Everybody's working for the weekend

Sometimes, I have to admit, I think my life looks a lot better on paper than it actually is.

Yesterday we had three shows of MOTOR CITY, the first of which was low energy all around and a horrible refresher course for me. The second two were much better and more solid. Three shows is unusual but for the holiday crowds, since MOTOR CITY is in a venue with less seating, we're obliged to do three. Anyway... going back...

The new cast, "my" cast, finally arrived to begin their handover process on Saturday in LA. The other guest ents and I went out for drinks and dinner Saturday night, winding up with most of the cast in a crew bar until late late late. A good night, and I think it will be a good contract.

Because of that night, Saturday, I had to really work to rouse myself and be ready for the shows. "No drinking tonight," says I. Considering that tonight's New Year's Eve and the obvious carousing to be done, a night off is advisable.

Then I ran into a couple of people, including Joe, the other male guest entertainer, and Andy, the production manager from the Vista. Joe has been working with this company for 12 years. Andy - get this - was the bass player for Loverboy. No, really. Last night we hit the officer's wardroom and... it was another long, great night. Tonight, several of us are going for dinner at six, and I think the night will continue from there. This is exhausting.

Let me go back for a moment... yes, I drank Jack & cokes til two thirty in the morning last night with the ex-bassist from Loverboy. He is now a sound engineer yet is still friends with people you'd be amazed to hear about.

It's funny, I've been having a number of bad dreams all week and today I woke up feeling like someone had punched me in the gut, spiritually. Writing about this, though, has reminded me that at least in the retelling of certain specific events, my life at least SOUNDS good right now.

For a brief ridiculous moment, I used an emoticon on my blog just after that last sentence. I am trying to limit my overall use of the :) and its friends because I'm starting to see them too much. In fact, I was part of a conversation two or three days ago where someone actually used one while speaking. It went:

"somethingsomethingsomething smiley face"
"What was that?"
"What?"
"Smiley face?"
"You know, like in an email when you want someone to know you're happy or kidding or something."
"Yes, in an email. Not when you're actually sitting here talking to me. Angry face with tongue out."

Happy New Year, one and all, to some in particular. For the Don team, 2006 was a disaster. 2007 was a rebuilding year for the franchise. There are high hopes for a pennant in 2008.

(I have nothing to base that on, but at least it's optimistic.)

Where is that damned kid with the turkey?

I woke this morning after having been visited by three ghosts in the night. They didn't try to affect change in me, they just sat and dumped on me about how horrible it is to be dead and haunt the living and stuff. One of them drank my entire bottle of Sauvignon Blanc.

I tried to throw open the window like everyone always does on Christmas morning, in so many stories, but I hurt my hand on the screws before I realized it was probably unwise to sacrifice the seaworthiness of a vessel responsible for the lives of several thousand people for the sake of a Dickensian Christmas gesture.

There was no boy outside to shout to anyway, no one to head down to the butcher shop to deliver the prize turkey there to the Cratchit family. Just a few vendors from Diamonds International and some people who were paid to dress as a Mariachi band to take pictures with hung over tourists.

I dressed and stepped off the ship and out into the snow, except there was no snow, so I just stepped into the nothing.

Then I strolled down the street doffing my top hat at passersby, gleefully shouting "A MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU, SIR!" (or MA'AM, depending)... mainly gaining strange looks and "Que?" from people on the street.

A small boy gazed up at me and said "Dad, look, it's the singer!"

I tossed him a farthing, which in stories sounds like a pleasant gesture but in reality farthings weighed in excess of seventy pounds. It knocked him flat and paramedics were called. Luckily, I was off into the crowd before I could be identified.

I strolled off toward the local pub to wish the regulars a very happy season indeed, and eventually arrived st Starbucks where I unsheathed my Inspiron (not a euphemism for anything else) and sat down here for my Christmas breakfast of Panna con Xioccolatta e venti mocha latte and began to post forth here, blog blog blog.

God bless us, everyone.

Ho ho ho.

Tonight, two shows.

I have no considered opinon about Oprah Winfrey

"Christmas a humbug, uncle? You don't mean that, I'm sure!"

I have never been more the reluctant Scrooge than I am this year. If things continue as they have the last long while, I will be the picture of that old miser by the time I'm 60. What sucks is, I LOVE Christmas. I am just not in a merry vein this year, as many of you will understand. (If you don't understand, well, it's all a bit dull and personal and bleah.) I wasn't too full of yuletide cheer last year, either.

On top of everything, most of the gifts I ordered didn't ship in time because I bought a coffee in Mexico and that somehow flagged my bank account at exactly the wrong time. I have bought expensive items from questionable vendors in countries you've never heard of and never had my account shut off for security reasons... but one Mexican Starbucks frappuccino and slam go the doors...

I am in all the shows now! I have officially been crowbarred into all three shows, though I still feel I don't really know what I'm doing. The other night several of us went out to a couple of places onboard to celebrate, starting in a quiet bar and moving to the "Skywalker" disco which has nothing to do with Star Wars whatsoever. At around 3a.m. some of us adjourned to my cabin to order room service, of which somehow I got none. It was around four when I realized I was sitting on in my room with a Canadian, a South African, and (oddly enough) a fellow expatriate Kansan and listening to a heated debate about Oprah Winfrey. The Canadian videographer (fiancee to the other Kansan, who is another guest entertainer) was staunchly against Oprah's power, whilst the South African cruise staff guy actually went so far as to say that he thinks Oprah is more worthy of sainthood than Mother Theresa. "By far."

I had not had NEARLY enough to drink to contribute to this conversation, though I did treat myself to a VERY expensive glass of Scotch to salute my mad placement into the shows. Next week my "actual" cast will arrive and begin their install process.

The current group on here right now is really just the single most positive group I've ever dealt with. So positive in fact that it makes you suspicious... ;)

When the night is over, like a bat of hell I'll be gone, gone, gone

I have been in LA only hours short of a full week. My headbrain is full. (headbrain=new word, copyright 2007 DW, Inc., LLC.)

I arrived after a horrible Sunday of travel last week. Beginning last Monday they opened up my head and began to stuff shows into it. Learning them on my own and so quickly - in order to leave at a ridiculously early hour on Wednesday - is a bit mad.

I've been spending worthwhile time getting to know what seems like a very nice cast as well. It's been a full week, and a full weekend off. The shows are fermenting in my head. Besides the new cast, this weekend I have been seeing a number of friends I haven't seen in ...TEN YEARS or more. Surreal. It's amazing that while we've kept in close touch lo these many years I have seen neither Adriana nor Jon for so long. The great thing about them is that we're able to talk like no time has passed about matters of weight and... not really any weight at all. That means something.

I am listening to music as I write this, and I wrote other things... right now it's my whole library of twelve billion songs on shuffle... and three Meat Loaf songs have come on in a row. It's a bit ballad heavy in here.

For those of you who've ordered CDs this week they may be a little slow getting out but I WILL mail them ASAP. Thanks so much for your support!

A random video for your viewing pleasure.