What I Did Last Weekend

When last you heard from me, my dog had a very broken leg and I was sadly kissing most of my birthday check goodbye to fix it. My original plan for that birthday money had been to get a nice room in the Dallas metro area, do some baby furniture shopping at IKEA, and see RENT! I was particularly excited about that last one, because Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal (the original Mark and Roger from Broadway AND the movie) are currently touring with the show. Little gals from Oklahoma, while grateful Civic Center season ticket-holders, do not often get to see such big names in the shows that come to OKC. (Jamie Farr came and played George Burns a few years ago and Tom Bosely and Michelle Learned came to do On Golden Pond last season.) Once we figured out how much Pablo's leg was going to cost us, I tried really hard to kiss my Dallas dream goodbye. After all, the baby still has a couple of months left, IKEA isn't going anywhere, and if I found a really clear Saturday-I wouldn't need the hotel. But...I had just had a birthday, the play was Mother's Day weekend, and I could not let go of the phrase "at the end of your life you will regret the things you haven't done more than what you have." So, last Thursday night, I found that there were still balcony seats for the show, Pricelined a hotel room near the IKEA, and decided to go anyway. Then, the vet called and said we could pick the dog up any time. I told Dave to enjoy his time with the kids and the dog and that I would see him when I got back Saturday night. And I was ABSOLUTELY serious.

In the end, Pablo spent another night at the vet (probably for the best since part of his post-op treatment is to stay still and quiet and that's not easily done when there are four adoring kids who missed him and want to play with him), and we all made the drive even though I was the only one with a ticket to the show. (Dave tolerates musicals for my sake. These tickets, even in the balcony, weren't cheap and I didn't want to push it.) We left after school on Friday. We ate the the slowest IHOP ever (Ardmore) where the hostess told me as she seated my party that I had "too many kids." I can't say I recommend that place. (Though the hostess was only 16, and I remember I knew everything back then too. What happened?) We tried out the new (to us) Turnpike to get to our hotel in Plano. It goes up pretty high. It scared me and I'm glad Dave was driving. We stayed at Hyatt Place in Plano. It was LOVELY by any standard, and even more exciting at Priceline cost. (It's clean, family-friendly, and has free breakfast.) I can't recommend the Ardmore IHOP, but I can definitely endorse the Hyatt Place in Plano, TX. (I saw another one in Dallas, I'm sure it's just as nice.)

During the 12 hours or so that I thought I would be making the trip alone, I was nervous about it. I spent the remainder of my trip WITH my kids wondering why I had thought leaving them behind was such a bad idea. First of all, our car DVD player is broken. I've read many lovely magazine essays extolling the virtues of leaving those behind, teaching our kids all the car games we used to play (road sign ABC's anyone?), and going back to "the good old days" of road-tripping. All I can say to that is that on my next trip I want some of whatever those writers were smoking when they wrote those articles so that I can get through another road trip with my kids and without a DVD player! It was noisy even in the most harmonious of sibling moments and downright miserable when they were all fighting.

I'm glad we used Priceline for the room because we were only there long enough to get bedded-down for the night, cleaned up and fed in the morning, and then we were on our way to IKEA. Our pared-down budget precluded any furniture shopping, but I did fall in love with this blanket and some other matching items for the baby. I wasn't a big fan of the crib set that went with it, but I did get the hanging pockets, changing table cover, and of course a little stuffed frog to match. My love for frogs is usually limited to Kermit, so I was surprised that this was what I wound up buying-but I do really like it. The kids were even more rotten at IKEA than they were in the car. Natalie, my normally "good" child actually hit her brother in front of God, Dave, me, and several other store patrons. One of whom went so far as to hold her two little boys away from my kids when we were all in the elevator together. Then, one of those "preshus" boys proceeded to throw the mother of all fits as soon as we got downstairs. I really wanted to say "Judge not, lest ye be judged" as I walked by the mom, but instead I just laughed a really fake-cheerful laugh and said "Uh-oh" in my best sing-song voice as I passed. (Yes, I was pushing her buttons...on purpose. Oh well.) Still, one of my kids HAD hit her brother, so I was done and ready to leave too. I needed a little break. And I was about to get a good one.

With all the stress of herding four kids to and from Dallas and in and out of IKEA; I had completely forgotten to be excited about the reason I drove to the Big D in the first place, my show! I wasn't incredibly taken with RENT! the movie though I was touched by the backtory behind it, but then a friend and I did go see the final Broadway performance which was filmed live and then released on a limited run at theatres last Fall. And that's when I really "got" the show and fell in love with it. Not long after that, I saw that Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal would be reprising Mark and Roger and I HAD to see it for myself. I am very glad that I did. Dave dropped me at the theatre, took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese (a vacation in and of itself for them because I refuse to go there), and in I went.

The show was amazing! I love the whole RENT! story, but the thrill of knowing that it was the "real" Mark and Roger RIGHT THERE ON THE STAGE IN FRONT OF ME just blew me away every time I thought about it. In addition, a lot of the cast from the last Broadway show are now part of the touring company and that was exciting too. Both Anthony and Adam were incredibly talented, but I have to say that my favorite was Anthony Rapp as Mark. He IS Mark the entire time he is onstage. I loved his chemistry with Adam (which I guess they would HAVE to have at this point), and I about swooned when I realized I was watching the "real" Mark dancing on the table singing about "days of inspiration" during "La Vie Boheme". I had only brought tissues for Act 2, but they were gone long before it started. The Act 1 plot isn't, in my opinion, tear-jerking; but seeing RENT! live and in person AND with two of it's original cast members absolutely was. In fact, the word surreal isn't out of place here. This wound up being a much bigger day for me than I had anticipated and one I won't likely forget anytime soon. Sometimes it hurts me to spend money, especially after such a big vet bill, but I had suspected all along that I would regret missing this far more than the money I spent to go and see it. And I was definitely right.

And on that note, I will end it unless you really want to dwell all the fighting and fussing that ensued on the drive back home.

Neither do I!

Viva La Vie  Boheme!