Chinese Food & Transiberian Orchestra

For Patrick's birthday (which is actually tomorrow) I decided to take him to dinner at the Capital Grille (our favorite restaurant in Michigan) and to the Transiberian Orchestra as a means of celebration. I made reservations for dinner at 5:30 on Friday and the concert was at 8:30. We decided to leave Ann Arbor for the 45-minute drive to Troy, MI at 4 pm, thinking that this would be enough time to get there, even with rush hour traffic. How wrong we were. We didn't reach the restaurant until 6:30. Our table given away, and no hope of getting another one in time to be able to leave for the concert, we went to the mall that the Capital Grill is located in, in hope of finding something to eat. All the restaurants had an hour to an hour and a half wait. So we went up to the food court and found a semi decent Chinese food place. We sat down in the food court, Patrick in his suit and I dressed up as nicely as I can be (let's face it, this is me we're talking about), and we ate our Chinese food. I felt pretty bad, although it wasn't my fault that we missed the reservation, because this was the first time in two years that Patrick and I were really able to celebrate his birthday together. Patrick kept saying that he was just happy to be with me to celebrate his birthday instead of out on the road or in some FIJI house.
We finish dinner and leave the mall to get to the Palace at Auburn Hills (the place where the Piston's play and where the "Basketbrawl" happened). We arrive just in time and pay $15.00 for parking. $15.00 freaking dollars to park!!! We were outraged. Disney Land doesn't even charge that much! We go in and find our seats on the floor. The concert starts and at first I am pretty happy with the music I hear. But then random people start singing random songs that are set to classic Christmas carols. I tried to enjoy it, but I was expecting one thing and we were hearing another. I was expecting something similar to Manheim Steamroller type music, and there were elements of that orchestral type of music in the set, but I was irritated with the other music they were playing. About 45 minutes into the show a very drunk couple came in and plopped down next to Patrick. They were loud and obnoxious and at one point Patrick was ready to kill them-those of you who know Patrick, know I'm not kidding. They left at the end of the first set, which was about an hour later, and Patrick told them "thank you" for leaving. After this hour and 45 minute first half of the show, my hips were killing me and Patrick was fed up with the little drunk idiots and the guy on stage yelling at us about the band. I asked Patrick if we could leave. I knew I couldn't sit through another half of the show and I really didn't want to fight traffic on our hour-long drive back to Ann Arbor. I think he was ready to go too. We got back to Ann Arbor at about 11. We snuggled on the futon/couch, ate our messy caramel apples (I got chocolate all over the place), and watched TV. It was a much better end to a not so great evening. But at least we were together.
Yesterday (Saturday), I made reservations for the Capital Grille for tomorrow (Patrick's birthday). We are going to leave at noon and explore the mall before dinner at 5:45. We ARE NOT going to miss our reservation this time. Damn it.