Improv Everywhere

...is a really great group to get involved with for a few reasons:

1- They pull hilarious large scale pranks all over NYC. Nothing scandalous or illegal is involved- it's more along the lines of "once I wondered what would happen if I did xy&z" or "once I did this weird thing for psych class in college to find out what the reaction would be," only the activities are way more fun than running screaming through The Met or staring someone down in the library.

2- The people involved are, in general, just the right brand of lunacy-meets-awesomeness, and even if you go alone (which I have been known to do), you are sure to make a friend or two.

3- It's all free!

I've been taking part in IE stunts for a couple years now, and have had the time of my life. From de-pantsing on the subway (which, after 6 or 7 years, is now at the scale of a national holiday) to freeze-framing in Grand Central to participating in a giant game of twister in a plaza downtown, the antics are always jovial, light-hearted, and loads of fun. As a mid-western parent might say, "Good, clean fun!" And it's not often that something this clean is actually this much fun, people. Let's face it- at this stage in our lives, "fun" is generally a little more scandalous than The Little Rascals.

Last night hundreds of people braved freezing rain to span the entire length of the Brooklyn Bridge, in the dark, for the purpose of "doing the wave" with flash photography. It was cold, it was wet, and it would have been miserable- except for the collective thought that when else would you EVER get the chance to hang out on the Brooklyn Bridge with hundreds of other people, taking pictures in the dark to create a giant light show for the guys filming from the Manhattan Bridge? There were literally so many people that came out in the crap weather- all of us completely unknowing what the event would be, going on blind faith that it would be rather awesome- so many people that, when standing in a close single file line on the bridge, we had to double loop a second line of folks because there wasn't room for everyone.

I don't know if I did a good idea of describing the ultimate fun-ness of Improv Everywhere, but if this sounds like your cup of tea, go here and sign up for their mailing list:

improveverywhere.com

The Good Life- on a budget

It's come to my attention that someone *gasp!* possibly even more than one someone, reads this little rag and actually finds what I have to say entertaining. Yikes. I'm not letting the adoration of a few random fans get to my head, I know I'm no literary genius- but the truth is, I've let my quest to make money off Google Ads lapse waaay too long. I guess my excuse for being away from the blogosphere is that I was simply spending way too much time 1)trying to find jobs so I could get money, and 2) trying not to spend the little money I do have.

Anyhoo, I might be better at sharing humorous stories than I am at imparting money-saving wisdom, but I'll try to do both. It might work. It might not. I make no promises, people.

But since I've been away so long and am sooo boringly out of shape, I'll steal a nugget of wisdom from Susannah and tell you to READ THIS ARTICLE NOW.

Not only does it give some sound advice for "Enjoying the good life on a budget," but it completely explains my entire raison d'etre. After years of almost-daily existential dilemmas, I finally came to the conclusion, as I was sitting in a dirty plaza in Florence Italy, that I might not have a "purpose," per se, but that maybe I should pursue adventure, and embrace my wanderlust, and see the world! and that would suffice. I think seeing the world is a pretty decent purpose. Certainly more preferable to me than sitting in a dim office making lots of money. If I had to pick between being a broke-ass artist and writing this crappy blog, and putting on a suit and sensible pumps to trek to an office where the windows don't even open to make loads of money, FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE, I am pretty sure I would go with the broke-ass bit. I can't handle another "subway ride of doom" on a regular basis, especially since I ran for the 1 train and immediately sat in a puddle of liquid- water! water, people! it just *had* to be water... - yesterday. No mas!

So one last bit of advice for today: look before you leap. Seriously.