i went on a bike ride today, yes I did!
With a mission.. to find a new flat! And we did... at least one we would really like. John is checking it out tomorrow. Only two downsides, it looks like it may be a little small, and it doesn't ask for a deposit! Which we found a little strange. however it's in an ideal spot and is unfurnished... so... yay.
So wish us luck :D

OK, so I'm now operating a one in one out policy with my clothes. If I want to put a new pair of pants in the wardrobe, then another has to go in a bin bag... :( Not only that, I'm having to do the same with tops now too!
Gah!
Today's just been a big stress. ARGH!

OMG... was looking over pix from past tourneys ... found one from the 2005 tourney which just made me realise how horribly fat I am now... I really need to lose some weight...

I am back.. I am tired.. I am working on loads of stuff... will write more soon :D
x

Today mum was really hyper... I don't know why....

I'm a bit tired but I thought I should blog before I went to bed. Firstly - scroll down and backwards - I have filled in nearly every day since I got here now... so go and have a read.

Tonight I met up with my friends Josh, Paul and Maria, all from High School! We figured out that I hadn't seen Paul and Josh in over 5 years! Crazy! Since then they've both got married and done loads of grown up things... I was the only one at the table who hadn't been married in fact. Actually, all of my high school friends bar one are now married. Crazy crazy times... some even have kids! What's all that about!

Was nice to catch up and find out what they are doing. It's all very grown up and scary... although I think I'm getting there... (be afraid John... hehe...) night night x

I am soooo tired after my travels... here is something my mum sent me that I found hiarious. I still have a week here in the states so I'm missing my man who left this morning, I am going to type up our travel log too....

Being British is about driving in a German car to an Irish pub for aBelgian beer, then travelling home, grabbing an Indian curry or aTurkish kebab on the way, to sit on Swedish furniture and watch Americanshows on a Japanese TV.And the most British thing of all?Suspicion of all things foreign!

Only in Britain can a pizza get to your house faster than anambulance.

Only in Britain do supermarkets make sick people walk all the way to the back of the shop to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.

Only in Britain do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries and a DIET coke.Only in Britain do banks leave both doors open and chain the pens tothe counters.

Only in Britain do we leave cars worth thousands of pounds on the drive and lock our junk and cheap lawn mower in the garage.

Only in Britain do we use answering machines to screen calls and then have call waiting so we won't miss a call from someone we didn't want to talk to in the first place.

Only in Britain are there disabled parking places in front of askating rink.

NOT TO MENTION..
3 Brits die each year testing if a 9v battery works on their tongue.
142 Brits were injured in 1999 by not removing all pins from newshirts.
58 Brits are injured each year by using sharp knives instead ofscrewdrivers.
31 Brits have died since 1996 by watering their Christmas tree while the fairy lights were plugged in.
19 Brits have died in the last 3 years believing that Christmasdecorations were chocolate.British Hospitals reported 4 broken arms last year after Xmascracker-pulling accidents.
18 Brits had serious burns in 2000 trying on a new jumper with a lit cigarette in their mouth.
A massive 543 Brits were admitted to A&E in the last two years after trying to open bottles of beer with their teeth.
5 Brits were injured last year in accidents involving out-of-control Scalextric cars.
and finally...
In 2000 eight Brits were admitted to hospital with fractured skullsincurred whilst throwing up into the toilet.

THE LAST DAY!

*sniff*

Well, it had to happen - and it happened WAY TOO QUICK.. the end of tournament :( booo

The last day was filled with fun and frolics. As every day was. Got up earlyish - got John out of bed as he'd said he was going to take part in the volleyball. Bless him, he tried ;) He soon discovered he couldn' play volleyball, but got lots of pats on the back for having a go ;) hehe

While we were sat waiting to play (I say 'we', I bailed I just sat around chatting) we saw a really strange insect... with a tiny tiny rotating head! It was aparantly a Praying Mantis. Gorgeous little thing it was. Also while sitting around me and Nicole from MKE stole Mookie's camera while he was playing and took lots of naughty pictures... well, not naughty in that sense, but just plain rude...

