sedaris and company

First of all, I know that it is not summer. Not even close. Glorious autumn in fact. But, I'm still hopelessly mired under boxes and piles and basically a huge mess of stuff at my new apartment, which means that changing my blog header is way, way down at the bottom of the list. Maybe for October!

Second, I had a wonderful time in Rochester on Saturday for the RWC Homecoming. What fun to see old friends and catch up. S and I and another alum sold a modest amount of our handcrafted items. With what is left over, I'm planning to inject Five40B with some energy by placing items on consignment in a Troy gallery.

Third, I have been enjoying being this geographically close to the boyfriend. No, not the Troy move, but being in the Capital District vs. being in Philadelphia. Going on six months up here and nearly 2 years back together so maybe I'm reflective. One of the things we love to do is see shows, travel locally, and enjoy each others company. Much easier to do 60 miles apart rather than 360. Last night we did some necessary clothes shopping and then grabbed a light dinner before heading over to downtown Albany for a drink. The bar filled up with NPR types and we tried to determine who we might see shortly over at The Palace where award winning writer David Sedaris was speaking, on tour for his new book.

Sure enough, many did migrate over. Girls in dresses over pants and guys in rugged jeans with corduroy jackets and beards, plenty of bearded hipsters. This audience was clearly enthusiastic to hear Sedaris. Seriously, what kind of audience pays good money to hear a small man with glasses read out loud?!

We managed to sit in front of a row of big laughers. Big, raucous laughs that made you lean forward a bit so as not to lose what little hearing you have left after going to your share of My Morning Jacket and MGMT shows. In front of us was one of those women who massaged her date like it was her full time job. Maybe it was her job before they started dating. I don't know. But it was really uncomfortable, hand stretched down his shirt, across his shoulders, ugh.

Yet, between the big laughs and the visual assault, we were able to appreciate Sedaris' humor. My favorite stories are about his family. Least favorite are cheap humor that is self indulgent. Self-deprecation works when it brings the larger group in, starts to push you away when it is so specific to your own personal experience that others cannot relate. Glad to be part of this last bit of verbal culture--long live the book tours.