Tonight I took one of my interns to see Fiddler on the Roof with Harvey Fierstein as Tevye. This is the same tour that was in Toronto over Christmas and that will be back in Toronto in June. I think it would be better served on the larger stage in Toronto as the one it played on here was oh, 10 feet too small in width (they looked a little squished up there!).

One of my theatre programming peeps' husbands works for the production company for the show so he arranged comps for me which was lovely. My one intern is a musical theatre nerd so it was fun to take her and have a break from fellow fellows. I had however forgotten how depressing this story is. Even though Harvey's Tevye is pretty cheerful and forgiving, it is still a relentlessly depressing tale. (go see it in Toronto though, it's good!)

This weekend is the last full on work weekend of the program. Friday night I'm helping out theatre programming with a cabaret show and Sunday is our Spring Gala (it's been months since we've had a gala!) so there is a brunch then a reception then a dinner then a show and then a reception. I've taken Monday off to compensate. Liza Minnelli is hosting the show so that should be....something anyway.

I know I'm really behind on things but....Keith Cole is running for Mayor??? I might actually vote for him. I mean at least it'd be entertaining and he is very organized. In a fashion. Still very odd....

Okay, two things you probably shouldn't do while recovering from a weird vertigo inducing virus:

• attend a concert in a really loud, smallish venue
• go to the Air and Space Museum

Yeah, I did both those things.

Last night I had tickets to see Los Campesinos! - a Welsh band playing at the 930 club which is at U and 9th. I'd never been to the 930 Club and it's one of "the" places to see live music here so when I'd heard the band was coming it seemed like a good time to see the space too (and only 7 blocks from my place!). I'd had the tickets for a few weeks and wanted to try and still go if I could. Anyway, seeing as this is DC, they only played for about an hour and 15 minutes and it was all over by 10:30 so it wasn't a super late night. It was a pretty awesome concert, very high energy and eclectic. The club has two levels so we went to the balcony so I could sit down and still see everything and not feel jossled around. I actually felt okay for the most part but having the option to sit helped, psychologically anyway. It was a pretty young crowd and on the floor at one point there were two people body surfing - which I just found odd since it really isn't that sort of music. Another reason to be happy to be in the balcony. I'm not sure if that's a DC crowd thing since my friends seemed to find it normal. Maybe that is how the young'uns here express their joy! Anyway, better them then me.

I went, very briefly, to the newer, larger Air and Space Museum out by Dulles airport on Monday afternoon. No, I shouldn't have gone but it was the only opportunity to go and I'd heard it was very different from the one on the Mall. It is wise to have to keep looking up at big planes when one is having trouble staying upright? No! but there were lots of places to sit, which I did, a lot, and it was neat to see. And free, so staying only for an hour or so didn't matter. I took some pictures which I'll upload when I am less tired!

That is all on my adventures in spinland. A bit woozy today, and tired, but not spinny, so that's progress.

Finally, I feel I've turned the corner. Today, I was just very tired, but only noticeably spinny when I got over-tired walking home and occasionally on a staircase. So perhaps the worst is behind me.

Many thanks to all for the helpful viewing suggestions. All very entertaining and often educational!

I'll update more later - though really, I've spent most of the last five days laying in or on my bed watching Hulu or sleeping. Not riveting.

Still spinny. Have now watched all of Hulu and have resorted to bad back episodes of Gossip Girl. This is a new low. Blah.

I picked up the prescription I was given on Wednesday today - it basically is to help you sleep, which I had trouble with last night. This is something they give to people with motion sickness and vertigo. Warning on the label: May Cause Dizziness. Very helpful.

I stayed home today. Well, more accurately, I went to work and turned around and came home again. Too dizzy to be of any use. I mean I'm fine if I don't move my head. :-) Since my computer wasn't working yesterday (some sort of bug in the anti-virus upgrade apparently, knocked out half our computers) and I didn't trust it would be up and running again today, no point in sitting there. I'm hoping I'm improved tomorrow since we have a department lunch at Farmers and Fishers to celebrate the end of the festival. I'm not good at being unwell, it doesn't suit me.

