recent escapades: Santa fe

Willis (Sears) Tower gift shop, April 2010

Guy buying t-shirt: "Primm? Are you by any chance related to Andy Primm?"

Me: "Not that I know of!"

Guy buying t-shirt: "He's the drummer in my band...."

That's pretty much the conversation beginnings with dear friend Alex Maryol. Since we were all intrigued at this unique last name common bond, Andy Primm became my Facebook friend shortly after. In spite of moves and other life happenings, we've all kept up throughout the past almost 2 years, and the subject of visiting Santa fe has come up on many occasions. Three weekends ago I finally took a flight to the Land of Enchantment. 

In preparation for the trip, I listened to "Santa fe" from the Newsies, "Santa fe" from Rent, and every other Santa fe song I could find in Spotify. That's what you get when you mix music nerd with travel freak. Since I really had no clue what existed out west, I decided to google "best things to do in Santa fe"(oh so original), so I had some sort of idea if my amazing tour guide asked me what I felt like doing. I really didn't need anything that I looked up, though. Alex and Andy showed me the perfect weekend in Santa fe. 

As I peered down from my window seat on the plane as we drew nearer to Albuquerque, I was in awe. I had never seen deserts before, and the mountains were completely different than the mountains on the east coast. It was gorgeous. 

Shortly after I had landed, Alex picked me up, and I was ecstatic that I was getting to see him after almost a year since he had last been in Chicago. We were both starving, so he drove me through Nob Hill, which is pretty much ABQ's arts district. We had a delicious lunch at Flying Star Cafe, coffee at Satellite, looked at adobe houses, then began driving to Santa Fe. We listened to his fantastic upcoming album,  I spotted my first tumbleweed, caught up on life, and he pointed out special places along the way. 

After we arrived, we met up with Andy that evening for dinner at Maria's. This was the first time I had actually met Andy in person. Immediately I noticed crazy similarities between us. We HAVE to be long lost cousins. I experienced red and green chile for the first time there and learned that if you want both on your dish, you order "Christmas". Tasty! Afterwards, we got to see Andy play in a gig at the La Fonda Hotel with musicians Don and Pete. Every single time I thought of La Fonda, I never failed to crack up. You know why? Lafawnduh from Napoleon Dynamite. At the La Fonda, I loved seeing Andy play. He's a great artist overall, and I love his stage presence. Alex got to sit in one the songs and drum, which was a treat for everyone. A favorite reoccurring moment was being introduced by my full name and seeing the looks on their friends' faces thinking briefly Andy had eloped (Once again--the unique last name we share). Later that evening, we stopped by another hotel to hear Alex's friend Matthew Andrae perform. He was so much fun to talk to and his set was incredible. While we were watching, Alex told me about a youtube video titled Sweet Celine that boosted his career amazingly. Watch it!

The next morning started off perfectly. We met Andy for Breakfast burritos at Tia Sophia's which is a Maryol restaurant now run by his brother. The burritos surpassed my high expectations! ;) Alex's brother joined us at the table, too, which was lots of fun. While at breakfast, Andy gave me a signed copy of his album "Mercenary"--so sweet!

In Tia Sophia's menu

Afterwards, we strolled around the Plaza, stopped in a photography gallery--there's art galleries everywhere! It's so cool!-- looked at beautiful copper and turquoise jewelry (resisting the urge to buy it all), then walked up the hill to the Cross of the Martyrs where there was a great view of the city. The hill was quite inspirational, because it was there when we 3 decided that we need to form a band and travel the world. Step one: lock ourselves away for a weekend and write music.  We felt the need for a snack at Rio Chama before our next adventure which was driving up into the mountains close to the ski basin. Breathtaking views. 

Post-mountain time, Alex and I met up with his family at El Meson, a wonderful Tapas restaurant. The occasion was celebrating his parents birthdays the week prior. They are all adorable, and it was such a pleasure getting to have dinner with them. 

One of my requests for the weekend was to view the stars, since you never see stars living in the city. Alex took me to his parents' gorgeous home where we climbed up a spiral staircase to the rooftop. I don't ever remember seeing that many stars ever, and I for sure hadn't experienced that much silence in the surroundings in such a long time. There were 3 shooting stars and even a little bit of coyote sounds! On our way to the star-viewing, he showed me his church, and the Priest just happened to be checking the mail after a trip, and he let us inside to view it! It looks like it's straight out of the Greek countryside. So very beautiful. 

The next morning was departure morning, and we had saved experiencing the cinnamon rolls at Frontier for then. Frontier's cinnamon rolls and orange juice were hyped up by everyone, so I was especially happy to try them. Those plus a breakfast burrito=YUM. It was the best departure meal. 

