Rosie Bits: My Conversation w/ Myspace's Tom (and other wonders)

Let's have fun today. Let's catch up.

First, I recently installed Myspace Messenger because, yes, I really am that bored at work, and I noticed that Tom is always signed on. I figured that no one was actually there, or that it was just a program that would have automatic responses or something, but yesterday, I decided to send a message and check. The following is the copy/pasted actual conversation I had with the real Tom:

tom is online (02:53 PM on 02/15/07) :

":-)"

Brent:

Hey Tom. How's it going?

Tom:

woo!

Brent:

Nice.

Tom:

woo!

Brent:

I was just kind of curious to see if anybody is actually there.

Tom:

woo!

Brent:

That's all you say, isn't it?

Tom:

woo!

Brent:

Hmmm... I can't tell. I know, I'll ask you some questions. Who is your favorite hiphop crew?

Tom:

woo!

Brent:

... Oh! Wu-Tang? (it's actually spelled W-U, not W-O-O, but I knew what you meant) Yeah I think they're awesome! What is your favorite Jada Pinkett movie?

Tom:

woo!

Brent:

Good answer! Man, you didn't even hesitate! Okay, okay... what do gay construction workers shout at boys as they walk by?

Tom:

woo!

Brent:

Your omnipotence humbles me, Tom. I will tell others. Bless me, father, before I go?

Tom:

woo!

Brent:

Thanks.

Tom:

woo!

Brent:

woo!

Tom:

woo!

--- end of conversation ---

Second, the last couple of weeks have been very trying. Love-life woes combined with a stagnant-feeling acting/writing career (and a soulless day job I have to wake up at 6am for every day that's sucking all my energy) made for a very unhappy boy. Last week was the worst. Because, on top of all that, I seemed to have some sort of transportation/communication curse placed on me. Really, almost every single train I got on last week either was late, stopped on the tracks, or was rerouted while I was half-way home. It was maddening. And I seemed to be unable to express myself properly, to anyone, about anything. Things were getting confused and misinterpreted all the time. But then I heard a lot of other people complaining about the same thing sort of thing (love-life, transportation, and communication) last week as well. It seems that it may have been more of a universal curse. I'm not generally one given to believing in planetary shit but maybe Mercury was in retrograde, or Venus was in technograde, or something. Anybody else? (Pluto in metrograde?)

Last week I send out a big email and bulletin post saying I was, at long last, going to make my "Wallowing In It" mix cd, and I asked for suggestions. I expected maybe two or three responses. Three days and roughly 90 emails later, I suddenly found myself in an intersting situation: already in my highly emotional state regarding things of the heart, I suddenly had literally HUNDREDS of the world's saddest songs to (carefully) listen to, contemplate, and, well, wallow in. And let me tell you something, aparently, my friends are some sad, sad motherfuckers. Or, at least, they have good taste in incredibly depressing music. Suffice to say that, not feeling social anyway, I spent a good portion of my weekend at my computer, with my headphones on, balling my eyes out like a misunderstood teenager. Don't start feeling bad for me, though, because it was actually exactly what I needed. That's the whole idea behind the Wallowing In It mix: get it out of you system, so you can get on with your life. I was feeling much better on Monday.

On Wednesday I had a big audition. It was for a killer role on Law and Order. And, well, I didn't do all that well. The audition was alright, but it wasn't much better than that, and I knew it. What killed me is that I was so "right" for the role, and the casting director thought so, too, and I know that if I'd just been in a better headspace, I should have at least been able to get a call back. But yesterday was the day I would have heard, and it came and went, and I was bummed... big time.

Also, looming, was that this weekend (or now, today, actually) the girl that is the up-to-this-point love-of-my-life is coming to New York... with her new husband. (NOTE: See blog entry "How bizarre, how bizarre..." from March or May of '06 for more on this.) I haven't seen her in over five years (essentially, since we broke up), and I've never met her husband, yet, here we are, all going out tonight (along with a few other friends I haven't seen in half a decade). Am I uncertain of how I feel about all of this? Yes. Yes I am.

Then last night, around 1am I awoke when a friend called me (forgot to turn off my ringer again, damnit), and I was talking to her, trying to remember how to speak English, when my roommate knocked on my door, and said there were all these firetrucks on the street. I hung up the phone, and sure enough, you could see four fire trucks from my window. My roommate opened it, and the smell of smoke poured in. She thought it was the pizza place on the corner (about two buildings over... which I was really upset about because that's the best pizza in the neighborhood and it's right on my corner!). So I threw some clothes on and went outside. It wasn't the pizza place. Worse, it was an apartment building across the street, and it wasn't four fire trucks, there were nine or ten full-sized trucked, and dozens and dozens of SUV sized, ambulences, and cop cars. Thick smoke was pouring out of the windows, and suddenly, all of my problems were put in perspective. I was watching fire fighters strapping on their gear, getting read to go in, and you could see that there was some fear in their eyes, but they were going in just the same (god, I have a lot of respect for those people). And I could see whole families, who'd clearly come out of the building, huddled around in blankets, and I said, "Man, my problems are small-time, compared to this." I went home, and my roommates and I sent some good-wishes/prayers to those affected by the fire (residents, fire fighters, etc.), and I went back to bed. It wasn't that my problems were gone, but I sure as shit wasn't complaining anymore.

I leave you with a story of triumph and great glory:

Tubing.

It finally fucking happened! I got out of work early on Wednesday to go do that audition, in the thick of the East Coast storm. I sent out the bulletin again, and I got two takers. My friend Clara (and her two dogs), and my friend January. We got as bundled up as we could, walked to Prospect Park, and blew up our intertubes... and it was amazing. We started on a small slope, and gradually found a big one where you could get really, really long rides, that would take us crashing into a very forgiving fence! It was hilarious and wonderful. It was real "kid fun", you know? And I think that's really the purest kind. In fact there were tons of kids sledding around us; we were by far the oldest people there. Well, we were, but then there was this father and daughter who had been admiring our tubes (our tubes, incidentally, were WAY faster that any of the sleds that the other had... campmor.com ... five bucks... get yours!), and so we let the daughter borrow one for a bit. Then we put them both on my tube built for two and they went careening down the slope and smashed into the fence. They absolutely loved it. We let some kids play on them, too, and I'd try out their snow toys. It was a really, really great day. I hope more people can come next time. I'm leaving you with some more pictures below.

Much love,

Brent 2/16/07

January and pooch (Maya) with glorious tubes in the background: