crazy

After an epic night last night, I woke up with a text message on my phone. It was from Lil' Bit (aka GISS) and it said, "Call me if you're up."

So, of course, I didn't. I broke things off with her for good a couple of weeks ago, so I've kind of been trying to keep my distance. (That's a whole 'nother set of posts.) I was supposed to go to breakfast with the girl (who, for now, we'll call Snapple), so I figured that I'd call her afterwards.

But when I checked my e-mail, I had three messages from Lil' Bit.

1st message: Hey. If I can figure out a plane ticket would it be cool for me to come visit ... and stay for a couple days? Let me know.

2nd message (half an hour after the first): was just browsing and I can fly for free on airline miles...let me know if it’s cool to come see you.

3rd message (eight minutes after the second): I took a chance and booked it. I have 3 days to cancel or change without penalty. Livin on the edge.

Um...what?

I told Snapple at breakfast, who was not very happy. I told her that I'd call Lil' Bit after we ate and try to dissuade her from coming. I was really hoping that, after talking to me, and hearing the reluctance in my voice, and hearing that I'm dating someone semi-seriously, that she would just decide not to come.

When I got her on the phone, she was all cheery - "I'm coming to see you!" - and when I asked her what made her decide to do this, she said, "It was a whim. Just a whim!" And that it just made sense, since she could buy the ticket for 5 dollars. She'd be staying for four days.

Not a good sign.

I asked her what she was planning to do on the visit (because I had been pretty clear with her, when I broke things off, that (a) I'm seeing someone else and (b) I don't want any more romantic stuff to happen) and she said that she was "open to anything", but that she really needed to get out of town and from her jobs and random stresses. So then I reminded here that I was seeing Snapple, to which she said, "Yeah, it'll be good for me to see that, 'cause it will be like closure."

You should have seen my face.

So I then asked how she was doing, and she basically said that she's pretty adrift, and doesn't know what she's doing with her life, and feels really lonely at home and keeps running after things that she shouldn't be chasing. (To which I wanted to say, "Why the fuck are you coming out here?" But, alas, I am too nice.)

Then she asked how I was, and I told her that I was working my ass off, but really happy, having a good time with the new girl, etc. I was really playing up the fact that Snapple is from NY, and that this wasn't a fling for me. After that, she got off the phone pretty fast, but still played the whole I'm-so-excited card.

I admit, I was pretty shocked.

I wanted to call her back and just flat out tell her not to come (which was my first instinct). I decided to call one of my best friends. While waiting for her to call me back (she was having some big talk with Maxine, actually - irony of ironies) Lil' Bit sent me a text message saying, "I feel weird. I don't know if I should come."

I responded, "I feel weird about it, too. When do you have to decide?"

"I have three days to make a change."

So I wrote back, "I'll talk to you about it tomorrow," but then I sent a text after that said, "Give me a call when you get a chance," because I don't want this to drag out another day - I'm going to tell her straight up not to come.

And when I talked to my friend, she agreed, and basically said that she was crazy. I think that I had been in shock up until that point - I mean, I really couldn't believe what was happening. But during my conversation with my friend, I started to get angry - who buys a plane ticket and then tells you that they're coming? She had the time to send me three e-mails and a text message - she couldn't pick up the phone and fucking CALL me to ask if it was ok? Or wait a few hours? What the fuck?

Anyway, I probably should just have followed my original instinct (although that would have involved yelling, which I don't like to do - I mean, I have a show tonight and I should save my voice), but like an idiot I decided to try and be nice and check out the situation to see how she was feeling...well, I KNOW how she's feeling.

Crazy.

Anyway, when she calls me (or when I call her), I'm going to tell her that I don't think it's a good idea, and I don't want her to come. Period.

(sigh)

Reaction?

(I'll let you know what happens, don't worry...)

not much to report

A cool grey day here in Rockport. I need to learn lines and do laundry, but I don't wanna. I wanna play Playstation 'til my eyes bug out. Is there anything wrong with that?

