Taking it day by day

New Blog Adress

2008-12-06T08:13:00.000-08:00

Hello

I've switch to a mac blog account and will be updating that one from here on out.

Hopefully I will do better at that one then I did with this one.

http://web.me.com/brettlyons/Site_3/Brett_and_his_Blog/Brett_and_his_Blog.html

SOooo..

2008-11-16T04:38:00.000-08:00

So internet on the ship is pretty bad, and I'm having problems with this blog site. I am gonna switch to a new blog soon when I get to New York in a 2 weeks and then I'll update all you guys. For now here is my internet album of photos. Enjoy and I will talk to you soon.

http://web.me.com/brettlyons/Site_2/Rome.html

A trip to see friends.

2008-09-29T02:47:00.000-07:00

So last week I ventured to New Hampshire, Maine, and Boston to visit friends. The trip started early Wednesday morning with a 6:30am flight to Manchester NH. I've taking this flight before in that past on Southwest and always enjoy the fact that it's usually 12 other people and me flying. It was that way again so I stretch out on the seats and took a nice nap. I picked up my rental car and made my way to Bar Harbor, ME. Wednesday: I arrived in the afternoon and hung out with my upcoming shipmates Jen, Larrance and Mike. Thanks to Jen and Larrance for letting me stay at their house for a couple of nights. Jen and Larrance own Improv Acadia. A wonderful theater in Bar Harbor. I did the show Wednesday night with them and had a lot of fun. Thursday: Jeff and Jeanie are currently on my former ship the Norwegian Dawn and were porting in Bar Harbor today. It was great to see them. I hadn't seen then since April! Yikes! I also was very excited to see April. She is a singer in the Jean Ann Ryan Company and we became great friends while traveling the seas together. This was April's last week on the ship before she heads to Las Vegas to pack up and then move to Chicago! So we all went to Jordan Pond House to get their world famous Popovers and enjoy Acadia National Park. They got back on the ship and headed to Boston. I went to bed early so I could get a jump start in the morning. Friday: Woke up at 4:30am and started driving to Boston. As I arrived in Boston a huge rain Storm was arriving as well. I met up with Jeff, Jeanie and April and we headed into the City. We wanted to do some fun stuff, but the weather would not have it. We ending up just eating lunch, Getting soaked and just heading back to the ship. We said our goodbyes to each other and I headed back to Manchester, Nh to catch my flight. Hopefully Jeff, Jeanie and I will reunite in February on The Gem. We are trying real hard to get a contract together. It was a very short but excellent vacation.

While Driving from NH to ME I got myself a nice $185 dollar speeding ticket. There's a good chance ME will never never see that money.

Me having fun. Jeff in his same old picture pose. Things never change

Yeah April!!!

The drive back to NH on Friday was a wet one. People tend to forget how to drive the minute rain hits.

This was false advertising. It turned out to be a gas station and not a mouth sex factory.

Take off.

Landing

Look everyone Foliage!!

Hey that looks like Brett hanging out at Improv Acaida. Once on the ship this little guy will be turning up in all sorts of places. Stay tuned.

Not pictured Jeanie Best friend Dave Heenan

Bears Game!!

2008-09-29T02:36:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday Bess and I attended the Bears game vs. Tampa Bay. It was a real good time and our seats were amazing. The tickets were a little bit more than I wanted to spend, but I called it an early Birthday present. The Bears were up by 10 with 4 minutes left and still managed to blow the game in overtime. Thank goodness the won tonight. I only have 4 more weeks left in town before I leave for a very long time, so I was glad I was able to catch a game.

Our seats were on the 45 yard line only 9 rows off the field. It's times like these when my ticket selling job comes in real handy.

Bess enjoys a Brat pregame. It was Jumbo and full of mustard. I mentioned twice to her that it looked gross, but then complemented her in her ability to eat it all.

The four quarter collapse.