Anyway, Tuesday's NEA meeting was pretty interesting. We met with the five department directors (but not Rocco the chair). While the NEA is really not a very effective organization, at least it seems they are aware of that and are trying to make positive policy changes to respond to the community. They are still handcuffed by the Maplethorpe (spelling?) issues from the 80s (ooh pictures of naked people! scandal!) and so still will not fund individual artists. They will also not fund any operational or overhead costs, so they will only fund an individual project by a company or organization with charitable status. This is pretty limiting. And yet of course, they want to fund cutting edge work. No wonder they only get 300 dance applications a year. Many of their current grants are also only at the $10,000 level. So your organization, large enough to be able to support its infrastructure through other means, is supposed to do all the work (and these grants are massive undertakings) for $10,000. This is one of the areas they are changing and are increasing their minimum grant amount. Anyway, it was an interesting meeting to be at as basically a fly on the wall and very glad to not immediately be affected by this organization.

Adventures in American Healthcare Part the Second

So I've had a bit of a cold. No big deal and usually what happens to me when I stop after being busy. But yesterday morning I woke up with incredible vertigo. I would not have gone in except that we had a meeting at the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) - more on that to follow- and I didn't want to miss out on it. I went and it seemed to get better over the course of the day. A bit worse again at night, but manageable. Well I woke up this morning and it was much, much worse. So again I went in to work (yes, yes, I know...) but left at 3 to go to a walk in clinic. Where I sat for 2 hours before seeing a nurse and then a physician assistant (so no actual doctor).

2 hours in the waiting room did not fill me with any positive feelings about the system here. I mean this was a clinic, so I wouldn't expect high calibre service from a similar place in Canada, but the reception's first question was always "do you have your insurance card?" not "what are your symptoms". I've got decent medical insurance here - 100% coverage and no "co-pays", the flat rate amount that most Americans have to pay regardless of what their appointment is for - usually it's around $20. But one guy whose insurance wasn't accepted at this particular clinic was given two options - pay $115 and not get a receipt or pay $150 and get a receipt that he could try and get reimbursed from his insurer. That hardly seems legal to me! I mean it seems like the sort of deal your mechanic would offer you if you paid in cash. It's essentially the same idea.

Anyway, the good news is that I don't have an ear infection and my blood pressure was perfect (which is amazing to me, but good to hear) however they have no idea what is causing it and I have to go back in a week if it persists. Basically the physician's assistant went from ear infection to brain tumor as my options! It seemed a tad drastic to me but there you go. I have prescription I can get filled if it continues that might help the symptoms a bit so I'll see how I feel in the morning...

Clarification...and confession!

I was a tad tipsy when posting last night/early this morning (after party with little vegetarian food - I did not plan the menu!). So no, I have not received any astounding job offers! However, I did receive some very high praise from some very important people. Which feels good and who knows...it feels like a turning point anyway. That is all :-)

Closing Night

Well, that's it. Festival is done and dusted. I can't articulate why, but I feel tonight may have been the most important night of my career. I just feel that it is going to be what leads to something amazing in the future. We'll see. For now, I'm just happy this day, that in February I never thought would arrive, is here and that I didn't screw anything up! So, for now, it's all good.

Another reason to not live in Virginia

Participants ready for tomorrow's open-carry rally outside D.C.

By Ann Gerhart

Washington Post Staff Writer

Sunday, April 18, 2010; 2:44 PM

Daniel Almond, a three-tour veteran of Iraq, is ready to "muster outside D.C." on Monday with several dozen other self-proclaimed patriots, all of them armed. They intend to make history as the first people to take their guns to a demonstration in a national park, and the Virginia rally is deliberately being held in sight of the Capitol, just a few miles from the White House.

