Frustrated Writer

It's been a busy three weeks, and my body doesn't know when to sleep or wake anymore.
That's okay.
I've had a lot of fun!

MID OCTOBER WEEK
After Nick & Amy returned to Johnson City, I:

• did some freelance interviews
  
• attended an all-day educational event on networking technology
  
• traveled to Jacksonville to help run an all-day event
  
• attended a theatrical event presented in the living room of an urban condo with gal pals
  
• rewrote and refilmed a few scripts for a short series I wrote
  
• attended a Novello lecture by Kevin Clash (the voice of Elmo) with Chris

In Jacksonville, I got to have dinner with a former co-worker after the event rehearsal. He took me to a happy, beachy, laid-back restaurant directly on the Intracoastal Waterway where I could feast on fresh seafood. After dinner, we saw the moon reflected in clear water and watched a boat pass. We talked politics from very different sides of the fence and found some interesting points of agreement... especially a mutual admiration for former Virginia Governor and current U.S. Senatorial candidate Mark Warner. And on the way home, he took the long way so we could swing by the beach and I could get my toes in the sand. Heaven! It's wonderful when friends create a nice experience for you, and assume the role of host so gracefully.

The Kevin Clash lecture was also wonderful. Here's a bulky, muscular, black man... and out of him comes the squeaky charm of Elmo?!? Gotta love it. Clash brought an Elmo, of course, and there were a few kids in the audience, even though the invite made clear this event was for adults (to be followed the next day by an event for kids.) My eyes uncontrollably welled with tears as he talked to the kids through Elmo -- about favorite foods, favorite people, and more -- and helped Elmo hug them. Each child told Elmo they loved him in their own innocent but intense way. Again... I think it's so beautiful when human beings go to such great lengths to identify an individual's more subtle, unexpressed, very human needs... many of them perhaps psychological... emotional... and respond to them.

The week wasn't all teary-eyed moments, of course. The play was funny, quirky. It's interesting to have actors performing a 90 minute work directly in front of your knees. Megan said it was like being a fly on the wall, and that's about right. One key to making the audience feel comfortable: the actors made eye contact with each other, but not the attendees. No small feat, in such a tiny room. I'd never really thought about such things before.


LAST FULL WEEK OF OCTOBER
It was a week on the go:

• hit the U.S. National Whitewater Park with Megan and Starla on Sunday... and was the first of only two people in our 7-person raft to fall in... but was the only one to fall out outside of an actual rapid
  
• stayed up all night Sunday writing two freelance articles
  
• took a shower and hopped a plane to Las Vegas (my first time there!) with Chris first thing Monday morning, immediately after finishing the aforementioned articles
  
• worked remotely two days of the week (including one 12-hour day), but otherwise spent most of the week drunk and/or eating
  
• gambled away $100 of someone else's money
  
• spent a day walking around the strip with a new friend
  
• enjoyed a day in the sun at Mandalay Bay's wave pool, sprawled across a lounge chair directly facing the breaking "surf"
  
• enjoyed the view from our hotel room at Mandalay Bay
  
• enjoyed long baths in the ginormous tub in our hotel room at Mandalay Bay, all while watching the hotel's "Shark Vision" TV channel, which broadcasts a stream from inside their aquarium/reef
  
• got propositioned as a casino call girl -- but Chris overheard this one... I didn't, and apparently kept on walking... and clearly he needs to get to big pimpin' and stuff
  
• overheard portions of a conversation involving 2 guys in the adjoining hotel room, who argued about the cost of their own call girls and how to get sufficient funds from their ATM cards to procure aforementioned call girls
  
• rode all the rides atop Stratosphere with my brother, Adam
  
• fell in love with Viva Vision at Fremont Street
  
• saw clouds of smoke rolling in over the mountains -- from the California fires, according to our cab driver -- on the day we left Vegas
  
• traveled to Asheville to celebrate Chris's birthday, including 2 concerts at The Orange Peel (the They Might be Giants and New Pornographers shows); shopping at Malaprops, Tops for Shoes and other places; watching the new Wes Anderson flick, The Darjeeling Limited, at the Fine Arts Theatre (which I HIGHLY recommend... both the movie **and** the theatre); and eating fabulous, mouth-mesmerizing meals at Tupelo Honey Cafe, Bistro 1896 and other perennial hot spots (where Chris and I would usually unwittingly plan to order exactly the same menu item... hilarious... great minds...)

