Valentines Day

Wishing to show my lovely bride my deep and eternal devotion, I thought it would be a good idea to pick up some flowers on the way home.  After picking out a dozen roses, I was standing in front of the wrapping station.  Not wanting to crowd the man who was elaborately wrapping them, I left about a foot or so of space between me and the counter.  I was surprised (only a little) when someone jumped in front of me, money in hand, dancing up and down like he had to pee, and directly cutting me off!

Well, as you may recall from the "the Good, the Bad and the Ugly" blog, I no longer put up with this behavior.  So I reached up and gently pulled on his shoulder at an angle that would twist him and move him out of my way at the same time.  Firm enough though to be startling.  At the same time I said "excuse me!" in Chinese loud enough for everyone around to hear me.  The individual was clearly stunned as he stammered his apologies in English.  I then did my best to puff up like a toad to discourage any other line cutters.  That's how I roll.  Anyway, below is a shot of the package, I think there's more wrapping than flowers.


Friday night I then bit the bullet and went to see the ballet, Romeo and Juliet.  I see now why some people (I'm too PC to say women) don't like football.  I just don't get it and I'm not wired to get it.  I asked someone in our group if it was good and she said that Romeo was VERY good, but the others not so much.  I asked what made him good and one of the things she noted was the height of his jumps.  Really!?!?!?  Yep, still don't get it.

The ballet itself was interesting and the music was great; there was kind of a fusion of East meets West that was appealing.  The ballerinas and ballerinos (I don't know the word for the men, nor do I care to bother looking it up) were dressed in traditional Chinese costumes and there were several hand gestures and postures that I recognized from traditional Chinese dance.  These were blended in with standing on toes, which is popular for the dancers I gathered.  Finally, there was a scene at the wedding when (clearly drunk), one of the ballerinos went off and pretended to pee on stage.  Yep, that just happened on stage in the cultural arts center.  High society.