Eleven years ago, I got a new phone number. And for the first time, I truly understood what Ellis was singing about in her song GeorgeAnne.

Now, if you’ve never had the pleasure of attending an Ellis gig – you need to if you ever get the chance. Especially if you love stories. My favorite part of any live gig are the stories between the songs. Sometimes, you learn a bit about the singer/band. And sometimes you learn about the inspiration for the song. The story that always preceded GeorgeAnne never disappointed – no matter how many times I’d heard it. Mostly because of the pure delight that Ellis gets from reliving it. (I did a deep dive for a video with the story on YouTube but came up short.)

Picture this – you get a new phone number, and then you continue to get call after call after call from people looking for GeorgeAnne – her boss, friends, even her mother. And every time someone would call for her, Ellis would delight in it. To the point where her giggles made GeorgeAnne’s boss assume she was in the room. (She obviously tells the story better than I do.)

I’ll be dating myself here, but I got my first cell phone the summer after I graduated college. When I moved for grad school, the carrier had such awful service that I had to switch. This was back before carriers were decent nationwide or you could carry your phone number. So I ended up with an area code that was long distance for my parents to call. (I quickly lost track of how many times I explained that it didn’t matter what my area code was if they used their own cell phone to call…they continued to complain about it.)

A few years later, I decided to change my number – because at this point, it didn’t matter your location; you could pick any available phone number. And then my own little GeorgeAnne scenario began. Calls. Texts. All looking for someone named Eric. Ellis had started to assume that GeorgeAnne gave out her old number to people she didn’t want to talk to anymore. I came to the assumption that Eric was just lazy about informing people. (Though I also question the voicemails given that the recording was now a female-sounding voice that noted her name was Ami. Clearly Eric isn’t here anymore.)

The worst? When we had a bad snow storm, and the local schools were closed three days in a row. Each day at around 5 a.m., I awoke to an auto-call letting me know this information. Now, I didn’t have any children in the local school system – but apparently Eric did. The worst part was I couldn’t call to be removed from the list because the school continued to be closed.

The best? Eric didn’t even tell his brother that he had a new number:

I suddenly understood the delight Ellis felt in telling her stories about GeorgeAnne.

Now, it’s been a long time since this happened, about a decade. The calls and texts lasted maybe a year (GeorgeAnne’s lasted much longer than that). But then cut to the recent cold snap we had in the Midwest. I had traveled back from Chicago, my car covered in salt, and opted to swing through a car wash before heading home. Something I’ve done before without incident.

But then my car died. In the car wash. ( >﹏< )

Thankfully, the worker in the attached gas station was able to push my car out and jump the battery. She warned me not to stop it again, to take it straight to somewhere that could check the battery. So I did. Ended up needing to replace the battery, and during check out, they asked for my phone number (to find the attached customer account), and I spouted it off. He looked up the account.

Then he goes, “Eric?”

😐😐😐🤣

When I first heard about Ted Lasso, I had no interest in watching it because I don’t really have an interest in soccer (a.k.a. football). We didn’t have the option to play it where I grew up (tiny town, minimal extra-curricular activities – so small my school had to join with another just to have an American football team, and even then we didn’t have enough folks to have cuts).

But I kept hearing over and over – it’s about so much more than that. And they weren’t wrong. At its core, the show was about connections and the complexities of being human. And I LOVED it. Well, love it. As in present tense, still do.

As a character-driven writer and reader, I loved the way all of the characters evolved over the series’ three seasons. The Rebecca and Keely friendship. Ted coming to terms with his mental health. The layers of friggin’ Roy Kent. I know I’m far from the only one to say how quickly this character became one of my favorite things on television. (Or how Brett Goldstein quickly became one of my favorite storytellers. His follow-up Shrinking is quite fun, as well.)

That all being said, I’m not really one for attending stand up shows. I’ve watched some on streaming platforms (looking at you Noah Trevor), but I’ve never gone so far as to spend money on a ticket for one. (Not that it’s not a valuable thing to spend money on – just not usually my scene.) But then Brett Goldstein announced he’d be in Chicago. And I almost bought a ticket…but didn’t. Then he announced new shows because the first sold out too quickly – and I felt like I’d regret not taking the chance to see him live.

I attended the second of his three shows at the Chicago Theater (which is such a lovely venue – I’ve been here a few times). And it was SUCH a delightful evening. Never underestimate the impact a night of good laughs can have. (If he’s coming to a venue near you, and you’ve been on the fence – get the ticket. You might regret not going, but I can’t imagine anyone walked out of that theater regretting having attended.)

His opener, Mo Welch, was fun. Her routine was about fifteen minutes, and Goldstein even played off a few of her jokes. Then we got an hour and fifteen minutes of Goldstein’s observational humor, during which he took cracks at himself, Florida, our public restrooms – everything but the city of Chicago. He claimed he had walked around before the first show to come up with some bits, as this was his first time in the city – but he claimed he couldn’t find a single thing to poke at. But I bet he says this to all the cities. (❁´◡`❁)

One thing I missed was that in the foyer of the theater, Goldstein had a question box for folks. He spent about fifteen minutes reading through and answering questions – which ranged from simple to strange, everything from what movie did he most want to do a Muppets reboot of (he answered Goodfellas…and, I mean, yes – I would watch the hell of out that) to advice for a couple about to tie the knot (he offered advice on keeping the physical intimacy of a relationship alive) to his favorite American snack (corn dogs) to who he thinks aliens should abduct (he pointed out there was a building nearby with the man’s name on it).

If you get the chance, definitely go. And seek out that question box. 🙂