Catching Up!

Today was my day to play, and I sure did a lot of it.  I started out early by having brunch with Amy Hartman, and it was such a delight to see her.  I met her at her house and we went off to her favorite diner on Mount Washington, where we hung out for nearly two hours.
You can rest assured that, while atop Mt. Washington, I snapped a couple of photos of the city.  True to form for this weekend, however, I managed to screw them up by setting my exposure setting too low in an effort to compensate for what I thought was too much bright light... these are the only two that came out.

Then I rushed off to the City Theatre to catch up with Ms. Patti Kelly, and to see Anthony Rapp (sigh) in Hedwig and the Angry Inch.  I had never seen the stage show - just the movie - and so it was a real thrill to see it done by one of the cutest musical theater guys around!  I know... I'm so shallow.

After the show, Patti dragged me off to a party at the home of one of her crew members, and we had a really great time.  This was the greatest idea for a party that I've ever heard - and apparently they do it all the time:  It was an "Art 4 Beer" party.  Meaning, the guests showed up being objects d'art that (presumably) they'd made and in exchange got beer and victuals.  It was actually really nice, and the girls made out wherein the art was concerned, I thought.  I wish that I'd have known what I was getting myself into... I'd have brought them one of my photos.

After the party, we returned to the South Side and made for Tuscany (no big surprise there, I'm sure), where I'd informed a raft of friends (by e-mail) that I'd be stationing myself for the evening, in the hopes of doing some mass catching up.  I got to see my favorite Tuscany bartender, Mike.  That's him to the left there.

Jay O'Berski was there!  That was a thrill, since I hadn't seen him since the end of our road trip in February.  Sadly, Ms. Pixie (Lissa) couldn't make it, as she had a rehearsal to attend.  The group that managed to make it ended up being smallish, but a lot of fun.  I got to see Dean Boustead for the first time in I don't know how long - any time away from him is a sad time, frankly.  The funny thing is that I never seem to realize that until I'm back in his presence.  I miss him something terribly.
The good news, of course, is that I finally got to meet his girlfriend Milissa - after they've only been dating for a year!  Brian Czarniecki and his partner Fred came, too - another pair of people I don't get to see enough of.  And the fabled Dan Stiker put in an appearance, as did Philip Real, who long-time readers will remember from the Artists' Lunch days, and with whom I got to see Son of Drakula earlier this year.

So all in all, it was a pretty great evening, and I managed not to get to crocked.  I only had three apple martinis.

The big shock of the day was when I returned to Toni's place and checked my travel itinerary to see what time I had to be at the airport on Monday, only to discover that, instead of doing as I'd originally planned and flying back on Monday so as to be able to laze about on Tuesday, I was actually flying out on Tuesday!  That's what you call "forgetful," my friends:  a guy who fails to remember that he changed his travel plans.  I am well and truly a jackass.