During the spring semester of 1980, Rod asked me if I wanted to join him on a trip to Indiana that summer. He was planning to go to the International Theatre Arts Conference at Ball State University in Muncie. In the Drama Club, I had seen it advertised on the back of "Dramatics" magazine, which was the publication of the International Thespian Society. The ad said something to the effect that Muncie was the theatre capital of the world during this particular week in the summer. I had no idea that I would be able to go to it.
I asked my parents if I could go. There was some discussion, but they surprisingly said yes and that they would pay for it. (My parents were known for saying no to almost anything that Loyd and I requested that was going to cost a lot of money.)
This would be the first time I would go on a cross-country trip without my family. I previously mentioned the road trip to Albuquerque in which Rod and I spent the night in his car. We didn't get any sleep. We got out the next morning and met the other students from Albuquerque who would be going. The person who organized the trip was the Drama teacher for West Mesa High School, but he had just accepted a job at Albuquerque Academy. I recognized some of the students from West Mesa from the production of "Lysistrata" they had done at the Drama Festival at ENMU. There were three students from the Academy and one girl from Cibola High School.
We spent the first day driving to Oklahoma. After checking into the motel in Oklahoma City, we boys ate at a place called "Pizza Planet." The pizza tasted good at first, but then it started tasting strange. Everyone else noticed this aspect as well. I am going on record by calling it the second worst pizza I've ever had in my life. (However, they appear to still be in business. It must be because they serve beer and wine. And while I'm at it, I'll end the suspense now: The worst pizza I've ever had was at a place called Video Pizza in Roswell. They had more emphasis on their video games than their pizza. However, I ate there in 1984, so that means that for about four years, Pizza Planet ranked as the absolute worst pizza I've ever had.)
The next morning, we picked up some students from Chickasha High School who were joining us for the trip. We drove up to St. Louis, MO. That night, we went to the Gateway Arch. (I had been two years ago with my family during a spring break trip. I would also go back two years later when I went to the International Theatre Arts Conference again. That means I went to the Gateway Arch three times in five years.)
The next day, we went to Six Flags Over Mid-America. I remember me and this guy from the Oklahoma group stalking this girl around the park for the better part of an hour. After the park, the entire group did not go to a motel. We stayed on the bus all night because we were going to be in Muncie the next morning.
We got to the campus of Ball State University and the whole place is crazy! People were running around everywhere. This one girl was a mime and got on our bus and attempted to communicate where we were supposed to be. Somehow, we got the message. The boys were in the Studebaker East dorm rooms. We would be eating all our meals in the Studebaker West hall, which was next door. However, after we ate lunch, I had a lot of trouble finding my room and ran around for about an hour before I realized that my room was in a different building from where the cafeteria was located. (We actually had it lucky. Some of the girls were in one dorm room, but were assigned to eat at another building clear across the campus. That university is HUGE!)
The whole week was an endless series of performances and workshops. I can't possibly go into all those details, but I remember so much of what happened. It was a really great week in my life. (There are so many details, that I would drive everybody crazy with the minutae of what happened. As I mentioned in the previous post, I handwrote a 60-page letter. I think that why Dayz never wrote me again.)
I actually tried to meet girls to hang out with. I liked that I had something in common with everyone there. The closest I came was this one girl from Georgia. She was really cute and I enjoyed her accent. We were both in this workshop to create a musical practically on the spot. We played people who (based on actual experiences, like mine), got lost at the conference. We helped compose a song and sang it. We unexpectedly got to perform the piece a couple of times. During the finale of the first performance, she put her arm around my back. I kind of freaked out at first because I'm not used to being touched, but I put my arm around her and we finished the performance. However, she didn't do that during the second performance. We really didn't see each other after that. I wasn't sure if she liked me that way (because she was SO out of my league), but my first clue was that she didn't repeat the arm behind the back technique. It's just as well, because I didn't want to have to have another pen pal situation (although I didn't know that I would never hear from Dayz again).
An unusual thing happened a few weeks later. I got a Disneyland postcard from someone with the same last name as my Grandma Bend. I asked my Mom if she was related to anyone with the name Tesd. She said no. I wrote back and asked her who she was. She had been in the musical with me in Muncie. She had asked just about everyone for their address. I remembered her as being this girl with a British accent. I liked her, but I was too focused on the Georgia girl to give her more attention. However, I did ask her for the other addresses she had gotten. The Georgia girl wasn't on the list (even though that girl's classmate was).
Tesd and I remained pen pals for the next year. Then she went to college and I never heard from her again, either. I don't know what happened to her.
This sort of sets a pattern for me. I will find one girl desirable, but ignore other girls who might like me even when those girls have the qualities I am looking for. It would take years for me to break this pattern.
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