After the volleyball, and some Danny filming with some of the guys. We headed back to the hotel to have a bath and shower and the like (sand gets everywhere) and get ready for the evening shin digs. Before that, we had our last meeting. It had everything, laughs, tears, songs (wth new lyrics of course...) just made me realise once again how important what we do is, and not just for us.

We all managed to get in to see the final matches, which was great. Cos they were some of the best matches of tourney! Including a musical to die for!

And some fine Dick Chudnow antics from the Milwaukee team in the final match of the tournament. Quad Cities won the Championship, but it was close. Good fun, and some very interesting and fun reffing in that match

After the matches (and selling MOST but not all of our shirts) we all headed next door to the CSz space and ate pizza. mmm pizza. Then the music started and it all got a bit loud for my deliateness. SO myself and Myles decided to head back to the hotel to play games or some such. I sat in the room next to the lobby on my own for about 10 minutes checking my email on johns laptop. Then Myles arrived, with Eitan. Then Dick joined us. Then some more people, then more, after about 20 minutes there were about 15 of us... after an hour probably about 60!

I like to think it was my own personal little party ;)

I went to bed very sad, possibly the saddest I've felt at tourney in a few years. I didn't get to hang out with people as much as I wanted. My body gets tired so much easier and quicker nowadays :( boooo age!
I will miss everyone so much, but I will get to see them all again next year. I really wish these people were closer to me, physically, and I wish it didn't cost so much to take a trip to see them. They are some of the closest and best friends I have in the world, and they are miles away :(
Here are some pix for me to end with... goodbye tourney - we'll see you next year.

Day 5

Friday the 13th... oooerrr

Woke up early, John did not. He and Wareing were out partying and the like til about 5am. Something about hiding in the icecream shop eating ice cream.

So he missed the morning meeting (lyrics to anthem changed yet again) and the first workshop of the day. I went to a music workshop, it took all my guts to get up and take part in this workshop... hard work for me. But I feel better for it. Couple of new games to try out with the gang too. Lunch was plesant, we went to a pizza place and ate calzone... mmmm calzone...

The afternoon workshops was wonderful! A guy called Joe Bill who did a very inspirational workshop with us, left me buzzing.

The evening was once again taken up with shows... three shows this evening! In two different venues. I drove myself, John and Rach to the Church venue ... which was MASSIVE! I ate a pretzel. The show was great. Included a brilliant countdown by the San Jose team which included a chair and a punch and much running... loads of fun to watch. And Von from Dallas was playing on the Houston team! Nice! They played game called Pop Up Book which was a bit like Slideshow but with no need for lights... I think we may workshop that...

So then we headed back to the CSz space to watch whatever we could get in and see- space was tight though so I only saw a bit of something. I think it was Indy.

Then the evening leant itself to my most nerve racking time of the whole tournament. The Stand Up gig...

When I said I'd do some in it I wasn't really thinking. When it came down to it, I was really bricking it! There's something about stand up that is just so scary... oh I know what it is - it's STAND UP!

As it happens Chris was right, as usual, it all went great. The audience were well up for it, and EVERYONE had a great gig! Some amazing responses.

After that I didn't have the buzz that everyone else had, I just can't get into stand up as much as the rest. So I went back to the hotel room and went to sleep.

I think I watched something on TV that was talking about a woman who had been killed this week in Fitchburg Wisconsin - that's right where I used to live folks. I even recognised places on the footage. A bit scary.

Anyhoo.

Day 4

Straight after morning meeting today Kosta got to meet some of his fans. hehe, the first workshop I did today was Randy's (he loves me to say his name... hehe). It was a young workshop, as in he was still really figuring it out himself, but I enjoyed it. Learned a few things. Things mainly for use in Longform I would think. But it was good fun. John and Leigh were in there with me too. John got to be a lizard in a scene, which I think he enjoyed, and I got to be a scared portrait victim... many grandmothers were killed in this workshop.

