Sunday, January 01, 2006

1/1 Happy New Year! (And I met someone from Quincy.)

I had fun last night working at ComedySportz. We had two nearly-full houses for the shows, so that was good. Everyone was in a festive mood, and that made my job quite easy.

A family walked in and the woman said their name, then spelled it. I said, "I know how to say your name. It's German and there are people with that name in my hometown." She asked where I was from. When I said Quincy, Illinois, she said, "So's my husband." She called him over and sure enough, he was from Quincy originally. And his dad and uncles went to St. Francis--the same grade school my family went to. I think one of his uncles was in my sister Jan's class. Their last name is Scheufle (pronounced shy-flea). Mark said I was one of the very few people who said their name correctly. And I think I even spelled it right. (Jan, if you read this--his dad is Richard and his uncles are Larry and Robert.) It was neat meeting someone who not only had been to Quincy but had been born there.

Willard Scott on the Today Show once said he had the best catfish of his life at the Skyride Inn in Quincy. It's odd that I've always remembered that. Besides being the birthplace of Mary Astor, I always thought Willard's comment was Q's claim to fame. :) (For you young ones, Mary Astor was an amazing actress. Among her many roles, she was the female lead in The Maltese Falcon, and was the mother in Meet Me in St. Louis. She had a tremendously long German name, but I can't think of it now. The Packers just sacked Seattle's quarterback, so I'm quite distracted.)

Back to the point, right after the 10:30 show started, Dick and Buddy gave me a glass of champagne and a bottle as well, perhaps about 1/4 full. On the occasions I do drink, I tend to enjoy beer, but I drank the glass. It ended up being all the alcohol I consumed.

When we work at CSz, we always get a "shifty" afterward. A free drink of our choice. Most of the time I get a bottled root beer, but sometimes a Leinie Honey Weiss or a Heineken. So when I didn't want anything to drink because I had a 20 minute drive ahead of me, full of cops on the side of the highway, Buddy gave me two unopened Honey Weiss bottles. That was sweet.

I'm sleep deprived, but not because of partying. I left CSz around 11:30 PM but didn't get to sleep until 1:30. Woke up at 6:30 and couldn't get back to sleep. The good news is that I'll be able to take a nap whenever I feel like it today. The bad news is that I will be totally non-productive because I'm feeling sleepy.

I discovered another favorite movie today--Finding Neverland with Johnny Depp and Kate Winslett. What a remarkable film! I laughed and cried throughout. The imagination of J.M. Barrie was undeniably creative, fun, and oddly endearing. The film really brought Barrie, his relationships, and his creations to life. I loved it!

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