Wednesday, May 21, 2008

The Weather

Well , it was mostly a glorious day , weatherwise, here in Boston . Most of the day , the sky was a bright blue with white puffy clouds. It was about 60 degrees and breezy. I walked around during lunch and it was just beautiful.
On our walk home, it started to rain and I just happened to have 2 umberellas with me. SO, my boss and I got kind of wet. My clothes are getting loose, I've lost about 12 pounds from all the walking. It's enough for me to feel it but it's not really enough for someone to notice . However, I feel like I'm walking around with a secret. A Secret except that I keep pulling my baggy pants up . .

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Yesterday & Today

Yesterday, for no particular reason, I awoke at 6 AM. I was wide awake and willing to get up and do something. I did a load of laundry, balanced my check book and did some recycling all before I really had to get up to go to work. I started the day with a real feeling of accomplishment. I got to work early , too. The day started slow and then got busy near the end . I did the door at the Comedy Studio , came home and was asleep before Steve Carel could say " Live From New York, It's Saturday Night !". It was a good day , but most of the big stuff was done by 8AM.
Today, I didn't awake nearly as bright eyed and bushy tailed. . . . .I fell into somem kind of time wormhole and left the house 10 minutes later than I thought I would. Though I got a late start , I was still the first one in to work and the next one in got there just as the church bells chimed the hour. It was pretty busy from the get- go and my mood turned fowl pretty fast. Nothing I could put my finger on, I just didn't want to be there. After I work a lot of weeks without a break, my little brain refuses to clear and it seems like I have a brain clogged with thoughts that should have been flushed already. A giant hair ball stuffing the drain to civility. At lunch , I asked the ranger to shoot me. He laughed. . ... that's just not nice. Then , after I had eaten my string cheese and started eating my sandwich , I got a call that they were short-staffed at one of teh convention centers and I was the only one available to cover the shift. Salvation ! Though I was wearing my uniform and I felt like a rag-a-muffin, I hoped my professional attitude would trump the cheesy polyester duds. I think I passed the muster.
Afterward, I headed over to the All Asia for "Cormier's Comedy Madness". It was pretty good, I did a couple of new ideas I had thought about in the last week. One was better than the other, if for no other reason , than it was more developed- but still not really a joke, but it's close and some days, that's got to be good enough. Britton Baugher was on the show, a guy that I've known for almost 20 years now. He used to be the door man at Catch a Rising Star in Harvard Square. He's also a pretty funny guy and he did stand-up tonight . It was nice seeing him.
So . ... .that's what 's happened recently. I'm tired and would love a couple of days off. I don't like feeling the bile backing up in my system. However , yesterday morning made me feel really good about myself. The upcoming week is going to be pretty busy. I'm just going to take it one day at a time as it comes. .. . and hope I don't stab anyone .. . ..

