A Good Evening

Last Thursday evening was a good evening.

First, after work, I went to my daughter’s school. She played two roles in the school play Crumpled Classics. It was a play-within-a-play, where the main plot was that the students were trying to present some classic stories (Romeo & Juliet, King Arthur) to the school principal but, of course, their take on each classic was, well, crumpled. Isla had a smaller role in The Phantom of the Opera act, but her show stealing role was as the school principal. Isla really put her all into the role, and fully hammed it up as befitting a comedy. Her performance was made even funnier due to the fact that she was the shortest person in the play, and with students as old as 12th-graders in the play, their height difference was very noticeable. It was good fun, and I was very proud of my talented little 3rd-grader!

Afterward, we got ice cream from McDonald’s.

Then, after that, I went to The Rock Band Experience to hear my buddy Ryan perform in a Neil Young cover band.  Mercifully, the venue was not in downtown Minneapolis, so that made for a pleasant experience even before I arrived. But the venue was great, the acoustics were excellent, there were free snacks and free beer, and the intimate venue made for a concert experience that I absolutely loved. Owen came with me, and we sat in the front row watching Ryan channel his inner-Rhett on drums. When the set was completed, I shouted “Encore!” and the band agreed to a replay of “Cinnamon Girl” as long as everyone joined them on stage singing vocals.

Well, only about 5-7 audience members took the opportunity to run up on stage, but Owen and I were among them.

Here’s the cool thing:

On January 19, 1992, I was present when Ryan performed “Cinnamon Girl” along with a few other friends. I even videotaped the recording. Here’s a picture of Ryan on that day:

I never would have imaged that, twenty-seven years, three months, and six day later, I would be at an equally fun encore. Here’s Ryan last Thursday:

Yeah! The band did great! Ryan did great! The play was great! Isla was great! Sometimes – every once in a long, long while – life turns out to be surprisingly fucking awesome.

I haven’t really had a good day in at least two months. And I’m hard-pressed to say any day I went to work makes for a good day. So let’s just say it was a good evening.