More Conversations
September 22, 2006
SUNDAY NIGHT:
John: I'm going to Albequerque on Tuesday and I'll be back on Wednesday.
Now normally I would not pass up such a perfect set-up. Normally I would have adopted my best Bugs Bunny voice and told him to make sure he made a left turn.
Normally, that is. What I actually said was:
Karen: (soul in mortal agony) TUESDAY?!!!!!
John: (startled) Yeah, why? Is there something going on?
Karen: (choking back tears) Tuesday is the So You Think You Can Dance concert. Oh man! I can't believe it. There's no way I can get a babysitter on a school night when we'll be out that late. Whaaaaaaaa!
John suggested that I take the kids to my parents' house (an hour away) and let them miss school the next day. Wasn't sure I could quite justify that one, though. In the end Desi, Ev's husband, said he'd watch them so we could go. And he suggested we leave early and go have dinner downtown! How cool is he? Desi, you're forgiven for being deployed and messing up our Ascent training regimen. Heh.
So Tuesday came, John left for Albequerque, the day somehow flew by, and I found myself with one short hour to get ready.
TUESDAY:
Me: OK, kids. We're leaving for Mr. Desi's in an hour. I've got to shower and get ready. I need privacy and no interruptions unless it's an emergency. Got that?
K&E: Got it.
10 minutes later, stepping out of the shower . . .
Karl: (bursting through the bedroom door) Mom?
Me: (hastily grabbing towel) Yes, Karl? Is this an emergency?
Karl: Maybe. I can't find a pair of matching socks.
Me: That's not an emergency.
Karl: Oh. Right. Sorry.
10 minutes after finding him some socks . . .
Karl: (bursting through the bedroom door) Mom?
Me: (diving into the closet half-dressed) Yes, Karl? Is this an emergency?
Karl: Maybe. I wanted to make sure you had the secret code to my room. I calculated it by waah waaah waaah wah waaah waaaah push buttons wahh reverse numbers waaah waaah. Here's the code. I'll put this calculator outside my door and if you want to enter you'll have to enter the code.
Me: Got it. But that's not an emergency. Privacy please.
Karl: Oh. Right. Sorry.
10 minutes later . . .
Karl: (bursting through the bedroom door) Mom?
Me: (startled into smearing mascara all over my face) I'm not even going to ask if this is an emergency.
Karl: Don't you think I should bring my iPod charger and pillow since we're going to sleep at Mr. Desi's?
Me: Yes Karl, that's a great idea. But that's not an emergency. GET OUT!!!!!
Karl: Oh. Right. Sorry.
Somehow I managed to finish getting ready and we went to pick up dinner for Desi and the kids and then went to exchange them for Evelyn.
Me: Ev, you look so cute! That color is fabulous on you.
Ev: You think? I think I look like a mom. I need some cooler clothes.
Me: Nah. You look great.
Ev: I'm wearing a SWEATER SET, for gosh sake! What happened to me?
Me: Well . . . I mean, we ARE moms, after all. We'll be traveling to the concert in my trendy mini-van.
Ev: True dat.
Me: Double true.
OK, we didn't say those last two parts.
When we were walking into the convention center, though, we were right behind a lady with a baby, and I pointed out to Evelyn that her sweater set only announced "mom" whereas the lady in front of us was screaming it. (What with the BABY and all!) In fact, the age range for this concert seemed to span from 6 months to 87 years!
Our seats were FABULOUS! We were probably only about 20 feet from the stage. The only drawback was that the handicapped section was right behind our section, so if the crowd stood up for more than an ovation the people in wheelchairs would start screaming for folks to sit down. You can't blame them for wanting to see the show, but it was a little strange to be glued to your seat at a dancing concert.
And what a concert! We were allowed to take non-flash photography and Ev had her camera, so we took about 100 blurry pictures and 10 good ones! We also got some video of our favorites. (Dmitry for her, Ivan for me) Here's a sampling of the night:
They did all the favorites from the show and a few new ones. Some of the show dances were changed (Ivan instead of Travis krumping with Martha) and some were expanded to include all the dancers (SexyBack, Ryan & Allison's Broadway). I noticed that Jessica was in a couple of the group dances even though she wasn't top 10, but Evelyn read somewhere that she and Jamez are understudies. We never saw Jamez, though. The dancers looked and sounded exactly like they did on TV, which was somewhat surprising.
The krumping routine turned into a high-energy group hip-hop routine that ended with Tranji. (Benji and Travis doing the geeks-do-hip-hop number) Here they are afterward:
What are they saying, you ask? Well isn't it obvious? They're asking Ev and me to join them for the Ramalama Bang Bang routine, of course!
Ev, you look MAHvelous! Sweater set, my ass! Nice guns!
And notice the way Ivan is looking at me! No, that is NOT a "smell a fart" look! Easy mistake, but no. That is actually a zombie "come hither" look.
Hither . . . come I!
Hey, I'm not saying that I tore his sleeve with my teeth. I'm also not saying that I didn't. Heh
Ivan, can I call you Ashton?
Bad mom! Bad mom!
Note: Karl was quite intrigued by my request for him to take a photo of me gazing adoringly toward my right. He wanted to know what I was looking at. Just wait, I told him, opening Photoshop . . .
And for your final viewing enjoyment (Ev and Mary - don't lick your screens!):
RMQOTD (I'm melting! Melting!)