lia picked me up at 7 am and drove me to o'hare. during my stopover in minneapolis i managed to get bumped to first class on a flight to lax instead of orange county which had been overbooked. also got a $300 voucher out of it.
looks like i won't have to pay for my next trip in july for amanda and milan's wedding.
took the train up to evanston and walked through the evanston art fair on my way to the last day of the institute. we had our "showing" at noon. it went well. it felt good to move again. and all the emotional warfare inside of me was de ja vu as well, harking back to the first three years i was with the company. i guess some things never change. after saying my good byes to billy, jeannie, kari, glenn, brandi and jackie, i packed up my locker and took the train back up to the city. hanna was waiting for me in front of lj's apartment. we drove to southport, walked around, grabbed some ice cream at Australian's which is new since i moved. i had the florist put together a thank you arrangement for lj and we dropped it off at the apartment. we went to ann sathers on belmont for dinner and were joined by carly and later by kathy. all four of us were northwestern alum and had never been in the same room together. we had a great time talking and laughing about random things. hanna had to take off first and the remaining three of us walked across the street to clarke's for dessert. when we finished kathy and i put carly, who was still recovering from foot surgery, into a cab then walked to the el (for her) and lj's (for me). i didn't stay put too long because lia invited me to join herself and walsh at the golden apple. i didn't stay there too long either because i still had to pack and clean up lj's place.
stayed in evanston from 8:30 am til 10:30 pm today. after classes, i met up with amanda at whole foods. we walked back to campus and i picked up alida who i would be babysitting the rest of the night while the company had their dress rehearsal. she was fast asleep when i picked her up at 6 pm. i pushed her stroller around the lakefill and eventually she awoke. we spent the rest of the night greeting people and dogs on the path, playing with our shadows, running around outside and being loud, sitting on the sculptures in the garden, getting lost in "the jungle" outside the library, going up and down in the elevator and up and down again, and running around in the theater entertaining everyone onstage and in the make-up room. afterward, brandi drove me back to the city and dropped me off at lj's.
i sat facing backward on the 7:45 am train to evanston looking out the window with my sunglasses on and my ipod tuned to kanye west when the first tear skipped down my right cheek. they started falling faster and faster until i couldn't wipe them away anymore. i headed straight for the lake as soon as i got off the train. sat by the rocks and sobbed my heart out. the shards that had been broken finally made their way to the surface until the only thing that made me feel better was the thought of telling billy and jeannie that i couldn't finish out the week. there were only two and a half days left, but i couldn't do it. i was just going to walk over there to billy's office and tell him i needed to zone out by the lake or go downtown to get lost in the museums. but then i got mad. at myself.
I told myself I had to stay. I had to finish out the week. So I went to the ballroom and was standing in the lobby. Billy went in to start the morning jazz class. Then Jeannie came out of the office and was about to follow him when she saw me and asked, "Hey, AM, how are you?" And the thing about the JRJP gang is that when they ask that, they sincerely mean it. And so I started crying again. At first she thought my tears were for nostalgia and my wanting to come back to the dance company. But then we went into the cellar (the tap room) and I told her about what was breaking my heart. the whole week (and still) I’ve been in limbo. And being in limbo leaves too much time for me to start wavering. And so, by Thursday, after three days of being in dance classes six hours per day and not being able to concentrate, not being able to pick up the tap steps and not being able to find the ground and feel connected to the other dancers, I really started to feel like shit. If it weren’t for Jeannie, I would have been long gone on Thursday. She let me cry on her shoulder and she helped me to start moving and use that movement as a way to heal. So I stuck with it. I still didn’t get it. But I stuck with it.
after classes, i went back up to ljs. mark picked me up around 8:30 pm and we went to the green mill. the dance floor was packed but we managed to get in some good dances together. i was so exhausted physically, mentally and emotionally that i had him drop me back off at ljs before the last set of the night.
