Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Volunteer Recognition Luncheon

I went to a volunteer recognition luncheon at a Greek Orthodox church in Minneapolis earlier today. The food was from Bombay Bistro, it tasted familiar to me. I liked the pita bread the most, and had a few 'rapper cookies'- my term for M and M cookies. I do 2 volunteer programs for Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis, this was for the advisory program where I go for one hour a month on a Wednesday. I also do the mentoring program, mostly emails with one student, and 4 in-person events throughout the academic term. It was nice to meet the people at my table. I asked the piano players if they did requests. When I found out they did classical music, like what one hears at church, I pretty much expected a prepared list of songs. I did take the stage at one point with those representing my employer, all I did was nod in agreement with what the chosen speaker said. I wrote down in my backpack that I was just there to 'look pretty for the cameras'. I liked hearing a 'junkyard band' where the conductor was playing right along with them, instead of just leading them.
   At the comedy club tonight, it was the beginning of the contest, which I will be in soon. I knew all four of the judges tonight. Two contestants ran the light, and the third came close to it. But I felt ambivalent about the night as I wasn't paying attention and elbowed somebody. They ended up spilling some of their beer. It happened to be my comedy bestie, and I just froze not knowing what to do. He wiped it up with a bar rag, I later said 'tell me what I can do for you' and he was forgiving. It was a somewhat painful reminder of my past as an angry malcontent, as I had a hard time forgiving myself.  But I stayed silent about it as I want to prove how I've moved on from this part of my life that my current friends didn't witness at all. They may not want to hear much about a sometimes dark past anyway. It goes back to the family life I had, where any and all mistakes were met with scorn and intolerance, and ridicule. I'm better than I was, but not quite where I'd like to be. I pride myself in acting on instinct and knowing what to do. But for some reason. it did not happen in this case. In many ways it seemed to be on the right night where I also nearly left my jacket at the club. I was about halfway to my car when I realized I didn't have it, so I sprinted back to get it. But I just quietly went over to claim it and said nothing, which is how it should be. I will try to learn something from both, such as staying farther back from the bar. I understand now how it's more about how one reacts to things and less about what happens. Things happen, a strong person knows how to ride out the things that are ugly.
   I saw the news coverage on TV about the final game at Siebert Field, the baseball venue at the U of Minnesota. The Gophers played St. Thomas tonight and won 9-2. It might have been nice to attend it when there were some VIPs there, but it wasn't high enough priority when I'm not a Gopher alum. I did see one game there against my school, Iowa, in 2009.

No comments:

Post a Comment