Wet Lag
In Tauranga, it rained.
Quite a bit. And for a long time. Apparently, the beautiful greenery comes at a price.
Went to the theatresports event - well, at least the first few hours of it, anyway. Try as I might - I just couldn’t let go of Austin and get into working with first-time performers. Right around the time of the second Shortland Street joke, I was feeling lonelier than ever.
I didn’t attend the main event. Let the newcomers have their fun, after all. I’d just be bringing them down with my foul mood. Plus, I’d mess them up. I know enough about Improv to know when to break the rules; in fact, I know enough about breaking the rules that it’s hard to perform strictly to those rules - and the new guys need to learn the rules.
Anyway, it might be time to try something new, anyway. New life, new comedy, and all that. Maybe I should start getting into standup, where I don’t know the rules, and have to re-learn from scratch. And it’s probably a great way to meet friends; I think Gish might remember me as the crazy American from 2008…
So I was feeling homesick for most of the day until I went over to my friend’s parent’s house to meet them. They were great - great food, great conversation, and, well, they reminded me a lot of Helen, so they were almost like having my friend nearby. In fact, I think I did - I made friends with Helen’s parents, which greatly helped the homesickness.
I must admit I spent much of the evening with Helen’s parents dishing on my own; partially because Helen’s parents were curious about Americans; and there are no Americans I know more intimately than my parents, and my parents are certainly American as heck.
It’s not that I think I left a bad impression with them, but I did want to illustrate the differences that my parents and I had. Mom would never come to New Zealand; the flight alone would scare her, let alone driving on the left. And Dad would never, ever, in a million years, understand politics here. New Zealand is mostly a “reality based” country.
Mostly. Met my next door neighbor, about my age, going to University to study to be a nurse.
“One thing no one’s been able to tell me,” she asked, “is why we have temples.”
“I don’t know, honestly. I would imagine that it’s function is merely to keep the brain intact.”
“Well, I’ve posed the question to doctors, nurses, you name it.”
“Maybe you’ll have better luck talking to an evolutionary biologist - these kinds of questions are their stock and trade.”
“I would… but I don’t believe in evolution.”
“Uh… buh…. wha… huh?”
So… a nurse that doesn’t believe in evolution. Kind of like an architect that doesn’t believe in physics, but there you go.
Honestly, she was very nice and very sweet, and let me know my lights were on (the batteries would have run down without her telling me,) and she put up with my absentmindedness and awkwardity.
But there’s really no place to take a conversation after that, is there. “Oh, I’ve just rejected everything you believe in life as false and immoral; care for a biscuit?”
Meantime, Jet Lag is kicking my ass. Fell asleep around 9:30 last night, woke up at 7, took a nap today from 2-5:30, and planning to fall back asleep as soon as I post this - which should be about 11:00. Hopefully, I can get into some sort of routine before work starts.