Well, dear readers, I have breaking bombshell news – it is October. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, it is October, the tenth month of 2023. I tell you, this year is flying by, like a gazelle eating Turkish taffy in Greek Yogurt with Korean barbecue. So, yes, September is done and none too soon, and it is my fervent hope and prayer that October will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful. There, I’ve said it and I’m glad. October, the tenth month of the year will be a VERY busy month for the likes of me, most of which will be consumed with lots of rehearsals for 70, Girls, 70. Also, the new book will get it’s galley for me to approve, after which it can go to the printers, so we really should have it in plenty of time to ship prior to the holidays. So, on the last evening of October, I watched no motion pictures because I was seeing a show, a new musical having its first production. While it’s being touted as a world premiere, it is, in fact, a bare bones affair with no set, some projections, and while there are costumes, most of them aren’t very good. And one of the lead characters appears to wear the same dress over a fifty-year period. The authors think of it was a workshop, and if that’s the case, that’s how it should have been sold. In any case, it needs a lot of work, in my opinion, but I always am interested to see works in progress. I went with Barry Pearl and we supped before the show at a very good jernt right across the street from the theater. I had a dinner salad with excellent ranch dressing and fish and chips with excellent tartar sauce. We gabbed a lot, Adryan Russ stopped and sat with us for a while, and then we saw the show. We spoke to a few people afterwards, and then Barry drove me back here. But I was only home for two minutes because I had to go put gas in the motor car and then go to CVS for more Claritin-D. Of course, they were out of the twenty-four-hour version, which was irritating, so I got the twelve-hour version.
Yesterday was okay. I only got about three-and-a-half hours of sleep thanks to a horrid allergy attack. Thankfully, I had one twenty-four-hour tablet left and that took about an hour to kick in. Then we had our music rehearsal and even though were missing several cast members, everything is sounding better. I made a couple of cuts in dance music because a couple of those sections just go on too long. Anyway, it was fun to hear the songs coming together.
I came home, showered and got ready for the trek to the restaurant and then theater. But first I had to respond to multiple insanely obnoxious and nasty e-mails from a customer. He made a large order a month or so ago but hadn’t received the package. I checked the tracking and it still was showing as a pre-shipment, which means the USPS didn’t scan it in and then lost it or it’s sitting somewhere. The guy’s e-mail was filled with attitude, saying he’d e-mailed repeatedly to no response. No, you didn’t unless it went to spam, and I checked spam, and nothing was there. I explained to him that this has happened of a bunch of occasions and then the packages sometimes just show up at people’s doors. I also told the helper to send him a new package. He was basically accusing me of being a liar and saying we’d never shipped it. I bit my tongue and told him we were sending a new package. Meanwhile, he opens a PayPal dispute so I’m basically responding to him in two different places. Today, he sends me one of the most obnoxious e-mails ever, once again calling me a LIAR (yes, all caps and 16-pt letters), saying we’d never shipped a second package and that he didn’t want the CDs anymore and wanted a complete refund. Meanwhile, the helper had used the original tracking number on the new package because it wasn’t in the system since they’d never scanned it in. So, I went and tracked the package, and it showed it was out for delivery. So, I wrote him back and cut and pasted the USPS website stuff from tracking and sent that to PayPal as well. He can’t stop. He writes me again and says we never shipped the package. I suggested he tone it down because he was beginning to sound psychotic. He writes me again and again makes with the large type LIAR crap. Unfortunately for him, I checked tracking and the package was delivered on his porch at 2:59. I sent him that and also posted it to PayPal.
He wrote again and said there was no package delivered and I was a large type LIAR, all caps, and we’d sent no package. I told him to put on his thinking cap, go to the USPS himself and look at the proof of delivery. I said, how exactly would they deliver a non-existent package – they delivered, according to them, a package from Kritzerland to his door/porch. I told him that he, as the recipient, would now have to call his local post office, show them the proof of delivery confirmation and that they’d then have to talk to the carrier and see what was what. Then I had to leave. When I got home from the play, he’d sent another accusatory e-mail. This time I got tough and told him he needed to knock it off with the baseless and senseless accusations and I said two can play that game and I said maybe HE was the LIAR and had gotten the package and was trying to not have to pay for it. I said I didn’t really believe that to be the case, but that that’s what HE sounded like. I told him PayPal had the entire e-mail volley and the proof of delivery for the package and that I wasn’t refunding him a penny until the package was returned to me (he’d said he’d refuse delivery) or until the post office people had responded with an explanation. I told him his e-mails were defamatory and verging on harassment and that if he didn’t calm down, I would not respond to any more disrespectful e-mails from him. We’ll see what happens.
Today, I’ll be up by eleven and I’m meeting with our set designer at noon-thirty. After that, I may stop somewhere and pick up some food – don’t really know what I’ll feel like – and then I can have a ME rest of the day and can watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, I’ll turn the book files in, hopefully have the two important envelopes so I can do some banking, I’ll do some writing and prep for our first staging rehearsal. Tuesday through Thursday are staging rehearsals and that continues on Saturday. Not sure about Sunday.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eleven, meet with our set designer at noon-thirty, get something to eat and bring home, then have a ME rest of the day and 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 hopeful thoughts that the tenth month, which I like to call October will be a good and fun month. After all, it is my fervent hope and prayer that October will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful.