Comedy, DC Rollergirls and Movies Galore

The mascot trying to cheer on his losing team. 

This weekend started off with checking out some local comedy at the Big Hunt in Dupont. Feraz was late so I escaped the cold by wandering into a bookstore. It is such an incredible feeling to be surrounded by all those stories. I love writing but sometimes I wonder what the point of adding one more story to the millions of stories that already exist. Then I think- what an amazing thing to potentially be able to give someone? That wonderful escape that so many authors gave me. To help take people from the ordinary and mundane to a world full of people and places that once only resided in an imagination. Even if I have to spend ten, fifteen years on my book, I will finish it and in its own way, it will have meaning. I had forgotten what a safe haven bookstores are.

Back to the comedy. We have been trying to get out and support local comics whenever we can and its been fun to see some of the same comics in different venues. It's amazing how sensitive all of the comics are to the audience. The same jokes are received so differently by different rooms. I don't know if I'll ever have the guts to try to do stand-up comedy but watching young comics is a great way to learn. On Friday, we saw at least three comics just completely choke. One poor girl was so panicked that she just stared out at the crowd saying things like, "Oh, man. This is not going good, is it?" Dead. Silence. I tried to give her lots of smiles and thumbs ups but she was on a sinking ship. There was nothing to be done. Another guy we had seen about a month ago told the same jokes that fell somewhat flat previously. On Friday, the room ate it up. People were laughing so hard that he had to pause his set at times.

After the show, we stopped by Krispy Kreme and got some donuts for our ride home. In our car. Although it was nice not having a car for a long time, there is something wonderful about just getting in your car on a cold night and zooming home as Queen blares and you have a sing-along between stuffing donuts in your face.

On Saturday, I began a marathon of movies. Over the two remaining days of the weekend I watched: The Other Woman, Clueless, She's All That and Charlie Bartlett. And maybe one more movie... It was wonderful.

Between the movie watching, we made it out to our first ever Roller Derby. Ever since watching Whip It, we had been meaning to go. That movie seems like it was incredibly accurate in capturing the derby world. The girls were so tough. It is an intense sport and while watching, I went from really, really wanting to do it to thinking how the hell are they out there doing that?! We watched two "bouts" which are like matches. Each one is made up of two periods, lasting thirty minutes each. Then there are jams, jammers, the pack, blockers and a host of other derby terms that you can pick up pretty quickly (especially if you are sitting next to someone friendly who is willing to explain the rules). If you are free one weekend and looking for some thing different to do, definitely go check out the Rollergirls. You can find their full schedule at this link.

The rest of the weekend was spent baking, eating, cooking, eating, driving around and looking at Christmas lights (we've decided that our neighborhood has the best ones), drinking warm coffees and visiting friends.

I like to write these little recap posts because I know that one day I'll look back and I'm going to miss this. On Sunday night as we drifted to sleep, Feraz said, somewhat sadly, "One day we are going to look back on this and it will all seem so far away." He has a point. These are wonderful and carefree days. But I remember that when we lived in Istanbul, I used to think, "These are the best days of our life. How will it ever get better than this?" And I guess I have found that each phase, each test and trial, each new season, reveals its own beauty and perfection. Somehow, there is always a new adventure waiting.