February 2 is Groundhog’s Day. Coincidentally, it is also my birthday. Each year my wife asks me what I would like to do, and since we have only lived in Tucson for four years, I like to explore the area by taking in some of the cultural experiences. This year it was the Ballet Tucson, whose program included a salute to Leonard Bernstein, who would have been 100 years old this year.
Dealing with pain is no fun, and navigating our way from dinner to the university to find parking near the theater caused Fran to become somewhat disoriented. This led her to lose sight of street which led to the entrance to the building where she was supposed to drop me off. We ended up a little distance from the back of the building (after stopping others to get directions), and we started our journey to the theater which included, to our dismay, several series of steps, including the ones to our seat inside. We found out that the only accessible seating was in the back near the sound booth. The program was very nice, but the ordeal of getting there took its toll on me, and several days passed before I began feeling somewhat back to normal.
Since I have been in Tucson, we have taken birthday trips to Tubac (a historic community filled with artisans), Phoenix (staying in the town of Chandler and seeing the Music Instrument Museum and the Heard Museum), Bisbee (an old mining town in southern Arizona not far from Tombstone), and now the ballet. We will see what new thing next year will bring!
Allan Spiegler 