Reuniting With My Stoner Friends

This last Saturday I went to the Multi Year Reunion for my high school, De Anza in El Sobrante. I graduated in 71 and of course life took me on one hell of a roller coaster ride.
About three weeks before the reunion I found a tribe from my school here on Tribes and start communicating with people I haven't seen in ages.
I'm going to give you younger people a piece of advice....stick with the people you were friends with when you were young! They're the best friends you'll ever have.
I got there with my life long friend Linda and it was like no time had passed. Yes, everyone looked older, but their spirit was still young and free and fun and we had a blast talking about all the concerts we went to and places we went together and whatever else came to mind. Turns out we all still love the hell out of music, and we're the first ones to volunteer to take our kids to festivals and concerts. It's very heartening to see your 55 year old ex-boyfriend wearing a Ramones t-shirt!
Of course most of us still partake of the sacred herb, but no one wanted to be the one to admit it first.
By the end of the day I no longer saw wrinkles and gray hair, I just saw the beautiful faces of my friends, the ones that knew me when, the ones that don't care what kind of car I drive or how I make my living or what my bank account is. Turns out that we all pretty much stuck to our dreams....artists were still artists, performers were still performing, musicians were still jamming on their days off, it was just beyond words.
In fact we decided to have a "stoner" reunion every 6 months from now on.
I'm in charge of the first one.....I can't wait. Now I just have to find that guy who used to do the light shows at the school dances......

Fisherman's Wharf, My Long Time Love

I've been going to Fishermans Wharf since I was a little kid. You'd think the blush would have been off the rose long ago, but it isn't.
I had an interveiw as a wardrobe assistant for "Menopause: The Musical" on Pier 39 yesterday. I parked over by Northpoint (free) and was lucky enough to find a space under a tree. This is good, the God's are smiling already.
There were people everywhere...little kids swimming, people sprawled all over the lawn at Maritime Park...cameras snapping....the whole typical Fisherman's Wharf summer day.
I just started smiling like a lunatic because I realized that of all the places I had been in my life and all the places I've seen, this is my favorite place in the world!
I stopped and loked around and remembered all the great things that had happened to me here. My first school field trip in 3rd. grade, the place where our family brought my aunt and uncle from Nebraska to try cracked crab for the first time when I was 11, countless romantic first dates (I always wanted to come here...it screams romance) drinking Irish Coffee at the Buena Vista after "A Chorus Line" in 1985, my sister and I bringing my kids here when they were little (now they're grown, but they still remember),bringing my husband here for the first time when we moved here from back east. We had bought a bag of salt water taffy and ate it till we were literally sick to our stomachs. We had kissed under this restaurant marquee and all of a sudden this beautiful music started playing out of nowhere. It was like being in some corny love movie!
I started walking, no bopping down the wharf. Past the vendors, past robot man, past the gold and silver guys, I heard insane asylum man yelling out his act over by the cable car station at the foot of Hyde, I heard the 3 piece group belting out tunes under the Fisherman's Wharf sign, everything was just amplified. And as many times as I've seen and heard all of this, I never get tired of it! Any of it. It's like everytime I see it, I'm seeing it through the eyes of a tourist who is seeing it for the first time!
Sometimes I get hung up on all the petty crap that goes on everyday, but yesterday it was staring me in the eye. I was a lucky, lucky person!
I had a great job working at the Purple Onion with a show I really beleived in, I was on my way to another fabulous opportunity with another great show, I was finally working on my stand-up career, for just this one minute everyone I loved was healthy and happy, and I lived in a place where I had constant access to this most astounding city of San Francisco, and most of all, this most magical place, Fisherman's Wharf.
The interview went great, and as I walked back to my car I am almost positive I saw Chris Isaak roller blading by the water. I mean how many people have that nose? And if it wasn't him, then he has a twin. Whether he was or wasn't, maybe a tourist saw him and thought it really was him and for the rest of their lives they'll be able to tell people "I saw that singer Chris Isaak roller blading in Fisherman's Wharf. Now that was something!"
Does anyone else feel this stongly about a place, or am I the only sentimental idiot?

