I got up feeling dog tired and found an email from Prof. Dukakis, something I didn't have time to deal with. This occupied my thoughts all day. After work, I headed for the Citi Theatre to meet Jennifer, who looked radiant; we picked up our tickets for Once, then stopped for dinner at a Vietnamese place called Pho Pasteur (colonialism, anyone?) Jennifer opened her Christmas presents, a soft blanket to keep in the car and a "Grow Your Own Boyfriend," though the third gift is stuck in a shipping center in Detroit. She instructed me not to open my gift until later.
It happened to be the deaf/hard of hearing performance tonight, so we ran into a few interpreters Jennifer knew. Prior to the show, the audience was allowed to come up on stage and give the set a closer look. It warranted the attention; the set conveyed a dusty, aged quality, with lots of ornate old mirrors of various sizes arrayed along the back wall. Next, the performance. Once was a fantastic show. The characters are quirky and amusing, but still relatable; the folksy, buzzing strings and stomps gave me the impression of a past Ireland sitting half in reality, half in nostalgia. "Leave" and "Gold" were as great as I'd hoped, and when a brief, angelic a cappella reprise of "Gold" surfaced, it was almost spiritual in its purity. We went home together afterward; Jennifer was ribbing me, saying that meant the date must have gone well. I opened my present to find velcro command strips and six doses of our favorite psychedelic -- two things I can't say no to. Those were thoughtful gifts.
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