Jet Unset

 I had a bizarre and exhausting travel experience a few weekends ago:

I flew back to Austin for spring break, my fourth trip in six years and first time in Texas since Leap Day 2020. (That ended up being my sole vacation in that headache of a year.) I was supposed to fly back in the early hours of Saturday, April 1st. Not long before going to a Round Rock Express game that Friday night, I was informed my nonstop flight to Chicago was cancelled. There was a string of nasty storms and tornado warnings in northern Illinois. I was grateful that my old pal Brandon and his wife were letting me hang out at the house until my flight would be rescheduled. I tried calling United but they were clearly slammed with calls; as it turned out, they wiped out 36 straight hours of flights to O'Hare because of the inclement weather. After two hours with an chatbot, I received a refund for my initial flight. 

I had plans for Saturday, so my instinct was to find the next available flight back home. I didn't consider Amtrak or anything else. My best option was via American and Southwest; Bergstrom to Dallas-Fort Worth to Oklahoma City to Chicago, and land home after 6 PM. I arrived at Bergstrom at 10:15 for a noon flight, and the shuttle landed at DFW without issue. Then the plot thickened. My second flight had a one hour delay for maintenance; an attendant for American noticed the four minute gap between my OKC flight and when I fly from OKC to Chicago (in different terminals) so I ended up getting switched to a layover in Springfield, MO *then* Chicago free of charge. The Springfield flight was supposed to board after 10 PM; I didn't get on the plane until 11:15. That particular layover lasted 10 1/2 hours. 

In the meantime, I endured the longest layover I've ever had. I meandered around DFW, eating lunch at a Pappadeaux, a snack at a frozen yogurt stand, and a late dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings. I also took advantage of American's Minute Suites, where I took an uncomfortable two-hour snooze on a cushioned bench. The mini motel room experience was sufficient, but not worth the $51 an hour. After I landed at Springfield-Branson, I had to find a bench to take a second over-glorified nap. I was surreal laying down in the arrivals and baggage area of an empty airport, especially in a smaller airport in an unfamiliar city (one terminal, eight gates, zero Starbucks). Just after 5 AM on Sunday morning, I finally boarded my connecting flight to O'Hare. I landed at 7 AM, I returned to my apartment around 8, and I took a four hour nap. In all, I spent 21 hours in aviation limbo. 

April fools, indeed.

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Random Notes, June 2019

What's new?

+ Writing about Donald Trump on this blog has grown rather difficult, insofar that I struggle to offer a fresh and unique vantage point. This is especially because we all have a pretty clear idea of who President Trump is. The decision to back out of bombing Iran, and the postponement of ICE raids on undocumented immigrants --both 11th hour, both in complete haste-- has shown us the cowardice underneath the bluster. Nearly 2 1/2 years into office, we're all well aware that his tactics are loggerheads and threats, not discipline and critical thinking.

+ Theresa May bit more than she could chew. Her three-year stint at British Prime Minister will be undoubtedly defined by her support of Brexit and her abject inability to set any feasible plan into motion to leave the European Union. The majority of Britons know Brexit was both a mistake and a right-wing pipe dream. Here's hoping her successor changes course.

+ My latest summer of travel is in full swing! Since late May, I've already been to Omaha, South Bend, and Des Moines, and tomorrow I'm taking a day trip to the Beloit/Janesville area. With the exception of Des Moines this is all familiar terrain, but I'm making a conscious effort to see and do new things in each city. Besides my week in Scotland in late July (see WU #620) and my third trip to Baltimore in 15 months, I have tentative plans to visit more mid-western cities, while catching minor league baseball games.

Next Week: at long last, my 14th annual Fantasy Emmy Ballot.

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Where is Stuart? There is Stuart!

I'm overextending myself. I don't think I came to terms with that until I realized I still had to write my three posts a month in May ...and it was already the 19th. I ended up only finishing two posts, which marked the first time since 2005 that I didn't write at least three dispatches in a 30-day span. To both of my remaining readers, I apologize.

The end of May marked the second anniversary of my mother's passing. My sister and I are still holding down the fort in the west Chicago suburbs, but we don't know for how much longer. We're paying for property taxes through the teeth, and upkeep around the house has been daunting. My sister has contemplated moving out of state, and my wanderlust has never gone away. In April, we set a tentative timetable to move out and sell the property by mid-2021; its an attainable goal, but there's a lot of work to be done.

