Feast of Friendship

This is the time of year for purging and I'm prepping for the temporary relocation to LA.  I keep patting myself on the back for getting rid of shit that could have been gone ten years ago.  Or 10 weeks ago.  Like, receipts for Christmas presents from 2014.  Or, my favorite item so far---an atm withdrawal from college (On 11/20/93, at 18:23, I took out $15 and had an available balance was $268.55).  I figured out it was for our Tower Players "Feast of Friendship".  Every year, our improv group the Tower Players, would have a fall formal with a full thanksgiving dinner and dancing at the Western Cabin on Western Campus.  We'd dress up, bring potluck (I'd always bring the turkey) and hire the sorority/fraternity photographer to come take pictures.  I loved this gathering, and we replicated it for years here in Chicago.  My favorite part of it was when we'd pass around a candle and say what we were thankful for that year.  That shit always made me cry.

Now that I look back at the Feast---we were a precursor to Friendsgiving!  Also, I think we were replicating the big sorority/fraternity formals.  Miami University was super in to being greek.

I hated that greek shit.  If you weren't in one at Miami, you felt so left out.  Thank god for some of the hilarious nicknames--my favorite of which was "Delta Oops i joined the wrong fraternity".  

Anyway, I purged lots and lots of paper---old journals, old running orders, old notes on some show at the Playground theatre, lots of to-do lists.  My comrade in purging, Andy Eninger, recently told me he took all his old journals, and tore out the papers with writing on them. And then, he organized them according to “personal journaling” and “theatre/creative ideas”.  I stared at him like he was a crazy/genius god. 

One time, when Andy and I lived together, I ordered an organizing book “getting things done”---he immediately commandeered it, and it ended up in his bedroom.  Along with a table I had brought from my old place.  He was a wonderful roommate, but tended to just take things without asking, and that DROVE me crazy! 

We did a play, Band Geeks, A Halftime Musical, and had 6 buckets for a car wash sequence.  When we re-mounted that show, we could only find 5 buckets.  Then, I went to a Gayco show, and there was the 6^th bucket!!

Another time, I went to a show, and there were the stools from both Little House on the Parody and Band Geeks!  What that meant is he grabbed the stools, and used them for rehearsal, tech, etc for weeks, and never once mentioned or asked.  And then I show up, and there they are.

I know I should have the spirit of generosity where that doesn’t bother me, but it did.  Just like when I’d wake up in the morning when Andy and I lived here, and the counter would be riddled with little crumbs from his breakfast of twigs and branches (I think he was paleo at the time).

Anyway, he is a constant source of inspiration to many, but he’s also a hilarious roommate.

And every year, when I passed that candle, I felt grateful we had become friends.  I also would follow him around, wiping the crumbs in his weird food wake.