I played guitar and people watched

They even clapped! Today at Piecora's, Charlotte Thistle's guitar students, including yours truly, performed in front of an audience. The students ranged from wee to middle-aged; the audience consisted almost entirely of parents. The pizza and salad were excellent. Here's the gallery Reed put together. I played an instrumental version of "Falling Slowly," the Oscar-winning song from Once; Reed played "Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod" by Mountain Goats, and its tale of an abusive father (that is what it's about, right?) provided an effective thematic counterpoint to "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," which followed.

In other news, I finally had the Berry Bar at Portage Bay Cafe this morning at brunch, and it was... a bit anticlimactic, but still good. My French toast ended up being dinner, too. My friend Jill and I spent part of brunch talking about the navel-gazing that blogging can lead to, and the ultimate descent into the mundane and frivolous -- here's what I ate for breakfast -- came up. So now, dear reader, you know what I had: French toast. Man. It's 9:25 p.m., but I'll still kind of hungry. Maybe I'll heat up a veggie dog.

Good theater, sunshine, and brunch

Just came from Washington Ensemble Theatre's production of Mr. Marmalade. I was already smitten with Marya Sea Kaminski (see picture above), thanks to her performance in the Rep's production of My Name is Rachel Corrie, and in this show she finds another good outlet for her childlike energy, as she's playing a precocious 4-year-old with a volatile imaginary friend. I love the play's sense of humor, how it moves from comedy to tragedy without sacrificing the potency of either, and I admire the way it examines childhood concerns and adult problems side by side. I also love how it depicts married life; it's a portrayal that points out the ridiculous notions we get attached to, whether we like it or not -- white picket fence, kids running around, etc. -- while acknowledging that sometimes, for reasons both cultural and personal, we really, really want to believe in them. (See also: the song "I Wanna Get Married" by Nellie McKay.)

The cast as a whole is strong, but it's especially wonderful to watch Kaminski work. She has a tremendously expressive face, and her timing is really remarkable. There's a moment where she transitions from one facial expression to another -- I honestly can't remember if it's from excitement to disgust or what -- and she hits it so perfectly that I thought: Wow. Yet that moment didn't take me out of the reality of the play; I noticed her skill and fell right back into seeing her in character, and it all happened in an instant. She's fantastic. If you're up for something loopy and somewhat dark, go see this show. I laughed throughout, and it's just the right length. I left feeling inspired to write.

Speaking of which: This morning, while having brunch at Linda's, I took a second look at the two pieces of fiction we're discussing tomorrow at my writing workshop. (I finished the process later at Bauhaus.) I love that Linda's has a morning cocktail that involves one of those vitamin-rich cold-prevention powders, and that they'll serve their famed Bloody Mary with a piece of buffalo jerky if you want it that way. (Someone brought a piece of it to the party at our house last night, which seemed like an odd thing to do.) I had the migas, and while Portage Bay Cafe makes what has to be the best version in town, Linda's wasn't half bad. And the hash browns were some of the finest I've eaten in months.

It's hard to overstate how happy the sunshine made me today. I hope more is on its way.

Yes, we have no banana (costume)

Sadly, I didn't get the chance to look like this gentleman last night at the annual Big Blue House Halloween party. My banana costume, which was supposed to come from Halloween Express at Kirkland's Totem Lake Mall, belonged to someone else by the time my loyal compatriot got there. Instead, I wore a rather sketchy-looking wig that was part of a transvestite vampire costume last year. Oh, and some small black wings that started to really irritate me halfway through the night. I took them off, leading quite a few people to wonder what I was supposed to be. One particularly inebriated young woman speculated that I might be My Little Pony, which was a very generous assessment. And another young woman, this one outfitted in a colorful monster suit she'd made herself (it was a friendly, "Monsters, Inc." sort of monster, rather than a scary one), told me I had the best costume she'd seen all night. Which was a bizarre instance of flattery. In any case, a good time was had by all, even though the residents of Blue House never did reveal what was in the green punch, which tasted suspiciously like licorice, and even though I accidentally caused a YouTube video to temporarily merge with the playlist, creating an unintentional iTunes/YouTube mashup. Best costume of the night? Maybe the young, beardless Lenin, probably the robot with a joystick for a phallus. Honorable mention: the giraffe. I guess, as they say, you had to be there.

Ran some errands this morning and early afternoon, albeit in a sleepy state -- went to bed far too late last night, despite my warnings to myself not to stay up so late. Ah, well. Looked at my future glasses today -- with magnetized snap-on sunglasses! -- and got a couple of things for the house. Also checked in on Angela's cat, Max, the cutest orange cat in the world. Will be seeing the new Steve Carell movie with Kate today, followed by dinner. It's such a nice, crisp fall day; even just doing errands on Broadway was lovely. And tomorrow morning, brunch at Coastal Kitchen with Kate and various others. And hopefully, tonight, tons of sleep.