Men don’t cry for help, and a woman showing her bottom during my show.
Today I locked myself in the bathroom and took a shower. So far, so good.
I dried myself off and turned the knob to open the door up again. As I turned it, the knob suddenly came loose. I held it in my hand and looked at the hole that was where the knob had been just a few seconds before. I could see the bolt that had been connected to the knob and was now loosely sitting in the hole. The bolt was the key to unlocking the door. It was too far inside the hole for me to reach it, though. I was stuck. Locked in my bathroom.
I’m going to die in here. That was my first thought.
I made a few half-hearted attempts at calling for help. However, I soon stopped, as I felt silly.
Men don’t yell for help. I thought.
That same kind of reasoning almost got me killed when I was five years old. I was drowning. I had underestimated the depth of the water on the beach, but was too embarrassed to call for help. Even though a woman was standing comfortably right next to me while I struggled to keep my head over water, I couldn’t bring myself to call out for help. Luckily my mother had seen me and quickly jumped into the water to save me.
I haven’t learned anything from that, apparently.
I decided to kick the door open. The door to my bathroom is wooden, so I figured it couldn't be too hard.
After five minutes of intense kicking, the door finally flew open. I had damaged the frame of the door but not much else. I called my landlord.
He wasn’t too happy but told me that he would fix it as soon as possible.
Later on, I went out to play some music on the street, as that is my main source of income at the moment.
Lately, there has been a woman showing her bottom during my show. She is a little bit older and possibly homeless. Quite a nice person, though. She does wear underwear, so it is not too provoking. The crowd usually screams when she lifts up her dress, and it is definitely very entertaining.
When those kinds of things happen, I often face a weird conundrum. On the one hand, I enjoy the craziness that can happen on the street. But, on the other hand, I try to make sure that there is a certain order to my show so that I still have the audience's attention and get paid.
Usually, I don't interfere with whatever the audience is doing unless they start touching my equipment or try to sing into my microphone.
My overall philosophy is to tolerate anything that doesn't hurt anybody. After all, it is a public space, and I really have zero authority over anyone. So who am I to tell people what they can and can't do.