The Skinny

On Friday I get to go to LA for a week! That is going to be great.
My friend Phillip already has a party lined up for me to go to on Friday night.

But, I haven’t done quite the prep work I wanted to, and suddenly have lots I need to accomplish before Thursday night.

Gonna be a fun week.

I should have some good posts next week, though. Woo hoo!

I tried the MacAllan, by the way. Pretty good. It’s sweet, yet peaty and a little bitter. The Glenfiddich goes down a lot easier, that’s for sure.

I went to a Carnevale last night.
That’s the ancient (5000 year-old) Egyptian festival that was coopted by the Italians (I think) a couple hundred years ago.

So here we are in Greensboro, NC having one.

Essentially it’s a masked Venetian ball. They had performers (jugglers, fire twirlers, hoopers, dancers, nude-body paint-ees (and -ers)), food, cash bar, vendors, DJs (playing such medevial hits as “Play That Funky Music, White Boy” and “My Hips Don’t Lie”) and a general spectacle.
Lots of nifty costumes, and some not-so-nifty, and some just not. Unless you count denim overalls over a red shirt as a costume.
I wore a kilt, my friend Adrienne wore a lovely dress that fit the part perfectly. We had dinner in the house of Capulet, and there was another dinner down the hill a bit in the house of Montague, and Romeo and Juliet were there and stuff.
And never mind that the setting for that tragic romance was actually Verona.
Or, as my sister put it in reference to my kilt, “Gotta love those Scottish Capulets”.

We had fun.

How often do you get to see a man in knight’s armor wandering around with a Bud Light? That’s what I thought.

Quite the entertaining evening, and Adrienne was great person to spend it with because she’s as laid back as I am (or more so), but likes to dance.

As a result of wearing the kilt (I wore a pseudo-kilt at the Christmas Castle as a performer), I actually bought a kilt today (http://www.utilikilts.com). It’s very freeing to wear one, and I plan to start wearing it out and about.

Anyway. That’s that.

Oh, by the way, I found my credit card.

I lost a credit card today. That’s not good.

But, I had a good day at work. Tried on a kilt I’ll be wearing on Saturday, and it fit. Played some fun Ultimate in Winston - even got some battle scars from diving after a disc on the “grass” (think broken glass, but less comfortable).
Then I called someone I haven’t spoked with in 3 or 4 years. We had a great conversation.
Karrie was a student of mine back when I was thinking of becoming a priest (over 7 years ago now). She was in a terrible car crash a few years ago, and I managed to stay in touch a bit during that time. But then I got distracted and hadn’t called in a long time.
She is doing great - getting a nursing degree and enjoying the cold weather in Pittsburgh. She wasn’t at all annoyed that I mentioned having the A/C on in a car today because it was so warm.

Anyways. A good day.

Now I gotta cancel that credit card…

This happened over a week ago, but since I then jumped feet-first into the video project, I had no time to write about it.

I was having lunch with a friend, and I uncharacteristically ordered a bottle of root beer with my meal. I always get water - soda, with all it’s corn-syrup and chemicals, is not something I like so much. But, I got a bottle of Jones’ root beer.

It was OK.

But the bottle cap had a little phrase on the underside. Call it a fortune if you will, but I found it to be True.
It said:
Your mind, being creative and original, will make you famous.

Which is true.

I was inspired by the little cap. So much so that I kept it. For a couple days. But then I lost it.

Still - True.

Actually, it’s for MacAllan.

I was at a client’s checking their computers as I often do. I spied a bottle of MacAllan single-malt and the following exchange took place:

ME: Who’s the lucky person who gets the Scotch?
L: Well, it was left for Joe, but he doesn’t drink Scotch. Do you?
ME: Yes. I love it.
L: Take it. It’s yours.
ME: flubeergagas?
ME (moments later): Thank you!

I still haven’t tasted it, but it’s bound to be good!

Jason

I like ice cream.

I have Breyer’s Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup and All That And Caramel in my freezer right now. The Reese’s ain’t as good as it sounds, sadly.
I also have Reese’s Klondike Bars. Those are as good as they sound.

You know where they have good ice cream?

Scotland.

It’s absolutely amazing. I may have to go back there just to get some.

They also have good beer, and I just burped a “Sam Adams Winter Lager - Breyer’s Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup” burp. That wasn’t so good.

I think my next post will be about drinking, since I didn’t start until I was 35.

