~Saturday~ We were up around 9:30, and Robert put on coffee for us, while I made us each a couple of “sausage biscuits,” which consisted of slicing four King’s Hawaiian rolls, microwaving four Jimmy Dean turkey sausage patties, and sticking them into the rolls when they were cooked. Simple, but delicious.
We rode downtown to Lump Gallery to see their Text as Image exhibit. This gallery is a small space as you can see in this picture of its entirety. (What’s on the walls in this picture is not the current exhibit.)
It took us about 20 minutes, if that, to get through the entire exhibit. My favorite part was a collection of postcards, which made me think of the time in my life, which was for a fairly significant amount of time, when I used to send an average of 50 postcards whenever I traveled anywhere.
We swung by the Chargrill—for which we had coupons—on Hillsborough Street for lunch, and there we ran into a friend of Robert’s, Mark Galifianakis—quite the handsome and well-mannered gentleman, and the son of Nick Galifianakis.
We shared one of the two outdoor tables with other customers to eat our lunch, as the weather was just beautiful today and there is no indoor seating there.
Joe arrived at 5:30, and the three of us headed to Durham, parked at the American Tobacco Campus, and enjoyed some pre-Wicked appetizers sitting al fresco at Tyler’s Restaurant and Taproom. Joe’s friend Erin joined us 20 minutes or so after we arrived, and we partook of their pimento cheese plate; a cheese quesadilla, some fried (green) olives, chicken tenders, and a veggie quesadilla. I had my usual bourbon and Diet Coke, Robert had their Sangria, and Joe and Erin both had beer—Joe having Alagash White and Erin having Newcastle, which was served in a can.
At about 7:20, we walked over to the Durham Performing Arts Center, where we met up with Robert’s sister, Fran. Robert’s friend Tony (surprisingly) was working the door we entered. This was my first visit to the venue, and I was quite impressed. I love how “intimate” they’ve kept it, and that the seats are normal-sized, as opposed to being as narrow and close to fit in as many as possible to make as much money as possible.
I just love Wicked. I’ve seen it twice, on Broadway, both times in the front row! I first saw it alone on June 26, 2004, when I won the front row seats for $25 lottery, and then again on October 5, 2005, when my friend Steve won the front row seats for $25 lottery.
I loved seeing it this time with Robert, who also saw it on Broadway, in 2009, and with three other people who had never seen it—Fran, Joe, and Erin.
After the show, Joe and I dropped Robert off at his place, and headed back to Raleigh.
I had intended to make my way down to The Busy Bee Cafe to catch the tail end of Jen’s (@wiggitywack‘s) birthday party, but it was right around midnight when I was finally able to head down there, and I just wasn’t up for venturing out that late, especially since I knew the group there had been partying since 9PM.
So, I stayed in.