Opera!

Happy Halloween! And an anniversary shout-out to the Mom and Dad! Happy (gasp!) 39th Anniversary!

Today our family celebrated Halloween by going to a matinee performance at the Metropolitan Opera!

What can I say, I'm a geek. Back in college I would listen to the Saturday afternoon Opera simulcasts while doing schoolwork... (nothing says brain food like bad take out from the Ivy Room followed by opera!)...

So we headed out first to brunch at the Grand Tier Restaurant (how cool is it that you get to cut ahead of the ticket holders and go up the Grand Staircase before the auditorium opens!). It was really good-- we got a prix fixe menu including butternut squash soup (with truffle oil and toasted pumpkin seeds) followed by fancy eggs florentine/benedict for me and a scrambled eggs with salmon and salmon roe tower for the Husband. We also got asiago and rosemary roasted potatoes and Miss Sophie shared!

Since it was Halloween, and since we were opera-going Miss B. had to have a sophisticated costume. Earlier this summer I had found this very cool very faux-Chanel jacket at the Gap. I made a hand knit/felted camelia flower pin and scored some great costume jewlery at the Monmouth County ASPCA Thrift Shop. Finishing off the look was black sailor type pants from Old Navy that I sewed gold buttons onto. Miss B. looked fab as a lady who lunches and she got *tons* of compliments!

On to the opera itself! We sat in a box in the dress circle which was really cool-- there are four chairs in the box, so we got room to spread out and you can move your seats around. It was a great space to have with Miss B.

The performance was great (especially since many of the movements of the opera are standard Looney-Tunes fare so they're not only entertaining but also familiar!) and we had a really nice time.

That is, right up until the very, very end when Cynthia, "Usher 11" literally ushered us out of the auditorium-- even going so far as to get extremely rude with the handicapped woman who was sitting next to us in Box 9! The woman needed two canes to move around and here's Cynthia yelling that "you must leave the auditorium immediately!" Geesh! It's not like the place is on fire, we were taking our time, not setting up camp!

ANYWAY. After that we headed out to the fountain at Lincoln Center to wrap up our day!