Fun day

Well, S and I went down to see a show at NIU, where I have the interview later this week. We left late in the afternoon, and after some trouble trying to get out of town by avoiding construction, and my desire to take the back roads, we finally got out of town by 3:30 or so. We stopped in Sycamore. I'd heard comercials on NPR about "The Confectionary" a candy store that makes their own candy, "at times, while you watch". I decided to stop and check 'em out. Good call. Lots of really tasty stuff. Then on to DeKalb, just down the road. Found a parking place and the theatre, but it was all closed up until showtime, so we went out to a bar for burger and beer until then, and then back to the theater, bought tickets, and found the SM that had a parking permit for me for this week's meetings. The show was 'Tracers'. A collection of Vietnam War experiences. The show was in their studio theater, fully in the round. The designer had nicely incorporated the whole space into the design, with jungle fronds, bamboo, and erosion cloth hanging behind each seating riser. The main playing space was a dirt area, surrounded by sandbags and crates, a la, a foxhole bunker. The story went from basic training, to jungle warfare and trench life. The show was paced nicely, and saved it's big punch for the end. Bold statement of the soldiers standing in silhouette, lit only by full 360* projection of names from the Vietnam Memorial Wall, across the actors and audience alike.

I was entranced by the nifty toys that I've wanted to play with for a while, moving heads with LED floodlights. Three color LEDs (and a ring of white) which blend to make any color combo, all on a moving yoke! as I said, Nifty. The rest of the lighting was adequate, warm when it was appropriate, and stark when it needed to be. There were a few odd light moments, that looked like a bad patch or missed cue or something; lights came up on one area when an actor made his entrance in another... that sort of thing.

After the show, we came back home, by interstate this time. Since it wasn't yet even 11, we decided to try the bar up by her house. Pretty redneck place. She'd been in there once before with a girlfriend, and had promptly been hit on by several guys with six teeth between them. Scary for them alone, but ok for the two of us. We had some very expensive (but very good) goosey ales and played a couple of games of shuffleboard. (I need to practice that one more, it's fun). Round about midnight, I realized my phone was still on silent from the show, and saw that I'd missed calls and a voicemail from Wife, wondering where the hell I was. I dropped S off and called her and told her I'd just dropped her off and was heading home. She wouldn't be happy knowing I was out drinking when I could have been home with her that much earlier. But I'm used to that, and I don't even feel guilty about it any more. If I had it her way, I'd never be out of the house, and I'd never see my friends, and I'd probably have killed her long ago.