LJ Idol 10.0 - Introduction
"Oh my goodness, it's late," Benji said as we left the Castro, walking toward his car in the Mission.
"What time is it?" I asked.
"Do you want me to give you the actual time, or lie and make it sound not as bad?"
I considered the question only momentarily. "The actual time."
Benji showed me his phone. It read 2:50am. Before I was able to say, "That's not so bad, I thought it was like an hour later," Cody jumped in.
"But daylight savings just changed."
Shit. Technically it was more like 3:50am.
That was this morning. It was not a typical night out for me, even after an improv show. Normally I'll make sure I can catch the last BART train back to Oakland, which leaves a little after midnight. But when I'd approached Benji at 11:45pm last night to find out if he'd taken BART, since we've tended to ride together after shows sometimes, he told me he drove and offered me a ride home instead. I jumped at the opportunity.
Once pretty much every other improvisor had left the bar, and we were getting ready to leave, Benji hadn't been so sure he was sober enough to drive. So we decided to walk to the Castro to a 24-hour diner to get some food and sober him up for the drive back to the East Bay.
I'd never been to Orphan Andy's before, but Cody described it as "One of the best 24-hour diners open in San Francisco." We waited in line for quite a while to get a seat in the small place, which suggested Cody's assertion was correct. There were at least 3 groups in front of us. And this was the Castro, the neighbourhood known for San Francisco's LGBTQ population. That was certainly seemed to be the majority of their customers, too. One of whom stood in line behind us and decided to joyously join our conversation. My over-tiredness led to my inability to contain my amusement looking at the reactions on the faces of the three other people in my company. Two of them clearly did not want him interrupting our conversation, and were frustrated that the third kept engaging him. Their reactions had nothing to do with his sexuality; but rather how they would feel if any stranger would have engaged us that way.
Though I was the only member of the group who is in some way queer-identified (I'm bisexual), I don't spend much time surrounded entirely by queer people, unless I'm rehearsing or performing with my LGBT improv troupe. I'm generally not the kind of person to befriend people just because we have a mutual understanding of sexuality or relationships. I need more than that to bond with a person.
My over-tired laughter came into play during our meal later in the night, too. Cody had misheard something I'd said, and I doubled over. I laughed so hard I was crying, and my stomach hurt from the exertion. Every time I tried to calm down and explain what I'd said wasn't anywhere near as funny, he'd ask me what it was I'd said, and I'd laugh harder.
Was the diner food as good as Cody suggested? I don't know. It was fine. I cared more about the company I was with. Hanging out with improvisors is pretty much the primary reason I even have a social life these days. They're the only reason I'll stay up well past my bedtime (which exists, because I have two kids in school, so my alarm goes off at 7am every weekday so I can make them breakfast and get them off to school on time).
I had a lot of late nights with improvisors in Hawaii about six weeks ago when I was there for their improv festival. One morning I didn't get to sleep until 4am because I was so buzzed. I came home with a festival flu because I'd pushed myself so hard. The main improv troupe I perform with, YUM, likes to have slumber party retreats roughly once a quarter, and I definitely stay up late for those. The first one I went to, three of us stayed up until 6am, which was a bad idea considering we had a photo shoot that afternoon, but we made it work. We've come a long way since then. This coming Friday we'll be driving down to Lancaster in Southern California for our very first performance at an improv festival (and we have two more festivals coming up in January). We're scheduled on Saturday and Sunday. It'll also be our first time staying out of town together. Our slumber parties had all been at each other's houses/apartments before.
Improv pretty much dominates my entire life right now, and has for the last two years. If I'm not doing something related to improv, I'm probably just watching TV, movies, or reading graphic novels. I don't talk about my kids much because I don't want motherhood to define me. I don't talk about my husband much because I don't want marriage to define me. Although sometimes I do talk about dating because I want to help normalise polyamory, or at least help open conversation in that area so it doesn't seem like such a weird thing for people to consider or encounter.
My life has changed so much since I last seriously competed in LJ Idol about five years ago. Back then, I was an Australian expat living in Malaysia with minimal "in person" friendships. I've faced many challenges in that time, but thanks to them, my life is infinitely better. I'm really looking forward to seeing where this season's prompts take me, whether I'm sharing more from my life experiences, or getting creative with fiction, screenwriting, videos, or other possibilities. I like changing things up and trying different formats.
