That Was A Real Nice Brisket Bake

And now, here's my re-cap of Monday's events...

I left work early at 1 to kind of decompress before getting ready and was honestly a little frantic because of the f-ing Emancipation Day proceedings the were going to mees up the parking situation around the Warner Theatre so when I finally heard from Munsen and we talked about what our options were I finally calmed down.

I picked up Munsen and Lisa and we met up with my two dads, V&T, and then Jen and Q 5 Go showed up at Luna Grill for a little bit of Half-price Pasta Night beforehand. We had some lively conversation amongst the vodka-crans and wine and then we all high-tailed it into the District.

It turns out the traffic wasn't quite so bad as anticipated. The Emancipation proceedings were winding down (and Tracy Lynn Olivera almost left the awards when she found out they were selling funnel cakes) and we got into one of the 2 A.M.-closing garages ($10- a steal!) and we were at the Warner entrance by 7:40. I ran into Theata Widowa and his other half outside and briefly exchanged salutations. They both looked great. It was kind of a madhouse of people trying to get in and, once we got seated, I looked through my program and saw that 2 old favorites were going to be performing- the lovely E. Faye Butler and Krisit Ambrosetti- with Emcee Brad Oscar.

The proceedings started quite quickly, with many people still wandering to their seats and thanfully it was another record breaker wrapping up in 1 hour, 55 minutes. As has been reported already, "Urinetown" swept winning 8 awards total- deservingly so. When they announced that Leading Female/Musical was a tie, Munsen & I were crossing our fingers that Mrs. Mig would be winning along with Erin Driscoll. It was not to be, even though we stil think that she deserved it for the hard work she went through during Pacific Overtures, but I digress...

After the ceremony, we embarked on the walk to the JW Marriott for the always- entertaining reception. It seemed that this year was slightly more laid-back than previous year's. It was still crowded and fun, and maybe it was my allergy meds affecting me, but it seemed like I had plenty of time to talk with people this year. The food was much more diverse than last year's Dogs and Burgers- they had Satay, Brisket & Matzah (for those celebrating Pasover), make your own Tacos, and Pizza. Unfortunately, I only had a couple chocolate-covered strawberries and kept on nursing my drinks, so I dind't really get to try any of the banquet. Munsen & I were on our annual quest to find Holly Twyford, but it seemed like she didn't go and then I looked and looked for Susan Lynksey and one of the volunteers dragged me to her. It was just a good time to catch up with all these folks who one rarely gets the chance to see that often throughout the year. I had stopped drinking the vodka-crans at midnight knowing that I had to drive, so I switched to water until the party ended at 2.

Munsen & I then spent a while tracking down Lisa, who I sent up to find Munsen only to find that she was out with Theatrebitch. Once we were all accounted for, we went over to SGS's place and sat around talking about the evening and our opinions and having beer. I thought I'd forgo any more alcohol, but I was weak and had one beer before we left around 3:30. I dropped off the girls and went on my way home, got into bed and passed out.

I woke up the next morning at 10:30 A.M. from a very odd, vivid, strangely funny dream (Helen Hayes Awards on a cruise ship?) and felt like I was still intoxicated, so I drank alot of water and sobered up/rehydrated myself and caught up with the TiVo a little before running an errand and meeting up with SteveMR for lunch at Carlyle in Shirlington.