Ooooh my god. This is gonna be long. Please read it anyway, it's funny shit yo, and it would validate my existance.

Okay. We leave Thursday night, the drive up to the Shubert is mostly uneventful. We get there and there are a ton of people at stage door, I talk to *nina* for awhile. She's so cute. (Note: I will probably use the word "cute" like 5000 times in this message, and I apologize.) My mom and Joshua were talking about motorcycles. I was thoroughly amused. Jake is SO amazingly nice and stays and talks to us all for about an hour. He's adorable. We asked him what he was going to do after Rent closes, and he was like "I'm going to eat lots and lots of ice cream!" And then when he finally decided to leave, he's like "So, I think I'm going to leave now" and this taxi was coming so he's like "TAXI!" and waves at it, and it just drives right by. It was SO funny. But then he did get a taxi and he left. And we got in line. Rob and his mom showed up. *hiss* Amy said something about how Curtis had been leaving early lately, and Rob goes "It's because SHE's here" and points at me. So I'm sitting there talking to Rob, Amy, and this girl off the boards named Emmy. But then Katie, Katie, and Kelly drive up in their ghetto-as-fuck Curtis, Cary, and Manleymobile. It's raining really hard now. And they get out huge piles of blankets and we celebrate. And then I go over and talk to them for several hours. Whew. Katie #2 is a Rentvirgin, and Katie #1 and Kelly run the Matt site "Fine, take your crummy webpage." I love them. I met them the first time I ever rushed, in Madison. We tawk until about 3 am when we all decide to attempt sleep. And mostly we do. Amy sporadically whines about how she can't sleep, and we tell her that she's trying to sleep on the streets of downtown Chicago in the rain, what did she expect?

So. Then we wake up. And we go to McDonalds and get coffee. Mmmm, coffee. Oh, and there was this REALLY, REALLY nice hotel, the Palmer House, across the street from the Shubert. So we would walk over there and use the bathroom. We were so amazingly underdressed. It was amusing. Anyway. And then we talk some more, and I meet John, who is so insane. It's great. He had a room at the Palmer nad invited us all to use his shower, so of course we all took him up on it. We got really weird looks because Katie and I were the 5th and 6th dirty looking girls to go up to his room with him in the course of a few hours. Then we all decide to play Taboo. It was so fun. And people would walk by and ask what we're doing, and I would say "We're waiting for Rent tickets", point to the giant Rent poster above our heads, and then buzz them. But then Katie, Katie, and Kelly (henceforth KKK) took the buzzer away from me. Sad.

Then Katie #2 and I decide we want some coffee. So we ge orders from a few people and wander around downtown Chicago in the rain looking for Starbucks. It takes us at least 1/2 hour to find one, and when we do, we're drenched. ANd the lady is like "What do you guys want?" and Katie is like "... I don't know! I don't like coffee! But I want some coffee!" So she figured we were insane and gave us both free mochas. Mmm. And then I'm trying to carry 3 cups of coffee around downtown. I mostly don't spill any. And then on the way back we find *3* Starbucks and a Caribou Coffee. Blah. But we're sitting there huddled together to share body heat and blankets, and drinking our coffee. And I'd told them all about what a jerk Rob was, so they all hated Rob too. And then he comes by and is like "Hey, I'm going to Starbucks, you guys want anything?" and then we all just look at him and he sees our coffee, and he's like "ah.. you guys are good then" and walks away. And nobody really likes him so he sits and talks to his mom all day. (It would have been BETTER served if he would have been there to hear Curtis grab me at stage door and go "I was looking all over for you yesterday, but I couldn't find you!" But I'll take what I can get.)

Oh, and while we're all huddled together in the freezingness, John, who I believe I mentioned is INSANE, is in the middle of all of us, and so wrapped up in blankets that all that is visible is his head. So whenever someone would walk by, which was often, he would be like "Hey, how's it going?" and then when they ignored him, which they always did, he would be like "That's fine, ignore me like everyone else, I'm fine! I don't need any love! I'M JUST A HEAD!" Funny funny.

Then we go to look for Kelly's car, and she's like "I remember it's on the 7th floor!" So we go to this parking garage, get in the elevator and walk out on the 7th floor. She looks around and goes "Come to think of it, this is the entirely wrong parking garage." So we go back down and find the right parking garage on only the second try.

Then *nina* stops by the theatre again (I was holding tickets for her) and we talk for awhile. I was amazingly amused when (nina is this tiny little Asian girl) totally randomly, she goes "I wish I were a big black woman with SOUL!"

Bart walks by the theatre and I go "Bart! I have a bag of doom for you, but it's in my car." He looks mildly confused and goes "Doom?" and I'm like "Yeah, but it's good doom." He gives me a very strange look and goes in the theatre.

Oh yeah, the show. MY GOD. Joshua kicks ROGER's ASS. I told him that, and he made these cute, yet frightening muscle man poses. I love Joshua to death. Stefanie is an AMAZING Maureen. My God. Megan, I know you don't like her Mark's mom, and I don't either, but she is so fabulous. And she's really sweet too. Curtis was cute as toast, I got some adorable pics of him in his Rollerblades and dorky helmet. Mwah, yay Curtis.

And Matt is suddenly SO SO nice again. Like he was nice when he first joined, then he got sort of.. cool, but now he's so sweet. He was always the last to leave (except Jake on Thursday) and so sweet and smiled in pictures. Lots of newfound Mattlove. Then we attempt to go to sleep fairly early, since we were all completely exhausted.

Anyway. Then we woke up, and went to McDonalds, and played more Taboo. Playing Taboo with fellow Rentheads is HYSTERICAL...

Kelly: "Favorite..."
Me: "PUPPET!!"
Alex: "What the FUCK?"

Good times. Rick is absolutely hysterical. He loves Stefanie. Oh, and K&K were talking about questions to ask Matt when they interview him, and Katie was like "What traits do you admire in the opposite sex?" or something, and Kelly is like "Let's just hope he doesn't say blonde hair and blue eyes!" (We all had brown hair and eyes.) And then Rick, with his Aryan cuteness, is like "Allright! If Stefanie won't take me, maybe Matt will!" It was so amusing. Rick and I end up wandering around downtown for awhile looking for someplace for him to buy Stefanie flowers. We pass a McCafe, which is like.. McDonalds' new version of Starbucks. It's the only one in the country right now, and Rick works for Starbucks so we went in to investigate the competition. He orders an espresso and the chick at the counter panicks and explains that it's the first one they've ever sold. So Rick drank a piece of McDonalds history. But only a few sips, he said it was way too weak.

Then we see the show, again. Full cast except Stefanie as Maureen, who continued to kick ass. Then, I get stuck behind THE WORLD's SLOWEST PEOPLE leaving the theatre. GOD. And they weren't using the stage door, so the cast just sort of trickled out with everyone else. I can see people, but I can't move. So I'm just standing there glaring at the people ahead of me, when Matt walks up to me and goes "Hey, how's it going?" I'm mildly confused as to:
1.) how Matt got there without me noticing and
2.) how Matt recognized me, since I barely talked to him at stage door the night before. But oh well. We tawk for awhile, more Mattlove is discovered. Stage door is fucking insane. I missed Curtis. So I wrote him a semi-menacing note on a u/s slip and gave it to Katie to give to him. And... that's about all! Oh, and Bill the merch guy was gone all week. I was so sad. I love Bill.