Bring It

Well, what a fun weekend that was! Holy shite! So let’s see, I stayed in Friday night to rest up for fun weekend. I watched Bear Grylls drink his own urine on Man vs. Wild, which was pretty gross and also pretty impressive.

Saturday I got up early and made sure I had plenty of time before my tour. I was so nervous. Checking and re-checking my flash cards, cursing myself for putting me into this position.

I hate being nervous.

Talking myself into “having fun!” and “enjoying it!”. I had another docent there to watch me give my first tour and she was so relaxed and so kind, she really helped take some of the edge off. She taught me how to sign in, who the captain was, etc.


Then all the people started lining up for the boat. First tour of the day, 9:00 AM, I figured it’d be empty. But the people, they just kept coming, and coming and coming and before I knew it the whole freaking boat is filled. OH MY LORD.

The captain talks, he asks me if I want him to tell people its my first tour and I say NO! then they’ll be looking at me with a certain prejudice, I’ve got to act like I know whats going on. I’ve got my Survivor cap on and he hands me the microphone.


And I’m standing in front of roughly one hundred people, all staring at me and expecting something wonderful. And I start, and I can hear my voice shaking. I’m so nervous. Trying not to look at all those people. And knowing somewhere in my head that its all about confidence, and also knowing, these people won’t remember anything I say…so just keep it together, look at the buildings, love the city, love the water…and just keep going.

So of course eventually the nervousness wears off and the concentration it takes to give this tour kicks in and I’m cruising. I know there are parts that were confusing, things I say and then go back on, or say “wait before I tell you that let me tell you this”, but I have these three ladies sitting right up front, smiling at me and watching me and just looking generally happy…and this helps.

I get through the tour and feel so much relief. So much happy happy relief. The captain comes out, gives me a high five and tells the boat that was my first tour…and I hear an audible gasp.
The best part is the receving line afterwards, I say goodbye to everyone as they go and answer questions they might have.

Well shit, they come through and start giving me money! MONEY. People are congratulating me, telling me they couldn’t believe this was my first, a hundred people passing by saying “thank you”, big smiles on their faces. People ask me to take pictures with them, wonderful. The three ladies up front get off last and tell me that they were saying before the end how “seasoned” they thought I was and I told them how helpful to me they were with their smiling faces.


It was such a fucking rush.


This is the rush I’ve been searching for honestly, the rush that improv never quite gave me. I know it won’t be such a rush in the future, the first one always being the pinnacle, but it was great fun. Fun giving the tour. Fun to teach people, fun to be on the river, fun to be on a boat, fun to be funny and silly. Man. I can’t wait to do it again.

I have two more dates (there will be a lot more coming)

7/28 at 9:00AM

And

8/5 at 11:30 AM.

You can go to chicagoarchitecture.org to buy tix if you want to see!Then Saturday night/Sunday morning we went on the LATE ride which blew chunks. It was packed, we had to wait forever and the tour route takes all of us down Elston. Pretty much Elston all the way north. Bummer. So it was us, tired, fighting to not get in accidents, you couldn’t even really ride, just kind of meander along and try not to hit the drunk guys next to you on the bike. It was really just too crowded. It was amazing that they could deal with all these people, but for godsakes, you can’t find a better tour route than Elston?

So yesterday was cleaning and the Folk Music Festival and TV and Entourage and the men who love their sex dolls.

Yup.

What a great weekend.



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