You can dress me up, but you can’t take me out.

I think I mentioned yesterday that my sister and I were going to take Gracie to the symphony hall downtown to see the Von Trapp children perform. It was a very big deal. The Sound of Music has been a family favorite since my mom saw its debut in 1965. I remember falling asleep on her lap whenever it aired on TV when I was a child. It was the first movie my mom owned when my dad brought home our VCR. And my girls have grown up watching the DVD and know every note on the soundtrack. Gracie is old enough now to sit through a grown-up show, she loves dressing up, and she adores music. We were set for success.

Except. This seems to be the week for exceptions. I had a great time in Philly…except the SEPTA strike seemed to throw a wrench in our plans. We were ecstatic to pick up Auntie Kim from the airport early…except Gracie nearly lost a foot (and did lose a sneaker) to the monster who lives under the escalator. We had a glorious time at the zoo…except it closed earlier than we thought and we had to rush through in an hour and a half.

Yesterday? We had a BLAST during the first half…except I realized during Intermission that my wallet was missing. It wasn’t in my cavernous purse. It wasn’t under our seats in the Lower Gallery. I even asked a nice man sitting next to us to check under the seats thoroughly so I didn’t expose myself (in my hott dress) to half the audience. I checked with the usher, who checked with the head usher, who checked with the floor manager, who told us to check with security after the show. I would have left to check with them right then, except I thought that anyone who would have turned it in would have handed it to an usher (and so on and so forth), and that most likely the floor manager would have heard about it. If I left to check in the car, we couldn’t re-enter the hall and would miss the second half of the production. While re-checking our seats and figuring out what to do, my sister asked me when the last time I was sure I had my wallet…and I remembered getting money out to pay for dinner right before we went to the zoo. The zoo. I put my wallet in my backpack and hadn’t thought twice about it. Thank. God.

After my heart rate slowed from somewhere near a thousand beats per minute, I was able to enjoy the second half of the production nearly as much as the first.  The show wasn’t nearly as – what’s the word I want? – polished as I expected, but they did all of the good songs from the movie and even let the audience sing along to Edelweiss. There were a number of other songs (I Went Down to the River, the Rwandan national anthem, a song from The Snowman that I swear doesn’t have words, Amazing Grace), but we all enjoyed the stories and songs from our movie the best. Naturally.

Gracie did a lot better than I expected, although the afternoon was a bit long for her. She loved picking out the instruments and pretending to conduct. She was so excited! to see that there were “Five basses, Mommy!” and that there was a trombone and a cello! I think watching the orchestra set up and practice before the production was actually her favorite part.

My favorite part (aside from realizing my wallet was probably safe and secure at home) was watching her watch the singers and conductor. That was worth every penny. And will be, time and again.

Tags: children, entertainment, theater, vacation