"Oh"

My friend and I left last Saturday, July 4, for western NY state and then to Canada, just barely. We flew into Buffalo, rented a car, and drove southwest along Lake Erie to a small community of homes dating from the mid 19th century.

We stayed there a few days, hung out, walked, visited the locals, and left. We stayed in a 150 year-old hotel with teeny rooms and few baths (We had one of them.)

There were signs that said: "No smoking. No incense. No candles." We like incense, yet deferred to the management. After all, the place was rickety. Old. A bit off-level, at a slight slant.

After a few days, we drove north to "the falls," i.e., Niagara Falls. Yes, we did. Oh... did we ever. Up that way, people say, "oh" a LOT. They say it like this: "Oh!" Yet they leave the sound wandering for a bit, like this: "Ohh!" Yet they don't say it with suddenness, as if surprised. It rolls out: "Ohh."

And they say, "holy moly." And, if surprised, mildly, they might say, "Oh no." Imagine the movie, "Fargo." The "o's" are very, very well enunciated, and long. Try this: "Oh my!"

Neither of us expected to be wowed much, except for the falls, and they are pretty dam wow. They're tall, 172 feet, and mighty. Walking up next to the top, where they spill over the edge, the energy's palpable. I had to lean back for a minute, then lean back in, just to feel familiar enough with the sound and sight of its fury, its rush, its might.

They are wet, too, as you might imagine. The spray shoots over a hundred feet above the top of the falls, and its mist is everywhere.

The only problem, as usual, is... there are so many people. They're from everywhere, no part of the world dominated. Gawky northern Europeans. Curious Asians. Seemingly preoccupied middle-Easterns, who came in large groups with kids. The Europeans seemed the most confused, turning around a lot, it seemed like, and asking the most questions.

We were the only southerners, I think. Pretty sure.

ACTING AS IF (as if...)

Okay so I'm sitting back on the porch beneath a Carolina blue sky - except I'm in Tennessee - and listening to a woodpecker furiously going at a Hickory tree. That's hard wood, fella, and that woodpecker will be at this a long, long time if he/she really wants to make an impression.

Beside me is a cup of coffee, a bottle of water, the cigarettes I quit smoking, and my cell phone. Nearby are tomato plants, a basil plant, and several feet away? My trusty dog, Barry. Just inside is a quiet house, waiting for the arrival of well over a dozen grrrrrls from the "Act Like A GRRRL" theater-camp, who will roost here this afternoon with movies, popcorn?, some billiards, and mucho satisfaction after last night's standing-ovation opening night of their performance, "Act Like A GRRRRRL."

The show was amazing. Girls and young ladies from age 12 to 18 presented their talent, their energy, and their soul before an audience of friends, peers, parents, artists, and the curious. All of the material is original: they wrote it, sang it, read it, spoke it, danced it. There were tears and there was laughter and many, many rounds of applause. To see and feel the energy of this troupe - who only had four weeks to create this masterpiece - was to have a brief, personal invitation into the feminine mystique; except this show? These grrrrls? They let us in the mystique so that it was mysterious no more. What a nice thing to do for us: people at large, being let in. Not often does this happen, be it male or female.

Can you a see a troupe of boys/men bonding in four weeks, writing new music and poetry and verse, and then performing it, vulnerable, for all of us to see and hear?

WAIT... Maybe we can... My friend Andrew and my friend Ross? We're thinking: why not "Act Like A Boy?" Not "Act Like A Man." We got told that, too, for years, only to miss the kid stuff, as in, being one. Now, decades later, we want to. Be one. We're seriously considering it.

Only, it dawns on me, if Vali Forrister, founder of Act Like A GRRRRRL, will allow it - there are copyrights and such - then maybe we can do this. Except this leads to another question: will we, as men/boys, have to ask Vali, a grrrrrl/woman, permission?

Interesting...