Scooby Dooby Doo

After like five years of more attempts than I can count, I wore my seahorse boxers in public without judgement. Last night I went to a pajama party at two comedy boys' house. Pretty much everyone I knew from sketch/improv/standup was already drunk at like 4 PM or earlier. Welcome to my school.

Anyway, Chelle kept trying to get me drunk, being all devious and giggly as she would ask me to hold her shot and then just get another one. Bwah bwah. Sid was equally coercive. Some random dude with a mohawk kept finding me all night, no matter where I stowed away, to give me very poorly constructed speeches as to why blacking out is necessary. (Obvi, one of us was just a speech and debate coach, and one of us wasn't...) During one of these speeches, he mentioned to someone passing by, "Oh yeah, and Scooby Snacks are on the way."

"Oh!" I said. Immediately I was back in second grade, sitting at my childhood friend Hilg's kitchen table, her mom bringing us Eggos with ice cream on them. "I want a Scooby Snack!" Chelle looked incredulous, "You won't take a shot with the girls, but you'll have a Scooby Snack with this guy?!"

Uh oh. Abort. Abort. "Oh...I'm just kidding." I said. Had I actually believed someone brought a waffle iron to the shindig? Mohawk dude winked and said, "I'll make sure you get one." I tried to backpedal. I disappeared to the back porch. Somehow, he kept finding me and offering me a cup of this slime green substance. No, no, no, I'd say, but it was like he got hit in the head and lost all his memory after the moment I showed mistaken joy in eating a delicious ice cream novelty.

No moral to the story. I'm just twelve.

Snapshots: September 14th, 2011

"You are one of the few people I know that would be like, "A person died, but at least it made a good musical number!"
and be totally serious."--Dusty on me explaining that "'Til We Reach That Day" in Ragtime justifies (SPOILER ALERT) Sarah's murder

The first play I wrote for my Playwrights Seminar was very...experimental, ambiguous, open, and everyone knew it. But so did I. During feedback, which was pretty cut cut what cut, I looked over at Blue Eyes, who gave me the sweetest smile and mouthed an apologetic, "I love you!" I went out to the hipster hangout bar with him post-class. He ordered a double vodka, and I kept my eye on the level of liquid left in his curvy glass as we discussed non-linear writing style. It's difficult enough to distinguish good ideas from bad ones in conversations of narrative structure. We made decent theoretical headway before I had to hop on my bike and get to the Thai Elephant for a dinner date with MAF and her hubby.

Good Stuff:
-leftover red curry in the fridge
-Clara visits in nine days
-Andrew Jackson Jihad lately
-quitting the sandwich gig honestly and the boss being supes understanding

Spring Break 2002

Just spent an hour poolside with Atlas Shrugged. I swear to all trains everywhere, if Ayn gets more long-winded in Part Three, I am chucking her brick into the hot tub and not giving a HOOT about who John Galt is!

Laying on the pool recliner, soaking up rays, I thought of 8th grade Spring Break.

The trip's circumstances were pretty magical. My friend Peppermint belonged to an affluent family, and they owned a condo in Florida. Her parents wanted to golf and go out and have fun, so Peppermint and her sister each got to bring travel companions. I just had to pay for the plane ticket--stay, food, and activities were on the family.

Reflecting back on it, now almost a decade later, I realize A LOT of cool things about that trip:

-It was the first time I sun-tanned. Peppermint announced the first day we were there, "Let's go to the pool." I got on my suit and was confused when my friend left the bedroom with arms full of stuff. I inquired about her need for magazines and a Discman, and she said, "For laying out!" I had no idea what that meant, but I got my Discman (with a Britney Spears sticker on the case). I felt weird at first just laying in the sun listening to music, but after five minutes, I got it. I was so relaxed--warm, digging the 10 Things I Hate About You soundtrack, looking out at the ocean. I consider it my first experience of reverie.

-First time I ate sushi! And black beans! Still two of my favorite foods!

-I think Peppermint was the first person to make fun of how I dressed to my face. She found a stupid blue duck in hot pink and orange swim trunks in some store. She said, "He has your fashion sense." Because the context was me enjoying a free vacation, I kinda didn't care. Precedent much?

-We went parasailing. It's one of those things you really only have to do once, and, I've done it.

-I almost microwaved foil, but sister's companion stopped me in the nick of time. I had never heard that rule and probably would have ruined my family's kitchen later that year had I not learned then.

-It was the first time I had to politely say no to an adult--the context being a nice dinner when Peppermint's parents offered all of us alcohol. I was 13. Boop!

-We watched American Pie 2--MANY times. Not sure why, but I think seeing that movie at that time of life helped brace me for high school romance and expectations.

-While swimming, a dolphin jumped right in front of us.

So, yeah, you don't usually think of anything in middle school being phenomenal, but this is probably still one of my top-five vacations.