denver toastmasters 2005

You thought ska was dead.
I am here to tell you it is alive.
You thought funk was dead.
I am here to tell you, funk is not dead.
You thought hip hop was dead.
I am here to say, it’s not.
You thought Toastmasters was a one hit wonder.
You were sorely mistaken.

That’s right. My Denver friends Stephen and Jamie (plus lots of other friends at different times) are in a hip hop group called the Flobots, and they set up a show in honor of all of us out-of-towners. I told them about my Toastmasters routine, and they gave me part of their set to do my weird thing. This was after the cute ska band and the cute funk band (whose leader, Andy, I also know real well.) I decided to go with a crowd-pleaser, and so I toasted the city of Denver, as if it were a person. As in, “remember Denver, remember when we were kids? And we took swimming lessons at Congress Park? And remember how that lady spray painted flamingos on all of the dumpsters in town?” And I told Denver what I loved about her- her brick, her neon, her cowboys, her hobos. I also talked about the music that makes me think of Denver- songs that played over and over at our awesome New Years parties. And of course Flobots songs from back in the day. And then I rapped. Me. Willow. I rapped the lyrics to songs Jamie wrote when he was 19. And people cheered. Oh my god. It was the amazing experience. When I got off the stage, strangers hugged me. Friends I hadn’t seen in 5, 10, 12 years told me they loved it, and John Shoe told me that it brought a tear to his eye.
This trip home was the best I had in years. The night before I left, as I lay in bed, I had this painful desire to stop time, to silence the clock. I wanted to get out of bed and go out into the suspended city and just look at it. For as long as I liked. I wanted to gaze at the streets and friends, the mountains and suburbs until I was filled with them. Instead I fell asleep, and in the morning I flew home to Portland. The city that is my home. And where I am very, very happy.
But I miss Denver.
PS, check out the open letter to my crush that was written by some hilarious Denver friends. You can find it here.