It started off as a great idea . . . and with a little tweaking it finished that way, too. Sinbad was coming to Tacoma to appear at the Emerald Queen Casino just before my birthday. In August I drove to the Fife casino and dropped off Peg to get tickets while I waited in the car outside on the circular driveway. She came back out of the casino without tickets. She couldn’t even stand the smoky interior long enough to get tickets. I went inside and bought the best tickets I could.
As we drove away Peg announced that she probably couldn’t stand the air to attend the concert. We started a mental list of who I could invite to join me. We finished with me asking my sister, Marsha to join me. Then realizing that I couldn’t take one sister out for a fun evening without taking my other sister, we bought tickets for me and my youngest sister, Dee Dee to see Tim Allen at EQ in October. This was a good idea for her and a bad idea for me. I quickly became triple booked. I suggested to Dee Dee that she invite my son-in-law and her cousin's husband, Rich to join her, which she did. The concert was on his birthday. Theh had a good time.
On the night of Sinbad’s concert I picked up Marsha and we drove to the EQ just off Portland Avenue in Tacoma. On Dee Dee’s recommendation we took advantage of valet parking. It saved us walking through half the casino. Marsha led me through a labyrinth of slot machines to an elevator that delivered us to the buffet restaurant.
The dining area was quite full. We walked through and up to the counter to register for dinner. The line at the counter went down the stairs. I left Marsha at the top of the stairs and went down the stairs, further down the stairs, and then down and around the corner before returning to Marsha shaking my head. She mentioned another restaurant adjacent to the buffet area.
We walked right up and gave our names and were seated almost immediately. Once seated the waitress offered us menus or we could opt for the buffet. A seven foot partition separated us from the majority of the buffet diners, but we were free to grab what we wanted. The butterfly shrimp were excellent as was the London Broil, the baked ham, and the prime rib. For dessert I enjoyed several petits fours and a spoonful of Marsha’s lemon meringue pie. We actually had dinner with “Downtown” Freddie Brown of the Seattle Super Sonics from when they were a great team to watch. Freddie of course didn’t know that he was dining with us. I've had dinner with Jack Sikma (Freddie's teammate) the same way. We're quite close.
After dinner we took our seats. We were in row AA, which was three rows from the stage. We spent the next two and a half hours laughing. Sinbad was fifteen to twenty feet away from us. If I could have bought front-row seats I would have, but ours were quite good, however.
Sinbad was hilarious. Although he talked about sex, he didn’t use blue humor. Much of his humor came from his life and his age. He’s fifty-six (we all sang happy birthday to him) and most of the people in the audience could identify with his age related observations. He mentioned that when you’re about twenty you take your clothes off for sex, but once you get to your fifties you leave most of your clothes on. He joked about having sex with his wife. “Why didn’t you let me know earlier?” He then talked about having to take off the sleep apnea mask, the carpal tunnel gloves, and the suppression stockings.
After the concert, Marsha and I talked about the jokes and relived the moments of laughter and hilarity. Our mouths were completely dry from non-stop laughing. It was a great evening. When Sinbad returns, I’ll figure out a way to get Peg into the no smoking entertainment room without traipsing through the smoky areas of the casino.
It started off as a great idea . . . and with a little tweaking it finished that way, too. Sinbad was coming to Tacoma to appear at the Emerald Queen Casino just before my birthday. In August I drove to the Fife casino and dropped off Peg to get tickets while I waited in the car outside on the circular driveway. She came back out of the casino without tickets. She couldn’t even stand the smoky interior long enough to get tickets. I went inside and bought the best tickets I could.
On the night of Sinbad’s concert I picked up Marsha and we drove to the EQ just off Portland Avenue in Tacoma. On Dee Dee’s recommendation we took advantage of valet parking. It saved us walking through half the casino. Marsha led me through a labyrinth of slot machines to an elevator that delivered us to the buffet restaurant.
We walked right up and gave our names and were seated almost immediately. Once seated the waitress offered us menus or we could opt for the buffet. A seven foot partition separated us from the majority of the buffet diners, but we were free to grab what we wanted. The butterfly shrimp were excellent as was the London Broil, the baked ham, and the prime rib. For dessert I enjoyed several petits fours and a spoonful of Marsha’s lemon meringue pie. We actually had dinner with “Downtown” Freddie Brown of the Seattle Super Sonics from when they were a great team to watch. Freddie of course didn’t know that he was dining with us. I've had dinner with Jack Sikma (Freddie's teammate) the same way. We're quite close.
Sinbad was hilarious. Although he talked about sex, he didn’t use blue humor. Much of his humor came from his life and his age. He’s fifty-six (we all sang happy birthday to him) and most of the people in the audience could identify with his age related observations. He mentioned that when you’re about twenty you take your clothes off for sex, but once you get to your fifties you leave most of your clothes on. He joked about having sex with his wife. “Why didn’t you let me know earlier?” He then talked about having to take off the sleep apnea mask, the carpal tunnel gloves, and the suppression stockings.