I’m a huge Joss Whedon fan.
For the unitiated, he created “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel”, and then did a little something called “Firefly”.
“Firefly” is probably the best show ever put on television. I highly recommend it.
He also writes comic books, and has written the scripts to one or two movies you may have heard of (”Toy Story”, “Speed” (though he wasn’t credited for that), and others).

Anyway, he directed “The Office” tonight.

Well, OK, he didn’t direct it tonight. That would imply it was live. The episode he directed was on tonight.

It was the first television show he’s directed since “Angel” went off the air three years ago.

And it was brilliant. My first thoughts about him directing a sitcom, especially one like “The Office” which practically directs itself, was that it wouldn’t make much difference. No one would be able to tell.
For the most part, that was true. It was the usual subtle mugging of the camera, in jokes, personality clashes and uncomfortable humor that fans of the show have come to expect.
But he always manages to elicit great performances from everyone, and the show went from laugh-out-loud funny to gut-wrenchingly honest and painful because of the work of the cast.
Of course, there was the great bat segment, that parodied Buffy and Angel. I hurt myself laughing at that. But Michael’s realization that he was set up at the lecture, and then the poignant ending with Pam at the art show were very touching. We also got another hint into why Michael does what he does - it’s for the people he works with.
It was subtle, but the “Joss Whedon Touch” was definitely there.

OK, this is getting long.
Rent “Firefly”. You won’t regret it.

(One of my movie-related dreams/goals is to work with Joss Whedon someday.)

That’s not a typo, that’s how my brain feels right now.

I got a fun gig making a video for the client of a client, and I spent most of the weekend trying to figure out how to do it, and then some of the weekend actually doing it.

Meanwhile, my little sister got a horse! On Friday at 3 she was delivered. The horse, not my sister. It’s a mare called “Flare” and she’s black and fairly docile. She’ll be used for equine therapy for my niece, and for riding for my sister. And hopefully me at some point.

Other than that, not too much to report.

I’ll have something better here when the brain clears up in a day or so.

My 36th birthday fell on February 2 this year, just like all the rest of my birthdays. But this year was going to be different!
For one thing, I have started taking Fridays off from work so I can concentrate on moving my career into the film-world. And February 2 was a Friday.
For another thing, I started drinking for the first time in my life last year the week after my 35th, and I was determined to make the most of the fact that people still think it a novelty to see me drink.
I had the plan - cake at my place, followed by a seige on the watering holes of downtown Greensboro. I had the people - some friends, cousins and family. I had the desire - for lots of drink and dancing.
The evening started with me cooking dinner for my parents and younger sister, her husband and my neice. That’s right, I cooked. I like to cook.
Then people showed up for cake. I had a special person preparing a special cake (no wheat) with special frosting (mmm - caramel) that took a wee bit longer to cool than she anticipated. So the cake arrived just about when we were ready to hit the town. But it was wonderful - one of the best cakes ever. We all had a piece and then hit the road.
By the way, my parents got me a bottle of Glenfiddich Special Reserve (Scotch) and we opened it up to pass the time while we waited for the cake. It is magnificent.
So - it was off to McCoul’s for an “Irish Car Bomb” to start the evening. That’s a half pint of Guiness and a shot of Jameson’s Irish Whisky mixed with Bailey’s. You drop the shot in the stout and down it quickly before it curdles. Quite fun.
This is a good time to point out that my parents, both sisters and one brother-in-law were along for the adventure. First time out drinking with the fam! Except my mom doesn’t drink, but she still had a blast.
We went to a 70s-80s dance club called “Inferno” and danced for a couple hours. My big sis had tied a “Happy Birthday” balloon to my butt, and I got lots of attention as a result. And a free shot of Goldschlage (which is German, and translates into English roughly as “yuck”).
Back at the Burro (my favorite Greensboro bar) we played some Cornhole.

(I may need to explain that. Cornhole is a mid-western game played with corn-filled bags (beanbags, but with corn) that are thrown at a hole cut into a board. I cross between horseshoes and a carnival skill game, with a borderline inappropriate name).

I’m leaving out the best parts - which were just being with a bunch of neat people all night. Can’t really describe that.

Overall, one of the best birthdays ever! And I wasn’t hung over at all the next day!

I’ve had several folks tell me recently that they missed reading the blog I did when I went to Scotland. So, I figure, maybe people will actually read this.
Even though the trip to Scotland was actually interesting, and all you’re likely to get here is “went to work, came home, checked email”.

That’s depressing.

OK. It won’t be like that, because I’m more interesting than that, by golly.

For example, how many people do you know who actually use the phrase “by golly”?

That’s what I thought.

Stay tuned.