Change #1

Last night was the last show for Johnny Roast Beef, my iO team. iO Chicago has a training center that leads to being on a team that performs, if you're good or lucky.

I moved here in March of 2003 and started taking classes. In May I was put on The Lottery...a show that randomly chose one student out of each of the five class levels. They would perform every Tuesday for 8 weeks and each time there would be different veteran guests. I had no idea what The Lottery was when I got the call that I was on it. It was fun. Andy, one of our coaches, liked me and put me on a team he was coaching called Miss Texas. I never really got to know the team very well as we were cut at the end of the schedule. Around September of 2003, as Miss Texas was having our last show and I was entering level 5 of iO, Andy became the coach of a team called Johnny Roast Beef and wanted me to be on it. And on it I have been for just under 5 years.

This is a rarity in iO. Teams are built. Teams are destroyed. It is just how it is. I guess it was always easy for me to accept the process even though we never got cut. There were a few times when we were on the chopping block and made a stand. This time just felt like it was more right than the others.

I'll miss having an easy opportunity to perform with all of them, and have missed playing with those who had moved on to other parts of their lives before we got cut. It's been great.

Since we leave for the ship in less than 2 months I will probably take a break from getting on another team. We'll see.