Having armed myself with the knowledge that I am pretty much the way I think I am after taking all those personality tests, I set out to enjoy the rest of the weekend as best as I could.

Lost In Scottsdale

Lauren H. and I went to see Lost in Translation with Bill Murray.

We enjoyed it.

I may even go see it again. It gave me a different perspective on the all-too familiar feeling of loneliness. It made me think that loneliness wouldn't be such a prevalent condition if everyone weren't so damn surrounded by each other.

I mean, the mind is a finite thing; The more people you know, the less well you can possibly know them. I'm sure you physicists and sociologists agree.

"You're not hopeless."
-Bill Murray.

Lost In Bank One Ballpark

Boston had invited me to go with him to see Arizona Diamondbacks play. I had been all for it. The last time (eh, only time) I had been was when our team was brand spanking new and I had gone with Donovan.

It was fun. A lot of people were there.

After we left the stadium, we went back to my parent's house to make some hamburgers. Jake called me at that exact moment to see what I was up to. I told him.

So Boston, Jake, and I had a pleasant late lunch of hamburgers and fries. Good times, good times.

Lost in Lyceum Theatre

I had foolishly missed the opening nights of The Laramie Project and How I Learned to Drive, so I arrived at the playhouse a little before six pm. My belly was full of dead animal and good feelin's and I sat back in slightly-too-small-to-be-comfortable seat and was ready to be entertained.

I had no idea what I was getting into.

Both shows played right after each other. Not counting the intermissions, I experienced almost four solid hours of theatre.

The first show was The Laramie Project, which Beth Froehlich and Eric Piatkowski were in. I felt pretty emotionally drained after I saw it. Beth gave a powerful performance in the first act and had everyone (almost) in the audience in tears. And of course, the first act ended right after so that went the lights came up everyone (almost) got to play the "Crying? Who was crying?" game.

I felt that the show didn't quite reach that point again in the next two acts (but then, the emotional climax parts after that were performed by other actors.) And Eric was great, too. His seamless transitions between multiple portrayals characters was amazing. His characters were also some of the most distinct in the show. (Although one trait that all of his characters were forced to share: Eric's trademark lack-of-an-ass. )

Eric and Beth have always made a great combination.

The second play I watched was "How I Learned to Drive." I had a tough time getting a feel for the setting (probably due to having spent the previous two-and-a-half hours being convinced I was in Laramie, Wyoming.)

It seemed a bit disjointed at first, but as the play progressed, I think being continuously caught off-guard seemed to work for it. The interspersed racy humor and over-the-top slapstick comedy starkly contrasted the darker, more disturbing scenes. And there were some scenes that became surprisingly touching because of it.

Some scenes fell somewhere in between and weren't enough to keep me connected to what I was watching. A scene would draw me in and then the next one would lose me. Basically, I would start to forget myself (which happens only when I'm really enjoying something) and then suddenly be reminded that I was in a theatre again. To be fair, my ass was incredibly sore from being seated for so long. And to be completely fair, I have a very difficult time with the subject matter that was presented for reasons that are completely personal. It is a very enjoyable show. What I most enjoyed?

Julie (a fellow Lopez) was downright adorable in the lead role.

There was a great lip-synched Doo-Wop/chair dancing scene.
*Update: You can actually see it over at Lauren H's live journal.

And a school sock-hop scene with a young, love-struck, vertically challenged Casanova.

Lauren's timing was impeccable, as always, and she gave a nearly flawless performance.

After the shows, I hobbled out of my seat and went outside to check my voice-mails. One particularly caught my interest:

"Hey, G, this is Brian. I'm about to get off work and then have a drink at the bar."

Brian works at a hotel. The bar is also in the hotel. That means the bartender is really a co-worker and that means that despite having lost my ID I could certainly order drinks.

So met up with Brian there. We had a few drinks and discussed important things like "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" and how movie theaters don't make any money from the movies they show, only the concessions they sell (five-dollar bags of Reese's Pieces starting to make sense now?)

We also tried to plan out the rest of our evening. This was urgent, since where we were going and how we would get there would determine how many more pints of Fat Tire we would have.

Once we received confirmation from Kiki that she would be able to give us a ride, it was on.

Lost in the Pointe South Mountain Resort

That night was the birthday of Brian's niece and the family was spending the weekend in the Pointe South Mountain Resort. It was pretty late, but we went over to see what they were up to.

Brian had a key to their room. He opened up the door, and we walked into the wildest game of Pictionairy I had ever seen. It was pretty intense. We were all split up and merged into the existing teams (Kiki being the most sought after since she was actually sober.) We had only planned on saying Hello, but there was plenty of beer in the mini-fridge...

We ended up staying for over half an hour (or three beers, to be exact.) Brian and I knew we were drunk when we started arguing about the game "Peek-A-Boo."

"It's a stupid game!" I had shouted in mock anger. "You're right fucking there!"

I'd like to think I won that argument.

Lost in an Empty Apartment

We all went over to Joey and Meg's after that. We hung out some, talked some, drank a little some. It was fun. Erin McCarthy was there (quite possibly the funniest girl in the world) and she was cracking us up. She was also kind enough to give us a ride back to our cars, which were still back at the hotel.

We got back to the hotel at four in the morning. We were still a little drunk. But there was nothing to fear, because the hotel also has a kitchen. Raul, the cook, made us egg and cheese bagel sandwiches. Brian and I ate and discussed egg and cheese bagel sandwiches.

It was good times.

Lost in Blogging

I remembered something today, not really a reason to blog, but a definite bonus:

On several occasions I have heard genuine surprise expressed by someone who had read something I wrote. The surprise came from the fact that it was me that wrote it.

Ben Siemon, who I had known for over four years, summed it up the most appropriately. "I always thought you were just cute and stupid!"

I had to laugh. That's what I love about Ben, he always tells it like it is.