lj left for florida today so i would be staying at her place solo for the rest of my vacation. classes were again quite challenging and i had a hell of a time, particularly in jeannie's tap class. that i'd been staying out late every night was definitely taking its toll. my body was telling me, "heh. you think you can actually go cold turkey from this technique for three years and expect it to be easy when you try it again? what? do you think you're 22 or something? you're old now." then again, even the teenagers were feeling it by now. when they say intensive. they mean intensive.
after classes, glenn and i walked over to norris to discuss the website that i would be re-designing for the dance company. i didn't have a password to access the wireless network so we drove to downtown evanston to go to panera where the wireless is free. after going over business, glenn rushed off to teach company class in the city. kathy met me at panera and we got caught up on the past few years. the two of us took the el to rogers park and went to the heartland cafe for dinner. her husband joined us. after dinner, we walked to their apartment a few blocks away. she showed me photos from their wedding and year living in mexico. afterward, with droopy eyes and throbbing feet, i headed back to ljs around 11 pm to soak my feet for the fifth night in a row.
this morning i brought my blades with me on the el. laced 'em up when i got off the train in evanston. felt all wobbly on 'em for some reason. again, felt like stepping back into the early '90s when i bladed through the streets of evanston to and from classes. the dance classes seemed harder today. i couldn't concentrate in tap class and therefore couldn't pick up any of jeannie's cool rhythms. had a quick catch-up lunch with kari and cutie-pie kellen. after classes, i put my blades on and took a spin around the lakefill, remembering the first time i ever did that in '94 when i ran across mjv on the path the last day of my freshman year and remembering my first date with mjh at the end of my senior year when we walked to the lake, he kissed me and asked if i could fit in his suitcase when he left for d.c. in a few weeks. it was names and images and memories like those that i hadn't anticipated filling my head but which did all week.
stuffed the blades back in my locker then took the train back up to ljs. we headed over to schubas, met up with tessa, lia, and kitty to watch rachael yamagata. lj, lia and myself were all exhausted so luckily there was some seating space up at the front near the stage. the show was awesome. they were rockin' out and i thoroughly enjoyed seeing her with her new band. that lady is gonna go far, and she deserves every inch of it.
Today kicked off "officially" the JRJP Institute. I caught the 7:45 am express train from Diversey to Davis, walked through downtown evanston and through northwestern's campus to the dance center. billy started off the day with an introduction to bob, the skeleton. it felt like de ja vu to learn the warm-ups again. next was jeannie's tap class, which felt a little like tasting one of your favorite meals for the first time in three years of not being able to find it on a menu anywhere. during our short break for lunch, i ran over to norris and fixed myself a salad. after lunch, glenn started teaching us "i've got your number." the last session of the day was with billy again. we talked about the jrj technique and its philosophy and then we started working on our own choreography. after the classes were done for the day at 4:30 pm, i hopped back on the el, picked up some more food from Penney's and waited for lj. we drove down to hot house, had some great dances with old-timers such as walsh, backstreet, mark, lia and brainard. then we drove up to fizz. i only danced a couple there cuz i was sooooo tired. lia dropped me off at lj's in her spankin' new mini cooper.
Lia dropped off LJ and me a little after 7:30 am. we dashed over to einstein's for breakfast before LJ had to go to work. i showered then walked to walgreen's to buy a card for amanda and milan, then hopped into a cab to the wedding shower which was already underway when i got there. i made it in time to join in the toilet-paper wedding outfit creation contest, which we didn't win. the rest of the shower was full of laughter as amanda and milan were faced with tough, newlywed-game-like questions complete with pillow hitting and mention of "road trips" and italy and hawaii.
