FRISKY718: NO SCHNAPPING WHILE DRIVING

So the other day in Baltimore I had my first experience at an INconvenience store. It's called the Schnapps Shoppe (catchy name). I was looking for supplies for my journey back to DC through Friday afternoon traffic. Thinking perhaps of a Red Bull, a large bottle of water and some kind of healthy snack in bar form preferably a Luna bar because I like to balance my Redbull with my organic grains. Anyways the door to the Schnapps Shoppe was locked... which seemed odd since it was a friday afternoon... and I saw a small asian woman in the cavernous darkness of the Baltimore basement corner store. So I started to walk away thinking perhaps today is a holiday that I had forgotten about... but then I heard a buzz. The woman in the store was buzzing me in! So I tenatively entered the dingy Schnapps Shoppe and discovered she had locked herself in some kind of safety cage or "panic room" with the cash register. It was a little intimidating... or perhaps I was a little intimidating to her. I don't know. We both avoided eye contact. Or maybe only I avoided eye contact... I'm not really sure since I didn't look at her.

But to answer your question. YES they did sell schnapps... of several different varieties.


and that's why it was the best summer ever.

artistic passion + focused energy = awesome theatre


I need some focus.

Blogfest $2000 Writing ContestTwenty Twenty Publishing is sponsoring a writing contest designedto encourage all writers to follow their dreams and write thework that truly matters to them. This contest isn't about writingto please a judge, but about giving writers the chance to writewhat they want to write.To enter the contest, just tell them what you want to write andwhy it means so much to you. The winning entrant will receive a$2000 sponsorship to write the work of his or her choice.If you're thinking you can make something up, win, and then neverwrite it, think again. The condition to the competition is thatyou send a weekly blog for the month of May letting them know howyou're going.All entrants will also be invited to take part in Blogfest, wherethey can share the writing process and motivate each other aspart of the Blogfest 2005 writing community.Open to: all writers worldwide and all styles of writing.Closing date: April 20, 2005Entry fee: $5Entry, full details, and FAQ:http://www.writingstuff.com/blogfest.html

Waiting for my green tea ice cream to get soft

If I were a restaurant reviewer I would label this place, "sub-par."
Good thing for them that I'm not. My ice cream is kinda crusty.

I'm just chillin on Charles St in Baltimore in between an audition and a
meeting. The audition was in "Cockeysville, MD" YES! Its a real place!
It sounds more like a setting for some didactic play about actors
getting too full of themselves.
"All the actors geared up to take themselves to Cockeysville..."

I have 3 hours until my meeting. Its a dinner meeting about the short
film I have the lead in. So what do I do when I'm bored waiting around
for my dinner meeting to start? I eat of course! It makes sense
because I ran out of the house for my audition without eating AND its
raining outside. I found shelter in an overpriced Thai restaurant with
crusty ice cream. Rain justifies almost any random change in behavior.
Its kind of awkward because I am the only customer in here and I'm just
sitting here typing away. Think they'll mind if I'm here for 2.5 more
hours?

Yeah... I'm going to see if there's a bookstore or something down the
street.

- Megan

Apparently Zach Braff is directing Gavin Degraw's next video.

Tickets are already available for the DC Improv Show!
Click the link, and select "4/13/05 DC IMPROV COMEDY SCHOOL CAST" from the dropdown menu.

http://www.symfonee.com/improv/dc/reservations/step1.aspx


I'm supposed to be at work, but I'm NOT! I love my job!

Keep checking the site:

http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/motormouth/series.jhtml

Soon, very soon.

So I finally talked my mom into getting herself a new computer.

Of course she hasn't gotten a chance to use it yet because I'm still "setting it up" for her. It's so nice to have a normal screen and a normal keyboard and speakers that work. I went to homestarrunner.com for the first time in MONTHS! Apparenly Strongbadia has grown from Population: Tire to Population: Tire, Bundt Cake Pan, and Coach Z... and a hole in the ground. sigh. Time flies. I can't believe the cinder block totally dumped the stopsign.

that bastard

I suppose I should be going to bed sometime. But there are so many websites to browse.

I just got off the phone with Elly in Malta! (Sorry about the bill, Mom) It's so nice to have someone to talk to at 2am. She was getting ready for work. I think I might have made her late! Oops! She always makes me laugh. I called because I had heard she broke up with her boyfriend and decided to move to Russia. My favorite thing about Elly is that her true stories are better than anyone's fiction.

I would like to thank my loyal fans: Meggie, Elise, Jade, Zach B, and Mike S. for coming out to see "The Women" this weekend as well as my family and extended family. We sure ended with a bang! This was such a great cast to work with. Its unbelievable that so many women could work together for 3 months and still get along so well!

The exhaust pipe will have to wait! I have too much to do! My next project is a student film shooting in Baltimore over the next couple weeks, and then a show at the DC Improv. Woohoo!

Its almost time to start thinking about the "SUMMER OF IMPROV!!!" in Chicago!

