I just booked an airline ticket from Oklahoma City to Houston on July 5th. We're going to be in the Kansas/Oklahoma region for a week after Robbie's birthday, but I'll have to head back to work just as most of Kim's family shows up for the slightly-belated holiday. (At one point, we'd thought about my flying down to work that weekend and then driving back up to bring everybody else back, but it's gotten to the point where it'll actually be cheaper for me just to fly one way) I love all those web sites like Expedia and Priceline where you just plug in your desired departure and arrival site and dates (and whatever criteria they ask for) and they just give you a ton of options from all the different airlines. Sometimes the choices you get can be pretty funny. Today's example: I could leave OKC at 9:30 in the morning, then stop in Dallas for an hour and forty minute layover, then fly to Denver for a two hour and forty minute layover before arriving in Houston, nine and a half hours after I left. All this convenience for only three times the cost of a direct flight from OKC at 10:45 a.m. on another airline.
On the other hand: this roundabout way of getting home would have included freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies. If I were a rich man, that would have been quite the temptation.
*****************
An old college chum of mine is currently posting a blog series called "Where did our Bible come from?" Worth checking out, if you're into that sort of thing.
****************
It seems a lot of the whole "turning thirty" process is coming to grips with the fact that, really, thirty isn't all that old. And it's true. Your life isn't over. Chances are, your life isn't even half over and, while you are technically just past your physical "peak," you've got quite a few years ahead of good physical condition for just about any activity you'd choose to engage in (unless you want to do something like play professional football or hockey, in which case your ship has sailed). There's still time to fall in love, get married, and have kids if you haven't, you'll still have energy (relatively speaking) to chase around the kids you do have if you have them, and while it'll probably be difficult, it's still totally feasible for you to change your career if you're starting to feel "stuck." Objectively speaking, you're not that old.
That said, you're also not as young as you used to be. And if you want a fairly tangible reminder of that, I recommend going to a college graduation. I recently got to work at one, which required me getting to work by 6:30 a.m. to stand around, directing people to the working elevator, for five hours. Man, college kids are young! I mean geez, when did that happen?
I will say, however, that I was pretty proud of myself for managing that day. It had been a while since I woke at 5 a.m. on purpose and went through a grueling work shift. By the end of the day, I found myself wanting to go back on bookings to perform plays at elementary schools. I don't know if I've ever talked at length about that on here, but that may have been my favorite thing (artistically) that I've ever done.
That, in turn, got me thinking back about the old faux rock/folk band my last touring unit and I joked about from time to time. I decided that, if we ever went through an angst phase, we would write a song called "Like Pop Rocks In an Open Wound." Or maybe that's more of an album title.
Ooh, maybe both!
***************
I've been trying to read Rudyard Kipling's The Second Jungle Book, which is--no surprise--a sequel to The Jungle Book. I thought maybe there'd be something in it I could use in an adaptation/reimagination of the first story. And about 40 percent of the way into the book, I gave up on it. Not a single story managed to hold my imagination like the first installment had. I realized then that the reason I haven't read much in the past few months is that I haven't gotten my hands on anything that I can really dive into. I've been working on Dune, and it's good, but about a hundred pages in it hasn't really got me to that "page-turner" point, and I need some of that addictive narrative quality to get my head back in the game. I therefore decided to turn to some authors that I knew I enjoyed and picked up Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna (I've been meaning to read more Kingsolver since my senior year of college) and, because he was right next door, Mr. King's The Green Mile. In addition, I just got an email that The Wind Through the Keyhole is waiting on hold for me at the library. So hopefully this'll help jump-start me back into being a Reading Guy and, by extension, a Writing Guy again. (Oh, and I'm also picking through Eats, Shoots & Leaves when my wife leaves it lying around)
And then, back to Dune, I promise. But probably not back to The Second JB.
****************
Finally, I posted this on my FB earlier this week, but this is crazy, and I think anybody who deals with schedules or managing work forces or other administrative tasks will appreciate it. LA's Staples Center has three main tenants--the Lakers and Clippers of the NBA and the Kings of the NHL. Never before have all three teams been in the playoffs at the same time. Never before have they all been scheduled to play home games on the same days. This weekend, however, ALL THREE TEAMS are scheduled to play not one but TWO home games between Thursday and Sunday. Six games in four days. Six complete changeovers, six crowds to usher in and out of the building. Jobs I'm glad I don't have this weekend: event changeover staff at the Staples Center.
*****************
All right, I'm out. Enjoy the music, peeps!
