Swan Lake

My husband had given me tickets to see Swan Lake for Christmas. I had mentioned how I’ve never seen a professional ballet in person. I’ve seen it only on television and amateur performances. He knew how much I loved the ballet and did research and found that Seattle has a professional ballet company. I know what you’re thinking right about now– how sweet. Yes, but it gets better. He made an event out of it. We went last night and stayed in a hotel. We had a nice dinner at a place called The Keg. Nice fireplace, really good steaks.

We got to sleep in and got ready for the matinee at our leisure. I wore a lovely skirt and high heels and Tom wore his suit minus the tie. He looked handsome.

We stopped at Denny’s for breakfast and then left with an hour to spare to get to the show. So far everything was so wonderful . . . until we got off the exit for the theater. The traffic was backed up and it took us forever to get to the theater – it’s now half an hour before curtain time. We see the signs for parking and follow them. The problem was that there was construction all over the place and there was no visible sign or entrance to the parking. So we got all turned around trying to get back to where we started – twenty minutes to curtain.

Tom was afraid we might not get there on time and found a public parking area. We parked the car – fifteen minutes to curtain. We walked in the general direction of the theater. We stopped a passerby to make sure we were going in the right direction – twelve minutes to curtain. The pace picks up when we realized we are several blocks away – eight minutes to curtain. Did I mention I was wearing high heels? At this point he tells me that if we don’t get there on time, they reserve the right to not let us in – six minutes to curtain. I believe I set a new record for speed walking in heels for when we got to our seats it was two minutes to curtain. Yeah!

I was now hot and sweating and never so glad to sit down. I was afraid of taking off my shoes for fear that my feet would swell up and I couldn’t get them back on.

Alas, I was there and I was so happy. The theater was beautiful. The live orchestra was really good. The professional dancers were amazing. The costumes were colorful and sparkly. I did have one observation – when twenty four swans are in toe shoes and dancing at the same time . . . well let’s just say they are not as light on their feet as you might think.

I have a wonderful husband who sat through three hours of ballet, smiled, held my hand and told me how happy he was because I was happy. We stopped in Ellensburg which is about a couple of hours from where we live to have dinner at the Starlight Lounge. It’s one of those places we love to go to if we are ever in the area.

Thank you honey for the wonderful Christmas present. I love you.

© Nadine Z. 2007