A Night in The Town

So, last night was the annual "Taste of Newton" where they close the main street in the quaint little town of Newton and all of the local restaurants (25 or so) have food booths set up for tasting. They charge a fairly steep admission, but it is usually a nice evening. I haven't been for about 3 years, so Willie and I thought it would be a nice "date night".

It was a beautiful night - warm and not a drop of rain to be seen. When we arrived, the street was pretty tame, not too many people, so we just strolled, glass of wine in hand. There was a full range of food from mediocre to really good. Our favorite was a big hunk of dark chocolate with nuts from the local chocolaterie. Also some great cheeses from two local cheese makers. Yum. Willie loved the pulled pork barbeque.

Things started to take a turn a bit later, though. At mid street, a band started to play ... loudly. At the same time, the sun had set, so it was dark, other than street lights. And, it had gotten really, really crowded. All the perfect storm for the balance, sight and hearing impaired. It was actually kind of funny. I had been commenting that all my hiking lately has helped my overall stability. Ha. The combination of loud noise, darkness, and a sea of people completely messed up my poor brain and within minutes I was staggering around as if I'd drunk the whole case of wine, rather than just one glass. And, of course, every person I saw wanted to talk into my deaf ear. Oh lord. What a comical sight it must have been. We finally decided that I was probably going to hurt someone if we didn't leave (by crashing into some hapless fool with a full plate of food, no doubt).

It was really amazing how quickly my balance disintegrated under those conditions. My sense is that the swirls of moving people messed me up more than anything. I had gelled up my eye before we left so that I would not have to use drops, and my vision was very blurry. That, combined with the movement must have been more than my brain could sort out. The loud music was really the icing on the cake. Note to self: avoid this in the future.

All said, it was fun to get out and do something daring, though!