Saturday, February 21, 2009

Very Nice Outing

We did another one of those touristy things last night that we've never done since we've lived here for over 12 years. Just like attending our first inauguration recently, in the back of my kooky mind I think this is a sign that our time in this area is coming to a close, albeit very slow. Sorry to my dear friends who keep me afloat here, but I still want to live in the cabin on our old farm outside of Bryan (that will almost certainly remain only in my head forever). BUT, to progress here...we went to The Ford's Theater last night to see the above play. Matt and I had never been there. Matt has that innate general interest in history like Paul but I have my own selective interests (like all my long-gone Swedish and otherwise ancestors I visit in Nebraska every November). The theater is one of those things I've wanted to see and it was worth the freezing cold walk from the tube to there in really high heels (RARE but I thought it was an appropriate occasion picturing valet parking not the tube-ha!). Right across the street, in case you're a Texan, or other foreigner like me and didn't know, is the house where Lincoln died. It's all so tragic and yet wonderfully preserved so that we can all get a feel, a touch, a view of the actual place where extreme history occurred-I like the tactile and visual part not the reading part. The theater has just been rehabbed and is beautiful. Of course, as much of what was original is still there but has been, of course, taken care of just as any important historical property. And the box, the box where he was shot, amazing. No one has ever sat in there since. President and Mrs. Obama were there Monday night for the same event; that added a cool vibe to the place also. The play was fabulous, dark, and moving. It's about what, theoretically went through Lincoln's head and dreams or alternately extreme lack of sleep during the Civil War and all the decisions and demons he had to live with during the time following soon after his son's death and leading up but ending before his last trip to the theater. It was amazing. So, all you friends who are way overdue for a trip out here to see your nation's capital and good friends from Texas and California, it's a good time to come...