Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much tired fish, after a ridiculous yesterday morning, then a fun rehearsal that brightened things up a bit, then orange chicken and some fried rice, then dozing off, taking lots of pills (Monday is heavy pill day), not watching a motion picture or much of anything and now having a bit more fried rice so I can take my final pill o’ the day. And yet, December is flying by, like a gazelle watching reruns of I Remember Joan. Anyway, let’s tell the ridiculous yesterday morning tale and just get that out of the way right now. I got less than five hours of sleep, got up, answered e-mails, did a few things, then around ten-fifteen I moseyed on over to bank one to cash my pension check. There were two people occupying the two tellers, including my favorite gal. Twenty minutes each – even the other staffers at the bank were getting irritated. I finally got to my gal – who put in the usual information then looked puzzled and told me it was not letting her cash the check. She called about it, but then noticed the check no longer said US Bank – it now said Chase bank. Say what? So, SAG changed banks without telling a single soul? So, I no longer get to see my favorite teller, which is sad for both of us. Plus, everyone at that branch told me they looked forward to seeing me every month. So, I walked over to the Chase bank, just down the street. Thankfully, not much of a line. I got up to the teller, said I wanted to cash the check, that I wasn’t a customer and provided the asked for two forms of ID. She then said there’d be a ten-dollar charge to cash. I told her that SAG always picked up that charge at US Bank but she didn’t care and said, “Well, we don’t.” I said I found that odd, but I said take the ten bucks. Then she told me she couldn’t cash the check at all and said refer to maker. That made zero sense to me – refer to maker, maker being SAG, the issuer of the check. At that point, my blood was no longer simmering, it was on full boil. I said, “Are you Chase Bank?” She said yes. I said, “Is this check drawn on Chase Bank?” She said yes. I said, “So, what IS the problem, cash the check.” She said she couldn’t and did the refer to maker bit again. At that point I had two ways to go – make a scene or leave. I wasn’t thinking clearly – had I been, I would have asked for the manager. But I left. I went back to my car and called SAG Pension and was given a whole lot of runaround before finally getting someone who was actually helpful on the phone. She found it completely odd that they wouldn’t cash the check but that they had no control over Chase bank. She did tell me it was a temporary move and there’d be another change in the summer. She recommended I do direct deposit, as they always pay that earlier than the first of the month, so I may opt in for that, even though I did it at first and didn’t care for it. She was sorry for my frustration and all that wasted time.

I then came home and called the 800 number for Chase Bank. It took fifteen minutes before I finally got a human on the phone – just ridiculous. But the human was very nice and said they absolutely not only should have cashed the check but are required to cash the check. She escalated and said she told them they must call me. Of course, that call never came. So, now I have to get up early this morning and transfer the money to the business account. I think I will then go over to the Chase branch, demand to speak to a manager, and then point out the teller who did what she did, and I will not leave without an explanation and an apology. We’ll see how that all goes. It was too late for food, and so we had our first Kritzerland rehearsal, which was thankfully short. Alby Potts arrived, then Adrienne Stiefel – we ran her three songs. Then it was Jason Graae – he’s doing two songs, one fun, one ballad. Then Robert Yacko, and we ran his three songs, one of which is a What If parody. I’d ordered orange chicken and some fried rice and that arrived just as we were finishing. The orange chicken was excellent, the pork fried rice a bit less so. I only had a tiny bit of the latter because I was very full.

Then I sat on the annoying couch and instantly dozed off for over ninety minutes. Once up, I did some organizing, got a revised track onto the laptop, tried to watch some YouTube videos but there was nothing of interest, and here we are.

Today, I’ll try to be up by ten-thirty, I’ll go do the banking, I’ll pay a visit to Chase bank and see how they handle my complaint, then I’ll come home, eat, and relax until it’s time to be on my way – first to the mail place to ship a little package, then to our first rehearsal since our Thanksgiving vacation began. My intention is to start assembling the show and adding the scene shifts as we go. Hoping to get through most if not all of act one. Then I’ll come home.

Tomorrow is our second Kritzerland rehearsal with the same three folks, then I can rest up, and then it’s another rehearsal and we continue assembling the show. Thursday, I have a brief visit here, then another rehearsal and my hope is the show will then be ready for run-throughs the following week. Friday, I have to pick something up over near Woodland Hills and I’ll probably meet David Wechter for lunch after that. Saturday, we’re joined by Cheryl Baxter, and she’ll stage the last half of a number, then clean up anything she wants in terms of my ography. Sunday is a brief Kritzerland rehearsal for those who missed the first two, Monday is, of course, my older than dirt day, Tuesday is both a stumble-through of Kritzerland and then a stumble-through of the play. Wednesday is sound check and show and the cast of the play has been invited to see the Kritzerland show, then Thursday is a complete run-through and same on Saturday morning. After that, there will be two more rehearsals and then we’re off until January 2.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, try to be up by ten-thirty, do banking, go to Chase and talk to a manager, come home, eat, relax, then be on my way to the mail place to ship a little package, then we’re back rehearsing the play. Today’s topic of discussion: What’s the worst banking experience you’ve ever had. What banks have you liked, and which had you loathed? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy the ridiculous morning tale has been told and is done.