#sorry these answers are so half-baked and undetailed

[my-whumpy-little-heart]

🍰☕🍼 :3c

Thank you so much for the ask Allen! I may have spent multiple hours writing all of this, but they were a very very happy few hours and I’m just happy you enabled that.

🍰- strawberry or vanilla?

Oooohhhhh this question. This. Question. Everyone always asks vanilla or chocolate and that’s so easy for me because I easily prefer vanilla more! But vanilla versus strawberry? That’s such a difficult debate!

On one hand, vanilla is the plainer of the two. That’s easy to dock it for, but it’s so classic! You can’t get vanilla flavoring wrong unless you really try to. I can go anywhere and ask for a vanilla milkshake, and I can be sure that sucker’s gonna taste like good ol’ vanilla.

But then, thinking about strawberry, it’s so much more flavorful! It’s distinct and fruity and sweet and even when toned down by being included in something such as ice cream or cake it’s still a lovely flavor. But then again, when you bake with strawberries they can make things really funky and not be all that great. The fault of that in store bought items is mostly them being artificial so the strawberry flavor can’t be properly replicated... but sometimes it’s super good!

If I were to make a definite decision, I’d have to go with strawberry and blame it solely on the fact that I’m thinking of some really tasty strawberry ice cream that this one place around us has. It’s got little frozen strawberries in it which provide an exquisite texture and pop of flavor in the duller flavor of the ice cream itself. It’s a lovely experience, especially paired with a scoop of cookies and cream (cookies and cream is the best ice cream flavor and you can’t fight me on that because I’m feeling too soft to threaten people right now)

☕- coffee or tea?

Ahaa, so sorry to report that I’ve gotta go with neither. The smell of coffee repulses me, and tea has never really struck my fancy. 

Since I couldn’t provide a very good answer for that, I will instead that I’ve been listening to This Is Home by Cavetown and TrusT by half·alive repeating while answering these asks and am just now switching to Stranded Lullaby by Miracle Musical. If you need calming tunes, they’re all certified Chill~~ songs as dictated by the playlist I put them in.

🍼- what is your favorite memory?

buckle up. you opened the floodgates of I’m Really Feeling About This so soft puddle boa ahead, I’ve melted all over the floor and it may be slippery. crossing my fingers that i haven’t already mentioned this on here and forgotten about it because this is just one of my favorite memories ever and I’m going to get lost in it and gush about it.

OKAY. SO. LISTEN UP. I got very VERY happy about this coming segment. By that, I mean there nearly 3000 words ahead. So. Fair warning, It’s all super fun positive stuff and if you need a pick me up I hope I can do it for you but I’m gonna try and use a read more cut here. Really hoping Tumblr works with me on that.

This is a memory from last summer, just over a year ago now. A whole group of my extended family and us got together and we all took a vacation to Southeastern USA. One of the days down there we spent in Savannah, Georgia. First of all, it’s a beautiful city. Temperatures there are Very High, especially in the middle of summer, but it’s so scenic and I loved the whole aesthetic of the parts we walked around in as well as the history we learned about it. 

During the day we took a walking food and drink tour (’drink’ for those of the proper age, not for me lol) and then spent a little while wandering on our own. We found through a newspaper that there was this cool little donut shop that had just opened its doors a few days prior and went to check it out. And it was the coolest little place! They’re called 8-Bit Donuts so look that up and scroll a little in google images if you wanna get a visual of their store, but it’s this cute, geeky little donut place! It was a fun discovery and we sat in there to have a few donuts before heading off to meet up with the rest of the family for what we’d scheduled for that evening.

We headed over to the Savannah Theater which, if I’m not mistaken, is one of the oldest still operating theaters in the country. It looked pretty unassuming from the outside, and even still when we stepped in. It had those nice old theater vibes but I still wasn’t completely informed on what we were doing there. My parents said something about a ‘variety show’ and this being something my great aunt was really looking forward to doing, so I was chill with it. 

When we stepped in to the theater space itself, that’s when I was starting to go ‘oh, oh yeah okay i can vibe with this.’ It had so many cool old timey vibes and I just felt like I’d stepped into a different time period than my own. We had seats all across the back rows because I think it was more of a last minute decision and we wanted to sit our large group as close together as possible. So I got an aisle seat (aisle seat best seat and I stand by that) and chilled there for a bit while we waited for the show.

I feel inclined to preface this with, yes, I was in the height of my theatre phase that summer. And I was excited to see some live performance because I had been living on bootlegs for months. As I think about this I really want to talk about something else that I greatly admire and have lovely memories of, but I can’t get very in detail because unfortunately this is something closer to where I live. I’ll see if I can expand on it once i finish this explanation because I thought about it and I’m remembering some lovely things I’d forgotten,,,

Alrighty! did all that for an hour so now I am Back to talk about this. So, right, sitting in an aisle seat. So the show started and immediately I was entranced. They made an announcement beforehand encouraging audience participation and excitement. So I was like oh, this isn’t gonna be a very traditional theatre performance huh. And it wasn’t! Variety show basically meant they performed songs from a ‘variety’ of different shows and time periods, and some more from pop culture through the years too! 

