WE HAVE STEVE JOBS

So this weekend was a great one for sure.
Friday night I saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and of course, I have nothing bad to say about it at all. Well, I do, but not much. I know it's a ginormous (spell check just told me to fix the spelling because that isn't a real word - HA! jokes on you auto-correct because it is now) book and there is no way you can include everything. I realize that. HOWEVER, there were some things that were in the movie that they didn't really expand upon that needed some explanation. Nothing major - just a few lines of text or something could have helped. I mean, if you read the books then you are fine, but if you don't then you don't know that when Fred and George do their big "TA-DA" at the school that they are actually LEAVING school, dropping out and starting their own shop. You just see them flying into the air. Anyway. Just a couple of minor things like that. All in all though - excellent and exciting, and dark. It gave me some reminders as to what is going on etc. and I loved all the "new" characters. Umbridge was great, as was Luna. And I really like Ginny (well, I always do, but she's always so kick ass). My friend, K and I discussed the book/movie at length and he was reminding me of stuff that happened that they left out - one thing being how Ron joins the Quittage team and actually wins! Things of that nature... I had forgotten that. Ok, enough about HP - the book comes out this weekend and I can't concentrate on anything else and can't read anything else until it comes out and I finish it. GAH it will be so bittersweet. Ok I need to stop, I get myself so worked up.
Anyway, Saturday I went up to NY to rehearse a show with The Gossip Factory and I had a lovely time. Our hosts K. and L. put out a lovely spread of h'or deurves, snacks, and nosh. Throw in some wine and rehearsal got underway with a couple of new people that are going to be an AMAZING addition to our show. I'm very glad for that as I was a wee bit nervous at first. Turns out? No need at all - they fit in with us very very well. It shall be grand. We got some work done and caught up and I think we now have a good direction to head in. After awhile we decided to head to the beer garden (in Astoria) and what a fabulous place indeed! After living in NY for a year I can't tell you how many times I was told I NEEDED to go to the beer garden (my partner at work lived in Astoria and would tell me all the time) and I never ever got there. Until now. And boy am I glad. So great. I, for one, love drinking outside, so this was perfect. Beer gardens are the greatest places in the world - I am now convinced these are my favorite places to drink - that or breweries. In Brooklyn there is a brewery - The Brooklyn Brewery, duh - and on Friday nights you can go and pay like $20.00 for a bunch of tokens and then when you enter you are essentially in a giant warehouse with picnic tables and one small make shift bar set up with taps of all the beers they brew and you give them some tokens in exchange for beer and it doesn't feel like you are paying because you are using tokens, and you are set to go battle your way to a picnic table. They don't serve food or have anything else going on so a lot of people order food to be brought in and get pizza delivered and a lot of people bring games and set up playing with like, massive amounts of people. So basically the beer garden is the same idea except it's outside, the bathrooms are cleaner, and a lot of people play beer pong, flip cup and other such games that no one plays in the brewery. And they serve traditional German food. aka Horse penis with 'kraut and mustard. YUMM.
Things quickly got underway and before long we found ourselves playing our own game of "We have ____." Fill in the blank. So basically this consisted of the people on my side of the table saying, "yah? Well, we're better because we have _____." fill in the blank. This basically came down to a quick fire of "we have THIS" and "we have THAT" back and forth that made absolutely no sense even if you happened to be there. Essentially one team took technology/modern/republican side whilst the other side took "nature's" side. It was funny at the times though. And I think my side of the table trumped all when we shouted, "WE HAVE APPLE! AND STEVE JOBS." and no one could come up with anything better. We declared ourselves the winner and set about getting a game of flip cup started.
The other fun game was singing the cell phone ring that the old man on Family Guy sings when he is trying to get away from Chris because he has a new paper boy. Yah, that didn't get annoying to those around us AT ALL, but we enjoyed it, esp. when accompanied with a circular hip dance.
We all had a sleepover together complete with a stuffed animal given to all of us by our host. Which, of course, once we awoke next to our respective stuffed animal we all made have stuffed animal sex and have a conversation about who gave who herpes (the animals, not us). Ohhhh the fun that ensues when a bunch of theatre kids get together.
So while I'm sure only about 1/2 of this blog makes sense to about 1/2 of you that read it. Just know I had a great time in Astoria with great friends. And that I love Harry Potter.