Memory Lane Monday: Geeking Out or Panic Attack or Both?

It's not really a secret that I don't leave the house much. Boyfriend tends to have to coax me out into public events.  Most of the time, after all is said and done, a small part of me is generally content to have faced the fear and left the house, but mostly, I am just relieved to be home again.  But, every now and then, when I get home, I am so happy that Boyfriend pulled me outside of my comfort zone.  Last weekend was one such event.

Boyfriend found a free fan-film premiere at an event space in L.A. He ran it by me several weeks before we went, and I almost forgot about it until it came time to go. We were going to see a Harry Potter fan film (The Greater Good) and a Call of Duty fan series (935: A Nazi Zombie Series.) That night, I was still feeling the almost constant ache of homesickness, and fear that we'd made a terrible irreversible mistake in moving out here. So, I was slightly more surly and anxiety-filled than normal. Add all those feelings to a fancy room full of strangers, and you get a very cranky, awkward Jess.

I was immediately uncomfortable when we walked in. Everyone at the venue seemed to know each other, and I really wanted to just go into the corner and dig a giant hole to jump into so no one would look at me. Then things took a turn and I felt better and worse/more awkward at the same time. I looked at one of the posters for 935: A Nazi Zombie Series and saw a familiar face looking back at me. Yuri Lowenthal was starring in it! Me being uber-nerd that I am, I devoured Yuri's book he wrote with his wife, Tara Platt, and while I'm not hugely into anime, I am familiar with and a fan of Yuri's voice over work (seriously, who wasn't in love with the Prince of Persia's voice?! *Swoon*)

Sorry, Jakey, not even close.

After spotting Yuri on the poster, I turned to Boyfriend to exclaim, "Hey Yuri Lowenthal's in this!" But was cut short by the sight of the actual Yuri in person not 10 feet from me. At this point, I reached total nerd core reactor overload. The stress in my personal life mixed with my social anxiety, now mixed with a full blown geek-out was too much for my poor little psyche. I clammed up. I froze. I couldn't make words in my own head.  I found a nice corner to stand in and just stared into space. Boyfriend noticed the change and pointed out that he noticed that everyone appeared to know each other. This was not helping. I finally blurted out that Yuri Lowenthal and Tara Platt were here. It took a moment for it to register with Boyfriend who I was talking about, but he realized I was having some sort of inner meltdown and tried to help by coaxing me to go say hi. Again, I couldn't make words. So I just stared at them like a creeper.

Yes, I was the creeper

As I stood trying to make my legs move to walk over and say hi, Yuri walked by us and noticed my Paul and Storm "________ is the name of my _______ cover band" t-shirt. He stopped and told me my shirt was awesome and I almost melted. But I had an ice-breaker now. He had done the hard part for me. So, we talked about my shirt for a minute and then I finally blurted out that I was a fan and I really liked his book. And then we talked about how amazing Rob Paulsen is. It was really great talking to Yuri.

After the films were over I was feeling much better, but still awkward. After everyone was exiting the theater, and congratulating the filmmakers, I wanted to talk to Yuri one last time and say hi to Tara. Expecting to have to introduce myself to him again, I approached him timidly, but with a big smile. As soon as he saw me and Boyfriend his face lit up and he gave us both a big hug. We chatted for a moment more, said hi to Tara and then we all went on our separate ways. Yuri is like Rob Paulsen Jr. He is super nice and unassuming, he was hilarious in the film, and then when we tweeted him and Tara that night after we got home, they both responded.

Best. Anxiety Attack. Ever.

So, thanks Tara and Yuri for making this little nerd-girl feel better about life for a night!