We're tied up in the financial crisis

We are not Wall Street high rollers. We do have some savings. And have some loans of the student variety. Our savings is with WaMu, i.e. the largest bank to ever fail, and our Student Loans are with friggin' Sallie Mae!!!! So far, we've not felt any waves from it. Probably because our wee monies are a mere drop in the bucket of this mess. I just hope everything straightens out. Not just the financial crisis, but pretty much all of the wacky unrest that we have in our world. I guess we'll just see how it turns out. I'll let you know if we find ourselves in Hooverville cooking a can of beans over an oil drum fire with fingerless gloves and a newspaper quilt.

I'm going to be warm

I bought my big, fur trimmed, down-filled, warm to -15º coat on Saturday. And it was, like 80 degrees and I was wearing shorts while i tried it on. Hope i don't need it for a long time. Before we moved, I packed all of our jackets and coats in one of those space-saver bags. the ads say that the clothes come out just as you put them in. welll........ not quite. they were super, SUPER wrinkled, so we had to take them down to the cleaners to get them pressed out. I wasn't going to mess with doing anything with wool coats. my luck, they'd end up doll clothes. I've done to several sweaters over the years because I'm notoriously lazy at laundry.

anywhoo. should be set for the winter blast as far as gear goes. I still think I need a new hat or two and I may need to knit myself a new scarf. also need to get some long johns.

It's been so beautiful this summer and even today it's just perfect. I wonder what it's going to be like during the winter. I'll let you know dear readers, I'll let you know.

Chicken Head

Ladies and Gents, I give you one of the funniest things we ever done.

Chicken Hat.

We put this hat on lily last night and it was hilarious. You can ask my sister. She called right after we'd gotten it on and we were dying laughing.

We thought it would be a little more of a challenge, due to Lily's seemingly overdeveloped sense of dignity, so we've been plotting and planning all week.

Last night, we were watching the Wheel of Fortune on the TV and she was curled up very relaxed in my lap. I grabbed the chicken hat off the side table. We paused. Matt gave the go sign and went to get the camera. This was the moment. The time was now. So I carefully slipped it over her ears and velcro-ed it under her chin and.....

No. Big. Whoop.

she didn't mind a bit. not at all. her body language and breathing remained the same. she didn't care that this foreign object was on her head. And never minds having her picture taken. It was a triumph.

I think we're going to try to put it on again and see if she'll walk around in it.

If you know lily, you know she's got a 'tude. I'm blowing her tough girl cover and calling her out on the interwebs as a giant cat nerd. and I love her.

there's more pics on FLICKR

I'm sore

I had my first "clown" class on monday and it wasn't at all what I thought it was going to be, but I think it will be good for me. I've never really taken that acting class where you're asked to expose your soul. I pretty much got through college being able to pick up a script, develop a character and make people believe what I was giving them. It's been working out pretty well for me. Never had that soul-bearing, emotion-wrenching "I don't want to see you act, I wan to see you be" type of thing.

From the first class, that may be what this is. Which is fine. This may get a little "actory" for my non-actor readers, but bear with me.

We started out with a pretty standard name game - when someone touches you, you say someone's name and when you're name is called, you touch someone. it's pretty much a set-up for failure, especially for me. and that's the way they wanted it. when we messed up, we were instructed to die a "$20 death" I was TERRIFIED! I'm not the most confident at off-the-cuff acting and when I messed up, i pretty much froze. The teachers were egging me on and asking me "where are you right now" and "are you breathing" and everyone's looking at me and I tear up. Yes ladies and gents, I wept about 30 minutes into my first class. But, everyone was very supportive and it was the kind of environment where i was appreciated for my willingness to open myself up and, in fact, at the end of class talk, the teachers thanked me for showing people something "real" whatever that means. I assure you, it was not a choice. I was on the spot and I wept. There were other trust exercises - what they call "risk" exercises, some of which included falling and hoping people would catch you. I never hit the ground, but some people did. hard. there was also a "carrying" exercise where each person had to carry every other person in the class and you had to be carried by every other person in the class. very strange. very tiring. and exactly why i'm as sore as I am. I carried 13 human beings. not always by myself, but still!

