Life has this strange way of telling you that it's time to finally step outside of the comfort that you've known for a long time and do something different... for me it's an aching back. Let me explain... and this is a metaphor... of sorts...
About 3 weeks ago I started waking up at 3am with terrible back aches... I would try to go back to bed but usually only sleep for another hour and get up with an even worse back ache, and I would continue to fight it until I felt the hour was suitable enough to get out of bed, usually 7:30am. Last weekend I went to Chicago and stayed at this resort... wait back up... let's start with something else. My sketch comedy group was getting ready to premiere our second short film, Mature Readers Only, and I had been put in charge of the event to premiere it at... I had just about 3 weeks to get all the acts, sell advertising, make the ads, and put on a well oiled event, no small feat... in the middle of this however, was my said-Chicago trip... now back to that...
I was attributing my back pain to the stress of the event, however, in Chicago, I slept iN this bed that was nothing short of a cloud with sheets on it... it helped the back a little but the pain was still there. The conference did two things... a.) It made me finally consider working at a camp as a legitimate career move, and something I'd be (gasp) good at... and b.) well that a much longer lesson learned... continue reading...
I returned to Muncie, to find all but two of my ads had been sold. I was so relieved by that, but still knew that within 3 days I'd have to put this thing on, while still going to work everyday...
On Monday, my boss sat me down, and told me that if she had to say now whether she would hire me for the summer or not, she wouldn't... and I can't make excuses for it, because I haven't been the most cooperative employee, and all of the points she made were vaild... but it was a shock that went through me. I had a reasonably-well paying summer job lined up, I was going to work this summer and then move to Indy and slack off for a month or two while job hunting... and the threat of this being taken away from me was there...
Wednesday was the event, I had previously asked for the day off work to focus and finish the event... which had I not gotten the day off, wouldn't have happened. Wednesday also sets of into motion a three-day streak of run-ins with cops... We got the cops called on us for "running in the street, throwing bottles and heckling" all of which were not true and made up by unhappy passers-by. Wednesday night came along and the event went great, everyone who helped was awesome and I appreciate them for that. Afterwards I was exhausted, but I still went to the Herot and celebrated the event and the movie with some friends, and then I went home and crashed.
The next day, I literally was running on coffee and dreams, as I had only gotten 3 hours of sleep after an 18 hour day, and one of the worst back aches so far. I thanked my boss for the day off the previous day and went about my work. That night my friend Tommy had a show for his band Tommy and the Tommies. The show was like this: Tommy stood in front of the crowd, behind him were two large screens which had two duplicate Tommies on each, each one playing a different instrumnet and wearing different clothes... and all in sync, and playing great music. Needless to say, I was impressed. I had seen Tommy working on this project and had wondered what it was for, and when I saw it, I was floored. Tommy introduced me to his mother, who was a social worker, and we gabbed for 20 minutes about social work, it was nice.
The wrap party for the movie was that night also, and I went, but not before going to Dill Street to see my friends, who really I hadn't seen in almost a two weeks, which is borderline unnatural. At the party was the second run-in with the cops... The came to the house for a noise violation, asked if everyone was 21, which they weren't, but everyone lied, and the cops left after telling us to keep it down.
Friday, I had the morning from work off and didn't have anything to do until 1pm when I had to interview someone for a posistion at work. We we finally went back to work we had a meeting. My boss has gone ga-ga over this guy who writes staff training manuals named Michael Brandwein. It was one of the hardest meetings I ever had to endure... my mind wasn't there... I was still tired, and my back still hurting... when the meeting was over I went to hang out with my friends at Dill Street like I do every Friday... however I had made plans to leave to go to Ball State Carnival, so I drank as quickly as I could and went to the carnival. When I arrived I decided the line was too long and called my friend Ben, he told me to meet at Kirk and Al's and we'd go to the Herot... and we did... at this point I wasn't in a drinking mood... I still had a drink, but it didn't satisfy me. Eventually Kirk took me back to Dill Street, where I needed to catch up, and I did and then went past them, very quickly. Kirk, Ben, and Dan arfrived soon after and eventually I wound up on Kirk and Al's front lawn. One of the worst nightmares I ever had was coming true. I was that guy. I was passed out on the lawn of a house that didn't belong to me... I was a burden. The third run-in with the cop happened then. A cop pulled up asked if I was okay, and then turned on his lights, which immediately woke me up. I shot up and began eating cheese popcorn, before I eventually uttered: "Sorry." To which the cop laughed and drove away. The next thing I remember is waking up in the living room, and leaving.
I won't go into every detail of Sunday, but I shot a sketch, and then at around 10 I went to see Forgetting Sarah Marshall... I was so lost for a while because I couldn't figure out where it was going, but then after it finished I was happy with it (PS Go see it, it's hilarious. PPS Also beware there is male full frontal nudity.). But I realized something abotu a hour later, because I tend to think about movies I watch for a while... That movie was life. It was this guys life for a week, all this stuff happened, and some of it was strange, but it all happened for a reason, his reason was to get over an ex-girlfriend...
All the stuff that happened to me this week made me realize many things... first is the b.) from beforehand... b.) It's okay to fully rely on someone to get the job done if you trust them, aka You're not Superman... I learned that all I wanted this year was actually in front of me... friends... don't get me wrong, my best friends live in New Albany, IN and Haines City, FL, but I was searching for someone to be that for me while I have spent all this time away from them, I just hadn't realized it was going to be over 20 people... which leads to another lasting lesson, I'm a handfull, I'm like a child, I rely on people to get me through my crap, but when I need help I refuse to take it unless I'm forced... I'm 23 years old, this shouldn't be happening... I don't ever want to take to another police officer in any of those situations again, maybe I shouldn't put myself in those posisitions...
I woke up today with my back still hurting, but I know why. It's a growing pain... Just like when your knees get crickety, or you get that first gray hair... it's a sign. My body's getting older, maybe it's time my mind caught up... While growing up is a lifelong process and I may never be fully there, I would like to think that I grew up a little bit this week...
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