Things I learned today…

Things I learned today and last night…

First.  It’s not a good idea to try and pick a new book to read at 4:30 a.m.  Nothing sounds interesting.  Everything looks too serious.  And they all look like they will take too much effort.  And then when you finally pick a book and brush your teeth and settle in to bed to read for a few minutes before you go to sleep…..the book you chose SUCKS.  Next time I’ll choose the book in the afternoon so I’ll just have to go with my choice.

Humanity doesn’t suck.  I had a great night at work tonight.  I had fun.  All but a couple of my tables were fun as well.  Nobody yelled at me.  No one was rude to me.  I didn’t get pissed about the tables that didn’t tip.  I was there, I had a good time and actually enjoyed being there.  I’m glad to.  After the shifts I’ve had over the past couple of weeks I was beginning to think there was something wrong with me.  I guess not.  I also wanted to share this with you since I seem to complain about work on here a lot.

When you don’t go to bed until 5:00 a.m.–sunny days suck.  When I woke up this morning the sun was shining beautifully.  At 9:15…a.m.   I think on the mornings after I work it shouldn’t be allowed to be sunny until at least noon.  I’m just saying.

It’s equally wonderful when you walk down the stairs into the subway station just as the train arrives.  So that you don’t wait even thirty seconds to get on board.  It makes very tired people very happy.

It’s nice when half the wait staff is gay because everyone is on the lookout for cute boys.  About a million times tonight someone would come over and say, “Have you seen the cute boys on table 104?  Have you seen the German boys at the bar.  I have the most beautiful Australian boys at table 701.”  It makes the night ever so much fun and it’s nice to take a 10 second breather from running around to see cute boys.

Lesbians are fun.  I had two lesbians who sat at one of my tables right at the beginning of the evening.  A couple of things happened that could have upset someone else but they laughed it off.  First, we didn’t have honey for their hot tea.  And then the milk they put in their tea was bad.  We made jokes about it and no one seemed to mind.  About 30 minutes into the visit, our cute little gay manager stopped by to do a table visit.  As he left they said to me, “Damn he’s cute.”  And I agreed.   They then ask me if I had a boyfriend.  I replied no and then told them that almost no one I wait on assumes that I’m gay.  I also told them that I also don’t want people to know, not because I’m embarrassed but because I want to be what ever they want me to  be.  If little old ladies want me to coo over them and flirt with them, I can do that.  If 20 something girls want me to joke around with them and tell them are great I can do that.  And if butch straight men want to talk sports…I change the subject and hope they didn’t notice.  So the conversation with the two lesbians continued and they asked me if there was anyone I had a little crush on at work.  And there is.  His name is Anthony and he’s absolutely beautiful.  He’s about 24 or 25 and has a great body, is somewhat intelligent and is nice on top of it all.  I told them I would have him stop by and say hi.  They immediately said no…and I laughed and told them I was kidding.  After they paid, they said they were going to hang out for a while because they had tickets to a show.  It was only 6:15 and so I asked if they would mind moving to my bar area so I could seat another table where they were sitting.  They said they didn’t mind.  After they were settled at the bar they asked for drink refills.  So I went to the kitchen and made their drinks and just as I was heading out of the kitchen I passed Anthony.  I suddenly acted like I was in the weeds (the weeds are when a waiter is super busy and everyone wants something at the same time) and asked Anthony if he would take their drinks to them.  He did.  And about three minutes later I walked by them and we all burst out laughing.  They screamed, “We know what you did.” To which I replied, “I told you I would have him stop by.”  And then they said they approved of my crush.  And that he was HOT.  H.  O.  T.  Hot.

And that my friends is what I learned tonight.

And isn’t nice when you spell check your blog post and it tells you nothing is mispelled.  What a nice way to end the evening….Of course I’m also glad it doesn’t check for grammatical errors…I’m just saying.

A Winter’s Tale

Uh…so I haven’t posted all week.  Uh…so I don’t really have an excuse I suppose.  Well I do but they aren’t very good.  Saturday night when I got home I spent an hour or so reading some of my favorite blogs and then just as I was starting to write a post the internet connection went south.  I tried and tried but there was no getting it to respond.  Then Sunday I spent the day cleaning and cooking to host my first ever “real” dinner party.  I had invited three guys from work over and my roommate was helping me play host.  We had a great time, but three bottles of wine and several beers later along with a trip to the local gay bar and I was in no mood shape to write.  Then Monday I spent the day recuperating and fell asleep watching TV.  And then there was Tuesday.  It was a repeat of Monday.  I fell asleep watching TV.  And that brings us to today.  And I’m posting.  Yippee!!!

I’m an avid reader.  I make a point of reading everyday.  No matter how tired I am.  Or how drunk I am.  Or how late it is.  I read every night before I go to sleep.  My routine usually involves brushing my teeth, taking my meds and getting comfortable in the bed.  Then I set the alarm for the next morning and get out my book, find my place and start to read.  As a point, although not always, I only read fiction.  I like getting lost in the stories and making new friends.  My favorite books are almost always written in first person.  I find that I’m much quicker to get lost in the tale if it’s written that way.  I also find that I have a hard time putting the book down if I’m really into it.  I’m always looking at the clock trying to decide if I can read just one more chapter before I turn out the light.  Only problem is, sometimes it means I only get a few hours of sleep because of how long I read.  I also know that I loved the book when I’m sad to see it end and I feel like I’ve lost a friend that I’m no longer going to get to spend time with.

