Well, dear readers, I’m safe and sound in the Land of Port. I had a lovely flight, which would have been even lovelier if we hadn’t stopped in Sacramento for thirty minutes. Other than that, though, it was smooth sailing, or smooth flying the whole way. Dear reader JMK met me at the airport, and then took me to this strange jernt I’m staying at – The Arlington Club. The Arlington Club is a Gentleman’s Club, and is very old school and staid. The man behind the desk is about eighty, and was the only one in attendance, since The Arlington Club isn’t “open” on weekends. I think I may be the only one staying here. The room is quite nice, and they had champagne and wine for me (not that I’ll be drinking it) and an assortment of candy bars and such (not that I’ll be eating them). It was quite warm and very pretty, but by the end of the evening the skies were gray and it looked like it would rain. JMK gave me a mini-tour of downtown Portland, then we went to his home environment for our hainsies/kimlets gathering. It was a small group, but it was lively and sparkling the whole way. It was lovely to finally meet JMK’s ever-lovin’ and very pretty Betsy, his two kids, Zach and Gabe, and his dog, B.G. Also in attendance were his Bacharach revue singers, Adair and Bruce. As it turned out, Bruce was in the production of Hello, Dolly that I recorded, and he also was on Broadway Bound in the ensemble. Bruce’s wife and young son were there, too (his wife is appearing in a local production of Rocky Horror), as well as Adair’s boyfriend. And, of course, we had our very own George, and our very own MBarnum – it was grand to meet them face-to-face. Adair’s mother, Isabelle, was also there, and for years she was the general manager of one of Portland’s big theaters. Just prior to eating, we had a performance of two of the Bacharach revue numbers, which were fun to hear. Then we ate. JMK and family are vegetarians, and so it came to pass that I had my very first veggie burger. JMK assured me I would be astonished at how meat-like it was. It wasn’t bad, this thing called a Boca Burger, but meat it wasn’t. Us meat eaters know meat when we eat it, and the Boca Burger, while tasty, had nothing to do with meat. I don’t know that I’d ever feel the need to eat a Boca Burger again in my lifetime, although it is very low in calories and fat grams, and is quite filling. George brought delicious home-made fudge, which was ever so yummilicious, and Betsy made her famous chocolate cake, which was also ever so yummilicious. After dinner, we all sat on JMK’s deck, and dished the dirt, and it was quite amusing. We told tales, and we laughed and laughed, and just when we thought we could laugh no more, we laughed again. Then we told more tales, and then even more tales. We even told the story of The Randy Vicar and the Walnut.
We then headed back to the hotel. I was starting to feel like I was having an allergy attack, so we stopped at a market to get Actifed. But, here’s the thing – you can’t just buy Actifed in Portland. Nooooo, that is not something you can do. Apparently there is an ingredient in Actifed that drug users can somehow get to that is used to create meth, whatever the HELL that is. Can you imagine such a thing? Certainly Los Angeles, California, has its share of drug addicts and yet you can buy Actifed with no problem. So, you can only get Actifed at the pharmacy department, which, since it was Sunday at nine, was closed. I bought some Claritin, which I hope will work until I get me some Actifed in the morning.
I then came back to The Arlington Club, and we tried for quite some time to get me hooked up to the Internet, but we couldn’t get the dial-up to work. Our theory was that I’ve never used the dial-up port on this computer, and we have to turn it “on” – something I have no idea how to do. However, they have a business center the floor below me and that’s where I’m writing these here notes from. Sort of a pain, but at least I’m getting them done. Unless someone can help me figure out the dial-up tomorrow, I guess I’ll be coming down here each evening.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below for soon I must abed and dream of Boca Burgers.
Today, JMK will be picking me up, and we’ll do a little sight-seeing prior to our afternoon rehearsal for the Bacharach show. Then, we’ll go directly to the reading/signing, where I shall hopefully have a decent crowd, and where I shall read for one hour, and then answer questions, should there be any. After that, a group of us will go out to a lovely dinner at a restaurant to be decided upon.
I won’t be able to post much tomorrow (although I’ll definitely post once at JMK’s house), so you dear, dear people out there in the dark simply must keep the home fries burning. Then, once I’m back at The Arlington Club, I can come down to the Business Center and catch up, or, at the very least, ketchup.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, rehearse, I must read and sign, not necessarily in that order, I must eat, and I must even try to write something at some point. I must also continue our final finessing of the Kritzerland site. Today’s topic of discussion: If you could live anywhere other than the place you’re living, where would it be and why would you want to live there? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst we all contemplate BK eating a Boca Burger.