Big moving day in Boston. I have been told that almost 60% of people move this month. This is also the time when even less destitute people go dumpster diving, or rather, street corner diving cause there are very few dumpters here and everyone leaves their garbage on the side of the road.

As we left the 8 o'clock show we noticed a very nice looking green leather couch outside of the theater. Within a minute we had four performers moving it into the green room. So as audience members walked out they got to see the actors lugging in garbage from the side of the street.

I tried to put lip gloss on Doug. I thought he would get irritated when I did this, like every other guy does when I try, but he didn't. In fact he came back for seconds and thirds.

This is a first...and Jeremy approved.

Flew back to Boston today, just in time to say goodbye to Ryan.

Ryan moved from Chicago to Boston and is now moving back to Chicago tomorrow.

Ryan: It's wierd cause in the time I was here I primarily just stayed in the North End. So it feels like I warped. I was put here for 15 months and now I'm just being sucked out and put back in Chicago. Like...zoop!

In my short time here Ryan has been extremely supportive and we have become close pretty quickly. He was the one to show me around the city, watch White Sox games with me, and give his insight into moving whenever I felt at a loss. With his departure I feel like I'm losing 33% of my friends.

I'll miss you Ryan, have a safe trip.

Went to Great America today. It rained most of the day, but as soon as it cleared there were no lines and we were able to go on all the rides.

Arnie bought a Batgirl sweatband. I don't know if he got it to keep the rain out of his eyes or just for looks. Probably both.

He has decided to give it to me. It will find a home on my shelf next to the trophy he gave me when I moved.

Today was another feast day in Boston. This time for St. Anthony.

But I am still in Chicago. Tonight Arnie and I went out to dinner and then met Cowlick for drinks. Tim got a haircut. Martin is directing a new improv team. BJ just moved into his first house. And Jason went on a date.

So...no research on Saints today. Too busy eating food, remembering old sketch shows, and generally looking out for one another.

Went to a going away party for Shelly and ran into Ryan G.

Shelly is moving to Las Vegas to perform at Second City on Thurday and Ryan just moved back to Chicago after performing at Boom Chicago in Amsterdam for a year. Both are excited about their moves but are clearly on exact opposite sides of the spectrum. Ryan is happy that he made the move, but also happy to be back. Shelly is excited about performing but has mixed emotions about the move. I know how she feels.

As we were saying goodbye Shelly grabbed me and said 'Are you lonely? I bet you're lonely. It's lonely right? Am I going to be lonely? I am going to be lonely.'

Received this text from Doug, a fellow cast mate in Boston:

Miss u already ya tard.

And another:

Come back. I'm bored.

Up until today it never occured to me that I would be missed in Boston.

Back in Chicago for a few days.

As I was walking though the airport I saw a novelty shop called "Chicago Treasures." For some reason just seeing the word "Chicago" on the wall made me get a little choked up.

But this feeling quickly faded while I was on the el. The trains were moving slowly and all I could think was 'freaking el, it's even slow in the middle of the afternoon.' Then I realized, it felt like I never left. Like I was home from a vacation. Suddenly I couldn't even picture Boston in my mind, as though moving there never happened.

When I got to Arnie's apartment I noticed that my small things I left were in the exact same places. A few CD's on his desk, vitamins next to the computer, a bobbly pin and pair of earrings on the dresser. It looked like a ghost of myself was still living there.

I mentioned this to Arnie, and he smiled and simply said 'I know.'

Another long rehearsal so we took a break for food.

Norm: Anyone want some cheese?

Jeremey & Rachel: Ooooooooooooh no!

Norm: What?

Rachel: Sarah! Norm's got a block of cheese! (to Norm) She's a blogger.

Norm is not on Atkins. He just likes cheese.

A recent email from Pete, a friend in Chicago:

I know we didn't spend a lot of time together recently. But I read (and will continue to read) your blog, and you mentioned how you wanted to put up a picture of your IO 5B class on your wall. It's a neat feeling to know that other people find the same things valuable that you do. It reminds you of the closeness and importance of people, and that laziness in communication doesn't always erase those things.

Keeping up with everyone has been hard and I worry that lack of communication will give certain people the idea that I do not miss them or have forgotten about them. I may be jumping the gun, it's only been three weeks, but I worry all the same.

As a side note: Pete did not say the words " life" or "coach" in his email so I find it strange that the Gmail smart ads picked up on the idea that if I did have to chose a life coach Pete would be at the top of the list.

I miss my friends too...and looking forward to coming home soon.

Big day in Boston. I went to my first Red Sox Game v The Yankees.

