Friday bloggery::
Tomorrow morning I will get up far too early, get on the highway and arrive at the Nerd Parade shortly before dawn to load all my crap into the green room and get ready for the opening gate. Along the way I'm sure I'll snap the usual photos of the sun coming up over the Arbor and all that good junk. The Festival remains one of those crazy things that feels incredibly familiar without becoming routine or boring and even though I know it's coming and have prepared for it in purely logistical ways, it's never really real until tomorrow morning when that goddamn rooster is crowing and the place is just waking up.
I'm excited to get to it and find out what it is I do out there again. I seriously couldn't tell you what exactly I do all day or what my "bits" are or even what the hell my character is like until it happens. Trying to remember it out of context is futile and I really like it that way. That stuff stays securely locked up all year* until the gates open and the crowd comes in and then it all makes perfect sense. I love it.
* with the unique exception of the day Jilly and I went downtown and I did the Clown thing on Nicollet Mall - which was terrifying since it was the first time I had taken that guy outside the walls of the Festival. Even then I couldn't imagine what it is that I "do" until I got on the street, stopped talking and just started messing with people. Found out that playtime is mostly playtime no matter where you are.
Starting tomorrow I will vanish into the Nerd Parade during the weekends and laugh myself silly, wear myself out and generally act like an idiot...but I will have more fun than anyone should be allowed to have. This is why it never feels to me like I'm "working" 7 days a week when Festival is on - when I started traveling for Machine Dreams the owners were careful to check in with me to make sure 5 days of travel and weekends of performing weren't going to burn me out and I realized that from the outside that must be what it looks like but it never seemed that way to me before.
Like the IAGG on Sundays, the Nerd Parade is the thing I can look forward to all week long that makes it the weekend.
It never feels like a "job" even though I take as seriously as anything I've ever been paid to do, something I know George and I see eye-to-eye on that sometimes confuses people like our wives - how being "serious" about this thing doesn't rule out having a blast doing it and vice versa. How something that we clearly do because we love it can also be a serious commitment. It baffles most normal people since we almost never think of the things we love as our "work" and certainly never love our work the way that makes it something to look forward to and a joy to dive into and spend every last bit of energy you have on.
I wish that everyone could find "work" like that.
I'll keep it confined to my weekends in the late summer every year...for now.
Honestly this is also the thing that is most encouraging about the work I'm doing for HUGE - the fact that I'm geared up for it and excited for things like working long hours building the space and all the energy and time that goes into it. I'm genuinely stoked for that, which I choose to interpret as being in the right place doing the right thing. Everyone I've spoken to about heading up a business has warned me about the massive time commitment it requires and how I better be ready for it.
Ready for it?
Hell, I can't wait.
I'm probably going to show up early just to watch the sun come up a couple times.
I'll send pictures.
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