I have been lolling deliciously in the world of Boyfriendom. I was totally immersed in Bearlesque 24/7 and now I need to change some priorities. My partner, Orlando has been giving up a lot of his time for me and now it is definitely time that I return the favor. He gave up 4 of his vacation days to come down and help me put the show together. We live 3 hours apart from each other and see each other every weekend. I hesitate to gush about my relationship because that seems to be the death knell to every romance I have watched or read about.I am a New Englander and we continually see the glass as half empty. I am trying to keep my cool, but Orlando has far too many times come up with just the right time to hug me and right time to kiss me and-most of all the best time to say, “ I love you”. As Jack Nicholson said to Helen Hunt -, “You make me want to be a better man”. That is not to say sometimes it’s too warm for a hug, and other times the burger and onions he just ate won’t leave his mouth, but he seems to have a real good grip on the I Love yous.
So we are transitioning. We are advancing to the next step and are trying to manifest the act of living together. For years he has lived in a town just outside of Redding Ca called Anderson. (No there isn’t a pea soup factory there) I have posted many pictures of the fabulous countryside there in previous blogs. There are brilliant snowcapped mountains and wonderful lakes and hiking trails. It’s excellent for the outdoorsman in him. He escaped to this area from New York, (which is coincidentally his favorite pizza as well -Escape From New York Pizza). He grew up in Jersey. He now longs to return to an urban environment and after much discussion we decided together that he would come to SF to live with me. Although of course this all hinges on whether he can find work down here. There is also the fact that my little inlaw is just too damned small for two people-so that means we would need to find a two bedroom somewhere. I doubt we would find something we could afford in the city since the going rate these days is $2100 for a two bedroom. So there are a lot of “ifs” going on. One of them may be moving out of the city-which doesn’t thrill him all that much but I am fine with becoming an East Bay Gay. The whole thing is a combination of wonderful and nerve wracking. I wonder how well this little queen (me darlings) is going to do living with a ball scratching, basketball watching, burger and pizza eating GUY. He is all man and... well we all know I am a good deal girl. Although there is the fact that I have a lot of Guy things I do. For Instance, I am ego-centric, I am more Oscar than Felix, and when I don’t get my way sometime’s I yell...a little. I think we will be okay because we pretty much talk about everything and communication seems to be key.
Bearlesque was fun but tiring. I had to adjust my thinking to work with people who had widely varying degrees of stage experience. Even in semi-pro theater I have always worked in a structured professional rehearsal and performance arena and I had to let go of certain expectations with Bearlesque. Many of the performers couldn’t give me the time needed due to their many many scheduling conflicts. The other end if it is that my performers were volunteers. I don’t know if you have ever had to work with managing a team of volunteers but it is akin to herding cats. A true performer will put working on stage above his/her own basic needs. These guys weren’t wired that way, so I found myself compromising a lot and focusing on the guys just having a good time. Hell they weren’t making any money so they had better have a good time! I don’t think it was until the 2nd night of our 4 night run that the show started to coalesce into something like what I had envisioned. I overheard the boys backstage running lines and songs and generally bonding. Nice to hear since they all had very different personas. Friday and Saturday we kinda found our groove. They kicked out some star-power and strutted their stuff!
When all was said and done we ended up raising $8100 for the New Conservatory Theater Center on four nights when the Decker would’ve just been a dark empty theater. Ten percent of the funds went to The Lemonade Fund -the same charity that we raised money for in our Talent Searches. Being the perfectionist I am, I keep looking back on things that I wished I had done differently but the number one rule I learned about fund raising was that you need to GO WITH THE FLOW. I was proud and grateful of the boys and their contributions. By most every one’s account it was a successful fundraiser-but did it meet the standards of a successful show? Hmmm...I got some ideas percolating in the back of my head.
I am also entering the homestretch of my run as Bay Area Cub 2010. July 4th is when the contest is typically held and I will officially step down as Bay Area Cub. I think I’d like to do one more little plain old beer bust before I say Sayonara to the Bear Pageant world. I’ll round up a few Cubs and auction them off to Bear Daddies. If I bring in $500.00 then it will even it out for a nice $10,000 total funds raised during my reign. Wanna help?
Become an East Bay Gay! Berkeley, Emeryville, be my neighbor!! It's the right combo between Urban and sub urban. THere's all kinds of hiking in the area too! I work for a management company that has lofts in E'ville.
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