TFT! House of gifts! Bye-bye 2009!

I’ve been a bad blog-daddy.

Well, rather than mush a bunch of stuff together and I’ll see if I can catch up with one or two posts, one of which I use to end 2009.

2009 ended pretty cool because one of my favorite times of the year arrived. Our annual Toys for Tots party.

A little recap…

Twelve years ago, a small group of us decided to have a winter bbq Toys for Tots party in someone’s courtyard. The deal: come to our party with one new, unwrapped toy, and drink and eat for free all night.

I think it was just an excuse to have a silly bbq in winter and drink with our friends. To our surprise it was a big hit and somehow we managed to continue doing it every year to the point we had to keep getting bigger and bigger venues to host the party and somehow became an actual charity group along the way (‘Big kids for Little Kids’).

This past December we held our 13th (!) annual toys for Tots party and like always, it was a lot of fun. This one was little more special for me because the people that help put this together is made up primarily of my Cubs season ticket holder group/friends.

Like I pointed out in an earlier entry, due to financial issues, I wasn’t able to participate in the Cubs season this year. And that meant I didn’t see most of these great group of people for almost an entire year. That was no fun.

So that’s why this year’s party was a little extra special to me, because for one night I’d get to see most of my old friends that I shared a lot of good times with.

To be honest, I was little nervous as well.

See, after I left my job a couple of years ago, the plan was to take off to L.A.

Most of these people knew that and were incredibly supportive of me.

Well, stuff happened and I wasn’t able to go. It’s been two years now and part of me wonders if they think any less of me for not taking the plunge or for not landing the sweet jobs that once seemed pretty close.

So I was a little nervous about seeing my old friends for fear of looking like a failure. But like the good friends they are, I didn’t get any shit from them and instead they made me feel very welcome and missed.

So this night was a little more special this time around because I got to see people I truly respect, love, and miss.

This is going to be OLD news to my fellow improvisors, but for you normal people…

In early December, my friend Adal contacted a bunch of us to pull a prank on our dear friend, Louie.

Louie was out of town and left Adal his keys.

So the night before he got back, about 20 of us took part in wrapping pretty much EVERYTHING in his apartment in xmas wrapping paper.

The whole thing took approximately 7 hours to complete.

Since almost every one involved was in and out helping when they could, Adal decided to tape our handiwork so that those that participated would be able to see the final result. The next day, after Louie got back, Adal, posted the video on youtube so that we could see it.

It must have been sometime around midnight.

He checked the video early the next day and it had somehow gotten about 30 hits. He was kinda surprised and figured people started viewing it early.

When he checked it again later in the day, it had about 300-plus hits.

Adal was a little more surprised and just figured a bunch of us were sending it to friends.

Within a week of the video being posted, it had gotten close to 50,000 hits and was number one in the Netherlands. (yeah, weird).

By mid-December, two weeks after it was posted, the video had surpassed 100k hits, was featured on CNN, Fark, The Huffingpost, some British media outlet is used it to show on commuter trains, and MTV had bought the video to be featured in it’s show “Pranked”.

The cool thing about this whole thing is that the video –or the prank for that matter- wasn’t made for that purpose at all.

The prank was made out of our sweet devious care for a dear friend, and the video was made as an afterthought in order to show those that participated the end result before Louie unwrapped everything.

Here is the video along with Louie’s reaction captured by his girlfriend when they got home:

His Reaction

My favorite part was Louie telling us he was going to try to unwrap things only when he needed them so he could exclaim: “It’s exactly what I was looking for!”

2009 was a roller coaster in more ways than one but despite the dips here and there, it was still a good year filled with wonderful friends, memories, lessons, and aspirations.

I would like to send a VERY special Thank You to those that helped make 2009 better than it could have been.

Analie and Natalie, my sisters Gaby and Patty, my Mom, Rafi, Holly Beaudry, Charna Halpern, Steve Krull, Tristan Tanner, Molly Hall, Laura Personick, the Tuesday night Poker gang, Min-aha Beeck, Tierza Scazzia, Emily Radke, John Cates, Bob Kulhan, Timmy Mayse, the TFT gang, Kate Duffy, Jeff Pacocha, The Resendiz Family, and last but not least, my furry kids Frosty and Lucky.

EACH and EVERY one of you had a hand in helping make 2009 a better year for me. You truly helped me endure the lows and enjoy the highs of the year. Without your love, friendship, support, kindness, help, and care, 2009 would have been a huge sack of suck.

I can’t tell you how incredibly happy –and proud- I am to have you in my life. From the bottom of my heart, Thank You for making me smile, for being there when I needed it the most, and for just being You.

Now let’s go make 2010 our bitch.

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Adapting! Happy! Sonofabitch!

