Last Night was...not what we anticipated.

So! for christmas my mom got me a pass to the center theatre group that allow me to get two tickets at half price to every show in their season. the ctg includes the ahmanson, the taper, and the kirk douglas theatre. so far i've used the pass to see shows at the taper and the ahmanson, but i haven't been to the kd yet. last week i got an email saying the kd theatre was hosting a three day work shop of a hip hop musical called "Venice". It sounded really cool and tickets were only $10 so i bought two for me and gaby. so, last night gaby and i are meeting up downtown for the 8pm curtain. well guess what? that third theatre in the theatre plaza? NOT THE KIRK DOUGLAS. dammit. apparently the kd is in friggin culver city. the magical third theatre is the dorothy chandler. well damn.

gaby has already paid for her parking, but is waiting right past their little station since they looked at her quite blankly when she mentioned the show she was there for. as i circle the block, we see three options.
1) try and make the 17 minute drive, park, pick up the tickets, and get seated in exactly 18 minutes.
2) park and try and get tickets to the show that IS playing here called "Lydia" with my pass.
3) go eat and see a movie.

We opted for 2 so we went up to the plaza and it was crazy packed. we found out that it was actually opening night for Lydia and that they didn't have tickets for sale, but there was a standby line. we then learn from a lovely nerdy-chic gentleman that since opening night is when all the donors and press come out, they need it to be full. so any comps not picked up by curtain, are give to the standby line FOR FREE. plus, while you wait they do raffles. fun! i went over to the box office where a kindly gentleman refunded my money for the initial play because i'm retarded. while gone, gaby is approached by a guy who offers her two free comp tickets (mind you we were 52 and 53 in the standby line, so this was exciting). all he asks is that we "have a drink and discuss the play afterwards". we laugh non-committal-y and take his free seats.

the play was good but not my favoritest thing ever. one of the leads was awesome-sauce but the other had a grating voice and an annoying cadence to her speech. overall it was good though. I actually thought it was over at intermission. it had almost been two hours and it seemed like it had reached one of those ambiguous closure type scenes. apparently not. there was still another hour and a half. anyhoo...at intermission we ran into ticket man who again says we have to grab a drink and discuss! we again nod and say nothing. gaby's guilt kicks in and decides that yes, we do have to have a drink with this man who gave us tickets. the play ends and she changes her mind. we bolt. we head for the stairs as gaby pretends to speak in spanish on her phone on a "very important call" on the offchance that he spies us. he does not. freedom!

now we are starving and need to figure out where to eat. a friend of gaby's says there's a denny's over by the staples center that isn't far. i think to myself, if we're headed in that direction, hows about the pantry? i walk by it everytime i go to staples, but it's always packed. we carry on. we blindly arrive as we found our way through the one way streets. gaby pulls up in her car to a valet at the restaurant next to the pantry. she asks where to park. he grunts and points at a lot across the street. she says how much? he grunts he doesn't know. she decides to leave it with him. it is currently 11pm. i pull across to the lot and leave my car there because it's easier than waiting for the valet dude to return. and plus they let me do it for free in the end. bonus!

pantry: omg i felt so fat. they give you buttered and grilled toast to munch on, and i got a philly cheese steak. our waiter told gaby to order the ham and cheese sandwich. she agreed. he brings over a plate with a giant ham and cheese omelette and goes "here ya go, ham and cheese sandwich". i think there was a language breach there. it was, however, funny. i demand to try their pancakes next time. they looked soooooooooo good. nom nom. while eating and talking a portly gentleman comes over to tell us about his famous musician friends and how they just saw the springsteen concert. we nod politely and wait for him to leave. he tells us they bought nosebleeds and talked their way to the front. he can get us front row seats for tomorrow. we ask if we'd have to talk our way down too. he looks confused. of course not! he says. we eye him skeptically and wait for him to waddle away.

we continue talking for another hour and eventually leave. as we pay at the front, the waddler follows to give us his number and advises us to call him if we want to go to that concert. again...nodding and polite non commitments. it is 1am. we go outside to find that gaby's car is parked at the valet station. the valet...and his station...are no longer there. awkward. we walk slowly towards her car wondering what is going on and the valet sleepily emerges from a pickup behind her car. we come to find out that the restaurant closed early at 11:30, so he's been waiting for her to come back. ACK! that poor boy. she told him she was going to the pantry, why would he not just come deliver the keys??? why didn't he stop her when she gave him the car?? so many questions...alas, there's was nothing we could do to change it besides tip him lavishly and apologize for keeping him.

we parted ways shortly after 1 wondering how our night ended so differently than how it was intended to go. all in all, it was awesome though. full of misguided young men trying to glom themselves on to gaby. oops! anyway...it was a really fun night and i wanted to record it for memories sake.