Opera Splurge Day

We don't do a lot of these - but well, this was quite a splurge day. Started off with lunch at McDonald's. I didn't get my act together early enough to feed us at home. I had every intention of taking mom's pills along to feed to her with lunch - but I plum forgot. :( Oh well. My Big Mac was ok - and the fries weren't as awesome as they can be. Mom had a fish sandwich that she seemed to enjoy.

The drive to Rochester was uneventful. Mom is still confused about how the EZ pass works. Oh well. I don't mind the questions repeated over and over and over again. Really. I don't. We got there about half an hour before the show was supposed to start. Someone had staked out our favorite seat with a coat - turned out to be a fellow Genevan who we knew. So we sat next to her. The two little olds behind us got all hot and bothered because someone was going to sit in front of them. Sigh.

The opera was good overall. It was a "pastiche" or a mash-up in current vernacular. A bunch of different music from various baroque composers, with libretto appropriate to the show. Which was also a mash-up - Partly The Tempest with the lovers from Midsummer Night's Dream added. The lead male was a countertenor - sounded to me like he was just really good at singing Falsetto. Oh, that was what he was doing. Very well, I might add. Just not my favorite, but apparently popular during the baroque period. The lead females were both good. And the woman playing Hermia was gorgeous! :) Caliban was scary looking. There was a bit of a ballet in the middle of the second act that seemed fairly gratuitous, although true to the baroque tradition. The sets were a combination of baroque stylized pieces and modern projection technology - which worked surprisingly well together. Great costumes and lighting. I must admit to sleeping through bits and pieces of the first act. Despite being really loooong, I enjoyed it. Don't know if we are going to go to any more this year - since the rest are even longer!

Next off to Best Buy. Mom has been insisting that I buy a new GPS. I have been putting it off because the one I have, although flawed in many ways, worked. And I don't really like spending money on something unless what I have is basically non-functional. But to get her to stop asking me about it (at least once a day) I suggested going to Best Buy after the opera. There was one handy. The people who helped me were nice but not very knowledgeable. I ended up getting a Garmin nuvi 2455 LMT - Lifetime Maps and Traffic! Yippee!I haven't used it yet - but am looking forward to going someplace I haven't been before to test it out!

Next, dinner. If it had been later, or if I had thought of someplace I really would have liked to try in Rochester, we would have eaten up there. Doh! I could have found a new to me place and used the new GPS to get us there. Sigh. Next time. This time, I decided to come back to Geneva and patronize Leaf Kitchen. I am glad we did.

Jess, who used to be a checker at Wegman's greeted us and took us to our table. It took us a few minutes to figure out how we knew each other. Next, Shelby came and acted as our server. Tatiana, as wonderful as ever came over and made us both very comfortable. We went all out for food - two appetizers (shrimp for mom and wontons for me - both great) and then mom had a fish and chips dinner which she enjoyed and I had the bacon cheeseburger! They locally source as much as they can, cook everything from scratch and to order. What is not to like! Yay!

All in all, quite a day! Yippee!

Mom's fish and chips

Hamburger!