Monday, February 26, 2007

The Princess Gets Some Culture

Friday The Funasaurus surprised me with tickets to go see the Denver Nuggets. I like watching basketball, actually, and when he told me he found us some good seats, I got excited all, “Ooooh! I've been wanting to watch Ivan Allenson play all season!!!”

...

“You mean, Allen Iverson, baby?”

“Oh, yes! Him!”

The Funasaurus looked horrified, told me I did not deserve the tickets, and then suggested we go to sushi for dinner beforehand, which pretty much made me the happiest girl ever.

On Saturday I woke up early, with the intent to head up the mountain and ski. Then I realized I was still tired, and I went back to sleep. After waking up around 9:00, The Funasaurus and I went out to brunch, where I got a peach kir royale, (why would a princess do a plain ol' kir, anyway?) which YUM, and then I reluctantly started up the mountain. There was not much traffic, but the temperature was plummeting and there was snow in the air, so I headed to the coffee shop instead of the lifts. I met my girlfriend M, and we spent a good two hours gossiping and philosophizing over the worst chai I've ever had, and then she headed to Breckenridge to get ready for her performance of Steel Magnolias that night.

I stayed at M's house for a little while reading book #2 of the Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events, and if you have not read this, yet, oh! But you absolutely must! It's for little goth's in training! I would have been so much better at being somber and wearing black as I approached thirteen if I had been able to get my hands on these books at that traumatic, bad poetry-writing phase.

Truly, they are excellent. Bonus: you can read an entire book in one sitting!

So eventually I headed over to Breckenridge, since the point of this trip was to go see M perform in Steel Magnolias, after all. She is an extremely talented actress and singer, though I try not to tell her this too often, for fear it will go to her head and interrupt the creative process which is the angst of writing a one-woman show, and hoo-boy, that show is going to be hilarious and brilliant purely due to the fact that it is ridden with insecurities, self-doubt, and stories of events that came from horribly bad choices. The fact that she has found a way to make herself relatable to an audience and then get PAID for recounting those crazy stories, is her genius.

So. Anyway. Steel Magnolias. I make it a point not to cry at the theater, or movies. I don't know why. They don't usually move me the way real life does, because I have an extremely hard time suspending disbelief. I met my friend A at the theater, and we traded “Snazzy coat!” and “It's so cold I'm going to die,”-type comments as we sipped overpriced cabernet out in the lobby, while waiting for the show to begin.

By the end (and here I'm going to spoil the ending, if you are a blind and deaf hermit who was living under a rock in Siberia in the late eighties and managed to miss the phenomena that was the movie version starring Julia Roberts) when M'Lynn falls apart because her daughter, Pam, has died after living long enough to live her dream and give birth to a healthy baby, A turns to me all, “Oh! My heart is breaking.”

And I whisper back, “Yes.” hic “Good thing I don't cry at plays.” *sob*

Afterwards, we went out for wine, pizza, and chicken fried steak, and ended our night on a giggly, tipsy note.

I drove home on Sunday, again trading a day on the slopes for a quick cup of mocha (which turned out to be much better than the chai from the day before) and drove back down to Denver in time to go to an Oscar party at my neighbor's house. I don't usually watch the whole thing, it's too long and self-congratulatory, but I am hardly one to turn down a party, so I went, and watched the whole damn thing, from the red carpet strutting to the rolling credits and after-party interviews. I was disappointed in the lack of tragic outfits, most of the celebrities were sadly understated and classy, but I did win some lotion at Oscar bingo (thank you, Jack Nicholson for wearing sunglasses indoors since that was the only square I needed after spotting a cravat and Ellen Degengeres introduced the band, BINGO!) so that redeemed the evening. Does anyone else watch the Oscars, anymore?

2 comments:

Murphy Funkhouser said...

You SO cried and you know it. ;) Glad you came down. It made my week.

Anonymous said...

Oh to see Steel Magnolias live and performed well, how fun! And I do watch the Oscars, but only for the joy and pleasure of mockery and sarcastic snipes...