Of course it rained yesterday. Horrid. Everyone kept saying that we needed it, the plants needed it, blah blah blah. All I can say, childishly, is that I'm glad the sun is back!
Not in time for my Wet'n'Wild adventure yesterday...
My plan was to try to spend as little money as possible. So no store-bought dinner, and no metro ride home and back for the Shakespeare Theatre Production of Taming of the Shrew (which a friend of mine got me a comp for). This meant bringing a heatable dinner to work and walking from the Folger to STC, which isn't a bad walk normally.
First, instead of closing at 5pm like normal, we closed the Gift Shop at 4:15. I suppose because there was an event going on in the great hall. Either way, it meant that I had an extra hour to fill up. So I heated my rice noodles in the kitchen and ate in the Tea Room like I used to for performances. What I hadn't realized was that it was my first solid meal all day, and as warm as it was, it couldn't possibly be filling enough. I figured I'd hang around the Tea Room until about 6:30, reading, and then start walking.
Once I lost a call from my boy, though, I decided it was time to walk. Who knew if it would get better or worse? So I walked. I had chosen bad enough shoes for the occasion. Though they had spent the morning stuffed with paper towels they quickly picked up as much water as possible so that it became like walking in small swimming pools. What I keep forgetting is that there is construction up closer to Archives-Navy Memorial, where I was headed, and so I had to walk down the middle of the road where there would normally be a partition. Now, this is me being stupid and lazy as I did not simply cross the road and walk on the opposite sidewalk, nay nay! I walked down the level partition of a two way street with 3 lanes on either side of me IN THE RAIN. Brill.
So I made it to A-NM, where I knew there to be a Starbucks. Since I was over an hour early to even pick up tickets, I couldn't go to the theatre. I figured waiting at Starbucks until 7:15/7:30 seemed like the perfect plan. I had a Hot Cocoa (much needed), picked up my new Free Song of the Day, and settled into a well-lit corner to read. What I didn't know is that this particular Starbucks closes at 7pm. I was quite comfortably listening to the recording of Jesus Christ Superstar on my iPod (Sweet Pea) and reading A THOUSAND ACRES (which was just getting good) when one of the barista's (a man who sounded like a woman) tapped on my table and said "We close. You gotta leave." The other woman reading in the other corner was just as surprised as I was. So, groaning, I slipped my freezing shoes back on, opened my umbrella and stepped back into the rain. What I should have done was walked the extra two blocks to the Bucks across the street from STC, where they stay open til 10 and have comfy armchairs. Puh.
Now the roads streamed with rivers and my shoes didn't stand a chance. At least I had hiked up my pants to a less-than-cool height to protect what I could of them. I went straight to the theatre, picked up my ticket (with minor confusion), and settled in to read in the lobby. Call me anti-social, but it's very unlikely that I know anyone coming to see a show at STC. My friend is a great person, and got me a seat in the 6th row center, which is perfect for this theatre. However, since the set and everything near it was a bright flaming fire-engine red, it was hard to look at.
The show itself was pretty fun. It's a comedy, and I laughed. Unfortunately, I laughed more at the additions than the text. I feel like they thought Shakespeare wasn't funny enough. That they had to spend the extra $500 to send out a Bianca in a Bubbly Bathtub, or $50 on fans for the motorcycle (yes, MOTORCYCLE) for one cheap laugh. For all the glitz, it just didn't deliver. Granted, SHREW is a hard show to do today, but I felt like only Petruccio and his servant Grumio got it. It's funny. End of story. (Of course Tranio was awesome, too, he gave me my one and only belly laugh of the evening).
Then the trip home (after getting my umbrella out of the cloakroom). Chinatown has got to be one of the most stifling stations. No air circulation. I had to wait for a train for 13 minutes there. Then the train ride where I discovered my headband had given me such a headache I was starting to get motion sickness, but I couldn't stop reading! So by the time I got home it was all I could do not to fall down the escalator and release the pithy contents of my stomach into the cool night air. Gruesome, I know. Adventures aren't always pretty. Then it hit me that I hadn't eaten very much, so I should probably do that when I made it home.
My poor shoes.
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