a chunk of it.  By the time we got through Georgia it was dark, but YAY!  We are in FLORIDA!  We are nearly there!!!
  Erm... wrong... Florida is apparently a long state... we had at least another three hours drive to Apopka.  The last few hours were the hardest but we kept our spirits up.  By 2.30am we arrived.  We had set off at 8am that morning, and arrived at 2.30am, only now I do the maths - that is 18 and a half hours driving!  That's more hours than I'm usually awake in a day!Mike and Becky
The next day (monday) was spent resting and catching up with Mike and his family, generally just moaning about the heat, but hey, at least we have airconditioning in the car!

Tuesday 26th July
Today was a fun day at Universal studios catching up with Matt Tremmel who now lives in the area and works at the Studios.  The day started with me feeling horribly ill, but managed to shake it off and make a day of it.  short drive over to Tampa With Matt.  On the drive over it was refreshing as we knew this was the shortest leg of any of this journey, and we found Mookie's place easily.  Initially our time in Tampa was supposed to stretch two days, but we had a last minute idea that if we went to Memphis the next day we could get up to Quad Cities (Iowa/Illinois) earlier and rest before we played a show there.
fave! with mookieEnjoyed the eveining with Mookie chatting til 2am and watching him and Rach get their drink on.

Wednesday 27th July
I thought I'd died in my sleep.  I felt so ill when I woke up, I actually couldn't wake up.  I couldn't swallow, could barely talk, every time I got up I wanted to fall down, I thought my head was going to explode and one side of my next was so sore and swollen I just didn't want to move... but we needed to drive 13 hours to Memphis that day!  And as soon as possible!  We decided to go to Walgreens and see what they suggested.  They suggested I get to the Doctors asap while backing away, rachel took the reigns, got directions to the nearest clinic and off we went,  Some of the hardest driving I've ever had to do.  Alamaba$120 dollars and some medication later I was feeling a bit better and we were on the road again.  We went back up through Georgia then took a turn went through Alabama and kept going north up into Mississippi, wanted to try and go as far as we could before the end of the day, the original idea was to stop in Memphis, Mississippi - it was closedbut instead we stopped in a place called Tupelo, which we discovered was where Elvis was born.

Thursday 28th July
Woke up earlyish and had a hearty breakfast, I was already feeling a bit better, could actually swallow today.  Only two hours to Memphis so we got on the road and headed to Graceland (yes, we played the song).  Graceland was probably the most disappointing part of the entire trip.  We remarked about how tacky the whole thing was and it just seemed really depressing
there it was  We spent about an hour and $3 there and got back on the road.  We were pleased that this was our last major leg of the journey and that we had added the Quad Cities stop on the way 'home' because Graceland wasn't worth adding in all Arkansasthose extra hours and miles! We squeezed up the side of a few other states we didn't realise we were gong to go through.  Namely Arkansas and Missouri.  We had a bit of a gamble in Missouri on a river boat (that really wasn't a boat!) and some delicious and cheap food.Missouri
We decided to forgo the less direct interstate route for a Highway known only as Highway 67 North... probably the worst decision we made.
Not only was it dark, slow, creepy... 50 miles into this part of the trip the only thing that kept us sane went... the airconditioning!  I genuinely started to panic a little bit. I do NOT well with the heat and after being ill I didn't want to mess around with my body temp.  Luckily for us, the nighttime brought cooler air.  It also brought a weird experience near White Hall Illinois where we nearly ran into some dogs, people and pigs, all we could think of was Deliverance and got the eff out of there.  We arrived in Quad Citites about 1.30am and checked into the hotel that the wonderful Jeff Adamson had organised for us.

Friday 29th July
What a lovely day in the Quad Cities area, spent catching up with Quad Cities pals.  We spent the evening playing in a show at their gorgeous new venue!  Sorry guys, the UK lost out to the USA, ah well.  Then it was back on the road again! It took us nearly an hour to get out of the Quad Cities, we even ended up in Iowa at one point!
We were there! Friday!  rachel needed to be at the airport for 4am to catch her flight to New York... so off we went.  i was pretty amazed i was still awake, and the air was cool.  I dropped her off just before 4 and then headed to Milwaukee, still amazed that i was awake.  At 4.45am I woke Michele up to let me in and pretty much just conked out on her sofa... thus ended the epic trip.  At some point I will figure out the mileage and all that.

ROAD KILL

Deer - 4
Raccoon - 5
Lizard - 2
Armadillo - 9
Turtle - 2
Rabbit - 2
Fox - 1
Bat - 1
Dog - 1
Cat - 2
Possum - 2

Most road kill state - Missouri

It's Fathers day.

I'm rubbish at showing my family how I feel, but hopefully they know anyway.

This week I went skiing for the first time in years... as I was getting the hang of it again it occurred to me that this is one of the many things in my life I would not be able to do without my Dad teaching me. It was our 'thing' when I was little. We would go to Scotland, or ski in America, and it was fun, and I started to get good at it! He would encourage me by being really good and making me want to be good too :D

This week I fell over twice, the first time was a small fall sideways, no biggie, the second was a KO! I didn't hurt myself and I got up (found my skiis) and carried on... but as I was getting up it reminded me of skiing behind my dad in Scotland years ago... he was going like the clappers, and I was trying to keep up. Then all of a sudden it looked like Dad jumped out of his skiis and face planted on the floor! It didn't just look like that, that was what actually happened... he hit a rock! It was hilarious! Dad always had the best falls. The one in Colorado was EPIC and we have it on video somewhere... just a big cloud of snow dust for half of the mountain!

