ZooTunes

My friend K invited me to use her extra ZooTunes ticket this week to see Built to Spill and Yo La Tengo at the Woodland Park Zoo this week. This falls into the MadLibs category of "I can't believe I've lived in Seattle for twenty years and have never _________."

This week's response: Been to ZooTunes at the Woodland Park Zoo.

TBH, that is one of the wonderful things about Seattle. I have lived here for so long and have done so many things and still there are new things to find.

I had never heard of either band, but it was fun. The music was cool but my favorite part of people watching. Now that I live downtown, I see many tourists and I don't see as many Seattleites in the wild as I did when I lived in Northeast Seattle. I was teasing K that we should hand out awards to people. Here are the categories:

• Coolest t-shirt
• Funniest t-shirt
• Best dancing
• Best baseball hat
• Nicest picnic blanket
• Best food spread
• Cutest water bottle
• Most adorable family
• Most interesting/creative visible tattoo

"But then we'd have to bring prizes," said K. I was initially thinking we could give away stickers, but maybe we could bring a bouquet of flowers from the market and let people pick one.

The Moth (again)

Last night, I vacuumed up a giant moth that was hanging out on my wall. The moth was two inches tall--I have no idea its wingspan. The poor creature was sucked up before it had a chance to fly away.

Last September, I wrote about another giant moth in my downstairs bathroom that freaked me out so much that I refused to open the bathroom door for a week, fearing the giant moth would attack me. (Thankfully, my condo has two bathrooms.) 

After a week, I opened the bathroom and it was fine. I never did find the moth or its carcass, which got me thinking: Maybe the moth I saw last night was the same moth from last fall... Maybe it finally ventured out of its hiding spot for the past eleven months.

I felt mildly guilty about killing the moth, being a living thing and all, but mostly I was worried that I would fail to kill it, and the moth would hide, waiting to spring out and terrorize me. I did not want to repeat what happened last year, fearing small spaces my own home because of a large flying insect.

Turning the Page

I started my new job Monday! Woohoo! 

I am exhausted--totally wiped out--and it's only Tuesday.

I dragged myself to Damn the Weather for lunch, my usual Tuesday lunch spot, where the owner asked me how I was doing, and I told him.

"It takes a lot of energy to turn the page," he said.

How true.

I am taking a job in other department in the same company, so the page turned very slowly. I didn't have the usual job change ritual of turning in my old badge and laptop, and then a few days later getting a new ones, like getting a new backpack and notebooks for the first day of school. Due to a massive enterprise-wide project, everyone on my team was booked before I left, so no good-bye lunch or happy hour. I am still in the same cubicle for two more weeks. It is like, "Have fun in 4th grade, but you are going to sit in the 3rd grade until October. The teacher will swing by and give you the lessons. Please ignore everything else." 

WTF?

I am sure I'll feel less tired soon enough.

History

When I was in college, I said one of the funniest things I've ever said. I was talking to a group of women in my sorority, and I was describing where someone was, and ad libbed: "Chrissy in the living room with the lead pipe." Result: uproarious laughter. 

Afterwards, Karen came up to me and said, "You are so funny. You should try out for the Mee-Ow Show."

The Mee-Ow Show was a hilarious and brilliant improv and sketch comedy show. Karen's comment was a major compliment, but I had wildly conflicting thoughts. 

My first thought was "Yes, that would be totally awesome."

My second thought was "Hell no."

I bounced back-and-forth between those two thoughts. I am still bouncing back-and-forth between those two thoughts

Northwestern has one of the most famous drama programs in the country, along with Yale, USC and NYU. There were lots of past, present and future famous alums. Drama students very often filled those roles.

I was not a drama or theatre or radio/television/film major. 

I was a math and history major, which is approximately 36,000 miles from studying acting. I was freakishly intimidated to attempt to try out. In high school, I tried out for the Children's Play, the one that they trouped around to all of the elementary schools. I didn't get a part in that; how on earth would I have gotten cast in anything at NU?

Do I regret not trying out, giving it at least a failed shot? Maybe taking an improv class or two back then? 

Yes.

And then last week at my improv class, the teacher mentioned that the most common college major for improvisors in the past thirty years...

History.

WTF?

Seriously? 

Now I am told this, not when I was twenty?

I fact checked this with one improvisor who I saw at Second City in the 1990's: Steve Carell.

He was a history major at Denison, a small liberal arts college in Ohio.

It is like the time I was at a high school reunion and saw that the cutest guy in the school married a chick who looked just like me. Like a carbon copy. And he came up to me and said hi like we were friends after not like really talking to me much in high school.