A litte randomness from the rambling one. (What? I thought it sounded alright.)

Hang on, let me go move the cookies to the cooling rack right quick. Okay, I'm back. Did you miss me? No, of course not your not reading this in real time. Well in your real time but not as I'm... you get the idea. First off I realize I've been a bit remiss in sharing the wonderful and funny anecdotes and quotes of my band of bandar-logs (my children, for the uninitiated). So here's one to get us back on track. The other day Rainey and I were watching Top Shot, it's a reality competition for marksmen, and Sam comes walking into the living room quickly followed by an unpleasant odoriferousness and I ask him, "Did you poop?" Now he isn't looking at me but at the t.v. and he says, "I pu blue team." So, not quite understanding and a little perplexed I ask, "You pooped the blue team?" Well Rainey and I got quite a laugh out of it before realizing he was pulling for the blue team on Top Shot.
That still makes me smile. Well on to other things we're right smack in the middle of rehearsals for Rabbit Hole, which I believe is going to be one hell of a performance. Excuse me, one heck of a performance. Okay that's a little nod to our very talented director making the difficult call to cut some of the adult language from the play. It's easy to cut cursing that's just there for cursing sake but harder when it helps to identify a character. But some of the most offensive language was very early into the very first scene and he didn't want people to walk out before getting to know the characters. I know it was a hard call for him but considering who our core audience is I think it's probably the right call.
And finally (I think) I've been both a plumber and a mechanic in the past week and I am neither a plumber nor a mechanic. But when your broke you got to figure out how to do things for yourself. It's great to have people to ask and to have yahoo or goggle to look things up on but it can also be a bit confusing as you can get lots of different answers.
Alright I suppose that's it for now and seeing as how I'm a fan of non-sequiturs I'll leave you with a favorite quote from a once favorite movie of mine. "Lay of the boots Harley."

Aggravation!

I have always had a deep seated hate for the board game Aggravation because it's just so dang... well, aggravating. Yesterday evening I felt as though I had been playing the game all week. By nine last night I was pretty worn out and tired, it had been a long day filled with getting up before the sun and working my butt off and fighting kids and cat hair, lot's of f-ing cat hair and I'm afraid I was wearing my feelings a bit on my sleeve. It wasn't all bad yesterday, but I think it was a week worth of 'stuff' built up on a tired, caffeine hyped old man. I started out listing some of the 'woes', and I use the term very lightly, hence the quotations, that plagued us this week but it felt too much like whining, so I deleted them. Let's just say it's been a somewhat trying week both at work and home.
I usually try to keep this blog reader friendly and not go into religious/political issues too much, just glossing over them on occasion but one of the things that bugged me this week were two billboards a group has put up in Shebly, one leaving town and one coming in to town. The billboards read 'Vote for Marriage on May 8th' and it really just pissed me off when I saw them. I'm afraid I'm going to have to fly my liberal flag for a minute and say that this marriage amendment change seems to me to be just slight of a hate crime. You've got two well intentioned sides arguing over who can and can't claim the idea of marriage and one side says, 'You know what? We're going to change the state amendment so some judge can't just change the law.' I understand that homosexuality is something strange for most of us, perhaps hard to understand but I don't understand why so many people hate homosexuals. The idea that gay marriage undermines hetro-marriage seems incomprehensible to me. It's like when the military said gays can't serve openly because they could be black mailed for being gay. Do what? You can paint this issue with all the colors of the rainbow (pun intended) but I think it boils down to a deep seated bigotry toward homosexuals. I wish someone would put a billboard right next to these that says, 'Don't vote for hate on May 8th'. All right I'm climbing off the soap box and putting my liberal flag back on the shelf.
I hate to end a blog without a silver lining so let me say that despite the aggravation of the last week I've also had some really good times too. I've got my lines for Rabbit Hole learned (for the most part), I got to see a play at the newly renovated and gorgeous Joy theater in KM, I watched the new Footloose (it was s'alright) with my wife and speaking of said wife I got to spend a lot more time with her this week than I would have had I had my car and I feel like we got a little closer, which is always a wonderful silver lining.

No buisness like show buisness.

For weeks before Plaid auditions I kept saying I can't sing harmonies, I'm not going to audition. The day before Plaid auditions I said I can't sing harmonies, but it might be neat to try. Then of course the day of auditions I had my happy little arse singing in the basement of the arts council. When I first read some of Rabbit Hole last year I said that's too intense of a role, I don't know if I'd want to do that. A few weeks ago I said that's a really intense role I think it'd be neat to do, but I've done two shows already this season so I probably wont audition. Well last night I had my happy little arse auditioning in the basement of the arts council. It's a cool role in an award wining drama, that has many laughs and many tears and a we'll make it, we'll persevere kind of ending. Time will tell whether I make it into three shows in a row or not. Don't worry I wont be going through this with Fools, GSCT's last show for this season, I've been saying for months that I want to audition for Fools. Fools was the first show I ever did with GSCT a few millennium ago, so it'd be cool to revisit the start of all this. So unless I switch it up and bail on Fools then the wishy-washy streak will come to an end.

