| I headed out to the beach at noon, and Michael and I spent the day together, while Nick and “Big Jim” worked at the theater.
We made the short walk down to the pier area, which is also where all of the bars and shops are in this tiny little beach town. While Michael went to a couple of real estate places to make some housing arrangements for their final week there, I walked around and took a few pictures. |
You can’t fight…
(Especially since you’ve already been ordered to “Relax!”)
That Holiday Inn in the back?
That’s the “Charleston on the Beach” hotel at which I originally thought Michael and Nick were staying.
Snapper Jack’s Bar
(Where Michael was upstairs and I didn’t see him when looking for him yesterday.)
I really enjoyed the name of some of the establishments here:
The name’s over the door, and hard to see:
TACO BOY
This place was billed as “a bar for the locals.”
Here’s a poorly lit picture of my friend Michael, which I just had to take, because the word “shagging” in the U.K. is pretty much equivalent to our “f-word.” So, in that context, it’s pretty funny that that’s going to be going on on the pier on June 13th.
We spent about 30-45 minutes on the pier getting some sun, watching the pelicans dive-bomb into the water to nab snacks, and had a nice chat.
After that, we drove out to the Citadel Mall, where Michael shopped in about 8-10 stores, while I sat and people-watched. I bought a huge-assed gumball from a gumball machine—it was 75-cents, but worth at least 6 of the 25-cent ones sold separately. Grape.
On the way back to the beach, we stopped at a Best Buy, as Michael, Nick, and “Big Jim” had been looking for a Circuit City, and this was close enough in my opinion. Big Jim is interested in a Skype phone, got one at Wal-mart for $15, and is just curious about better quality ones elsewhere. They only had one at Best Buy, and it sold for $150.
Back at the beach, Michael had an outfit change, we enjoyed a Bloody Mary each, and then we headed into town to meet Nick and Jim for dinner. Ironically enough, we met at a bar/restaurant called Jim & Nick’s.
Michael and I waited about 30 minutes for Jim and Nick to arrive, during which time we had a couple of cocktails and a chip and con queso dip appetizer. When Jim and Nick arrived, they finished off the rest of the appetizer (it was huge), and we all ordered dinners. I had a small Greek Salad, and a side order of their sliced BBQ, because I wanted to try it. Overall, it was disappointing—a little too dry.
We finished our meals at about 7:20, and it’s a good thing the Sottile Theater was just around the corner, because tonight’s dress rehearsal started at 7:30. We sent Nick and Jim back, while Michael and I settled the bill.
It was very interesting sitting in on the dress rehearsal. It’s always intellectually interesting to see people who are at the top of their trade, doing what they do best, and noticing things that “the average Joe” would never notice.
Michael, who has sat through many, many dress rehearsals with his partner being “in the business,” explained to me that they really try their absolute most to not stop at all during dress rehearsals. Well, there were three stops during the about 90-minute show, which had no intermission. The stops included:
- After about 5 minutes into the show, because the video (it’s a multi-media presentation) was not in sync with the orchestra,
- About midway, when this huge mechanical hand on the stage that was supposed to turn over and pin down the main character, but wouldn’t move, and
- A little later on, when fog rolled in on the stage (like I think they do with dry ice for effect), and the fire alarms went off throughout the theater—both the bright blinking lights and the audio, which was ear-piercing.
I’m not exactly certain, but I think that covering up the blinking lights with black duct tape might possibly be against some fire code. However, the show must go on.
I noted four errors in the subtitles, but I didn’t report them to anyone.
We (me, Michael, Nick and Jim) contemplated going to a bar after the rehearsal, but needless to say, with these three snafus, meetings ensued at the conclusion of the rehearsal.
So, Michael graciously let me off the hook of waiting for probably at least another hour of meetings, and we were all pretty tired anyway.
My night ended on a downer, when after getting lost for about 30 minutes on the way home, I finally got to the road on which my hotel was, and within about a mile from my hotel, got a speeding ticket—clocked at 49 in a 35.
A cop was sitting about 200 feet from where the road turns from 35 to 45. I had no idea the road started at 35; I assumed it was 45 the entire way. He seemed to take a little delight in pointing to the 45 MPH sign, which we could see from where he stopped me and saying, “See, it doesn’t go up to 45 until right there.”
To his credit, when he finally handed me the ticket, he said, “I don’t know if NC is like SC, but here, 14 MPH over results in 4 points on your license. So, I reduced your speed down to 9 MPH over, instead of 14.”
It’s a $76 fine to admit guilt and pay the ticket, which I’ll most likely do. I’m pretty sure that the SC-NC-VA driving systems are linked together now, so I’m expecting three points to be added to my license within the next few months. C’est la vie, n’est pas?