How about a little Shakespeare?

Friday was my mom's 75th birthday and we went out to the 'ville to take my folks out to dinner. We went out to Rosebud, which is a nice place with good food, but probably a little too loud for us in the future...at least during dinner hours. It was still fun and much good food was eaten, but the noise makes it a little tougher for those with softer voices or not great hearing. My dad loves the eggplant Parmesan and my mom enjoyed her veal marsala. Of course, I forgot to take pictures. Doh!

Saturday was an interesting day. Two of the baristas at my Starbucks were in a Shakespeare play called Pericles. The play has five acts and each act was being done by a different theater group! Pretty cool. They could interpret their act anyway they wanted and the actors differed obviously in each act. The first act used little half masks and interesting lighting. The second group used only dance, no words! The third group was the "unrehearsed acting group" who performed like they did in Shakespearean days: where they would often be doing so many plays, sometimes 10 in a two week span, they used scrolls as prompters for their lines and really didn't know what the other actors were going to do. Back in the day, with that many performances of different plays, they often didn't have time to rehearse. Pretty fun. The other two groups were more conventional but good as as well and I even found myself really getting into the play. The theater, The Den Theater on Milwaukee, only seats about 30 people and the 2 p.m. matinee was not full, so we were able to sit front and center. Good stuff. I had to move my legs a few times for fear of the actors hitting them!! Plus they sold beer and I justified drinking in the middle of the day as "supporting a good cause".

We came home after the play and had a FaceTime call with Joisey Ken and his daughter Stella, who is celebrating a birthday today! LL had sent a gift using Amazon's expedited service and it arrived yesterday before her card, which I mailed during the week. It was fun to see them and chat with them on the phone, though Stella mostly yelled "thank you" into the phone. Ha!

After the call we warmed up leftovers from Friday's dinner and watched the Blackhawks in a great game against the Nashville Predators. The games all have playoff implications now, so they are even more exciting to watch. The Hawks went up 4-0 in the second and LL commented that it was great to blow them out like they did to us just last week. We joked that she jinxed them. Boom, Preds goal. Boom, another Preds goal. 4-2 now. Then another Preds goal and it was 4-3 now in the third. A Preds power play and another goal to tie it at 4-4!! Oh no! LL was saved by a timely Hawks goal and the game ended 5-4. Whew!

This morning we went to church for Palm Sunday and today I made my first palm leaf crosses ever!! You're never too old to learn. I did have the assistance of this youtube video though and what sounds like a youngster. That's ok, at least he teaches well!