Day 1: Blastoff!

Today was the first day of camp. My mother and I left the apartment super early to get on the L train down to Second City. Both of us being the compulsive early type we arrived over an hour early. So in traditional Grace and Mary take Chicago style we sat and had ice tea at Starbucks. After waiting for what seemed like an eternity my friend, Ann, arrived. Ann and I then headed upstairs and Mary went her merry way.
This is the first time and session ever of Second City having Advanced Comedy camp. They referred to us as the "Apollo" of the camp. There are nine kids in my class, this is because they want us to become a well oiled ensemble (such as the ensembles that perform at Second City). Ann is the only person I knew in my class (however, we do have three friends who are doing the normal session again). There are four girls, including myself, and five guys. Two other people are from out of town, however they both have lived in Chicago when they were younger. One of them currently lives in Iowa City (woo! Go Iowa!), and the other lives in California. So far our group has been getting to know each other but we already seem to work really well together.
To start our morning we did improv. Most of this class was us dusting off our improv skills and learning how we work together. Our improv teachers' name is Jeff and he is super loud and funny. Next we had lunch which my class spent as not just time to eat, but also time to bond. After that we went to sketch. Our sketch teacher's name is Anthony and is currently directing a show at Second City. He is super cool, smart, and of course hilarious. We talked a lot about how we should write about things that we care about and send a message with our work. We also reviewed some basics of sketch writing.
The last part of the day was spend doing stand up. I have never done standup and am completely terrified of it. The teacher Bryan (side note- also super cool and funny), never asked us if we have done stand up before and I think most, if not all, kids in my class have besides me. Thats a little scary to say the least. However, we hit the ground running doing an activity that ultimately lead to us improving a stand up routine on why we got a certain tattoo that our partner drew on us (mine was a classy croissant thanks to Ann). It was scary but fun and I am excited to learn more.
After class, my mom and I picked a bagel sandwich place on our list of places to eat and headed there. My navigational skills were a bit off and we got off at what I thought was the right L stop, walked five blocks to the restaurant, only to realize there was another L stop right by the restaurant. Lucky for us we earned those bagels after the walking. They were delicious, I got a tuna salad one, and my mother got a vegetable one. We also stopped and looked through a boutique by our apartment (all the clothing was suspiciously short, was it a petite store? I do not know). Then we headed back to the apartment to relax, avoid torrential down pour, and get work done.

M&Ms - My day wasn't nearly as exciting as Grace's.  After leaving her at Second City,  I went down to the Magnificent Mile and checked out a few stores where I have had luck in the past.  Grace and I love deals so I did some initial scouting of a few stores we will go to later in the week.  I then ended up hitting a sub shop that I love that we don't have back in Iowa - Potbelly's.  In the past 2 years, I have fallen in love with their mushroom melt and though I meant to return to the apartment and eat, I caved.  Mushroom melt with hot peppers - Yum!  Then I returned on the L to the apartment and spent some quality time reading a book that my son Jacob recommended to me dealing with Jesus and religion.  My son knows me.  I am loving the book!  I brought an eclectic stack of books to read while I am here and hope to get most of them read.  In addition, our lovely apartment is full of great books (as was our apartment last year).  What a great thing to have available!  There are a number of books here that I have read or want to read.  Grace and I were browsing the titles last night and when she saw several we both have read and enjoyed she commented that she felt comfortable staying at a place where the owner has great taste!  Back to some reading now and then a possible hike to a frozen custard place in the neighborhood for a late night treat!

As my mother mentioned we may go get some custard later. But as a little wrap up I just want to say how happy I am to be back at Second City. The environment is the best ever. It is so so so lovely and encouraging and no one, no one, is ever negative. I can not describe how great it is to be in such an uplifting environment. Also extreme joy being reunited with Ann, one of my best friends. I am so happy being in the city I love and can not explain my excitement.

Yes And,
Grace