The DC Comedy Fest 2005 was GREAT! I'm still geeking out about it. My workshop instructors included Mark Sutton (from Chicago), Justin Warner (formerly of DC WIT! and now a performer/writer in NYC), and Topher Bellavia (a bigshot instructor over at WIT!). They were all fabulous. But the greatest part of the weekend was the sense of community in the air at the little Warehouse Theatre.

I ran into Canadian Cindy and her husband Mr. Cindy (I mean Steve) from the DICS cult over at the DC Improv. I met a girl from visiting from Vienna (AUSTRIA not Virginia!) and a guy from England. I worked with people I had seen on stage before in WIT!, Comedy Sportz, DICSC, and Chicago. It was cool to see a lot of familiar faces from the Improv scene in DC coming out of the woodwork... possibly like the early Christians under Roman oppression... meeting in secret in an abandoned warehouse... hiding from the eyes of the conservative government meeting at the huge DC Convention Center across the street... ok so maybe thats a stretch. But it really felt to me like a big inside joke. Nobody else knows how much comedy talent was jam packed into that building all weekend. And I cannot express enough to my girlfriends how many nerdarific improv hotties were there roaming free in their natural habitat. Wow.

Yeah... I just do improv to meet guys... its true.

No I don't, it's just a perk. But seriously, I had a great time and it felt good and I was so excited to get the invitation from Allyson when I got home that I would get to show off my new mad skillz in April. Yeeha!

Mark your calendars - hell is gettin chilly

JUST ANNOUNCED!

For the first time in 3 years I will be sharing a stage with my dear
friend and eternal improv archnemesis Zach Myers.

This will be well worth the price of admission!
It's all going down Weds April 13th so mark your calendars NOW. Details
will be announced at www.dcimprov.com as soon as the entire cast is
finalized. Tickets will also be available on the DC Improv website or
over the phone in the next couple weeks.

Also included in the proposed cast are improv buddies Amanda Kalaydjian
and Kevin Sung, and fellow GMU Alum Michelle Oxley.

As always there WILL be an after party!

See you there!

- Megan

I'll be at the comedy fest all day and in my show all night.

Since not a single one of my friends has come to see "The Women" I expect the audience to be pretty packed tonight and tomorrow. If not... there's always that yummy exhaust pipe to suck on.

ouch. guilt.

Relax it's just a joke.
I know I've missed seeing some of my friends shows lately because of being in this show. We all get busy sometimes. It's just kind of a downer when you bust your ass at something for 3 months and so few people are there to share it with you. I appreciate the compliments of other cast members' friends. But schmoozing with strangers is so awkward... getting drunk with close friends is priceless.

I should have sat next to you
in the car
at the show

I should have answered your question
honestly
directly

I should have stood up
for us
for you

I should have held still
matched your gaze
touched your hand

I should have been brave
jumped in
let go

I should have let you know.

Even though blogging via email is easier and has the cool title line, in fact it is rather slow to appear on the screen. That recent posting about being scared of the email being broken for days and days was actually from 3 days ago.... ironic.

But what's really on my mind is communication with friends. If people stop calling me does that mean they dislike me? If this was a Cosmo article on dating the simple answer would be "yes" but in Meegland that is not necessarily true.

Sometimes I go for months without talking to people but I don't do it on purpose. Sometimes I just don't have anything relevant to say. I try to keep at least a few people in the "recently called" bank on my cell phone sometimes by just singing into his or her voicemail while sitting in traffic. But honestly who really wants to hear Meegs singing selections from Madonna's "Immaculate Collection" entirely off key? I know some of you don't... so I don't go there. But others get a kick out of it and leave me a message later singing back to another song most often of the 80s genre. I like that. I like 80s music.

Then what do I do about the ones who don't appreciate my vocal stylings? I can't handle conversations with awkward pauses while I'm driving, and now that I have HBO I don't really make any calls from home.

This is my fear:
One of my family members has a friend that calls incessantly. This is one of those people that tags along at the SLIGHTEST hint of an invitation. This person also happens to be on the list of the top 10 most annoying people of all time. So nobody at my house answers the phone when this person calls, so they call again, and again (within hours) until somebody answers in frustration just to make them go away. Then plans get made and the cycle happens all over again.
I'm scared of being that person.
I don't want to be the annoying one that can't take the hint.

So earlier in my life... in those lost years... I assumed I was that person, so if somebody didn't call me, I pretty much wrote it off as them not wanting to hang out with me. Or if an invitation was awkwardly presented or handed down through a third party I would decline because I thought I was just being included out of politeness and I always said the thing I hated most was "being tolerated."

But once I flipped that around I got better. Instead of assuming I was being tolerated out of an obligatory sense of inclusion, I assumed that everybody wanted to hang out with me. I started taking chances on mere aquaintences and made some really great new connections because of it. We are all alike inside. We are all insecure. We all want to be loved. We all want to be called once in a while.

