hit cruise control and rubbed my eyes...the last three days the rain was unstoppable

blog while you can - 

been lacking time and energy to sit down a write lately even though there's plenty to write about.

Things with the teenager have been rough lately and things boiled over on Sunday when he couldn't take it anymore (the last straw - internet restriction.  one of the reasons I haven't been able to blog as we've had to shut down the home connection) and stormed out to never return.

He returned.

it's funny it a weird sort of way.

When you're a teenager (or at least when I was) there's this big sense of bonding with your friends against all the things that are going wrong, this us-against-the-world mentality.  It was big with my friends and the one thing that we all had in common was this strange loyalty, it helped that we were the heavy-metal, punk-rock kids who are invariably made of kids that don't fit in elsewhere so they make a point of more fiercely sticking together based mostly on that alone.

You stood with your friends no matter what stupid shit they got you into (and boy did we get into some stuuuuupid shit) and at times it seemed the less people deserved your loyalty the stronger it was.  Anything not to disrupt this sense of togetherness that kept us all afloat.

I don't know if that just felt like we were somehow doing better than the people that were willing to reject us by refusing to reject people that did  have it coming, and in a few cases eventually used it to screw you over.  

In a funny example we had a friend that got 'in' with 'those kids' when we were junior high or somewhere in that horrible part of young life.  As soon as he was one of the 'popular kids' he dropped the whole rebellious thing, started dressing like 'them' and turned his back on his friends, even joining in going after his old friends the rejects the same way they used to go after him.

In the end some new kid arrived, bigger dude too, and his new friends dangled him out there and told the new guy to kick his ass.  and kick his ass he did.  In the end they proved that they didn't have his back, they saw that he was willing to jump at the chance to belong to their group and respected him exactly as much as that deserves.  they toyed with him and then shit on him.

and after all that, his old friends said 'no hard feelings' and he was back.  

After all, he was now even more a reject than before and at the bottom you're all in it together or none of you are and you're all fucked.  You lock together and that becomes your defense against everything.  no matter what, THESE people have your back.  At least in that non-reality that is the teenager years.  Sadly this code doesn't have any application in the real world and as we grow up we find we need it less as we find our place in the world and compromise it more and more.  Eventually it seems silly that we learned this defense against the world when really, you don't need it in the real world.

of course, that doesn't make it any less real in teenage-world.

I think his friends suck in much the same way I think my parents must have looked at my being an honor student (didn't last long thanks to an expulsion) and hanging out with people that were using, on their way to jail (or back) and generally not keeping up to the standards I think parents set for their kids.  The problem with that is potential has nothing to do with it, I was just as  fucked for being smart and socially stupid as they were (if not more, people don't feel as threatened by weird kids when they can at least view them as stupid fuckups) for being criminals, drug users or just generally outsiders.  

These divisions of who was smart, had potential to be something or just potential to be dangerous didn't exist beyond the fact that we were already divided from the people around us and wouldn't be divided up further.  

Anthony's the same way, he's a smart kid with potential that tries to fit in but doesn't really.  I don't know if his emotional problems, his insecurity about us not having as much money as the families at his school or whatever.... in the end he's loyal to people I think would push him in front of a bus and I think he sees that as proof of his loyalty, which I also understand.  In that way he's better than the people that don't accept him.

fortunately for him I went through all this as well, and not just because I get it.  I fucking get it.

he's lucky more because it means I have practice standing by people that continue to not deserve it and raising a teenager is about the only time it comes in handy.  So there's ONE application for it in the real world after all.

They will use the fact that you're with them to the end to crap all over you and the less they deserve it the more you prove that you're with them no matter what, which invariably enables them to do things that earn it less, but that is your test.

I'm a little cynical after the last several weeks and months.

but the same thing that gets you through your own shitty teen years will get you through your teen's shitty years.

this too will pass.

******

In other news: things are happy and exciting on the improv front.

HUGE was accepted into the Chicago Improv Festival and shall rain destruction down on the windy city and then come home just in time for the Twin Cities Festival final preparations.

TCIF is 3 months away.  This year is going to be unreal

Mo Collins just confirmed that she'll be performing as a special guest in the BASSProv set and I hope to have Merchandise ready before Punch Out

Punch Out begins April 4th.  we will do our part by putting up a kick-ass show and all we ask is the audience do their part by showing up and laughing themselves silly.  seems like an easy arrangement.  All proceeds from Punch Out go to support the TCIF and I think the fact that we live in a place where we can have top-shelf improv that supports a festival and workshops that will better the improv in our own city is pretty goddamn special.

Mr. Dan Hetzel is leaving Five Man Job and moving to the warm coast this summer.  

We have confirmed the new member of Five Man Job after Hetz departs.  

We will both miss Dan and are really excited for the changes as Five Man Job will continue to blow your fucking clothes off.

Stay Tuned.

I think that is all - even if it isn't

that is certainly enough.