High School Dreams

For the record, I have not ever had even the slightest bit of interest in attending my 20th high School Reunion. I never humored the prospect, never pretended it would be a "fun time", never even once gave it a moment's worth of consideration. I'll reiterate my opinion on the subject again.

ME: At my own expense, you want me to leave beautiful, sunny, EXCITING Las Vegas, Nevada to travel to not-so-beautiful, not-so-sunny, not-at-all-exciting Marengo, Illinois to hang out with people I don't like? (Side note, there are quite a few folks I do like, but generally I cannot count on those people being there. More likely the folks I truly don't give a crap about will be there. UGH!)

REUNION COORDINATOR: Um...Yeah.

ME: Why would I do that?

REUNION COORDINATOR: Well...There's going to be a cash bar.

You get the idea.

All this being considered I have been haunted by dreams about attending my reunion. All of these dreams hint at the great time I'm missing out on, knowing that I would HATE every waking minute of this event.

Don't give me ANY psycho-mumbo-jumbo about my subconscious telling me I really want to go. I would rather spend an eternity with my nuts in a meat grinder than one minute at the fucking American Legion hall (they couldn't even manage a nice hotel somewhere...because there AREN'T any for 35 miles) with a bunch of folks I've given not one second's worth of thought about since graduation.

I'm not curious to see who's gotten fat, who's gotten old, who'd gotten hot, and who's gotten bald. I have nothing in common with these folks other than our time at the school and the relative few I have kept contact with are all caught up. Where's the fun here?

Were I not married I'd surely go. I said the eve of graduation that the only thing that would get me to go would be the chance to bang everyone who wouldn't give me the time of day then. Many of the girls there have gone through a marriage/divorce/fat/hot cycle or two and would likely be happy to spend time with the guy who has all his hair, hasn't gained much weight since 1988, is doing exactly what he said he would do with his life, and has been on TV a few times. Were I a single man now, hell yeah I'd love to live out my acid-wash jeans/big hair fantasy. I'm funnier, smarter, and way more capable of pulling that one off now.

So last night's dream was the most fascinating to me. Prior to the dream I checked in to the Yahoo Group formed for the reunion (and from what I can tell practically nobody is really planning on attending...except the poor souls who never went more than 20 miles from the town) and saw a photo or two of a friend I'd not thought about in years. Well I haven't thought about any of these folks in years, but you get the idea. This guy was something of a smart-assed, closeted anarchist by my estimation and I was surprised (saddened) to see him all family guy these days.

So the dream featured me enjoying the reunion at a way cool hotel NOT in Marengo with all of the people I may have actually been curious to see again and I was having a blast. Not realistic at all. When I met "Brian" I was shocked to see him there and we got caught up a bit. I told him that he was among the last people I'd expect to see at such a lame function. His reply...

"Yeah I know. But don't you remember hearing about that Jay White guy in Colorado?(Jay White is some fictitious name my brain made up and so is the accompanying story that followed in the dream)"

"No," I said.

"Jay White was the guy who went to his own 20th high school reunion just so he could blow up the school."

"And why did this make you come here," I said, hoping he didn't have a detonator under his jacket.

"I wanted to see who the 'Jay White' of our school would be."

Hmmm.....

What's This?

It is a Southern Desert Horned Lizard, of course!
Saw this guy when we went to the Valley of Fire.
Photos of that some other time.

Nothing I Wanna Talk ABout Right Now

So enjoy some ridiculous photos

of me posing with adorable
Cookie Monster cookies.

An Update

Apologies for not giving you anything since the last post. Been pretty busy and until my schedule eases up a bit it will be more of the same.

The first show with the new act went very well. We have another show on the 28th and more after that. I'm looking forward to being able to announce my affiliation with the act and tell you more. I'm looking even more forward to working steadily again.

That being said, I am seeing the ceiling starting to crack with regard to my bookings in Vegas. I've got 5 gigs scheduled for September and the possibility of more to come. I also have about 4 scheduled for October and a few on hold. I can't say that it is all better and that I'll be as busy with gigs as I once was, but it is definitely improving a bit. Keeping fingers crossed for more to come.

I just purchased a way cool Vegas-centric souvenir to commemorate the first year April and I lived in Las Vegas. If you go to OfficialLasVegasLight.com you can see what i got. They offer actual light bulbs from the world famous Las Vegas sign that burned on the day you are looking to remember. For my money (and they're VERY reasonably priced when compared to other not so cool souvenirs) it is one hell of a great way to remember something special that happened in Las Vegas. We got a bulb from the one year anniversary of the microburst, March 31, 2008. I can't wait until it arrives!

I'm dropping my position as a tour guide for Big horn Tours. Thankfully, they've left the door open for a return should I need to go back. I like the job there better than Houdini's and it is truthfully a bit better for me with regard to the increasing gig schedule (they have day time hours and Houdini's will only schedule me at night) but the early starts at Big Horn coupled with the later nights from the corporate events (and maybe even a gig on the Strip...wouldn't that be cool?) might make it more difficult. So...Houdini's it is...for now. Since they're a W2 job and Big Horn isn't for now, that also makes a difference tax-wise and for a few other reasons. I'm not "happy" with the decision, but for now it makes the most sense.

With the new show and the other gigs starting to come in I have to begin to look at any job as temporary and that should make it a bit easier to hang on for a bit longer. I just wish I could be a full-time (and more successful) entertainer right now. I've really been enjoying the shows and realizing how much I miss performing more often.