Writer's bloc... and the first few days of John the Manager
What should I be doing right now? Who can guess? Anyone? Anyone??? Bueller? Anyway.... seeing as it's Sunday night, and my writing class is Monday: if you said "writing a script for tomorrow" you're right! That's exactly what I should be doing! But I can't think of anything ANYTHING funny right now. NOTHING. I mean, I even called Ken out of the blue this evening and we brainstormed for about ten minutes. And I had an idea... and it was good. And maybe I shouldn't say I have nothing... as there's stuff floating around up there >points to head<... but nothing's coming out. I mean, sorry Ken, the ideas ARE good... but I just can't get to them.
So this is what I do... I'll write and type and write and maybe something will come out that's worth something. Maybe I'll write through the metaphoric dam causing hyperbolic damnation in my mind (by the way... was anyone else completely weirded out by the fact that hyperbole and a hyperbola conjugate to the same adjective? I think that's really f--king weird, as I learned about hyperbola long before I knew what hyperbole was. I'm a math guy... leave me alone). Where was I? That tangent even threw ME off. Um... Oh yeah! I was talking about how I don't know what's going on in my head... funny that I could be so easily distracted (funny = ironic).
What the hell have I been doing? Well... ah... Andrea started her vacation Saturday, but I "took the reins" on Friday night. And what fun happened Friday night? Well... we were running out of ice cream, so we needed another person to come in while one of the crew members made the ice cream. Easy, huh? Well... the keyholder that night, Amy, wanted the night off... so we got Greg to cover her shift. Trouble is, Greg was already scheduled to work that night... he was going to be there anyway. So I try to get Chris to come in... as Chris is supposedly "on call" (moron this later). So Chris, "on call", is not there when I "on call" him. Rut-Ro... two people short! Thank the gods that Jonathan (ANOTHER keyholder) was available to come in (and he did)... AND Elizabeth >blush< was free to come in even though she was not on the schedule, not on call, and supposed to be having a night of karaoke with her friends. That's mothahf--king dedication.
Friday ended up going smoothly (even though we ran out of Chocolate ice cream mix... moron this later). Saturday... the first night... hope things go well and there are no problems... um... well... So remember how "on call" previously meant "don't be around when someone calls you to work"? Ok... Apparently Saturday "on call" meant "show up at the store anyway and start working... even if we don't need you" because that's what Dmitry did. I was like... "um... huh?" Turns out it was ok... I sent Greg home after 9 because it was slow enough that we didn't really need four people (even though we did almost $1500 Saturday... the most since January 2nd of this year). So the ice cream... about that... um... as of Saturday we're out of the chocolate AND the sweet cream mix. Basically, we can't make any more ice cream until Wednesday, when the truck comes in with the inventory. I've run through a few scenarios in my head... and all of them include a lot of work on my part. This job is fun, huh?
So Saturday was weird... but nothing terrible happened... and we got a lot of business. Sunday... day two... certainly no one would fuck up the schedule tonight, right? Right? Um... well... Jenn was scheduled to work, but couldn't. Ok... there's someone on call, no big deal... take the night off! Elizabeth >blush< was "on call"... but something came up, and she couldn't work. That was ok because she saved my butt Friday night when she didn't need to work. She gets a free night. I'll just call someone else. Um... Matt=can't work... Amy=performing in a concert, can't work... Dmitry can work at 8, I can do better than that... Greg=can't get a hold of... Jonathan=can't get a hold of... Sam=can't get a hold of... Cherise has been there since open, she can't stay... Hannah doesn't work weekends because she works EVERY DAY during the week... Chris=no surprise, can't get a hold of... Call Dmitry again, "8 would be great! as soon as you can get here!" So I had Emily, who had started working at 1, stay until Dmitry got there at 8. Yeah... I felt bad all around. Why didn't I just work? Remember that play I'm supposed to be writing? Yeah... I'm supposed to be writing it. Plus! someone needed to figure out why the phone was broken. Yeah... the phone decided to stop receiving calls tonight, did I mention that? Oh... it did. I fixed it, because I'm just that good... but I almost completely freaked out. (how is that possible, John?)
You know what? I've had enough of your lip. You can almost completely freak out in that you're on the verge of completely losing it... if you were to "lose it," you'd go all the way, ok? That's how it's possible.
Anyway... that's work. I want so desperately for this to be a good week for Andrea, as she needs it. And I'm doing this whole thing for Julia... Andrea's daughter who I've never met. I just can't imagine being ten and having my mother tell me she's too busy to get time off work to spend with me. And I especially wouldn't understand it if my mom worked in an ice cream store... I mean, what the hell is that? Julia's going to grow up thinking she's not important enough to her mother... or that work comes first... or something terrible. Sweet shit... the least I can do is give her a week away from this craziness.
Speaking of Crazy... Hi. How are you?
I am currently chipping away at my correspondance. I got a fantastically clever email from Randi (who knew she was capable... mwah ha haaa), had a few wonderful talks with Sarah, Laura, Ken, and an emotional talk with my sister this weekend, and I have big plans to send out some letters and "stuff" soon (stuff being a CD and a 'care package' or two). I'm hoping that, once Andrea comes back from her first vacation since they bought the store in early November, that she'll be willing to giving me some time off soon. I have big plans. I have a City full of Sin... just waiting for me to shoot the crap out of everything that moves.
That was almost too cryptic for me to actually know what I meant. Hmm. Well... the GOOD news is that it's 1:30 here and I've re-worded the first five lines of dialogue of my scene about half a dozen times. This is good. At this rate, I'll have one completely polished page by the time I have to go to class. >sigh<
On that note... I hope that this post finds you all keeping your heads up. I hope you're eating well... and sleeping... as I am doing neither. Good luck to a special lady on Thursday of this week... and break a leg to a couple wonderful ladies this week as well, I'm sure Shakespeare never looked so good (take that however you want to).
PS Where's Nick? Does anyone know how he's doing? I left a message on his voicemail a couple weekends ago... but haven't heard back. I don't want to intrude, but I'm curious and worried and all those fatherly things. I don't know what to do... and that seems to be a general theme throughout my relationships currently.

One LAST thing... I'm giving some things up for Lent (like Ice Cream), but I'm also trying to do positive things too. One of the things I'm going to try to do is to find a reason, every day, why the day was beautiful... why it's good to be alive... why life isn't as horrible as it sometimes seems. I bring this up because of a few things tonight: The rain. Thursday it felt like spring here in Chicago, it smelled like spring, it felt like tennis season... Saturday it felt like fall, like a day where you and your best friends gathered on a field to play tackle football until you were all tired, muddy, and cold... and tonight it felt different still. It rained here... but it wasn't a dirty city rain. It felt clean... cathartic... I let the water fall on me... it made me smile. And, as I walked, I saw two children in a doorway... trying to push the door the wrong way. They were on the inside, looking out at the rain... with their hands up to the glass of the door. They weren't smiling... they weren't upset... they just seemed in awe of the rain.
And I love the sound of cars on wet pavement... I LOVE that sound, and I don't know why. It was good. Goodnight.
Music - Chevelle "Closure"