Warm weather, vegan donuts, and creepy dudes

Guess who got a break from Michigan's cruel and unusual temperatures sub-zero temperatures with a trip to Florida?

If you say me, you're either 1. an awesome guesser or 2. a master of stating the obvious seeing as it's my blog.

I was so very happy to hop in my car, leave Michigan's snow behind, and put on my flip-flops as soon as I hit the Kentucky border. My apologies to the folks in the I-75 rest areas who had to deal with my ghostly white, severely neglected feet.

When I arrived in Jacksonville, I was excited to learn I'd be working with Richie Holliday. Not only is he super nice, but I think he kind of looks like Joey McIntyre (especially when he does NKOTB's "Right Stuff" dance, which he was kind enough to treat me to). Our MC for the weekend, A-Train, was also incredibly nice (and really funny).

Best combination ever! Now, if only they could squeeze a Taco Bell in there, I'd be in heaven.

Posing like Charlie's Angels never gets old.

Richie's partner, Amanda, also joined him for the trip. And I found out she loves vegan donuts just as much as I do. Not only that, but she researched ahead of time, and found that Jacksonville has its very own vegan donut shop. That, my friends, wins the 'Best News of 2014' award.

So, of course, we had to make a trip.

Looks like some others did, too.

That's my s'mores donut. If I ever release an album/book/law review article/any other written publication, I will be dedicating it to said donut as it was sheer perfection.

Overall, it was a really fun weekend. Nearly sold-out shows, and great company!

On Sunday, I headed up to a show in Fayetteville, North Carolina to perform at a one-nighter on my way back to Michigan. I didn't snap any pictures, but this conversation happened after my set:

Setting: bar in the back of the showroom, me doing a quick email check on my iphone.

Him: (awkwardly stares at me for a while)
Me: (pretends not to notice, gets more and more engrossed in iphone)
Him: Hey.
Me: (grimaces) Hi.
Him: You waiting for anybody?
Me: Um, no, just watching the show.
Him: Oh.
LONG PAUSE.
Him: You're pretty (awkward 'heh' sort of sound).
Me: (half-smile). Oh, thanks.
Him: What are you doing here?
Me: Just waiting to get paid...watching the headliner.
Him: Oh.
LONG PAUSE.
Him: You got a boyfriend.
Me: (quickly) Yep.
Him: How come he's not here with you?
Me: Well, I'm working.
Him: What do you mean?
Me: I was one of the comics on the show. I just got off stage 5 minutes ago.
Him: Really?
Me: Yeah...I was up there for half an hour.
Him: Hmm, I had no idea.
ANOTHER LONG PAUSE.
Him: Well, good luck to you.

He then immediately walks back to his seat in the front row, where he's sitting with his girlfriend.

Way to keep it classy, bro. Not only are you hitting on other women while you're out with your girlfriend, but you got so drunk that you can't recognize someone who you were 3 feet away from for 30 minutes.

Luckily, I didn't have any more run-ins with Mr. Forgetful Pants and was able to escape without any awkward encounters.

On Monday, I got up early in the morning, squeezed in a few miles, and am now headed back to the snow and ice.

First day of 2014!

I'm pretty sure my resolutions (flossing, taking vitamins and sleeping 8 hours per day) officially qualify me as old and boring.

I also vowed to give up my one great addiction in life: diet soda. While soda doesn't cause me to hold up a bank or curse out my family at holiday gatherings (as many additions do), I feel like I'm probably giving myself countless tumors by drinking such massive quantities of chemicals. So I decided this would be the year I'd quit it entirely. 

I'm happy to report that day 1 was a success. I didn't get the shakes or anything like that, but I did think of diet cherry Pepsi nearly every five minutes. Hopefully that part gets easier. And if not, I suppose I'll just replace it with beer.

Just like 17 million other people, I went to the gym today and did my first run of 2014. And also like them, my gym-going won't make it past February.

I also had some delicious vegan sushi.

Happy 2014! 

Happy 2014!

2013 brought two half marathons, the start of law school at Michigan State, trips to Nicaragua, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Alaska, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Texas, and shows in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Illinois, Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama, Minnesota, Nevada, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Kansas, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Montana, Wyoming, Virginia and South Dakota. This year contained not much sleep, but many adventures! Here's hoping 2014 brings both. Happy New Year! 

Christmas, casinos and cookies

The day after Christmas, I headed up north to perform at the Kewadin Casino in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. That was my first stop of three (the others were Wausau, Wisconsin and Duluth, Minnesota). The roads weren't terrible on the way up, I had a pretty fun show, and I managed not to lose any money gambling.  Oh, and like I always do when I work there, I scored a vegan pizza. So wins all around!

I worked with Kris Shaw on the three shows, who I just love.  Not only is he really unique and funny, but he's also a total sweetheart.  That's him performing for a Christmas tree at our show in Wausau:

Turns out, pine trees are actually pretty good laughers.  Who knew?