For lunch we decided to brave the depths of Rock Island and have a trip out to the Old Country Buffet (see John's eyes light up) Chris stayed behind as he had had some not so great family news, and we couldn't find Ross, so off we went. 6 of us, in the Caddy. ;)

We had to eat quick as there were workshops we had to be in by the afternoon!

We got back about 15 minutes late. I wandered into Myles's workshop and instantly started to kick myself cos I really wished I'd have been there from the begininning!

Some very useful stuff that I will be using with my students at the university this year for definate!

Once the workshops were over for the day, we got together with the Chapel Hill team and started to plan the evenings match. One of Chapel Hill's team mates, and manager, was unable to come to tourney at the last minute so we leant the team our Canadian and American (Chris and Derek) so they could still play.

I was a bit nervous, my parents had driven from Wisco to watch. And, for all intents and purposes, this was a whole new team I was showcasing this year. I purposely didn't play Wareing as she'd played before and wanted to keep it more for the people who'd been there all year working hard.

And they pulled it off!

The last game especially was amazing! So much fun! Objection really is Chris's game! And my favourite line of the whole of tournament: Chris pulled Aitan up onto the stage as a Klingon action figure. Aitan blatantly doesn't know anything about Star Trek, adopts a vulcan hand shape, and says "I'm a Kilngon - I like Space" HILARIOUS! He's only 16, and reminded me of, well, most of our original troupe!

There was some random bloke from England in the audience too! lol... he was really excited when I gave him a Curly Wurly (not a euthamism).

After the shows, and a shower, there was a SCRIMMAGE! This was rather impromtu as it wasn't originally on the schedule - but I'm so glad it happened. It means people who don't get to play in the tourney get to play with other people and so on. Much fun. I got up and did a bit, possibly some of the rudest improv I've ever done!! And everyone else got up too. Much much fun all round.

I think most people went out to drink and gamble some more after the scrimmage - I'm pretty sure I just went to bed.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Day three at tourney (technically for me anyway)

But really DAY ONE!

Started with the morning meeting, which was great fun. Dick decided to change the words for the Anthem. So we all learned them in 2 seconds. Ahhh, improv.

Then The New Games Workshop (we're learning new games). We actually showed a couple of games this year. Directors Commentary and Blues. Even though we've been playing Blues for 4 years, we'd never shown it - so this was the year to do just that. They seemed to go down well, and I have a couple of new games to try out from that workshop too.

For lunch we went to Mama Comptons, a resturant that Jeff also runs. And run it he did, I think everyone had decided to go there that lunch time, he was run off his feet.

In the afternoon I ran my first ever workshop at tournament! I did a Warm Up workshop. Where I would show some warm ups that I do, and then others coudl chip in and share theres, so we could all go away and have a load more warm ups! I think it worked! Certainly had a fun time anyway. Played Wolf for about 40 minutes! Myles was first out ... hehe. Coolest thing was that Dick was in my workshop - and even cooler than that, he taught us all some GREAT workshop games!

The evening shows were great - what I saw. One of the venues was about 10 minutes away from the CSz space, so it was hard to see every match.

Indy vs Provo was the main event that I saw tonight, including a lovely game of Lounge Lizard where you get one person out of the audience and sing to them in a lounge style. Matt from Provo excelled himself by going the whole hog on a lovely lady called Hattie who was obviously thrilled to be up there. Especially when the climax of the song came!

The match that followed was also excellant! A wonderful call back by Bill of Portland, beautiful!

After that the evening was filled with Karaoke. Now, some of you already know, I get really nervous with karaoke. I think it derives from my 'you must sing correctly' upbringing. But even so, I put a song in. 5 hours later, it still hadn't come up, so I assume it got lost in the ether. In that time though, John did a couple, Rach did a couple, Ross and Daisy both did one! Loads of fun. I even got up a couple of times as a backing singer, and joined in with the Cell Block Tango - which I didn't know too well. A certain UK team member who will remain nameless kept pinching the mic anyway so I had pretty much given up by the end.
we must have left the bar at around 2 am, just after Daisy and Brian sang.