Besides subbing, I have two part-time jobs. I drive for Lyft, but one or two nights a week I do box office and tech for a small improv venue in Wicker Park. I set a financial goal for the year, and I'm just barely hitting it. I've also been battling writer's block on and off for much of the past year, though that could be due to everything else going on; my energies are often elsewhere. As for leisure and pleasure, I have a couple of mini-road trips planned, besides going to Scotland in late July.

I haven't elaborated on what *I've* been up to recently, so I just thought I'd post this to let everyone know where I am at the moment.

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Random Notes, October 2018

I can't seem to focus on more than one topic:

+ I'm still trying to make heads or tails of the Saudi Arabia situation. Some pieces of the puzzle are certain: Saudi Arabia has some serious human rights issues, Mohammad bin Salman is a weasel, President Trump is too fawning and trusting of tyrants and dictators (and vice versa), and above all Jamal Khashoggi shouldn't be dead. This fiasco is subtext becoming context, a revelatory moment for those who wrongly assumed Saudi Arabia was more progressive than its Middle Eastern neighbors.

+ If the president is sincerely concerned about political violence, it might be best if everything he said wasn't some sort of call to arms.

+ Two weekends ago, Flower Shop Bangers played the Compass Improv Festival in St. Louis. It was the culmination of my year of travel, as I visited 10 states (including Illinois) since November 1st of last year. In order: Michigan, Wisconsin (several times), Texas, Maryland (twice), Iowa, Nebraska, New York, and Indiana (several times). I have tentative plans to visit Scotland in 2019, and I'm still submitting to improv festivals. Stay tuned.

Next Week: a death in the family, ten years later.

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Happenings on the Hudson

My recent trip to New York in a nutshell: traffic at LaGuardia, coffee in Harlem the next morning, Broadway that afternoon, dinner with Francesco Marciuliano that evening, the NBC/30 Rock tour on day two, the NHL Store (down the street on the Avenue of the Americas), missing brunch with an old improv classmate due to an address snafu, Don Giller (more on that in a second), catching an improv show at UCB Hell's Kitchen, brunch on day three, rescheduled coffee with aforementioned improv classmate (see WU #594), 90 minute subway ride to Coney Island, a Brooklyn Cyclones game, the Coney Island boardwalk, a 90 minute ride back to Harlem, and more traffic to LaGuardia. Over 80% of my trip was spent in Manhattan, but I hope to come back to NYC soon.

I sort of had an ulterior motive to visit New York. I've blogged on at least two occasions about David Letterman, and what a formative presence he was in my pursuit of a career in comedy. While on Broadway, I took a picture of the Ed Sullivan Theater, a reminder of a dream deferred. I was promised a trip to see a taping of Dave's show in 2007, and circumstances prevented that from ever happening. Afterwards, I had lunch around the corner at Hello Deli. I ordered the "Regis" (peppered chicken and Muenster on a baguette) and stalled a little after I polished off my sandwich. I eventually worked up the nerve to take a selfie with Rupert, then bought one of the few remaining LSDL t-shirts on the souvenir cabinet. Rupert and his partner couldn't have been more kind and patient, though I nearly had an anxiety attack from this minor celebrity encounter.

Which brings me to Don Giller. Known throughout the interwebs as "Donz," Mr. Giller is the unofficial video historian of David Letterman's first three shows. Since early 2015, Giller has been exhaustively remastering the recordings and converting decades-old Betamax and VHS tapes to DVD. Donz has also been integral in assembling the (at the moment, dormant) Late Night and Late Show episode guides on TV.com. We met at Donz' apartment on the Upper West Side and we discussed his vast collection for about 3 1/2 hours. It was a worthwhile and fascinating meeting with someone that I had been communicating with mostly by email since 2006.

Tentatively, I plan on visiting NYC again in Spring 2019. I only visited three boroughs and I hope to visit the other two soon enough. Having an AirBnb all the way up in Harlem curbed some of my sightseeing, and next time I intend to stay somewhere more central (i.e. Brooklyn). Comedy and jazz shows await. This last trip was funded with inheritance money, so finances will likely be the X-factor.

