I Got "The Happy" Inside of Me

OK, so at some point on Monday, someone is going to ask me, "what did you do this weekend?" I am going to say, "I wrestled a grown woman at a cemetery... you?"

On Saturday morning, I jumped in a mini-van at 7:30 in the morning, drove to Bastrop, Texas, and shot a short film with some great friends. The premise was a silly, silly idea I had about 2 grown adults visiting their dad's grave. They argue like children and then start wrestling on his grave. It ends with a chase scene through the cemetery. Yes, I am going to hell.

I acted in this short film... a big change of pace for me. It was good to get out from behind the camera. I have no formal training in acting. I just have the normal acting & pretending in every day life... like pretending to be interested in my day job, acting like I am paying attention at meetings when I am actually thinking about other things, pretending to be sorry when I get pulled over for speeding... normal, everyday acting. So I was a bit nervous when I got in front of the camera this weekend. But I had a blast.

Something I discovered about myself this weekend... I am a smiley dude. I smile a bunch. My role this weekend did not call for me to smile. In fact, it called for me to be disgruntled, in a silly way. But I can not suppress the smile. It comes from way-down, deep inside of me. I am a pretty genuinely happy dude.

Don't get me wrong, there are dark parts of Ben Bartley. On several occasions, I have been a real jack-ass. Don't believe me? Ask my sisters about waking me up for high school. Ask my parents about me getting suspended from high school. Ask Megan about my demeanor when I have too many commitments or when I feel defensive. Ask my buddy Schully about boarding the airplane in Thailand. Ask my brother-in-law Gar about the Lake of the Ozarks. Why is it that I can be the biggest jack-ass to the people I love the most? If you have not seen me be a jack-ass, consider yourself lucky. I hope I never show you. I will try to never show you. If you have seen me be a jack-ass, I am sorry & I love you & thank you for loving me the way that I am.

Despite being a jack-ass once in a while, I still got "the happy" inside of me. I hope it never goes away. I hope that smile shows-up in the video, because that is who I am & who I want to be.

I also shot some video with my buddy Les on Saturday afternoon. We then went to go see my friend Scotty play blues music a Sambet's cajun restaurant at Spicewood Springs and 183. Wow, the music was good. And the food was awesome. I ate a plate of snapper that the waitress recommended. We also had an appetizer of cajun kisses. They were delicious! Sliced jalapeños stuffed with shrimp, cheese & wrapped in bacon. Sambet's makes their own Louisiana Hot Sauce. It is a BYOB restaurant, so Les & I brought a cooler of beer and shared it with the band & the employees after they closed. I had a great time. Megan came by for a little bit. She had just been to see Sex in the City.

The owner of Sambet's & his wife were at the store on Saturday night. They had a crawfish broil. They had extra crawfish, so I took about 10 pounds of crawfish home with me in a big plastic bag. We ate crawfish on Sunday after taking PugPuggy to Bull Creek. My buddy Dan brought his dogs to Bull Creek. He then came over and ate crawfish with us. I still have left overs. If anyone wants some crawfish, come on over for dinner.

This was a good weekend.