Good Mood

I know I have a tendency to only do one of these pictureless little life essays when I have reason to question things or just feel really off. But I figure for a change, I'll write about how I feel when I'm in a good mood. I'll tell you all the things that have been going on, and all the thoughts that have been going through my head as a result. Good plan, yeah?

This weekend was just seemingly endless fun. After going through an incredibly off Thursday and Friday, two days that had me in a slump for reasons beyond my understanding, Saturday turned everything around once I went to rehearsals with TIZ. There's something particularly cool about our crew this time around. You couldn't help but feel relaxed or to get sucked in to everyone else's good spirited mannerisms. It was some combination of the poppers, Nicki, Claire, Jobu, and Benson. Something about everyone was like getting constant injections of spirit booster. Everyone just felt particularly chill. We would all always have something to say to each other. There weren't any weird invisible barriers, we were all just perfectly in synch, all juiced up for our upcoming performance.

One thing that really had me going was everyone's compliments on my beatboxing. This is actually the first time that I've done raw beatboxing for a TIZ show. Up until now, I was always beatboxing over a music track, an MC, or another instrument; this time I had a chance to really show off what I could do rather than be constrained by external mediums. I had a chance to really play around with beats and throw around different sounds and mix them back in to make something new, and clearly my excitement showed in my performance, because everyone really liked it. It really felt good. It was really cool to get a lot of ups from the popping crew, because I can tell you I secretly look up to poppers because they are amazing dancers, and I've always wanted to learn but I'm just not very good at dancing, heh. But I'd definitely be down to do a collabo with those guys; they really are a group of super chill people. Especially Lawrence, that dude's hella funny haha.

And who can forget Nicki and Claire? I've known Nicki for a pretty long time now, and while Claire was with us in our last fashion show at Center Court, I never really talked to her until now. It was definitely cool getting to know the two of them a little more, even if we weren't even talking about ourselves to each other; most of the time it was just continuous, flowing conversation that didn't need direction or purpose, we were all talking together simply because we liked talking to each other, and it all felt natural and confortable. Most certainly two of the coolest girls I know.

Lastly, there's Jobu. Now Jobu is just in his own category, without a doubt. There's cool people, there's hella cool people, and then there's Jobu. Jobu always seems to be engulfed by a boundless energy that effortlessly attracts people to it. Jobu is just a complete character and an incredible entertainer. He's the type of person that know exactly what he needs to do to get a crowd fired up in an instant, or to get a smile on the faces of the people around him. His continuous stream of surprising and provocative, yet predictable, behavior is his most memorable quality. Yet behind all of that he's just as chill and down to earth as everyone else.

And then there was the show. Law, Nicki, Jobu, Claire and I are all standing on the stairs leading up to the catwalk, all getting fired up; an observer would easily notice a strong energy coming from our group. We were easily the most obnoxious, easy-going group of models in the whole show. We're minutes from going onstage and we're singing weird songs, doing weird dances, we're all taking pictures together, talking really loudly, and Jobu is doing some inappropriate dance, In situations where most models are feeling strained and uptight, TIZers are always energetic, free-flowing, enthusiastic people. We're always excited to show off our talents, especially when they go well appreciated, and we put that level of soul into all of our performances and fashion shows. We definitely gave it our all this past show, and the we know the crowd was definitely feeling it.

I think the thing about this weekend is that I met a group of people, all of us united under a common goal, and as a result we all got along very well. It really is a very humbling experience to have, and sometimes that all you really need: a nice, humbling experience that makes you realize that everything about your life is completely fine, and that there's no reason for you to feel otherwise.

To me, that's what The Imaginary Zebra is about.

TIZFTMFW

-nesqu!k