Monday, May 05, 2008

Catching Up Stuff

Palette of Putty
As most of you who read this know, I do "Extra" work on movies. Lately, thanks to our state's legislature, we have a lot of movies in production here in Massachusetts. Last year , I worked four times on movies. So far, I have worked on 4 movies in the last 3 months. When you work as a "Background Artist" you need to have a wardrobe that has a lot of muted colors;grays, browns blues, stuff that will get absorbed into the back ground. Next time you're watching a movie, look behind Kate Winslett at the mall and see if anybody pops out to you wearing yellow or neon green. You're probably not going to see it. I worked on the Ricky Gervais film last week and I never got "established", meaning I was too far in the background before they moved me to put a light where I was standing. I was wearing a brown jacket, brown pants , brown shoes and a muted purple (almost gray) shirt. I was on set 2 days and they never used me. Oh well, I'll always have putty. . . .
Closing Up Titty Park
Last week, I was working the booth and we were pretty busy all day. Near the end of the day I had a couple from Arkansas asking me questions. They were about my age, well dressed, maybe affluent or retired. They were asking questions and not really giving me enough time to respond to the one question before they started asking the next question. It was a getting a little hectic , they were good natured but it got a little hectic. They wanted to know about the Red Sox and the Celtics. I think there may have been a playoff game that night . The Celts play at TD BankNorth Garden. The Sox play at Fenway Park. There was a lot of banter. There was a Park Ranger standing behind because a Ranger needs to spend some part of the day visible in the canter, so , that's why he was there. Anyhow, one thing led to another and the husband asked me "What time does Titty park close ? " I'm Like "Excuse me ?" " How do I get to Titty park ? What time does it close ?" Me " I'm sorry sir ? What are you asking me ? " I can hear the Ranger behind me trying not to laugh. His eyes were popping out of his head from the strain. The husband was getting a little exasperated with me , thinking I'm making fun of his Arkansas accent "Titty Park ? Where the Celtics play ? Can I go there before the game ? " "Ohhhhh ! TD BankNorth Garden !!!! Yes, sir, you can ." They left and we laughed. The Ranger had to go and finish his rounds , but he didn't want to close "Titty Park".
A Night at the ER
Last Thursday, I was supposed to go see a play with my best friend and her husband. I went to the half-price ticket booth on my lunch hour. We were going to meet for dinner before the play. On the way to meet them, I got a message , the phone didn't ring , it just signaled that I had a message. It was my Mother " Dottie, I fell and there is a lot of blood can you come get me ? Oh , she's not answering the phone" and then she hung up . I called back , no answer. I called my brother and left a message for him. I'm a little panicky because she hasn't indicated where she is . I don't know who she was complaining about me to. Mostly , I don't know where she is or what happened. I called her back and left another message "Mum, I don't know where you are. Are you ok ? Call me back please." I called my brother again and told him Mum wasn't answering her cell phone. I got to the meeting place and waited. I waited for Mum to call me back and I waited for my friend and her husband to get there and I was also waiting to hear from my Brother. It was only about 5 or 10 minutes but it seemed like a long time. My Mother finally called me back. Her client's daughter had driven her home but that someone had to get her car and she wanted to go to the hospital to get checked out anyway. They got a new cat and Mum had picked up the cat . The cat didn't want to be picked up and she jumped out of Mum's arms and that threw Mum's balance and she fell onto the threshold and hit her head and her bum. She never lost consiousness she was just worried about the blood . She was shook up .
My friend showed up , I handed off the tickets. My brother called and I got him up to date and I headed home. My brother got home right before me. My Mother had an ice pack on her head and she was sitting up . She had a lot of blood on her head and some blood on her shirt. We went up to the hospital . We no longer have a hospital in the town of Arlington, I had to take her 2 towns over to Burlington. It's really only about a 15 minute ride. We got there around 7:45. We left there at 1:30 in the morning. Everybody was very nice and professional but nothing can happen in a linear fashion. Some one takes your information and then you go sit in the waiting room for 45 mintes. Then someone else does an intake and you wait another 45 minutes. She had a CAT scan and a pelvic X-Ray. She saw 2 doctors and 3 different nurses who all examined her. She's okay, but it was a long night. When the doctor said she could go home , we had her dressed in 5 minutes flat but we had to wait for somebody to give us discharge orders, that was another 45 minutes. She was laying on the hospital bed fully dressed with her bloody hat, shoes jacket and clutching her purse to her chest , waiting. We got the papers but we were so tired, we didn't read them until last night. I was supposed to wake her every 2 hours to make sure she was coherent. Too late ! She seems to be okay now. It was a long night.
In Conclusion
So . ... that's what's been going on. I was pretty busy all of last week. I did the door at the Comedy Studio Friday & Saturday night. The Walsh Brothers and James Patterson are in town. I worked at the booth yesterday and then finished the day working at one of the Convention Centers, yesterday was a long and tough day . I think I have "CFM" Chronic Floating Mysanthropy. I'm still tired and I would love to take the day off. I've done 2 loads of laundry so far today. I need to get the day staretd, but I wanted to get the blog updated. I hope you have a good day today. See ya