Almond plans to have his pistol loaded and openly carried, his rifle unloaded and slung to the rear, a bandoleer of magazines containing ammunition draped over his polo-shirted shoulder. The Atlanta-area real-estate agent organized the rally because he is upset about healthcare, climate control, bank bailouts, drug laws and what he sees as President Obama's insistence on and the Democratic Congress's capitulation to a "totalitarian socialism" that tramples individual rights.

A member of several heretofore little-known groups, including Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Freedom, and Oathkeepers, former and active military and law enforcement officials who have vowed to resist laws they deem unconstitutional, Almond, 31, considers packing heat on the doorstep of the federal government within the mainstream of political speech.

Others consider it an alarming escalation of paranoia and anger in the age of Obama.

"What I think is important to note is that many of the speakers have really threatened violence, and it's a real threat to the rule of law," says Josh Horwitz, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, of the program for the armed rally. "They are calling health care and taxes that have been duly enacted by a democratically elected Congress tyrannical, and they feel they have a right to confront that individually."

On the lineup are several heroes of the militia movement, including Mike Vanderboegh, who advocated throwing bricks through the windows of Democrats who voted for the health-care bill, Tom Fernandez, who has established a nationwide call-tree to mobilize an armed resistance to any government order to seize firearms, and former Arizona sheriff Richard Mack, who refused to enforce the Brady law and then won a Supreme Court verdict that weakened its background-check provisions.

Those coming to the "Restore the Constitution" rally give Obama no quarter for signing the law that permits them to bring their guns to Fort Hunt and Gravelly Point on the banks of the Potomac. Nor are they comforted by a broad expansion of gun rights in several states since his election.

The brandishing of weapons is "not just an impotent symbol" but "a reminder of who we are," said Almond, who lives outside Atlanta. "The founders knew that it is the tendency of government to expand itself and embrace its own power, and they knew the citizenry had to be reminded of that."

Countered Horwitz: "Our founders thought they got rid of political violence with the constitution. That was its point. The basic idea of America is one person, one vote, equality."

Vanderboegh and Horwitz both said: "We have a fundamental difference in world view."

April 19 is the anniversary of the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995, and the government's final confrontation in 1993 with the Branch Davidian cult members in Waco, Tx. But, Almond said, he chose the date to honor the anniversary of the 1775 battles at Lexington and Concord that began the Revolutionary War, "and that is the only reason."

So-called open-carry rallies have been sprouting all across the country. Hundreds gathered in New Mexico, Ohio and Michigan last week, and rallies also are taking place on Monday in Arizona.

I have a cold. Which I guess isn't surprising given that I've been going like the Energizer Bunny for two months now.

To prevent myself from just laying in bed all day, I took my book to this park, which conveniently is just a block up from my apartment. I think the green lining the fountain will become daffodils so in a week or two I bet it will be absolutely gorgeous. Today is was just soothing and remarkably uncrowded.

I have two concert options tonight, but I think I'm staying close to home. Last day of Master Class tomorrow so it's going to be a big, long day.

So our mega-star gave me a pair of earrings today as a thank you. I was stunned.
Sometimes you get a card, a trinket of some sort, but for her to have gone out and bought earrings that suit me absolutely perfectly...it was just so completely unexpected and personal. She said the design was called "wishbone", so I think I should make wishes when I wear them...
Oh my goodness...

Last night I went once again to Woolly Mammoth Theatre and this time saw one of the best plays I've seen in a long time. Certainly top two for my time in DC.
Clybourne Park revisits some of the race issues addressed in A Raisin in the Sun (where a black family moves in to a white neighbourhood). Act One deals with this same situation - a white family sells their house to a black one. Act Two looks at the same neighbourhood 50 years on where the roles are reversed and a white family is moving in to the now predominently black neighbourhood. It deals not only with race but class and the classes within the races (if that makes sense).
I wonder if the presence of so many works around the issues of race that I've seen this year has to do with DC and it coming to terms with its own turbulant history, or if it's because it's 2010 and with this President people are looking back at what's come before and assessing what progress has been made. The American friend I went with last night said that certainly it's not a common theme in the off-Broadway plays of New York. But we are so far south here, and it seems the wounds have not fully healed. Things are still fresh in people's minds (the race riots in DC were only 40 years ago - easily within living memory).
Does art help heal? Will the discussions that come from the art help? I suppose this remains to be seen.

