Myrtle Beach!

The Carolina Comedy Club in Myrtle Beach is one of my absolute favorite clubs. Not only are you right near the beach, but they have some of the best staff I've ever met in my life. A lot of them have become friends over the years, which makes me feel so lucky.

When I was pregnant, I figured it would be no big deal to simply bring the babes with me to my gig, and seeing as my mom and I love to travel together (see some of our trips here, here, and here), I thought I'd ask her to come with as well. Then, she could watch the baby during my shows, and we could adventure during the day.

That's kind of how it went.

We decided to fly down there, and the baby did pretty well on the flight, especially given that we had to wake her up at 2 am to get ready so we could make the 6 am departure. She slept most of the first one, and even dug the three hour lay-over in LaGuardia (since there are no direct flights to Myrtle Beach from Detroit). She was a bit fussy on the second flight, we but not terrible. Shout-out to Spirit Airlines for giving us our own row each time! They might charge for every little thing including carry-ons, but the flight attendants were so nice in giving us an empty row at the back as to not disturb the other passengers.


Made it! After nearly 12 hours of travel on 2 hours of sleep, I arrived!

The shows were tons of fun! I worked with Andrew Rivers, who I hadn't seen since I performed with him in Iowa. I didn't get a picture, unfortunately. But, trust me, he was there.



I also got to see my good buddy, Dennis Bellamy. Not only is he one of my closest friends, but he's also a super hilarious comedian! I first met him when he was open miking, and he has come so far and is kicking royal butt now. Again, I forgot a picture with him, too, but I did take this one of him on stage.



On Friday, one of my good friends from high school and former debate partner's (yep, nerd alert right here) dad came to the show. I had no idea he had moved down to South Carolina, so it was great to catch up with him.



During the day, three generations of Brindles checked out Murrell's Inlet, and we also explored the boardwalk on the beach.

Ocean in the background. Not a bad view, eh?

Debating about whether I need one of these for my house.

Murrell's Inlet.

And what trip would be complete without checking out some local vegan fare? This time, we went to Bombay on the Beach (an excellent Indian buffet) and Kindbelly (this is the tofu scramble there).


On Saturday, we went to the women's march.

Baby's first protest.

So excited to run into these awesome ladies!

We showed up without signs seeing as we flew in and couldn't really fit posterboard in our carry-ons. Luckily, there were several women who gave us signs.

This march was particularly special because 2017's women's march marked two days after I found out I was going to be a mom.

The flights home were pretty uneventful, although definitely exhausting as traveling with a three-month-old just is. When we finally made it back to Michigan, we took a quick trip to Taco Bell, then my bed and I had a lovely reunion.

Performing in Canada and VLOGGING!

So, I'm trying out this whole vlogging business. And I made a video about my adventure to Ontario, Canada this past weekend. If you'd like to watch, it's here:

Flat tire in -28!

This weekend was...well, an adventure.

But, first: a bit of a back story.

On Thanksgiving weekend, I traveled to Greensboro, North Carolina to perform at the Comedy Zone down there (it was my first time there, and it was such a beautiful club). No more than thirty minutes after my arrival at the hotel, one of the other hotel guests didn't see my car and backed into it in the parking lot. Shout out to the guy who did it since he had the decency to knock on my door, apologize, and give me his insurance information.

He ended up causing $3,000 worth of damage, but I was able to drive the car home (insert sigh of relief here). So, upon returning to Michigan, I took it to a local body shop to get fixed. Luckily, the guy's insurance company covered a rental car, which I was able to pick up at the body shop.

When I picked up the rental, I immediately noticed it had a low tire indicator light on. So, the mechanics tried to fix it, but couldn't identify which tire was triggering the light. Thus, they gave me another rental, and I was on my way.

Okay, and now onto the main part of the story.

On Friday, I had a gig in Brimley, Michigan. For those unfamiliar, it's in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, right on Lake Superior. I've had a few adventures there before, and I got to work with my friend Dave Dyer, so I was pretty pumped to be playing there. Oh, and did I mention you get to eat at the buffet for free? Because that may have been the part I was looking forward to the most.

About seven miles outside of Brimley, I noticed my tire light went on. Thinking it was due to the change in weather (it was, after all, -17 degrees there), I continued onto the gig. Well, first I called two friends to freak out.



After the show, Dave agreed to look at my tire. As we approached my car, we could both see it was completely flat. Panic quickly ensued as I had to return to the lower peninsula the next day for another show, and there were no Enterprise (the company I rented from) rental car locations even remotely close to where we were.

Dave was so kind throughout the whole situation. Not only did he offer to change my tire for me, but he also calmed me down when, after being on the phone with Enterprise for nearly an hour (my phone cut-out four different times, necessitating me to tell my story to three different representatives, none of whom grasped that I couldn't just bring the car into a nearby Enterprise location, which is the only thing they advised me to do) they told me it would be three more hours before they could even send someone out to put the spare on (which, still didn't help much since I couldn't make it all the way home on the donut as I was over 250 miles away).

Finally, I pitched the idea of me just fixing the tire myself. Well, not myself, but I mean, bringing it into a shop and getting the work done out of pocket. The Enterprise representative agreed.

Luckily, the guys that put the spare on showed up around midnight as opposed to 2 am, which is what I originally was told. By this point, it was -28 windchill, but they got the new tire on quickly, and they also told me there was, miraculously, a tire shop in Brimley!

What? A town that appears to only have a post office, gas station, and grocery store, actually had a tire shop? I couldn't believe it!



The next morning, I called the place before it even opened. And miraculously again, someone answered. I explained my plight of having to be downstate later that day, and the employee said "bring it on in; I'll get it looked at right away."

So, I drove three whole miles over to the shop, and $15 later, I was out of there with a patched tire!

Although, I'm still pretty mad at Enterprise seeing as the tire shop folks said "none of these tires are safe to drive on snow with." Apparently, they were all worn and none of them were in good shape.

But, alas, I made it home!

HUGE shout-out to the awesome employees at Mark's Tire in Brimley, Michigan. And a big thank you to whatever tire angel was watching over me that day.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I rang in 2018 with my good friend, Norm Stulz, at the Holly Hotel. This was our second year in a row playing the Holly on New Year's Eve. It was a blast as always.

I didn't really make any resolutions this year as I often break them anyway, so what's the point? Heck, I stopped at Meijer for soy ice cream on the way home from the show. So, good thing "losing weight" wasn't officially a resolution as I broke it exactly 73 minutes into the new year. Instead, I made a list of goals. Some personal, some professional. I should probably write them down on here to keep myself accountable, but they're probably pretty boring, so I figured the notes section in my iPhone was the best place to leave them.

2017 was pretty incredible, and I can only hope 2018 compares. This past year included:

-a new baby (despite wanting children for a long, long time, I still can't believe I'm a mom)!!!!

Baby announcement that we never ended up posting. But, we printed out a fancy sign and posed for pictures in 90 degree heat, so I'm posting it here now since I figured I had to do something with it. 

-surviving and passing the bar exam (something I really don't care to repeat anytime soon), and later getting sworn in the State Bar of Michigan

-getting to knock some other states off my bucket list of performing in all 50 (Washington, New York, and California are now checked off)



-traveling to Australia and New Zealand

-more New Kids concerts (P.S. how could it not?)



-vacations in Chicago, Toronto, and San Diego

-receiving the honor of performing at the Brew HaHa

I'm truly thankful for all of my experiences this year, and so very excited about this coming year!