Continuing the craziness that was 2008 …
May — The Thing
One of the true highlights of the year came on a warm Saturday afternoon in May. It was the ninth annual UFO Festival at the McMenamins Hotel Oregon in McMinnville. It was our third trip there to help the folks at Willamette Radio Workshop put on a live performance. This year was extra special, as the main feature was an adaptation of John W. Campbell’s short story “Who Goes There?” titled (as several of the film adaptations of the same story were called) The Thing, written by Joe!
Mattie’s Room on the second floor of the Hotel Oregon was packed! All the seats were taken, and several groups of people sat on the floor behind the seats, while more stood and listened. For some forty-five minutes, the WRW cast, speaking Joe’s words, held all those people absolutely spellbound. In between The Thing and a performance of “Flash Gordon,” Joe and I talked to people about WRW, and sold discs of WRW shows, Dry Smoke and Whispers, and of course, “Afterhell.”
Q3 — Medical Leave and Heavy Downtime
On the first of July, right about noon, I was struck with a pain in the lower abdomen. It put me in the emergency room, and before the end of the month, into surgery for a full hysterectomy. Joe has written a well-detailed and heartfelt account of this over in his blog, so I will keep the note here to a few bits and pieces that still stick out in my mind about the whole experience:
- I took a cab to the emergency room that first day. Turns out the driver was an audiodrama enthusiast who gave me a copy of a disc he’d helped create, called “Yes, Virginia, There Is an Anti-Claus.” Absolutely hilarious. I’m still trying to locate him again.
- At the end of the visit to the emergency room, the doctor was preparing to write me a prescription for painkillers. I distinctly remember telling him, “Let’s start small and go with the Vicodin.”
- In the near-frantic rush to get ready to go into the hospital, one of the most important things to me was going to buy a bathrobe. I did manage to find a rather nice one.
After the surgery I spent the next seven weeks at home, healing and trying not to do too much too fast. (Always a challenge for me, that last.) I got to watch a bumper crop of 1980s TV on DVD — the entire first season of The Equalizer and most of the short-lived Stingray series. It was a treat, really, since I missed both the first time around. Also got to take in a lot more of the Democratic National Convention than I would have otherwise, and completely ignored the Olympics. (Heck, I had to think for a minute as I was writing this where they were even held.)
By mid-September I was back at work, and things were looking a bit more normal, but the year wasn’t done with us yet. I’ll finish it off in a few days.