Got stuck last night crossing the circle by the motorcade to end all motorcades. They had police stopping pedestrians for about 10 minutes. So final tally yesterday:
regular motorcade - 4
Presidential motorcade - 1
Motorcade motherlode - 1

I wish there was someone to write to to say how impressed I was with the secret service at the White House yesterday. They should have White House comment cards on your way out.
Just in front of us in line was an elderly couple - well into their 80s I would say and not in the best health. It was a cold and drizzly morning and the woman was clearly not feeling well. Without having to ask, someone appeared with a wheelchair for her. Someone else offered to wheel her up the hill (there is a pretty steep incline leading up to the entrance of the East Wing and it would have been hard for her husband to push). He was having some trouble even walking up the hill and instantly there was a guard walking with him, just chatting, not making him feel awkward at all but just there in case he needed an arm to hold on to. When they reached the building itself, the security had moved the woman to a sofa that was in a roped off section so she could rest without being in the throngs of people. The guard with the husband just said that they could stay all day if they liked, in fact they don't kick people out and will stay open as long as someone is still looking. I left the two of them sitting on the sofa, holding hands and listening to the guard tell stories about the room they were in. It was really some of the most attentive and touching service I have seen.

Motorcade count - by noon on Tuesday - 4
Presidential motorcade count - 1 (he was leaving the White House just as we were waiting in line to get in, so we waved the cars off)
Actors successfully shepherded to and from the White House. Much awe was inspired.

Counting motorcades...

Five today. It is funny how all the secret service drive SUVs like they do on 24. All black, identical Ford SUVs. Not subtle at all.

Today and tomorrow are collectively known as Arts Advocacy Day. Today about 400 arts organizations converged on DC to learn about how to lobby their representatives. Tomorrow they have meetings with their reps and 2 actors are addressing Congress (Jeff Daniels and Kyle McLachlan I think). So there are all sorts of related workshops and lectures over the two days. We hosted one at the KC that was put on by Americans for the Arts - it is strange, all these organizations that don't exist in Canada, largely because our funding structure is so different. Americans for the Arts in a not for profit that advocates for the arts in America (go figure). But there is controversy with them as of course not everyone agrees with their priorities and methods etc. In fact, I find it so strange and almost alienating that arts groups need to learn how to lobby independently and collectively, to the point where there is a day put aside every year to teach just that. Maybe we can learn from this though. Certainly, I feel the arts in Canada could be more articulate in its approach and more united nationally rather than regionally - I mean I think in Toronto we're pretty good at gathering together to fight the good fight when necessary.

Anyway, the event tonight was a key note lecture by Joseph P. Riley Jr. who is the mayor of Charleston, South Carolina. He has been re-elected 9 times and has served as mayor for 35 years.

He is awesome.

His vision for urban revitalization and renewal is astounding. The idea that the public housing you build doesn't have to be ugly - it can be designed to fit in with a neighbourhood, not stand out from it. Parking garages don't have to be ugly either. How saving one building can save an entire neighbourhood. I wish everyone running for mayor in Toronto could have seen this speech. For me, it was also nice to be involved in a discourse that wasn't around the performing arts. This was about creating and building a community - which of course we try to do as well but differently - how the health of your neighbourhoods directly affect the health of your city, and how important it is to preserve your downtown core through mixed use. Opening up your waterfront (or other natural feature) for public use improves quality of life.

I mean, what he was saying was just common sense, not rocket science, but no one seems to say it! Urban planners too often reject something because it would involve increasing a sidewalk by 2 feet and that might lead to a problem if you happened to have an illegally parked delivery van which would then be blocking the through traffic. People don't think outside the box enough. David Crombie, years ago in Toronto, used many of these same ideas when revitalizing the St. Lawrence Market area, but it's thinking that seems to have been lost in our city.