Confidence?

A recent quote of mine from a conversation with some supportive fiends - "You know me and confidence, we're not on the best of terms." You would think someone who has no problem getting on stage and being the dancing monkey (hopefully an entertaining and talented one) would not be lacking in confidence, you'd be wrong. You see acting and performing have always come naturally to me, I use to put on shows for pretend audiences in my backyard as a kid. But when it comes to doing something new or different I get all gummy beared inside. It's not so much a feeling of fear as a feeling of certitude of failure, I know it's not rational I've succeeded in as many things as I've failed, possibly more. But it's there. Every time I order something for others at a restaurant I know I'm going to screw it up, every time I think of playing the guitar I know I'll quit before I learn, every time I think I can do, or be better I end up knowing that I can't. Sometimes I get a little brave, a little the little engine that could and I try things- some work out (the show Forever Plaid), some don't (team leader position at work). The crazy thing is I know it's not about ability or talent it's all about sustaining the courage to see an undertaking all the way through and not quitting when it gets tough. This really came to a head yesterday as I heard (through the grapevine) of a job opening that my degree might actually be useful for and help me get and as I looked at the job and it's requirements I kept thinking I can't do that, I need to just keep doing what I've been doing, I'm good at what I do now, I shouldn't try to advance to do 'better' and it was very frustrating. I'm afraid I don't have any happy ending, silver lining for this blog, no funny epitaph to close with. Sometimes risks pay off, I'm going to get ready for a show I said I couldn't do (very tight harmonies I didn't think I could get)that has gone smashingly well and sometimes they don't, I just need to find the confidence to try.

New blog for the new year.

I'd be remiss if I didn't start this off by mentioning the new little bundle of joy in my life, Maxwell Grant Spurling, born Dec. 29th and filling my world ever since. Max was a surprise, complete surprise and as I looked at him earlier I remarked to Rainey how beautiful he was and how he filled me with such love and she summed it up superbly we she said, "He's every thing you never knew you wanted." His birth experience wasn't without a couple of hitches though, first he has a very pronounced birthmark on his chest,back, and left arm that the doctor is going to send us to a pediatric dermatologist to have checked out. And secondly our family got hit with a terrible stomach bug (which involved throwing away a mattress) both during and after his stay in the hospital. It's been three days now since any ones been sick, so I hope and pray we're out of the woods. The worst of this for me was I got sick the night Max was born and wasn't able to stay in the hospital with him and Rainey which led to a number of tears on both our parts. But we're here now and so far so good and that's all we can ask for sometimes.

In keeping with the random name of my blog I liked to discuss (briefly) my new favorite reality show, the GOP primary race. With it's ups and downs and name calling and rigmarole and now a vote that has sent one or more people home it's as exciting as Survivor ever was. Of course this show has much deeper implications for our country and unfortunately shows the pitfalls of the party system in America. I've always been sort of middle of the road in politics, on some issues I'm liberal on others I'm conservative and some issues or just to complicated to fall into a nice little category. If you'd have asked me a few months ago who I'd vote for come Nov. I would have easily said Pres. Obama, a month ago I would have said whoever the republican nominee turns out to be. Now? Well, now I'm not so sure. What led me away from Pres. Obama was the debt crises in Europe and our own unbelievable debt here (trillions of dollars? I can't even comprehend how much that is). I don't blame the Pres. for the debt it's been climbing for a long time under both repubs and dems but something has got to be done about it and it's not going to be pretty. I hate though that the first things they always want to cut are the programs that help the needy, can't we start somewhere else? Like with congress's pay and benefits and the pork barrel spending on needles things. What I would like is for the Pres. to say I'm going to remain socially liberal but I'm going to drastically cut spending and shrink the federal gov., he'd win hands down. Or I'd like to see a repub. say I'm going to be fiscally conservative but I'm going to be liberal on some issues. See, I'm very middle of the road and I don't think I'm alone. But the way party politics are candidates have to line up all on the left or all on the right or they don't have a shot. Look at my fav. of the repub. hopefuls, John Huntsman, because he isn't far right he didn't even campaign in Iwoa and has been largely out of the conversation the last week or so, which will change now that they're all moving on to New Hampshire. I don't think Huntsman has a chance but I do think he's about the most qualified to lead our country right now, when China and other developing countries our are biggest threat. But unfortunately it seems to be a money racket and Romney has the money to get the nomination. Well, not as briefly as I'd meant to be but there it is for better and worse. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out and I can only hope and pray that whoever wins the election will lead the country to prosperity.

