Good and Evil

And the cycle is continuing. Just as I thought the drama couldn't get any heavier after my last post yesterday afternoon, it did. I was on my way home, and, as any of my readers in the Chicago area know, the weather was terrible. It took forever, and then, as I turned left off of Lincoln onto eastbound Foster, as usual the traffic between Lincoln and Western was at a dead stop because they cannot coordinate those lights at all, even though they're like 10 feet apart. So I stopped and about 30 seconds later, flew forward in my seat as I heard a loud crash, then slammed back, with my head slamming the headrest. Given that I was already mulling over the situation with Circuit City in my head, I was not in a good mood. I looked in the rearview mirror, and there was a gigantic-ass SUV right behind me. I got out, and by some miracle, there was no damage to the back of my car, and no apparent damage to my person, also I was so charged up with adrenaline and rage that I could have been decapitated and would not have recognized it. I just did not need more fucking drama with my car than I have already had this year, and did not have the time to have to deal with the situation since I had a client in about 45 minutes and thanks to the horrid traffic was still nowhere near home. Unfortunately, I let this irritation blossom into anger and was not very gracious about the situation. However, the idiot driver did nothing to make his position any better. I just glared at him and then went back into the car and got some paper and a pen and came back out and started writing down his license plate number, and for some reason, that freaked him out. He kept saying, there's no damage, there's no damage, what's the big deal? The big deal was you hit me for now reason. Then he tried to say that his car had slid on ice, but he had made the same turn I had and I didn't slip on any ice. Maybe it was because I was in a car that was appropriately sized for driving around the city and not some gas-guzzling jumbo auto. SUV's are just evil, and this moron was apparently incapable of handling the car he bought to overcompensate for other issues. Now, I've had this car for almost 10 years, and after parallel parking throughout the city in these 10 year, the bumper has gotten pretty scratched up, and then he started freaking out about that. He's like, I think we should call the police because I don't want to end up getting punished for problems with your bumper that aren't my fault. Seriously, if I wanted to punish him, I can think of a lot more entertaining ways that don't involve the police. So, I told him he could make the report if he wanted, I just wanted his info just in case and he could have mine. That seemed to shut him up, although he then pulled out his phone and took pictures of my bumper, which I should have charged him royalties for. Oh well, missed opportunities, shoulda would coulda. He's just lucky that I was listening to Patti which kept me as marginally calm as I could be, and that I'm only planning on keeping the car for another 5 months or so (btw, she hit 100,000 on Friday, and I was so thrilled that the engine didn't fall out as soon as the odometer turned over), so he could have totally smashed in the entire rear of the car and I really wouldn't care other than the inconvenience at the moment of having to deal with him. So, if anyone in the Chicago area knows a John Khouri with a too-big Jeep SUV, tell him he's a retarded moron and needs to get a car that he can actually handle.

So, fuming about the entire day, I made it to the office and hopped onto playbill.com where I cycled again to an even better high. The lead headline was "Morrison to join Lincoln Center's South Pacific" and there was a gorgeous, new, full color photo of Matty Morrison. Clicking on the headline, the story stated that he has been cast as Lt. Cable. One can only hope the costumes will be as tattered and skimpy as they were in the 2001 national tour. I've already got 3 different soundtracks of the show (the original Mary Martin, the 1967 Florence Henderson, and the 1986 Kiri Te Kanawa/Mandy Patinkin/Jose Carreras), it looks like I'll be getting a fourth. Since the show is opening in February, I'm assuming Matthew should be in NY by the end of the month for rehearsals, so if you happen to be free on the 28th Mr. Morrison, please feel free to meet me at the 57th street Starbucks between 7th and 8th Aves around 9 or 9:30. Now with Chorus Line, Little Mermaid, Patti's Gypsy (and hopefully the lead of South Pacific won't pose the obstacle that LaChanze did at this year's Tony's; as much as I loved Kerry Butler, the role of Nellie is probably the only serious competition for Patti and I can see the retarded voters again denying Patti to reward a far less deserving performer for a not-terrible job) and Young Frankenstein, I'll have plenty of shows to go back for next spring.

So then, feeling a nice glow (and to keep that glow, I'd love to get that new picture of Matt silk screened onto my bedspread), I ordered the Xanadu cast recording and got an email this morning that it has been shipped.

Lastly, in a sign that hopefully this odd bi-polar episode is over (and no, thanks for you're concern, I'm not bi-polar or otherwise crazy, it's been the past 10 days that have been cycling between highs and lows, each one getting more intense), when I looged into my bank this morning, I finally had a refund from Circuit City for the computer. However, they only credited the amount of the computer and the associated tax, they did not refund any portion of the shipping they charged. The computer accounted for about 95% of the subtotal, I would have expected them to at a minimum credit back 95% of the shipping just do to the decent thing. Fortunately, after having dropped the complaints to the Virginia Department of Consumer Affairs and the Illinois Attorney General in the mail as I was walking to my office last night, I had decided to take things into my own hands and go ahead and return the bag to the store today. At lunch, I headed to the nearest Circuit City, and I do feel bad for the people that worked there, but it was the closest one to me, and with Circuit City's policy of being able to return online purchases at a store, that just made them collateral damage in my dispute. I had to talk to a few people, but finally got the manager who processed the refund on just the bag, and then did a petty cash withdrawal and gave me a cash refund for the shipping. I was a little worried he was going to try to give me a store credit or a gift card which I was not going to take because I'm never shopping with them (and it really sucks to have lost both Circuit City and the Banana in the same year, but that's their fault, not mine, and it will ultimately be their loss, I've already found replacements for the Banana, I'm sure I'll do the same for Circuit City), but I think he could tell how pissed off I was, and he did the right thing. I am so glad to be fucking done with this drama. Now of course I need to actually get a computer, but I'm just going to wait until JR gets its hands on the upgraded Toshiba U305 and I'll order that then and just continue to deal with my piece o crap Gateway while I save up some more money. That was kind of a large charge to make this time of year anyways. So, here's to a much more even keel for the rest of the year. No more store drama, no car drama, no work drama, only on-stage drama.