Stardate 60887.18 - Date

Cheryl and I hired the sitter for Saturday night and went out on our first "date" in months. As much as we love Loren, it is nice to occasionally go someplace for dinner that doesn't tolerate Cheerios on the floor!

We went to Crema in Chelsea for dinner, selecting it due to its proximity to our after-dinner entertainment. It is French-style Mexican, which I think means "expensive" Mexican. The food was pretty good, but it isn't worth a special trip to Chelsea just to go to this place - not when we have a perfectly good expensive Mexican place right around the corner from us (not to mention 879-Taco, which has excellent, cheap Mexican food). And I am the only person who chokes a little bit when I have to pay $12 for a mixed drinks? Anyway, the food was tasty and the drinks were good and it was a special occasion so overall 2 thumbs up on the restaurant.

After dinner we went to the UCB Theatre for a comedy show entitled Mother: The Soundtrack. People bring in iPods and music on CD for the group, and they perform improv based on an audience suggestion for their first act, and then improv based on the supplied music as soundtrack for their second act. "Mother uses your CD's and Ipods as inspiration, spinning your music collection into a wicked web of stupid-smart insanity," according to the web site. The show was pretty good, but the problem with a lot of improve is that it is inconsistent. Clearly, their better stuff was generated based on the music, but even then there were some parts that were just not that funny. We enjoyed the show, but I don't think we need to go back to see it again (which many people apparently do). It was pretty cheap as two tickets were just $16.

Now here is my gripe for the evening (which will probably be longer than the rest of the post). The UCB Theatre has an awful method for the ticket process:

1. Use the web site to "reserve" the number of tickets you want
2. Line up outside while you wait for the earlier show to end
3. Proceed down some steep steps into the 20x20 "lobby" to the ticket window and purchase your tickets.
4. Proceed back up the steep steps, go outside, and get in line again.
5. Go back down the steep steps, past the ticket window where you just purchased your ticket, and enter the theatre to take your seats.

This process is not well-explained by the employees, and since the doors were opened into the theatre most people got their tickets and proceeded into the theatre as step #4 instead of going back outside. This lack of proper procedure really set off some of the workers who started almost yelling at the customers to get out of the theatre as "we have to close these doors before we can let you in!" Huh?!?

Here is my suggestion, good people at UCB. Don't let anyone in at all until you are ready to seat them for the show. That way, people buy their tickets and immediately take their seats, rather than having to go back out-side and line up again, only to go back inside 5 minutes later. This process annoyed me (big surprise!) and didn't exactly set the mood for a humorous show. And for the record, lots of people in line were complaining about the process (not just me!), and one person even sarcastically said, "At least they were nice about asking us to leave!"

Even with the ticket unpleasantness, the overall date got two thumbs up. And icing on the cake was that Loren was sound asleep when we got home.

NYC