I was knakkered, and already pacing myself - I've been to these things before remember ;)

Managers workshops today. Some useful stuff. Had Chris there too, which was different, but useful. He wasn't very well so I don't know how much he managed to take in.

D+D still hadn't arrived, but Wareing had managed to sneak through somehow. She arrived while I was in a meeting.

Got to check out the Quad Cities space and all that, while everyone was registering. A lovely space, very long. We were also shown the model for the new Chicago space! Gorgeous! Will have to visit there next summer.

The evening was lovely, everyone had slowly trickeled in while I was at the meeting, so by the evening we all congregated in a pub called the Blue Cat. Lots of pool, dancing and chat went on. Got to see my lovely Myles, and meet lots of lovely new people. Shannon was there being, well, Shannon.

While we were all enjoying ourselves Daisy and Derek were in a car with Rick from LA. Some of the LA and Richmond teams were also stuck at Chicago. We managed (at my phones expense! ouch, dread to think what my bill is going to be) to get them all in touch with each other. So they all met up, I think there was 7 in total, and hired a car and drive to Quad Cities. By this point D+D had been sat in an airport for nearly 2 days with no bags! Disgraceful. So they were pleased to arrive. Of course, they headed straight to the bar ;)

Oh I forgot - before we even went to the bar there was a dinner arranged for us in one of the venues people would be performing. The only veggie thing was MINGING so I did't have anything to eat :( We sold a couple of shirts while there. Kosta bought the one that had Tom Roche's name on the back and promptly started a fan club for him. lol.

I also began the FUED that lasted the entire tournament... Brandon from San Jose has the same camera as me... and likes to take as many pictures as I do - so we started a Camera Duel... I think I won, but who knows...

ALSO I had a lovely moment when I was stressing about D+D when I was getting into the lift BA was getting out! It was the first time I'd seen him and he gave me a big hug - yay.

So that was the first day, oh and one last thing!

YOUR MOM GOES HOME!

Got back at about 1am last night. Bloody chicago traffic! The only thing that kept us sane at that point was the Dr Demento show on the radio and this car that kept making us laugh:

So... anyway... got to Tourney today. Seemed a little anti climatic - I suppose I assumed there would be more people there. Went for a lovely dinner with the rest of the managers (who were there already - there weren't that many - aparantly Dick wasn't there cos he went gambling). After that visited Jeff's delightful home where there were some amazing rocking chairs! I ate gorgeous cheesecake and then the lights all went out! Bad thunderstorms.

Daisy and Derek were supposed to arrive today, but their plane was delayed in Chicago. Rachel also stuck in New York. There are some horrible storms around. Leigh, and Chris arrived safe from their drive from Toronto. Ross managed to fly in OK too... It had been a long day (before we set off we had visited Madison's State St and also The Old Country Buffet! Can't get enough of those places... it's the one place i can really eat what I want! There is so much veg and mac cheese (oh yes the not eating cheese thing went out the window as soon as I touched down two weeks ago)).

So we went to sleep excited for the real tourney to start starting tomorrow... and fingers x'd that the last three of us would arrive safe and well...

Freeway License Plates - I88

Illinois

Montana - 1

Back to Wisco!

Today was all driving! But it was fun driving... until the last chunk in Chicago! SOO MUCH TRAFFIC!

There isn't much to write about the journey really, was pleasant enough, it was a long drive so we didn't stop too much for anything. I really enjoyed travelling with John, all the journey just flew by. I even remember thinking that on the way to new York I wished it was a longer trip cos I was just enjoying being in the car with him. He's lovely. I love him.

