rikibeth

At the last minute, I persuaded

bunnygoth to go with me, so I'd have company on the drive. Many thanks to

tikvah who gave me her cell phone number so I didn't have to do it all through LJ comments. (

bryant, if this reminds you of the time when

shadowflyer and I came to visit you and the way we got in touch with you to make dinner plans was to log onto TinyMUD, you're not far off.)

I wore my new butt-ruffle of a skirt, and dug out an old pair of fishnets. Ideally, that skirt ought to be worn with a corset and stompy boots, but I don't have either of those yet. So it was a plain black tank top and my red Converse sneakers, because I didn't feel like scrubbing the flour off my not so stompy work shoes. Still, with my hair down and the Mean Skulls bandana tied over it, I figured I was suitably dressed for Rocky.

The drive up was uneventful. My car appears only to have transmission problems in first gear, so highway driving is easy. And while the heat has two settings, "on" and "off," putting the heat on "floor" and cracking the windows was adequately comfortable.

We got there pretty early -- early enough that I tried to cruise for street parking near Harvard Square, but no dice. Used the municipal lot across from the theater. Bought tickets before 10 PM. This proved to be a good idea, because the show sold OUT by 11 PM.

Did I mention that my fishnets were old? Old enough that the elastic was blown, which I had not realized when I put them on. This required a quick stop in CVS, where large metal-free hair elastics became emergency garters. Fear my kludge skills.

Killed some time in Newbury Comics, and found a used copy of "London Calling," which I decided was a total necessity for work.

Went back to the line, stopping to admire the Sesame Street Martian costume that a cast member was wearing. I couldn't resist -- I went right up to her and went "Yip, yip, yip, yip, mmm-hmm, uh-huh..." She made the little Martian noises right back at me, and then we did a bit from the "answer the phone" sketch, and there was delight all around. Met up with

catya and

fraterrisus, no problem. Gave

catya her copy of the Immortal Beloved soundtrack, too.

dancingwolfgrrl,

macthud, and

kalessin did not get there in time to get tickets, which was too damned bad, especially since

dancingwolfgrrl had never seen it.

We had an early enough place in line that we got EXCELLENTseats. Sixth row center section, or something like that.

The pre-show was really, really long, as you might expect on Hallowe'en weekend, and I didn't get all the jokes in all the skits, but it was still fun. It's come a long way from the few choreographed songs with tenuous Rocky connections that used to make up the pre-show in 1985 or thereabouts.

The call-and-response is not nearly as synchronized as it was, either. Part of this may just be the overlay of generations of lines on top of each other --

catya and I, for example, appeared to be the only ones in the theater who remembered "What the fuck's a Triffid? A man-eating vegetable, just like Frank!" line for "Science Fiction, Double Feature." And

fraterrisus's lines were Pittsburgh variants. But he was excellently loud, and I was yelling myself hoarse too, and while it wasn't a blast in quite the same way that it was when I was a teenager, it was fun, and nostalgic in a good way.

kalessin was waiting outside the theater when the show let out, and we went to the IHOP on Soldiers' Field Road, that being the only place we could be sure was open at 2-3 AM. The one at Fresh Pond Circle isn't there any more. I miss Boston, but it needs more 24-hour diners, that's for sure.

IHOP coffee is still lousy, and they seem to have dropped the "German" (lemon butter) option from the "international pancakes," but the "French" (orange marmalade) ones are edible, and the coffee had that all-important ingredient, caffeine, so I could stay awake on the drive home. As it was,

bunnygoth kindly took over for me when we hit I-84, which probably kept us both alive.

Got home at 5 AM EST (that'd be 6 AM EDT). Sunlight through my window woke me up around 9. Managed to get up and get dressed and get bagels with

shadowflyer, but despite the coffee I had with my bagels, I went right back to bed after, and slept until 3 PM.

I am so glad I got to go. Thank you,

catya, for calling the outing!