Why Do We Sabotage Our Own Futures?

All my life, and it's been a long one, people have been telling me "Oh, you're so funny...you should be a comedian". Acting like a nut got me out of alot of situations, and for as far back as I can remember, when I made people laugh, and I did that alot, I'd get this really undescribable feeling...like I took them away from their problems and bullshit for a minute by making them laugh and forget.
I loved acting, majored in it in college. The minute I got up on stage and opened my mouth, I was on. So why am I not a rich and famous comedian?
Because for some insane reason, I am afraid to go up on stage and do an act. I can act on stage, but I can't do an act on stage. Does that make sense?
I tried it once way back in the early 90's. Granted, it was the Amish Country and they're not the most carefree group in the book...but I did it and I bombed! I forgot everything I had practiced, my eyes started running, my nose started running...it was a debacle.
I spent my life going from one pointless job to another when what I really wanted to do was comedy.
I went into therapy and the doctor said I was suffering from fear of success....yeh I really have enjoyed those food bank runs since my husband got hurt and can't work two years ago, they'll be hard to give up!
Then last month I got a job as house manager for the production "How We First Met" playing at the Purple Onion.
For those who don't know, in the 50's and 60's the Onion was THE place to play if you were a comedian. Lenny Bruce, Phyllis Diller, The Smothers Brothers, Mort Sahl, anyone who was anyone in comedy played the Onion. The first night I worked I felt like I was on sacred ground. I could feel those early comics in there, seeing them through the cloud of smoke from the audience....I was just blown away.
And don't get me started on the people in the show. These people are so talented I felt like I should get down on my knees and humble myself!
I can't say I had some kind of an epiphany or anything, but after watching them stick their asses on the line every week, I felt like the Cowardly Schmuck.
The other day I dared my self to contact the Mock Cafe on Valencia to ask for an audition. The guy writes back and offers me 5-7 minutes onstage July 29th.
I'm telling you it took every ounce of courage to write back and accept.
Now I have to do it! The comedy community in the Bay Area is very intimate and everyone knows everyone. In this situation it would be better to go on then bomb then not show up at all.
I'm scared and excited, but I'm going. I better wear a pair of Depends that's how scared I am...but I'm going.
One thought keeps nagging at me.....
What if I get up there after all these years of fear and do really great and the audience loves me and I start getting gigs and making money? Then that will mean that I've wasted 35 years being scared of something that was my destiny, hence having wasted a huge amount of time.
I'll tell you....I'm gonna be really pissed!

Why Do Women Wear Uncomfortable Shoes?

Well, I did it again! I bought another pair of shoes that look so great, but when I wear them I better bring a wheelchair or a pair of slippers along. But I won't, I'll stumble around the city in them till I have blisters the size of my fist on my feet, and those feet will be swollen to the size of a childs football.
I can't help it, I love shoes. I always have...long before Carrie Bradshaw hit the scene. Since I have been an adult, I have never owned less then 25 pair of shoes. Went I went broke I sold furniture, but kept shoes.
These new ones are a buttery soft ecru leather sandal by Bandinini. They show my pedicure off beautifully. They will go with many things in my wardrobe. They also have high metal heels and a metal instep. Yep, metal. I'll have to surrender them before I board a plane. To hell with that, I won't take a plane, I'll take a train.
I've been wearing them around the house since I brought them home, and I can already see the writing on the wall. But it doesn't matter...I'll wear them to work tonight, and my feet will hurt, and well, you know the drill, but the main thing is that they look so damn fabulous it's worth the pain.
Especially when some obviously envious woman comes up with a fake smile on her face and says "Oh darling, I love your shoes! Where did you get them?" To which I will reply, "You know, I've had them so long I just don't remember where I got them." Insert Cheshire grin.
You know the old saying "Looking good is the best revenge", even if the revenge is on you.
Thanks for reading...and Viva La Shoes!