My first thought today was … Ugh.
The second the alarm clock went off.
I woke with a stiff neck, my arm hurt from laying on it wrong and I immediately had a headache.
I picked up my phone to check my emails and social media.
I thought – ugh again. I had to respond to a bunch of things.
Then the snooze went off and I had things to do, so I pulled myself from bed.
I looked out the window at a torrential downpour and thought it was going to be a wonderful day. (Sarcastically.)
All kinds of regular things went through my mind as I showered, shaved and prepared for my day.
I was meeting a friend at 11:00 for lunch.
She called to say she was running late.
I thought I would do some online work.
I updated websites, worked on blog articles and future social media posts.
Then my friend called upset. She had hit something (still not sure what) and it tore two gashes in the side of her tire. She was an hour away, but determined to still meet up with me.
I was annoyed by the problem but assured her I’d do what I could to help. She managed to get the tire changed with some help from a good samaritan who stopped to aid her.
Because she was driving two hours from her home to where I was working, I called around to tire centers. We both felt it wasn’t a good idea for her to drive home on her spare tire. Between the two of us, we found a place that had the tire and assured they could change it in 15 minutes.
So I drove to meet her.
I really didn’t feel like going out into the damp weather. My headache never stopped, the cold air made my muscles ache. Traffic sucked. But I got to the tire center – a 15 minute drive from my hotel – only to find out she had another 19 minutes to destination on her GPS.
She called me when she reached the tire center to find out where I was.
That was when I realized I was at the wrong tire center… so I felt like an idiot and drove another 18 minutes to meet her.
We sat and talked while they mounted the tire. (It took longer than 15 minutes …) Then went out to grab some lunch. Good conversation and lots of catching up made my headache disappear.
Finally I had to bow out because I needed to get ready for my shows that night.
Back at the hotel I shaved and showered again, dressed and grabbed my act to leave.
It was raining as I climbed in the car and I thought – there is no way I’ll be performing tonight. I was working a fair – and while I was going to be under a tent, the audience wouldn’t. Plus it was a driving rain.
I thought about how much traffic sucks as I drove the 17 miles to the fairgrounds.
I thought about how the parking lot was totally empty as I pulled onto the grounds. I showed my pass to the gate attendant so I could drive in to the stage.
I thought it looked quiet as the rides stood still, knowing they couldn’t run in this rain. The grounds looked sad.
I reached the stage and no one was around. The fair opened at 6 – and it was about 7 pm at this point. I couldn’t even get dinner because the food stands where shut.
So I called my client and he told me the fair office was supposed to have called me. The fair was closed because of the forecast.
I thought – it would have been nice to know before I drove here, but heck, I was getting paid for doing nothing, so not a real problem.
I drove back to the hotel and stopped for some carryout. I thought I’d die of old age in the drive-thru. And there was no way to escape the lane once you were in.
I drove back to the hotel, having talked with some friends on the phone and ate my dinner. Watched a bit of television and started writing my blog posts.
So what does this have to do with ventriloquism?
Nothing other than the fact I’m on the road for shows.
So why write this?
To share that my thoughts, like your thoughts – and my life, like your life, go a hundred different places during the day. Being a professional entertainer has the same real life problems as anyone else. There are good days, there are okay days and there are definitely bad days.
This one was just a day …
So tell me – what do you think about?