So now say you have a friend who seemed really depressed last time you had a deep conversation, and now months have gone by. You have seen this friend in passing, but no more. No time to talk or connect. So all you can do is leave a message. Now what? What else can you do? When I was depressed I would have killed for a message. And I probably got some. But I'm sure I was too deep in myself to realize it. If I'm not there. Maybe I'm not meant to be.

Why am I obsessed with saving depressed people? Is it some freakish co-dependent fascination? A need to feel needed? I can't save everyone. Especially the ones that hide from me. I guess just like the kid in the star fish story. I feel compelled to try.

email issues

The most frightening thing to me (besides the thought of nuclear
annihilation) is the idea that my email will suddenly stop working but
those trying to email me will have no idea and they will think I'm
ignoring them.
- Megan

"Hey, DC is funny... just not always on purpose."
http://www.dccomedyfest.com

Maggie is D.C.'s #1 Motormouth!!!


hahahaha


What an awesome day! She had NO idea! Look for the show in VH1 in mid-May!

Well we don't know for sure if she's #1 but we were doing some pretty awesome car-dancing and she sang some great Clay Aiken and Kelly Clarkson at the top of her little lungs! And we each got $50 CASH!! I LOVE MY JOB!!!

T-Mobile sucks

T-mobile's email system has been down for 48 hours now. This is unacceptable. I'm going to keep writing "T-Mobile sucks" until they do something to kiss my ass in a serious way.

Todays favorite away message:

"What? You hate your job? Why didn't you tell me? There's a support group for that...it's called EVERYBODY - we meet at the bar."

Check this out from the Ross Reports:

* Pirates of the Caribbean 2 (Action/Adventure)March (Caribbean, Los Angeles)Jerry Bruckheimer Films, 1631 Tenth Street, Santa Monica, CA 90404. Cast: Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Stellan Skarsgard, Naomi Harris. Producer: Jerry Bruckheimer. Director: Gore Verbinski. Writer: Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio. Casting: Denise Chamian. Distributed (U.S.): Buena Vista.

awesome

Thanks to Lucy with a Y:
Dance White Boy!

T-Mobile goes down again

So the reason that my emails have been bouncing back all day is because the server is down at T-Mobile. Its probably another hacker trying to get into Paris Hilton's email.

Opening Night

I like posting via email because of the huge SUBJECT LINE at the top of
each posting. It makes stuff official. I also like that I am able to
post from the bathroom because that's where I do my best thinkin... NOT
that I would EVER do that! BRB ...flush... Now where was I?

Ahhh yes opening night. Its a bit anti-climactic because I haven't
really invited anyone. We aren't really given any comps and nobody I
know will pay $15 to see friggin community theatre. I have to get there
early to have dinner with "The Board" yay, I get to have spagetti and
bagged salad with the guys who are too cheap to hire us a Stage Manager
or any designers? Yay.

Megan is currently appearing as The Countess de Lage in "The Women"by Clare Booth Luce (Description follows)
At The Mount Vernon Players Theater900 Massachusetts Ave., NWWashington, DC 20001(202) 783 7600
3 Blocks North of Gallery Place/Chinatown Metro

Admission:
$15 Adults
$12 Students/Seniors
I HAVE TWO COMP TICKETS UP FOR GRABS FOR SATURDAY MARCH 5TH. Emailme ASAP if you want them.

Performance Times:
Friday March 4th at 7:30pm
Saturday March 5th at 7:30pm
Sunday March 6th at 2pm
Friday March 11th at 7:30pm
Saturday March 12th at 7:30pm
Sunday March 13th at 2pm
Friday March 18th at 7:30pm
Saturday March 19th at 7:30pm
(NOTE: There are only 2 Matinees)

DESCRIPTION:Be careful of what you say in public! This play was conceived from gossip overheard by its author in the Ladies Room of a swank New York night club. Of course the message of this comedy is that gossip is bad…but it is also shows how true love can triumph over bad circumstances. This 1936 Broadway hit is a wittyand well-written classic of the modern theater. Although perhaps a somewhat unflattering view of womanhood; this work is a salute to life in general depicting vanity, comedy, hope, disappointment, and tragedy.

See what the critics say about Megan:
"You stole the show, Countess!" - The MVUMC Security Guard
"That make-up is way too much, you crack me up!" - Castmates
"Soy Latte with Whipped!" - Starbucks Barrista

Day in DC

Today I met with a student director in Baltimore to discuss the
possibility of playing the title character in her senior project. Well
I got it! There was no doubt in my mind. It was pretty much written
for me even though she hadn't met met yet. She has a decent amount of
funding and seems pretty organized. So she will be paying for the
100mile round trip commute. She seems like the type of person I'd hang
out with. So I'm psyched about this project!

So right now I'm at Teaism (Dupont Cir) having lunch on my own. I'm
going to head over to Backstage Books (Eastern Market) to pick up some
makeup because my show (The Women) opens this weekend. I've been doing
some other minor errands around the city. I like the city.

- Megan