The Best Part of the Show

Undoubtedly, the Best Part of the Show was before the show, when Rob and Jen and Kirk and Basil and I were standing outside Neumo's, just passing the time, saying to ourselves, "Hey, I think the teenage Johnny Cash guy is playing. Maybe we should head in soon." During this time, it was noticed that across the street, up on the second floor there was a gallery, the sort with large colorful paintings on the wall and large non-representational sculptures looming, waiting to fall out of the giant open windows. And because the windows were open, we could see and hear that some kind of party was going on. It looked like adults at a gallery opening or something. Accordingly, I dared Rob to go across the street and see if he could crash the party. In fact, I told him that I'd give him $5 if he got in and waved to us from that second story window. Without a moment's hesitation, he went. He disappeared through the first floor door, and after about 5 or 10 minutes, there he was with a drink in his hand, waving to us from that second story window.

Then, suddenly, there was applause from inside this party in a gallery. All of the party goers who had been casually looking out the large windows stood up and turned around. There were flash bulbs going off. Some event had just started. Then I got a text message from Rob: "I'm trapped!" Clearly, he couldn't get out without walking right in front of the event that just started. We saw him casually shuffle over another window where there were less people and climbed halfway out, looking to see if there was any way to climb down. Nope. There was more applause from the party goers. I got another text from Rob: "Help!" It was totally awesome.

I started telling everyone who walked by until there were a bunch of us all staring up at the windows laughing. Eventually, maybe 15 minutes later, Rob left the window, and about 10 minutes later, emerged from the first floor door, striding across the street with a flute of champagne in his hand. We all applauded, and I gave him his 5 bucks. Well worth it. It turns out that it was a private birthday party for some guys named Robert and Steven. (Sorry about the party crasher guys!) The entertainment was a piano player who was performing parts of a musical she'd written, and Rob couldn't leave without walking right through the performance area, right in front of the birthday boys. Eventually he escaped through the kitchen.

Another fine performance from the guy who can get away with anything.



Or maybe the Best Part of the Show was after the show, at home, when Jen and I were playing ball with our cat who likes to fetch, and I took this picture with my fancy new digital SLR camera. (I love you fancy new digital SLR camera!) Note the gold glitter ball in the upper right.


-David