Weather and Improv

2008-09-13T22:12:00.000-07:00

I was in Michigan Friday night doing a show for The Mercy Home Group. It was fun, but doing a show just in the middle of a room is not that great. It kinda felt like I was at Thanksgiving dinner and my family made me get up and do a show for them. Thanks to Deanna for setting it up. We drove up in the rainy weather in Rance's car and I was lucky enough to sit in the seat that had a slow leak in the floor. My foot slowly got soaked during the ride and I wasn't sure why. Thanks to Deanna for taking that seat on the way home.

I was suppose to do a show at the ATC theater that night but we got back late so I didn't make it. I went up there any way just to hang out and catch the end. After words Adal ask if Louie, Rob, and I would do a quick 5 minute show for any one who wanted to stay and see it. Well a lot of people actually stayed to see it and what they say was a show that went 5 minutes to long and was extremely offensive to Koreans. It was well worth it though. Come by next week to see Louie and I act out what we think "The Peoples Temple" is all about in a 10 minute short play.

Then I drove home in the Rain

Random Improv Stuff

2008-09-12T11:15:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been doing shows at the Atc on Friday nights and they have been super fun. I get to play with Pudding Thank-you some weeks and those guys are a blast. It's also fun to perform on a great big theater stage again. And since they have show running there now we have a interesting back round to play with. If you get a chance come out and see us. Fridays at 11pm $10bucks and free beer all night!

I had a voice over audition this week. I thought it went alright, but I didn't get it. It wasn't for anything big so I didn't mind as much. I took my time reading over what they wanted to me to say, but when I got there they wanted all these parts to be done in different voices. A Rodney Dangerfield voice, a Southern lawyer, and a french accent. So I kind of messed up the lines when I read them back because I was concentrating to much on the voices. I also love playing a Southern lawyer on stage, but for some reason I couldn't do the voice while reading lines given to me. I guess he only lives in my brain and can not be told what to say. Local improv Celeb Todd Edwards was also at the Audition. This is how he sits all of the time.

And then I saw this last night.

That's right Improv License plates, but wait that's not it. They are September 11 plates. If you think real hard you can guess who these belong to.

Kimber and Paul wanted to be seen with these!

Three Cheers for old Notre Dame!

2008-09-12T10:50:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday a friend of mine couldn't use his Notre Dame tickets so I jumped at the offer to take them off of his hands. Every since I was a young lad I've loved Notre Dame Football. I think growing up in a Irish Catholic Neighborhood fueled that fire as did the movie Rudy. When i was growing up I would always watch the golden domers on TV every Saturday. I've been to Notre Dame once before back about 3 years ago, but it was winter and a gloomy day. Today was fantastic! The sun was shining and the weather was perfect. Bess came along with me and we had a great time. They beat San Diego State 21-13. They didn't play their best game, but a win is a win. I loved the campus and the atmosphere on game day. Today was one of the best days I've had all summer.

The Irish take the Field

Right before their first touchdown

Bess and Touchdown Jesus

Golden Dome

Hanging Pregame in the Quad

We had a good view from our seats

The band

Hospital tales part 2

2008-08-31T16:38:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry. I am a terrible blogger. I have time to kill, but I never want to use that time to update my Blog. I will try harder from now on.

I've always had an issue with my finger. It's always been itchy and red. it had never gotten out of control until that day.

August 13th, Wednesday morning,

I wake up to get ready for work and hop in the shower. Once I get out of the shower I take a look at my finger and it looks like this..... Gross I know.

So I finally make the call that I can't go on avoiding this issue any longer. I take a walk do to the Thorek Hospital which is just down the street from my house. If I had known how big a problem my finger was going to be I would of went to a much nicer hospital. So walking down to the hospital I thought they would just look at it and say that it's not that bad, give me some cream and send me on my way. Boy I wish that was the way it happened. Instead I spent 2 nights in the Hospital getting pumped full of different antibiotics and stuck in a room with a 60 year old man who checked himself in because he couldn't stop crapping. He was also the night security guard for the hospital. So everyone knew him and would stop by to say hi. I laid in bed for two days watching a shit ton of olympic coverage and sleeping like a mo-fo. I also had a great window view so I saw a lot of the planes doing test runs over the city as they geared up for the Air and Water Show. Since leaving the hospital My finger has cleared up 100%. It turns out it was a very bad case of Eczema that got infected after I didn't take care of it for some time. And of course what did they give me and tell me to do after I left the Hospital. Just put this cream on it. I give Thorek a D plus. Food was awful, people didn't have answers for your questions and they put me in a room with a guy who shit all day.

