It Was a Real Date Night!

Ron and I had an actual date last night!

Like most good dates, we started with dinner.  Um, ok, this needs to be a post on its own.  I know Ron thinks I'm nuts, and he may be right but . . . well, that will be in another post.

After dinner, we headed over to Lorain County Community College to the Stocker Arts Center.  Linda gave us tickets to last night's performance of Damn Yankees.  Ok, here's a little guilty pleasure of mine.  I love live theater and if it's a musical, BONUS!  I really think I CAN sing like these people.  I belt it out like that in my car and to me, I sound fine.  I ignore all the stares and looks I get from the people in the cars around me.  But, I digress.

Somehow Linda got the tickets and couldn't make the show so she gave the tickets to Ron.  As much as I love live theater, not much is worth driving into Cleveland for.  Since this show was at the LCCC, I was in!  Close enough to home for me!

After dinner, we headed over to find the Stocker Arts Center.  The signs on campus were plentiful and lead us right to where we needed to be.  The building was very nice and artsy!  In the lobby were tables and chairs and benches all around for people to sit and relax and talk while they wait for the doors to open.  Then, instead of the mad dash to rush into the theater once the doors open, Stocker is set up so that there is a separate door for every three or so rows.  That really made it nice.  You didn't have to walk over or through as many people trying to find your seat.

We went in and found our seats and ended up talking to the couple next to us.  Here is a vibrant, active, retired couple that has season passes not only to the Stocker Arts Center but to just about every arts center or theater around.  Good for them!  The guy was really a hoot and because he was so outgoing and gregarious, his wife was much quieter.  I think she had to be, because he would be too much to try to talk over!  At first the conversation was pleasant and generic.

They he started in on the jokes.  Really, people, this is 2012.  Believe it or not, I do NOT want to hear any racist or ethnic jokes nor do I want to hear jokes about people with disabilities or jokes about dead celebrities.  I do not see how putting down someone who is not the same color or religion or race as you as funny.  Disabilities are not funny.  People who have passed away too soon whether they are celebrities or not is not funny.  This guy starts telling one Polish joke after another.  I was offended.  This is before the show even started, so I wanted to diffuse this situation without totally pissing him off since we're elbow to elbow for the next two hours.

My last name sounds Polish but is actually Slovak.  Very close in geography, language and food.  I politely told him that before he went any farther, my last name was "X".  Without missing a beat, he said that's ok, his last name was "Y" and it was definitely a Polish name with a lot more consonants than my name.  Just because you're Polish doesn't make it right for you to tell Polish jokes.  I don't want to hear them!  Luckily, I think he got the hint that I was getting ticked and we changed the subject.

Nice enough couple but totally out of line with some of the comments.  Crazy seat mates aside, the show was fantastic!  I had never seen Damn Yankees, but I could sure relate.

The wives are complaining that for six months of the year, they lose their husbands to baseball.  The husbands are complaining because their beloved Washington Senators are 7th in the division.  Hey, I'm a Cubs fan!  I totally understand!

An unhappy Senators fan makes a deal to sell his soul to the Devil so that his beloved team will win the pennant!   Don't worry though, it had a happy ending.  The fan realizes his life was better than he thought and he uses his escape clause to go back to his old life and leave the life of a famous ball player on a winning team.  You gotta love a happy ending!

The music was awesome, the dancing was fantastic and for real, the sets and costumes were absolutely amazing.  Ron and I had such a good time and at the end, my hands were sore from clapping.

Not to dis the school, but I believe that this was a traveling show that had a one night stop at LCCC.  I wish them MUCH luck and success on the rest of their tour.  That really was the most entertaining two hours we've had in a long time.

Date night.  We so gotta do that more often.  If there is singing and dancing involved, all the better!  It was definitely good for my soul.  My soul that as much as I love my Cubs, I'm not quite ready to sell it to the devil, even for a pennant!