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People, Places, Things

Both my sister and I have been using our newfound free time (and inheritance money) to travel. Its been a long-festering goal and I'm taking advantage of it:

In late March, I flew to Austin, TX for a film shoot. I used to collaborate on short films with a guy named Brandon; when he couldn't afford to live in Chicago anymore, he moved back to his hometown of Houston, but resettled in the state capital. Some of you may recall I promoted his Indiegogo in mid-March; it only hit 38% of its goal, but he's been doing more with less. Brandon and his crew have been rather clever about shooting around his house, the neighborhood/subdivision that he lives in, and a smattering of other locations.

The film itself is a high school coming-of-age comedy/bildungsroman about three high school seniors plotting the perfect graduation prank. My character was originally intended to be in one scene; he was supposed to assist the boys with a botched prank early on in the film. That scene went well enough that just before I flew back, we improvised a second scene with the lead and another actor. One more for the IMDb, I suppose.

Then last week, my improv duo Flower Shop Bangers flew to Baltimore for the Charm City Comedy Festival. Even though we had played out of Illinois before, this was the Bangers' first festival that required a plane ride. We flew in that Tuesday night, spent Wednesday doing some tourist stuff, performed that evening, then went back to hitting up recommended locales until we flew back on Friday. We were impressed enough by B'More that we applied for the Baltimore Improv Festival in late July. FSB will hit the road again for our third trip to Omaha on Memorial Day weekend.

Next Week: my annual memory list.

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Random Notes, February 2017

Typically I'm not very political on social media. Then again, these are very unusual times. I still feel no inclination to support President Trump, and even though I refuse to normalize him, I admit that any chance of him being impeached or resigning from office is pretty slim. This first month in office has been fairly bizarre and at times unwatchable. Trump achieved that most elusive of brass rings in American society, and it seems like he's struggling to justify wanting (or keeping) that grand prize.

President Trump has already demonstrated that he's out of touch, and that his inner circle is more or less calling the shots. That press conference on February 16th was four weeks of chaos in a nutshell, and the Kellyanne Conway/Nordstrom flap demonstrated that his inner circle isn't necessarily on the same page, either. Nearly everyone in the Oval Office beehive is making up stuff as they go along, and only his most ardent supporters are still eating their honey.

Other notes:

+ Please read this excellent and moving essay from a Muslim woman who quit the Trump administration. Its an insider's take the chaos going down as well as a plea for sanity and tolerance.

+ Speaking of social media... since January 19th, I've gained 10 Facebook friends and lost nine. Evidently, a lot of people are deactivating their accounts; I would attribute this to something I might have said or done, but with one exception I've largely avoided political posts. (I save the topical hot takes for Stu News.) I used to be more vocal on my Facebook profile, though I'm more open about current events on Twitter.

+ Last year I achieved the goal of traveling more, and I anticipate continuing the pace in 2017. Next week, my girlfriend and I are driving to Bay City, MI (her childhood hometown) for a friend's 30th birthday party, and I'm heading back to the Omaha Improv Festival on Memorial Day Weekend. Depending upon finances, there might be more road trips in store later in the year.

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The Cheery Traveler

One of my goals for 2016 was to travel. Family obligations had kept me from going anywhere the previous two or three years, and before that I simply couldn't budget a road trip. (I don't count my frequent commutes to Chicago.) This year, I'm making up for lost time. In mid-April, I parlayed my semi-annual drive down to Normal into a three-day stay in the Houston suburbs. My college radio station was celebrating its 35th anniversary, but I was only able to hang out for the first day of the reunion. A former improv teammate of mine was getting married the same weekend, and I rarely turn down a wedding invitation.  Splitting the difference more or less worked; by flying from central Illinois to Houston (with a layover in Atlanta) I avoided long security lines and saved on airfare. On top of that, I only had to spend money on one night in a hotel; I crashed at the groom's father's house up in Willis for most of the trip. In short, this was the type of "lone wolf" trip that I'd been wanting for years.

A week or so ago, my improv/business partner Dan and I drove out to the Omaha Improv Festival. Even though I've been studying and performing improv for seven years now, I've never done so outside of the state of Illinois. Dan had been submitting to festivals across the country for almost three years now, and we were sort of bemused that Omaha had accepted us. Neither of us knew anyone from the Cornhusker State, nor were we aware of any improv community in the United States' 60th largest city. The whole road trip was a pleasant surprise; the Omaha improv scene is small but burgeoning, the festival was a blast, and above all Omaha is a lovely little city. (Our show was just okay, but we still had fun.) I can't really budget any other adventures at the moment, but I'm glad I've been able to explore the world outside Chicago for a little while.

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