What Dave McGee Has Been Up To

Part 1: 2004 in Brief

Post-graduation freak-out is, sadly, a reality. Young'uns beware. I graduated 52 weeks ago. I got wasted at a boat party. In a blind panic a few weeks later I moved, though it would have been much smarter for me to stay where I was living until I calmed down a little bit. Nonetheless, an apartment in Spanish Harlem. I appear in a professional workshop at New York Theatre Workshop by a total fluke. I go home to CA in a daze, I direct a play, I alienate my entire family whilst in the heat of a double-dose of crazy-- post-grad freak-out and pre-play-opening freak out at once. The entire month is, honestly, sort of hazy. I seriously can't remember much of it. I come back to New York. I avoid the East Village because it reminds me of school and I get depressed. I avoid life. I sleep a lot. I don't work, I leech off of my absurdly patient and generous mother, doing nothing for anyone. I watch a lot of football. When it's not Sunday morning, I wallow in depression. I attempt to write and I fail miserably. I try to work on performance (COW) stuff and every week I throw everything away that I did the previous week. Winter, inevitably, descends. I go back to CA for Christmas festivities. I feel like the up-swing may be beginning. I have a wonderful time at my family home. For the first time, I remember that I need to walk when I'm out of the city or I'll go crazy. I smoke a clove cigarette on the patio at the Starbucks on the corner of Las Tunas and Rosemead, drinking a pumpkin spice latte and reading Dave Eggers.

I am definitely on the up-swing.

Part 2: 2005, Where Dave Approaches Normality

Section 1: Employment

I am gainfully employed. I work at The Open Society Institute as what they call a "records clerk" and I call a "file monkey." In my small way, I help my employer distribute his questionably-legally but certainly morally sketchily begotten gains in a bizarre act of modern Robin Hood-ism: the rich stealing from the poor to give to the poor. (does that last sentence win the award for most adverbs ever? good grief) The job is mindless, which allows me to keep earphones in all day. I listen to books on tape, and try not to think about the fact that my employer crippled nations in order to become a billionaire. Hey, at least he's giving large amounts of that money away to people who are using it to accomplish real good in the world, and he's spending vast amounts of that money to help other countries achieve true democracy... justifying a little? Yeah, yeah, I know. Anyway, I listen to books on tape. Right now I am listening to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintainance: An Inquiry Into Values. As crappy jobs go, this one goes pretty well. It pays the bills, I get free lunch every day, I get out of work at 3:30 pm, I get to walk to work along Central Park, I get to keep my mind going wondering if working for one of the people primarily responsible for globalization makes me complicit in it, and how I feel about that, and wondering if I would feel any better working for any given insurance company or anything... (you know? he's giving the money away, I can't be mad at that right?) Whatever whatever whatever; sometimes I feel like a total and complete sell-out. I just keep reminding myself that Bob-Mike worked for McDonald's for crying out loud. And he's a good person. In summation, I have health insurance. How do you like them apples?

Art

I'm directing, acting (way more than I thought I ever would), and sitting patiently by the phone praying for a call from New York Theatre Workshop about the full production of that show I was in.

Random New York Moment

Walking home, I began to admire the fantastic architecture of a certain building. While wondering how I'd never noticed it before, I suddenly realized that it was Carnegie Hall. Duh.

Romance

There's this girl, but it's an impossibly complicated situation, so that has almost certainly been relegated to the realm of the historical "if-only's." This does not depress me as such, but simply is. There will be other girls (unless I turn out to be, as the last post suggests, into dudes). But I am not one for the casual "I'm just bored" relationship, and by the time I realize that I'd like to date a girl we've invariably passed her "just friends" point of no return. But I think I am getting a little bit (just a little bit) better at this. We'll see. Also, I'm in no hurry whatsoever.

Health

Having eaten nothing but crap for, say, the last five years, I finally decided to get off my chunk-ass and do something about it. I have begun to treat myself better. No fad diet, just making sure I know what I'm ingesting. In the three weeks that I've been keeping track, I've lost fifteen pounds. The fact that I'm still grossly overweight would normally, at this point, cause me to give up in an "always have been/always will be" defeatist squalor, but my mind is set. I'm-a get healthy again.

Random New York Moment 2

I fell asleep on the bus going home from a party last week, and woke up by chance or instinct two blocks before my stop. That could have ended really badly. I'm going to try to never do that again.

Housing

My lease is up at the end of June. I am bouncing like Zummi on a bender. Stay tuned for housing updates as events warrant.

Life's Work

For a number of months now, my friend and I have been co-writing a very funny... story. The working title is "Professor J. Everett Maple and the cipher of the Last Elk." Nearly 200 pages in, we're approaching legitimate novel length (and we're only about 2/3 done). If there's any justice in the world, we'll get this mofo published and I'll pay off my student loans in one lump sum. Advance audiences love it, but of course these are our friends who are bound to be of similar mind when it comes to what's funny. Here's to hoping we find an editor who agrees too. But first, we need to finish it. Updates to follow as well.

Anything Else

This was written by hand at the Starbucks on the corner of 15th Street and 9th Avenue between 6:00 and 6:41 pm.

Huzzah!