This is me skiing this week:


A few years ago Dad had a stroke and he can't ski anymore. A lot of the things we would do together were rather physical things, and I know it frustates and upsets him that he can't do them anymore. But the way he's coped is admirable, he's just filled in the gaps with other stuff. We tend to play golf now.

Happy Fathers Day x

Something that just occurred to me...

People are very important to me. They always have been. Also, I am usually over bogged down with What Ifs...
Today it's got me thinking... what if I didn't meet some of these people?
So... ComedySportz.

If I hadn't met Dieter, I wouldn't have been in Milwaukee and got involved in ComedySportz, if I hadn't caught back up with Beth Horsley, I wouldn't have met Chris Brooker who helped keep CSz going and moved to Manchester, if I hadn't met Chris Brooker I wouldn't have met John Cooper who orgaised our second Venue at Sale Waterside and suggested we get in touch with the Comedy Store in the first place...
And if I hadn't met ANY of those people I would have left the USA and probably never really gone back. Therefore not meeting some of my best friends!

Interesting.

It occurred to me that I owe a great deal of my current life to one person. Beth Horsley. She put me on a track I never expected. One where I got out of Chorley, moved to Manchester (a few times) and met the man I am going to marry.
It's a funny old world!

The demons don'tcome out to play any where near as much as they used to. But this week has seen me return to 'surrey' stress levels. Ie:the reason I started this blog back in 2002. This week I had to write a 3000 word essay of sorts stating why I should receive a teaching award.
I failed.
I freaked out. And all my old paranoias and doubts and hatred of myselt flooded back. So overwhelming that I have pretty much been broken for most of the week. Only time will tell if I'm past it again yet, but the slightest thing is setting ne offi am now convinced my new rabbit hates me. Which makes me very sad.

Been a while since I wrote on here, I suppose Facebook has a lot to be blamed for.
It's nearly the end of 2010, I've been writing this blog for a long while now (some years more than others). I am starting to think through the last year and think about what I've acheieved.

In 2010:

My first paper was published in the first ever Comedy Studies Journal.

I bought a flat :D

I got engaged :D John is the love of my life, and when he asked me it was like everything was complete.

I got to perform in Philadelphia and New York making the total of cities I've played in now: 16 (I think), and that's not including Edinburgh and London

I organised Manchester's first improv tournament, and we had a great turn out for it :D

I ran two 10k races and 1 5k :D

I went to the dentist, twice!

I joined Slimmingworld and have so far lost 1 stone 9 lbs

I took photos for a second wedding

I have directed another 3 plays this year, 2011 I'm going to be directing even more I hope, it's been too long not doing this! I love it too much.

I bought a new car, and it's ACE and MASSIVE!

I have some retained and obtained amazing friends in two countries


Sad things about 2010:

I lost my lovely gorgeous kitty cat, Binx. I was so sad to see her go. I couldn't even bring myself to go to the vets with her, it was too hard. John was so wonderful, and the only upside was that it brought us so much closer together.

A wonderful Man - Michael Myers - was tragically killed by being swept off the Oregon Coast with his wife Katie. Now, I didn't know Mike that well, but I knew him, and just the idea that this had happened to someone I knew was desperately sad. I can't even begin to imagine how his friends and family in Oregon felt. It took a month for his body to turn up :( The world is a sadder place without these genuinly good people.

My therapy ended and I still haven't had an injection or a filling... so I think i need to get on that in the new year. I'm determined to get over this shit.

Two people I considered friends effectively shat on my face and asked me never to speak to them again. Granted, nearly 5 years ago I was a bit crap to them... but I was a different person then, and as far as I was concerned, we had got over it. But apparently things had just been bubbling for years... or new gf's got under their skins... one or the other. Either way, I'm fine with it now, but it hurt for a while.


Here's to 2011

one other thing!
I have taken vitamin C every day since January... and have not been ill ONCE! This is so very rare I can only assume the Vit C is doing its job :D

2010 seems to be going pretty well to be honest.

My therapist today helped me to take a step back and look at all the things I've done this year... so I thought I'd write them here so I remembered later on when things are crappy again.

I've run 2 10k races
I bought my own place
I've directed famous people
I got engaged to the most wonderful man I've ever met
I set up a new course at the Store
I have started a little Ebay Empire
I performed in two new States (New York and Pennsylvania)
I performed at two weddings
I started therapy
I've lost a stone in weight
I've started exercising regularly
I have tiled a bathroom and a hall way!
I've visited the Dentist!

I've come to start realising a lot of things lately. Some good, some bad
1) I have been a shitty person in the past and I am being punished for that,
2) I loved my cat so much more than I thought I did at the time - therefore, you don't realise what you've got til it's gone
3) I don't get on with my exes as well as I thought I did (seeing that now only 2 out of the 5 are talking to me)
4) people respect my teaching
5) I have eyes for no one but John (and this is a massive thing, and a shame it's taken so long to realise this)
6) I am stronger than I used to be
7) Therapy is something I never thought I'd do, but am so grateful for it now
8) I have conciously tried to stop wasting my energy on worry and stress
9) I am more outgoing than I was a few years ago
10) I like myself