goin' with the flow

 
IT'S 2:25 IN THE MORNING AND IT MIGHT BE ONE OF THOSE ALL-NIGHTER NIGHTS.

An hour or 2 ago I was all gung ho on the idea.  But now my eyelids are heavy and I'm feeling slightly groggy.  So if there are any erroneous misspellings, antonymnal mistakes or stupid syntax blame it on the fatigue. 

I'd happily call it a night right now and be asleep by 3, but I don't know when I'm gonna have the time to write and post anything fresh these next few days.  And I couldn't bear the thought of the thankless 13 going another Monday without a new Bountiful Bob story to ponder the rest of the week.

Besides, what's flowing through my life these days is too sweet to keep from you people.  So here's the abridged version, seriously truncated due to the fact that my cell phone alarm is set for 6:30 to make sure I catch my 9am Greyhound bus to Phoenix.  (The all-nighter idea has been ditched in lieu of 3 hours sleep.)

Things have been flowing quite nicely for me lately. 

Excellent things have been afoot for a while now, actually.  My rekindled Human Good Luck Charm mojo picked up last November when I walked into a 5-year-old's birthday party with my girlfriend in Elgin, Texas.  A bunch of the dads—most of whom went to high school with Tamale—were drinking beers and talking in the backyard, ignoring the UT game on the TV under the nearby patio.  Their beloved Longhorns were down by 21 at the end of the 3rd quarter and they were too annoyed with Colt McCoy and Mack Brown to tune in.  So they tuned out.

What they failed to realize was that The Human Good Luck Charm had just showed up to the party.

Now, I'm not taking credit for the Texas football team's 24 unanswered 4th quarter points, culminating in a last second, game ending field goal to put the Longhorns over the top on the road at Oklahoma State.  One of the most amazing football comebacks I've ever seen.  The fact that this amazing comeback pretty much began the moment we showed up and began paying attention to the TV doesn't mean we had anything whatsoever to do with the win.

I'm just sayin'..

Anyway, that little experience re-energized my Human Good Luck Charm juices.  And the flow has been blowing quite nicely ever since, thank you very much.  In fact, that's part of the reason I'm going to Arizona tomorrow.  In the last month I've gotten 8, yes EIGHT, freelance writing assignments.  One of the assignments is to interview the guys from Flight of the Conchords for Emmy Magazine.  And since they're not gonna be in LA anytime soon I've opted to get an eye contact chat rather than plumb their psyches in a phone interview. 

As the piece is a modest 300-word Q&A, an expensed flight to Arizona and a few nights at the Scottsdale Hilton wasn't in the cards.  So I unilaterally decided to endure an 8 1/2 hour bus ride to Phoenix to make it happen, which speaks to how much I love this show—and how happy I am to have an excuse to hang out with my Scottsdale friends Eddie and Gentleman Jim, who's offered to let me sleep on his new spare bed and borrow his car to get to my interview with Bret and Jemaine.  (Sadly, the Conchord's manager, Murray, wasn't invited.  To the interview.  Or Jim's place.)

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Okay, it's after 3 and I still haven't told you about what the UTA agent said about my reality TV treatment for "Barstool Poetry" last week.  (Loved it...gonna talk it up to their new head of reality TV from CAA...wants to meet this week.) 

I also failed to mention what happened to me yesterday, when I rolled over and tapped Tamale on the shoulder before we both nodded out for a nap.

"I think we should get up and go pick up my raffle prizes," I tell her, sleepy but resolute.  I say this knowing that I've got 11 $1.00 tickets mixed in with hundreds, possibly even thousands, of other tickets purchased by the scores of suckers, er, parents and assorted adults at my nephew Jack-o's Little League opening day extravaganza this morning.  (I did my first opening day victory lap with "my team" in about 33 years, thanks to my irregular gig as Assistant Coach Bob for the mighty Temecula Red Sox.)

An hour after I'd coaxed Tamale into nixing our nap in favor of going back out into the chilly Temecula afternoon, not 1 but 2 of my 11 $1.00 raffle tickets had won me a nice little carnival bounty, much to the dismay of dozens of little leaguers and their empty-handed parents.  My booty included a pair of relatively expensive "gift baskets" that were actually more like "gift buckets" (full of tools—drills, staple gun, screwdrivers, wrenches, tape measure, etc.) and "gift coolers"  (full of beach fun—frisbee, umbrella, kites, giant bubble makers, much-needed cooler-on-wheels, etc.).

It was strange.  Somehow I knew I'd win at least 1 of those 2 dozen gift baskets.  That's how much I'm in the flow these days.  Workin' the purple.  Tapping into The Secret.  Calling on the Law of Attraction.  Call it what you will.  I even had a hunch I'd win TWO of those unusual, yet quite useful, raffle items yesterday.  Even though most folks ended up going home with zilch as I walked back to Tamale's car with my booty.  Not to mention all the people who bought tickets in the morning and said, "Screw it, I'm not waiting around 'til they pull the winning tickets at 2.  It's too damn cold out here!"

Oh, and Kim, the team mom on Jack-o's team of 6-, 7- and 8-year-olds that I've agreed to help coach—the woman who gave me and Jack-o a ride home from practice a few days ago—she won 2 big "gift basket" raffle prizes as well.  We were the only people there who won more than a single raffle item.

The Human Good Luck Charm strikes again.
 

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Alright, this is ridiculous. It's almost 3:30.  Now I'll be lucky if I get 2 1/2 hours of sleep. 

And I still haven't packed yet.  Shite!

This should be interesting.

I'll tell you about those other 7 freelance assignments soon.  And about my friend Bug-Z and how this documentary that he finished last year is causing lots of crazy stuff (good crazy) to be happening in his life right now. (Maybe my finest hour yet in The Human Good Luck Charm mojo.)

Geez, I just got another glance at the clock...3:33.  I've gotta hit the rack.  I'm off to fly with the Conchords tomorrow.

Or today.

Actually, it IS tomorrow.  As in Tuesday tomorrow.

Whatever.

Sunday night is officially over.  Hello, Monday.

The flow is flowin'.

The Phoenix has risen. 

Good night now.

Until we meet in Arizona....