Hanging out with AG

We were picking up tickets for a show at the DCPA and browsing through a rack of pamphlets advertising current and upcoming shows. Mondo picked one up and said "Adrian wants to see this." Adrian is my super athletic, super smart 15 year old nephew, who also happens to be my Godson. I looked over and said "Really? He wants to see Macbeth?".

I have never read Shakespeare by choice. I studied what was required in High School and I've seen a few movies. I have even visited Juliet's balcony in Verona. That's about it. Reading Shakespeare made me dizzy. But I was pretty excited to hear that Adrian was interested on his own accord. I grabbed one of the flyers with an intention of asking him about it.

A few days later, I'm sitting on the couch and Adrian (AG) comes over beside me, holding the pamphlet. I said "Oh yeah, I was gonna ask you about that. Uncle says you want to go see Macbeth." AG says "Yeah".

So fast foward to this evening...

I came home straight from work and met AG at the house. I asked him where he wanted to go eat - his choice, but it had to be kind of fast because we wouldn't have more than an hour. "I like the place you and uncle took me for lunch that one time... for noodles" "Noodles & Company?" "Yeah." "You've only been there once? Where do you guys eat out? Mexican food huh?" "Yeah, that's pretty much it."

We found a Noodles & Company just a few minutes away from the DCPA. A sushi house called Sonoda's was right across the walkway. Adrian had just tried sushi for the first time at his 15th birthday lunch celebration in February and he said "We can try this. I'm okay with that. It's something different." I have never thought of my nephews and nieces as being into trying something different... my family for that matter with the exception of my brother Mario and his wife Karen and my brother Mondo. I was all for introducing AG to a new food experience. Even short on time. I said "We'll rush okay?"

He had a little bit of everything! Sushi! Tempura! Terryiaki! And he liked it which put a big smile on his nina's face (I am his"nina"; the Spanish reference and a term of endearment for "Godmother"). We also got out of there right in time to make it to the show. Or so I thought...

The parking garage entrance I usually use, wasn't open. I intended to drive around the block to get to the alternate, but saw that there was parking space on the street on 13th & Champa for with a 4 hour meter. Score! I could scrounge up three dollars in change and that should be plenty. Plus, it would save me seven bucks. We walked across the bridge to pick up our tickets at Will Call - just 10 minutes before curtain! There was a line, but it moved rather quickly. When I got to the counter and said "Rivera for Macbeth" the ticket agent smiled and said - "Ok. You'll need to go back out the doors, cross the center to the west, to your left, down the stairs, back around to your right and then across the street to the Red Brick Building, down the hall to the elevators to the third floor..." I looked at my watch. 6:27 - 3 minutes to curtain. "Will we make it? Will they let us in?" "Ah sure, you'll be fine."

Now the DCPA is a complex with multiple venues for shows. I have been to many of them; The Buell, Boettcher, The Galleria, The Stage... but apparently not the Conservatory Theatre. I had no idea there was another building outside of what I had always considered the DCPA complex area. Good Lord!

We kicked it into high gear, a string of several people who had just been behind us in line doing the same thing. As we crossed the street we noticed a lady on a radio getting information from the box office "just sent two more..." The elevator took forever and we did not see a stairway nearbye. We got to the ticket booth for the show and waited in line another 10 minutes for the group in front of us to take care of their tickets (not sure what that was all about). Regardless, it appears that the DCPA acknowledges that this type of fiasco happens and the show started after all were accomodated.

There were at least three high school aged kids directly behind us and I could hear them talking about having to attend for school - and not very happy about it. There was a point during the show that one of them put their shoe up on my seat, but quickly removed it when I turned around to ask him to take it down (smelly!). During intermission they talked about how cool they were and I thought to myself, I'm glad your not a hooligan AG. Not that they were hooligans, but they just didn't seem as open to the experience as my Godson was and I was happy to be there with him.

I thought the show was good too. I love going to plays, musicals and performances anyway, but I was afraid I wasn't going to understand it. I was trying to think back to the time we went over it in school. Yeah, way way way back then :) and I remembered a little. But it really came together when I saw it right there in front of us. I thought the ensemble was great and I was happy to have another memory with my Godson. Hopefully it sparks his interest and he'll want to go again sometime!