Well, dear readers, I survived the test, and it wasn’t so bad after all. It’s perfectly natural to stick a swab way up in your nose, circle it three times and leave it there for ten seconds – one nostril at a time, which is also the title of my next novel. I have to say, CVS really handles this stuff well, from start to finish. We actually got there twenty minutes early but there was no line and only one car ahead of us just finishing up. As we were pulling up to the window another car pulled up behind us, probably the person who actually had that appointment time but was a bit late. In any case, the nice lady took us, got her paperwork done, and then handed us the paper bag containing the testing paraphernalia – I could have said stuff, but paraphernalia is ever so much more fun. She talked us through everything: First we pulled out the contents of the bag and got the swab out from the little thing in which it resides. Then she told us how to swab – it wasn’t too bad but still a bit weird – we did both nostrils. Then we had to open a little tube and deposit the swab in there and then seal the tube. We then put that back in a little plastic baggie thing and told us to pull forward and deposit the baggie thing in a drop box and there were wipes to open that. And that was it – the whole affair took about five minutes. I took my assistant director home and I moseyed on over to the mail place, picked up stuff, and then came home. I have to admit that I did stress a bit about the whole thing, and I needn’t have. Who knew? And now I’m sitting here like so much fish, listening to a potential album we may or may not release, and relaxing.
Yesterday was a day in which I only got about six hours of sleep. Once up, I answered e-mails and then got ready. I picked up my AD and off we went on our testing adventure. Once I was back home, I immediately felt sick for no reason whatsoever. That passed quickly – just the usual phlegm and allergy junk that is becoming very tiresome. Then I got one of those 40% off coupons so I decided to try a new barbecue jernt called Barbie-Q in Encino. I ordered the pulled pork sandwich, a side of mac-and-cheese, and a little Caesar salad. It all arrived around 1:45 and I must say it was great – the pulled pork sandwich had coleslaw on it and was just delicious. The mac-and-cheese was also pretty great, and so was the little Caesar. I’ll be trying other stuff there this coming week – they have a California Rueben, which is just turkey, coleslaw, Swiss cheese, and 1000-Island dressing, so that’s a must-have. And the ribs look mighty fine, so I’ll try those on a different day, and I’d like to try their baked beans, too. I hope they survive.
After that, I did some work on the computer, but mostly relaxed and sat on my couch like so much fish, wondering if you can get sick from being tested – like some nefarious plot to make cases go up? Just kidding.
Yesterday, I was in the mood to watch Jerome Robbins’ Opus: Jazz, so I did. I wish they’d just done the piece rather than get all artsy fartsy with it – you know, young kid directors with a “vision.” The idea of doing it on location for certain sections was fine – the in-betweens weren’t and just robbed the piece of its internal pace, and I think Robbins would not have been happy. The dancers are all fine, but the Robbins choreography doesn’t fit some of them very well and you realize that as you watch the final sequence because they have the footage of the original dancers for whom the piece was created as an extra and you see just how extraordinary they were in that moment in time. Anyway, it’s enjoyable despite the “vision” and I do love Robert Prince’s score. Since that whetted my Robbins appetite, I also watched the American Masters documentary, Something to Dance About – even though I saw both things just a few months ago, I enjoyed it all over again. They just don’t make them like Robbins or Gower Champion or Fosse or Michael Bennett anymore.
After that, I had a few small sweet treats just for fun. Oh, yeah, earlier I’d listened to the famous Herbert von Karajan Hansel and Gretel, a mono recording from the early 1950s. I really enjoyed it, but it doesn’t replace my now go-to Eichhorn version. And elmore sent me the soundtrack to that puppet version, which has more stuff on it than is in the film, so that was fun. And I still have more Shostakovich string quartets to go through.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, which isn’t much, I may have a chart to proof, but mostly I have to relax and enjoy the day as much as possible. Of course, I’ll eat – tuna sandwiches, for sure. I have stuff to listen to and stuff to watch.
Tomorrow, I can relax until about two-thirty, then I’ll get ready and go do the thing that needs doing. I suppose I’ll have to eat something prior to that, and probably I’ll just make a couple of egg sandwiches here. The rest of the week is project two, more charts, and of course preparing everything for the December Kritzerland show, which will be here all too soon. Hard to believe that we’re in the final month of the year, isn’t it?
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, do whatever needs doing, eat, then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, having had the test, one nostril at a time.