A Surprise Night at the Theater

Mr. BTEG got a phone call from the owner of the Dancer's dance studio on Saturday. Seems an adult who takes a private lesson on Saturdays came in with four tickets to that evening's showing of the play Newsies, at Cleveland's Playhouse Square. The studio owner wanted to double check that we could use the tickets. We were happy to accept, especially since the Dancer's tap recital dance back in June was to "King of New York," from Newsies.

After some calling around, it ended up being Mr. BTEG and I, the Dancer, and one of the Dancer's best friends, who is interested in theater, who attended. Said friend was actually at the high school theater painting scenery for the next high school theater production when we got hold of her, and she had to rush home and take a shower.

It was definitely the kind of evening we won't be reproducing anytime soon. In addition to the four tickets, we also got a pass to park free in the Playhouse Square parking garage, with a covered walkway to Playhouse Square's group of theaters. And when we picked up the tickets at the Dancer's studio, we discovered that they were loge tickets. We sat in our own little row of four seats, with some small tables, and waitresses came and took food and drink orders and brought the items directly to our seats. That was a new experience for this family.

I suppose it sounds silly to say that it made me feel ridiculously rich to have the tickets and the parking and everything, but it did. The Evil Genius family is very blessed, but there isn't room in the budget for these kind of events, especially in the luxury seats we had. It was a very pleasant and welcome surprise.

Can't Wait to Be Done

I'm glad that the suggestion for students in the United States to go to school year-round has never gotten much momentum, because I really need a break. A long break. And it's not even like we're going to be sitting around all summer. The girls have another Higher Things conference, the Dancer will be taking several classes for the six week summer dance season, the Musician has gotten a job working with the high school theatrical tech crew and of course she will be involved in marching band. Mr. BTEG and I will be taking a short trip to celebrate our twentieth wedding anniversary. But the pace will be so much more laid back and relaxed, and I need that. I'm so sick of just about everything, and I'm hoping to refreshed and ready to start "normal" life again in the fall.

Moving Forward

About time I updated you on the exciting doings around here! :) It must be Girl Scout hike week. My youngest daughter is going on a hike tonight with her Brownie troop. My eldest daughter is going on a hike this Saturday with her Junior troop to learn about geocaching. I had thought last fall that it would be fun to have one of our closest friends help us with this. He was an ardent geocacher, with over a thousand caches found. Sadly, that friend passed on suddenly later that same fall. My thoughts about him are in my blog archives. BTW, his "geocacher name" was SherwoodForest.

More car troubles: the one car we have running has a broken power steering belt. My husband is working on it; it's not hard but 'tis time consuming. Also it prevents me from driving the car until it is fixed. And yet despite the fact that we haven't gone anywhere since Saturday, my eldest daughter has managed to pick up a cold! Caught it from a neighbor kid somehow, I suppose.

It helps me to rant to ya'll about the car. Everyone has these problems, of course, but it's a release to share it with you when it's my problem. What else is a blog for but to dump your frustrations? Oh yeah, and share cute pictures of your pets/children/house plants.

I found at least one place where my daughter can take ballet this summer, so I think she'll do that. My other daughter will probably take theater again this summer. She took classes last summer and fall. I'm impressed with her ability to perform in front of others; she was also involved in a couple of piano recitals when she studied piano. Now my younger daughter, the wild rambunctious one, is much more nervous about doing things in public! We're working on it though. I explained to her that it is good for her. Most everybody has to perform or present in public at some point or another. I wish I had gotten better at it younger.