Surprise date

I love surprises. Really, honestly, I do. Surprise me sometime. As long as it's a nice surprise, and not anything embarrassing.

Erik surprised me this week with a special date. He told me that we were going to have family night on Thursday, but that morning announced that we were leaving the kids behind. I was told to wear something nice, that our helper was staying late to watch the kids, and we were leaving at 5. I figured there must be entertainment involved, and I was hoping that we might be going to Riverdance. I saw advertisements a long time ago and wasn't even sure when it was taking place, so I didn't hope TOO much.

We drove downtown and parked near the "Moscow Restaurant." That's where the parking attendant unintentionally let the cat out of the bag by asking if we were there to see the Riverdance performance. Yes! Even though it was only 5:30, the wait for the restaurant was ridiculously long. We had waited 1/2 hour when some of our friends happened to show up. One of them had been helping the Riverdance crew with translation and finding local musicians. We ditched the Moscow Restaurant and went with them to Big Pizza instead. Yeah, I know that sounds like a big step down in dining, but I'm all about a place where I can have a salad bar without waiting. What can I say? I'm a cheap date.

Well, for dinner anyway. I'm sure that 18th row tickets weren't cheap. But what was priceless was that our friend took us backstage with him where we witnessed the dancers warming up. I have this to say about what I saw back there: I'm no professional dancer, but it just doesn't seem like McDonald's and a smoke should be part of the warm up routine.

It didn't seem to bother them though - they put on a great show! Me, I'd have been shooting french fries into the 5th row with all that bouncing. I think my favorite routine was the Trading Taps one. I don't feel like going into detail. Just trust me that it was really good. A woman behind us was so moved she repeatedly cried out, "Duo hao kan!" during the last number. Duo hao kan indeed.