I think this was really mostly aimed at older folks, but oh my gosh let me tell you; I had the Time Of My LIFE that night.

I was so into everything they did, even when I didn’t know the songs because the theater was buzzing with their energy and enthusiasm and I just can’t describe to you the feeling of euphoria I got from watching that show. I never would have chosen it, yet here I was completely over the moon and throwing my hands in the air to the tune of Shout by The Isley Brothers (oh my gosh even now I just turned on and aaah if you need to ever lift your spirits please turn this on i’m dancing around in my chair i forgot how much i loooove this song aaaaaaah!!!!!!). Listen I know it sounds really stupid but I promise I was just having so much fun not worrying about what I was doing or how I was coming off but just being so joyously immersed in the show.

And right during that song, the performers had actually come off the stage and into the aisles. Walking down them, singing, dancing, all that. And one of them came down our aisle too. So let me back up and say that they all looked super Fancy and Cool and I was over here like starry eyed because dancing around with a three piece suit on is life goals okay I just think formalwear is awesome! That’s not an important detail but you needed it for the Imagery that you probably won’t get any more of because I’ve been typing this for literally three hours and I’m becoming incoherent. Not that that’s a bad thing because I am having Genuine, Unadulterated Fun.

Yes. So. Guy comes down our aisle, the slow part of the song comes on, and he extends his hand. Towards The Me. And I’m here like 👀??? Looking around and pointing to myself like “me??” and he nods and I’m like !!!!!!! because listen crowd participation is just the coolest shit. Whenever people are picked out of an audience for something during things like this I’m over here like “oooooh i wanna do that thing!” So!! For him to probably have recognized me in the back row just having a whole time and a half with their show and gone back like ‘okay, I recognize your enthusiasm and I think that’s great and invite you to join me in having fun’ 

I was just !!!!!! So I took his hand and keep in mind that I Cannot Dance. He led and Knew What He Was Doing which was good because I’m a fool but it was cool!!! I nearly fell over when I twirled!! I laughed and smiled and I could not care less about looking dumb and I really aspire to be that version of myself more often. I think those seconds are some of the Purest Glee I’ve ever felt and I’m so grateful to all those actors, but especially that man, for making my night something I’ll remember fondly for years to come!

The rest of the show was great after that little adrenaline rush and we came out after it and I was still just a little bundle of Excitement. The rest of my family around us commented on it and my parents had apparently managed to get their phones out quickly enough to catch footage and pictures of that hilarity that I still have saved on my own phone. But yeah there was another half of my family that had ended up on the far side of the theater from us. And it was then, after everything, that I learned they had also! seen me dancing! And I was like oh wait, hold up, you what??

So yeah, I had not realized at the time that there was a bit of a spotlight on us and the Whole Entire Theater had seen us dance. There was a little embarrassment mixed in there, but honestly I was far too happy to care at that point.

After that we went out to get some ice cream and it was just a really nice cooldown after what I can easily say was one of the best days of my life.

OKay okay dammit I’m writing it now and putting it at the end of the ask. Hello, future reader, this is directly continued off of the paragraph where I talked vaguely about something else I was thinking of. So, detailed explanation undetailed, there’s this beautiful, scenic place near me. There’s this old mansion that I’ve toured and aaaaaaahhh it’s really a beautifully preserved place. Old architecture like that is. Ohhh I could stare at it for days on end. 

And there’s a lovely, what, ‘reserve’ I guess of nature around it? I’d describe it as walking through an enchanted forest. It’s just natural and sometimes if you’re close enough to the mansion you can catch glimpses of it through the treetops, and it’s genuinely one the most peaceful places I’ve ever been. I. Just. AAAAAH and that’s not even my whole point!! 

Because right in the middle of this incredible greenery there’s a stage. And no, not the kind of stage you’re imagining. It’s like a little set of its own, a wooden ground stage and there’s a climbable second level with doors and all that. An all purpose sort of structure where they put on Shakespeare plays. They put on Shakespeare plays on that beautiful stage in the middle of the enchanted woods and I just want to cRY THINKING ABOUT IT I CAN’T GET TO MY POINT HERE.

So. SO. In order to tell this story. I. Need to go on Another side tangent and dearest Lord if you’re still with me I commend you, and I love you because this has been so stupidly self indulgent and rambly up until this point. I don’t know if I’ll even be able to make a cut work. Hm. This is off topic. It’s off the off topic from the off topic and was there even a topic to all this in the first place? I swear I’m completely sober and have never been Not Sober I’m just. Like This I guess.

Right. Other side tangent. So, this happened the summer after my freshman year of high school specifically. Why is that important? In my English class, we had done a class reading of Romeo and Juliet. And by class reading, I mean Class Impromptu Performance. I looked forward to that class So So Much because. Every day we would read through a scene or so of the story, and we had assigned roles that rotated every act. The combination of people in the class made for one of my favorite class dynamics I’ve ever had. Along with my teacher, everyone in there was so fun and silly but also knew when and how to stop so we could get work done. Far and away one of my favorite overall high school experiences. but yeah!

