Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Swimming In The Stream Of Consciousness Again

So, I've got a lot on my plate, and just enough utensils to get the job done. Bear with me if you dare...

Last night, in the VBS skit at my church, I was a wannabe aviator, complete with bomber jacket and hat, Dollar Tree swim goggles (the bomber hat busted the budget!), and my favorite Charlie Brown scarf (thank you, sis-in-law, for the gift – several years ago now – that I don't get to use nearly often enough here in eastern North Carolina).

I "flew" around the stage in my cardboard plane, "flying the Seven Seas" (as I mistakenly blurted out in practice a couple of weeks back), and making the kiddos laugh – maybe because it was funny, or maybe because I was kind of pathetic, having only "really" flown a plane on the Nintendo Wii, as my character begrudgingly admitted.

I get to do it all over again tonight, and tomorrow night, and the next night after that, and the next night after that, which is good because I have a lot of fun with it, and my fellow cast member (just the one) is cool to hang out with, and because as much as I want it all to be over, I don't want it to be over at all.

I have to be really loud in the skit, which doesn't come naturally to me, though I can "put it on" when it's necessary (but it tires my throat out rather quickly). Thankfully, it's only five full-throated minutes per night.

All that clothing is very hot in and of itself – but put it on and stand in front of a hundred-plus young'uns and try to remember your lines (that you've only had about four weeks to memorize in total) and it suddenly becomes approximately 22 degrees hotter.

In other news, I'm currently working on a great blog post – which might be finished by tomorrow, or maybe the next day – which I think you all will really enjoy reading. I did an actual interview, with an actual person who isn't a thinly veiled version of myself.

Do you listen to Christian radio? If so, do you listen to HIS Radio? If so, then you might be familiar with the name – or at least the voice of – CJ Mason, the Community Outreach Coordinator and morning news person at the HIS Radio affiliate based in the Triangle area. Yeah? Well, that's who I did an interview with.

Let's be clear: She didn't interview me. Nobody would want (or need) to do that. At least not on purpose. I interviewed her, by e-mail, which is surprisingly easier and more efficient than you might think. At least more so than I would have thought. It's coming together quite nicely so far, but isn't done yet. So wait for it, but don't turn blue or anything.

I think it's a fascinating interview, if I do say so myself. I've learned loads about the Christian radio business, cool tidbits about some of my favorite artists, and – of course – a lot about CJ herself.

In case you're expecting the interview to be all stuffy and serious, I'll go ahead and tell you, it's not. I asked CJ some really stupid questions in addition to the normal, more serious questions. And, by jove, she answered 'em all. Go figure that!

Now that the VBS play is up and running and no longer "the next thing" around the bend, my mind is freed up (just a little) to start thinking about the fall Night of Drama production. I have had oodles of skits lined up and ready to read for some time now, but hadn't made any progress on them thus far, with too much else to think and worry about.

But now I'm starting to read through them, in order to weed out the losers, set aside the maybe's, and form a small stack of yes, definitely's. It's early on, so nothing to report as yet, but there are some good possibilities.

Did I mention that the theme for this year's Night of Drama is "evangelism"? No? Well, it is.

I've got another bit of news on the horizon as well, but I'm not quite ready to share that just yet. You'll know when I am. I won't we weird or vague about it (well, not anymore at least). I'll just blurt it out in one fell swoop. You'll know it when you see it.

I got some new shoes the other week. Two pairs, actually. The one pair is like a canvas, loafer-type shoe, but it's made by Crocs, so the footbed and sole are constructed from this cushy "Croslite" material that's super-kind to the feet. My friend Chris almost exclusively buys and wears this particular shoe, and often swears by it (well, not literally – Chris is a respectable boy, and I seriously doubt that he swears any at all). I had been meaning to try these shoes out, but had never run across them in a store. Then the other week I did, and I tried them, and I had to have them.

The other shoes were actually a pair of flip-flops, called "Beer Cozy Flip-Flops." They're called that because the footbed of the flip-flops is made out of this super-squishy material that's really similar – or maybe in fact the very same material – to the "cozies" that people use to put around their cans of beer, or soda, or what have you. These shoes also feel extremely comfortable beneath my feet, and make me wish – not unlike my favorite Charlie Brown scarf – that I had better reasons to wear them more frequently. Wearing them simply to take out the garbage seems like such a waste of good footwear.

Perhaps I need to go the beach. Just maybe not the beach that – to get to – I have to pass through the area where an approximately 10,800-acre wildfire is currently raging uncontained, because that could get quite smoky and might cause me to get an even bigger headache than the ones I've been intermittently fighting off for two consecutive days now.

I haven't updated you on my efforts to read War And Peace lately. Mainly because I forgot to. Secondarily because I don't have a whole lot to report. I have been reading books left and right this year, but War And Peace hasn't often been one of them.

There are so many more books that are much easier to read and which more easily hold my interest. We're On Your Side, Charlie Brown comes to mind, as do The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Side Effects (by Woody Allen), and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, all of which I am also currently reading.

That being said, I'm not giving up on War And Peace – I have completed approximately 25% of it, which is more than I ever read the first time – but it's slow-going and I may very well be coming down to the wire when it's all said and done to finish it by December 31st as previously promised.

You know what I like best about Diet Dr. Pepper? It's that it tastes more like regular Dr. Pepper. I know they say that on the commercials, but it's actually true!

I usually have to force myself to drink something diet, and even though I drink Diet Mt. Dew regularly, I am constantly aware, when I'm drinking it, that I am consuming a diet drink. But when I drink Diet Dr. Pepper, I completely forget that it's diet. It just doesn't taste like it is – even though it actually is. It's kind of amazing when you stop to think about it.

Did you know that today is the 171st day of this year? I know that because – thus far at least – I have been successful in posting something – not always what I want to write, and not always what you want to read, but something – every single day of this year so far.

When I got this crazy idea to blog every day, I didn't really think I would be able to do it. I was a self-naysayer, so to speak. The very epitome of self-doubt. But so far, so good. At this point, I would be ashamed of myself for getting this far and failing. And I don't need to feel more ashamed of myself than I already do – so I persevere.

Until tomorrow...

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