Intimate strangers

It seems like I have disappeared again after my last post, leaving everyone in suspense. I don't have any more news to add on that front as of yet. I've been spending most of my free time looking for a used car. Added to that, I've worked a night gig followed by a daytime gig this weekend, so I haven't been home since yesterday afternoon. Time for reflection or having a chance to interact with engineering girl has been scarce, let alone having time to post anything. However, as I was enroute back to the warehouse after being in Connecticut all day, I had a moment to reflect on how different the entertainment industry is from the mainstream world.

For instance, there is an undeniable intimacy that the crew and entertainers have that you couldn't have, say, in a fast food restaurant. Things that pass as the norm in the entertainment industry might be considered sexual harrasment elsewhere. With the press of being on cue and the need to project to the audience that time has passed in the time between scene changes, modesty is a virtue that quickly flies out the back stage door. One of those reasons is because of the quick change.

Quick changes are what actors and actresses do when they have no time to run down to the dressing room to change. They just strip down right there on the side of the stage and pull on a new costume. It's probably the most stressful thing an actor or actress must go through while off the stage (besides getting hurt or forgetting their lines). In that rush to put some part of their costume on, they inevitably put something on backwards. This is where some crew member might help them get things back on correctly.

In some cases, they will wear several layers of clothing under those bright lights, dancing as if the suit or dress they had on was the only layer they wore. I have seen one guy who had worn three suits on stage and between scenes stripped off layer after layer. He would wipe off the perspiration as he walked off the set. It's part of the reason that the air conditioning is so cold up near the stage.

In my own experience, I have been used as a coat rack, body shield for a quick change, wardrobe arranger, and the person assisting in doing the quick changes. I have seen actors and actresses in states of undress that their significant others would certainly object to if they ever found out. Some might think this would be "exciting" and they would be wrong.

First, you won't remain long on the crew if you look for more than fifteen seconds. Second, it's no fun to know how hairy someone's back is. Guys usually don't get to help the women quick change. (Unless there is a very small crew doing the show.) Third, most actresses don't appreciate it very much if they catch you looking. (Actors, depending on their preference, will mind or not mind at all.) There are other reasons, but they're not relavent to this topic.

So what prompted me to get on this topic as I returned from Connecticut? Well, when we set up, we wear our "street" clothes so that we look nice when the party starts. When the girl in charge of the photography stuff went to change into her "party" clothes, she discovered that her pants zipper had ripped, and she was having trouble keeping her modesty while performing the tasks she had to do. She mentioned her issue to the rest of the guys on the crew.

I found some two inch pins that tailors use to pin hems in place and gave them to her to "tie" her pants together for the party. Well, she was afraid that she might stick herself. Since I was the guy who had found her the pins, I wound up offering her my pliers to bend the pins. Unfortunately, she couldn't get enough leverage from her angle to bend the pins.

I should point out that I had just met her for the first time thirty minutes ago. Anyway, I found myself on my knees, my face at the level of her waist line, my hands on the front of her pants touching her far more intimately than any guy should on meeting a woman for the first time, trying to bend the pin away from her abdomen. (I won't mention what her boyfriend may think about me doing this.) A few minutes later, I had the pin bent into a "U" that kept the point away from her skin.

As I was pinning her pants in place, I was very conscious of where my hands were. I'm not saying that I took advantage of her in this situation, since I acted entirely the gentleman about it. It's just that I knew exactly where my hands were on her body and it can be a bit distracting if one thinks about it even for a moment. She was grateful when I had completed my "repair", and then began to prep the display table. Then, I went back to helping the rest of the crew set up the sound equipment.

Of course, the rest of the guys on the crew had been watching from across the room and were quite amused at what I had just done. Some of these guys even congratulated me on my apparent speed at gaining intimacy with her. It was at this point that I explained to them that she already had a boyfriend. This settled down some of their amusement, but I had gained some "respect" in their eyes.

I can only marvel at what expedience does to modesty when the pressure is on. Even though I had her permission, if I had been seen doing this in a more public place, I would certainly have gotten in some form of trouble. This is what I mean when there can be a level of intimacy one wouldn't experience elsewhere except in the entertainment industry, where appearance matters most as part of a first impression.

Only a few weeks ago, I had mentioned how I have been deprived from feminine contact. Not exactly how I pictured the rekindling of that contact beginning in light of this experience, and in light of my last post. How far away those feelings seem still.