Escape

This is a first for me. I am starting this blog from my phone, rather than my normal place at my computer desk in my cat hair-infested apartment.

There are three reasons I started to blog, and those three reasons have remained pretty constant.

1. To document my life. My blog is a journal of sorts. I like to be able to look back and see what happened in any given month in the last three years. Even if my posts aren't complete in their coverage of what happened, they can trigger other memories and help organize what happened when.
   
   
2. To work on my writing. I am not sure that I'm actually a better writer now than when I started, but I have read that the key to being a good writer is to write. Duh. So I've been trying to get better through doing.
   
   
3. To entertain. I want my parents to know what's happening and I want to make friends laugh and I want to fight the power by questioning conventional opinion on politics and good taste. Well... not the politics part.
   

I am thinking, as I'm keying this in on my Sidekick, that there's another reason to blog.

4. To escape. I write because it lets me forget about other things, whether it's H1N1 or my dirty dishes or a charity auction where I've volunteered to help and I've got nothing to do so I'm standing around awkwardly.
   

Yes. That's right. Me, awkward. Who would believe it? I think I'm going to have a role at this lovely charity event when the actual auction starts, but in the mean-time and between-time? I have nothing to do.

I could mingle. Or, rather, ONE could mingle. I almost never mingle, and if I have any sort of "scene" or "crowd" that I'm comfortable in, this is definitely not it.

Nice people dressed well. Cruising around with glasses of wine, socializing and occasionally glancing at silent auction items.

I have little to say to them and little curiosity to ask anything of them.

I'm thinking of something as I stand here, leaning against a wood load-bearing column towards the periphery of the main venue.

It's from an episode of 30 Rock, where Alec Baldwin's character is shooting an internal promo video. He asks, as a nervous inexperienced actor, "What do I do with my hands?" and ends up holding two coffee mugs to occupy himself. 

I feel like that right now. What do I do with my hands? What do I do as I stand here, looking at people (but not too closely), and ... waiting.

[end scene]

The auction went well. There was a fashion show afterwards, which I didn't really pay attention to other than enjoying the sheer Zoolanderness of much of it. I saw a former co-worker and I was given tasks to do. I also got a bit of food and was in a good enough mood that I am not terribly crushed that the Blazers were knocked off by Houston tonight. Next year, right?