Soaking up some morning sun in the back yard, with Diane and William
The morning was pleasant and comfy! Had great conversation with Diane who was a police woman so knows much fascinating stuff and has interesting opinions. When William and I were properly coffee'd and fed, we were off to visit William's dad, my brother.
Juan, out on the patio at his living facility
Juan and William played their usual games of chess and for the first time in long while, William was victorious. That is actually a little worrying as Juan usually beat the b'Jesus out of his competition. We pretty much spent the whole day with Juan, mostly on the patio and the poor man was worn out by the time he took to his room again. William and I went out and fetched a nice Chinese dinner for the three of us, and then we bade Juan goodbye and took our leave.
As luck and filial devotion would have it, William invited me to go along with him to visit his Dad in Maryland. Love taking road trips with William, he's great company. Our first stop was in New Jersey to get gas and I was blown away by the insane gas station! It was more like a Bev Mo' with every kind of alcohol you can imagine.
Yikes! I have never seen the like before and I've been to freakn' Las Vegas which is more the sort of place I'd expect to find more booze than gasoline or potato chips.
We bustled on south to Baltimore, where we popped in on Kirk, Nicole and their kids. My grand-niece & nephew are really into the theater arts these days. Sydney was off watching a friend of hers in a high school production - I can't believe she is in high school. And James-Allen and his dad were off buy a half ton of food for the Baltimore branch of the Leyba-Millers. My niece Bea, her hubby Avon and daughter Ain came on over too and we feasted everyone's favorite chow from local restaurant establishments.
They moved into their town house about a year ago. The last time I visited them their stuff was actually being packed for their move. Love their new place - OK, am not fond of the stairs, which are necessary in a 3 story house, but that's OK. I work out at the gym with Kirk & Nicole's stair cases inspiring said exercising.
Soon it was quite late and we had to leave for the final leg of our drive. We arrived at the home of my sister-in-law Gloria and her sister. They were quite sweet to let William and I invade their beautiful home. It was my first visit there, and I enjoyed meeting their little Yorkie Terrier dogs. By the time everyone turned in for the night I was totally knackered & ready to sleep.
Family Get Together at the Imperial Theater for Ain't Too Proud
I'm in NYC for my family's Pop-up reunion. The main event of our pop-up was all getting together to see Ain't Too Proud on Broadway. Here I will take the time to thank my cousins David & Tom who took it on themselves to make get everyone's tickets and make all our arrangements for both the musical and for our excellent din-din afterwards. Thanks guys!
Ain't Too Proud showcases the history of the popular entertainers, The Temptations. It was full of the music of the Temptations, but better yet, the dance steps were there too, I mean, talk about smooth! The history of the group, their ups and their downs was quite the story.
I don't think there was anyone of us that wasn't singing along under our breath as hit after hit was performed with the smoothest dance steps e-vah!
We had great seats, all together overlooking the stage.
In the photo below my family is spread out in two rows. That's David and William in the aisle. Cousins Carol & her daughter Ideaa , and just in front of them, is David's brother-in-law and his sister. It was a great treat too that David's Uncle Emile's daughter and her husband and two children joined our Family Fest. I'd explain all the above lineage to you but you do not have all day.
My Family & Very-Nearly Family all getting ready for the show
My big sister Dolores and my cousin Yvonne
All of us seated and ready for the show to begin
At show's end, we followed plans to meet up for dinner together. It wasn't easy to plan that, but again, David & Tom came through for us.
The site chosen for our family dining is a conglomeration of several restaurants of all sorts, located under one roof. We commandeered a couple of tables, then everyone was on their own for deciding what sort of cuisine might hit the spot. Dolores and I took a serpentine trail through the various establishments, turning our dainty noses up at pizza, sea food and Mexican fare. We finally settled on splitting a giant hamburger with a healthy helping of sweet potato fries.
Ideaa and Akela, from NC & NYC
Our Selfie Portrait
When everyone finished their meals the fun didn't screech to a halt. Dolores and I were escorted through Manhattan by William, and I had a ball spotting all the exciting venues there - the Ed Sullivan Theater where the Colbert Show films and the one time hottest spot to be in the City, Studio 54. It was a great little drive.
