Concessions Confessions

Today we had drama concessions, which means basically we hung out in a cramped kitchen at the high school and sold over-priced bits of junk food to wrestling fans.

            Despite being retail it is a lot of fun. We sit there, crack jokes, ("its called COKE! It's just asking to be smuggled!") eat munchies, and occasionally cheat some poor, starving fool of five dalla for two dalla worth of barely edible, poorly made nachos and pretzels.

            It all started at about 5:20, when I arrived ten minutes early (a usual for me when I'm not five minutes late), and sat around waiting for Greg to show up. Then Howdy (who claims to always be early) shows up five minutes later.

            "Hello", says I, with a wave that is somewhere between a peace sign and a salute.

            "Howdy!" said Howdy, who is casually walking toward me looking kinda bored.

            "You see Greg around?" I ask, 'cause no drama teacher, no concessions.

            "Nope", was Howdys simple answer, as we proceeded to wander around, talk to friends, and generally be bored.

            Finally, Greg and Blondie show up to let us in. After much gratitude and the jingling of keys, it was time to set things up. This consisted entirely of running around and asking where stuff was. We then opened up with the grinding, mechanical sound of the garage-like fire shield serving as our drum roll. Almost instantly we got customers. I was the candy and drinks person. This had me very busy winging Almond Joys and PowerAde's around. I did this task well. Then Greg added popcorn to my list of duties. This was when my performance went to hell. In addition to passing out Skittles and sliding down Fantas, I had to roast myself bagging popcorn with this weird cross between a dustpan and a funnel. This was too much for me to handle. Seeing this, the wise and benevolent Greg handed candy duty to Howdy. Poor lass, she had the hardest time with angry people who thought it ever so important to have EXACT counts of gummy worms. There was even one person who wanted exactly three sour worms, three original, and three things of liquorish. With all these people making demands, even Blondie, the people person, burnt out after two hours in this four hour Hells Kitchen scenario.

            But according to Greg, it was well worth it. We earned almost 200 dalla for the trip to the Oregon Theatre Festival and got to here all sorts of stories from Greg's youth, Howdy's cracks about Greg's age, and my bizarre statements about... just about everything.