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8:33 am - Wed 4/17/02
And sometimes life is not so bad...
(A quick note to "S.R."; Thanks for your nice comments in my guest book.)

Thinking I need to do laundry this morning, in order to have a clean "costume" for the "final dress" of the show tomorrow (When I get home from work tonite, I'll be wanting to watch "The West Wing", then "Ed", which I will have taped. Then I'll be up and out the door fairly early tomorrow morning, for my first "morning shift" at work in God-knows-how-long. Then it'll basically be straight from work to the dress).

I just e-mailed Cary a short time ago, to, amongst other things, let him know about the show.

I basically told him I felt I was fulfilling my obligation to the production by telling him the dates and times and so forth, then told him--"personally"--that I didn't feel like he HAD to come. I'm just feeling like it's a lot to ask of people, to spend $15 or more essentially just to SUPPORT me (I don't think there's going to be enough "entertainment value" going on for it to be anything OTHER than charity, and that makes me uncomfortable).

I'm kinda wanting to "go incognito" on this one, and have the handful of people I WANT to see me in something see me in something I feel BETTER about. Know what I'm saying?

(And Chris just called on my cell phone. He's planning on coming this Friday. We also made plans to get together sometime during the day, since it's my day off.)

ANYWAY...

Logistical issues about the show have been hanging me up. I should call Mark, for example, and ask him if they've got anyplace to store things--Costume, makeup, etc--because I've been stressing over how I'm going to DEAL with that crap, bike rider that I am (My sense of it is that there IS no "storage space", since there's not much space, PERIOD).

I'm also wondering about makeup. I've always lacked confidence in that department, and besides that, it's a VERY small theater (35 seats), so a little makeup is going to go a VERY long way. But my character description on the flyer is "an insightful old man", and from the information the show provides, the character has to be at least 60 years old. And maybe I'm FLATTERING myself, but I don't think I LOOK 60 years old.

(Just called Mark. Left a message.)

I worry about little things like this. I worry about them so much sometimes that it eats away at whatever PLEASURE I might derive from "the process" itself. But as I just said to Jane recently, shows ALWAYS go up; They may not be everything we'd HOPED they would be, but they're rarely the disaster we often THINK they're going to be during rehearsal.

_________________________________________________

One source of upset for me lately was that my bike, after little more than a week out of the shop ($70 for ANOTHER rear tire, spoke replacements, new brake pads and new pedals), had started acting up again (The rear wheel seems prone to getting knocked "out of alignment" at the slightest opportunity. It'll start to wobble, with the tire rubbing against the side of the bike, which leaves me afraid it's going to either stop turning altogether, or else fall off in the middle of traffic. It's the fourth time it's happened in recent months. And I SWEAR I'm not doing TRICKS or anything. All I'm doing, by and large, is riding it to and from work).

Anyway, I was VERY unhappy about having to go in so quickly on the heels of my LAST visit. And while the biggest bills have been in double-digits (As opposed to the TRIPLE-digits of pretty much ANY car repair), it's still anxiety-producing.

As I was telling people at work yesterday, I seem to have two "modes" at the bike shop; I'm either "Angry, Frustrated, Vaguely-Suspicious Guy" ("You guys are either ripping me off or else you're incompetent. Now which IS it?") or "Helpless, Depressed, Poor Guy" ("I just don't know what to DO. I can't AFFORD to be in here all the time. Maybe I'm too POOR to even ride a BIKE in LA...").

Well, I opted for "Mode #2" yesterday--I try to keep "Mode #1" to myself--and it actually WORKED; "John" took the bike into the back, changed another spoke or two, did whatever else needed to be done, put the wheel back on, and handed the bike back to me about twenty minutes later, free-of-charge.

(Thank you John, for renewing my faith in humanity...)

(I'm having the temptation to call in sick to work, because I'm feeling really tired and vaguely "morning sick-ish". But I probably won't. Not because I'm such a great guy, but mostly because I always think I'd better SAVE those "sick days" for an emergency, like actual SICKNESS, or needing the day off for an audition, or something like that.)

Anyway, the bike thing brightened my day considerably. It made me feel better about the bike shop, about my bike, and about life in general. "Sometimes nice things DO happen, Jim", I thought to myself, "And you need to REMEMBER that".

I went from the bikeshop straight to work (The big APPEAL of this bike shop--I. Martin Imports-- is how close it is to work; I can take it in and walk to work, or walk there from work, pick up my bike, and ride home).

And, buoyed by the money I DIDN'T end up having to spend, and the inconvenience I DIDN'T have to go through (They often do whatever needs to be done right away, but sometimes they're backed up, and it takes days to get the bike back), I started the work day with a smile on my lips and a song in my heart.

I talked to Padric briefly. He'd recently put a notice up about his departure, and it felt AWKWARD to me, to just not SAY anything, so I brought it up, and I have to admit, I was pretty impressed with myself--I managed to be kind and thoughtful without saying anything that, in my mind, would have been DISHONEST ("We'll really miss you. The store won't be the same without you," etc and so on).

It was a nice exchange, and he said something that actually made ME feel good; he said "You're one of the hires I've been most HAPPY with."

Thanks Padric...

The rest of the day passed pleasantly, without too much incident.

I did have TWO celebrity contacts yesterday. At the beginning of my shift, I helped Fred Savage find collectible books on watches, and in the early evening, I helped Janel Maloney (From "West Wing"), and finally had the chance to tell her how much I enjoy her on the show.

Well, I'm running ever-so-slightly LATE here, so I have to fly...

 

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