Is this seat taken?

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photo by Kevin Burne


Last night was opening night for the final show of Berkeley Rep's season. Robb and I only stayed through the first act.

Now, this had nothing to do with the show. Robb has limited "sitting tolerance." Because of the damage done to his body by his spinal cord injury, he just can't bear sitting for more than about half an hour. After that time, Robb is in horrible discomfort, and if he ignores the pain, it lasts for days.

This, to put it bluntly, really sucks.

It means that we have to think long and hard about seeing any movie on the big screen. It means that we can't travel by plane. It means that even though Robb can't walk great distances, he doesn't find a wheelchair very useful, either. And it means that going to the theater will cause days of residual discomfort.

So, for the moment, we see a fair amount of First Acts, and get our friends to tell us about the parts of the shows that we missed.



Two years ago:
Close encounters with nature

Three years ago:
Appalling fluff


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Comments

Anonymous said…
He's a wise man to listen to his body. Been there, know that. Experiencing some of it here in a different than usual climate. Good thing moving on tomorrow.
Anonymous said…
Get a seat on the outside side aisle. When Robb needs to stand, he can do so still in the theatre, still able to enjoy the show, and still not bother anyone else.
Anonymous said…
Couple of thoughts. One- this is why there is Netflix! The movies come out on DVD so quickly these days you won't be far behind the crowd. Even save some big bucks.Much better snacks and the comfiest bed available.
Also- does this sound mean?- but if there is something live you really want to see, like a play or an opera, do you ever go out without Robb? Just once in a special while.

I don't know if he needs to have someone with him at home..or, can you go to these events with other folks, one of whom would be happy to give Robb a lift home if the pain gets bad?
Sorry you missed Act II..
Suzi
Anonymous said…
Hey there, you guys can always stay home and read up in the news how an 11 year old boy in Salt Lake City, Utah put a LOT of snails on his face to break a world record. Maybe you guys could go him one more and do this with slugs?

Our kitty learned how to catch birds. She caught 2 of them yesterday, 1 with fatal results. Sigh. How a quiet little kitty can do this to a chirping baby songbird comes as a suprise to me, even though I should know better. One more critter to bury in back of the barn.

Annalisa
Kristen said…
speaking of shows, American Idiot the musical got a tiny tiny shout-out on the Colbert Report on Thursday. You could tell that Billy Joe wanted to talk about it more, but in Colbert's usual fashion he steamrollered over what his guests wanted to talk about in order to keep up the cheeky republican act (which i find consistently detracts from the show--if he has a guest on, i want to hear what the guest is there to say, not watch Colbert vie for more camera time.) But it was a plug nevertheless.

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