Outfest

Winning moment of the evening.

Pauline, elderly British lady in my screenplay class turns to me.

"Have you seen that big lady? She's huge. She's got like 40 DD there."
"Umm... Pauline, that's not a woman."
"No!"
"Yes, dear."
"No. Why would someone dress like that to something like this."
"Maybe that's how she feels comfortable."

This little anecdote really sums up the whole experience. The five of us, gathered in our little square of the silent auction, making comments on everything we observed.

One of the guys almost got himself in trouble early on when he commented on the catering only to be approached by the smiling caterer handing out cards. There were three appetizers - Mango Soup in Shot Glasses, Jerk Chicken with Mango Salsa in a Bowl of Dried Plantains, and Salmon on a Stick... the last definition, courtesy of one of the guys... whose name is currently lost in my brain. I, of course didn't try the salmon. Neither did Pauline, for as she said, it was served on a bed of grass. "It's not even fake grass. It's real. How totally unhygenic."

The catering cards made the rounds. Though the other (unmarried) guy looked as if he'd rather drop it than touch it. "I'm not sure I'd want this caterer. She probably specializes in other things."

Personally, I thought the appetizers were pretty icky. Now, keep in mind I don't eat salmon, but the soup was just too strange... something about spicy and whip cream should just not be mixed. The jerk chicken was fine, but the bowl tasted like stale corn tortillas, not plantains. And I was hungry enough to eat anything at that point, having only two pieces of cheese for lunch.

The whole experience was a bit surreal in a way. There was a lot of people watching, and while my classmates ogled the other people, I watched them. The feeling of "Otherness" was making a good show. My classmates were fish out of water, and were amusing to watch. We so often think of homosexuals as being the other, the abnormal, the ones who don't fit in with our expectations. Here, in our little circle, we were the other, though no one could have really known that but ourselves. We were intimidated by it, and it bled through every conversation.

I think the whole experience would have been quite different if we'd been given a job where we weren't just required to stand around. I thought the drink passers had a lot more fun than we did. As it was, we stood around, feeling the comfort of our little group, until it was time to go home.