Breakfast with Amber

October 2019: Everett Sexylegs

I feel like I need to add a preface to this chapter because I decided to talk about Target instead of TUPS, the student-run theatre company that I was part of for four years, and I neglected to talk about FYPOT, a first-years-only event held at the beginning of the year where I played an RA in charge of zapping undeserving Trinity students to state schools. It was a wonderful and amazing story, but you'll never get to hear about it. Instead, you get to hear about the second TUPS production I was part of.

Just over two weeks after FYPOT was the audition for the TUPS annual production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I had never seen the movie, but bright-eyed freshman me was always willing to get involved in something. No preparation was required. They just said, "If you want to audition for (character), come on down!" It was a shadow-cast production, meaning the movie would be playing in the background, and we'd be acting it out at the same time while lip-syncing. I don't think I ever truly memorized my lines.

I knew from the moment I saw Columbia that I wanted to play her, so I can't say I wasn't disappointed when I found out I was going to play Dr. Scott, who for the most part is the most straight-laced character in the movie. It wasn't until I looked up the soundtrack on YouTube that I discovered Dr. Scott's greatest moment: during the floor show at the end, Dr. Scott lifts one of his legs from beneath the blanket he keeps on his lap, revealing fishnets and high heels. I wasn't sure if my legs were flexible enough, but it would still be awesome.

So my costume would be a white shirt (the same one I had bought for Daphne's Dissocs), a black blazer, fishnets, and high heels. Business on the top, party on the bottom. I got Mom to order me the heels on Amazon, I borrowed the blazer from one of the directors (who never asked for it back), and the fishnets were graciously loaned by the theatre company. Dr. Everett Sexylegs was ready to hit the stage.

Well...there's one crucial detail I forgot to mention: this was the TUPS annual Halloween production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. That meant that the performances were on October 25 and 26, also known as my birthday. (Technically, they were both on my birthday since the first performance ran past midnight.) That, in turn, meant my parents would be visiting for my birthday, and what were they going to do, not watch me perform? I had to come to terms with the people who raised me seeing me in fishnets.

That wasn't until the end of the day, though. For the afternoon, we'd be going downtown and seeing the sights together before my birthday dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse, my favorite restaurant in San Antonio at the time. Then I'd change into my costume and show up at Mabee Dining Hall for my 7 pm call time.

So my parents arrived with Lilli, the German exchange student they were hosting for six weeks. We started out in my room with the opening of the presents, and the star of the show was my very own Nintendo Switch from my Grammy and Grampy along with a copy of Pokemon: Let's Go Eevee, some carnival game that I still haven't taken out of the packaging, and a Target gift card so I could buy a game of my choice. I made my Mii in the Switch's Mii Maker and got started playing Let's Go Eevee. Once it was lunchtime, we had lunch at Bombay Bicycle Club.

After lunch, we went out to Target and went back to the electronics section. I could have my pick of any game on that shelf. What to choose? That's when I found it: Splatoon 2, my beloved, packaged with a copy of the official Splatoon 2 Splategy Guide. I had been watching videos of this game and the first Splatoon game, and this would finally be my chance to play. Of course I was going to buy it.

We left the Target, parked the car in a parking garage, and walked around the Riverwalk and La Villita. We got some ice cream and sat in the amphitheatre. Then when the afternoon was over, and we had to drive to Longhorn Steakhouse for our reservation. This, however, was also the day we'd discover rush hour traffic in San Antonio. Downtown rush hour traffic in San Antonio.