Tom & Alissa

We had a perfect weekend.

On Friday night, Catherine and I went to see Rosie Thomas and Over the Rhine at the Highline Ballroom. I’d never been to this venue - it’s WAY out in the meatpacking district. Rosie was adorable, as always, and Over the Rhine was amazing. They played all of the songs from The Trumpet Child, plus North Pole Man, Born, Ohio, and Orphan Girl.

I had an amusing moment; we handed our tickets to the doorman/bouncer. He asked if we wanted a table, and we declined. Then he said, “We ask that there be no moshing at this concert.”

Now, if you’re familiar with either of these artists, you know that moshing is probably not something you could actually do at this concert. So I smiled.

“I’m very serious, ma’am,” he said, as he ushered us in the door. I felt vaguely reprimanded, but it was so ludicrous that I just starting laughing when I was safely away from the bouncer. I didn’t want to get kicked out.

The drummer on this tour was on the Snow Angels tour last Christmas; we liked him so much that Tom went backstage and got his contact info in case we ever ran across a sudden need for an awesome drummer. I was so excited when he came onstage that I texted Tom. And he did not disappoint. After his drum solo, the twentysomething guys next to me were clapping and shouting “Mickey! Mickey!”

I met up with Tom for dinner at Lobo in Park Slope (nachos loaded with pork, yum). He walked in grinning like a Cheshire cat. After we ate, he handed me the sweetest birthday card (yes, my birthday isn’t until this coming Sunday . . . but stay with me here), grinning again. We went home and when I walked in, I saw one of these.

Yeah. Major freak-out. Once upon a time, piano was my life, but I haven’t really played much since I started college six years ago and not at all since I moved to New York. It’s amazing. I’ve never played a keyboard that so closely resembled an actual piano. I can’t stop grinning.

On Saturday we got up late, watched a few episodes of Battlestar Galactica (we’ve almost finished Season 1), and headed off to Angela’s for her birthday celebration including much food, good company, and a very late night. Felt a lot like old times. I stuffed a lot of prunes with cheese and wrapped them in bacon, and I managed to clean out the roast pot, so she was very happy.

We were misinformed by several people on Saturday night and therefore set the clocks back when we got home around 3am; unfortunately, when we finally got up Sunday morning, we discovered that we were wrong because of the legislation that moved the end of Daylight Savings Time forward one week. Whoops. So we were rather late for church.

After church we had a raucous lunch at Miracle with plenty of lovely people (including these two. Tom and I dashed off to the Angelika to see Before the Devil Knows Your Dead (the jury’s still out, but I can’t say I recommend it), then dashed out of there to see a staged reading of a play, of which two of the actors were from Tom’s class at Esper. Very New York day.

And the World Series was just the icing on the cake.