#performance network

So I'm awake and healthy this morning after getting motion sick for the first time in my life while drunk riding in the passenger seat of my friend's spaceship. 

I say spaceship because I don't know whether it's his car or his driving, but I felt like I was on a bad roller coaster. After being drunk and in a spaceship, there's now a pile of my vomit somewhere between West Bloomfield and Ann Arbor. 

I had never been to Ann Arbor before last night. I've wanted to go for some time. I've known a few people from there, heard some great things. 

My friend Chelsea is a stage manager at Performance Network- a local theatre there. She's involved with a production of the Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams that's currently showing. 

I won't go into details about the performance- this isn't a theatre criticism blog, but know that the actor playing Tom earned my standing ovation- even if nothing else about the production did (which there were many, many wonderful things about the production). 

During intermission I was hit on by a professor of Economics at UofMichigan. David is his name and he just got tenure. He was a cutie, I thought he was just making small talk but then he dropped that line. Plus, I excused myself and went to the bathroom and later a lady friend who was with me came in and said all the silly things to be said in the bathroom when one of your friends gets hit on. 

After the show some of the interns, the actor who played Jim (who was wonderful) named Sebastian, and Chelsea took us to a local bar. 

The Blue Tractor Brewery and BBQ

First, the barbecue smelled amazing. It had such a delicious, sweet and smokey scent to it- the smell that can only be had through balancing the rubs with the smoking of the meat. 

The beer, so I hear, was great. I miss beer sometimes. 

The bartenders were amazing. One of the waitresses took my drink while I was away from our table before I was done with it. The one really cute bartender- the one with the beard- talked to me about it and gave me a drink. I only paid for two. I think those were the two drinks I didn't order from that bartender. 

The atmosphere at this bar is amazing. It's old, dark, wooden, seedy with a perfect blend of tavern class mixed with college-town gastropub. The basement was awesome. There was a live band playing in the basement and it just so happened that they were playing blues, bluegrass, honky tonk, and folk. 

I can't stand it when people fight their urges to dance for fear of looking stupid. It makes everyone feel self-conscious, so no one dances. It makes for a boring time for the band and a boring time for those watching. 

So, I danced. And I danced and I danced. And eventually other people danced with me. At one point, I was asked by the band leader to help them play the tambourine. Superfluous as that may seem, I was elated. He played a song from Mississippi for me. "Mississippi Queen DeAnnah here will kindly join us in playing this delta song from her homeland by playing the tambourine". It was awesome. 

I got hit on quite a bit. The weirdest attempts I've ever been subjected to happened last night. My talley was 4, 4 weirdos. Asking me what my favorite Aladdin song was, doing magic, asking me what my name was the last time we met, etc. It was ridiculous. 

Ann Arbor, I had a great time. It was nice being back in a college town. It was nice being out of West Bloomfield.