Weekend with a Twist

This past weekend, my BFF Sara came down for a visit (her first since I've been married... shame, shame) and we crammed as much as fun as possible into a 26-hour trip. (She had to get back for church on Sunday... something about responsibilities. Pssh.) 

I left school a little early on Friday, ran home to rush-clean the last remaining areas of my house that needed attention (including one final OCD run-through with the vacuum cleaner) and then gleefully waited for her to arrive. Of course, this reunion was made even more joyful by the fact that I had been calling Miss Thing for like an hour and she hadn't answered so I, of course, assumed she was unconscious in a ditch somewhere. Nothing makes you appreciate seeing your friend like a little terrorized worry at the last second. 

Anyway, she brought me a great big bag of birthday presents (which I opened immediately because I am nine years old) and then we went to Target (because, what else do Ashley and Sara do? Nothing.) THEN we came home, changed, and went to Baker's Kitchen, which was heavenly as always.

I'd been excited to show Sara around downtown New Bern because it really is adorable and the weather this weekend was perfect, but since it only takes a couple hours to see everything there is to see, I decided to plan another way to pass some time and still be entertained (by something other than our own cleverness =) so I bought tickets to a local production of Cinderella.

What could be better? A girls' weekend, a historic downtown theatre (with the fancy spelling), a little Rodgers and Hammerstein? I was feeling positively- dare I say?- cultured as I led Sara proudly down the street to the theatre and we claimed our tickets. 

Not exactly the Gershwin =)

Seems legit..

When we got inside, I immediately sensed that something was off. (For one thing, the theatre- fancy spelling notwithstanding- was not much better than my classroom and then seats were older than me... but not in a "I'm experiencing history" way. More like a "I think they performed Cats here in the '80s" way.) Also, the audience around us was decidedly... young. (Think a ton of little girls in tiaras and princess dresses. I won't say I wasn't a little jealous, but still. Not a really sophisticated crowd.) THEN an old lady got up and started talking about theatre etiquette and mentioned "when the kids come down the aisle." Oh, sure... she's like 102 so of course she calls all the actors kids. She is old enough to be their grandma!

HA. As soon as the first number started, it became very clear that we were watching a production made up of CHILDREN. Not just the roles for children in the play, either... the king and queen, stepmother, godmother, you name it... all kids. (Also the king looked about 10 and was a good foot shorter than his "wife.")

Now, the kids were cute and they did a great job, but since a) I had no idea this was a kids' show and b) I had been feeling so cultured about taking my friend to a night at the theatre, all I could do was laugh uncontrollably for about the first 10 minutes of the show (which, by the way, only lasted 52 minutes. Rodgers and Hammerstein probably wouldn't have loved for their beloved tunes to be sped up to marching band tempo, but hey. The cast had a bedtime.) And since Sara started crying uncontrollably as she laughed, everyone around us probably thought we were big jerks. We aren't... we were both just in shock. 

So, after stumbling out of the theatre still dying laughing when it was over (but trying to conceal our giddiness since we didn't want to offend any mommies, daddies, or proud grandmas) we finally made it back to the car and topped off our evening at the children's show with ice cream cones, because we are grown-ups. 

Oh, man. I'm still laughing about it! (By the way, one of the main reasons we were dying is that the prince was like watching Ted from What Not To Wear at age 13.... seriously.) So, yeah... the whole thing was pretty unexpected but way more memorable than a typical BORING night of watching professionals sing and dance. Where's the fun in that? =) I'm so glad Sara got to come visit... besides experiencing so much New Bern culture, we got to stay up late, get pedicures, shop (naturally), and talk, talk, talk. For two busy teachers, it's not always easy to stay connected like we want to, so even though it was brief, the time together was appreciated. I so love this girl! 

How was your weekend? Also, have you ever forked over money that really didn't turn out to be what you thought? I'd love to compare stories. =)

Ash