The Color Purple....

Saturday, January 13, 2007

The Color Purple..... Tiff, this one is for you. I know you will be the only one to get the title too. Thats because I lovvvies you. It was a dark and stormy night.... Oh wait, thats how Snoopy always starts his stories. A few days ago, my neice, Tiffany, told me that she was going to be graduating from Barber School. Yay!!! Im so proud of her. But I was confused because shes still in the class til March. Oh, the wierd way they do things. Ok, so they are considered to be candidates for graduation because the next ceremony wont be held until August. Yeah, I wouldnt want to wait for that either. So I asked her where this place will be. She tells me its at the Chancellors Hall in Albany. Well that tells me alot because I have no clue where or what that is. She told me that its right next door to the Capitol Building. Ok, I can find that. But there are a dozen buildings near it. Ok, so she tells me that its the one with all the big white pillars. I cant miss it. Ok, that just described about 4 more buildings there. I'll find it. But here is the clincher. I dont have my car. It had a flat tire the other day and its getting fixed on the day of the ceremony. So this means I have to ride with my father. Tiff, you know this is going to be fun. He tells me last night that he will pick me up in the morning. I told him that I wanted to get there early to get a good parking spot and a good seat. In reality, I wanted a little extra time to get lost. Im really good at doing this. I was born in this city and I still have no clue where anything is. Id get lost in my own back yard. So I tell him that he can pick me up about 9-9:30am because the ceremony isnt til 11am. Plenty of time. He called me at 8am and asked if I was ready. Ummm...nope, Im still in bed. In fact I set my alarm for my usual wake up so that I would be ready early but that wasnt happening. It went off at 6:30 and I hit the snooze every 8 minutes til I got the call. Please dont ask why I did this because I cannot answer you. So Im just getting finished and drying my hair when the doorbell rang. Its exactly 9am. Damnit, Im not even dressed yet. So anywho, I rushed to get ready. Cami didnt want to get out of bed so she stayed home this time. I wished that she would have gone but she hasnt been feeling too well lately. So now we hit the road and no sooner did we pull out on to the main street from mine he questions me what road to take. I told him to go down Central Avenue til we come to the Capitol Building. Nope, he wants to go down Washington Avenue because there are no lights. Now mind you that the two roads do meet downtown so its not a major deal. Im not driving so he can go where he wants. So we are going down the road we need to be on and its relativly quiet til we get downtown and then all hell lets loose. I see the building that shes refering to and I tell him which one it is. He throws a fit that its not the building. We stop at a stop light right next to the main sign of the building and it says in plain english that its the right place. He looks right at the sign but apparently cant read it right because hes swearing that its a different building. He doesnt understand that more than one thing can be in the building. You will also take note that I am amused by this because he will not admit that Im right even though he does know that its the right building. Its funny and I can tell by the look on his face that hes trying really hard to prove me wrong and its not happening. I caught the sly look. Now comes the fun part. Finding a place to park. Albany is full of one way streets and wouldnt you know it, the one right where we need to be is one of them and its not in the right direction that we need it to be. So he goes down to the front of the Capitol Building and there is a statue in the middle of the road with a rotary there. Yeah I hate these friggin things. He whips his car around it and almost gets hit by an oncoming car. This is normal and Im used to it but that still doesnt mean that I dont almost pee my pants. We then head up the next street that comes up the other side of the big white pillared building. This by the way is the State Education Building. You honestly cant miss this one. I think they can even see it from space. http://p.vtourist.com/1409801-The_NY_State_Education_Building-Albany.jpg Wouldnt you know it, he finds a parking spot right on the damn corner right near the door we need to go into. Well s.o.b that aggrivates me when he gets that lucky. And wouldnt you know it, its a handicap place and he just so happens to have a little blue tag. Now comes the fun part. Well at least one of them. There are parking meters. I told him that the meters arent in use on weekends but hes not going to believe me. He makes me actually get out and see how much it is going to cost him. I told him nothing. He still wont believe me and then proceeds to tell me that Im going to pay his ticket when he gets one. Whatever. So we cross the street and head to the building. Now mind you that the street we are walking along is a one way street and as it is normal in NY, there is road construction on it. So he complains that if they werent doing construstion, he could have parked there. I told him that I doubt it because they would have been the first spots taken. As he says, not if he can help it. Yeah, go ahead and roll your eyes, Tiff. You know its true. Next step is to get inside. I told him that he needs to go through a certain door. He asked how I knew and I told him that the dorrman standing there was a big clue. So he grins at me. One more time that I was right. Im secretly laughing at all this. You will have to know how this all is. It really is amusing how he can be because he does this to get a rise and then laughs later. So now we get inside and I head into the doors to find a seat. I look back and I see him going off to the left. Ummm... The doors are straight ahead. He looks at the handicap mens room and that gives me the clue that hes looking for the toilet. He wont go in there though and sees the arrow for the main mens room through another door into another hall. Off he disappears. I stood there for a few minutes waiting for him before I went in because if I didnt, he would have yelled at me for making him get lost looking for me. A few minutes later he taps me on the shoulder and asks me why I havent found a seat yet. *rolleyes* Yep its coming. Well geez you could have at least got us a good seat ahead of time. Yep, the place is pretty much still empty. I dont think that will be a problem. So he goes on in and asks where I want to sit. I told him to go pick something out and he gets frustrated and walks in anyways. He goes about half way down on the left side. He takes the second seat in and sits. Now these are very old movie style seats that are all attached together. You have to flip the seats down. He really hates these and I heard about that too. I took the aisle seat. At least I get one of the arm rests. I took a look around and the place is absolutely stunning. All the old plaster work is amazing and the chandeliers are beyond stunning. Tiff, I hope you saved that picture because I took it for that reason. I wanted to keep that one. He notices the balcony. Oh no. Im not sitting up there. I explain to him that the seating is really tight up there. He said ok and we stayed put. I dont like balconies because of the height and I hate people to stare at me being way up there panicing. Im going to leave off here because this will definately have to be a two part post. Maybe even a three part. Stay tuned.....