Help, my daughter was replaced by a pod person. An evil pod person

I had someone at work recommend a book called, Your teenager is crazy, or something like that. It's written by a guy who has his doctoral degree in psychology, and his premise is that teen brains aren't developed until after puberty, and that this causes much of the wacko anti-social behavior they exhibit. The book supposedly goes into detain on how to deal with the situation without driving yourself, or them, to murder.

Now the reason they mentioned this book was because I said something about my youngest daughter driving me crazy. She vacillates between being a great kid and acting like she can't stand me. Her big thing is mornings, but really pretty much anytime, she has multiple personality disorders and all the personalities suck, unless she wants something.

Saying I am not a morning person does not allow one to be an ungrateful ungracious human being. As we all do, she needs to get over it, and act civilly. Anyone, no matter their disposition or mood, can manage to behave tolerably for a short period of time. Therefore, she can act tolerably for a short period of time. Enough to say, good morning, or mumble something somewhat coherent, along the lines of a greeting. I'm not asking for much.

I have vented on this two entries in a row, so now I am done with it. I will eventually probably talk about the book, if it helps, and if it does, I will provide a link, so anyone out there can check it out.

Butting Heads in the AM

Once again (it seems an unending cycle) my youngest daughter and I are butting heads in the morning. I have tried ignoring it, and her. I have tried being mildly pleasant, I have tried over the top cheerful. Hug, no hug, kiss no kiss. "Have a great day." Silence on both sides. Teenage wasteland. I will be so happy when this phase is over. (Hopefully before 30)

So what has she said? "I am not a morning person, Da, you know that." Yes I understand, but that does not give you carte blanche to act like crap toward other people. it's hurtful. I mean really it hurts me a great deal. I am a fixer, by nature. I try to help people, and it's frustrating when I can't. But inside the family it's even worse. She can put up a thirty second front and give me a quick hug and a peck on the cheek once a day.

I know she loves me. We've talked about all this already, she and I. We are just so similar, and yet so different, that we have trouble relating sometimes.

strep,etc

Long weekend, what with the Philly Health show, and then back to the house to do some winterizing.
How the heck does the oil go up 150 bucks in a month? That's every month now, with the budget plan. It seems the walls here are made of tissue paper. I worked on caulking and added a programmable thermostat. That should help some, but I guess we'll see.

Steph lost her house key, so I loaned her mine. I better not get locked out of the house while I am keyless. Should have thought to get a new one made yesterday, but things were weird. Rehearsal was canceled and then my day was thrown akimbo.

Still haven't heard a word from siblings about the reality show, except Jim. Glad he's responded. makes me wonder about the others. Do they not read their e-mails. That was nearly the biggest news I've ever had, and I get no response at all? strange.

Battling Strep Throat or Something

Yesterday I slept like 20 hours. Went to bed at 8 and got up at 1230, had a bowl of soup and then took a three hour nap. Throat hurts and is very tender to the touch, so I think I am going to the doctor's today.

On other fronts, got a myspace page setup for Dutch Blitzkrieg my improv comedy troupe. I am still pinching myself with everything happening with that. Next show isn't until March 21 at 7pm, at Reading Community Players

The show isn't even up on their website yet. Hopefully soon. That's all for today. having trouble concentrating right now. Focus. bleh

Wild Weekend, 3 shows, interviews, taping, production crew

First big round of applause and thanks to WonderBoy Productions, out of NYC! Megan, Andy, Collin and Donna, you guys were great! I really felt like you were part of the process, rather than being in the way as we were working. I had feelings that our regular routine would have really been all wacked out, but it all went well.

That being said it was "way different" having a crew around filming us all weekend. Doing interviews and having to critique performance and stuff was something else. Made me look at the process in a different way. Seeing how the different shots worked and how the cameras were placed gave me an idea of what reality shows must be like, multiplied by ten probably. Having two cameras was enough for this weekend.

Interviewing was actually fun. talking about the paranormal stuff with people who were somewhat unfamiliar (and in some cases {Donna} a bit weirded out by the whole thing. Spooked, if you will. Plus getting to talk about all the different aspects of my life made me realize all the stuff I pack into a day that the average person doesn't.

We found out that the trailer they are going to produce is only going to be about 5 minutes long. That's what the networks will see to decide the fate of the show (and us, at least at this point in time) Seems like they must have shot at least 15 hours worth of video, if not more. How do they decide what stays or goes? They also said if the series doesn't work out they have enough to do a documentary on us, which may be what happens. That could lead to a series later.

On another front, in another month we will be taking part in a comedy festival, I think in Harrisburg. Three troupes will be performing and it's going to be recorded and chopped into segments for MindTV, (the MTV for intelligent people)
More tv exposure, so shows should start to sell more tickets, which would be nice.

Lots more to tell about the weekend, but as always, time is short.

TV time

Quick entry I have a lot to do. WonderBoy Productions is in town today and tomorrow to film the troupe. Spending most of their time up at Jo's house, but they want to do a special interview with me talking about my book, the paranormal investigations I do and some of my characters.

While this whole thing isn't about me, the pilot will never get picked up if the group doesn't have interesting members, so it's important that we do well individually and as a group.

the show last night went really well. People were laughing like crazy pretty continuously. The bad news was that there were only about ten people there. Ugh. If we don't sell more tickets we will lose money on these shows. The good news is, the concept of the reality show is to have a fledgling group, and cover them as they flourish and grow. We pretty much have room to grow - at least audience wise. (understatement)

this is crazy. From nowhere and from nothing we are filming for tv. man oh, man.
Yeah, information available http://www.DutchBlitzkrieg.com
Our shows are tonight at 8 and tomorrow at 230 at the Theater of the Seventh Sister. Be part of history in the making partI. The roots. Think about it. In twenty years when they are doing the retrospective for our Emmy award winning show, they'll show clips of this, and a pan of the audience. Do you want to be in that pan, or left out? See you there!

TV Pilot

So newest thing in my life is that we (http://www.DutchBlitzkrieg.com) are going to be getting interviewed and filmed as we are doing our shows next weekend, and for once it's not us filming us.

A company out of Manhattan is interested in doing a bunch of footage for a documentary/pilot of an improv group as they are getting started and doing shows. sort of like a reality show, without the script. The interesting part is that they are planning on shopping this around to various networks and trying to get a deal for a series.

This is still in the rudimentary stages, but wow, pretty cool, I must say. Talk is they want to follow us around individually, work, home,hobbies, etc. we'll see what really happens.

I've never talked about this, but this is the second time I have been through something like this. I made it to the third stage interviews for a show on real estate investing. It was the same sort of thing, follow me around and see how much money I could make following their coaching and mentorship. They ended up going with some other people, but that was also pretty exciting. Some of my film ended up on an infomercial for Robert Allen. (whom I've appeared on stage with, telling stories of investing success)