Show Time!

Yesterday after finishing the post, I spent a little over an hour at the library, then had a fun little dinner at my classmate's apartment with some friends. Ham, mashed potatoes, jellied cranberries (my favorite!), and some veggies and deviled eggs. Just for fun, and just for Easter weekend.

Couldn't stay too long though, because I had a ticket for STOMP at the Balboa theater downtown... and that started at 8pm. Caught the wrong trolley, but realized it in time to not get too far off course. Talked with a retired gentleman while waiting and he sat across from me when we got on board. He wanted to tell me about his years as a civilian teacher on board the USS Constellation. And I thought that was pretty neat!

The show was fantastic! I can understand why it's been going strong all over the world for 20 years. My seat was at the very top of the theater on the extreme right, but I could see everything quite well. The first couple dances involved push brooms... then candy boxes... and then they just danced while clapping their hands and themselves! They used tubes, plastic/paper bags, newspapers, sand, kitchen sinks (for real!), sticks, tin cans, big inflatable rubber tube rafts, metal folding chairs... and in the one dance, four of the eight dancers were suspended off the set and banged on the pots, pans, metal signs and other common instruments for quite the effect.

The finale was with their signature trash cans and lids... and not only was it a percussive dance, but throughout the entire show there was a great deal of comedic elements. There was even a dancer that was dressed like a nerd and was always trying to keep up. So much fun! It was worth every cent to go see. I was glad I used the trolley though. Traffic was terrible... and parking cost twice as much as a round-trip ticket. :)

Today... oh, today I spent wholly in Balboa Park... after a brief snack at Panera on the way there. With my "see all the museums free" pass I wanted to get there right at ten. I first stepped into the botanical garden, then the little art gallery... and was very impressed with their small collection. They had a beautiful book with all their art in full color, so I bought it and have already flipped through it a few times.


Then I went to the Museum of Man (that I have avoided due to their Darwinian philosophy), but I only needed to skip half the second floor. I loved their special exhibition on games... and their display of peculiar bones was incredibly interesting... as well as the mummies. I briefly stopped in another art gallery, but it didn't interest me. It was soon time for the play, which was the romantic comedy "Rafta, Rafta". I had a front row seat in the balcony... and enjoyed it very much.

Had dinner on the way home, then fell asleep on the back seat of the car back on base. What a beautiful day!

Jp