My view from my room

Outside the emergency room. That's just a man sleeping in the hallway

My view at night

Another gross picture of my Fingers.

My view for 2 days.

Hospital tales coming soon....

2008-08-15T20:13:00.000-07:00

Oh no!! What happened here?

I'll explain later. Gotta go.

Chicago!!

2008-08-15T20:05:00.000-07:00

Went to the movies at Amc River East 21 last week and then walked home. Just some photos I took. I love summer time in Chicago!

I'm still alive

2008-07-31T00:39:00.000-07:00

Wow talk about doing nothing. Well thats just what I did. I watched a whole bunch of TV and watched The Fifth Element on dvd. Gary Oldman is one of my favorite actors. I could watch his movies all day. Well I finally left the house at 11pm and walked over to the Holiday Club to meet friends. Cesar, Tim, Molly, John, and Tristen were all there hanging out. Cesar and I sang Pearl Jam's "Alive". Also Fernando helped us out by playing some really rocking air drums. I'm enjoying my time in Chicago, but part of me can't wait to get back on the Boat.

Playing catchup

2008-07-30T11:36:00.000-07:00

So it's been a little while since the last entry, here is what has been going on this week.

Friday:

I went to Arlington Race Course with some friends and had a great time. I broke about even for the day by winning on the last race. If you have never been to Arlington get out there. It's one of the nicest horse tracks I'm ever been to. With some bets only starting at a dime it's easy not to spend a lot of money. Later that evening I did a Improv show at the American Theater Company. It was fun and Nora Dunn from SNL did the monologues. Thanks the Adal for inviting me to play the last couple weeks it's been fun.

Saturday:

Went to work for a couple of hours and watched Cannon Ball Run. So I didn't do much working as you can tell. Then went up to IO and sat in again with Whirled News Tonight. It was a fun show despite the fact that there were only 5 of us playing. There is a podcast of the last two shows I was in on itunes. Just go to the podcast section and search Whirled News. After the show I headed to my old apartment where friends were hosting a Beer Pong party. Now as most of you know I don't drink alcohol, but also most of you know that I am very competitive and if there is any sort of game going on I want to win it. So I will drink a beer as long as I can win something from it. Arnie and I joined forces in an effort to win pong but came up short by losing to the Bess Romano Trio in the first round. My character the Professor was not happy about it.

Sunday:

Woke up way to early to play in a poker tournament that never happened and was not to pleased about that. So I just hung around the house all day and watch TV. I headed up to IO to do Deep Schwa at 8. We had a very fun show and I did some new Character choices that I had never done before. Watch 3033 then headed home for bed time.

Monday:

I didn't have to work so I slept in pretty late. I woke up and headed to the Apple store and bought and Ipod shuffle. I have an Iphone, but it's a little bulky to work out with and the shuffle is perfect. For only 50 bucks I thought it was worth it. Went to do the Armando show at IO at 8. Had fun and it was a great house.

Tuesday: Went to work but as I closed my apt door I realized that I had left my keys on the table. So I locked myself out and was not to happy about it. Luckily my brother and roommate Tim was off of work at the same time I was so crisis adverted. Poker night! I didn't do well and I'm not to happy at the way I've been playing. I was upset, but luckily for me Niki got a little buzzed and started singing on the piano about what was going on in the hands. She was also doing it in a very funny Chinese accent. So as for the rest of the week I plan on keeping it low key cause my ass is broke.