I just read The Kite Runner and I felt like that.  I was sad for the book to be over and I wanted to continue reading to find out what else happens to Amir and how his life proceeds.  I also spent several months reading the entire Harry Potter series this summer.  I loved them all.  After seven books, though, I was terribly depressed when I realized that it was over.  In a way, even though Harry didn’t die in the books, there is a loss, because he’s no longer a friend spending time with me.  It’s not often that I truly feel this way about a book.  It just so happens in the last several months I’ve been lucky to read a couple.

And that brings me to my current book.  I started a new book last night.  The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards.  I chose this book after searching my bookshelf for a book I haven’t read and that caught my interest.  I have an entire shelf full of books I haven’t read and there’s no rhyme or reason as to why I pick the book I do.  It’s just catches my eye.  So I chose this book.  Followed my routine, got comfortable and started to read.

First problem.  It’s not written in first person.  Okay, not so much a problem as it is something to get used to.  After a page or two though it’s fine and I’m getting into the book.  I find myself becoming immersed in it and before long I’m very much into the story.   The plot is kind of interesting.  It’s about a doctor who is forced to deliver the twins his wife is pregnant with.  The first one, a boy, is born without any problems.  The second one, a girl, is born with Down’s Syndrome.  The doctor gives the girl to his nurse telling her to take it to a nearby home for children.  The nurse keeps the child and raises it herself.  I know all of this because it’s on the back of the book and most of the premise is created in the first two chapters.

So I’m reading along and, well, I ran into a problem that bothered me so much that I had to stop reading.  The book is set in Lexinton, Kentucky in 1964.  I know it’s a work of fiction, but if you are going to set the book in real place then you should make sure the scenarios that you create are factual.  As the nurse leaves she drives through the snow out of Lexington.  The roads are bad until she gets to the Interstate.  Once there she is able to make better time.   She crosses the Kentucky River and finds the “home” just south of Louisville.  This raises an eyebrow but I’m willing to let it go.  The woman is about to drop the baby off, changes her mind and then heads back to Lexington.  32 miles from Lexington, just passed the Frankfort exit, she encounters an accident.  And well this is where I stopped reading.

I know it shouldn’t matter in the big scheme of things.  But to get to Louisville by Interstate means that you are driving on I-64.  And here’s the problem.  I-64 didn’t exist in Central Kentucky in 1964.  I was in elementary school when I-64 came through Lexington.  And I’m not the old.  The reason I remember is that the construction caused my school bus to have to take detours and this went on for well over a year or so.  I spent a long time today trying to find out exactly when it was built in Central Kentucky but was unable to locate an exact date.  So I know that this should have no bearing on the rest of the book, but for me it does.  What else did Kim fail to research before she wrote the book.  What else about the book is not factual.  In the big scheme of things it’s really rather silly, but when someone’s writing about a place you call home then they better know what they are talking about.  Damn it.

Will I finish reading it?  Probably.  But it’s definitely changed my opinion of the book.

Sleeping Late…

As much as I am glad to be back home and enjoy the things NYC has to offer.  I hate not having anything to do.  I have no agenda, and no list of things to do…so how do I spend my time.  Well today I woke up at 3 p.m.  That’s a good way to spend the day.  Sleep it away.  I’d love it if I had a deadline looming, or a project coming up, or something pressing.  Then I would have to get out of bed and do something.

I do have to admit that I haven’t slept really late in more than a week or so.  What with touring my shows, driving around Oklahoma, driving back to NYC, talking to my mom at 6:30 in the morning, going to the doctor, running errands.  So to give myself a break, it did feel nice to not HAVE to get up for anything.  I’ll try not to make it a habit though.

The one thing I did NOT do today was buy the new Harry Potter novel.  My roommate did.  My sublettor did.  Half the people on the train did.  I saw at least 50 or so people walking on the street with it.  I am going to have to read the first six and find out what all the fuss is about.  I read the first one several years ago after I saw the movie, but was not bitten by the bug.  A couple of people have sworn if I give them a chance I’ll love them.  So I think I’m going to try and pick them up at the library in Maine and start again.  I’ll keep you posted as to whether they are as fabulous as I’ve been told.

Hope everyone’s having a great weekend.

Day Seven: Oklahoma

It’s 1:15.  My day just ended.  As soon as I make my Day 7 post I’m going to bed.  Today was only a 17 hour day.  I just got out of a meeting to figure out how to rescue the scenery design.  The director thinks it looks like a high school play and is ready to fire the designer.  I wish he’d fired him six weeks ago.  It would have made my life a lot easier.  Instead, I just have to deal with the aftermath.  Today they changed where all the scenery hangs.  Which means I need to change where all the lighting that lights the scenery hangs.  Ugh.  I think my crew is ready to kill me.  But then again they know it’s not my fault so maybe they’ll get over it.

I’ll keep you posted as things play out over the next couple of days.  We open out of town on Friday, so we have a few more days to figure it all out.

New things I heard today:

Why do women where white when they get married?  So all the appliances  match.

There was one more but I forget it.  There are a couple of other jokes, I’ve been neglecting to share with you because they are a bit disgusting.  I’ll ponder them a few more days before I decide.

Thanks for the call today Sorted.  It’ll be Monday before I can call back.  But I do appreciate your thinking about me.

I started reading a new book last night.  It was signed by the author.  It said “To the bestest roommate ever.”  I’m still smiling about it.   I get to read chapter two tonight but so far it’s VERY funny and makes me laugh out loud.

I have to go to bed now.  It’s now 1:20 and I have to be in the shower in 5 hours.  Ugh!