Alexandria

I got good news and bad news yesterday, and they were both the same news. They called when I was on the bus going to Spanish class and said yesterday's class was cancelled. That is both the good and bad. bad because class didn't meet, but good because I now get to go to class on Friday, and, as you may have realized, I love going to Old Town, and eating out at La Madeynes.

I had lots of time to kill yesterday. I went in pretty much all of the accessible shops on King Street. Many of the shops have one little brick step in front of the door. I still managed to buy some stuff I absolutey don't need to be getting right now. For instance, the Christmas cards you will be receiving in a few months time were purchased yesterday.

Probably I won't go quite as early Friday as I did Tuesday.

The Torpedo Factory is always fascinating, though. I actually saw one of the artists painting a picture of a boat on the Potomic. Whoops - gotta go.

Donde esta mi classe?

I have my last Spanish class today with Spanish Now in Old Town. I wasn't especially impressed by the quality of the instruction, so I've signed up for a class that starts next Thursday, offered by Fairfax County Continuing Education. It meets Tuesday and Thursday from 6:30 to 8:30, which fits my schedule great, because Tuesday and Thursday are the two days they won't give me a shower. If you can't beat them, run as fast as you can!

Lincoln Assassination

Something that I found really interesting about John Wilkes Booth but forgot to mention yesterday was that he had individual photos of 4 girlfriends in his pocket when he shot Lincoln, and he carried them on his escape. That was back in the days when photos were a big deal.

This is a picture of the boot I mentioned in the last post that they have in the museum and they Mudd had to cut off Booth's leg to fix Booth's fracture after the assassination.

I also found it interesting to look at the photos of John Wilkes Booth and the rest of the conspirators. They are so young! The museum guard called them the Al Queda of their day!


Do you know what the Entertainment Tonight reporter asked at the theater door?
ET: Well, other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, what did you think of the play?

Ford's Theater

That was scarey - I wanted to write in the blog, and I couldn't find it for a while. I guess that shows how entirely disorganized and computer illiterate I am.

Sabrina Fair was well done show and fun in it's way. It was very well-acted, and quite witty, and I enjoyed it.

It just isn't the type of show I usually choose. I guess I usually go a musical or racous comedy. This was more like what you call a "comedy of manners".

It was super cool to be in Fords Theater. Lincolnn's box seat was draped in red, white, and blue bunting. They have a museum downstairs thats full of stuff about John Wilkes Booth, including his diary and a boot he was wearing at the time and which was later cut off his leg by Dr. Mudd.

this and that

I had a difficult time here last evening,

BUT

this afternoon I'm going to Sabrina Fair at Ford's Theater. If you can't beat them, ignore them.

I just heard on TV that a man got his drivers licence at DMV, then went out, got in his car, and crashed into the DMV building.

When I went in for my Social Security Disability interview, I fell down getting in the car in the parking lot in full view of the Disability Office windows, and Sue had to call the Fire Department to get me up. I got the benefits, no problem.

a blast from the past

I went and voted absentee today. That took a bit of courage, because I haven't been back in the office since the electoral board from hell fired me for being in a wheelchair. They had everything set up for absentee voting exactly the way I used to set it up. So they must think I had it set up correctly, right? (Except that they didn't have a sample ballot posted on the door, which is something I always used to do, and which is something that seems like a good idea to me.) I never used a paper pollbook and wrote voters names in it when conducting absentee voting. I always assumed the absentee ballot applicant list was the pollbook. The evil and incompetent and ill informed Secretary of the Electoral Board from hell made it a big deal that I wasn't using paper pollbooks and put on a big show of demanding that they be used, but now I see that they aren't using them again. Could it be that she found out that she was wrong?

The reason I went to vote is because Jim Moran is on the ballot, and I feel he's always done an excellent job.

Voting is so important and such a unique privilege and so easy to do that I can't believe that anyone would not vote. But, from what I know of my blog readers, I am probably preaching to the choir.

Once David let loose with one of his frequent heartfelt and poignantly correct sermons during rehearsal. One of the basses raised his hand. "Yes, Stan," David said. "David," said Stan. "You are preaching to the choir."

Artsy

I had Spanish class yesterday. I went to Old Town in the middle of the day and stayed through class. The weather was gorgeous - around 70 degrees and clear (no llueve y no nieva, en espanol). (I think probably I just said 'no rain and no snow'). (I think)

I went down to the waterfront and read for a while - "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", still. I'm finding this book hard to dive into. I sat at the water for a bit, and watched the boats go by and the planes take off, and the ducks paddle. Then I went in and looked through "The Torpedo Factory". This building used to be an actual, working torpedo factory. It is three floors tall and divided into hundreds of small studios, where artists work and then sell their finished pieces. It was really wonderful. I found a lovely piece that would have been nice for Mom and Dad's new place, but it was $400.00. They have enough pictures. don't you think?