"What time is it?" I asked.
"Do you want me to give you the actual time, or lie and make it sound not as bad?"
I considered the question only momentarily. "The actual time."
Benji showed me his phone. It read 2:50am. Before I was able to say, "That's not so bad, I thought it was like an hour later," Cody jumped in.
"But daylight savings just changed."
Shit. Technically it was more like 3:50am.
That was this morning. It was not a typical night out for me, even after an improv show. Normally I'll make sure I can catch the last BART train back to Oakland, which leaves a little after midnight. But when I'd approached Benji at 11:45pm last night to find out if he'd taken BART, since we've tended to ride together after shows sometimes, he told me he drove and offered me a ride home instead. I jumped at the opportunity.
Once pretty much every other improvisor had left the bar, and we were getting ready to leave, Benji hadn't been so sure he was sober enough to drive. So we decided to walk to the Castro to a 24-hour diner to get some food and sober him up for the drive back to the East Bay.
I'd never been to Orphan Andy's before, but Cody described it as "One of the best 24-hour diners open in San Francisco." We waited in line for quite a while to get a seat in the small place, which suggested Cody's assertion was correct. There were at least 3 groups in front of us. And this was the Castro, the neighbourhood known for San Francisco's LGBTQ population. That was certainly seemed to be the majority of their customers, too. One of whom stood in line behind us and decided to joyously join our conversation. My over-tiredness led to my inability to contain my amusement looking at the reactions on the faces of the three other people in my company. Two of them clearly did not want him interrupting our conversation, and were frustrated that the third kept engaging him. Their reactions had nothing to do with his sexuality; but rather how they would feel if any stranger would have engaged us that way.
Though I was the only member of the group who is in some way queer-identified (I'm bisexual), I don't spend much time surrounded entirely by queer people, unless I'm rehearsing or performing with my LGBT improv troupe. I'm generally not the kind of person to befriend people just because we have a mutual understanding of sexuality or relationships. I need more than that to bond with a person.
My over-tired laughter came into play during our meal later in the night, too. Cody had misheard something I'd said, and I doubled over. I laughed so hard I was crying, and my stomach hurt from the exertion. Every time I tried to calm down and explain what I'd said wasn't anywhere near as funny, he'd ask me what it was I'd said, and I'd laugh harder.
Was the diner food as good as Cody suggested? I don't know. It was fine. I cared more about the company I was with. Hanging out with improvisors is pretty much the primary reason I even have a social life these days. They're the only reason I'll stay up well past my bedtime (which exists, because I have two kids in school, so my alarm goes off at 7am every weekday so I can make them breakfast and get them off to school on time).
I had a lot of late nights with improvisors in Hawaii about six weeks ago when I was there for their improv festival. One morning I didn't get to sleep until 4am because I was so buzzed. I came home with a festival flu because I'd pushed myself so hard. The main improv troupe I perform with, YUM, likes to have slumber party retreats roughly once a quarter, and I definitely stay up late for those. The first one I went to, three of us stayed up until 6am, which was a bad idea considering we had a photo shoot that afternoon, but we made it work. We've come a long way since then. This coming Friday we'll be driving down to Lancaster in Southern California for our very first performance at an improv festival (and we have two more festivals coming up in January). We're scheduled on Saturday and Sunday. It'll also be our first time staying out of town together. Our slumber parties had all been at each other's houses/apartments before.
Improv pretty much dominates my entire life right now, and has for the last two years. If I'm not doing something related to improv, I'm probably just watching TV, movies, or reading graphic novels. I don't talk about my kids much because I don't want motherhood to define me. I don't talk about my husband much because I don't want marriage to define me. Although sometimes I do talk about dating because I want to help normalise polyamory, or at least help open conversation in that area so it doesn't seem like such a weird thing for people to consider or encounter.
My life has changed so much since I last seriously competed in LJ Idol about five years ago. Back then, I was an Australian expat living in Malaysia with minimal "in person" friendships. I've faced many challenges in that time, but thanks to them, my life is infinitely better. I'm really looking forward to seeing where this season's prompts take me, whether I'm sharing more from my life experiences, or getting creative with fiction, screenwriting, videos, or other possibilities. I like changing things up and trying different formats.