Coldplay

2008-07-24T15:26:00.000-07:00

Last night Chris and I went to see Coldplay at the United Center. We sat in the front row next to the side stage it was very Awesome!! Both Chris and myself play for the Annoyance Theater's softball team and before we went to the concert we were on the winning side of our battle against The Factory Theater. I like a lot of music and I pride myself on my music knowledge and I don't care what people say, I likes me some Coldplay music. The concert was great and the stage setup was really cool. After the concert I headed to The Holiday Club to do some karaoke with friends and to once again Celebrate Molly Hall's Birthday. Man she stretched that out.

Chris with his Idols Razor Ramone and Walter Payton

Bring it In!!

2008-07-22T19:05:00.000-07:00

Back in April I flew home from the Cruise ship for a couple of days to shoot a pilot episode of a show written by Dina Facklis called Bring it in. Well tonight was the premiere and it was a lot of fun. We all put a lot of hard work into this and it was great to see it come to life on the screen. We had a party at the studio we shot at and had drinks and BBQ. Thanks to Dina for putting everything together. The studio had a great roof top deck and I took advantage by taking some Chicago at night photos. Here are some pics from last night. It was a lot of fun!!

And of course one final photo, Bill Boehler living his dream in his huge bath tube.

Sunday Fun day

2008-07-22T19:01:00.000-07:00

Didn't really do much on Sunday. I woke up late did a some laundry and got a hair cut. I was gonna go golfing, but it didn't happen. Went to the IO Theater and did the Deep Schwa show. It was a fun show. I hope next Sunday will be more exciting!!

Cool days Hot nights

2008-07-20T11:20:00.000-07:00

I slept in pretty late on saturday and didn't get much done. Did a little shopping, but that's about it. The evening was full of fun though. I sat in with Whirled News Tonight for the first time in a long time. It was a very fun show. It's always fun to do improv with people you never get to do improv with. After the show we all grab a quick bite to eat at Salt & Pepper and then it was off to party.

And we all partied with these two ladies. Molly and Tristan were having their birthday party upstairs at Mullens. There was good people, good music, and even cupcakes. I saw some people i'd hadn't seen since I got back and that was nice. I decided to leave around 1:30 only to walk out into a crazy rain storm. I ran to my car, but the damage was done. Got home completely soaked so I dried off and hit the hay.

This was my favorite moment of the night. Thanks to Todd Edwards who took this picture at the perfect time. Only the camera can show you what people are really like.

Put it on the Board Yes!!

2008-07-19T11:06:00.000-07:00

Tonight I went to Sox game with friends from work. It was excellent! They started off the game with 8 straight hits and ended up winning 9-4. It's great being back in town to enjoy baseball. It was hard to keep track of sometimes on the Cruise ship, So it's nice to have it all around me again. I am worried about football season. The Bears are my favorite Chicago team and I'm not sure how much football we'll be able to get in October when I leave for the ship again.

After the game I headed to the IO theater to catch Guy Friends. Every week they improvise a buddy Sitcom. Tonight's theme was John Hates the French. It was a very funny show. They got extended till september, so you now all have time to check this show out. After that I went home and fell fast asleep.

Quick side-note: Today was also very special for me because I went shopping for new jeans and have now drop 6 sizes. In 5 months I have now lost about 50 pounds and it feels great!!! Gotta keep on this thing. Also Griggs doesn't think I can keep up with this blogging stuff. I'll show him.

Time to start blogging

2008-07-18T03:11:00.000-07:00

Well this post officially starts my blogging life. I know I have said in the past that I was gonna do it, But trust me this time it will be for real.

Jason(pictured above)and I went to the Midnight Showing of The Dark Knight. We got there pretty early in order to get good seats and to our surprise we only waited about 20 minutes in line before they said just go into your theater and wait. So we had prime seats. TDK was awesome! Please go see it. I'll most likely see it again on the Imax screen sometime this week. It definitely lived up to the hype surrounding it.

It's 5 am and time for sleep. I'm very happy I don't have to work today!