2001-08-22
feeling kinda
well. i finally have the car. *phew* rob gave me a call at work, we set up a time, and i walked over to his house. he's certainly an odd duck, but a kind one. we sat at his big trestle table in the kitchen, talking while he slurped down a canteloupe (this kind of threw me, as i was raised to think that eating in front of company is rude unless you invite them to join). he gave me the lowdown on the car, what kind of repairs, milage, how it behaves, all that. we talked about the bill of sale, and he wrote it out on his personal stationary. i mention that only because it had his address on the top. for some reason, he felt compelled to add his address again in the written sale. i refrained from pointing out the redundancy, figuring that he had his reasons. kind soul - he turned over the title and the bill of sale with a total price of $1 listed. not that this will help the tax all that much, as it's based on the book value of the car, but it was a generous move on his part.
i sat there looking at the Octavio Paz art on his kitchen wall while he ran upstairs to copy things (who the heck has a copier in their house?). then he handed me the keys, which included not only the car key, but also some unidentified key which he thought 'might be useful' and a control for the now-defunct alarm. *shakes head*
anyway... sealed the deal with a handshake, and walked next door to CB's. at this point, i was sort of pressed for time and needed to get back to work. so i still haven't driven my own car, despite CB's offer to take me out for a quick spin. we ended up driving back to my house, her in my car and me in hers. she was so funny... i got stuck at a light, and she waited for me to come around the corner so i could follow her. i don't know if she was more worried about me or her car, but it struck me as sweet and funny.
i did realize that i certainly have my work cut out for me learning to drive a standard. even driving an automatic in the city makes me jumpy. and that was only a 10 minute drive back to my house! of course, the 18 wheeler that cut around the corner as we were coming up the street didn't help matters any. i had visions of being smushed all over the sidewalk and trying to explain to CB why her car was now about as useful as creamed corn. damn, those things are big when you're looking up from a small car!
and we had to leave the car on the street for now, because nobody was home to play musical cars. it's all fine in the sense that it's not permit parking, and no street cleaning until next week, but it does mean that i can't take the plates off and bring them to my agent tonight. somehow, i thought we'd get this whole thing turned around in a few days, so every little snag makes me cranky, even tho everything will get done in its own time.
and here's the true testament to friendship: while we were at my house, CB helped me go thru all my kitchen garbage looking for my checks. i had managed to put two checks, one from gram and one paycheck, in a place where i wouldn't forget them, and promptly forgot where i put them. i had torn apart my wallet, my bag, my desk, my laundry, and all the other wastebaskets at least three or four times. no luck. now, how can i call and thank gram for a check that i've lost? and forget trying to explain that to my parents... so, i bit my lip, held my breath, snapped on the dishwashing gloves, and dug thru a week's worth of leftover pasta, cigarette buts and cat shit looking for my checks. CB, god love her, actually held another trash bag open for me while i did this.
when i got to the bottom of the pail, there were still no checks. erg. well, the least i could do was take out the trash at that point. as i walked out the back door, i heard CBcall my name. not wanting to get my hopes up, i kept going and tossed the trash in the barrel. and when i came back in, she was standing in the middle of my living room, two checks in hand. turns out i had tucked them inside some papers from my lawyer and left them by the door. where i wouldn't forget them. right. ;)
so, the show at the Pavilion tonight was Crosby Stills and Nash. very cool show. very drunk audience, but very cool show. Crosby came out on stage once, after the gates were open, and chatted with people, then walked around the stage with a smudge stick, apparently to set the right aura for the show. :)
preshow music was interesting, and i heard a great story to go with it. they were playing, of all things, classical piano music. made me happy, because it was very mellow. then i overheard the sound guys talking. the one who had been running the preshow music was all bummed out because he thought he had a good groove going - Cream, Dylan, that sort of thing. Nash apparently would have none of that, because he didn't want the competition (*raises eyebrows*) and had him put in classical instead. man, oh man... okay, you've had a stunning career, and there are 5,000 people coming in specifically to hear you. and you're still worried about competition? sheesh.
this was also the night that the head of the booking agency brought in his Breakfast Club. don't ask, i don't know what that means, other than his inner circle. we were instructed to smile at anything that moves, in case they were part of the inner sanctum. turns out i did run into the head of the agency. a gentleman in a very well tailored suit walked past me, clearly looking for something. 'can i help you, sir?' and he just announced who he was. 'okay... can i help you?' i'm thinking i didn't win any brownie points with that one. ;)
also ran into mark and lynne there. mark is the one who originally set me up with the Orpheum gig, and by extension, this gig. it was fun to see them there, and catch up a little bit. turned into a bit of Old Home Week for them, because just everyone was working the show. i also got the lowdown on the show coming up this weekend. no one had mentioned before that the VH1 private show is sponsored by Sam Adams. that should be a fun one... not. well. we'll see.