I've been to Charleston, but it was likely 25 years ago (OMG typing that is frightening). I'd love to get down there and see how it's changed.

One of the actors took this pic last night. I include it for the purposes of illustrating the new hair for those of you who are concerned. You may note that it looks like my hair circa 1999, so perhaps I'm regressing....

John Glover knit me a scarf. I may never take it off. (If you don't know who he is, google him!! He was Lex Luther's father on Smallville - among other things - and one of the most talented human beings I have ever met).

Tonight Lisbon closed and it makes me sad as they were my favourite. Such a talented cast - tonight's performance was riveting. And I don't say that lightly. The show has grown so much, it's remarkable.

We had a lovely closing party with both the remaining casts. They are really a lovely group.

The helicopters have started overhead in preparation for this nuclear summit that is happening...oh....not even 10 blocks from my apartment. They have been low flying and pretty constant since I got home tonight. I'm tempted to go down there to take a picture of the massive fence they have put up along the restricted area, but I'm thinking that might be a dumb idea. I'm hoping it won't be a massive pain getting to the White House on Tuesday morning...

Secret Garden

Arlington and I found this garden in Georgetown after I finished cutting my hair cut (super cute I think, though rather blonde. They are big on blonde in the south. And I realize I am blonde - or once was blonde anyway - I'm just not used to it). This is called Book Hill Garden and it doesn't go anywhere, just a path up the hill to some benches where you can look out across Georgetown. It was beautiful and serene. And a perfect spring day, though I'd wished I had other shoes on as mine were not the best for the cobblestones of that part of the city.

And this one is for Dennis, who wanted me to be underneath pink blossoms. A few trees on my route to work have gone beautiful pink and purple. Obviously the next phase of spring....

Pollen

A bad pollen count is around 120. Before it rained the other night, ours was in the area of 5000!
I'm lucky to not normally have allergies, but even I here have a bit of a scratchy throat and my ears keep popping....
Tomorrow Lisbon closes which means there is just one more week!!! Weeeee!
Okay, off to the hair dresser...

I feel a bit like Sally Field "they like me! they really like me!". Today turned in to a very busy day but one where 3 separate people said they enjoyed working with me. Which was very nice.

I had lunch with one of our hotel reps - also very nice - which had the extra benefit of getting me out of the building for an hour and a half on another beautiful (though hot hot hot) day. It's raining now and I think tomorrow our high is only 60F so you all can stop being jealous.

I'm heading towards having most of this weekend off. I'll be in on Sunday night for Lisbon's last show but otherwise I'm free. I'm trying a DC hairstylist on Saturday (it is long overdue!) so wish me luck. I'm sure the cut will be fine as he's recommended by a friend, but the first time is always stressful. One develops such a personal relationship with ones hairdresser! You just can't recreate that in one visit. Otherwise I'm planning taking a few days off over the next weeks and making little trips places. Currently Baltimore is a definite for early May and then I'm just trying to see if I can persuade someone to drive me to Williamsburg or somewhere further afield, though I may run out of time. I cannot believe how little time here is left. Crazy.

Next week I'm chaperoning a group of actors on another trip to the White House (oh ho hum, look at me going back to the White House...). I'm a little stressed about it as I will be in charge and you just never know with these government things how it's all going to go. Fingers crossed they will all arrive on time, with the correct ID and it will all go swimmingly....

Record breaking

So apparently we are now in a record breaking heat wave. This is the earliest it has ever hit 90F! Yeehaw!
I was telling someone yesterday about how when Michael and I were in France for those few months it was the coldest winter/spring on record. I'm seeing a pattern.
If this is my super-power, creating record breaking weather, I'm wondering how I can harness it in a profitable fashion. Suggestions welcome.
Of course this is the week my landlord decided to swap out the air conditioning, so we have none currently. Fun fun.

