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!