2003-05-29 - 10:51 p.m.

You May Uncross Your Fingers

It has been so long since I have written my diary.  First, I want to say thank you to each and every one of you who wished me well on my interview.  I had my interview.  I waited about a week, I contacted one of the interviewers and the next day he let me know that they were going to offer the job to one of their internal candidates.  I was disappointed.  I really wanted to quit my job and work somewhere else, but I also know that originally I wanted my next job to be a promotion and more money.  The job I interviewed for would have been the same money and a lateral job change.

So I felt bad for about a day and then I got over it.

This past week at work has been very quite.  I figured I would be forced into some sort of confrontation that would make me quit or be fired.  But for some strange reason everything sort of evaporated and evened out again.  It happens every single time.  Just as soon as I decided I will quit if one more word is said everyone shuts up.

I know it is a reprieve.  The inevitable is due soon.  My timing is always off.  I try to force these things to happen, but the Universe has other ideas.  There is nowhere you can be if it isn't where you're meant to be.  I think of that line often.

I just got home a few minutes ago.  I had another graduation show tonight.  It was great!  I really, really, really enjoyed it.  This time I did not keep it a secret from the guys I work with.  Kevin and his bride came. So did Viarum, Ben, Jamie, and John.  My friend Kay came and she brought her friend Melissa.  I really liked having them there.  They sat right up front and yelled loud and clapped for me and my improv team.

David would have come but his wife had a baby the other day.  I can't believe he is a daddy now.  He and I are about the same age, late 30's, and this is his first child.  His wife gave birth to a girl on Tuesday.

Tonight's show had a great audience.  All of the folks in my class broke up into two teams of improvisers and we competed against each other.  Our instructor, Chris was the MC. He had back surgery last week so he was a real trooper to show up.  Each team took turns on stage doing a scene.  Everyone was very funny.  I was weeded out in the warm up, but I lasted longer than most.  The warm up works this way.  All of us line up on stage. The audience gives a suggestion, like "famous bald men" and as the leader points to each of us we call out the name of a famous bald man.  If one stammers or makes a mistake the audience yells "die!" and he has to sit down until the last one is standing.  It is pretty fun.

I did a scene with an audience member that went over pretty well.  I picked Kevin's wife from the audience.  It made Kevin mad because he wanted to be picked.  I only picked her because she is absolutely beautiful and because Kevin told me the last time they went to a show she got picked from the audience.  Ha ha.

I had the best line in that scene.  It turned into a scene where I was making pizzas with booze in them. A customer came in and complained that his son's birthday pizza party had turned into a drunken brawl.  My scene partner wanted to give him a refund and I stopped him and said, "No refund!  His kid got a quality buzz!"

In another scene I was the interviewer for a one-voice interview.  That means two people sit next to each other and speak in one voice.  Neither knows what the other is going to say, but they have to figure it out as they go.  It is pretty funny watching them, and I got to be completely unfettered and ask all kinds of nutty questions.  The subject was basket weaving.  I laughed a lot during it.  The audience seemed to like it, too.

The audience votes by applause and my team won the night.  The other team did very well, too.

Behind the scenes, the Italian guy in my class missed the last session.  He had no idea what we were going to do or how it would work.  He kept asking questions and I kept telling him it would be fine.  When he went out on stage he was great and the audience loved him.  One of the women in the class kept telling me how horrible she was at improv, she was not looking forward to the show, she was not sure she would come out for it.  I kept telling her it would be fun but I didn't think she would show for it.

She did.  She was, of course, great.  She enjoyed it. After the show I said, "Ya see?  I told you so."  She just nodded.   And the young girl, the dancer, the sweet high school girl was visibly nervous before the show in the green room. That's right. We all got together in the green room before the show.  We were standing backstage just before we went out and she asked me if I was nervous.  I told her I was not.  And it was true.  I mean, it was an audience of our friends and family.  The stage is filled with actors.  What can go wrong?  Nothing.

So I distracted her. The show started.  We went for about 45 minutes and then had an intermission.  Just before the second part she was happy and dancing.  I asked her about being nervous and she said she was not and it was so much fun being on stage.

And it is fun being on stage.  It is fun being in the audience.  It is a positive experience.

After the show I talked to my coworkers and friends.  They were all smiling and happy. They told me how much they liked it. They asked me about the other people in the class and I talked about them.  I told them about the stalker.

Oh, about the stalker woman.  I think she is over me now.  The last time we met up she did not seem nervous or anything.  I am pretty sure she has had a good look at me and now considers me just a regular guy and not some guy to be stalked.  I just get the impression that she is not interested.

We all stood around after the show so we could talk about how great I am.  I am really glad they came.  John was especially complimentary.  I had another long talk with him yesterday.  I wish there was something I could do to help him.  He is one of the nicest guys in the world and we talked about how nice guys are always being taken advantage of.  He is one of those "still waters run deep" kind of guys.  You never hear him complain about anything, but he does reason things out pretty well and he can tell when he is getting gypped.  I just wish he understood how well qualified he is considering he is the architect of our entire system.

And I was not sure that Jamie would be there.  But he is a stand up guy who is very loyal to good people.  He also has a great appreciation for comedy.  He observes it as a subject like I do.

Ok.  That's it.  I want to get back to my writing routine.  I just have not been able to lately.  I have not had it in me.

Jimmy
 

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