My Kingdom for a Country

 I always enjoy my lunches with my friend Kathy.  We see each other once a month and are not in communication between times, but we stay caught up on each other's lives, and have been doing it that way for nearly 20 years. Sometimes our lunches are short, with nothing much to talk about.  Today we sat and talked for two hours.

First she told me about her recent trip to New York and the nightmare it was to get there.  She flew United and the plane was delayed 8½ hours, first by frost on the wing, then by whatever they used to defrost the plane getting into the system somehow and they needed to fly a technician into Denver from Seattle.  They let the passengers off the plane and told them to go and have dinner.  When they returned they were offered food vouchers, which nobody could use because they had already eaten.  There were a couple of other delays but when the were finally airborn, the airline had the audacity to SELL them those crappy little boxes of crackers they call a meal on United flights.  They did offer the passengers $75 coupons for future flights, but I'm wondering how many, after such an experience, will actually consider flying United again.  I know my experience with United in the last few years has been so abominable (you just plan on flight delays these days) that if our frequent flyer miles were not with United, I would find another airline.

She had also taken a cruise from San Diego to Portland.  Four days on the ship and no stops for touring historic spots en route, just four days of relaxing and having fun on the water.  Sounded wonderful.

But of course we eventually (several times) got around to the candidacy of Donald trump and his apparent unstoppable juggernaut to the White House.  She found a magnet that she picked up for me in Portland.

We're both wondering which country we want to move to when Trump becomes the leader of the free world and has access to all the bomb codes.

After a two hour lunch, I needed a two hour nap, and happily took it.

Then in the evening, we went down to the Davis Art Center for an outdoor production of Moliere's Scapino, performed by Acme Theatre Co, the young adult company founded 35 years ago, which puts on a free production every Memorial Day as its thank you to the city of Davis for its support throughout the year.  Jeri and Paul both performed with Acme from the beginning, Ned worked tech eventually, so it's always been a family project.  They now offer a yearly "Paul Sykes award" at the end of each year.

The event starts with an optional barbeque, where you can pick up a nice burger plate with a cheeseburger, corn on the cob, and fresh strawberries.  I can say with certainty that they served the absolute worst hamburger I have ever had.

The meat was so overcooked that it was crispy.  I have had biscotti softer than that meat and because it was so overcooked, the cheese melted into the meat and if you closed your eyes, you would have no idea there was any cheese on the meat whatsoever.  I ate some of it, but ten decided it was inedible

But the corn and strawberries were good.

In the "small world" department, we chatted with some people we have known ever since the kids founded the Sunshine Children's Theater.  We only see these folks at Acme productions, but we get caught up on whose kid is doing what now.  One of their sons had gone through a messy divorce, but was now remarried to a wonderful girl who as it turns out, is Char's cousin's son's daughter.  The mother-in-law wants to meet Susan, since it is her brother who is the new wife's father.  I am often amazed at how small this world is!

This version of Scapino was adapted by actor/comedian/clown Bill Irwin and comedian Mark O'Donnell.  The plot is very shallow and the whole point of the show is the slapstick comedy.  The "story" is supposedly set in turn of the century San Francisco, but locale has no place in the story--it could just has easily have been set in Japan, Italy, or Bangladesh, for all the reference to location.  It was also strange that for turn of the century San Francisco, they used a modern image of the city.

But let it pass.  The kids did a good job and it was a fun show.  It only runs through Monday, so I had to write the review as soon as we got home in order for the newspaper to get it printed for Sunday's edition.