Not only did we stay at a super fancy hotel (where our gig was held), but we also went to the downtown skating rink after the show.

The venue:

Grace at its finest. Sochi 2014, here I come.

After leaving Wausau, I was so excited to get to Duluth.  Sadly, it was not the most scenic drive up there.

I was pumped to get to Duluth because not only do I love performing at Dubh Linn's Pub, but one of my favorite people lives there.

That's my friend Tim, who is one of most awesome people on the face of the earth.  He does sound at Dubh Linn's, and the first time I worked there, we had a really long conversation and became great friends after that.

We had beer, chips and salsa, and more great conversation before my show and then got updated on each other's lives after it.  He also gave me a bunch of homemade wine that he made for Christmas.  And I made him vegan chocolate chip cookies. 

Just because I think the recipe is so great (I swear, even Tim said the same thing without me bribing him), I've decided to share it. Enjoy the chocolatey goodness! 

• 1 cup margarine (or butter)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup Silk Original or Vanilla soy or almondmilk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 12 oz semisweet chocolate chips
  1. Preheat oven to 350°F. 
  2.Using an electric mixer or sturdy wooden spoon, cream margarine (or butter) and sugars until light and fluffy. 
  3.Slowly add Silk, mix well, then add the vanilla. 
  4.Combine the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and stir to blend. Fold in the chocolate chips. 
  5.Drop by teaspoon onto buttered or parchment-lined cookie sheets. 
  6.Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Christmas!

I had a lovely Christmas, and to those who celebrate it, I hope you did as well.

It was nice to spend a couple days with family without thinking about studying for finals. However, because I spent the end of November/beginning of December studying for finals, that left A LOT of last minute Christmas shopping.  Luckily, the lines weren't terrible, and I didn't have to fight anyone for the last (insert name of a popular, in-demand item here).

Anyway, some pictures of the festivities (which would not be complete without food pictures, of course):

Meet vegan spinach artichoke dip (AKA my new reason for living):

These may or may not be the reason I gained 7 pounds over the holidays.

Why, yes, that is a dryer.  Leave it to my family to turn anything into a bar.

Keeping it classy on my trip to the laundry room.

My dinner plate:

And, now, onto the family pics:

Wyatt looking quite dapper.

Rushing to Iowa

Immediately after my last final, I grabbed Drew (well, not literally; in my Torts class, I learned that's called assault), hopped in the car with him, and drove seven hours to Iowa to perform at a show that evening.  Yeah, I don't so much recommend getting up at six am, taking a grueling four-hour final and then flooring it for the entire afternoon/evening before performing (unless you have a super powerful bladder as we didn't even have time for bathroom breaks).

Throughout the drive, my heart was racing the entire time as I knew that if we hit traffic or construction or snow, we likely wouldn't make it on time.  Luckily, the only thing of interest that we did pass was this:

Spotted on our drive.

I'm happy to report that we did indeed make it on time! I checked into the hotel, got ready, and headed over to the show.  After the show, Drew and I celebrated being done with the semester with this GIANT vegan pizza:

Originally, we bought it thinking it would last us four or five meals. Nope, it lasted one evening.

I had a lot of fun at the shows, and during the day, we ate vegan sushi and watched movies (specifically, American Hustle, which was great).

Behold the deliciousness!

It was so icy in Iowa (How icy was it? It was so icy in Iowa that rappers were moving there! Heyyy-oooo!) that we had to scrape the car every time we ran into the store for over five minutes.  Luckily, Drew helped with that.

Getting reacquainted with his Midwestern roots.

Despite the cold, it was an awesome week!  Now, onto that last minute Christmas shopping...

I made it!

Well, I survived FINALS! I think the past four months (the time I've been in law school) were the longest of my life, and the past couple weeks were definitely the hardest. I seriously don't wish law school finals on anyone.  Well, maybe on people who have too many items in the express lane because they're annoying, but nobody else.

The good news is: my finals are over!  The better news is: I only managed to gain five pounds due to stress-eating. I think that averages out to about one pound per day of studying, but still. The bad news: bah, who has time for bad news? I'm still basking in the thank-everything-holy-I'm-on-winter-break glory!

 

During finals, I also got to perform some really fun shows. I worked at the Funny Stop in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio with two hilarious comics: Juanda Mayfield and Rob Ward.  Bonus: Juanda is an extreme couponer and taught me some of her secrets. Between my love for budget travel and her tips on how to get free cosmetics, we're thinking of joining forces into one money-saving duo that can't be reckoned with.  2014, perhaps?  

Ohio may or may not have had it out for my poor, little car:

 

Its weather was no match for my feet, however.  Allow me to introduce you to my make-shift snow boots:

 

Not only did I finish finals, work with some great comics and nearly eat my weight in Swedish Fish (hence, the aforementioned five pounds), but I even managed to be a big ol' winner. I'll try not to spend it all in one place.