Diplomatic differences

Today I got my first invite to something at the Canadian Embassy. Granted it was a group invite likely sent out to 20,000 people, but I'll take it. The event even sounds fun - it's to mark the start of the 100 day countdown before the Vancouver Olympics. Cool, right? Not so much. It's at 8am on a Wednesday. ???? That can't even coincide with anything happening in Vancouver since that would be 5am there. So actually this event screams lame. So I sent it to my FFF and said, "lame". She sent me back her most recent invite from the French Embassy. A champagne tasting next Saturday night.

Yes, this accurately illustrates the differences between our nations.

The only plus side for the Canadians, at least our event was free - champagne tasting $125.

A Knight in Harman Hall

Let me tell you how this came about. Yesterday I was supposed to have back to back meetings all afternoon. One by one they were canceled (this happens with great regularity in DEVO for whatever reason). I was crabby, crabby, crabby already and having my time wasted made me crabbier. So I decided to surf the internet and not do anything else productive. But of course I didn't want to mindlessly surf the net, this is the Kennedy Center after all, so I was reading the Washington Post (radical I know). What does the Post have, but an interview with Ian McKellen. Why? Because he's in town and doing a one night benefit for the Shakespeare Theatre Company - tonight. Wow.

Okay, google the event and discover that tickets are going for upwards of $500. That's a bit steep on a fellow's salary, but they were still available...and good seats in the centre orchestra were still available so I think to myself hmmmm this event isn't selling. Next I do what any good theatre practitioner would do in my position when in a city with no connections - you flirt with the box office staff. I'm not ashamed, you would have done the same thing.

I am offered, after being put on hold a couple of times and talking about Church Street in Toronto for awhile - this was a pretty lengthy conversation but I was on a mission- $40 standing room tickets. Done, I say, I'll take two. (a fellow fellow came along). We get to the theatre not knowing exactly what their version of standing room would be - I did ask and was told I'd be fine. I figured as long as there was something to lean on. He also said my last name should be awesome (I said it was my middle name) (seriously, this was our conversation...) So what's standing room? Front row of the balcony on the centre aisle. Seriously - AWESOME.

So Joe in the box office of the Shakespeare Theatre Company, thank you.

Okay, so Ian basically chatted and performed monologues and read his favorite poems for 90 minutes (he too was awesome - awesomeness all round!). Favourite moments - he did his preacher speech from Cold Comfort Farm "there is no butter in Hell!" - he did a soliloquy from Hamlet and dried in the middle and asked if anyone remembered the next bit and someone did. It wasn't an unknown passage certainly, but I didn't remember the next line - Michael and my mother would have but it was none the less impressive for dude in the balcony to call it out so clearly. He told how he and other actors saved the original site of the Rose Theatre in London from being bulldozed by developers (Dames Judi and Peggy sat on lawn chairs and told them to "go away" - awesome). To prove he could make anything sound amazing he recited Help by the Beatles so it sounded like the most beautiful thing you've ever heard, and the Beaufort Wind Scale - my favourites 7 through 9:

7 Near Gale        Whole trees in motion;                    inconvenience felt when walking against the wind.

8  Gale             Breaks twigs off trees; 

          
generally impedes progress.

9 Severe Gale      Slight structural damage occurs                   (chimney-pots and slates removed).

Tee hee - generally impedes progress :-)  

Anyway, I'm sure I'll have more to reflect on him in the coming days, but for now once more into the breach. 

Just an artsy shot of Fellows in the rain leaving the Drag Queens. I don't know, I just like it...

I learned today that I have an international readership. Thank you for checking in, I will try to be entertaining... (so much pressure!)

The event du jour was a reception at the residence of the Indian Ambassador. A gorgeous "home" as you can imagine. It was about the size of the Canadian Governor General's house so not exactly cramped for space. In 2011, the KC will be doing a festival focused on India (currently being called the Festival of India. Not the most catchy title but descriptive) and so today was the second event where we dipped our toe into the world of Indian corporations and business people to put out feelers for financing. Lots and lots of small talk. I sometimes think that they bring a Fellow to an event like this so that the staff don't have to do so much talking. I did a lot of talking.

