Yesterday was a day of feeling accomplished and creative — two feelings that don’t seem to come to me as much as they have in the past.
At work, I managed to complete a few assignments before deadline. Yes, before. This is rare for me. Especially when I have so much else I feel like I want to do. But nonetheless, good for me.
Work has felt incredibly great this past week, so much so that I am slowly losing the feeling, wondering if leaving my old job was the right idea. I was walking home from the Metro a few nights ago, thinking of all the ways that I should’ve started off the communications program at the old job. Instead of trying to overhaul everything at once, I should’ve done small things first. But the problem was, actually there were two problems, that they expected an immediate launching and that I did not have an agreeable communications assistant working for me.
So, not much that I really could’ve done afterall. I’m so much happier here, and I know I’ll get past some of the things I originally saw as pitfalls (like so big, expensive lunches for my birthday.) (They did however give me a surprise gathering with delicious raspberry chocolate cake. And I really don’t like cake very much, so me saying it was delicious means it’s very true.)
Last night was Wednesday so that meant another imformal improv practice session. Last night I started to feel it. I started to feel what happens when you and your partner listen, support, heighten and find the pattern and then create some really awesome scenerios and fun scenes (maybe even funny). It felt amazing!
I’ve witnessed my classmates do such things previously, and I think I’ve probably even done a scene or two where everything felt perfectly pulled together. But last night seemed like the first time that I did it once and could keep doing it well in any scene we did. No matter the word, no matter who I was playing with, the three of us created magic.
Some scenes I loved doing:
- monks – Two of us chanting about craving pizza while a third monk (who won’t chant and therefore we chant how we don’t hear anyone talking) tempts us to stop chanting by bringing us pizza.
- kneecap – Two people talking about how they are going to bust out my kneecap while I obliviously practice some weird blend of tai chi, dancing, Rockette kicking, and stretches. They spend so much time discussing the best way to do it, that they never get to actually take me down.
- bookstore – One person is a customer at a counter buying books, I’m a clerk. Behind the customer is someone completely ticked off at how long we are talking about the customer signing up to join our special membership club, receive a copy of the enewsletter, get free gift wrapping, etc. The annoyed guy (not buying anything) just wants to know where 4th street is, but no one in the store has heard of 4th street (I call it out over the PA system to all the customers, naturally). The scene ends when we discover the guy is in the wrong city.
- Hawaii – We’re doing cardio-hula, of course.
Not only was I getting it, but I seemed to be doing more object work and more emotions! And reacting! Oh my gosh, I may actually be OK at this improv stuff afterall.
So thank goodness classes start in mid-January. I’ve been getting a good fix between practicing and attending the holiday shows. But real classes will just be awesome.
After practice, I went to Blues Alley in Georgetown to see Bob Baldwin. I had never seen nor heard of Bob before, but a fan invited me to see it and I agreed. I had always wanted to check out Blues Alley because it seemed like the closest thing to the blues bar venues I’d go to while in Chicago.
The place was fabulous and intimate. The music was fun and captivating. I want Bob and his band to perform at my wedding (not that that’s happening anytime soon). That’s how awesome the show was.
Wednesday was a great night for improv of the theatrical and musical kind.
