Country Mice
First, I would like to apologize for the tossed-off quality of my blog entries lately. I'm pretty busy, and taking the time to craft a "I know why the caged rooster doesn't crow"-level entry threatens to suck what's left of my energy right out of me.
That said, Kevin ("Little Allman"), Stevie, and I ventured to Capital City yesterday. Our 6-hour journey was centered around a 45-minute kiddie play at the Cap City Kid's Theatre, cheap tickets compliments of my corporate master.
We started with lunch at Max & Erma's. Max & Erma's used to be a fun, quirky, even unique place to eat. I have fond memories of special outings to M&E's when my siblings and I were kids and they had phones on the tables so you could harass other diners and bathtubs full of ice cream and even a disco floor!
Now, the chain is a chain, with no discernible difference between Applebee's, TGIFridays (ugh! that name!), etc. etc. Just another generic suburban eatery with $8.00 Reubens and $5.00 desserts. But it was free--thanks mom! Sorry for dissing the place.
After that, we headed to the theater. It was an audience-involving, moral-heavy rendition of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. It's funny that something so amusing to children is often so grating to adults. The actors did a fine job--the kids were into it, and Stevie was overemoting at the live action drama of it all. He was contorting in every way possible within the confines of his chair, his fingers stuck in his mouth in odd configurations as if his excitement overrode his brain's capacity for controlling all of his limbs at the same time. But the overly articulate and overly dramatic (and overly loud) actors stretched that 45-minutes into nearly an hour and 15 minutes in adult time!
Ah, I'm being a little too harsh. Though I wouldn't want to see it again, Stevie "loved" it, and it was fun watching the kids go nuts. (At one point, Goldilocks "hid" from Baby Bear in a seat right beside us! Stevie just didn't know what to think of that!)
Afterwards, we went to the big marketplace to buy something so we could validate our parking. We spent $3 on three chocolates. We spent less on the actual parking. Then we twisted Kevin's arm and went to Victorian Park on a perfectly gorgeous January (?) afternoon. Our afternoon away from the house (where all three of us prefer to be pretty much at all times) was all worth it when Stevie found a little plastic bulb from some Christmasy thing at the park. I said that he should keep it as a souvenir of the country mice's trip to the big city. He thought that was a fine idea, put it in a pocket, and proceeded to tell us again of how much he had loved this day.
That said, Kevin ("Little Allman"), Stevie, and I ventured to Capital City yesterday. Our 6-hour journey was centered around a 45-minute kiddie play at the Cap City Kid's Theatre, cheap tickets compliments of my corporate master.
We started with lunch at Max & Erma's. Max & Erma's used to be a fun, quirky, even unique place to eat. I have fond memories of special outings to M&E's when my siblings and I were kids and they had phones on the tables so you could harass other diners and bathtubs full of ice cream and even a disco floor!
Now, the chain is a chain, with no discernible difference between Applebee's, TGIFridays (ugh! that name!), etc. etc. Just another generic suburban eatery with $8.00 Reubens and $5.00 desserts. But it was free--thanks mom! Sorry for dissing the place.
After that, we headed to the theater. It was an audience-involving, moral-heavy rendition of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. It's funny that something so amusing to children is often so grating to adults. The actors did a fine job--the kids were into it, and Stevie was overemoting at the live action drama of it all. He was contorting in every way possible within the confines of his chair, his fingers stuck in his mouth in odd configurations as if his excitement overrode his brain's capacity for controlling all of his limbs at the same time. But the overly articulate and overly dramatic (and overly loud) actors stretched that 45-minutes into nearly an hour and 15 minutes in adult time!
Ah, I'm being a little too harsh. Though I wouldn't want to see it again, Stevie "loved" it, and it was fun watching the kids go nuts. (At one point, Goldilocks "hid" from Baby Bear in a seat right beside us! Stevie just didn't know what to think of that!)
Afterwards, we went to the big marketplace to buy something so we could validate our parking. We spent $3 on three chocolates. We spent less on the actual parking. Then we twisted Kevin's arm and went to Victorian Park on a perfectly gorgeous January (?) afternoon. Our afternoon away from the house (where all three of us prefer to be pretty much at all times) was all worth it when Stevie found a little plastic bulb from some Christmasy thing at the park. I said that he should keep it as a souvenir of the country mice's trip to the big city. He thought that was a fine idea, put it in a pocket, and proceeded to tell us again of how much he had loved this day.
posted by lulu | 6:15 AM
1 Comments:
One of my best undergrad teachers was notorious for using up lecture time apologizing for having too little lecture time to say what he wanted to say. Better tossed-off than not at all. So don't apologize! And why does the broody hen brood, anyway? Just naturally sullen and withdrawn?
Sounds like a nice day in the city. The kind of things most city-dwellers wouldn't even take the trouble to do.
PS: I owe you a snow shovel. The city mouse got overly zealous during his week in the country and broke it. Not sure how that fits the fable.
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