I was going to talk about how the nice part of spring here is that the trees seem to bloom in cycles so it's been three weeks or more now and there are still trees blooming while others have moved on to green. However it is 86 F out (still at 8 o'clock at night - high today was 90F!!! that's 32C for you up north) so it seems spring is over and we've move right along to summer. At least there's no humidity (yet). Though with all the different pollen in the air, I'm having some allergy symptoms and I don't really get allergies.

I feel I've been writing in rush mode lately so I thought I'd go back and talk some detail. Last night pre-awards, Max the VP of theatre took us out to dinner. We went to a place called Cafe du Parc and it is attached to the Willard Hotel along Pennsylvania Ave. Now I want someone to come visit me and stay at the Willard so I can stay with them. I imagine it's only $500 a night or so. It look beautiful from the outside. We sat under umbrellas on the sidewalk with a great view of the world going by. The cuisine was French and so difficult as a vegetarian and I would say not the best meal I've had here, but the setting made up for it.

One other point I thought I should clarify about the awards last night. For whatever reason (stupid in my opinion), the awards are for productions that occurred in the last calendar year - not the theatre season which is how everyone else does it. So I'd actually seen a number of the shows that were nominated. No, this doesn't make sense. And no, no one can explain why it's done this way. Like many things in DC I've been told just to accept it and move on. (they aren't big on people questioning things in these parts!)

After work tonight the other company manager and I went to check out a restaurant where our star wants to have a closing night party. It's called Ris after the chef who is once again famous and internationally renown. We just had to have dinner and on Tuesdays they do a French menu. In this case, they bent over backwards to give me veg options not on the menu or to tell me what they could modify. The service was unbelievable. And the cheese! Oh, the cheese....

DC was designed by the French and you can really see it in the certain streets like Penn that are wide boulevards - perfect for outdoor cafes and the traffic circles like Dupont. The park that is Dupont Circle is also used very much like the parks in Paris. This neighbourhood is full of apartments without outdoor spaces so people use the parks to walk their dogs, read, sleep, eat ice cream, smoke dope (some nights the breeze is very pungent!). But it's nice seeing the people who live here use the public spaces.

The countdown to the end is truly on now. Only 8 weeks to go which seems remarkable to me. So I'll soon be homeless and jobless!! If the visa thing was easier to work out, I might choose to stay down here a little while longer. I feel there is still so much to see and experience and the Americans still have so much to be taught about socialized healthcare! Some of my fellow fellows are truly stressed about what happens next while I am trying for a bit more of a zen approach and hoping that the universe will provide a new and rewarding challenge. Time will tell.

Oh, one other note about the awards last night. There was no one big winner (though the KC did quite well which was nice). It seemed like almost every play that was nominated won something. Not quite like it was all equally spread around the place, but almost. In Toronto, there always seems to be one or two big winners. Part of me thinks this is less about the quality of the art and more about what shows the majority of the jurors actually made it out to see, so those are the only ones they can all agree on (this is not me being jaded - do you remember some of the shows that have won recently?? seriously...).

Also, they gave a lifetime achievement award to Edward Albee. It was extremely well put together (and narrated by Terrence McNally which was a nice touch). Albee was there too which surprised me a little, but I guess it is DC.

Today was the last day that the State dept fellows were in DC. We ended their stay with a roundtable discussion on arts administration internationally in front of about 200 guests that was recorded to be podcast on the KC website. The event really was a vehicle for the State dept's program and so basically I think we were there just for filler and not really to provide content. I had a few things to say, and I said a little, but it was pretty clear that our input wasn't required. This was a little frustrating, not because I need to listen to myself talk, but because if they were honest with themselves about their goals for the event, they could have done a better job of structuring it to reach those goals. As it was, most of the KC fellows said nothing and felt a bit stupid. However, there were still some good issues brought up and I think the audience would have still come away with something from it. The State dept was pleased which hopefully means the program will continue - I know the participants were getting so much out of it all so regardless of whatever political agenda was the impetus behind it, it would be a shame if it didn't continue.