With the Yankees winning the first four of this series and virtually taking the Red Sox out as an AL wild card threat against the White Sox, I didn't really root for the Yankees as I orginally intended. I was just excited to see both play and to be in Fenway. It's the third ball park I've been to...the first two being US Cellular and Wrigley Field.

Watching a live baseball game made this city feel more like a home.

And if you don't already know, that's David Ortiz...the one with the wedgie.

Score Today: Yankees 2 Red Sox 1

Today was the Fisherman's Feast in honor of the Madonna del Soccorso.

I am beginning to see that feast days mean different things to different people. For some it is just a time to get together with family and eat good food, or to raise much needed money for a church, or to remember loved ones.

The origination of all of these feasts all boil down to one thing. Keeping a community from harm. Traditions put in place so fisherman would prosper, or the plague would cease, or earth tremors would stop. Anything.

I enjoy traditions, but sometimes become frusturated when people go through the motions of a certain ritual without realizing what they are doing or saying. This this rang true with the feasts. But now I realize if families get together, eat food, give money to their communtiy, and remember loved ones, they are keeping themselves from harm by spending time with and looking out for eachother. The original intention is the same 500 years later.

I miss my family. But I am sleeping a little better.

Oh no. Got to the theater and due to a flood upstairs the ceiling in the women's bathroom has caved in. This is not good.

And it may not magically fix itself.

Performed in my first two shows at the theater tonight.

Originally I was not supposed to begin performing until mid-september but due to scheduling conflicts in the current cast I had to begin tonight. I was worried about getting rusty if I didn't perform for six weeks, so this came as a pleasant suprise. I even got my own locker in the green room this week. For some reason this made the job feel more real than signing the contract or beginning rehearsals did. Now I have a small bit of real estate.

But how did the shows go? Aside from dropping an f-bomb during our show titled "Keepin it Clean" they went better than expected. I'm looking forward to doing it again tomorrow night.

Cast photos today.

The theater went all out and got a professional photographer. She told us that she recently worked on Ben Affleck's new film. We found out that Morgan Freeman was the nicest actor on the set, and Ed Harris was 'just too busy to talk.'

Then we took some shots in the theater and then some on the roof. At first she asked us to look like 'the cool kids of comedy.' We kinda chuckled and tried our best. Then she asked us to give '90210 poses.' For the most part we are all in our 20's, so that worked a little better.

Apparently Chicago could be the site of another terrorist attack...according to CNN.

I call bullshit on a slow news day.

Love,

Sarah

PS-For those of you concerned, Arnie's ipod fixed itself. What if all the possible future problems in Boston did the same.

Tuesday rehearsals are long, so halfway through we usually take a 20 minute break to have a quick bite to eat.

Anastasia chose to get some pepperoni and a block of cheese. Bought from a store called 'Gone Bananas.'

Anastasia is the only person I know that is still on Atkins.

In one day I can feel a large scale of different emotions. From happy to loney, proud to scared, excited to frusturated, etc. Yesterday was hard because it was my first Sunday by myself. Normally Sunday is my favorite day of week, I'll explain why another time.

Feeling pretty lonely, I walked to my bedroom very early this morning to try and get some sleep and saw this. A bobby pin. My bobby pin. Somewhere in my grand scale of emotions I have sub conciously become comfortable in my new apartment. If I have one sign of marking my territory, bobby pins strewn all across the floor is it.

I was woken up at 9:00 this morning by a marching band.

Another feast day. For Madonna Della Cava.

So I did more research and this is what I found. A little boy was having dreams where the Madonna told him where she was buried. Finally the boy convinced his mother to help him resurrect the body. When they found the body of the Madonna they tried to move it to another town, but the stone encasing cracked, and they people of the town took this as a sign that the Madonna did not want to be moved, just to be found. So they built a church at the original burial site.

I'm about as happy as I can be at this point in the move, but I'm still having trouble sleeping. Everything is new. Even my living space and my bed. My brain is having a hard time turning off at night. And the marching bands don't help.

Oh no. I may or may not have broken Arnie's ipod. This is not good.

Went to a free Yeah Yeah Yeah's concert last night at the Government Center with Ryan and some of his bike messenger friends. I was happy to see a pretty diverse crowd, but the majority of people were college students.

Ryan: When I was in college I was a hippie but I just don't feel like these are my people anymore.

Me: Who are your people?

Ryan: Comedians...I guess?

Me: If you had never started doing comedy who would your people be?

Ryan: Um. Crazy people.

Had the day off today. So did Micah, a friend from Chicago who now lives in Boston. We decided to have a 'Micah and Sarah Fun Day.'

We played basketball in the morning and talked about how out of shape we are. This had to end when Micah got a blister. He cut it open himself and now it looks like an X-Box logo.