On our last morning at the Haywood Park Hotel, we received a call from the front desk. Someone had called in a bomb threat, they said. Not a particularly credible one, mind you... they didn't intend to evacuate the building... but the police were inspecting hotel rooms just in case.

I decided it was a good time to put on some clothes.

As I opened the door to remove the "Do Not Disturb" sign, I saw a few police officers and -- presumably -- the property manager walking the floor.

Chris has decided we probably shouldn't stay in hotels over his birthday anymore. The last time we did, someone pulled a fire alarm at 3am, and the hotel couldn't reset it properly, so the alarm kept going off through the rest of the early morning.... which might not have even been so bad except that the alarm system was attached to VERY BRIGHT STROBE LIGHTS in each and every room to get the occupant's attention. It was a bit like a supernova on the wall.


HERE AND NOW
It's a work-intensive week:

• a day of filming some scripts I wrote for a work project
  
• two days supporting script and teleprompter at all-day events in a series
  
• working on other stuff by evening and morning, as I'm able, with a good full day at my desk coming up
  
• possibly heading to Atlanta on Friday night to visit Danny, perhaps see my friends Karen & Tanna's new baby(?) and definitely to attend a networking conference at Agnes Scott College, my alma mater

Somewhere in all of this, I need to get the Prius examined by a professional. It's developed the interesting flaw of blacking out the speed and fuel gauges whenever I turn my headlights on... only to reappear in easy view the moment I turn the headlights off again.

Finally -- throughout these months I've come to realize that I'm hardwired to like audio/visual support staff members who work on events/concerts/shows, much the same as I seem to be genetically pre-disposed to adore other members of the working media, like journalists, magazine writers, art designers who work on periodicals, television and video crew members and talent, etc., etc. I've had to work with three different sets of people on events since August.... all of the individuals unique in personality, work habits and quirks, but with a common undefinable ~something~ nevertheless... and I have ABSOLUTELY loved each and every one of them. Some have been more dear than others. Some have also, say, taught me more about music than others. But they've all been a blast to hang out with. Supporting events can be scary and stressful, but these new acquaintances and friends have made the work fun. Hurrah!

At the moment, I am sitting here, in a "fairy godmother" costume, waiting for Trick-or-Treaters to show up. It's nearly 9pm, and we've only had one visitor this evening... a 3-year-old boy in a Spiderman costume. EVERY year, I buy a ton of candy. This year, I also bought lights, made signs, drew pumpkins in chalk on the sidewalk. "If it looks like we're 'open for business,' we'll get more visitors this year," I reasoned.

Yeah.
Not so much.

Last year was WONDERFUL. Chris and I went to help manage the flood of trick-or-treaters at Richard & Jenn's house just off Main Street in Concord. We drank, partied, handed out candy. Trick-or-treater bliss. But this year, Rich and Jenn live in Colorado. As I sit here, feeling sorry for myself, I am sure they are having a wonderful time and I am sure that future Halloweens will improve, as we plan to move to a house within an as-yet-undefined span of time.

I also can't feel too sorry for myself.
Evelyn -- my basset hound -- has a little cyst removed from his eyelid while we traveled last week. Now, to improve his healing, he's wearing a cone on his head.

For anyone who's forgotten what, exactly, that looks like, see the conehead dog pics from long ago. Bottom line: head cones are not made for basset hounds. My poor puppy... he is drowning in his own ears.... again....