Still Here, Barely

I have an appointment with Doc tomorrow. It's been 6 weeks. It wasn't supposed to be. Originally it was scheduled for the 2nd, but Doc called the morning of saying he wasn't "feeling well." Since he's no Spring Chicken (mid 60's), I always get a nervous twinge when he uses those words. He's admitted he's had a close call or two and he works too hard.

Now in the past I've gone longer than this between sessions, but this was unintentional and so I'm feeling a bit stretched. You could probably tell from my previous posts, things have been a little more busy than I'm used to dealing with.

Also, my dad had surgery for kidney stones on Fri the 19th. The actual surgery went fine and he came home Sat night with a drainage tube to help excess fluid out of the kidney to allow it to heal up. He then went back to the have the tube removed on Wed, but it wouldn't stop leaking at first. After he soaked two small towels he called his doctor who said, "It's rare but sometimes that happens." Dad's fine now, on the road to recovery, but it was extremely stressful in the midst of the situation. Even more so with no one to talk to.

The Morning I Spent Waiting For Garrison Keillor

At 11 o'clock this morning, Keillor was scheduled to be at his bookstore in St Paul signing copies of his new book, 'Liberty', or whatever books people brought in to be signed. Situated above his bookstore is Nina's Coffee Cafe, and I got there early because I knew there'd be a line. As it was, Keillor didn't show until almost Noon.

The bookstore opens at 10 am and I went down to buy a copy of 'Liberty' (I'd also brought two others, but that was the main one I wanted signed). By quarter-to-eleven there were a dozen people already in line so I joined up to wait. And wait we did. At 11:15 a woman, I assume a bookstore employee, said Keillor "got held up at the office." At 11:40, mini bottles of water were handed out and that same woman said, "He's working with a new production staff (for his 'The Writer's Almanac' broadcast) but he's on his way." At 11:50, free hot-dogs made the rounds. "He should be here any minute." she said.

Then from behind me I heard, "Garrison Keillor." Someone in front of me looked back and said, "There he is." Finally.

Earlier, the woman/employee handed out sticky-notes to the crowd and said, "To save time, you should write down how you want Garrison to sign your book." Because I am an aspiring writer, and Keillor is one of my favorite authors, I put down, "Keep Writing!" As I hoped, this prompted him to ask me what I write. "Poetry mostly, nothing genre-specific, yet." I told him I keep stalling out after a week or so of writing fervor.

When I made the comment that he's my second favorite author, he said, "So now I'm supposed to ask 'Who's your first?' " I told him Stephen King and he agreed that King is a good model for a writing work ethic.

After he'd signed my books, he handed them back and said, "I'm glad I'm one of your favorites." and he shook my hand. What a nice man. I'd read somewhere that he was abrupt, more New Yorker than Minnesotan. Not true, he's just distracted and a little scatterbrained in a genius kind of way. When I checked his signatures in my books later, in addition to my note, 'Keep Writing!' Keillor added, 'Every day in anyway.' Very cool.

Messengers

Rehearsals are in full swing. This season we're doing a brand-new production from the book of John. The title is "Light and its Effect on the Beast", the beast being us as sinful human beings.

We've been rehearsing every Thur and Fri night since Aug 1, and while it's still a bit rough around the edges the finished product will be spectacular. The basic plot is there's a woman who's not convinced that Jesus is God, the one and only. So throughout the course of the play, the cast enacts a series of stories from the book of John (the woman at the well of Samaria, Jesus healing the blind beggar, raising Lazarus from the dead). I've seen it so many times by now that you'd think I wouldn't be paying much attention anymore, but every rehearsal I catch a new phrase that renews my interest.

So far we have five performance dates, two at our Downtown campus (Minneapolis), two at the North Site (Mounds View), and one at Park Ave Methodist (Minneapolis). The first performance isn't until Oct 10, so we've still got some time.