What's up with me lately?
Monday was my first Level 4 Writing class. My instructor's name is M.T. and she seems okay. I got a pretty bad first impression... because she's got some of the same mannerisms as my mother, who should not under any circumstances be teaching me how to be funny. For example, she went through all five members of the class and asked us questions like "What do you want to work on most? What do you feel you're best at? Where do you see this going?" and so on. It's almost exactly like what my mom would do if she were teaching a class. Oh well... at least I know how to deal with people like my mother (kill her, take her place, start a motel). (That was a "Psycho" reference... did you get it? I'm not actually going to kill my mom, please!)
There's a new Chris dude in my class, and he sucks hardcore. He's the type of guy who wants to write down everything the teacher says verbatim... and he'll stop class and ask what she said like three minutes ago. He also, after I told everyone we should probably not give rewrites to actors the week they're supposed to be memorizing, said something to the effect of "can't we just tell the actors 'this is the new script... learn it'?" What an asshole this guy is.
Tuesday was my first Beginning Improv Level E class. Our instructor is Ed Garza... who used to run the Training Center. He has already given us lots of feedback... and that's totally awesome. I also was in two different scenes with Katy, who is really really good. I hadn't realized how good she was until we acted together. Again, the class was too large to really do a lot of anything, but Ed's feedback somehow makes it all okay (at least for now).
One of my friends, Adam, is taking classes at IO and they have what they call 'The Lottery'. The lottery is a randomly selected person from each level (1 through 5) who do a show together every Tuesday night. So there are five people who are in the show every week, and then they rotate in seasoned veterans... so there are 8 or 9 people in the show. This week, Adam got to be on stage with the amazing TJ Jagadowski... so I had to go see. Keith and I left after our first Level E class and headed to IO to see the show. It was a good show... and what an incredible opportunity for Adam, as in one point in the show, TJ was watching Adam intently... following his every move (as any good improviser). It was fun.
What is not fun is the fact that I'm sick. I spent much of yesterday and a lot of today sleeping and resting around my apartment. The good news is that I've got my bathroom just about as clean as when I moved in (as I decided to use my energy to clean). The bad news is that I haven't gotten much done for work in a couple days. Not that it matters, seeing as Andrea and I really haven't talked much in about two weeks. Whatever!

I saw that the Pistons traded Corliss Williamson for Derrick Coleman and center Amal McCaskill. This is presumably to add salary cap room (no thanks to the signing of Rasheed... which was LOTS of money). I suppose this trade adds size, and gives us a better back-up for the Wallaces than McDyess. But we did trade a 30 year old (Williamson) for a 37 year old (Coleman) and a guy who was out of the league from 1997 to 2001. I half expect us to release McCaskill. But now with Williamson gone we'll see this Argentinean, Carlos Delfino, as the back-up small forward behind Prince. Our team just loves players from different countries. Hooray for foreigners!