Jerzei Collie's journal

I logged into Indeed for today's interview with a company seeking game show hosts. I got a notice that the interview was cancelled. I thought I had been rejected at first, but I saw an e-mail asking me to re-schedule my interview. I will be interviewed on Friday afternoon instead. I updated my résumé to include my training and experience at a Denver improv theater.

The former owners of a Denver improv theater where I took classes had a show at a local bookstore last night. I also had three catering deliveries in Denver that day. Since I didn't want to drive home and back to Denver between the deliveries and the show, I stayed at a Denver hotel that day. For the first time in possibly decades, I actually had to stop a few minutes for a train (a freight train, not the light rail) at a railroad crossing while driving to the improv show.

The Bovine Metropolis Theater had been teaching and performing improv since the 1990s. Unfortunately, it closed last year due to lost revenue from the COVID-19 pandemic. The owners still host occasional shows at other venues.

I was home this time when my wines were delivered. I might bring a bottle or two to the singles Thanksgiving dinner and the improv theater's pre-Thanksgiving party so my pantry isn't as packed. Tomorrow morning, I'll need to bring the large shipping boxes out to the trash.

I did a couple of practice runs through my Friday DJ show. I kept having to change and shuffle songs in certain places in order to get the show's timing right.

This week, DoorDash changed the times when its catering deliveries are listed. I don't know if I've been bumped to a later time or I'm just not turning on the app fast enough to find available deliveries.

I just finished making the garlic mascarpone mashed potatoes for tonight's singles group dinner. The sweet potatoes are cooking in the slow cooker and should be ready by about 3:20. I had run out of butter making last night's food, so I bought more butter this morning at 7-Eleven.

The cheese ball and Nutella cheesecake I brought to the improv party were sampled by a few people. They did have to compete with several other dishes. The cheese ball was still pretty solid when I first put it out, so it took a while before it was soft enough to spread. I need to remember to make easily-handled finger food for this party instead of anything requiring tableware. Before the party, I bought a food scale to weigh the sweet potatoes at home.

UPDATE and NOTE TO SELF (7 PM): I didn't know someone else signed up last night to bring mashed potatoes, so that person's bowl got nearly all of the attention. That's okay -- just more for me over the next few days. I did get lots of compliments on my sweet potatoes. From now on, I need to scale back how many servings I make for dinners/parties. For a group of 15 people, five to seven servings should be sufficient. The potato recipes served 12-14 each.

The library where my Toastmasters meetings are held accidentally double-booked our usual meeting room today. After speaking to a few library staff members, our meeting moved downstairs to a smaller conference room. There won't be a meeting next Friday due to Thanksgiving. My local singles group is having a bowling meetup next Friday.

I sent in an RSVP for the Bovine Metropolis Theater's pre-Thanksgiving party. I'll bring a couple of appetizers (or a main dish and appetizer) since this party usually has too few of those, and an overabundance of desserts.

Just a friendly note to telemarketers: Making insincere, self-deprecating remarks before you go into your sales pitch isn't cute and doesn't make people want to give. If anything, it annoys us more. It definitely doesn't appear to be genuine when it sounds like you're reading "ha ha ha ha" off of a script. If you're that bad at emoting while reading, maybe you should give up telemarketing and go into making porn films.

Hearing the telemarketers fake laugh reminded me of a comedy routine I saw a few years ago involving a novice door-to-door vacuum salesman. The salesman read from his sales script and laughed briefly at his jokes before emitting a deep sigh. My favorite exchange from that routine:

SALESMAN (reading sales script): What brand of vacuum do you own?
WOMAN: It's a Bissell.
SALESMAN (reading again): Bissell? Hey, I voted for him! HA-HA-Ha-ha-ha...ohhhhhh!

Tonight's C.S. Tweetup took place at the Colorado Mountain Brewery near I-25 and Interquest. Looking over their menu online, I originally planned to order one of their burgers with a Boca (vegetarian) patty. When I got there, the restaurant had provided free cheese quesadillas and kettle chips with salsa, guacamole, hot wing sauce, ranch dressing and bleu cheese dressing. I had limited myself to just 470 calories during the morning and early afternoon. At the meeting, I ate the equivalent of one quesadilla (8 sections) and 3-4 servings of chips plus a few spoons of the salsa, hot sauce and ranch dressing. Using calorie estimates from online sites (and erring on the high side, as usual,) my total intake for the day was about 1,930 calories, including a protein shake an hour ago.

