Blürg Career Updates

A lot has been happening with both of us career wise and I thought it nice to update you folks on our past/current/upcoming projects.

Jürgen recently closed Amadeus at Chicago Shakespeare. It was a lovely production directed by Broadway director Gary Griffin. Jürg understudied the title role and performed as a member of the terribly underused ensemble. Oh well it was a steady job for four months, hard to find in the life of an artist.

I have just started rehearsals for The Snow Queen at Victory Gardens. I had the pleasure of doing the show last year and I am excited to remount it. I play a small child which is not surprising, plus I get to wear a funny hat.

We are just two days in but I am excited to see the show unfold. We have new castmates and new music. I will keep you posted!

I mentioned in a previous post booking two national commercials in one week. It's true and my fingers are tightly crossed that they actually air! The first was for a product called Zune 3.0 it's essentially Microsofts version of an iPod. I got a call at 11:30am on Halloween from my agent asking if I was available to shoot a commercial that afternoon. Thankfully I was free, but how on earth did this happen considering I had never audition for said commercial. Apparently I had been cast off of my headshot-this never happens! I zipped downtown, having no idea what I would be doing or even what the commercial was for. I soon found out it was not only a national commercial but it would feature the band The Kings of Leon and the rapper Common...and me apparently. I was even more shocked to discover that I had lines...lots of them! I wasn't informed of this until minutes before I was to shoot. It was an insane experience, and I literally have no idea what I said or how I did. Still, thankful for the opportunity nonetheless.

The second features my hands, and it's for Glade scented Candles. In one I am trying to light a candle, in another I am putting quarters into a coin slot on the candle. The whole conceit is "why spend $25 on a boutique candle when you can spend $6.95 on one from Glade...that would be like burning money." Clever huh? My audition for this consisted of meeting the producer and putting my hand up to hers. Intense.

Jürgen is free for a bit until next spring when he travels to Milwaukee to work with the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre on their production of The Cherry Orchard. I will be visiting Milwaukee quite a bit!

Ok those are a few updates. I cannot believe it's November already.

More blogs coming soon....I promise!

The Original is back!

I have been thankful for version 2 of the Blürg but I am pleased to announce that the original Wedding Blürg is back in action.

So...for the millions of readers who certainly visit this site every day....head over to the original

www.theweddingblurg.blogspot.com

I promise to post more regularly as we head down the home strech!

Peace out!

Hot off the Presses!

The much anticipated engagement photos are here! Many were taken, few will be selected. The main object of these photos will be to make a guest book for attendee's to sign at our reception. However my mom may pick one from the bunch for an engagement announcement. Here are a select few...some good, some goofy. To see the entire line up go to:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jurgenhooper/EngagementPhotos#

We found these cool iron structures while on our way to a 4th of July party. They are fun to play in.

I think this looks like it could have been taken in Paris. It wasn't. We were in Chicago.
You gotta have at least one in front of the bean. It was raining by this point.
He is trying to bite my ear and I think his expression is hilarious!
Notice the change in attire, and more importantly the change in weather!
Amazing what a little sunlight can do....
We were standing on a dock full of goose crap. Yep, it's true. Anything for the shot.
Two by the lilly pond.
I call this Sweet....
And Sly....
Tiny and not so tiny feet.
Out by the "Point". Check out my sun dress....it was that warm! Who knew?
Kind of looks like a prom shot. And I think we could pass for high schoolers too...
I love these gold shoes. They are falling apart but I love them....

So here is just a smattering of photos. None of which will actually be used for our guest book....we are keeping those a secret. Plus we still have yet to take our night shots, which means even more fabulous photos are on their way!

We LOVED working with our Photographer Kevin Weinstein, and we cannot wait to have him shoot our wedding.

Happy Viewing!

We got Sunshine!

Hooray!

We were finally able to take our engagement photos today. Whew.

The day began at 8 a.m. (sheesh), but we put on our game faces and got to work. We started around Lincoln park, followed by the Lilly Pond, The History Museum ending at "the point." The point being a beautiful spot by the water with a full view of the Chicago skyline. Lovely.

We had amazing weather: blue skies, cool breeze. You would never know it was October.

Pictures coming soon....so exciting!

Rain Rain go Away

Well we try as we might we just cannot seem to get Mother Nature to shower us with sunshine during our Engagement photo sessions.

Our original session was to be held on September 29th, however the heavens opened up around 10:00am and didn't let up for hours on end.

We rescheduled for yesterday, Tuesday October 7th, at 2:00pm. We managed to get about an hour worth of shots in before the heavens opened, yet again. Ugh.

So we are hoping the old adage "third times the charm" holds true on Friday morning. We will have to make ourselves all pretty at the ungodly hour of 8:00am, but we are troupers. Right now the forecast calls for sun.

Send us your good vibes on Friday morning!

I'm a Satisficer

My name is Blair, and I'm a Satisficer

("Hi Blair!")

While reading the October 2008 issue of Real Simple (love it!) I came across an article by Gretchen Ruebin titled "Ten Ways to be Happier." I was intrigued. In it I learned there are two types of decision makers: "Satificers" and "Maximizers".

She writes:

"Satisficers (yes, satisficers) make a decision once their criteria are met. When they find the hotel or the pasta sauce that has the qualities they want, they’re satisfied. Maximizers want to make the best possible decision. Even if they see a bicycle or a backpack that meets their requirements, they can’t make a decision until they’ve examined every option. Satisficers tend to be happier than maximizers. Maximizers expend more time and energy reaching decisions, and they’re often anxious about their choices. Sometimes good enough is good enough."

I occured to me, I have been a Satisficer throughout this entire planning process, and will do my darndest to stay that way. I have mentioned this before, but reading it tickled me pink...just a little bit.

I must clarify....I am not always a true Satisficer. You can ask my MOH about the time I spent hours debating over what type of purse to buy. Seriously I spent more time deciding on that than my wedding dress.

What brought on this clarity of choice in decision making? I haven't the slightest idea, but one must not question a good thing....that would be very Maximizer of me.

Smoking Guns....

Do you think my mom developed her fierce biceps from stuffing all these envelopes?

Here they are, your tickets to the main event. Our invitations. We had had them for awhile, but now they are all addressed and ready to be stuffed. I am so pleased with how they turned out. These lovelies will be mailed one month from today. In the meantime your mailboxes can pine...
Sorry the photo isn't bigger, but you get the idea. Simple and classy. Just the way I like it.

My mom and I were both in agreement from the get-go that neither of us wanted to address the invites. Our handwriting simply will not do, not to mention the idea of hand cramps make us cringe (I am a hand model after all!). So we hired a calligrapher.

Her name is Kim Diamond and she did a wonderful job! Should you wish to inquire about her services contact me! I will hook you up.

I scratched out some of the pertinent info, so no one gets stalked, or egged, or TP'd


Thank you Kim!

And thank you Mom for doing all that stuffing!