There is the old saying about how Canada is a mosaic and the US a melting pot, and this is very, very true. Having worked with Indian dance companies in Canada, and loving Bollywood movies, (and just being generally aware of the rest of the world) I have a decent idea of Indian culture - certainly the Westernized versions of it anyway - and I am finding that some of my co-workers are just less aware of how other cultures work. I do think when people immigrate to the States they really feel they need to blend in and everyone else feels they should too.

Oh, the food at this reception was amazing. I would have eaten much more if I hadn't been working. I wish they'd given us doggie bags...

Drag Racing Queens

A DC tradition. Those drag queens can move pretty fast!! It was dark and pouring with rain so I apologize for the video quality, but I think you'll find it entertaining none the less :-)

17th Street was absolutely packed and there were Queens from the Washington Monument (I took a picture but it came out looking like she was a member of the KKK, which is really not the right affect at all), to all sorts of Broadway tributes to various evil Disney Queens. Amazing.

Mark Twain deets

Okay as much as I just want to write about the Drag Queen High Heel Race that I went to tonight, I will finish my recap of last night's Mark Twain Prize night. We actually had to work for our supper this time, and manned the registration table for guests attending the preshow dinner. I had the Rs and the Ss - which meant I handed Jean Kennedy Smith her ticket for the evening. Yes, my first brush with an actual Kennedy. Crazy.

Secret Service were all over the place and yet not at all in your face. Mrs Obama was there (which I didn't know until after the fact) but there wasn't any special pomp for her - the focus was kept on Bill. There was an amazing transition in the two hours of the show where the dining room was completely converted and redesigned for the after-party into a jazz club sort of feel. More amazing still was watching the crew set up an entire band with microphones and monitors on stage in four minutes during a clip of Bill Cosby's work. Though it was a crew of 12, but still really smooth and clean set-up. (and I know that kind of makes me a production geek for pointing that out before much of anything else)

The event was great. Now I have to admit I've never watched the TV broadcast so I have nothing to compare this evening to but the KC folk seemed to think it was the best one ever (remember next Wednesday on PBS - if you want to try and spot me, I was sitting in a box on the orchestra level across the hall from the Cosby box - so essentially I will never be on camera!)

It did remind me how very funny Bill Cosby is. It was also good to remember the groundbreaking work he did over many, many decades, slowly chipping away and securing rights for black people in America (from black comedians being able to perform in nightclubs to having his own tv series). He strikes me as quite an amazing man.

I did not get to meet him sadly. At the after party I had brushes with Malcolm Jamal Warner (his son on the Cosby Show), Dick Gregory and Steven Wright, but I think most of the other performers from the evening slipped out pretty quickly.

Anyway, good gala! Honors (Honours) is next December 6...

Another week, another gala

I know you were getting worried that I would cease attending galas on a regular basis, but fret not! Tonight was the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. (ahem humour) This year it was awarded to Bill Cosby. Apparently we tried to give it to him 3 times previously, but he kept refusing. I'm not sure why he decided to accept it this year but he did.

I'm bagged so I'll write more about the event tomorrow. As there is no photographic evidence (from me anyway - we were told that any staff taking pictures would be fired. Which actually I approve of really) I will post this video to remind you of just how funny Mr. Bill Cosby is. Watch it, it will make you feel good. Trust me.

The awards will be aired on PBS next Wednesday, November 4 I believe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSvGdfOfLFw

First, an apology. Many of you may not have known that I snuck in to Toronto this weekend and for that I'm sorry. Others knew but I didn't get a chance to see. It was a barely 48 hour visit and it was planned and timed to military precision. I went really to go to the closing night of Rock 'n' Roll - the last show that I worked on for Canstage. It just didn't seem right for it to go up and for me not to have seen it. And after 7 weeks stateside, I needed a little taste of home. The show was really good I thought (if I do say so myself), some amazing performances and beautiful design. It's Stoppard so it's heady and wordy and dense, but I think worth the mental effort- you can still catch it in Edmonton if you are so inclined :-) I feel very much like my four years with Canadian Stage can now be closed and tied off and properly put away. Though the night reinforced how I miss my peeps there for sure - they are good eggs. So much heart and talent on and off that stage on Saturday. And I have to thank Louise for the brilliant seats - wow :-)

I discovered a new admiration for Michael Jackson's abilities as a dancer. I'd always known intellectually that he was exceptional but one doesn't quite appreciate this until one tries to dance one of his "simple" routines. Yup, I took a Thriller dance class. Who knew being a zombie was so difficult?? Much fun though and I'm now ready for the next time there is a call to break the Guinness Book of World Records record for the most people dancing Thriller! This I'm sure will prove to be a useful skill.