So, the reason i think it's good for me is that it is WAY outside of my comfort zone and will definitely be a challenge for me, but in a safe environment, I hope to let myself go. Also, I do think too much. In acting, I guess, but really more in life. I'm a big time worrier, a big time planner and I hope this might help me let go. we shall see.

fall's coming

last week when our friend youle was here, it was, like 90 degrees - certainly the hottest couple of days in a row we've had this summer. so we had the AC cranking and the power went out, like 8 times in two days and walking around sight-seeing, while still nice, wasn't as nice as it would have been a week prior.

then, seriously, the day after she left the temp. dropped 20 degrees. It was the remnants of gustav and was rainy and gross, but it was cool! now, we're having lows in the 40's each night! 40's!!! that's texas winter weather! it is cool and crisp and lovely, though. and I got an L.L. Bean catalog and am daydreaming of new winter warm things - down coat, fur-lined slippers, sweaters, sweater-vests. all sounds dreamy. check in with me in Jan.

we got matty a laptop. It was instigated by the thought that he would be away from home for 6 weeks and would certainly need something to keep in touch and to write while he's out and about, but also, there are times where i need to be working on my lappy and he is inspired to write or is in the process of writing where we have to COMPROMISE!!! Now, we don't have to worry about that any more :) Plus it has a built in webcam so we're going to get that figured out before he leaves so we can video chat while he's away.

I start my clown class with 500 clown on monday night. I'm nervous and excited. really have no idea what i'm getting myself into, but I'm sure that it'll be fun. I'll let you know.

long time no...

sorry peeps, it's been an active couple of weeks for the Chicago Lyles. First, my cousin steve was in and we were surprised with spare tickets to the cubs game and had a blast with he and his buddies from high school. Always great to see my cousins and seems like moving up here makes it happen :)

But before that, even, Friday the 22nd I got a call from Apple Tree Theatre in Highland Park, IL, where matt was set to start working their box office on Sept. 3 (tomorrow) Well, their Marketing person left suddenly and they mentioned it to matt and he said that i had experience in the area and then he called me and told me to send my resume. So, they asked me to start on Monday the 25th. And I did! It's part-time/temporary/see-if-it-works-out, but they really need someone to help them get the first show of the season off the ground. There are a lot of things to learn about the theater and about chicago theaters in general, but Matt and I are working together....again! And I'm excited about it.

Then on Thursday, our dear friend, one miss jennifer youle came to visit. So we had a busy and fun weekend doing some touristy stuff and even found a winery about 30 minutes away that was great. There are actualy vinyards in IL, too, but they are about 2 or 3 hours out - near the Iowa border, so walking through wine fields will have to wait. But this being my 4th winery tasting sampling deal, I really like the set up. I mean, you get to taste yummy and different wines and by the end you've got a nice solid buzz on. This house was also a B&B, so matt and I both thought it would be a good getaway sometime.

The 'burbs are funny. since they grew up as places for people who work in chicago to live, they don't really have their own downtown areas (some do I'm sure) but they really did start as what they call "bedroom communities" That interesting. most of the suburbs outside of dallas used to be small towns really outside of dallas, till dallas grew and met them at their borders.

We went to the John Hancock building and did the observatory tour - narrarated by chicago's own (or at least Northwestern University's own) David Schwimmer. And he does present a shameless plug of his theater company - Lookingglass. But I think I would have too...

And in other news, Matt will be heading back to Dallas for three weeks in October, followed by three weeks in New York doing a play off-off-broadway written by former Dallas Morning News Theater critic, Tom Sime. I'll miss him terribly, of course, but's it's a great part for him and a very exciting, "when do you ever get to do this sort of thing" opportunity. Details to follow

so sorry, it's been so long. Hope I haven't lost any of my faithful few readers. I'll get back on track, don't you worry!