Well, the Cubs season is over, and with the exception of a rooftop game, I didn’t go to a single game this season.

Along with a bunch of very fun friends, I have been a season ticket holder for what I think is 6 or 7 years (…?)

As I’ve mentioned a few times here before, I made a life changing decision by leaving my job a couple of years ago in order to push myself harder on the artistic part of my life.

So for financial reasons, a lot of sacrifices had to be made, and my season tickets were sadly one of these sacrifices.

I missed going to the games, but I missed hanging out with my fellow season ticket holders more. Like, a LOT.

My decision a couple of years ago has changed a lot of things in my life and has often left me wondering about a lot of things in my life. From what I gather, a lot of my fellow Improvisors have gone through the same and are either in the same boat as me or have had better luck getting work in our field.

But knowing I’m happy and confident in what lies ahead keeps me sane.

A couple of weeks ago after a show, we had a Q&A with new students and a question was asked regarding our decisions and life style. Fellow improviser and friend Steve Waltien gave an answer that made me smile and reassured my sanity.

He said something to the effect that he often questions decisions he’s made that have had an impact on his life. And that he’s never quite sure about will and or can happen, which can lead to more questions and doubts about what is currently going on in his life, but one thing he knows for sure is that he’s happy when doing this thing we do. That that’s the only thing he knows he has no doubts about. And that knowing that, somehow makes him feels better about his current place in life.

His answer made me feel better about the internal questions I have often found myself asking, well…myself.

So yeah, the sacrifices I’ve had to make have affected a lot of things in my life, especially my quality time with friends and family. (Because she doesn’t recognize me, my newest niece cried when I tried to hold her, and that broke my heart.) But I know one day it will get better and I will more than make up for it.

Although I like to read, I’m not good at expanding my horizons. So I know of only a limited number of authors. One of them is Dean Koontz, and he happens to be my favorite.

But last week, Mr. Koontz pissed me off and yup –I gave him his membership card to the douche-bag club.

See, a while back, Koontz decided to write a trilogy on the classic Frankenstein story and give it a modern update. His first book of the series was co-written with Kevin J. Anderson and was titled “Prodigal Son”. It was published in 2004 and it was great.

The second book was co-written with Ed Groman and titled “City of Night”. It was published in 2005 and it was great.

We were promised the third installment. 2006…nothing. 2007…nothing. 2008…nothing. No updates or anything.

I went about my Koontz reading and to date have read every book he’s written. Although I often thought about the conclusion of the Frankenstein series, I stopped trying to find out information on it.

About a month ago I was walking down an aisle in CVS and from the corner of my eye saw a paperback that caught my attention.

Book Three!!!!!

I had no idea he was working on it! And here it was! In….CVS! ….whatever! Buy it!

I was in the middle of a John Grisham book (another favorite author) and decided to finish this book before starting on the long awaited conclusion.

In the meantime I decided not to look up any info on the newest book because I didn’t want any spoilers. Then, because I was shady on the details, I decided to re-read the first two books in order to get reacquainted with the characters and the story, and to build some nice momentum.

When I was finally ready to start reading the third installment, I was a bit disappointed that Mr. Koontz didn’t include an apology or explanation for the delay at the beginning of the book. Eh…maybe it was at the end. I can wait.

That sonofabitch.

It quickly became apparent that he was writing this by himself. The characters had a different voice, a different attitude, and the story seemed to have a different arc and focus. Characters were forgotten and new one’s introduced that, in my opinion, were not necessary.

I had to finish it. Had to. But the more I read the more pissed I got. In typical Koontz fashion, the end seemed a bit rushed. For a story that had so much richness, he destroyed it by trying too hard to make it a book that he is known to write alone.

And that’s not too much of a knock on him. Again, I love his books and know his style. But I could tell that he was trying to shove his style down this story’s throat and to me, in the process left out the anticipation and scariness of the first two books, destroyed how we came to know the characters, and left out some characters that were clearly supposed to be part of the story only to be briefly mentioned in a rush ending.

Basically, you can tell he had some very good ideas that maybe weren’t accepted with his co-writers and so he decided to try to incorporate them all in one book while ignoring a lot of the main characters in the process.

I’m sure the series would have been great if he had written all of them by himself, but in my opinion he should have stayed the course and not have been so greedy.

I read somewhere that both Groman and Anderson were supposed to be part of the third installment, but things didn’t work out and Koontz went at it alone. It’s a shame because I’m sure they all could have come up with a killer conclusion.

Instead I was treated to a conclusion that although had good intentions, destroyed the story and characters I had come to know in the first two books.

He’s got a new book coming out soon and I’m sure I’ll like it. But I couldn’t let him slide on this one. Oh, no Mr. Koontz. Please take your membership card and have a good time at club douche. I’ll let you know when you’re free to leave.

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