Otherwise the weekend was full of food and drink and hugs and I wish I could have bottled it and brought it back to DC with me. My world is so much better with all of you in it.

Gladstone room

Welcome to the Teen Dream room which was mine on Saturday night. I won the room in an online auction for the Theatre Centre in the spring and so my brief trip to TO was the perfect opportunity to use it. Please note the horses and unicorns interspersed with Rob Lowe, Matt Dillon and Tom Cruise. Oh the 80s.

I could have spent many days in that room - though of course having my own washroom is enough to fill me with joy these days. The Gladstone is perhaps a touch too uber-cool for me, but I did love my little mini retreat for the night.

A motley crew

Many of you will recognize some of these no good theatre types, freshly tossed out of the Jersey Giant at closing time. They filled my heart on Saturday night.

High of 26 C today...oh what to wear what to wear....

Much Ado

Tonight I went to the dress rehearsal of the Folger Shakespeare Theatre's production of Much Ado About Nothing. I sort of liked it despite itself, which may be an odd thing to say.

Generally it wasn't very good. However, first let's talk about the building and neighbourhood we were in. The Folger Theatre is in the Folger Shakespeare Library, which is just about a block south of the Capitol Building. It's a beautiful pseudo art deco looking building on the outside, and inside the library (well the one exhibit hall I saw) and the theatre are made in an Elizabethan-esque style. Which actually means the theatre has terrible sight lines and huge blocky pilers throughout the balcony - it's an awful design truthfully. I'm sure it looked very artistic an authentic in the architectural drawings.

The library houses the largest Shakespeare collection in the world (that's their claim anyway) and I did see a first folio of Romeo and Juliet which is pretty cool I have to say. They have an electronic version next to the real thing so you can scroll through the book on the computer page by page if you wanted. It's a bit contrived really but neat I suppose. (somebody rich paid for this to happen, so I should be more complimentary of their financial efforts, but honestly I just thought it was weird)

This part of Capitol South is neat. It's really formed by the interns and others who work in all the Senate and Capitol buildings which expand through five blocks or so in every direction. The buildings are beautiful in that American federal building sort of way. Large and impressive and well lit. There were police or road blockades on every corner so I'm thinking it's likely one of the safer neighbourhoods to be in!

We had dinner at the Good Stuff Eatery which was opened by someone from Iron Chef or Hell's Kitchen or one of those Food Network programs. It was pretty darn delish. I had an absolutely amazing chocolate milkshake (and salad was my main course in case anyone is calorie counting!). Anyway, back to the theatre...

I found it very strange to be at a dress rehearsal I wasn't working and to be the person sitting in the balcony. I'm thinking the talent pool in DC is pretty shallow as once again, this cast was mediocre overall with three standouts of quality. The direction was god awful. Blocking (a basic) was poor. I would say 90% of the balcony was obstructed view - now some of this would have been unavoidable in this space, but you do not have to have major scenes happening in the far upstage corner under an overhang. Just saying. They played for laughs, many of them couldn't handle the language and added this whole Caribbean reggae thing but then didn't make any effort to have it make sense to the story. Anyway, despite all this, I kind of enjoyed it. Or maybe I was just enjoying my evening...who knows.

Oh, the Clintons were in the building today. There was a memorial service for a woman who had worked for Jimmy Carter and so it was like the Democratic convention in the foyer. I was greeted by a K9 unit of sniffer dogs when I entered through the stage door. Yup. But at least I know I passed a certain level of security clearance! Just another day at the office; me, the secret service and the dogs...

Eastern Market

Yes, these are blowfish. I don't think they're local.

Eastern Market is very much like you'd expect - a covered traditional farmers' market, similar but much smaller than St. Lawrence Market in Toronto. I bought some veggies, and sweet potato gnocchi and apple cider - it was chilly here today, though it finally stopped raining. Lots and lots of meat for sale, which I guess isn't surprising, over half the stalls were butchers or fishmongers. This city loves meat.