I've been really bad about writing lately - both here and in my journal - and I always think of the old axiom that when the most things are going on in your life, you have the least amount of time to record them. So true.

I am having a great summer. Work is good, the crazy factor is positive (meaning I'll have some nice stories for you later in the summer), and things with the girl continue to go well. One of my NYC friends came out last week and met her, and she approves, which is always a relief. And the roommate is out of the house for a few hours, which is AWESOME. Just me and Clementine, surfin' the web and procrastinating.

Hopefully I'll have more interesting things to tell you next week - right now I'm just checkin' in, floating on a cloud of lazy...

no, i didn't kill her

My friend called me earlier today and chided me for not updating the roommate situation. I think she was secretly wondering if I had killed her.

It's better. Apparently (by her own admission), she was PMSing last week, which makes her "crazy". Mind you, I haven't seen any huge strides in cleanliness the last few days, but we'll give her the benefit of the doubt, I guess. She did have a huge blowup before a rehearsal last week, but I wasn't there, so I can't really give too many details.

Anyway, I'm up to my neck in learning lines, so I may be pretty scarce for the next week or so. But I'll be back, with a vengeance, very shortly...

roommate issues

My roommate is driving me crazy.

She's a very nice woman, and she means well. Caring and supportive, blah blah blah. BUT...

- SHE'S A SLOB. Her room is a mess, there are always crumbs everywhere, the upstairs bathroom (which she has totally taken over) is filthy, and I'm always finding three-quarters empty Starbucks cups and banana peels (seriously) all over the place. She even poured popcorn into a COLLANDER last week, and then wondered why we had popcorn all over the floor. Which I had to vacuum up, by the way. Which reminds me...

- SHE DOESN'T CLEAN UP AFTER HERSELF. I'm always the one vacuuming, or doing the dishes, or wiping down the counters. I think she emptied the dishwasher once.

- SHE HAS NO IDEA HOW TO USE A TRASH CAN. She just keeps piling things on top of the pile until it overflows. Sometimes I'll close the bag, if there's something really stinky in the can. And what does she do? She just throws her trash on top of the closed plastic bag. It's disgusting. And, of course, I'm the only one who takes the garbage out.

- SHE'S TOO FAMILIAR. You know those people who assume that they can joke around with you, or make certain assumptions about you because "they know you so well"? I was being called "baby" from about day 3. And she's also come up with a very annoying nickname for me, a bastardized version of my real name. It drives me crazy. And she knows it drives me crazy, and she's tried to come up with something else, but at least once a day I hear that damn nickname. Makes me want to puncture my own eardrums.

- SHE'S CONSTANTLY USING MY COMPUTER. Clementine is a one-man laptop, people. I don't get good reception downstairs, so I've got to come upstairs to get online, and every time I'm up here she asks to get on to do some small task. And then she ends up on the thing for hours. And she always logs me out of my e-mail, which drives me crazy.

There's more, but I don't have the heart to go through it all. I don't know if I can make it through the whole summer, y'all.

stupid internet

I was really annoyed earlier, because I wanted to post something, but the internet connection in my apartment isn't so hot.

It makes no sense. They're housing the actors in this giant apartment complex, and they've got three or four different networks here just for us, and ALL of them kinda suck. I had to come up here to one of the rooms with the little AirPort station so that I could get a reliable connection (because I was trying to send out my info for a couple of jobs).

And, of course, now that I'm on, I have no idea what I wanted to write about.

I will say, since I have your attention, that if you are a movie person, I've seen three good ones lately. KNOCKED UP is hilarious, OCEAN'S THIRTEEN was very classy, and BREACH is fascinating. You're welcome.

OK, I'm going to enjoy my day off - because I'm not going to have much free time for the next month or so.

quelle coincidence

So I decided to call Maxine tonight. She's going to Europe for two weeks, and I figured that I probably should talk to her before she leaves.

