Kids!

As if I didn't feel old enough before, last weekend I was part of the judging committee for the improv event at a theater festival at a local college. Hundreds of high school students competed. The winners, Mira Costa High School Comedy Sportz, were quite impressive with their ability to think on their feet, their versatility, and their sheer enthusiasm. Overall, the energy level during the two-day festival was almost overpowering. Did I EVER have that much energy, I asked myself. (No, I answered.) At the beginning of the finals, as we were seated in front of the performance space and the spectators entered behind us, I felt like I was about to be crushed by a stampede of wildebeests -- screaming, giggling, wildebeests.

Sunday evening, my parents took me out for a belated birthday dinner. My father asked me how old I was now. I told him we should change the subject because I didn't think the answer would make any of us happy.

After the celebration, I received an e-mail from a student filmmaker I worked with last year. Apparently he needed a creepy old guy for a project he was working on, and I was the first person he thought of. Thanks, kid!