May 21, 2005: A weekend off

The weekend passed by in a flash. I don't even know what I did. Um, yes, actually I do. I did a lot of stuff, too! Saturday Jessica and I slept till 11, and then the two of us went to her place to pick up her stuff. Jessica's room was a rather pretty one, and lucky that we found her roommate not home. There really wasn't too much to pack, for I was surprised at how little things Jessica had. And plus Jessica's neatness, it took us about 30 minutes to get everything together into her 2 big suitcases. She would take care of the checking out stuff later, and I called a taxi to take us back to my place. I also tipped the driver to help us bring the luggage up, and after dropping off everything, I dragged Jessica to Broadway into a beauty salon with me, where I paid for her hair due and manicure along with my own with nearly half of my per diem. I told her that we'd go out and have some fun to pass the weekend. After that, we got together with Cecilia, Darren, Steve, Pia, and Shonn, and we got ourselves tickets to see "Wicked" for next Sunday, and then for the whole afternoon our group just roamed about. We stopped by several stores and Cecilia, Pia, and I spent some money on clothes, and we also looked around a couple of dance supply stores, where I bought a pair of new white leg warmers. After we got bored of the outside, we stopped by my apartment to pick up some stuff, and then we went to Cecilia's place, where we just hung out, talked, and shared funny stories. Shamelessly, Cecilia and I showed the group pictures of our cat fan costumes that we made when we were young and our fan fics that we wrote in high school. I was more than happy to send my photo album around that was filled with me in my home made musical costumes, which I always believed I did a good job on. I showed them the numerous pictures of my Victoria, Jemima, and Bombalurina costumes, along with makeup, and more pictures of my Pearl and Dinah costumes for Starlight Express fan meets. They laughed and complimented on my sewing skills, and even teased that I can probably help out a great deal with the costume and makeup department when it's time for us to dress up for the show. Jessica said that my Eponine costume for Les Misérables was perfect, and I promised to make her a set someday. The other costumes they weren't too crazy about, but they adored my vampire and witch costumes for Halloween and the outrageous outfit that I wore to see Rocky Horror Show. I totally adored Cecilia's Rumpelteazer and Etcetera costumes, and her blue gown for Christine from POTO was totally gorgeous! We had a good laugh and critique session over our fan fics, and discussed quite a bit about all those shows that we all seem to be so obsessed with.

When I got back to the apartment with Jessica, it was again late. The day just passed like that. Before I went to bed, I called home, and ended up talking with Mom and Dad for a whole hour while Jessica lay on the bed reading. Yeah, Mom was very happy that I was having the time of my life, and of course, they asked a ton of questions that I had a hard time keeping up with answering.

So that was Saturday. What about today? Yeah, today was quite exciting, too. I woke up rather early, and went out for a short jog with Jessica. Another warm day, and of course, I quite enjoyed another whole day without dancing clothes. Darren had to go for an emergency rehearsal for an unexpected performance of Swan Lake at the ABA for some renowned ballet company directors and choreographers from France tonight, so he couldn't join us for the day. But he got us seats reserved for the show tonight and that we were all very happy about. Gill and Trevor promised to come, too, and whoever from the cast that would be free promised to be there. So, yay!

The day went by pretty normal, and actually, even more fun regarding things that I wanted to do! We went shopping and roamed around Broadway, and I spent quite a few bucks on theatre souvenirs and Broadway show related junk. Now that I finally have the chance, we went into all the theaters where our favorite shows are playing, and I raked in programs, brochures, mugs, magnets, key chains, and even a couple of plush toys, T-shirts, and sweat shirts. We even ran into Idina Menzel coming out of a theater, who happily autographed my Wicked program and had a good conversation with us. We wished each other luck on our upcoming shows, too.

I dropped my bags off at my apartment, and our gang went out to dinner before heading for the ABA. At the entrance of the auditorium, we ran into Gill, Trevor, and Todd. I was rather amused by the size and extravagance of the auditorium, and there seemed to be a couple of thousand people in there already! We didn't have trouble finding our seats, and before the show started, Damien, Jesper, Rebecca, Kelli, and Ethan came in. Jessica was already more than excited!

The moment the music started, I was mesmerized. When Darren came on stage, I almost gasped. Gosh, he was so good! Even better than what I've seen him so far! He was the perfect Siegfried, and I was even somewhat jealous of that Odette on stage, who was also so beautiful and elegant in that white costume with the lovely, fluffy tutu, and her movements so refined and legs so flexible that she made my mouth drop. The other swans were also gorgeous, and I just couldn't help keeping my eyes locked to Darren and that Odette (Ruth de Leone was her name, I think) whenever those two were on stage, and neglect everyone else around them. I also noticed that Jessica was totally captivated. Well, I don't know how many professional ballet productions she's been in, but I could guess that probably she's never been in Swan Lake. At the end, I was in tears. The dancers on stage drilled so many emotions into me that I couldn't help feeling that I was completely under their spell.

Well, anyway, the entire performance deserved two thumbs up! The applauds lasted probably 3 minutes after the curtains closed, and we couldn't stop talking about it when we exited the auditorium. We met Darren and that lovely ballerina at the stage door and buried them in praises, and Jessica and I were still talking about it on our way back home.

"Gosh, she was so good," Jessica mumbled while she changed into her PJs.

"Who, Odette?" I asked. "Ruth what's her name?"

"Yeah. She was gorgeous. She's the most beautiful Odette I've seen so far," Jessica said with a sigh.

"You've seen Swan Lake before?" I asked.

"Four times at least," said Jessica, "it's my favorite ballet in the world, and Odette has long been my biggest dream role."

"Well, I'm sure you'll get to play her one day," I said.

"Wasn't Darren awesome?" Jessica said, a little dreamily. "He was even better than I thought! Gosh, I swear, he's probably one of the best ballet dancers I've ever met! Gosh, now the image of him as Siegfried is stuck in my head!"

"Oh, Jesus, tell me about it," I said, "you'd think that his talent was given by the God of ballet himself! What he did can't be described with a simple word like 'good' or even 'great'! I can't even say how much I loved his dancing!"

Jessica nodded and smiled. "I wish I could be up there with him."

I had to chuckle and pat her on the back. "Dearie, remember, dreams do come true. You're already in Cats with him, so I won't bet that you're not gonna be in Swan Lake with him someday in your life."

Jessica had to hide her red face while I sat down with my big journal. She again asked me what I'm writing in this, and well, I gave her the usual answer: what interest things that happen during my time with Cats. Weird that we seemed to have done so much today, but neither one of us was that tired. We stayed up and chatted, watched TV, and even sort of went over some of the difficult parts of our routines. And yes, I'm all prepared for another day of work and another exciting week!

Mel