This has been an unlucky week for my wallet. I accidentally knocked off my driver’s side-view-mirror, which will probably cost me $300-400 to replace, and received two $38 parking tickets (one which I didn’t realize I had been in error and am paying uncontested; the other I disagree with and am fighting). Then I was at the Apple store because my DVD drive has been on the fritz… they informed me to my surprise that my AppleCare hadn’t expired and they would replace it for free. Just as I was thinking to myself “hooray, I’ve probably saved about two hundred bucks”, I lost my grip on my phone and in less than a second its face shattered on the floor (their stone tiling was apparently more rugged than the InvisibleSHIELD cover it wore). A replacement cost me two hundred bucks. Then I made it home and found a ticket in my mail from a red light camera that depicts me doing a rolling right turn… $124 if I decide to pay it, although I think I may fight it. All in all one of the most unintentionally expensive weeks I’ve had… I can afford it, but I can’t afford too many more weeks like it. It feels like the world is nickel-and-dimeing me to death… I’m trying to avoid spending excessively but it’s hard.
In that vein, I just ordered a wall mount for my television, something I’ve been thinking of getting for quite a while and was on sale for only $26 (so how could I resist?). I’m a little nervous because these things need to be properly secured to a stud, and I’ve never been too trusting of my stud finder. So I may have to spend more money on a better stud finder as well. Sigh.
The creation myth of how I got my hair style is short but interesting if you’re one of the many legions of fans I like to believe I have. I’ve always hated my hair since I was old enough to care about what girls thought of me… if I let it behave naturally it parts in a way that makes me look like I’m in third grade. In high school I tried gelling it back but didn’t really know what I was doing and it just made it look stupid. In university I wound up giving up entirely and shaved my head for several years (I was repeatedly told I had a “good head” for shaving). I eventually let it grow back out again and returned to gelling it back, but never liked it.
Then shortly after I moved to New York City, I found myself commuting home on the subway one day when I saw someone with hair straight forward but gelled up to be spiky in the front, and thought to myself, “hey, I could do that with my hair.” So I proceeded to stare intently at the top of his head for the entire half-hour subway ride, burning the image into my brain and quite possibly weirding out any number of patrons. The next morning I whipped out some gel and attempted to sculpt what I remembered. To my surprise it worked and – in my humble opinion – actually looked good on me. I’ve since worn it or variants of it depending on the length of my hair, and been pretty content with it.
I’m right now at the length where I would normally chop it back down again, but on the recommendations of some ladies I trust I’ve been piloting out something new, which is letting my hair grow long and just flop forward without any gel. I must confess I’m not very comfortable with it… it seems dumb-looking to me, but I’ve already had a few compliments, so I’m giving it a shot. I don’t know if I have the willpower to stick it out, though. Change is so very scary.
We had our first couple of rehearsals for Cannibal this week. It looks like it’s going to be fun, but it’s hard to get past what a deliberately dumb show it is. Our rehearsal period is very short – we only have twelve on the schedule, and just about everyone except myself is going to be absent from a bunch of them – so I just hope we don’t wind up turning the quality of the script into an excuse for the quality of our performance. It’s far too soon for me to be making any assumptions there, though.
In the world of improv, it seems I can’t get cast in a Theatresports show lately. Granted my schedule hasn’t been as open as usual and there have apparently been a lot of teams calling in (which is the preferred route to getting cast), but I still feel a bit slighted. Both last night and tonight I did the 8:30 show, though, which is just short form with the new apprentices to the company, and they were both a lot of fun, and the apprentices are a very solid bunch. It’s amazing how much I miss doing improv after being absent only for a while.
After a week of cool, damp and thoroughly mediocre weather today was a beautifully hot and sunny Saturday. The meteorologists are calling it “summer’s last hurrah”. If I had faith in higher powers I would think they used this week to set us up to appreciate it. One of my more enterprising friends thought to have a barbecue at the Golden Gardens beach, and while I could only attend for about an hour it was a good time and a chance to get caught up with some old friends from Griptonite. I miss those folks, and I will miss summer.
Dan.