It starts out as kind of a strange conversation, full of stops and starts. I was a little nervous, because I figured that I should probably tell her that I'm dating this new girl. (Still working on a name for her.)

(It's a really long story, but I usually wait to tell her if I'm messing around with someone because I don't want to hurt her feelings, and then when I eventually tell her, she's peeved because I didn't tell her sooner. So we made a pact that we'd tell each other what was up when we knew what was going on. Back to the story.)

So she mentions going to some show, and being really annoyed (in classic Maxine fashion) because they said the show would be 2:05 and it ended up being 2:30, and she had someplace to be. And I say, in classic Rover fashion, "What, did you have a hot date?"

Her response?

"No." Pause. "Maybe."

Turns out that shortly after I met this new girl, she met a guy who lives two blocks away from her.

It's really funny. We both are excited about our new situations, but trying not to get ahead of ourselves. She's sensitive towards my feelings, and vice versa. Truth be told, I'm really excited for her. It's been a long time since she's met someone that she's really been into. I may feel weird about it when I go back to BK, but for right now I can be behind this 100%.

Anyway, I thought that was a little strange, and worth sharing.

PS. Melissa, if you don't believe me, you can see evidence on my MySpace page...

the ladies

First of all, at the risk of sounding like an insensitive pig, there are tons of hot ladies in Rockport. There's a sizable college in town, and it's amazing how many attractive young females are around.

Unfortunately, since I've sworn off the young ones, most of them are off-limits.

One of my friends raised the point that, if I just want a summer fling, I shouldn't have to worry about how old they are (as long as they are legal). If you've ever dated anyone significantly younger (or older), however, you know that it can sometimes be hard to relate. I spent half of my time with Jr. Miss rolling my eyes at some of the things she said. Of course, maybe that's because she's crazy.

Fortunately for me, I think that I've got something going with someone a little bit older.

GASP!

(When I told my brother about this the other day, he was actually shocked that I was dating someone older than 23. I don't know quite what to say about that.)

Anyway, this thing is still in the early stages (a little over a week), and I don't know where it's going, but so far so good. She's working on the show, and she'll be in Rockport all summer. She's also kind of different from a lot of the women that I've dated in the past, too (and for your information, L. Britt/Melissa/tuckergurl, she's not a blonde).

More about this later. I've got to get to the gym and finish up by four, so I can finally stop playing phone tage with one of my friends...

seriously?

Why is it that drunk frat boys think it's cool to say things like, "brother" to me?

As in, "Hey brother, gimme high five!"

And I'm not referring to the NorCal "brother", or SoCal "bro", either. I am addressed in this manner because I am a young black man.

Last night I just opened my eyes real wide and said, "Hey..." The reactions of the other three people with me (all of whom were white) ranged from bemusement to "I can't believe you didn't just knock him out."

Whatever.

i am a slacker

Hello?

Is anyone out there?

Sorry I haven't thrown anything up here in a while - the transition to Rockport has been very very busy. I had a 50 hour week last week, which sucks, and when I wasn't in the theater, I was drinking. A lot.

(But I'm sober right now, thanks for asking.)

Things out here are excellent. I've gotten used to the shock of being out here without my old friends. There are a handful of the people from the old regime that are still around, so that helps. The head honcho worked with me at one of my previous stops, and he and his wife are going to have me over for dinner/drinks soon, so I'm looking forward to that.

I'm hoping to have some fun stories to tell you over the course of the summer. There are a couple of potential comedy gold mines here. I can tell you that the other night, at the big icebreaker party, I had a girl tell me that she wished she was attracted to black men, because I was hot.

(For the record, she is at least 1/2 Mexican. And, yes, I am hot. Can't you tell by my picture?)

I've got a bunch of days off in a row, so hopefully you'll get more news from me. Anything in particular you want me to post about?

(There will be a post about the ladies of Rockport...in a while...)