Did It All

Woken up with the lights, then turned them off, and slept till 9. Things done:
-Swiffered the kitchen floor
-Watered all the indoor plants
-Dropped off the rent
- Gave vacation dates to the park - new manager was training new admin, they both were too busy to pay attention to me. Rude.
- Home Depot, turned in 2 unused outlets for a refund
- Car wash, now more than twice the price from 5 years ago, shoddy job. They are still using cheap rags which leave fibers all over the windows. They left the gas cover open - the only way to open it is by pushing a button on the dash. The guy doing the final wipe-down forced the hatchback down - it's hydraulic, there's a button right on top, clearly marked. Wipers were on full, rear wiper was on as well. And I got stuck behind some asshat who pointed out all the imagined spots which were missed. Manager came over and ignored my honks to move, I had to back out. Need to find a better car wash.
- CVS, got B12 and Scharffenberger.
-BB&B, soda stream cartridge exchange
- Met Janice for coffee
- Cabaret show in San Jose.

The cabaret show was by Sarah Griner, with whom I fell in love when she played the mother in Ragtime. She and the father were an item, they had done A Little Night Music previously. But when Ragtime closed, father did what his character did, and walked out on her. He didn't want to commit. She went off the deep end for a while, found some help via equine therapy (in her youth she was an Olympic gold medalist in equestrian acrobatics) and eventually father gave in to her co-dependency and proposed. He did a couple of duets with her in the cabaret. So did the guy who played the character mother runs off with after father is killed in a cruise ship disaster.

The audience was a lot of Ragtime alumni and people who were in her classes at Notre Dame, where she just finished an MFA.

After the show the performers left**, except the pianist who joined some of the students for drinks. I made a pit stop, did not see Sarah when I got back, so I hoofed it back to the car.

And thereby hangs a tale. I thought Hotel De Anza was the one on the corner of Market and San Carlos, across from Montgomery theater, so I parked the car in the garage two blocks away. They have cheap car chargers, I tried to plug into one but it was defective, had to move down 4 spaces for a working one.

Walked to where I thought the venue was, but it was the St. Claire. Looked up the De Anza address, Google street view decided to not help me, it wanted to list every hotel in California and Nevada. Long long walk, about a mile. Saturday night in San Jose there is a lot of eye candy, so at least there was a view. I got there with 10 minutes to spare (instead of 45) paid my money, and found a very comfortable stuffed chair by a table. Did not like the dessert choices so I ordered the salami antipasto plate. I was hoping to have it in front of me before the show started, but it came during the first number.

And it was the worst antipasto plate ever. Instead of the listed 5 varieties of salami, there were 8  small bits of the same leather-tough meat. Two rock hard bread sticks, 6 rock hard toasted baguette slices, some pimentos, some California black olives, pitted. 6 tiny potato halves, heavily peppered.

Sarah was terrific. She started with a slow, melancholy tune called Sing Me A Happy Song. A little disappointing choice for an opener - the song, not the singing. Next she did a very brave thing, in light of her recent soap opera, one of my favorite songs from Chess, Someone Else's Story. The ultimate torch song. It's in my key, I love to sing it. I have no idea why. Except the tune and the stanchion speak to me at a gut level. "Go Now!" toward the end, Sarah punched a little, it could have used more. Then there was The Wizard And I from Wicked, which was mostly to show her
range. While she was singing it I kept hoping she would do For Good, but she didn't.

I lost track after that. Something with her fiancé, from ALNM, something from Ragtime with the guy Mother runs off with. About 45 minutes between the three of them. The audience wasn't having any of this "good night" shit, and brought her back for three encores. The pianist was willing to go all night. A very loudly appreciative audience. It is wonderful to see her so loved, after all she's been through.

Long walk back to the car, halfway there I parked myself at the light rail station and looked up the schedule - as usual I saw a train go by from 2 blocks away. Nothing due for 15 minutes, I could walk the rest of the way in half that. And I did.

Home. Falafel & veggies for dinner, & ice cream. Unloaded the dishwasher.

It is starting to hit me that a week from tomorrow I will be on a plane for Finland. I am not ready for this trip.


**Sarah commented on FB that she didn't see me there and would have liked to chat after the show. Apparently they did return to the lounge and stayed till almost midnight. Bummer.

