jaysaint Getting it all down on paper…

Today I was supposed to have the day off work because I would be surrounded my favorite people. Sarah and Mick in for a visit, and Damon home for a day. Sarah thought she could change her flight, but she couldn’t. So she flew out yesterday afternoon. Mick was under the weather, so he flew out yesterday morning. I talked to Damon right before his show last night and he sounded so exhausted that I told him to stay in Baltimore and that we’d catch up next weekend.

So I cancelled my vacation day and headed on in to AOL. And now I’m sitting in my ultra-quiet apartment. It’s not bad at all really. I’ve got Zoe in my lap, I’ve had a bowl of spaghetti. And it’s feeling like an off-to-bed-early kind of night. I’ve been watching a documentary called ‘The History of Rock and Roll’ that’s outstanding. I was afraid I had made a bad choice — there are ten hours in this thing. And there’s so much I want to see. But I left it in the Netflix queue and now I’m so glad. This is beautifully done, and the interviews are A-list all the way. Off the top of my head we’ve got Bruce Springsteen, Bono, Mick Jagger, Carl Perkins, Jackson Brown, Jerry Lee Lewis, Quincy Jones, Little Richard…. it goes on and on and on. So far, not to many women. But I’ve learned a few things, including a new appreciation of Elvis. I’ve never felt moved by Elvis, and I always knew he was a pioneer. But this doc has really driven home to me how new a thing he was in the world. And I never realized how insanely famous other bands were. I just watched video of a near riot at an airport over The Animals. I had no idea. There was also a great interview with Brian Wilson where he talks about how they were dying of jealousy over the Beatles.

More later. For now, cake and ice cream are calling my name.

Celebrity Spotting: George Wendt
We were both walking along Bryant Square Park on 40th. Almost more fun than seeing him was the young guy about ten feet ahead of me who kept turning around with this delighted look on his face. He must have really loved Cheers.

Tomorrow Sarah and Mick get here for a weekend celebration of her 30th birthday. I’m delighted to have guests, and even more delighted that they’re my closest friends. That’s important because the apartment is still in shambles. I’ve got most of the boxes emptied, but that actually just makes it look messier.

And get this: We have nothing to say about when our heat gets turned on. Nothing. It’s steam heat for the whole building. So I just cling to the cat for warmth and count the days. I believe the target date is 10/15. There’s a date in the city past which all buildings must have their heat on. It’s to keep landlords from murdering their tenants with the cold. Most buildings have steam heat, so tenants don’t pay for it. So landlords like to withhold it as long as they can. Of course, our building still has a few renters, so I guess that sort of makes me a partial landlord. In which case it’s in my best interest to keep the heat off…

But I know it’s cold because Zoe wants to be in my lap every minute instead of just most minutes.

Saturday morning we’re going to a cat show. Just because that sounds so funny. I don’t know what they do. I’ve seen Westminster on TV, so maybe they run them around in circles just like they do the dogs. And there will be a cloned cat there. So how can we lose? Afterward we’ll go pick up a little cat I’ve agreed to foster for a few weeks. Her owner was a local music critic who died in the apartment. Poor little cat was shut up with his body for four days before anyone caught on to the problem. So if she and Zoe make a love connection I’ll likely keep her. But right now I’m just scheduled to have her for three weeks. I’m not really sure which way I want it to go. But her name is Melody, she’s 7, and she has very long, silky black hair. And she’s tiny — about six or seven pounds. They say she’s part Persian, she has that square face. I haven’t seen her yet, so this is all hearsay.

I’ve my neck all knotted up. I think the genesis was the horrendous little bed in Damon’s boarding house. I just cruised around and I think I found a massage and accupuncture school, so perhaps I’ll get a little cut-rate laying on of hands.

Damon got a great offer for a job today. Lead role, excellent theater with a national reputation… and it’s in DC. Since he’s working in Baltimore his name is getting around – in the wrong city! I mean, it’s a good city, but it’s not the one I would pick.

He hasn’t accepted yet, we’ll talk about it a little more first. It’s another three months away from home, and it will come up pretty quickly after Julius Ceasar. But it looks like a pretty sweet deal, so I’ll get on board if that’s the way it should go. I suspect it will be.

I’m both thrilled and hugely disappointed. But at least I have this: He told them when they made the offer that he’d be spending a full week at Christmas in Florida with his girlfriend and her family, and that that was not negotiable. They agreed to it. So that’s excellent.

On other fronts, I’m having one of those weeks where some poor soul is about to be the person who just shoves me a little bit too far. I’ve got a little collection of friends, family and coworkers who are all dumping various crises on me. The family one is totally legit, and the other ones are all marginally legit to not really reasonable at all. So my patience is spread thin right now.

The apartment is not coming along like it should be. I spend too much time with my nose in a book and not enough with it in a box.

So from now on when I come home from work I’m going to put on a book on tape and steadily unpack for one chapter. That’s all I’m requiring of myself — one chapter. I may do more, but that’s all I have to do.

Today was day one and I acutally made a marked difference in the time it took me to listen to “6 to 8 Black Men” in the new David Sedaris book.

I’m getting a ton more reading done in general now that I take the subway every day. I’m currently reading ‘The 36-Hour Day,’ which is about caring for someone with Alzheimer’s. I’m not doing that. But I did it long ago, so the book is particularly interesting to me.

And I’m Netflixing my way through the first season of ‘Little House on the Prairie,’ which is the show most likely to make me cry of pretty much any on tv. ’24’ is on hiatus while I wait for the replacement of a scrambled disc. I expect that tomorrow, and then I can polish that off.

I’ll see if I can knock it out before I head to DC for my friends’ wedding. That’s on Sunday. I head to Baltimore Saturday night so that Damon can grab me after rehearsal. I’ll spend the night at his apartment and then we’ll do the wedding together on Sunday.

But before that Zoe gets to take her first subway ride. We’re going to the vet on Saturday afternoon to see if she needs some allergy medicine. Poor thing, she’s not going to think this is funny.

I’m doing everything I can to keep from drifting off. What my body would like to do is have an hour nap right this second, and then stay hyper-awake until about 2am. But my boss is going to trump my body, in that she’d like to see me in the office around nine-ish. So I’m going to eat or read or something until this passes. I’m not doing myself any favors, with Paul Simon crooning away in the background. It couldn’t be any more soothing if he had handed me a cup of milk before he started.

Can anyone tell me what the syndicated journals are all about? I did a random search and found one, not for the first time. I don’t understand.