There usually is a large flea market across the street, but I guess the weather and end of season kept most of those vendors away. Still lots of things to look at and endless things one could have bought but showed great restraint in not (like they had a Hallowe'en version of the black and white cookie - black and orange of course. So tempting, but then I remembered that I don't really like the black and white cookie). Fun excursion to the south side for a Sunday morning.

Target

It is no secret that I love Target. I went to Target briefly today in fact. Last week I was at a meeting with the KC's Target rep and his boss. Target gives a lot of money to the arts across America, which is cool, and they are all about funding programs to make things free or cheap so families can attend. Target funds KC's Millennium Stage performances which are free and happen 365 days a year - yes, every day of the year (they are the ones that happen just below my office). Anyway, they were thrilled when I told the true story of my going on a girls road trip to Buffalo and telling the border guard when asked what we wanted to do in the States, "go to Target, and oh could you tell us how to get there". I think this made their day, the idea that carloads of women from Toronto travel 2 hours by car to visit Target. I asked if they could just hurry up and take over Zellers...

Apparently I love George Ballanchine. Who knew? I can now see why there are these crazy devoted Ballanchine nutcases who travel the world to see different ballet companies perform his works. Not that I'm likely to do that but I am so so excited that I'll have about five opportunities this year to see different companies with his work in their repertoire. The KC is crazy about Ballanchine or rather more likely Michael Kaiser is probably crazy about Ballanchine. The work is just so alive and vibrant and not...boring. (like I find a lot of ballet...)

The lecture today was also in our jazz club and it was the first time I was in that venue. Note to self: must ask Miss Tracey which jazz performers I should see this season - and the venue was so cute and done up like a proper jazz club, but in the middle of the Kennedy Center. Actually on Friday I met our jazz programmer who seemed really friendly and cool (I was lost and came upon his desk and he actually got up and took me to were I was trying to find. Classy, yes? I thought it was very sweet.) And yes, I'm still on occasion getting lost in the building. It's that big and rabbit warren-esque people, I usually have a pretty great sense of direction!!

Did I tell you the story how I got locked between two doors one weekend? It was pretty funny in retrospect but unnerving at the time. On the weekends all these additional doors lock themselves and some of the require real keys (which I don't have) rather than the pass cards or keypads (which I do). Anyway, that's what emergency exits are for....

PS. Still raining....

It's raining again...

It has been raining for two solid days now and is supposed to continue all weekend- well yesterday it was more misting than full on raining, but today, downpour. So I've felt restless while also not wanting to do anything in particular at the same time. This shot is the Lincoln Memorial as seen last night from our rooftop terrace (yeah, I work somewhere there's a rooftop terrace, no biggie). The monuments, including the KC which of course is the living memorial to John F. Kennedy (Uncle Kennedy as we like to refer to him), are beautiful at night. Stunning, even in the rain.

The week has been pretty normal overall. My new normal I guess (though no galas! next one isn't until the 26th) I went to the Washington Ballet's performance of Don Quixote last night. It was pretty awful. As my dance fellow friend put it, they are in the top 30 ballet companies in the US. Who knew there were 30 ballet companies in the US? It seemed like a ballet choreographed as if it were an opera. Random solos intended to illicit "spontaneous" response mid dance, while the corps did very little. And they used recorded music - poorly recorded music - which is pretty unacceptable in my books. However, I'm enjoying seeing things in the different theatres so I still get a little thrill out of that. Though I realize I miss being in a theatre - really in one - where all the crew and the house managers know who you are and you are there to do something. Anyway, I suppose 9 months as a spectator won't kill me.

We have reached the weekend. Tomorrow I'm going in for a few hours to hear a lecture on George Ballanchine. I'm sure I must have learned about him during my dance history classes at York, but I have no memory of it. Since the KC's resident ballet company only performs the choreography of Ballanchine, I thought perhaps I should learn a little about the guy. Sunday I'm planning to go out to Eastern Market for brunch and to have a look around the farmers market itself. It's supposed to be huge and fantastic - indoors similar to St. Lawrence in Toronto - and very newly renovated. I believe it only reopened this summer. I'm excited to see a whole new area of the city - I haven't been out there since our first fellows drinks night, which feels like a long time ago now.