Plans for tomorrow:
Sleep in
Get the rolling suitcase out of the shed and start packing
Iron the Hawaiian shirts
Lunch buffet at the new Himalayan restaurant
Put some theater videos on a USB drive

Why Am I So Sleepy?

Been sleepy since about 5. No idea why. Got a good night's sleep. Breathe-right strip stayed in place for a change. Maybe because I didn't have anything to do after 5.

Out of bed by 10, switched the Fabriq speakers from sounds of the ocean to a newly found TuneIn channel, called Smile Sussex, which I found searching for big band music.  They play lots of familiar 40's tunes, but also as late as 70s. And many of the arrangements are covers. Turns out the station is located in Brighton, UK. I have a cousin who lives there, I should ask if she knows about them.

I know some pet owners keep a TV or radio on for the animal, but Spook doesn't seem to care either way.

Left at noon for Himalayan Kitchen, which Janice had recommended. Turns out I had been there before - the place which sewed the new borders onto my quilt is two doors down. And I didn't think much of it then. Opened the door, there were four guys ahead of me waiting, playing with their phones, and they looked like they were there for the long haul. The greeter walked to the back of the place as soon as he saw me come in. It was packed with Indians, the ones from India not the ones from Washington DC or Cleveland. The name is a lie, it was all Indian and Chinese food, but the place smelled like Indian food.

I left, and drove down the block to a place I'd been curious about called Old Siam. I see it when I have the car washed, but usually it's not a meal time. Small place, three obligatory crying babies right up front. Two more arrived later. The staff was overwhelmed a bit, but they were very nice, spoke Thai, and did their best juggling what really needed one or two more pairs of hands. I had fish cakes as an appetizer and the special, crab fried rice, which is a favorite.

The place is decorated with old photos of Thai royalty during the era when it was called Siam. Not a single image of the current (new) king, which does not surprise me, but also the photos of the previous king & queen were like their wedding photo and maybe one other from before they had children. My table was under a carved wooden sign, the kind which usually says "yin dee dawn rahp" (welcome) but this one said "ayu yang thai" (we be Thai).

The fish cakes were meh. The fried rice was dry & there were shell fragments in it. The Thai iced tea was mostly ice, but it was fine till the ice got to melting. The only utensil on offer was a fork, which is a FAIL. Spoons are required. It wasn't so bad that I wouldn't give it another try, maybe with a noodle dish. And at a less busy time so I can flirt.

Home, plugged the car in. Got my rolling suitcase from the shed. It's carry-on size, but will probably be my checked bag. Dinosaur bag for carry on I think. It has a laptop slot.

Ironed 4 weeks' of Hawaiian shirts. My back did not like that very much. Also set up the new aroma mister, and threw away the latest one. The last 2 high capacity ones turned themselves off after a few minutes, regardless of which timer setting they were on, and they didn't have enough power to push the aromatic oils into the atmosphere, so all they gave me was cold water vapor, and left the oil in the base. Both had the same basic electronics but vastly different deisgns. This new one is actually another of the old ones I started with, which worked fine until they didn't, 3-6 months later.

Took out all the garbages and recycles.

At lunch I read the last item on my kindle app, so I went onto amazon and "bought" a lot of free and 99¢ items and loaded them onto the tablet. Also downloaded the con's new Helsinki restaurant guide and flipped through it in the kindle app. It seems that Finland has the same draconian booze laws as Washington State did when we first moved there. Short sales hours, and hard alcohol is only sold in designated liquor stores.

Sarah, whose cabaret concert I went to last night, struck up a messenger chat with me. She was curious about why I thought her second song was a good one to have early in the set. I told her I thought it was the story of her life, more or less, and that it's my 2nd favorite song from Chess (my fave is out of her vocal range) and that I liked how she personalized it. I suspect she didn't like that I thought her life was a torch song, but she was gracious about it.

I forgot to mention that on the way back from the cabaret I got to watch some of the Great America fireworks.

Dinner was herb roasted chicken, orange soda and chocolate ice cream with walnuts and magic shell.

Online someone suggested a fishing vest would be a good idea for the con, definitely a good idea for my photo gear. It took a while to find one online in my size, but it should get here in time.

On that theme, Spook's water fountain will run out in a day or two, so I checked and it's been 2 weeks, so it should be fine for the time I'm gone. I'll still set up a 2nd one.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
Movie?
Pack some things. T-shirts, undies, electrical adapters.