We met while we were in undergrad in Pomona, CA. We were an unlikely band, really: a group of five or six of us that all worked in different areas in the theatre. Christina was a scenic designer and Isaac was a lighting designer. I was still working mostly as an actor at this point, I think. I imagine that we all began spending lots and lots of time together because we all worked on a show together or because we were all in the same class one semester.
At any rate, we spent more evenings working late in the theatre and more evenings leaving the theatre to go out drinking than I can remember. Everyone in the group was younger than Isaac and he used to be able to get us all drunk immediately. We would play King's Cup or some other ridiculous drinking game, and if Isaac was playing, we would all be drunk in a half hour. At this time, the drink of choice for all of the technicians was Southern Comfort and Mountain Dew. (Filth.) I was less adventurous and stuck with Captain Morgan and Coca-Cola.
I was coming out at this time in college (2001) and Christina and Isaac were incredibly supportive. The things they said to me to let me know that being gay was okay with them and that they were going to love me no matter what really helped me through that time – which was a difficult one for me. It wasn't difficult for them at all, and they made it infinitely easier for me.
We invented this game back then called Homos vs. Breeders. The point of the game was to somehow get a witty insult over on the others in the group. Me and James vs. Ryan and Isaac and Christina. (I can't remember if the girl we called Bisexual Kelly played for the Homos or the Breeders.) We would leave school in the middle of the day and all go to lunch nearby (Rubio's Baja Grill and In N Out Burger were our favorites) and then trade barbs all through lunch, trying to make points. Isaac and James were the best at this. Christina and Ryan and I would just try to keep up.
C&I are two of the most no-nonsense people I've ever met. I've always been grateful for that no-bullshit policy that constituted our friendship. And I've always admired their loyalty and faithfulness to one another, as well as their faithfulness to their friends. Even when I've been a distant or difficult friend (and I have been) C&I have been there for me, waiting for me to stop being a jackass.
Christina and Isaac moved to Las Vegas many years ago, and I've seen them a couple of times since they've moved away and a couple more times that they've come back into town to visit. They are two of my favorite people and I miss them a lot. (I also happen to really love Las Vegas.) One of the sad things about living in Tallahassee is the exorbitant price of plane tickets out of the local airport; the cost of a plane ticket one year meant that I was forced to miss Isaac and Christina's wedding and I was so sad that I couldn't be there on that day.
But I always love seeing these two; I'm so grateful for whatever time we get to spend together. And sometimes it just works out. Last summer I was in California for a conference and they were in Los Angeles on a fluke to visit a relative. We met up for a couple hours at a bar in Arcadia (so close to where we all lived ten years ago) and chatted and hugged and loved each other just like no time had passed at all.
You and I met in Fall 2000 in Acting I (I think it was Acting I), so we have known one another 11 years now. Isaac started at Cal Poly about a year and a half before I did. We also played the drinking game Asshole quite often. I remember the time James was the President three times in a row and gave all of us Powerpuff Girls nicknames that we had to call each other, otherwise we had to "take a drink". SUCH good times.
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