Sat 4:33 PM - Sat 6.15.19
Michshoot

Well, the old chestnut is true - time really does "fly" when you're having fun...

Blew into town a week ago and I'm here one more full day before flying back to LA Monday afternoon.

While there's still fun to be had (We're going to Pridefest tonight, primarily to get B-roll of me dancing around to Tell Yo Mama, a funky local band and Jane R. is doing interviews with Jane Z. and Tom H. tomorrow, with me and Tom doing some musical messing around after that), I am nevertheless feeling a tinge of melancholy at this lovely "working vacation" coming to an end.

One challenge that's presented itself during this time is that both me and Jane R. have been sick.

I started it, thought I was getting better, then had something of a resurgence (Mostly a very sore throat and a cough that just wouldn't say die), so I was the first one to go to the nearby Urgent Care.

Happily, the drugs they gave me worked wonders and I almost immediately started feeling better; Jane, on the other hand, got a different complement of drugs for whatever reason, they didn't seem to do anything (If anything she's gotten worse), and she was back at Urgent Care today - after an epic night of cough-induced sleeplessness - to get what I've jokingly referred to as "The Hoffmaster Drug Cocktail".

But considering we've spent the week as the comedy team of Sick and Sicker, a lot has gotten done, and I feel fairly comfortable saying she's had as much fun as someone with the world on their shoulders who's sick as a dog could possible have.

We filmed a good chunk of the "Jim's Back In Town If Anyone Cares" party that Jane Z. always throws (With Jane R. taking certain select folks out on the veranda for little mini-interviews).

In addition to that, we've filmed my reunion with some of my former coworkers at Schuler Books (Where I was recognized twice - once in the middle of shooting, then again when we were finished, leading to a mad scramble to fire things back up and get everyone signing release forms), we shot a bit at Riverwalk theater (Where they interviewed my buddy Bruce B.), we did a sort of faux-karaoke thing in Sat Clair Shores (In her brother's basement, which is tricked out to be a pretty convincing corner bar), which was huge fun, then spent yesterday in Durand, my "Michigan home town" which I haven't seen since leaving in 1980, filming at the high school and a few other select spots (Carrie M. and Ray Z. made special trips to participate, and it was wonderful to be reconnected with both of them).

It's been tiring, but fun, and it certainly feels like we're getting a lot of...stuff (Content? Material? B-roll?).

And in and around it all, there's been a lot of hanging out - With my friends here, with Mark and Jane (I'm staying at their place, as is tradition when I come back to town), and with Jane R.

It feels like Jane R. has made a point of scheduling things so that, while a lot has gotten accomplished, I've had time to just enjoy being back in town - I've gotten to see the brush-up of Hairspray at Riverwalk, we saw Mark in Indecent at Peppermint Creek (A theater that didn't exist when I lived here), I got to have some quality time with Margaret K. (Who I refer to as "My Alternate-Universe Wife"). and for the two of us to just hang out (Which both feels important to the project, and also just fun, because we're friends now, which is a pretty cool fringe-benefit of this whole documentary thing).

(She's not coming to the thing tonight - She's all about the wanting to feel better thing, and I support that decision. On top of which, this is just B-roll - As long as we get me and the band and some general color and motion, we're good.)

In addition to feeling a "tinge of sadness" over this time almost being over, I'm feeling a growing nervousness over the cast party back in LA on Tuesday. It's not like I've never been to a cast party before - but I've never been to this cast party, so I want it to go well (For me personally, and also in terms of perhaps priming people to participate in the documentary, should we be allowed on the set and what-not).

Anyway, I could go on, but time is fleeting, and we have the thing tonight, so I think I'm going to "call it good".

Till next time...

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