Freeway

New Jersey

New York - 25

Pennsylvania - 9

Ohio - 8

North Carolina - 2

Conneticut - 1

Florida - 1

Massechusetts - 1

Vermont - 1

Missouri - 1

Pensylvania

Ohio - 23

New Jersey - 16

Michigan - 13

New York - 11

Illinois - 5

Virginia - 4

Florida - 4

Kentucky - 4

Massechusetts - 4

Maryland - 3

Maine - 3

Indiana - 3

Tennessee - 3

Nebraska - 2

Minnesota - 2

New Hampshire - 2

Missouri - 2

Georgia - 1

Oklahoma - 1

Texas - 1

Conneticut - 1

Arkansas - 1

Arizona - 1

Alberta (Canada) - 1

Wisconsin - 1

Iowa - 1

Ohio

Michigan - 19

Illinois - 8

Indiana - 8

Tennessee - 8

Wisconsin - 5

Pennsylvania - 5

Florida - 5

Iowa - 4

Minnesota - 3

Maine - 3

New Jersey - 2

Missouri - 2

Virginia - 2

Oklahoma - 2

West Virginia - 2

California - 1

Texas - 1

Nevada - 1

Conneticut - 1

New Jersey - 1

Delaware - 1

Wyoming - 1

Arizona - 1

New York - 1

Indiana

Illinois - 6

Florida - 4

Ohio - 3

Mennesota - 2

Pennsylvania - 2

Wisconsin - 2

New Jersey - 2

Arkansas - 1

Delaware - 1

Wyoming - 1

Maine - 1

Tennessee - 1

Massechusetts - 1

New Mexico - 1

Nebraska - 1

Nevada - 1

we apparantly didn't count illinois....

New York New York!


Arrived here early this morning and got to the hotel to find we couldn't check in for a while yet. Although the tone of the guy behind the counter changed a whole lot when he realised I was a Diamond Member ;) (ok, so I'm not, but my dad is... and we have the same initials...)

So we headed into New York.


Last time I was here was during the week... this time it was a saturday - and it seemed very different! The trains were a nightmare, late, slow, in the wrong place. We ended up in Greenwich village for some of the time. Little bit creepy.

We were waiting for trains for so long that we had to give up on our idea of going to the statton island ferry and decided to head straight to ComedySportz (Where we were meeting Rach, Daisy, Derek and Joanne), via Time Sq and the big sexy Virgin Megastore (where we bought Evil Dead the Musical - very funny)
We all met up in a lovely Bagel shop where I had a Knish and some cheesecake! Lovely.

While there we randomly bumped into someone else who was in the show that night so she took us over to the venue.
It was a lovely small venue. And weird to sit and watch! I usually play. Rache, D+D and John all got up there and did us proud.
Some very funny stuff.

We lost by one point, but, we knew who the REAL winners were... hehe.
After that we headed to a local bar and supped with the NY possee. We also headed out and took some publicity pictures in times square.

After that John bought us some pizza to take back to our hotel room to nosh. When we got there we ate our pizza and I had a bite out of a cookie. I didn't like it. John decided at that point to see if the cokie had nuts in it, by EATING SOME! So was then horribly sick for the rest of the evening.

Next morning we set off for home....









Freeway License Plate Tally - Washington DC to New York, I 95/I 295

Maryland
Virginia - 11
New YOrk - 4
Washington DC - 3
New Jersey - 2
Massechusetts - 2
Pensylvania - 2
Florida - 2
New Hampshite - 2
Utah - 1
Maine - 1
Nebraska - 1

Delaware (Hi, I'm in, Delaware - name the film!)
Maryland - 13
New Jersey - 8
Virginia - 5
Pennsylvania - 5
Massechusetts - 6
New York - 3
West Virginia - 2
Washington - 1
North Carolina - 1
Rhode Island - 1
Mississppi - 1
Ohio - 1

New Jersey
Pensylvania - 27
Maryland - 19
Virginia - 11
Massechusetts - 10
Delaware - 9
Florida - 8
New York - 6
Washington DC - 4
Conneticut - 2
Rhode Island - 2
Georgia - 1
Ontario (Canada) - 1
New Hampshire - 1
North Carolina - 1
Illinois - 1
Arizona - 1
Maine - 1
Kentucky - 1
Colorado - 1
Utah - 1

