play.

Act one last night was dinner with a new friend. I have known her for a bit, but our interactions have been relegated to my place of business or hers, conversation and laughter interrupted by customers needing to purchase something..."hold on a sec, I will be right back"..."hold that thought...I want to hear it...I just have to help this person"...These sentences have been spoken between the two of us countless times. It was really refreshing to have some uninterrupted conversation time.

She is a gem of a person, someone I feel unbelievably lucky to be getting to know. Her smile is infectious, and her kindness toward people inspiring. Post dinner, we would be going to a play that opened last night, and she invited me to go along. After the play there would be a meet and greet with the cast, I was told. It seemed as though my evening, as well as the play, would be divided into three acts, interrupted by ten minute intermissions.

The play itself was set in Oklahoma, Osage county, and was written by a native Oklahoman, Tracy Letts, the son of a writer. Titled August Osage County, the play depicts a dysfunctional and addicted Oklahoma family, their struggle to love each other well, and the ease with which they were able to hurt one another. It was a captivating performance, the drama and acting so deeply drawing me in that I had to do a little shake in between acts, as the intermission lights went up, and remind myself I was attending the play and not actually on the stage having dinner with the family.

Post play, act three was the meet and greet I mentioned above. My friend said the person that gave her the tickets called it, "a chance to hob nob with the snobs"...Sort of appropriate. You know those local Oklahoma magazines with photos of beautiful and wealthy everyday people posing together with a drink in hand, looking like they purchased their wardrobe at Nordstroms? I was there, with them. I got a plate for pineapple alongside one of the cast members, hugged the man that owns Eskimo Joes, who happens to be a bundle of joy, and bumped into former mayor Susan Savage too many times to count. I listened as people made conversation, mentioning what they do, what movie they are producing, what book they are writing, what committee they are on, what business they own, and I just stood back, trying to keep myself from picking up dirty plates to take to the back to be washed. That's the part of the conversation that I would have been able to enter. Someone told me I looked familiar, and I reminded them that I used to make their coffee.

I just stood back, mostly, and watched people interact, compliment, blush, and laugh. The cast was warm, and seemed genuinely glad to have been able to perform the broadway play on the soil where it's set. One of the cast members, Bill, whose real name was Jeffrey, walked by me intuitively. He could sense that I wanted to tell him how much I enjoyed the performance but didn't have the courage. He stopped to let me speak, kindly introducing himself, and asked me how I thought the play was received..."if it was liked or at all offensive?"

I had one of the actors ask me how the performance was perceived. This moment, I was reminded that we are all just people who never really grow out of that curiosity of how others see us. I was reminded of the connectedness of us all...The waitstaff, myself, donors, actors, photographers. At some point throughout the evening, I would venture to say that everyone in the room had asked themselves a version of that same question, "how do I look in this? was my speech too long? Did that scene go well? Was this orange scarf a bad choice?"...

I left the room, after speaking my peace, with a renewed excitement and joy. I was reminded of how wonderful it is to make new friends, the crazy adventures new friends can take us on, and also, to be curiously kind to people.