On Saturday, November 4th a group from the TIHAA and their friends/relatives ventured to downtown Houston to dine at Irma's Southwest Grill and to attend the Jeanne Robertson's show at The Revention Music Center (formerly known as: Albert Thomas Convention Center & Bayou Place). The planning for this trip started months in advance, pre-Hurricane Harvey. At that time we had planned to eat at the Spaghetti Warehouse which is no more thanks to Harvey. So, I started calling the restaurant in the proximity of the theater. The only restaurant that answered and that would take my reservation was Irma's Southwest Grill. This turned out to be a blessing. The food was delicious, the service was very efficient and there was not a problem with having separate checks. The day prior the restaurant manager call to confirm the number of people that would be attending so he would have enough staff to have us out in time for the show. As you can tell I highly recommend Irma’s Southwest Grill. At Irma’s we met another group known as the "Young at Heart" the leader of this group is a friend of mine named Marion. While we were at the restaurant I did a reverse draw to hand out a candy bag to each person — the last two bags had a 2 dollar bill in it. One was won by Joan Jackson in Marion's group. She wrote me a sweet thank you note telling me she spent the money at JoAnn's on quilting material. The other was won by Ralph Garcia and I assume he is saving his for good luck! We left Irma's with plenty of time to make the show; however, we were stuck in a traffic jam within a half a block of the theater so we all got out and walked a short distance to the theater only to find out the line was almost a block long to get in. We have to remember it is not only at the airports we have to go through security but anywhere a crowd gathers even if it is to see a 73 year old humorist in a rocking chair.

Jeanne Robertson was on stage as we entered the theater, it was her pre-show introduction. Al Jeanne’s manager then sang and played guitar before making the formal introduction for Jeanne opening the performance. Jeanne started by explaining the need for the rocking chair on stage. It seems while getting ready for a party in her game room (which she said was a fancy way of saying a garage with a pool table) she slipped breaking her femur. She said this was not to be confused with a broken leg this is much worse. She said when the paramedics arrived they said it was going to take a second ambulance to take care of her meaning they would not have enough morphine on their ambulance to take care of someone her size 6ft 2in. Then to add insult to injury a neighbor started banging on the ambulance as it was taking Jeanne to the hospital and shouting, "Is the party still on?" Jeanne said she spent 3 months in rehab and shared multiple stories of her recuperation. All of which you could relate if you have ever had to recover from a surgery or broken bone. She said she was tired of recuperation and wanted to get back to work; however, the only way she could be comfortable in doing this was to sit in a rocking chair. This was not just any chair but one of the ones you see outside of Cracker Barrel Restaurants and she said that they would give away — one rocking chair from the entries received online by the next day. I was not a winner of the rocking chair, but I was a winner in enjoying Jeanne’s humor and you can to if you want to view them on Jeanne Robertson or listen to her stories on iTunes.

There were 17 of us that attended the performance. However, I did not take any pictures so you will have to use your imagination for what we looked like because no one sent me a selfie.

(Attendees: Israel and Nora Morales, Ralph and Estella Garcia, Tom and Cindy Croissant, Caroline Murphy, Daryl and Brenda Moss and their friend Marina Rivers, Mary Brown and her friends Sylvia Cruz, Drew Weaver, Linda Matteson and Janice Smith).

Hope to see you on one of our upcoming trips!