I haven't died!
BUt I could have... more info about DC and Chicago and all that when I have time to actually sit down and type. Right now I'm in Maryland sat outside a welcome centre that's not open using their wifi ;)
DC was a nightmare, not all of it, but most, stories later...
on our way to NY now
BRON
x

Our journey to DC was long, but fun. We made a couple of stops on the way, most notably Bedford Village in Pensylvania - which was closed, and the '50 States' shop, which wasn't. We bought lots of pressies there. Bedofrd Village was an old 'settlers' village that had been preserved, it looked really interesting, so we left a note on the only car in the car park saying how we'd come to see, and it was closed and we were sad. '50 States' was a massive shop full of everything american! Even dead things on the walls! Oh yes. We spend money there.

Washington DC!

What a nightmare to find! Well, not DC itself we found that rather easily, about 4 times, in 2 hours, ... it was Liz's house! We ended up sat on the Pentagon car park while I had a minor panic attack, which turned into a full blown one once we were back on the road!

Anyhoo, once we finally got there we went to sleep straight

Next day we were up and about early and headed into DC for fun and frolics. We made one mistake to day.

We took Danny's coat.

And John put it on.

And we filmed.

And it was hot.

And we scared people.

And accidently left a bag unattended to boot.

So now the armed police at capital hill have our names and addresses... I still feel really guilty about the whole thing, cos we scared people. But we were just being wacky brits! Ahh well... Help us play Spot the Policeman on this pic...

We played ComedySportz that night, and also the Blue Show. Loads of fun.

Oh I missed out the bit where John gave me the wrong soup so I was eating beef soup for a while! GGRRRRR

So yeah, the shows, were fun :D The Blue Show is a rude improv show, I got to play part of John's body (not to scale) for one game... and we got to find out what it is like 'down there' for Matt Hartman... funny stuff :D

Freeway License Plate Tally - Chicago to Washington DC, I 90/I76 etc

Illinois
Indiana - 5
Wisconsin - 3
New York - 1
Texas - 1
Tennessee - 1
Mississippi - 1

Indiana
Illinois - 25
Tenessee - 12
Michigan - 6

Florida - 4

Ohio - 4

Iowa - 2
Minnesota - 2
Missouri - 2
Wisconsin - 2
Washington - 2
Pensylvania - 1
Kentucky - 1
Detroit - 1
Texas - 1
North Carolina - 1
Maine - 1
Oregon - 1
California - 1
Manitoba (Canada) - 1
Virginia - 1
New York - 1
Conneticut - 1
Ontario (Canada) - 1
Oklahoma - 1
Alberta (Canada) - 1
Utah - 1
Colorado - 1
Illinois - 1

Ohio

Michigan - 30

Pennsylvania - 17

Illinois - 16

Indiana - 12

Virginia - 8

Maine - 7

Florida - 5

Iowa - 5

New York - 5

Maryland - 5

Minnesota - 4

Tennessee - 3

Nebraska - 3

Wisconsin - 3

New Jersey - 2

Misouiri - 2

Mississippi - 2

Oklahoma - 2

Idaho - 1

Colorado - 1

California - 1

North Carolina - 1

Kentucky - 1

Conneticut - 1

Washington - 1

New Mexico - 1

Georgia - 1

Massechusetts - 1

Ontario (canada) - 1

Pennsylvania

Ohio - 9

Maryland - 9

Michigan - 7

Illinois - 5

Tennessee - 3

Maine - 3

Nebraska - 2

Oklahoma - 2

Virginia - 2

New York - 2

Florida - 2

Texas - 1

Washington - 1

Delaware - 1

Kentucky - 1

New Jersey - 1

Minnesota - 1

Iowa - 1

Indiana - 1

Georgia - 1

Maryland

Pennsylvania - 5

Illinois - 3

Virginia - 2

Ohio - 1

Wisconsin - 1

New Jersey - 1

Iowa - 1

Oregon - 1

Texas - 1