Digital Analogue

Ancillary events

Last night's performance was bracketted by two weird little events that happened to me.

After I took my seat, about three in from the aisle but not right next to anyone, a girl who looked vaguely familiar, like I'd seen her around the Knox campus or something, appeared to be looking for a seat, and I turned my knees so she could get past; she declined and sat on the aisle, so I smiled and went back to reading my program.

A minute or so she commented on how cold it was in there, and I politely agreed (it was) and said something about how I often remember to bring a sweatshirt with me to theatre shows. And went back to reading my program.

Her next comment after another brief silence was, "Not much going on tonight, huh?" I guess she assumed I was a student or something---that's not the kind of comment a student usually makes to a prof---but I shrugged and said, "Well, there's this." She mumbled something about having to find something later, and when I went back to my program, she stood up and left.

It's that last thing that makes the whole situation sort of baffling. Small talk, sure, but then getting up and leaving? I suspect she was trying to pick me up, but it's not like she made any great effort before giving up and leaving. I wonder if she sat down somewhere else and tried the same routine on someone else.

The second event, then, came after the show. As I was mingling with various folks in the lobby, one of the choreographers for one of the pieces came up and joined the conversation, and she immediately started gushing about how cool I was because I actually came to everything (not quite true, but I do go to a lot of events). Of course, my coolness didn't extend to her finding out who I was, because she then said how seeing me at all these Theatre & Dance events made her say, "oh look! It's that guy!"

Great! My life's ambition: now I'm that guy. Surely I can make use of this somehow.

"I'm going to appreciate this two-weeks-straight-of-68-degrees thing as much as I can, and look back on it fondly when the entire state is on fire in August." --Pete McFerrin