"Here I am expecting just a little bit too much from the wounded"
This past Sunday night, I did a fifteen minute "showcase" show for Greg, one of the writers of "Sweet Pumpkin Pie...". He basically just wanted me to do a scene I'm already doing for SPP, so it was no big deal. I guess what was a big deal was that he got the rest of the SPP cast to be involved with this project as well... a total of three scenes in fifteen minutes. One scene was the "Sorg" scene I was in... and the other two scenes were new. But, here's the thing (and maybe I'm making too much out of this), the other two scenes he used Chris as the male lead... and didn't even ask me if I wanted to do either scene. It makes me think that I'm not really his first choice. Particularly since one of the scenes I would have been PERFECT for (a dad who yells... that's ME!). So, instead of being happy that I was asked by one of the writers to do something above and beyond (which should have made me feel good about myself), I ended up feeling kind of like crap. I guess that's life in the theatre... ? or I guess I'm just too sensitive. *sniffle*
Monday I got to drive back to BR AGAIN. This trip was fun as, during a stretch of the trip I went 2.5 miles (from the sign that said "Left Lane closed 2.5 miles ahead") in about 40 minutes. For those of you who don't want to do the math on that, that means, in one hour, I would have gone... fuckin' nowhere! I was going completely insane. And, of course, I didn't allow myself enough spare time just in case of this inevitability (yeah, it's inevitable. I stop [on my way into Chicago] and get something I can eat in the car... because I know I'm going to be stuck for a while with no place to go). Well, this certainly made the rest of my trip up to BR fun... as I sped. I sped a lot. I went faster than humanly possible. That last sentence was a lie... but I did go faster than I should have for the entire rest of the trip... making it from near the Indiana/Illinois border to BR in "record time". I was only twenty minutes late for the dentist (I called ahead because I'm thoughtful).
Ah, the dentist. I know this is going to be hard for anyone to appreciate or understand, but this appointment was more painful than the actual root canal. My dentist said that pretty much everything that can be done to a tooth needed to be done to this one. And, after keeping my mouth open for over an hour (and, at one point, having the dental assistant pulling my entire face to the left), I just hurt all over. Also, the dentist didn't use as much novocaine as last week... since this was a "simple procedure." *starts to smile* Okay... the dental assistant likes to hum while she works. I think that's awesome... because she's in a good mood. She really likes what she does. I can't think of anything worse than having a dentist who hates his/her job. You want your dentist to enjoy their work... even if they're hurting you while they do it (which they were this week). Can I also mention the use of a "wire" to keep my gum down so that an impression of my tooth could be taken? The wire also has the magical ability to make gums bleed... did you know that? Yeah... when I left the dentist, my whole face hurt, and I taste blood and metal. It was horrible. And when people make fun of me for complaining I want to punch them in the mouth until their teeth come out... so be careful what you say here.
Tuesday morning I got my oil changed... and my dad and I hung out for a bit while we were waiting. I showed him the "Music: The Band" page on MySpace and told him the story behind it. It was one of those things I thought he would enjoy and laugh at and my mom wouldn't get. So I just told him. But then he had to go teach a class and I was soon left to wait for my car alone. After getting my car, I had lunch with my mom. We were going to go out to eat, but the oil change took longer than I thought it would (they wanted to wash my car. No complaints here... it's been months), so we didn't have time to go out. My mom and I ate a nice quiet lunch at home... I got her to talk about how she feels about work (it's really starting to wear on her), and how she feels about retirement (my dad's ready for it... and I'm not so sure my mom is, but she's warming up to it). It was fun to talk to both my folks separately for once... I'm normally talking to both of them at once and they have things that they don't necessarily feel comfortable saying in front of each other (my dad's trying to get my mom to warm up to buying a new car/SUV: "I got lots of trips to Chicago and Green Bay in my future" he said).
And, soon enough, it was time for me to leave again. My dad said, as we said good-bye before his class "This doesn't count. This doesn't count as a visit. It was too quick." I agree. I had another fun drive through the traffic. Like I mentioned before, I know that right at the Indiana/Illinois border there is always traffic, so I bought some Reese's Pieces about twelve miles away and waited to be stuck in traffic. I was not disappointed... the trip to Chicago took me five hours instead of the usual 4:15/4:30. My dad actually called me after the fifth hour because he was worried. I was stuck in the far left lane needing to get over to the far right, so I was probably a little short with him. What followed that phone call was the greatest display of lane-changing in the history of man-kind. I'm totally awesome. And I hate traffic. But I love Reese's Pieces.