In the first act of Romeo and Juliet, I was assigned to be Mercutio. And, well, I was looking ahead a bit on our second day of reading because I hadn’t popped up yet. And, ah, if you know anything about Mercutio’s role in act one, you’ll know he’s got a Long Ass Monologue. And as I flipped ahead in our English book I found that and. My first thought was. “Oh woah, that’s a big ol block of text I wonder who reads th-” and my second thought, after reading the character name, was “oh shit.” 

Sooooo I went over and asked my teacher like, “Hey, uh, Mrs. L. Am I. Am I reading that?” and she was like “yeah.” and I’m sitting there like “ah, alright, coooool.” and on the inside I really couldn’t figure out if I was excited to try my hand at it or Very Very Terrified. But I think my teacher that year knew me far better than I knew myself, because when it came to that Thursday and we’d made it to act 4, I fell in love with Mercutio’s character. He’s so overdramatic and expressive while also tossing a little snark in there, and he’s not afraid to be seen as a little insane. I had fun reading off the monologue, especially after reading it a few times beforehand to myself so I’d at least know what it said. 

I think it was a few days later when I was talking to my teacher about that, and she said that every year she picks the roles very specifically according to her students. And with the Mercutio one, especially the first act, she said she just kinda Knows the students that role would resonate with. And, well, it resonated alright. 

And. And ohhhhhh yeah you know where this is going. I read ahead at home on no fear Shakespeare because without the help to understand everything that we got in class it would have been very difficult for me to read that and get all the jokes and plot points myself. So yeah, when I got to act three I was suitably Very Upset to find out that Mercutio died. Since I had that English class for the last period of our day, I may or may not have stayed after the day after I read his death scene at home and grieved with my teacher over it. It was a fun conversation but yes I may or may not have been Quite Distraught that my favorite character died in the middle of the play. I could continue that answer, but yes that’s what you need to know. Mercutio was my favorite character by a long shot.

SOOOO fast forward to that summer where this Outdoor Shakespeare thing I was rambling about announced that the tragedy they put on that summer would be none other than Romeo and Juliet. And immediately I was super excited, because I knew the plot to that! I’d just experienced it in English class and it was absolutely too perfect to pass up. 

So one summer evening, we took the trip out there to see this theater company’s production. It was such a lovely night. We brought takeout dinner and a picnic blanket to eat out on the grass before the show, then got in our seats to wait for it. And so something I hadn’t known about this before is that they do something called a ‘Green Show.’ It’s a crowd-pleaser sort of thing, an appetizer before the main show for the evening, and a warm up for the actors as well. 

I don’t have clear memories of exactly what they did, but everyone was in this very simple folk-clothing if you catch my drift and it was very casual, like I was in some old town and watching some group of people sit on a corner and just have fun making music together. It was energizing and just made me feel so warm inside. It was familiar and homely, even though I’d never experienced it before. But during that show, I picked out this one guy apart from the rest who seemed especially enthusiastic. His energy was enthralling and he had a really beautiful voice. And I was just wondering, ah, I wonder what character he’s playing.

Yes, I know you can see where this is going. Let me have my fun with the dramatic reveal that past Boa got to experience.

Through the beginning of the show, I hadn’t seen that guy yet. Or I didn’t think I had, I’ve known to be very unperceptive. But finally at that fourth scene where he appears, I saw the Romeo and Benvolio actors walking up through our little aisle of chairs and behind them was Mercutio. And I was already excited because aaH! the monologue! the monologue i did in class but now i got to see it performed live! by a professional!! And then I got a good look at him and i was like !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THAT’S THE COOL GUY FROM THE GREEN SHOW!!! aND I was just. Aaaaaahh!!!! I was so excited and it probably sounds really dumb but I. Just. Yeahhhhh that was awesome.

And what do you know, he was incredible in the role! From monologue to death scene, I thoroughly enjoyed his performance as Mercutio and the rest of my family probably knew that all too well from how excited I was at intermission. I just!!! I saw Mercutio and I Latched right on to his character so seeing him come to life in just the way I imagined and right before my eyes I. It was freaking incredible I don’t know man that actor just. Worked magic.

And after the show, all the actors kinda lined up by the exit and said farewell as we headed out. And I really wanted to say a word or two to the Mercutio actor but I nearly didn’t ask my parents to stop because I was kinda scared about it. Either I worked up the courage to ask my parents, or one of them asked if I wanted to go up and say hi, but yeah I did. I don’t remember my words exactly, but I was just stammering and nervous but got my point across of “hey i read the play this year and love your character and you played him super well and i just think that’s super cool and i’m lowkey idolizing you right now!’

So I went home with those warm butterflies in my heart that night. And it was such a wonderful experience that I just dug back out of my brain tonight so I’m really really happy I got to remember and record all that,,,