Some shows - Day 1274 (Year 4, Day 179)

Williamsburg, VA

This past Shabbat we did indeed make it to synagogue services in Newport News.  As before, not as awe inspiring as some of the Chabad's we've been to, but it was still very lovely and the lunch of latkes and bagels/lox was yummy.

On Sunday, we decided to forego the touristy stuff and go to the movie theater instead, to see the latest Star Wars movie ("The Last Jedi" in 3D).  This is #8; I just can't believe we saw the first one 40 years ago!  It was very action-filled and good, if you like that kind of stuff.  It's not exactly my first choice of genre, but I can't say that I was sitting there feeling bored and tortured either.

The theater itself was in the middle of a very interesting and quaint downtown area in the New Town section of Williamsburg.  Kind of reminded me a little of Westfield, NJ.  Although the stores were very modern, the setting was designed to give a colonial feel.  Here is a photo (fortunately, there was an outdoor parking lot as well; street parking is impossible, especially for the truck which needs at least 2 spots).  This is only 1 street, but the area is about 6 square blocks and each street has this same look.

Today is Tuesday, December 19th, and Mitch's 60th birthday.  As I mentioned in my last post (Dec. 14th), we are going to see "The Meshuga Nutcracker," a hilarious musical based on tales of Chelm (old Yiddish stories of a town of idiots and their crazy decisions).  It is being performed live at the Met in NYC, and live streamed in various nationwide movie theaters. The closest theater it's playing in is 30 miles away - in Hampton, VA.  Now, coincidentally, this is the area where Mitch has been working for the past 2 weeks (hopefully by the beginning of the year his maps will be a bit closer to home).  It really didn't make sense for him to drive an extra 60 miles round trip just to come and pick me up (not to mention it wouldn't give us any time for a nice dinner before the movie).  So I decided that, as unpleasant and inconvenient it would be, I would get up with Mitch at 5:30 am and find a place nearby to park myself to work.  As of this writing (10:45 am), I am at a mostly empty Burger King (I brought my own food but am purchasing tea).  I did ask permission from the manager to stay for a few hours and he was very surprised and appreciative that I asked.  I will probably move to another food place or even a library after lunch so I don't overstay my welcome.

UPDATE:  The show was wonderful and a lot of fun!  And I stayed at BK the entire day.  Believe it or not, I actually had table wait service!!!  The manager kept coming over to check on me, to make sure my needs were met.  At one point, he saw I was unable to break away to come up front to place an order, so he came over to take my order and deliver it to the table (a side salad and tea).  Totally unbelievable!!!  The place was also mostly empty so I didn't feel like I was taking up important space, and the manager was so overwhelmingly accommodating!