Washington Taxi tidbit #33

Cabs here are pretty awful. They are hard to get and fairly expensive if you find one willing to drive you were you need to go- not so much the fare itself but all the "extras" they charge you for - some legit, like airport pick-ups and some not, like groceries that you carry yourself. I have had to read out the extra fares rules to a cabbie trying to charge me for something that he's not supposed to. Essentially half of them are crooks - and actually there is a significant criminal case on right now where something like 17 are charged with things like fake licenses etc. If public transit was more frequent this wouldn't be an issue. (ahem DC - public transit and perhaps some street lighting and half your troubles would be solved!)

Anyway, I took a cab home from Adams Morgan earlier this week and he got lost. It's hard enough to get someone to take me to Virginia ....he was actually very nice and stopped the meter so the ride was way cheaper than it normally was and we weren't very lost (I knew more or less where we were). However, I was in the cab quite awhile because of this and we were chatting. He was relieved to learn I wasn't married because this way I could find an American to marry so I could get a Greencard. Apparently it's easy. I'm assuming this is what he did, though he didn't come out and say so. Not sure exactly what to do with that advise...

How you can tell we aren't American....

Our embassy in DC. Look at the tiny flags!!!

Reminds me of a wedding cake

Which is ironic really, isn't it? (and that's not my arm, I was just trying to be artsy...)

Ms Packwood marches on Washington

Damion and I at the start of our trek.

The Street Where You Live

Well not me, but my FFF. Welcome to Adams Morgan. Cute isn't it?

On my way to her apartment for the first time on Saturday, I bumped into Joel, the coordinator of the fellowship program (he's new). I thought this was really funny since I know maybe 25 people in this city. Parts of it are very small town like and that is quite comforting.

Adams Morgan is a bit like Yorkville if Yorkville was adjacent to Regents Park. DC is that kind of place, neighbourhoods change by the block. So it makes for an interesting mix of characters.

But it has a Whole Foods and you will be relieved to know that it is just as over-priced, and yet fabulous, as it is in Toronto. I was carded!! This is not unusual really because every bar and restaurant pretty much cards everyone. So it isn't because I look so youthful(though I'm sure I don't look a day over 32). However, I had not expected to be carded at the high end grocery store for buying a bottle of wine.

I mention Whole Foods mainly because it is here I bought the ingredients for the most expensive butter tarts ever made. As it was Canadian Thanksgiving, I thought I should make something that was Canadian and the only thing I could think of was butter tarts because they don't have them here (pecan pie is close but not the same thing). I don't even especially like butter tarts. Anyway, sadly the most expensive butter tarts ever made, did not set properly so I ended up not taking them to the office as planned. They were quite tasty though, even in their overly runny state.

The weekend was blissfully lazy overall. Saturday I did not leave the apartment once I'd gotten there (it was rainy so I had a perfect excuse) and watched a Bones marathon on one of the 200 channels she has. Sunday was the march, mentioned above, and Monday, I explored the neighbourhood a bit. I found this bookstore/coffeeshop/speakeasy called Busboys and Poets. It was really barely a bookstore which was a bit disappointing, so little browsing opportunity. It was also packed so there wasn't even a corner for me to prop myself if I'd wanted to have a cup of tea. And I'd not brought my fancy laptop to work on so I wouldn't have fit in (it was that kind of place - which is weird considering I'm pretty sure there was a drug deal happening on the corner across the street).

That night, I went with a few of the fellows to my first local DC theatre experience. It was a staged reading of the sequel to the Laramie Project. The original was written 10 years ago around the murder of Matthew Shepherd in Laramie Wyoming. This sequel was being simultaneously performed in 150 places around the world including all 50 states, DC and Toronto. It was interesting to see, though I thought the actors were for the most part pretty awful and the writing weaker than the original. I was however glad to have been there and to have attended something with the DC theatre community. The KC is somewhat removed from the norm - similar to how it was when I was with the Mirv - so it was good to be there.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

This post will be short as I'm staying at my FFFs fabuous pad and using her French keyboard which is NOT QUERTY so lots of letters in places I'm not used to them being -so it's slow going. (the spell checker also thinks I'm spelling absolutely everything wrong)
Am so enjoying the freedom of some personal space, I feel like myself again. And this neighbourhood is very similar to Queen St in Toronto so lots of little cafes and shops - very lively.

