An Afternoon and Evening to Remember

First of all, you must understand that the gentleman in this occasion is a friend and just a friend. We met at the Arabian horse show in Scottsdale in January. We started “chatting” about his horses – he owns a ranch in the Santa Catalina mountains outside of Tucson. During our conversation, he told me that his girlfriend of four years had just broken up with him and that he would be interested in becoming “pals”. We had dinner a couple of times, nothing special, but pleasant and enjoyable. (He’s a good bit older but a really nice guy.) At any rate, we’re having dinner at one of my favorite seafood restaurants and he says “have you ever seen Cirque du Soleil?”. (DUH – I’ve only seen six different shows) Of course I didn’t say that – I wouldn’t hurt his feelings for the world. Instead, I said that had seen a couple. He said that he had bought two tickets for his girlfriend and him back in December to see the new one, “Corteo” and would I like to see the show. Wow!! You bet!!! He was staying at the Ritz Carleton, so I met him in the lobby at 2:00. The show wasn’t until 4:00 but he asked me to be there at 2. I wondered why. I thought his vehicle was the “pick-em-up truck” that I had been in before. Noooooo – it was his car. Turns out he has several of them. This was the Mercedes sedan. We get to Westworld where the show is being held and we’re almost an hour early. I’m thinking “what the heck are we going to do for 45 minutes – stand outside?” He proceeds to the “VIP” parking area, and I didn’t think anything about it – he’s a first class kinda guy. Well… We proceed to a special entrance labeled “Tapis Rouge”. OMG – you won’t believe it – we were handed a special name badge, a glass of champagne and ushered into the tent. Whoa – there were four bars set up, serving champagne, wine, beer, soft drinks and sodas. There were four hors d’ouvre stations and baskets hanging from the ceiling with appetizers in puff pastry and little pastry shells. The lighting in the room was compliments of paper lamps and lanterns with red shades. There were red sofas and chairs to sit on, as well as several bars with no chairs that you could set your “stuff” on. NOW I know why we were early. I (of course) was the only person who was “dressed” but I didn’t care. There were a couple of little girls whose mom had dressed them up as princesses. (I whispered “well, at least some of us know how to dress”.) We hung out for a while and were ushered to our seats – three rows from the stage. (Which were very narrow – not like in Las Vegas) As we were seated, we were handed a program. (Which I know from experience cost $40) Of the Cirque shows that I’ve seen, almost all of them have been in the “half round” configuration. This was almost a full circle. Actually two “half rounds”. The stage was circular. There were 5 chandeliers on the stage behind a gauzy curtain decorated with angels. Of course, the show starts with the clowns in the audience. The story is of a clown who sees his own funeral, then relives his life. I thought it was going to be dark, but is wasn’t. The moral is that life is a journey – to be enjoyed. I swear, it was the funniest Cirque show I’ve ever seen. Totally unexpected, which is what every Cirque show has been. At intermission, here come the ushers again to escort us back to the tent. There was more champagne, flavored coffees and more desserts than you can imagine. The only one I tasted was a Haagen Das strawberry champagne sorbet. The portions were less than small – tiny is too big an adjective. But, then again, I’m not a big dessert eater. Two bites was plenty. You’re going to drool over this – they also had hot fudge sundaes, Haagen Das ice cream in 7 flavors, a chocolate fountain and wonderful things to dunk into it like marshmallows, strawberries, apples, pound cake, pears – basically you name it. It was fun to watch the kids (not that there were very many) – they thought that they had made it to Willy Wonka’s. After intermission, we were ushered back to our seats. The second half was every bit as good as the first. As we left, each person (only Tapis Rouge people) was handed a gift bag which contained a feather boa, a CD of “Best of Cirque du Soleil”, and a T-shirt. Cool, but that’s not all… I had no idea where we were going for dinner, but since Emmet was staying at street close – Fleming’s Steak House. It’s akin to a Ruth’s Chris. Unfortunately, we were seated near the kitchen, so it was a bit busy. I was actually surprised that Emmet didn’t slip the Maitre d’ a twenty to get a good table. Oh well, the food was excellent. I ordered a Belvedere martini – “up” of course. It came in a stainless steel martini glass. Icy cold and yummy. So yummy, I ordered another one. Emmet ordered Filet Mignon Oscar and I ordered a lobster tail. My only “special request” was that the waiter keep my melted butter hot. I tell you, he was there every ten minutes, bringing me hot butter. There was NO WAY I wasn’t going to order the Grand Marnier chocolate lava cake. In fact, you have to order before you order your entrée. Did I share? NO WAY. Shortly after dinner, we had an espresso at the Ritz. (God only knows how much that cost – two martinis at the Ritz cost $36. I knew that from a night out a few years ago.) Emmet ordered my car and kissed me on the cheek. All in all it was a great night. Fortunately, it only took me 20 minutes to drive home. Between the martinis the full belly and the espressos (which put me to sleep – go figure), I was a tired puppy. It was a bummer that this was a Sunday night and I had a boatload of work waiting for me at the office.