October 4

I wanted to wait until late tonight to post for today so that I could document all the stuff that happened. It started out like a normal Saturday. A little sleeping in and then launched into tidying the house. Greg was gone for the first part of the day so I worked alone. Then I settled in for a little study time.
First in honor of a lovely chilly fall day I lit a candle in my tart burner which melted a hazelnut flavored soy tart from this candle place. I got a couple tarts as a free sample and I am really liking them. They are natural soy wax that doesn't release any nastiness into the air, and the smell was wonderful and not too overwhelming. I bought the tart melter at the drug store and it came with 3 tarts that I had to toss out, they were so overpowering and fake smelling. Not these. The whole house smells like warm hazelnut coffee. Yummy.

Then I settled in for some email checking, bill paying, and finally studying on the sofa. Got a couple chapters read and started reading articles for my microeconomics class. I did take a break to make some no-knead bread from this blog post which involved a run to the store a block away for a jar of wheat germ. The dough is rising in the fridge now and I will bake it up tomorrow. Not sure yet what I want to make. Then a little snooze on the couch until Greg came home. Several months ago Greg got us tickets to a show for tonight so the nap was a good idea.

We headed up to Harlem and stopped at Strictly Roots for dinner. A West Indian place that also happens to be vegan. It doesn't look like much but this dish of sweet and sour tofu and veggies was amazingly full of flavor. Greg had BBQ'd seitan, plantains, and potatoes. After dinner we headed over a couple blocks to this place...

Maybe you've heard of it, the World Famous Apollo Theater. We had tickets to the Jenny Lewis show at the Apollo. It was fun to visit such an iconic theater I've seen so many times on TV. The theater was in pretty good shape and had the nicest staff around. We were seated up in the balcony with a perfect view of this giant chandelier.

Then we were surprised with an opening set by comedian Sara Silverman. She was very funny and as vulgar as ever. No flash photography meant not so great pictures, sorry.

Then Jenny Lewis and her band performed and did a great job. We really enjoyed the show. The only time I was not having a good time was when Jenny had the entire house up on their feet to dance along for the final song. The entire balcony started bouncing and made me really nervous. I mean come on, that is an old theater and the entire floor was visibly moving up and down. That I didn't enjoy but otherwise it was a lot of fun.
The best part is this concert was that it was perfect for an old fart like me. I went to a lot of shows in my youth but I tend to avoid them now because I no longer love standing for hours in smoky bars listening to too loud music and not getting home until the wee hours of the morning. Not at the Apollo. First we had real seats and got to sit the entire time (plus the NY smoking ban meant no smoke). The music was loud but the show was over by 10:30pm and I was home in time to catch the opening of SNL for the spoof of the debate (gotta love Tina Fey!). So it was a great night and the perfect end to a good day.