Today I joined the Equality March and walked from here (18th and California) to the Capitol and back - the march was 2.3 miles and I think it's another mile to where it started so I feel very virtuous for lots of reasons.
Day off tomorrow for Columbus Day. I am going to my first non-KC play so that's going to be exciting I think...
More when I have my keyboard back....

Everything starts early here. It's now about 9:45pm as I write this and tonight I went to dinner, walked to an auditorium on the GW University campus and heard a reading by Michael Chabon (author of the Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay among others) with an overly long Q & A period, and am home after my half hour+ commute. It's a very sleepy sort of place. I think part of it is that the Metro closes at midnight (at the latest, I think it's earlier some nights) so that handicaps the city somewhat. But in general, it just isn't a late night sort of town. The majority of the programming at the KC starts at 7 or 7:30 too. I guess that's just what works. It is also much more rare for someone here to work after 5pm (government hours) - I of course do, but that's a whole other issue.

The reading was interesting, though not the best I've been to. It was good to go do something a little different and I'm always up for seeing different venues.

This weekend is Columbus Day weekend here so we have Monday off. And Saturday and Sunday too as a bonus. Tomorrow I'm heading into DC and spending two nights at my FFF's fabulous Adams Morgan apartment while she is in NYC. Tomorrow when I get there, I may just never leave. I may just lay on the couch and watch crappy television for eight hours straight. We'll see.

Sunday I'm going to the "Equality March" - they are woefully behind on gay rights in this country and plus I thought it would be good for me to wash the memory of the anti-health care rally from me once and for all. It's down on the Mall so it will be neat to see it full of people. And I can walk there from my fancy bachelorette pad :-)

And the KC has posted our "class" pictures. So if you'd like to amuse yourself you are welcome to look:

http://www.kennedy-center.org/education/artsmanagement/fellows/fellows_10.html

I would just like to say that they edited our bios and did a terrible job. AND the headshots were taken after the group shot for which we spent about 2 hours outside in the wind (this is a very windy city - especially on the terrace of the KC), so no one is especially happy with how their hair looks. However...

Metro tidbit #143

They close the Arlington Cemetery stop when the cemetery is not open. I do not know this as a verified fact, however, from my observation this seems to be the case. I mean it makes sense but it just hadn't occurred to me - the cemetery is so big it's not going to be your closest metro stop regardless and I guess this also ensures that people leave the place when they are told to!

I haven't made it there yet but will at some point. My friend the bagpiper sometimes plays there so I may wait until he's playing for something to go...

Exploring the depths of KC

When the Kennedy Center was built, they did not anticipate a staff of 1000 working in it, so there are some interesting places. For instance today we had our finance class in the PMO conference room (I like this name as of course it sounds like Prime Minister's Office to me). It is located in the parking lot. I'm not kidding. It's along a side wall on the B level of the parking garage (so two levels down...). So yes it is a small airless room, but I suppose it isn't filled with exhaust fumes which I guess is the alternative.

Yesterday we had a backstage tour of the four larger theatres in the facilities. The Director of Production gave us his personal tour - though most of the stories cannot be repeated in polite company (he is ex-union and was the head carpenter at the Opera House for 20 years. He was made the TD at some point after that and there are excellent management-union relations because of him. One story involves him smashing through the front gates at the White House. Oops). I have to say that the first 3 theatres were of a size that I am used to working in - though very neat to be on stage (and felt right at home) but nothing out of the ordinary for me.

And then we got to the Opera House. This is the second largest stage in the US (so North America) and it was magnificent. I was in heaven. They were in the middle of the fit up for the next Washington Opera performance (Falstaff) and everything was just so....neat. I was in awe of it all. I'm not sure how to swing one of my other routines so that I can just live backstage there but I'm going to give it serious thought :-) I didn't take pictures because I didn't want to be that person, but I'm sort of wishing I had...

