Now Playing -
Steve Earle - "I Still Carry You Around."
Now Eating -
nuthin'. Hungry.
Now Feeling -
one word. Shpilkes.
Now Tweeting
- Melanie
My third week in the weeds. Orientation starts in two. I�m surviving.
I spent the weekend on Fire Island, and was not felled by a killer headache or a parent going back in for surgery. The weather was perfect, and the surf was gorgeous. I swam in the ocean for the first time in�yikes, possibly 15 years! And though I managed several spectacular wipeouts while attempting to tube (I am no friend to the undertow), I managed not to lose my contacts, despite reflexively opening my eyes underwater. But damn, the sand! It gets everywhere. Remember the Will & Grace episode where Minnie Driver opens her legs and the jewels fall out?
I think I�ll just leave you to ponder that visual for a bit.
Trying to not scratch my bug bites, 98% of which are on the right side of my body. (Why did the bugs do that? Do they know I�m a righty?) (I have a bug bite on my LIP, people. The hell???)
Saturday night, we first went to the Tides, where they were doing karaoke. We sat by the railing behind the karaoke booth, and were busy dissing the singers and talking amongst ourselves. One guy began to sing �Orange Colored Sky,� and I noticed his profile looked vaguely familiar. His voice was familiar as well. I polled my friends, trying to get someone to remember what the announcer called him. �Doug? Was it Doug?� And once the song ended I just yelled out to see if he�d notice: �DOUG! DOUG SHAPIRO!� And it was he.
Doug and I have been connected in a variety of permutations: he�s worked at T3, he knew the onetime tech director of Stagedoor Manor from there, and he and I wound up at Syracuse together. (And he�s about to go off to do stock for the former Artistic Director of T3.) He�s always been a real sweetheart, and it was so nice to run into him. I�d heard a bit of what he�d been up to through scottmichael, but now I�ve had the pleasure of meeting his new husband.
The next day I had the displeasure of encountering another fellow alumnus. Okay, maybe displeasure�s a bit strong, but it was eyeroll-inducing, to be sure. We went to Porsche�s drag show at the Ice Palace. I�ve seen her three times now, and she does a great show � imitating everyone from Cher to Judy Garland to (her signature) Janis Joplin. At one point, a lip syncher named Tatanya (pronounced like that, but spelled like the fairy queen from Midsummer - take that Googlers!) came on a few numbers in and did a disco tune. I noticed Doug had run off to fetch her. I pointed Doug out to Brent, who had known him when he was but a mere slip of a thing (16 years old, or so). Brent went over to say hi, and Doug accompanied him back to where we were standing. First words out of his mouth were, �You know that was JB, right?�
�I thought the face looked familiar, and I noticed you brought him to the stage....�
So Doug and I went over to the front desk where JB was working. I got a hug, but then Doug made the mistake of commenting on Tatanya�s performance. �And do you know what I�m doing next?� He proceeded to name a track from a recent solo album by another marginally famous fellow alum. And went on about how wonderful the album was, and how crystalline her diction is and how another Lawn Guyland drag queen does a version of the same song by Reba McEntire, and how when the other guy saw him do it, he said he�d just have to retire it from his act it was so good, blah-blah-bladity-blah�.
And how are you, Melanie-who-I-haven�t-seen-in-fifteen-years? What have you been up to, and what interesting turns has your life taken?
Sad to say, I�m not at all surprised.
We watched Tatanya do the number, and at one point Doug turned to me and said (with the barest hint of sarcasm) �And just think, we�re all using our college degrees!� (�Course, I�m not the one in a blue and white wig and elephant ankles. Meow.)
At the end of the number (which I was lucky enough to have performed entirely AT ME so I could see JB even IMITATE Marginally Famous� FACIAL EXPRESSIONS), I turned to a friend and said, �Now here�s where I show I�m the Greatest Actor In The World!� and proceeded to applaud wildly and cheer madly.
Without making a sound.
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a very fine cat indeed - Friday, Jan. 17, 2014
happy new year! - Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013
this is where i am - Saturday, Jun. 30, 2012
this is how it is - Friday, Feb. 24, 2012
a very late last year's wrap-up - Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012
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