Surprises

By some Herculean feat, the Lighting Designer managed to procure tickets to see Butterstick this past Saturday, one of which he very generously made available to me.

Better yet, he kept the whole thing a surprise. Well done Lighting Designer.

He won't tell me what he had to do to get the tickets, but he mumbled something about a clandestine meeting at the Watergate and the donation of a kidney. He assures me that no bodily fluids were exchanged in the transaction, only the kidney.

Who needs two kidneys anyhow? A liver, sure, but an extra kidney?

Butterstick was napping, though I could tell he was very glad that we were there. This is my very bad picture phone's very bad picture of "Panda in a Bowl Under Glass". It was a somewhat surreal experience. The marketing opportunities that the zoo folk have jumped on boggles the mind. "Panda Shop", "Panda Cafe", "Panda Tshirt Stand", really overwhelming. And the crowd mentality of those 30 or so people allowed in for those ten minutes - scary. There was the guy that got the spot in the front and camcordered the sleeping Tai Shan for the full ten minutes, never even considering letting someone else stand in his prime real estate. Ahhh, humanity, warms the cockles of me heart.

But it was delightful to see the little guy. So peaceful, so well adjusted even for his celebrity status. We'll see how my disposable Kodak camera photos turn out and, if they're any good, I'll post them here.

Sigh. Fuzzy panda crush.