An Original Play, A Terrifying Bug In The Theater At That Play, And An Aesthetically Placed Fork In An Applebee's: A Day In The Life

I had a pretty wild day yesterday, and I thought it time I took a whack a using my blog for, well, blogging?

 So far on this blog I haven't really done a traditional "blog." And by that I mean an old school 'this is what I did this day' sort of blog. I find it interesting that vlogs are almost strictly that content, whereas blog posts, while they originated the term, have changed to more essay form.

Or maybe that's just me, I'm not about to try to research the History of the Blog Post.

Anyway, I don't really do this form because 1. Lol, what is creative nonfiction, 2. I don't have a lot of exciting things going on, and 3. A realistic and underlying fear that nobody will care or click.

But I initially planned this slot out for a play review, and I didn't have enough to say. So here we go folks!

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I planned my day around going to see the original play my sister, Cassie, is in. GOOD WORk, a new play by Ned O'Reily. And before you ask, yes, that's how the title is stylized, and no it is never explained in the program or play.

Broom Street Theater is a half hour walk from my apartment, and since I'm at a point in my life where I don't have a parking spot and my car lives a 45 minute bus-ride away from me, I decided to take a walk. 

​I left at 6:45pm ish, and nothing of event happened prior to that. Walking up State St. towards the capitol, it became very clear to me that somebody was having a prom.

High school students littered the streets making it hard to walk and making me feel very underdressed.

A detail that I don't think I can synthesize naturally into this story: the entire walk I was listening to the following song on repeat, and I was listening to it on headphones that came for free with a 20 dollar mp3 player and sound like actual plastic.

So yeah, play that bop and take a second to imagine walking down Henry street, turning onto State, and suddenly being affronted by physical manifestations of "that's not your life anymore and you have no physical social group where you live."

It was a surreal experience.

What was even more surreal was continuing down State and coming across a street performer.

Who was playing the Marimba.

Yes. That's right.

The Marimba.

​This thing.

I get that it has wheels, but that is not an instrument that you can shove in the back of a Corolla. That guy was prepared.

Anyway, the rest of the walk was pretty chill other than when I walked by a restaurant that was apparently known for their ribs, and they had a sign for the restaurant, literally made out of rib bones.

Like, I'm not a vegan, I'm not even a vegetarian, but this put me off.

It might have had to do with the haphazard artistry of it? Like, I would go see the Parisian catacombs in an instant.

But this sign was just sloppily put together, and it was very clear that the bones were from someones food. 

Anyway.

For all of you who haven't been to Broom St. Theater, it actually has an extensive Wikipedia page if you're interested. It's a blackbox theater, and they do predominantly experimental theater and original theater.

The theater floor is a thrust, with raised seating on the three sides, and there were about 25 people attending if you included the Producer and the Stage Manager who were in the audience.

It's one of those tight theater spaces where you fear that an actor might bump into you on entrance, or, as my sister explained after, the actors fear they might hit you with a table during scene changes if you have your knee sticking out.

Aside from my sister, the star of the show was this absolutely terrifying bug that showed up around the close of the show. As a veteran of the entomology event in Science Olympiad, and as a former reader of the 1950s field guide How To Know The Insects, I can tell you that this bug was a monster​. 

yes, I have actually read this

picture found by googling "giant mosquito"

The only lighting was the overhead stage lights, which don't really serve the purpose of helping audience members see bugs properly, so I had a hard time figuring out what it was. But here's a list of my observations:

• capable of flight
• long and spindly
• 1/2 to full size of my palm
• so many legs
• like honestly so many legs
• soundless flight
• attracted to light
• trying its hardest to get out of the theater space

My one word review of the show is whoof.

I hadn't initially told my sister that I was coming to the show - it was a mid day spur of the moment decision - so it was a fun meeting afterward. She told me that she only realized I was there after multiple entrances (I was seated so that she was essentially facing me when she entered from her usual spot) but she's a regrettably professional actress so there was no moment where I got to see any recognition of the surprise on her face.

After the show my sister and I decided to go live that Applebee's life for apps and drinks.

It was around 10:00pm at this point and there was a fork on the floor next to our booth, and I honestly couldn't relate more.

(Photo taken by me on Cassie's phone because I drained my phone's battery using it on my walk to the show).

Big mood.

I honestly considered making this entire post strictly about that fork.

It was a jolly time. We got mozzarella sticks, chips and salsa, and we both got a "Blue Hawaiian Long Island Iced Tea," a drink name long enough to contain an in-rhyme.

We ordered regulars and they accidentally gave us larges, but I can't find a picture of the large glass on Google. Just know that they were huge and we were glad that we got food too.

​On another note, I'm now realizing that making a long island iced tea blue sort of spits in the face of the idea of it looking like iced tea.

Eh, maybe blue iced tea exists out there.

Overall it was a lovely day and a lovely night and I had a great time. 

I truly don't know how to end a blog post like this, so here's a meme and I hope y'all have wonderful days moving forward.

(from the world's best meme page https://www.facebook.com/classicalartmemes/)