Kelly Hudson: Citizen Hudson

… or rather, I cannot stop thinking of the words that his sister said to Will Hines.

“Everybody there made his life. He loved it. He just loved it.
Before that, I mean, his wife died. He’d come down here sometimes.
But when he found you guys that was out of this world. You made his life for the last several years and the whole family thanks everyone for everything you’ve done.”

I never met John but was aware of his presence on the scene. He was in line ahead of me for Harold audition sign-ups the other day, and I thought about how awesome it was that he was doing this improv stuff.

Losing your spouse has to be just about the most awful thing in the world. So many people lose hope in everything after that happens. My Papa went bananas when Nana died. He took on this lover who ended up robbing him  and he almost became a full-on alcoholic. And then when he moved to Austin to live near my mom, he got kicked out of about every restaurant and bar in town for being a maniac. He was so lonely. He was in all honesty, trying to pick up women. And on my dad’s side, it just seemed like Granny was DONE when Grandaddy died. She was waiting for God to take her away. She would literally say this to me. I couldn’t understand it.

My point is, that I am proud of John for seeking out a new life. Improv has maybe been the most fun I’ve had in my life and I just can’t get over how wonderful it is that he found it too! Thanks be to fun.

BUT THIS ONE WAS CRAZY. Last night I dreamt:

I was given a job in an old, dirty produce stock room. There were old vegetables everywhere and the smell was stale like a walk-in fridge at a restaurant. I was told by my supervisor that I needed to clean up in the bathroom.

The bathroom was exactly like one of those beige, dirty bathrooms in the back of a grocery store next to the break room where employees are smoking. Pee splattered on the seats. Wet floors. You know the ones you’d wander into as a child because you always had to pee in public places? Like that.

I looked at myself in the mirror. I was not Kelly. I was but I didn’t look like her. I was an old man with an extremely large, grey, dry, brittle BEARD. My hair was long and felt like my hair but didn’t look like mine. I found a pair of scissors on the shelf and started clipping away at the beard. It felt so thick, like I was cutting toe nails. The whole thing shed off into the sink and it looked like I’d just cleaned the yard and here was a pile of leaves. The beard being gone, I wanted a good, clean shave. I looked around and found a pink razor. The blades were all caked over in soap scum but I knew it’d get the job done. I soaked my face with water and soap from the soap dispenser and I shaved slowly. It came out pretty uneven, but it felt so fresh. Not dry and itchy with a beard. I looked at my hair and started to cut it to look more like a man’s hair. Then I froze… I’ve been growing my hair like this for years… how could I cut it? So I stopped and left myself a LOOOOONG tail in the back. I came back out into the produce room and got to work moving a box of old onions.

Thank GOODNESS I don’t have a callback tonight, because then I might miss Robber Baron. :D