Last night was a riot of ridiculous moments. Yelling, jostling for position, they hold up placards with “DESCRIBE ME” on them in neon blue paint. I’m surprised there isn’t one in dreadlocks with a marijuana pattern t-shirt. I just live in that kind of city.
Aiden and Nicole had to cancel on me last night. She’s got a touch of something, so rather than spend the night here, it was implied that Aiden was spending time holding her long auburn hair out of the way. My heart went out to them, and I planned instead on heading out to Jacques play for eleven. I was surprised that the time between went so quickly. Unexpected saviour on-line. A ridiculous angel when I needed one to play Wit with me. If it’s true that somewhere a small child was shot brutally to make up for it, I’d still do it again. Maybe they were shot with candy. I know I was certainly laughing and happy, though attempting to type in a fishnet glove is a bit of a bitch. Live and learn lovelies.
Catching the bus, it occurred to me that I should have called ahead to reserve my free ticket. Too late now, I’m looking out the window at the junkies singing Bob Marley in the rain and wondering if there will be anyone at the hall that I know. Hiking through the underbrush from the alley, I could hear the traffic on Granville Street and I looked up to see a knot of people smoking outside the Venue. Worry proved useless, as my name was called out before I could get close enough to identify anyone. Placing the voice took me a moment, I needed to be ten feet closer before people came into focus. Will was there, looking red-faced and slightly inebriated, and Mark, trying to remember where he knew me from. We decided that at least once I must have met up with Will when he was sober, but we couldn’t think of once. Must have been when he was with Leslie however many years ago. I knew the rest of the group as well, though not so well. Not enough to have collected their names from memory. It’s been so long since I’ve stood outside in the dark with people talking and smoking cigarettes. There’s something about it that I miss. No matter where I am, simply standing in that outside the door pool of light feels familiar.
Inside, I walked in to get a ticket and the woman there asked “Are you Jhayne?” Immediately I shift my weight back trying to place the face and form. I’ve seen her before and she has my name. Turns out she’s AJ, the lovely lady currently attached to Adrian. I saw her last Saturday at SinCity, but I suppose with the mask, she didn’t place me. We stood and talked, with mentions to how it’s about time we met properly. In this town, it’s so easy to have many people in common. “Two degrees apart in every direction”. There’s even a mention of Triton. I sincerely hope I don’t run into him again. He’s not working Fringe this year, which is unsurprising. I heard he had a bit of a trouble with some girls last year, but it’s mostly unconfirmed. I know Daniel’s sister complained. When time came to go upstairs, I found a seat had been saved for me in among the cool kids. Six or seven of us taking up two rows. I stepped over the chair into air soaked in Rum and coke and Granville Island beer. Home again, home again. Lights down ten minutes later to come up on actors looking far too serious. Delightful.
Fringe club came afterwards. It’s getting too easy to put my arm around women. My mock sleaze seems to work and it bothers me slightly. Walking to the van to discover there was still two litres left of rum & coke, finished as we drove the five blocks to the Island. The club is held in the Granville Island Brewery, an open room full of wooden tables and gold light. We lucked out with a table and settled in to be loud noisy celebrants. “TWENTY YEARS! WHOO!” Everyone cheering with their milky plastic cups full of lager. There was a line in the play I didn’t understand, but now, oh yes I do. I asked what bedroom eyes were and was treated to a full demonstration. We attempted to practise them on one another all around the table and all but Jacques failed miserably. Next came paper airplanes that I successfully threw into everyone’s beer. Only twice did I have to explain my divorce and each time was because of Will spouting on about how unbearably attractive Bill is. “This is the girl who dated Bill Moysey. He’s damned sexy, just ripped and so talented. The man is wonderful, I love him dearly”. Someone asked if he was famous. I hurt and laughed all at once.
When the club closed, our group got out a white frisbee and started tossing it back and forth over the traffic. Yelling back and forth across the sodium lit street, the bridge looming over us, blocking out half the sky with it’s girders, it was beautiful. The cobblestones were wet with rain so a little slippery to add to the fun. Extra points if we bounced it off a cab. When there were less passer-by’s at risk of beheading, we broke into teams to play a game of tipping. Crashing into eachother and running into posts, we must have been a sight. Once we climbed onto the train caboose to fetch our lost toy. I don’t know if anyone else saw just how breathtaking our night was. It was a gift. The frisbee scraped the sky in a graceful arc to land, finally, on the roof of the Children’s Market.