Where did I go?
Thursday morning, before I left for Big Rapids, I was doing errands in the greater Chicago-land area. On my way to CostCo (yeah... the one on Clybourn... you know the place) I saw a homeless guy in Packer hat. It wasn't just any Packer hat, either. It was the Super Bowl XXXI Champions hat... a hat that I own. And there was something so hauntingly personal about that particular homeless man that it just crushed my heart. For the first time in my life, a homeless man was just like me... he was someone who could have been someone I knew, or saw at a game, or talked to. I'm not totally naive, I understand he could have just found the hat and started wearing it, having no particular allegiance to the Packers whatsoever... but there was something about him--pushing his cartful of belongings, not begging for change but minding his own business--that I took very personally. >sigh< The city is just too hard sometimes.
I worked out Thursday, too. Thad and I worked mah legs... and I think I might have actually impressed him with a 270 lbs leg press. I think we had done 200 last week... and there's probably something about moving up 70 lbs in a week that's impressive. I'm not sure what it is yet. Anyway... Thad is forcing me to look in the mirror again, to make sure my form is 'good'. As some of you may recall... I have fought the demons that are the mirror, but this is different. It's not just me staring at myself... it's me, staring at myself confused and not very good at something. This unlocks a whole new set of problems for me... as I'm a perfectionist and hate it when I'm not very good at something. Being forced to watch myself do it is, in a word, torturous.
Thursday night, I drove home. This was made easier by my two lengthy phone conversations... both of which were very nice. Except Ken totally wussed out and didn't talk to this Missy girl, because Ken is a total wuss. And I'm going to keep calling him a wuss until he talks to her. Because he's a wuss.
I got home around quarter to 2 AM Michigan (Eastern) time. My mom is a notoriously light sleeper, so just my opening the front door woke her up. We sat and chatted for a bit while I had a sandwich, and that was pretty much it for the night.
In the morning, I got my haircut by Jo at A Cut Above (on State Street, you know the place). Jo is like a second mother, which is why I keep going back there... she's always interested in what I'm doing and, I guess, she sees a lot of her own son in me (or vice versa), so she's always interested in how I feel and what I think about things. That's always nice, isn't it? (Hint: yes)
Apparently work can't go a day without me, because Andrea called. To say she sounded panicked would maybe be an exaggeration, but I could sense that she was nervous/anxious about something bigger than what she was talking to me about. The problem was the ice cream base and its availability/location... which was all taken care of by me and so there wasn't really a problem. It was just a "John takes care of this, but he's not here... what's going on?" kind of thing... the kind of thing a simple phone call can solve. I just found it humorous that I wasn't even gone a full day, and Andrea already had to call me in a quasi-panicked state (Illinois).
Friday night, the whole family went to Bennigan's (the one on Perry Street... you know the place). Almost immediately after I entered the restaurant, I saw someone I recognized... and he was kind of like "hey!" It took me a minute to figure out who he was (and I had to cheat and look at his nametag for clues), but it was Phil Neumann from my high school marching band. He's working as a bartender there... and he came up and asked me how Second City stuff was going. I was brief, perhaps even unnecessarily dismissive... but I was kind of intrigued as to how he knew I was in Chicago. I figured he must have talked to someone that I personally told, because that's how naive I am. As he kept talking, I learned that he had heard I was at SC from Heath Houghton (who I did not tell, and haven't talked to since, probably, our sophomore year in high school)... and Heath had heard it from Brian Samuels (who I've talked to maybe once), who heard it from Kelly Samuels (who I've never talked to ever). I was left thinking "what just happened here?". It was, honestly, my first taste of how small Big Rapids is. People I don't even KNOW are talking about me. Don't they have something better to do? As I was recounting this story to Andrea last night... I told her that it seems like the best thing you could ever do in Big Rapids is leave.
Friday night, my sister and I went to Rhea and Jean's for a while. Jean gave me a copy of the song she wants me to sing in her wedding. To say I'm nervous about it would be a huge understatement. A wedding is an event which (at least) two people will remember for the rest of their lives... and I don't want to be the guy who everyone remembers as sucking at the song during the actual ceremony (I don't mind if they remember me as the dude who sucked at the wedding reception, that's different). So I've already listened to the song, "I will be here", about 10 times... and I've got a lot of the lyrics down, I'm just worried that I'll forget them or rearrange them or somehow fuck it all up. >shrug< I guess that's just me.
Speaking of me... on Saturday we celebrated my Dad's birthday. I got him Monk season 1 on DVD and a picture frame for the Packer's painting my sister got him. We had two cakes as well... it was ridiculous. One was a Coldstone cake (which Andrea let me steal [how does that work?]), and one was from BRs very own Cakery... which is a totally awesome cake store. Basically, we vegged and ate and ate and didn't do anything. It was great.
Speaking of birthdays, Sunday was Ken's birthday. He is a wuss.
Speaking of work (huh?)... guess who's got a new job title. When I got back from Michigan Sunday afternoon (first I went to play practice and then) I had a meeting with Andrea. Over the weekend, she was given control of the company (the High Focus Group, LLC... like on my business cards). She is now the President and CEO of High Focus Group... which makes me the assistant to the President of the company. Pretty neat, huh? And all I had to do was... um... nothing! I was gone, I didn't do shit. Hooray for placing yourself in a position for growth! The things we talked about included placing me on a salary (I still don't think they can afford benefits yet... but it's something to work towards) and a New York trip. The trip to NY would be to check out the high volume Times Square location to see how a Coldstone can effectively run an entertaining high volume store. It would also be a good time for me to catch up with former roommates who might be living in the area at the time! HOORAY! Suffice it to say, if I thought I was busy before... I "ain't seen nothin' yet".
For the next two months, I am going to eat, sleep, and breathe Coldstone, Jean's wedding, my writing 5 show, and the gym. Everything else is going to have to wait. Sorry.