Plug In

Five days makes for a nice break. Luckily it was a four day weekend, so only one day of vacation. Even though we didn't do any touring, I developed an affection for Vancouver Island. It has a nice feel, generally so much cleaner and friendlier than the US. In restaurants and stores I noticed there was actually a comfortable amount of room. Restrooms are roomy and much cleaner, tables and aisles have more room. Even at the Wendy's it was apparent. Tables weren't so close together that people rising at adjacent tables would collide. An inherent and prevalent respect for the customer which is now foreign in the U.S. where shareholders come first and are always right.

Beth gave me a ride to the Victoria Clipper at 6:30 AM on Wednesday and picked me up at 7:30 PM on Sunday. It sure made a difference. No parking or cabs to worry about. Friends are truly the stuff of life.

Coming into the office this morning I was driving my pickup to work for the first time in a while. I had a creepy experience pulling into the parking garage, that I would not have experience on a motorcycle. The garage suddenly felt like the pod wall in which humans are ensconced in Matrix.

I very much like my day job, and it certainly makes life easier and allows me to make contributions to various theatres. I toy with the idea of working art for my day job, but I suspect I still need a 9 to 5 grind. When I had the extra time for nearly two months after finishing Meisner and Les Liaisons Dangereuses this Summer I wrote maybe three pages, and read less than one hundred pages for my research. Not very productive.

Still, the picture of the parking garage as the Matrix pod wall haunts me. It is a pretty strong allusion to the modern cubicle and tilt-up office parks. Especially in the feeling they impart on the bio units we call employees.