State of the Union (My 51st post!)

My fellow bloggers, I come to you today to talk about the state of affairs in this great blog of ours. (listening to: "Give Judy My Notice" by Ben Folds. *great song*)

Well, folks. Here we are, towards the end of January of 2006, nearly halfway through my golden year (which I'm told is either the best year of your life, or your worst), and where are we at? Well, let's take a look at the numbers.

I'm still working here at the office, making this job officially the longest I've ever worked for one company without a hiatus. It's not horrible. The people are great, and the job is settling into a routine that's somewhat comforting. It's difficult to work here sometimes, what with all the problems and the yelling customers and the demands on us all the time, and not to mention the small population of co-workers who secretly hate me for bringing escalated Nerf warfare to the maze of cubes. But, it's a great paycheck, and I seem to be pretty good at it, so... I'll probably stick around awhile. See what happens. Y'know. 'Cause I got nothing better to do. :)

Tonight is my penultimate performance of We Gotta Bingo. I'm going to miss it. The cast I've worked with forever has been SO great (and bitchy about me leaving them), that it's going to be tough not going back there 4x a week. But, I think I've come to a point where I need to get things back in order, and while the money's great, I lose so much of my young life there in a tiny, thankless role that I just can't do it anymore. Bingo, you've been good to me, but this rambler's got to get ramblin'.

With the close of Bingo, I'm preparing to head back to Comedy Sportz, a world I only tasted briefly before being thrown back into the world of theatre. And, oh, how I miss it. Short-form improv is what I "grew up" on, and while Long-form is my true love, sometimes you gotta spend time with the mistress. My heart belongs to CSz, and soon I'll be back with a bullet.

The one-acts went pretty well at CHS. We had a bit of trouble with an actor's parents pulling him out of a student-directed show due to content, and so that show was unable to showcase their final performance. I felt really bad for them. They worked very hard, and the show was pretty decent. These things happen, I guess.
BOY, did I get an earful from the mother, though. She thought it fitting to exercise her moral imperative on me and the rest of the one-act audience, and demanded that all questionable material be removed. We compromised and determined that a warning should be given that some of the shows be assigned a "PG-13" rating (something I admittedly should have done at the beginning). And now all that's left is our regional competition this weekend in Albertville. If you're bored, we're scheduled at 1:50pm at St. Michael-Albertville HS, and the show is really, really good. I'm so proud of the students. They've done such a good job with so little from me as I've been able to give them due to the previous two paragraphs, that I'm amazed this thing came together at all. A real testament to them.

Acting has been very good to me this year. After performing a HORRIBLE show at the Brave New Workshop (not their fault, it was part of the summer series, and the script was.. well, I'm sure if we could have found the thing, it would have been good), Everything kind of flew in. I met a talented actor doing Bingo, and I think that we're going to eventually do some more theatre together. If you have a chance to see Charles Hubbell on stage or on film, I recommend the experience. He likes Serenity, so he can't be all that bad. He's kind of kicked me in the ass to get new headshots and get an agent (something I've never wanted, but he convinced me that it would be a good idea), so we'll see how all that turns out in the coming weeks. I imagine I'll have a digital image to post up here relatively soon.

I'd like to take a brief paragraph here to talk about my faith. I'm not a church-goer. I'll admit it. I've never liked going, and I've never gotten the charge out of it that others may find there. Sometimes it's less of a chore than others, and I've actually been to some really amazing services with Daisy, but... it's just not something that lights me up. That being said, I DO believe and have a relationship with God. I rely on Him daily (especially lately.. more on that to come), and I know that He's got my back. He's a good guy to have in your corner, and I feel that while I can always get closer to Him, at the moment, things seem ok. I'm not sure He's driving my life as he should, but he's working the gas pedals while I steer. It's a good first step.

My brother is in Iraq, fighting for... well, I'm not really sure what he's fighting for, but he's there. He'll be fine. He's on some Air force base in the desert, and I've told him that I expect to be given some glass made from the jet engines burning the sand out there. If he comes back without it, I'm not going to be best man in his wedding. There. I said it. (yeah. he's getting married. little bastard is 3.5 years younger than me, and he found an amazing girl who loves him. jerk.)

Personally, it's been a very rough few months. I met a girl doing We Gotta Bingo, and we seemed to hit it off rather well. I gave her my number but, as is often the case, she hasn't called. I don't imagine she will, since it's been over a week now, but... it was good to imagine myself back out there.

My best friend and I are going through some very rough times. As some of you know, she's gotten herself a boyfriend in November, and I haven't seen much of her since then. The guy is decent, as far as I can tell, and I've got nothing against him personally, besides the obvious. :) He's good for her, forcing her out of her shell, and I hope that he's bringing out a new aspect to her that I wasn't able to. She deserves to be happy, and I wish them all the best.

That being said, I miss her. A lot. I miss the time we spent together constantly, and the closeness we had. It may be bad form to write all this down here, but it's a State of the Union, and my union is very lonely. I know she's happy where she is, and that should make me happy for her, but it doesn't. And I wish I could be a better friend to her in that respect. I really do.

On a related note, My buddy Leachate and I are spending more time together, and finding that for some reason unknown to the two of us, we're still friends. We disagree on nearly everything, and never miss an opportunity to bitch each other out, but it's all in good humor, and he's the oldest friend I have (in terms of length of friendship, not chronological age). He's a pretty good WoW player, and I think we're creating something there that is beginning to take off. I'd get into it here, but it's nerdy, and I've exposed enough of my nerd nerve already on here.

All in all, it's not the best year of my life, but it's really not the worst either (despite how I may act at times. I have a little hope left that things will turn around). What is the state of this union? It's a lot like the state of our actual union. We're broken, trying to stop the bleeding, and there's a lot of internal struggle. But somehow, we find a way to keep going. And with a little luck, and a lot of faith, we'll find our way through this tunnel to the light at the end of it.

God Bless you all, and let's hope for a great 2006.