August 2008 Archives

On Friday, I had my 2 bottom wisdom teeth extracted. The only 2 that I have. I have been putting this procedure off for years and years, and I suppose I am glad that I did it. Now, I don't mean to be all whiney baby about it, but the healing process has hurt like shit. I was pretty much knocked on my ass all day Friday and Saturday, Sunday I ventured out a little bit more, but then Sunday night--my God, Sunday night was awful. Pain all in my jaw, all in the front of my bottom jaw, radiating pain up to my head. I tried to sleep and couldn't. I tried to stop crying and couldn't. Finally I had to get up, take a Vicodin (which, due to my fear of medicines, I tried to take as little of as possible) and prop myself up for the night. The next morning, Fuzzy recommended that I call the doc, something I also hate to do, but did, because of some food stuck in my sockets and all the pain. And then I waited Monday afternoon with the horrible pain of the day before. When I got in to the doctor at 4:45 Monday afternoon, I was shaking, nausiated from the pain meds, and in tears. Turns out, I had a dry socket on both sides--just the thing I was trying to avoid. The doc stuffed my sockets (that's dirty) with some sort of throat numbing clove oil stuff, and wouldn't you know it? The pain was gone within 10 minutes! I have been doing better since then, but the pain is starting to seep back in, and I am trying to hold out to my next appointment Friday morning. But yeah yeah, it is good that I did it. Blah blah.

Sidenote: the oral surgeon and staff I went to is most excellent, and I highly reccommend them. If you are looking for someone in Chicago, let me know. Thanks to Dan T. for his passing the name along.

In other news, tonight I will be doing a staged reading of a script for The Office, also written by Dan T, and it should be a lot of fun. I will be playing Angela, and it is good to know that all my years of non-smiling Cutie Bumblesnatch training are paying off. I should add that to my resume. Unflinching cold stare.

Memaw Reid is pretty sick and back in the hospital. Please send your prayers her way. I am all the more thankful that we will be going down for a week on Sept 7th. This year...this family....man oh man. But amazingly, I am holding up pretty well. The other day I was thinking about myself, and I have to say that I am proud of who I am and what I can handle after this year. Not to say I can handle anything life throws my way, but I am still going strong (sort of) and that is a major accomplishment. Mom even asked the other day "How did you get so smart." Sadly, the ways were not happy ways, but that is what builds character, right? I feel like I am much older than I am.

To be continued...

Since I joined the entertainment world in Chicago eight + years ago, I have seen and met my fair share of famous people, actors, celebrities and icons. I usually can play it cool--these people are just people like you and me, except they have people fawning over them all the time. Sometimes they want to just buy coffee, or see a show, or show up to a day's work without being stopped every 5 minutes to be told how great they are. And now that a number of my friends are getting more and more success and TV and movies, celebrities are no big deal. Unless they are someone really special.

Last night I met Michael McKean.

Fuzzy and I went to see Superior Donuts by Tracey Letts at Steppenwolf, and it was amazing. Utterly wonderful and amazing. At the meet and greet afterwards, there was a lot of talk about themes and what it means to be an American and capitalism and this and that. But to me, it was just an amazing character story about a small group of people and their relationships. About taking risks and making changes. About hope. And it moved me greatly. McKean plays the owner of a small donut shop in Uptown in Chicago--an aging hippy who is reevaluating his life. It is beautifully performed. And what is even more moving is that apparently, McKean studied our family friend Daniel Boone when creating his character. Seriously, they could be brothers. See? (note: the similarity is purely coincidental)

Michael McKean as Arthur and Jon Michael Hill (Photo by Michael Brosilow)

Daniel at Highway 61 Coffee Shop (Photo by Fuzzy Gerdes)

McKean (Photo by Michael Brosilow)

Daniel (with Mom and Dad) (Photo by Fuzzy Gerdes)

I get really shy at Meet and Greets and post-show discussions, because my brain usually can't follow many story lines (I have terrible listening comprehension), so I usually choose to be silent. Last night, however, I felt compelled to tell them how much the show meant to me, but my shy hand never got the attention of the moderator. Fortunately, when the meet and greet was over, McKean and Hill lingered on the set for a few minutes, so I went up to them to introduce myself and thank them for their performance. McKean was very warm, soft spoken, and kind. I told him that as a comedian, I have always admired him and his work. I am so glad that I did, although I was fighting back tears while doing so. I would have kicked myself if I had missed that opportunity.

We're talking freaking David St. Hubbins here. Amazing. Not to mention all the other amazing things he has done. SNL, A Mighty Wind, oh yeah, and he was on a little show called Laverne and Shirley. A comedy legend.

Thank you, Josh, for helping to make this happen.

In other news, this week has been a hard one for me. I am still feeling great, but I am finding myself in my anger phase over the fact that Dad is gone. It is really hitting home that I will never see him again on earth, and it is pissing me off. So much of this year has been 'dealing with things'-- dealing with loss, dealing with mom being sick, dealing with memaw in the nursing home, dealing with losing Mustapha--and now that things are settling and starting up and getting into a good vibe, the loss is really sinking in. It sucks. I miss that man more than anything. He was amazing, my hero and roll model, and a best friend. And because of it, I am now more than ever determined to be happy, to make him proud, and to see and do things that he was never able to. This inspires me.

Tomorrow, I will have 2 less teeth. Another loss, another change. Though it is inspiring me to use my blog to talk about my other surgical experience, which I have been meaning to write about for the last 5 years. I'll let everyone know next week how things go tomorrow. Have a great weekend!

For our 2 year anniversary, Noah made us this awesome pic of Fuzzy's and my life together. it is pretty accurate.

How bout this year, huh? I can happily say that for the first time all year, things are going pretty well! It is awesome and it feels great. However, I am also realistic (and newly cynical) and know that this could go away at any minute, so I am going to enjoy the good while I have it. For a while, I was mourning the loss of many things, too many to get into here, and I carried a lot of burden on my shoulders. But I started working on shows again, and I found a lot of my joy again! I remembered that I LOVE producing shows, and I am sort of good at it, and it has been great to get my mind on something other than the family strife we've had this year. It's funny how adding more to my plate has helped me handle everything in a bigger picture. Plus, mom has been doing a lot better these last couple of weeks, and that makes a HUGE difference to me. When she is sick, I am miserable. So it has been nice to have a break from that, after several months of struggling.

Memaw Bane has decided to stay in the nursing home now for good, which is great because she is getting constant care, social interaction and meals. The current task at hand is that we have to clean out her house, which is a huge undertaking and not a fun one at that. Fuzzy and I are going down the second week of September to do what we can to haul, dump, divvy and sell. Wish us luck!

We closed Don't Spit the Water last Saturday and it was bittersweet. I was pretty much overwhelmed and cried a lot (surprise!). It was great and we went out with a bang. We're running now with Impress These Apes production, so we have plenty to stay occupied with.

Speaking of shows closing, Pastor of Muppets will be having their final show this Friday, August 15th, before becoming an Emeritus Member Team at the Playground. Come see them! 8pm.

Jeff and I choreographed a few dances for the current Stir Friday Night show "Horry Cow! That's Lacist!" running for the next few weeks at the Skybox Fridays at 7:30. I love working with those guys.

There are a few other projects in the works, too, that I'll hopefully be able to write more about later.

That's my update! As always, thanks for your patience between posts and if you haven't seen me in a while!