This evening I went to the Helen Hayes awards - DC's theatre awards. This is a much smaller community than Toronto and the awards were kinda hokey. I mean, they actually weren't terrible (and they ended earlier than they were supposed to which never happens at the Doras), the presenters and the winners were all very light hearted about the whole thing. It was kinda sweet. They did little dance numbers between awards which...well...I could have done without. Apparently it's been the same producer and creative team doing the ceremony for years and it sort of felt like that. They opened with "There's No Business like Show Business" which tells you where the bar was set for the evening...

The friend I went with had a cold so we didn't go to the after party which is too bad. I suppose I could have gone - I actually knew people there, more than I had expected to, which was neat to realize. I guess in our business it doesn't take that long to make connections even in entirely new communities - it's a transient industry anyway. However, the weekend was busy so I thought getting home before midnight wasn't a bad thing.

Spring...

The mornings have all started this way. The air feels layered. When you first step outside, it is cool and the slight breeze on your skin makes you think that perhaps you should have brought that sweater afterall. But as you start to walk in the sun, you realize how warm it actually is and the coolness of the breeze fades a bit and you miss it. Though each time you stop at a cross street it finds you again and cools you enough so that you never quite break a sweat. But know that by mid day it will be just that slightly too warm to stay in the sun for very long, (for us more delicately skinned anyway..) but the shade will be perfect as the breeze will have warmed enough to keep the cool shade comfortable.

Saturday, Sunday...

Yesterday was very full - and I fell asleep watching a bad Food Network show so did not get a chance to update.
Brunch with the Famous American Playwright and entourage was lovely. I am too jaded I think because I hadn't really thought about having a festival in your honour as that big a deal. It is. He said it was the highlight of his career and made winning a Tony look like nothing. It was very moving and I was honoured to have been invited and to have been there.

In the evening my friend took me to the DC United home opener. He's a member of the Screaming Eagles supporters club (though I actually know way more about soccer than he does). So we sat on the fringes of the rowdy section (I said I wouldn't sit anywhere I was likely to have beer poured on me) and went to the supporters tailgate party pregame. This is very American. It was in the parking lot of the stadium with burgers and beer (veggie burgers though which impressed me!). I mean I found it a bit strange, but whatever, it's a way for the club to raise some money.
Our seats were fantastic - sixth row - in a stadium that seats 60,000. The Red Skins used to play here but it was too small for them. I don't think DC United have ever filled the place and I think there were fewer people at this game than Toronto FC get. The soccer was bad. We lost 2-0, but I have to say the final goal by New England was absolutely beautiful. One of their guys against 3 of ours and he just kicked it right over their heads and past the keeper. The people around me weren't very impressed when I said what a beautiful goal it was - but it was!
I was actually (for once) very impressed with Metro. They had staff and police at the station directing people after the game and at the major transfer points on the way home. Thinking of Union station after a Leafs game, the TTC could learn a lot from the precision and efficiency of this crowd control.

Highlight of today and our 80F weather, blood orange and chocolate gelato!
It's nice to have a full weekend again....

Image of the day...

It's midnight. We have finally gotten the cast to leave their party so we can go home. I am walking the star and her entourage to where there should be a cab. Of course we've called for a cab, but this is DC and they suck. So there is no cab. But wait. In the distance, there is one. It is not the company that was called but who cares. I, in my high heels and new dress (thanks Dad) (it's blue. I received many compliments on it today which I think means that I wear too much black) drop what I was carrying (carefully as it was gifts for the star for opening night) and tear off across the courtyard in front of the KC after the cab. I get up to a full sprint and chase the cab down. I launch myself towards the cab. A miracle occurs. The cab stops! The cab returns to the front of the KC and picks up the star and her entourage to return to her hotel. And there was much rejoicing and I am a hero.

And such is the life of a company manager.