Last night I had taken off from the show because, when I was asked about my schedule a few weeks ago, Adaptations had been scheduled to perform in the evening. Later, it was discovered that we couldn't because another class was performing, so we ended up going on at 11:30 a.m. It went really well, people liked ours a lot (they weren't so sure about the other group's. Neither were we) and Laura came, which was great. After the show, my group hung out for a little bit, but some still had essays to do or other classes to attend, so we weren't able to stay for as long as we usually do. It was very sad, saying good-bye to all of them. Anyway. So because I had called off, I had the night free. Today starts the next kick-in-the-pants writing project that I'm doing- Script Frenzy (1 month, 100 pages of script.) There was a kick-off party and I decided that I wanted to go. I've always wanted to do the ones for NaNoWriMo, but last November was full of night classes and rehearsals, so I missed all of them. This was perfect.
Before I went, Adrienne asked to use my computer- she had three essays due yesterday and right before she was finishing one of them, her computer crashed. She managed to save her documents but her computer is beyond help right now. The absence of my computer is important later in this story.
Problems started to arise from the moment I got to the tube station- the line I needed, which would take me directly to the stop, was having problems and was temporarily suspended. I took their advice and went to another stop to catch the same line a little further down, but there were still problems there. Eventually I did get the line I needed and decided to consult the map to find the exact location of the pub where the event was being held. I looked for the road for twenty minutes and it was not there. This, I discovered when I found the road- or rather, lane- in person was probably because the name of the lane would have taken up more room on the map than the lane itself. It was that small.
After asking directions from a few people, I found the pub and remembered that the Facebook event had said that they were going to be meeting upstairs. I was glad that they had told us this because the pub was so full of after-work patrons that they were flooding out onto the sidewalk. I'm also just not a pub fan. I like them more than bars (not that I really hang out in either, even here), but they're still pretty similar. While I have been to pubs that are very nice and allow you to talk without screaming, the ones I've been to lately are just loud. I sound like an old woman. I guess you should read "loud" as "full of people, which scares me because I am too shy to talk to any of them." Plus, after the pub experience with Megan, I was even more wary of entering by myself.
But I went in and went upstairs. That level was just a very small room, which was just as loud, but, I figured, it would make it easier to find my group. There were three distinct groups of people there, but I didn't know who I was looking for and none of them looked particularly writer-y. I stood awkwardly in the doorway for a long time, periodically taking out my phone and staring at it just to do something. When people started giving me weird looks, I moved to a corner and stood there awkwardly instead.
"You could have asked someone if they were there for Script Frenzy," I hear you sigh as you roll your eyes. No. No, I couldn't have. I knew I needed to- there was no other way for me to find out who I was supposed to be with. But it took me a good ten more minutes of awkward lurking time to work up the courage to talk to any of them. Besides my fear of being told that I had just spoken to the wrong person, I was obviously younger than all of them, and between my teenager-y way of dressing and my terrified demeanor, I probably looked like I was about fourteen. My age regressed further when I finally asked a person from each group if they were there for Screnzy and, upon being told no by each of them, felt like I was going to cry. I hurriedly exited the pub and went back to Mile End, wondering how no one from the event had come.
As it turns out, the reason no one had been upstairs is because they had changed their location to downstairs, which they sent around in a Facebook message a little bit before I left. Since I didn't have my computer, I didn't get this message :( However, I plan to try one of the write-ins this weekend.
When I got back to Mile End, I thought I might stop in at the local pub and meet my friends, who were going there after one of the school shows. A quick glance through the windows told me that they weren't there yet (it's pretty easy to identify the QM students from everyone else) and I wasn't going to go stand around pathetically in another pub, especially since I wouldn't order alcohol and couldn't order soda, as I've given it up for Lent. No one sits in a pub and drinks water. I went back to my room.
As it got later, I knew that if I were a normal person, I would go back to the pub and meet them... but I didn't go. Not because I didn't want to see them, but because I just didn't feel very social. It was a night when I was perfectly content to be alone and read three hundred pages of a book I've read a thousand times before. It reminds me of the episode of Gilmore Girls where Rory has the house to herself and tells her boyfriend and her best friend that she has plans that night just so she can stay home, do her laundry, and eat Indian food by herself. Maybe I'm weird, but I completely understand this.
Plus, the same friends are getting together on Thursday :)
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