Then we went to the mall so Micah could get new glasses. The salesman at the shop was very helpful, but also enjoyed doing Austin Powers impressions every chance he got. He told us that one type of lens will not break if you get shot in the face. I was waiting for his pinkie to raise to the corner of his mouth, but it didn't.

Fun day.

Although I enjoy collages and random pictures around I am at the age where I feel like art or pictures should be in frames and any miscellaneous fun stuff should be on the fridge. I'm not in college any more.

Or am I? Cause so far this move feels exactly like college. I hang out with my peers at random times during the day, everyone at the theater lives within a block of eachother, and I don't have an office job to dress for so I could wear pajamas all day. In fact I did yesterday.

I am still getting to know my new roommates so I didn't want to flood the fridge with stuff like a kindergarten diploma or the picture of my i.O. 5b class. But I wanted it to be somewhere I could see it to make me feel better if I got lonely. So it's ended up on the inside of my closet. All the pictures of my friends in Chicago; my 'awesome artist award' for a haircut; and a written suggestion given to me to play "A Viking With a Long Beard" from an old improv rehearsal.

I haven't closed my closet yet.

Got to watch my first White Sox game last night since I moved.

For the most part I feel like baseball, more than any other sport, is something that people can bond over even if they root for different teams. I was happy to hear that my new roommate is a Red Sox fan, and he was happy to see me watching a baseball game when he got home.

First Inning

Callahan: Oh, the White Sox....who's that guy? The one that beats everyone up? Podsednik?

Third Inning

Callahan: OOOOOHHH! Jermaine Dye is up! The wife beater...right?

Sixth Inning:

Me: I feel like the ESPN Commentators hate the White Sox.

Callahan: Everone hates the White Sox.

I think Callahan and I are going to have to find something else to bond over.

Yesterday was the theater's 1st annual Softball Championship.

My team didn't do so well in the actual softball game, but we definitly won the eating and drinking game, happily going up for seconds and thirds. And by default I ended up pitching the entire game, giving up only 6 earned runs and being nominated for the Cy Young Award.

Score Yesterday: Unapologetics 3 Hapgood's Hooligans 22

I would say I'm an emotional person but not much of a crier. Not because I'm opposed, it just doesn't happen often.

This morning I had to say goodbye to Arnie who was kind enough to be with me the last six days. As we walked into the airport I brushed past a woman who was silently crying and looking for the nearest exit.

I don't know what it is about airports that makes people more emotional. Maybe it's the finality of the security gate, the stress of catching your plane on time, or just the banality of the place in general.

But we were feeling ok. Just small talk at the check-in and a sufficient but not over dramatic kiss goodbye. As I walked away I wanted to get an 'action shot' of Arnie. I turned around and snapped before looking. This is what I got.

I laughed. Quickly turned around. Began crying and looked for the nearest exit.

My new apartment is located in the North End of Boston, the Italian neighborhood filled with lots of culture, history, and 'brickish charm.'

Every weekend in the summer there is a street festival to celebrate an Italian saint and the church that sponsors the event. This weekend the Feast of Saint Agrippina lasted three days. Multiple times a day a band would play up and down the street while men would carry the statue of Saint Agrippina and people would run up and pin money on ribbons attached to the statue.

So I did a little research. It's unclear exactly why Saint Agrippina was beheaded in Rome during the reign of Valerian. But the miracles began after her death and dealt more with the three young women who carried her body to Mineo. Apparently it took them very little time because a cloud protected them from bad weather and angels followed them to keep them from harm during their journey.

Saint Agrippina is evoked against evil spirits, leprosy, and thunderstorms. It was a beautiful day.

At night a carnival was set up where you could eat canolis, listen to a cover band, and win inflatable 'Dora the Explorer' dolls at pop-a-shot.

If you squint.

Had my first rehearsal yesterday. To warm up we would ask one another to name five things very quickly, in a category of their choosing.

I was asked "Top 5 Reasons Why You Left Chicago."

For some reason I took this to mean top 5 things I don't like about Chicago. All I could think of were the reasons I love Chicago. So I just named them, and put a colorful expletive before each one.

Ok, I know I'm going to get grief for this...but here goes:

I do not like David Ortiz. Good baseball player? Sure. And I like the Red Sox. But he's not the type of player I can get behind for reasons I won't go into now. I have been wondering when the day would come when I would accidently blurt this out and get into an argument with someone in Boston.

I mentioned this to Ryan(a KC fan and friend from Chicago who now lives in Boston), quietly.

Ryan: (stunned look).....Today. Today is the day.

Score Today: White Sox 3 Royals 7

See you later Chicago.