October was an awesome month. One of my b-day gifts from John was one of the most amazing gifts ever. He got us tickets to go see "Sweeney Todd" at the Tivoli (an old theater here in town). John is the best gift giver. He remembers random things I said months before and so it's always something I want AND I'm surprised. In fact, I had seen an ad for this show and I was whining about how bad I wanted to go. So, you'd think I'd be jumping up and down when I got the tickets, right? No. I'm a total idiot. I didn't want to go because the tickets were pretty expensive and our babysitting situation. Let me explain.
As many of you know, we live with my parents. When we go out on dates, my mom usually watches Charlie because he's used to her. The one time we had John's parents watch him . . . he got violently sick. Turns out he had a fever virus and we didn't even know. John's poor parents had to deal with a sick, scared, screaming baby for three hours. He literally screamed for three hours! I felt so horrible about that for months.
So, the show just happened to be on the week when my parents were in El Paso visting my grandma. Hoo boy. Now, John's parents raised eight kids: seven boys and one girl. They are not easily fazed and told us everything would be fine. I was seriously nervous for a week leading up to that night. But as soon as we dropped Charlie off at their house, I just tried to enjoy the evening.
The show was crazy amazing. It wasn't the traditional telling of "Sweeney Todd." It was actually from a fairly recent adaptation where the cast are all mental patients in an asylum, retelling the story. There were only 10 people in the cast and all of them not only sang and acted . . . they friggin' played their own instruments! There were literally moments when someone was playing the cello (on a five-foot narrow platform--more on that in a second) and singing, or when someone was playing the trumpet with one hand and beating a drum with the other. It was crazy! And if you closed your eyes you were swear there was a full orchestra there. They were that good at everything. The other cool part was the staging. It was on a tiny stage, so instead of blocking out the staged, they blocked up. Meaning, they had these set pieces (most of them shaped like different sized coffins) that they would arrange to be a barber's chair, a pulpit, etc. Plus, there was this huge wall in the back that was at least eighteen feet high. The guy who played Sweeney Todd would climb up the ladder (while singing!) and then jump off (from like, ten feet in the air). It was so crazy. I seriously loved it and it made me crazy all over again about how I have to wait for Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd to come on TV! I swear, not watching rated R movies is the hardest LDS standard to keep!
Well, we got to John's parents to find Charlie happily climbing on everything. He didn't cry once. I could've collapsed in relief right then and there! He did trash their house, but bless them, they didn't seem to mind.
All in all, it was one of the best birthday presents ever!
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