Okay, I'm on vacation. Being at home is supposed to be restful. Let's just say it is not, no, not so much.

Leaving here on the 5th to do the job in North Carolina, I got them to offer more money and some perks. The money still stinks, but Rachel really wants to do it and what else are we gonna do? Financial need deems that some money is better than no money.

Home is kinda rough. It's been a rough year for my family. When I was last home, last Christmas, I woke up New Year's Day on a friend's couch to a phone call from Mom, Grandpa had died that morning. Started things off with a bang.

Speaking of bangs, in February (or March, not sure) my sister and all the various nieces and nephews she had with her in her van were in an amazingly violent accident none of them should've survived. They've been in and out of the hospital to varying degrees all year, but the upside is that my sister should've been killed and was saved by her seat belt - as was her then-unborn daughter.

THEN my uncle Richard, who helped introduce me to my love of sci-fi, and I do mean to phrase it that way, died of cancer which had supposedly been in remission a couple of months later.

THEN my crazy aunt who had lived with my non-deceased grandparents to take care of them discovered she had cancer a few months later. She used to be "haha, what fun" crazy, now she's "what in God's name are you talking about" crazy. She's not easy to be around, and she moved in with my parents. I haven't had a moment alone with my parents, to speak of. I miss them, and I'm here. To top it off, though she's more than financially able, she doesn't contribute anything financially - even to her own keep. I can't explain how that works.

So... that'll be enough to cap a year for anyone, I think. I come home once a year, lately (I aim for more), and though I knew it all happened as it happened I was home for little of it - just my Grandpa, God rest his soul. All of this hits me at once.

I spent the first two days home kinda depressed. Then the laptop made me happy. I'm so frickin' shallow. And poor, now...jesus christ...

Happy birthday yesterday to a friend so close and old I wouldn't hesitate to call him a brother, Dustin Gaines, who now has (count'em) 364 days to Carousel.

Oh, and by the way - for some reason the "Comments" link now reads "Poseurs"... so keep in mind it isn't a value judgement.

There are moments in life which are subtly thrilling during which I hear the quickened theme from the Trench Run is STAR WARS constantly in my head.

Yesterday had a few of them, all basically unimportant.

First, my old friend Dustin and I went to lunch at my favorite restaurant, Willie C's (used to be a chain, now I think there's only one left). When we went in, the snow was gently falling and it wasn't really all that cold. When we exited with our distended abdomens, there were essentially 10 million snowballs falling from the sky at any given moment. Huge wet flakes wreaking havoc over the city, making it difficult to crawl along. The music comes into my head for the first time as we avoid the maze of inexperienced city snow drivers who seem to spin out only immediately in front of us.

Next, we went to the nearby Circuit City and Best Buy to avoid this hoohah. The rigamarole. The bugaboo. All that stuff. Dustin needs a VCR for his Grandma (yes, he's just that kinda guy - the spontaneous eldergifter of legend), I'm thinking about treating myself to a new cellphone to update the old brick on my hip. It actually is a brick, by the way - that's not a metaphor. Anyway, before we leave Circuit City I have a new laptop. I do not make the kind of money to be able to make several hundred dollar impulse purchases. It really wasn't total impulse buying, but near enough. As I have palpitations about spending the money, the music comes in again.

I'm living an adventure.

A terribly dull adventure.

Well, I guess it's been a really long while, hasn't it? How 'bout a wrap up and a catch up?

Well, the tour is over and it was a lot of fun if not perhaps as financially lucrative as it might be. Great houses.

I met some of the greatest people I've ever worked with, my only regret is that I didn't get to know many of them better. Oh, and also that the video they made of our show was done at the beginning of the run. I watched it tonight.

Great people. Brianna, OtherDon, Julie... Ross... Scott... so many. I can't name them all but those are an important few. Those names mean nothing to any of you anyway. Miss 'em already.

Even some of the crap movies we watched on the bus...

We finished our tour in Rapid City SD to sold out 2000+ size crowds ina great house with a wonderful tech crew (complimenting our own.

Then the company party, then a repeat of the drunken hotel karaoke of the previous night. We rule! My "Delilah" made Tom Jones sweat somewhere. Who am I kidding, he's always sweating.

Then Rachel, Ross, and I piled in the waiting car at the drop off in Omaha to drive to Kansas City for Rachel's flight today at 9:30. I drove Ross to Wichita and then came here...
Burns, Kansas. The farm. A little more "farm"y than I remember, but.. it's been a year and things are being remodeled. I drove up to see a broken down beaten up old car in the driveway, next to the other, less beaten old car. I thought my parents had fallen on much harder times and not mentioned it. No, it was my little nephew's. He, who is now 18, I still see as 9, maybe 12. Anyway...

Funniest thing since I've been home, I wish I was making this up. To preface, my mom is nearly deaf in one ear and right now has an ear infection in the other.

ME: Mom, what's wrong with the TV (sound very distant, fuzzy)

MOM: What?

ME: What's wrong with the sound on the TV? (Pointing now to strange sounds coming from Flintstones Christmas Carol)

MOM: Oh, that started to go out a few months ago.

ME: How do you stand it?

MOM: What?

ME: How do you stand it?

MOM: The closed captioning still works, so it doesn't bother me.

ME: How does Dad stand it?

At this point she smiled and walked away.

ALSO ... Got a job offer yesterday, literally as I was stepping off of the tour bus, to do "Annie Get Your Gun" in NC with Gary Sandy (That's Andy Travis from WKRP fro those of you not up on pop culture.)

Trouble is, the offer is for very little money and it starts January 7. That cuts into my home time. Also, I'd have to change my UPTA slot to Monday, and I wanted Sunday for a reason to make hitting the callbacks easier. Don't know what to do. Still dealing with the effects of the Richmond debaucle, paying for a useless apartment in a city we aren't living in anymore and in which there is no viable work to be had. What the hell? I'm hoping the Christmas spirit will hit the Scrooge who stuck me in this situation and it'll go away. Or other things in the works will take hold. Anyone with January work for decent $ is encouraged to contact me NOW.

I hope everyone is somewhere they want to be with people they want to be with tonight, or will be soon. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all the world.

So, any questions?