Consolation prizes

I have a friend Negin who is a writer / actor / comedian. Many years ago, in the brunch times, she was in a comedy group and we would often hear things we had said at sunday afternoon breakfast repeated as the punchlines of sketches a few weeks later.
We all learned to keep the stories we wanted to use in our own work to ourselves.

The years passed and now both the comedy group and brunch have become no more.

But last night the old group gathered for happy hour drinks and it was like old times. I was relating the story of fight night when negin whipped out her notebook.

"Could you repeat what you just said?"

if nothing else the years have made us a little more honest about theft.

"The thing about creating zero sum mix tapes or the detail about how there was always a perfect balance of songs saying 'I love you' and 'I don't care?'"

another friend: "jes-s, that's f-cked up."

and a third: "It makes a good story at least!"

me: "did you get that all down, negin?"

It almost makes all the years of pain and confusion and mixed-up mix cds worth it.