Another occassion of low expectations turning out pretty dern all right.
I had my 20th appearance for Whose Panties Are These? at the “The Wide World of Travel Writing” leg of the Litquake Pub Crawl.
The line up was cool. Larry Habegger, Executive Editor of Travelers’ Tales, Michael Shapiro author of A Sense of Place, Judy Zimola, a local freelance writer and contrib to Panties, and myself. Then Don George of Lonely Planet, and The Kindness of Strangers contribs Amanda Jones, Laurie King, and Jeff Greenwald.
I was worried about doing my extra loud and demonstrative reading of Felice Prager’s “Waiting for the Big O” if only a handful of people showed up. But I didn’t have to worry long as the audience area was filled before we started, and the door continued to open and shut throughout the entire event. Thus causing the continuous squuueeeeeeeaaaaaak. 100 people turned out! At least. And that was terriffic, even if it made delivering our readings more challenging with the 280 degree turns. (Caveat: I could be off on the math term, but there were people behind us, to the side, in front of us, and even off diagonally wherever they could fit.)
Everyone gave a solid read, but I was laughing the most at Jeff’s story. I haven’t seen many of his readings, so I hadn’t heard this one yet. It was a story from Scratching the Surface. I’m not going to tell you too much about it, but the part I laughed at the most was when he connected his travel predicament with thoughts about getting a six figure book deal.
Afterwards we all went out for tapas and sangria. It was good to get to know Amanda better since she’s friends with several of my friends. I also got to catch up with Larry, who maybe for the first or second time in my life gave me advice on men. That had me in hysterics, but it still wasn’t as amusing as when Rikke Jorgensen recommended that I do stand up.
“You really remind me of Margaret Cho,” she said.
“Yeah, but I’m not as fat, right?” I laughed back.
“No, I meant that as a compliment.”
Truly, thanks, Rikke. And heaps of thanks to Tara Weaver for inviting us into the program. Additional thanks to Abe and Melinda who kindly volunteered to assist the program. It was FUN!