So, this story begins with my love of John Waters. You know, the director, writer, comedian, actor. The 66 year old gay man from Baltimore with the twisted sense of humor and iconic thin mustache. Yeah, that guy. Well, I heard that he was touring again, doing his Christmas Special. I was determined to go. Wade and I had seen it last year and it was hilarious. The perfect way to get into the Christmas spirit.
When I looked into getting a ticket I was shocked and excited to see he would be at The Knitting Factory in just a few days and there was even a MEET AND GREET ticket option! Imagine my excitement over the possibility to actually meet John Waters in the flesh. So, I quickly attempted to purchase my ticket (I figured there couldn’t possibly be any left) and ba-bam! Ticket was purchased and I was going to see AND meet JW himself! Or, so I thought. That night, I raced home and decided that, since, I was meeting him I had to make him a present. Having recently and accidentally purchased Wade a bunch of tube socks (which he doesn’t wear) I figured a sock puppet would be the way to go.
Well, as you can see that was kind of a flop but I didn’t care. I was flying high for the next few days. The morning of the show I woke up giddy. I couldn’t believe that I would be meeting John Waters later that evening. As I was showering, my gut told me to check my ticket for some reason. I got out of the shower and looked a bit closer at the email and OMG… wouldn’t you know it, my ticket was for The Knitting Factory in BOISE, IDAHO! My heart sank. What an idiot. How could I have missed that little detail? So now what? My hopes and dreams were already shattered. (John Waters, if you are somehow reading this post, meeting you is still on my Bucket List!!) I called the ticket company and was unable to get a refund so I spent the entire day trying to sell my ticket online. By 6:00pm Boise time, I had no inquires about the ticket and called the Knitting Factory Box Office. The kind gentleman working the box took pity on my situation but was thrilled to be able to give my ticket to the next person who came up to buy one. I told him to wish them a Merry Christmas. I hope someone had an amazing evening and enjoyed getting to meet JW as much as I would have. (If anyone knows that lucky person, I would love to hear how it was!)
In the middle of all of this, my friend Daniel invited me to the Fashion Rock Show Christmas Charity Fundraiser to raise money and toys for the displaced families who were effected by Hurricane Sandy. I figured why not? I wasn’t going to be seeing John Waters and it was for a good cause. My last client that evening happened to have been on the east coast during Hurricane Sandy and wrote a very generous check for me to take to the event. (Thank you Julie!) So, off I went, check and toy in hand.
I did not know what to expect when I arrived at The Den in Hollywood. I had never been there before. It turned out to be a cozy little bar tucked into the Sunset Strip. Everyone was super cool and my donations were greatly appreciated. There were comedians and musicians performing, food, drinks and raffles. My kind of scene. Almost immediately, I met the only other tall blonde girl there by herself, Maria. We became fast friends and before long we had met just about everyone in the bar, including a couple of Australians wearing robot costumes. They were not part of the event, although, everyone assumed they were. By the end of the night their costumes had come off and Maria and I couldn’t wait to try them on. The story was that these guys had made them for Halloween and were going back to Australia the next day and wanted to wear them out one last time. Since the Aussies were wasted and done with the costumes I offered to take one off their hands. I am pretty sure they agreed. Maria and I took the robot suit and put it in my backseat. Off I went straight to The Prospector where my friend Warren was celebrating his birthday. I put it on, walked in, surprised everyone and gave it to him for his birthday. Paying it forward.
