I pulled off the surprise of a lifetime! Cut to Friday night: My father and I sat in the front row at Copley Symphony Hall. Spanish music played on the speakers, the room was filling up with a mixed crowd, the show was about to start. I said, �Turn around, Dad. Look at all those people. Sold out show. And here you are, in the front row, the only fucker in this BUILDING who does not know who he�s here to see.� Let me backtrack a bit, before you draw the conclusion that my father is �slow,� because he�s not. This venue is nice, upscale, there is no marquee. After a lovely dinner, we headed downtown, scored a parking spot that was closer than the venue lot, and entered the building. I told the ushers not to mention her name, this is a surprise for my Dad, I said, and they were excited to help me.

They said, �Just don�t let him look over there.� In one spot, there was a picture. Nothing else in the building indicated who was singing. The screen on stage read, �Solo 2003� and that�s it. The Spanish music was misleading, and my father had no clue. Then, they came out, the back-up singers, the musicians, and the stage became backlit, as right in front of us, an androgynous creature emerged. The face was a black silhouette, the lights behind too bright, and then, she sang her first note, and right as the lights illuminated her from the front, a matter of maybe ten feet in front of us, my father exclaimed, ANNIE LENNOX!? I LOVE Annie Lennox! That�s right. Not until the diva sang her first note, did my father figure out who I was taking him to see. What a GREAT show it was, what a WONDERFUL time we had, what a PERFECT surprise.

I got a lot done this weekend, did many things, saw many people. Saturday, chore day, breakfast with Ollie, and then, smog check, oil change, manicure-pedicure (I won�t even go into the story of the pedicurist who wanted to do me, but let�s just say my feet haven�t touched that much boob in a long time, and those winks were very suggestive), laundry, book, and then, the party. Oh, the party! M.s. pulled it off, a fabulous affair with an art professor, the assistant curator of MOPA, local poets and artists, a handful of friends chosen by My man, to perfectly compliment one another just as the extravagant hors d�oeuvres perfectly complimented the elaborate pre-mixed cocktails. The wonderfully talented Ted Washington wrote a poem about the soiree, while there, and performed it, along with others from his book, before leaving for the evening. Over all, quite the Gatsby affair.

Yesterday! No, my weekend update is not over yet! Brunch at the Mission with M.s. and the lovely lady who is visiting from Seattle (actually in San Diego for the first time!) Then we went to the Earth Day celebration at Balboa Park, heard Adam singing at the Organ Pavilion, toured the area, and then headed down to the Trolley, to catch a ride to Art Walk. After some sunburns, running into all kinds of people and seeing all kinds of things, we ended our wonderful weekend with Quiz Night at Shakespeare�s Pub, and then, Extraordinary Desserts! Mmmmmmm.

This weekend was, as is much of life and the world around us in so many ways, perfect .

-Barbarella

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