When Worlds Collide

What happens when my trip to see Ravenboy perform in coincides with letterboxing with Sheba and Cyclonic!? The best of both worlds !!

RGBisMe and I took off Friday to see Ravenboy perform in Romeo and Juliet. We knew that Herman Cornejo was recovering from an injury so there was a chance Ravenboy was to take over on of the solos Mercutio usually dances. We had to see that. As we waited to take Ravenboy to supper, we played our favorite game of "name the dancer" as a few of the 90 odd dancers from ABT walked in and out of the Met. We fail to name probably 90% of the women correctly but know most all of the men. Many are Ravenboy's friends he has grown up with. The other's... well let's just say they are very attractive men and I remember their names. I actually got to speak to Mr. Cornejo as he entered the theater. I said, "Hi." and he responded, "Hello." Arron will give me the hairy eyeball me for even sharing that.

A supper with the boy was just what this mom needed. We laughed over Harry's Burritos and were dismayed that they had taken down the portrait of Chairman Mao. We all agreed that when the special lighted portrait of Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin and the riding crop goes, we aren't going back.

We asked Ravenboy where to look for him in the performance. He said he would not be performing the Mercutio solo because Herman was being replaced by Carlos Lopez for the entire Mercutio role. He rebuffed me for crying in disappointment and asked what we would like to see him do on stage during the busy market seen. I challenged him to lick the giant side of beef that one of the "extras" was standing near and pretending to sell.

This was the most humorous R&J we have ever been too. We had binoculars so we pretty much just watched our son. This was really wrong of us because we missed a lot of what was going on in the story and we were laughing during serious parts. "Laugh at what?" you might ask. Ravenboy not only licked the fake beef, he plucked the tail of a fake chicken and calmly walked over to "cough" the tail feather out into a group of dancers milling around in the back of the market place. Please do note that there are over 30 dancers on the stage at this time and no one, except their goofy parents are watching them. The main dancers are all doing grand things in the foreground and the background stuff, if done with a subtle touch just blend in. More tom-foolery included Sascha Radetsky, who danced the role of Tybalt, tackling Arron to the ground just to entertain us as we found out later. These guys are great. I am not a huge fan of ballet but I am a great fan of these young dancers.

We returned to Ravenboy's house and after some thrilling subway parkour, we gave him an early birthday gift. He has needed a new desk chair and we got him one similar to the Herman Miller style. He likes it very much.

It was surprising that any of us woke up in time to make it to meet Cyclonic and Sheba because we had been talking until 3AM. We grabbed some Starbucks and sat watching our Peggy's Park letterbox from a distance. We saw them come into the park and zero in the the box but, they didn't see us. We didn't want to make a ruckus and allowed them to grab the box to stamp up. It was at that point they looked over their shoulders and saw us watching. We all had a good laugh and commended them on their retrieval technique which we will use in the future.

Introductions and exchanges were made. I was honestly in heaven having so many of my favorite people around me. We all walked down to the Halloween Adventure letterbox and Ravenboy grabbed a subway to work (2 shows that day). It was at that letterbox we realized our happy party had walked away and left all of the clues to the boxes way back in Peggy's Park. Back we went if more boxing was to be had. We all hoped the papers hadn't blown around. I wasn't looking forward to rooting in the trash for them either. There, on the bench where we had been was an older fellow sitting by his bicycle. He was avidly studying a packet of white papers. The CLUES! Cyclonic politely told him he had left them there by mistake and the fellow handed them over with a confused look. I wonder what Miss Moon might think of Cyclonic's new letterboxing recruitment technique, posting clues in urban parks? Interesting.

Uptown was next with Imagine and Spook Central boxes. The day was a beautiful summer day and walking in this area so well known to me with these boxers was great. We chatted and visited while searching and stamping. Oh, did I mention we didn't log one find? A couple of Clueties found themselves our way and good times were plentiful. This is why our "F' count usually means pretty much nothing even after hours of boxing. It is more about the artistry, area and the folks for us.

After parting ways and telling Sheba to make sure Cyclonic didn't get too carried away at the Mermaid Parade, we went back to The Met to meet up with 50 other friends of ours. A bus trip from State College had come to watch the matinee performance of R&J. Between visiting with them and having a small picnic before Ravenboy had to go back for his evening show, I was beat! Gimme more days like this one!!