New Mexico was pure delight, and I'm so glad I got to visit Alex and finally meet Andy. One day when it's warmer I hope to be back for hiking in the mountains fun if our band-formation-locking away and writing doesn't happen before then... ;)

                                                                                                   

recent escapades: holidays, auditions, improv

A random recent discovery of mine has been the fact that I enjoy sipping coffee and espresso drinks out of Caribou coffee cups as opposed to Starbucks cups. The reason? The dark brown lids of Caribou cups equals a sense of warmth, whereas the white lids on Starbucks cups are neutral but cooler and don't give you that warmth. Also, when your drink splatters out of a Starbucks lid, it's very visible afterwards and looks sloppy. It all made sense when I thought back to college days. Our university had light pink and light blue trays, and Rebecca and I would always get the color that coordinates with our outfit, until one of her art teachers/friends stated that he picks whatever color suits the food to be served. If the food is hot, he picks pink (warm color). If it's a cold dish, he picks blue (cool color). Makes sense, right?
     I say this every single month, but it's crazy that it's February already. In my last post I spoke of an upcoming show with the G&S Opera Company, but a few weeks ago, I withdrew from the show for a couple of other upcoming performance opportunities. One outcome from auditions since then is a role I just heard back about last night. I got the role Betty Schaefer in Sunset Boulevard at JPAC at Morton College. I'm extremely excited!! It's my very first supporting role in Chicago! JPAC is the theatre that also put on Phantom and Man of la Mancha, and a good number of the Sunset cast members were in both of those shows with me. It'll be a lovely reuinion!
      
    Pre-holiday Chicago highlights: Zoo lights at the Lincoln Park Zoo with my friend Denise. A Saturday filled with Mexican food then ice-skating at Navy Pier's Winter Wonderfest with Denise and Jill. This city is a gorgeous one to be in during the Holidays.

 
   It was a blessing to be able to spend a couple of weeks with my family for the Holidays! I roadtripped to sweet Carolina with a friend from highschool who now lives in Milwaukee. Of course we listened to every single Carolina song I could find on the drive down.  My family was originally not going to exchange presents this year since our gift to eachother was going on a little cruise, but our little brother Jonathan spent all of his birthday money on gifts for each of us. We HAD to get gifts then! As expected, we were getting stressed out of our minds going Christmas Eve eve shopping, but we all were please with the outcome. On Christmas day we hopped in the van and roadtripped to Miami, picking up Matthew along the way in Orlando. It was the first time we didn't feel disgusting in all of our "First day on the cruise" photos since we had a buffer day and weren't driving through the night then hopping aboard like we have done in the past. I highly recommend buffer days. We enjoyed the sights of Miami, then of Nassau, and Great Stirrup Cay which is Norwegian Cruise Line's private Island. I brought back a starfish and 2 beautiful seashells that I bought from "an island man" that "worked me a great deal". 
Our most favorite moment of the cruise was getting to see comedian Rich Purpura. The very first evening on the ship, Mom, Rebecca, Matthew, and I were enjoying hot tea and cookies on the top deck and reminiscing of our favorite comedian ever, Rich Purpura, that we saw perform on a Disney ship. When we got back to our cabin I read the paper which tells us the next day's activities, and I pretty much freaked out. Rich Purpura was on our ship and was doing a show the next evening!!  We made sure to get front row seats, we laughed the hardest out of everyone, he loved us "Carolina girls", and Rebecca even got pulled up on stage for a "magic trick." We met him afterwards and expressed our fan-ship, and he signed two DVD's and gave them to us. Later onAfter the cruise, we stopped back in Orlando to have dinner with my aunt and uncle! It's always fantastic seeing them. After New Years excitement, and a delicious lasagna meal made by my brother, Matthew, I had to say goodbye to my family and return to Chicago. Those moments are always tough.

                                
        The evening of my arrival back in Chicago helped lighten everything back up, because we started Improv level C. It continues to be such great fun. Our teacher was in Level A with Tina Fey back in the day! We all LOVE him. Another one of the many cool things about him is that his son goes to the same school as opera singer Samuel Ramey's child does, and he sees him all of the time.
I had my very first improv performance recently! A few of us Second City female students did a workship with the Sirens, an all female improv group, and then opened for their show that same evening. It was such a different experience than doing a theatrical show. You had no idea when/if the audience was going to react. It's definitely a whole new dynamic to get used to, but it was very exciting. Our first class performance will be February 24, which most of us are highly anticipating. ;)

Next escapade posting? Santa fe!