Ms Packwood goes to Pennsylvania

So Pennsylvania was traveled to via Virginia and Maryland (all three states welcome you!) and it really was very scenic. It's about two hours to Carlisle and Carlisle is about ...20 miles? from Gettysberg. Or is it Gettysburg? I probably should know - it was a big deal around these parts, lots of things happened there.

I mention this first, though it was our last stop on the way back to DC as the photo is of course of Abe. (And I still haven't figured out how to get writing on top of a picture...) He's looking pretty good for his age I thought.

I feel I need to point out how cheap alcohol is in the state of Pennsylvania. It's absurd. I bought a bottle of shiraz at their liquor store (as in Penn wine and spirits are sold separately. Beer you can still basically buy at the corner store) and this very bottle sells for about $16 in Ontario (as I have bought it once or twice before). In Pennsylvania? $7. A pint of Guinness? $3.50 (I'm not even exaggerating...it was crazy) In comparison, the wine in DC would be about $11 so still cheaper for sure, but not insane. Just a bit of trivia for you.

We were staying in the guest house of friends of Bryan's (Pennsylvania fellow) - it was a two storey addition to their garage and full of antiques, so we were slumming it. The Gala itself was on the farm of a donor to the ballet school - it was the first fundraising event they had ever had and it was really charming. Most of it happened in a barn (music, silent auction, munchies) with a performance by the school in a tent outside followed by a live auction (I mention this as it will become important later...) Apart from the grass and barnyard nature of the location not being the best for someone wearing high heels (ahem), I would say it was all quite successful and the dancers really wonderful - superb actually. Since we had not paid for our tickets, we all thought we should bid on things (this is also important to note for later). I won a wine and cheese basket in the silent auction (consumed later that evening at the guest house), my FFF won a 1940s teacup (very cute and she was the only bidder!) and our Harvard fellow won a very fancy electric toothbrush of which he is very proud. Dental hygiene is important.

Harmless enough so far.

Well then we get to the live auction and there was one item which attracted our attention. It was a trip for 6 to Puerto Rico. Yup. So we bid. Not being completely stupid, we had set a cap on how high we would go and it of course was soon passed. However, this trip was donated by the owner of the farm (gala location) and at the very end of the evening he was thrusting wine at us to take home, after much sampling had occurred (it was very good wine I have to say) and we joked about how we lost out on the trip. He said "why don't you go as well?" As he owned the villa - 3 storeys, 3 bedrooms, rooftop pool with ocean views from 3 sides and a path to the beach - he could give away as many weeks as he wanted.

And so it seems we have a trip for 6 to Puerto Rico for a $1500 donation to the school to be taken sometime in 2010. Of course all of us taking the same week off might prove to be challenging...we'll see. But isn't that nuts??? More difficult will be selecting the 2 fellow fellows to travel with us...I'm sure there won't be a shortage of takers.

It was a whirlwind 24 hours as we all had to be back at KC yesterday afternoon for day one of the Board seminar. It's been interesting so far but I'm a little beat. One less great aspect to the guest house was the grandfather clock which chimed out each hour. As a pretty light sleeper, I woke each hour on the hour, so I have some catching up to do.

More later....

Strange metro fact #78:

Have I mentioned before how when a train is approaching the station, the lights imbedded in the platform begin to glow? About every second or third one will pulse for the minute prior to the train's arrival. In some stations it's a white light, in others a red. In the underground stations (which tend to be on the dingy side) with red pulsing lights, it's all a bit science fiction feeling, like the tunnel is coming alive. But bad 70s sci-fi not modern new sci-fi as it is very dated. The metro is a strange place.

Fellow Road Trip!

I'm off this morning to scenic Carisle, Pennsylvania (I hear it is actually scenic...) with three fellow fellows one of whom was the Executive Director at the Pennsylvania (one "n" or two in Pennsylania - or rather 3 or 4, I'm not sure...) Youth Ballet who are having a gala tonight. Since the week of a fellow is not complete without a gala to go to, we are going.

Back in the morning since we all work tomorrow afternoon (as what is a weekend if one does not have to go in to work?). Sunday through Tuesday is the KC's national Board Seminar, which I actually think will be very interesting - because apparently I'm a bit of a geek that way.

So more tomorrow on my return....