DC - Night One

We arrived in DC on Thursday afternoon. We’re staying at an Airbnb in an interesting neighborhood called Shaw. It was a predominantly African American neighborhood that has rapidly gentrified. So while that part is not so great, it’s a charming neighborhood with some interesting looking row houses with all sorts of intricate trim and roofs. Friday morning Reed and I (after getting coffee of course) started out on our walk to the Museum of African American History. On the way I made poor Reed stop into Sephora with me because I desperately needed concealer and..more glitter. He was a good sport about it. And now my skin looks like that of a sparkly 45 year old instead of a matte 50 year old. Worth every Sephora penny. When we finally got to the Museum, the guard asked if we had tickets yet. When we said no, she nodded her head and told us we were out of luck. You have to reserve them online at 6:30 am the day of the visit. So we wandered over to the National Gallery and saw some 18th century paintings that I really tried to find interesting. After that, we came back to the Airbnb and drove with Bobby over to the venue, The Warner Theater. It’s another one of these beautiful old theaters with a massive chandelier. Our dressing room was quite nice- it actually had a mirror AND somewhere to sit! So we evaluated our fruit plate (decent, despite lack of Kiwi), and settled in. We noticed on the night’s schedule taped to the wall, that our set was earlier than usual- 7:40 instead of the usual 8. The venue doesn’t supply dinner so the Assistant Production Manager, Sascha, showed us a takeout menu and took our order. 7:00 rolled around and the food still hadn’t arrived. Finally, it came at 7:15. Reed and I decided it would be better to eat cocktail nuts and fruit before the show than to cram a big dinner down our throats and then fall into a food coma and/or burp on stage. So I had some nuts, then drank my preparatory whisky and Diet Coke. The Coke was cold which is a no-no for singers so I mixed it with the whisky in my mouth to warm it up (too much information)? Mark (the Grim Reaper as I referred to him in an earlier post), came and gave us a ten minute warning (side note- Mark is actually very nice). The audience was pretty receptive. My voice was a little unsteady due to the almond crumbs in the back of my throat, but it evened out. A friend from high school was at the show, so I went to say hi to her in the lobby afterwards. I hadn’t seen her since the eighties! She was with her wife and another friend who said they were cheering us on during the set. After saying hi to them, we drove back to the AirBnb. I set my alarm to 6:28 am in order to purchase same-day tickets to the Museum of African American History when they became available at 6:30. I saw the timeslots load but they sold out by 6:33. I didn’t get any. So I went back to bed. Today Reed and I walked a few miles to The Hirshhorn Museum to see the George Baselitz exhibit. Tonight, another show in DC. It’s almost 4pm right now, which is right about when I start to get butterflies in my stomach.