wordless wednesday

story story night july 2010

Tonight after a long day at work Allison and I went to Story Story Night at the Linen Building. The story theme for this month was Stories on the Road, stories about travel. We listen to three stories by featured artist and then the program breaks for about twenty minutes for an intermission. During the intermission you can put your name into a drawing to go up on stage for the second half of story story night. It's totally random and no one knows who is going to go up. I put my name in without telling Allison tonight. I figured it's the last one we can go to before we leave and I have an okay story to tell. The intermission ends and the host gets up on stage. My stomach is up in my throat almost waiting to see if I get to go. They pull out the first name. The host looks at it for awhile. To me it felt like two minutes, but it was probably only a few seconds. Then she goes on to talk about what the story slam is. It's a five minute story that you can tell without any notes. It's you and a microphone in front of a packed building. A little scary. They're were at least 150 people there. There was standing room only for a lot of people. After she tells the rules She looks at the paper for a little longer. My heart is racing. There's no way they're going to call me. A ton of people put their names in the hat. Then she say, "Michael McLean." Allison looks at me like what? You put your name in and didn't tell me. I get on stage and stumble through the first minute of my story, but I did it. I got up in front of room of strangers and told my story. It might not have been the best story, but it wasn't the worse. Allison said people were laughing all the way through, but my heart is all I could hear. It was loud as I stood in front of those people. As you might know I am not a public speaker. I get flustered easy and leave out tons of details. It was amazing to actually do it though. The story I told was my New York story about the crazy guy trying to sell me a fake ID. It was good, just not my best telling of it.

sold out

I grew up in a nice little college town out in Indiana. I love the town I grew up in. If it had it my way I would never have left Bloomington. Nothing stays the same though. I had to leave my beloved town to search new goals and discover new horizons. I would love to move back, but at the same time I discovered a new love; a new love for a town that is so different, but at the same time so much like my old town. I talk of my Boise. A little city nestled in mountains. I never thought I would fall for this town. It’s not my beautiful Midwest town I grew up in. It doesn’t have the beautiful trees that I grew up with. The air is morbidly dry and makes my delicate thumbs and lips split wide open. I bleed more in this little city than anywhere else I’ve lived. After two years of living in the city and two more years living in the surrounding towns, I’ve slowly fallen in love with my Boise. How can this be? How could I part with my beautiful humid Midwest town?

What would make me forsake my home? A place I’ve called home since I was eight? That is something I still don’t know. Today I was talking to one of my friends over pizza about Boise. She too is leaving Boise soon. She has to return to the dreadful Utah. She started talking about how she hated Utah and why Boise is wonderful. As we spoke in amazement of our adopted home, I came to realize how much I really do love this town we pass off as the big city. I use to hate how people made Boise the big city when it was not a big city, I’m not even sure it’s a city at all. It’s a quaint town that has sucked me in. This town has given me a university that I’ve thrived at and discover who I am. I love the green belt, a long walking park that I rode my bike on so many summer days; a place where I took my love to show her nature’s beauty. Boise is the town where I found the love of my life. I’ve grown to love the big city feeling in this town, maybe it is a small city. I will always cherish the fact that I found my wife to be in this town. Going to picnics in Camel Back, eating pizza in little pizza dives. Now I have my first home with my future wife. Not just an apartment, but a home. I hate to admit that Boise is my home. I will cherish this town forever. I love Boise just like I love Bloomington. I hope in my future adventures I can find a town like Boise or Bloomington to cherish as I have loved these two cities.