All right last topic, I promise, Forever Plaid opens the end of this month and boy do we have some work cut out for us in the days leading up to opening night. I feel like I'm cramming for finals. There's still a couple of songs I'm having a hard time remembering. Why do you have to sing the same words different ways each time? And which doo, dah, do goes where? Which ooo or ohh goes here? Or was that suppose to be an ahh? The harmonies have to be tight on this show and the choreography has got to be learned quick. So bring on the late night rehearsals, the singing these songs until we're sick of them but know them backward and forward. And if, no, when we learn it all bring on the crowds.

Flying Feeling

I pushed the pedal down, feeling a thrill of exhilaration and a stab of anxiousness, wondering if I could make it up the hill without the tell tell knock, knock, knocking of a misfiring cylinder. My car has been under the weather for awhile, engine light on, leaving me fearful of standing, stranded on the side of the highway. I've tried a few things and hit the road with anticipation to see if they've done the trick, usually ending with a car that runs better but still not hitting on all four. So there I was climbing that hill, accelerator depressed, fourth gear, hit the clutch, threw the transmission into fifth... and sailed right on over the crest without a knock or a ping. Yes! Hallelujah! I sped on up to the limit and over, only slightly though, I didn't need to risk a ticket and thus bring my spirits crashing down. By the time I returned home the engine light was off, waiting to warn and frighten me again another day. While I am elated there's still a fear lurking in my mind that it's all just a fluke, that come Monday my car will be back to it's old tricks, and tics and knocks and pings, but if it does I'll just go back to the drawing board and try, try again. But for a night at least I felt like I was flying.

Some books I've read.

So it's been awhile, again. I think I started my last blog the same way, anywho, sometimes I post on here about books I've read, sometimes I put a note on facebook and sometimes just a status update will do the trick. It's been three books back since I've posted about any of them so I thought a blog would be a nice fit. The last book I remember posting about was Faithless:Tales of Transgression by Joyce Carol Oates (to recap, it's a short story collection, I liked most of them). So after the somewhat long, short story collection I turned to something light and predictable but also enjoyable, The DayBreakers by Louis L'amour. If it were an old movie western it'd be the white hats versus the black hats, with just enough ambiguity thrown in (except for the hero who never waivers,of course)to give the story a minuscule amount of depth. But you don't read paperback westerns for depth you read them for the never give up, tough as nails, gun-slinging, gentlemen heroes and lines like these: "The first thing I was learning was there are times when a man had to kill and times when he had no need to. Reed Carney wanted a shoot out and he wanted to win, but me, I'm more than average contrary.", "There would be trouble enough, but man is born to trouble, and it is best to meet it when it comes and not lose sleep until it does." More than average contrary, I love that line.
After Louis I dove in to Stieg Larsson's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, the first in his Millennium series, it was a big hit in Sweden and then a big hit here, they've already made Sweedish movies out of the trilogy and now there making them in Hollywood. So I thought I'd give it a try. It starts out a little slow as it sets up the characters and then it becomes a whirlwind page turner for most of the book. Reading it I was loving it and then it hit some sour notes, the Swedish title literally translate to Men Who Hate Women and that title is very much to the point. There's some real sadistic characters in this novel and I don't care to read about such goings on, had I know what I was in for I don't know that I would have started reading it in the first place. So by the time I finished the book I wasn't planning to read the sequels. Now, I'm not so sure because the main character Lizbeth Salander, despite being a little too over the top, is a really good character. Larsson said the idea for the character was a sort of Pipi Longstocking grown up, and I might add a little, no lot, twisted.
Then finally, this blog has gotten long winded I'm afraid, Transparent Things by Vladimir Nabokov. Again one I liked at the outset better than at the end, although let me hastily add that I still did like it at the end. It's the story of a person, Hugh Person to be exact, and his four trips to Switzerland (I just now realized I read back to back books set mostly in Switzerland) and it's about the transparent nature of life, things, and memories. Near the beginning there's a fantastic chapter about a pencil that falls out a desk drawer that Mr. Person tries to close. It runs down the history of the pencil from great tree to manufacturing to much sharpened and very little thought of pencil. Near the end Nabokov says, "Human life can be compared to a person dancing in a variety of forms around his own self...,going faster and faster and gradually forming a transparent ring of banded colors around a dead person or planet." This novella was... interesting and entertaining but also a little bit of a downer so next up is Christopher Moore's Bloodsucking Fiends, which should be an lol read.