P.S.: I found the answer to a question that bucktowntiger  had asked on Tuesday. He and others were talking about how water in a toilet swirls in one direction in the Northern Hemisphere and the opposite direction in the Southern Hemisphere. We all pondered which direction the water would swirl if the toilet were exactly on the Equator. Many answers were given (I jokingly thought the water would attempt to go in both directions, making a heart-shaped wave in the bowl.) According to an experiment mentioned at this site, the water heads straight down.

I was invited by some of my improv friends to attend their show tonight before they headed to the Chicago Improv Festival. They were performing at the Avenue Theater on 17th Street in downtown Denver. However, I accidentally drove to the Vintage Theater on 17th Avenue which also hosts improv shows. Both theaters are about 1.5 miles apart. Luckily, Dishwater Blondes (the group featuring one of my improv teachers) was playing at the Vintage that night. The show included another group which also did some straight acting. After the first group finished each scene, it was redone with a Dishwater Blondes member substituting for a member of the other group. The DB member improvised her lines while the actor read his/her lines from the script.

I took improvisational comedy courses at the Bovine Metropolis Theater in Denver in 2004. The class' graduation show was called "I've Got Your Improv Right Here, Pal!" Last night, I and four other class members got together at the Bovine and put on a reunion show. I actually participated in more scenes this time, mainly as secondary characters. I recall being a musician whose harmonica was clogged with maple syrup (by another character who wanted to be in the band,) a next door neighbor waiting for two incompetent window washers to start on his house, and an evil Teddy Ruxpin doll. The latter scene took place in a haunted house. I originally intended to enter as a generic zombie/mummy/monster character (so I could just grunt my dialogue,) but the "victim's" suggestion of a Teddy Ruxpin doll got a huge laugh. I grunted "You've been good boy?" and the victim disarmed me by taking the cassette tape out of my belly. I was still a little nervous, and I occasionally had to prod myself by thinking "Someone said something. React to it!" All in all, it was an amazing show.

Today was a sunny day with a record-breaking high of 78 degrees! Unfortunately, one minor problem brought me down a little bit. I was in my car about a block from my condo around 4 PM when the right front tire went flat. Luckily I noticed it right away instead of after driving on it for a long distance. I couldn't get the lug nuts loose, so I had to call my dad to help me (He lives less than a mile away, but he also takes care of my mom when the nurses aren't in.) The spare tire is on now, and I'll get a new one put on tomorrow or Thursday. I'm just glad it happened near home instead of last night in Denver or along I-25.

Get ready to Twitter the stars...as we play the star-studded, big-money Twitter Game PM!

• 13:54 Getting ready for @matthewebel live concert in a few minutes (Broadcasting live at ustre.am/Xn) #
• 16:32 Heading off to dinner, then a friend's improv show in Denver. #
• 18:35 I just made it! (Can you make me one in white?) I'm at the Mercury Cafe for the show. #
• 22:29 @Pepsi I picked up some Pepsi Throwback earlier tonight. If possible, please try to extend its "limited time" in stores. Thanks! #
• 23:15 Ordered CD containing the song "The Whistler And His Dog." Some may remember its use in the NBC Bookmobile sketch on Letterman's old show. #

Automatically shipped by Old Man Periwinkle at LoudTwitter

Some of the people I took improv classes with said they were planning a reunion show in March.  I haven't performed improv or even practiced in a few years, so I hope I'm not rusty.

Last night's improv performance was fantastic! The festival was held at the Manitou Art Theater, which seats about 85 people (roughly the same as the Bovine Metropolis in Denver.) The lineup was:

• Suburban Stage Munkys (Colorado Springs)
• Dishwater Blondes (Denver; the group featuring one of my improv teachers)
• Laughing Stock Development (Long Beach, CA)
• pH Productions (Chicago)

I haven't had a lot of sleep, so my memory of part of the show is hazy at the moment. I might remember more after a nice rest this afternoon.

( Warning: Mousetraps and used feminine protection inside...NSFW )

I was originally told the show would run from 9:30-11 p.m. Instead, it ran from 10 p.m.-12:30 a.m. I considered going to Denny's or another restaurant for dinner before heading to KRCC, but I needed to go home to take my medication. I managed to take an hour-long nap at home.