after the shower i walked a short distance to visit kelly, john and gabriel. little, almost 2-yrs-old gabriel impressed me with his knowledge of colors while john and kelly updated me about both their next baby's arrival and their subsequent move to virginia. afterward, i walked on clark street through andersonville up to the sunshine cafe where i enjoyed a late lunch. i then hopped on the red line and then the purple line up to evanston and was immediately transported not to the days when i was a member of the jump rhythm jazz project, but the days when i was a student at northwestern. something about being on foot from the davis el to the marjorie ward dance center. faces and memories flashed into my head that i hadn't thought of in ten years. crazy. i got to the lobby of the dance building and hugged both billy and jeannie. the rest of the workshop's participants and i were oriented about the week and then put on our tap shoes for a brief session with jeannie. when we finished, i made my way back up to the city, had some pasta with LJ and headed out with her to meet up with backstreet, t-o-d and brian (two of her co-workers) at a street fair near fizz. we listened to the hairbangers ball, a metal cover band (very much NOT my kind of music) and then headed back home. i next ventured over to heather and ben's apartment just a short jaunt from LJs and was able to catch up with heather before she flew out to vermont for six weeks.
woke up around 10 am and walked down diversey to check email at Screenz, perused the shoes in hanig's and nine west, grabbed a french toast bagel from panera then popped into borders. picked up some foot lotion which I will surely be using after this week, met up with LJ at Pennys for some yummy thai food. afterward, we headed to Londo Mondo and I plopped down $250 big ones for some new rollerblades even though i really really shouldn't have. then we went to armitage street and the dangerous impulse shopping continued as we stopped at Lori's Designer Shoes and a few other boutiques. we got some italian ice at anthony's (mmmm) and then stopped at bed bath and beyond so i could buy a gift card for amanda and milan's wedding shower. LJ dropped me off at the el and i went downtown so i could buy a five-day el pass at the Tourist Center. I stopped into H&M and luckily escaped without spending any more money. hopped back on the el and went back to LJ's apartment. we changed and went over to have some wine with lia and backstreet. we ordered pizza from O'Fame and caught up on the past few years. we were exhausted by this time and LJ and I ended up crashing at Lia's.
flew out of orange county at 3:45 pm, stopped over in minneapolis, and landed (at last) in chicago at 11:30 pm. took a cab to little julie's brand spankin' new pad in lincoln park and chatted and got caught up over pasta.
"they do everything big in texas"
especially rainstorms.
we got trapped on our way out of houston. two and a half hour delay at the airport. one and a half hour of which was on the tarmac. that's just no fun.
we visited two more communities before heading to the airport. actually, just one because it was raining so hard that we just drove through the second one. it was like driving through a car wash with the sheets of water dropping on our rental car. Now it makes sense why they had so many signs for "windshield wiper repair" on the roads.
finally got home at 7 pm in time to watch the second half of the laker game.
The phone woke in my room jarred me from my sleep at 7:38 am (5:38 am calif time), which happened to be eight minutes after I was supposed to have been down in the lobby meeting my boss. *DOH* first time travelin' with the boss, and I totally oversleep. Just great. Luckily, I'm low maintenance enough to get my shit together in ten minutes and not look like a complete mess. The morning continued to be aggravating as we were given the wrong directions and were late for our meeting with over 100 sales people. Boss was not happy. Luckily, we had an enthusiastic reception and his presentation went well. Afterward, we drove to the main office and had another two-hour meeting with the division's big wigs. Again, we were well-received, which is always a good thing. Afterward, we grabbed some sandwiches from the Randalls grocery store then embarked on our driving tour of our Houston communities. We stopped and talked with four different communities. I snapped 121 photos and feverishly took down notes while my boss chatted with the sales agents. After putting in a 12-hour day, we headed back to the hotel. I downloaded all the photos and typed up all the notes, ordered room service and enjoyed a nice, warm bath before turning in a little after midnight, making sure to ask for a wake-up call this time.
"They do everything big in Texas."
Flew out of O.C. this afternoon with my boss. We arrived at 7:45 pm to icky muggy thunderstorm-watchy weather. We drove to the hotel and checked into our respective rooms, then ordered room service and watched the Lakers get whooped by the Pistons. During halftime and other time-outs, I surfed over to the Tonys to see Hugh Jackman's touching tribute to his wife when he won for best actor. I love Hugh! What a hottie! After the disappointing game, I went down to the gym and ran on the treadmill for a spell. Should have let my stomach digest my room service a bit more because my tummy was cramping a bit. Turned in for the night around 12:30 am (10:30 pm Cali time).