A Surprise Blessing on an Unexpected Day

Today turned out to be crazy. I didn't expect this, I did have a fair warning last night when my husband reminded me that he had plans this morning that would last until early afternoon. I had forgotten to put this on my calendar and was thus taken off guard as I had also made plans for early this afternoon. "What to do with the kids?" Let's see, they had a choir performance this morning. They were required to be there for the entire church service rather than just at the beginning as I had anticipated. If they had only had to be there at the beginning I would have actually had time to run them across town to my husband (fortunately it was a somewhat kid-friendly event, although probably not really, but he is a trooper). As it was I had to yank the kids off stage immediately following there last number and race across town (I really couldn't afford to speed, cutbacks in city revenue have really beefed up the number of traffic cops on duty), then hit the highway and head into downtown Seattle to see PNB's "Director's Choice" with my friend Monica. Did I mention that I didn't have pre-purchased tickets? I was not really thinking ahead. On the way to downtown Seattle I was thankful to avoid Mariner's game traffic, I could see it, but didn't have to be in it, any traffic around Seattle center, and any parking fiascoes. After parking my car, I ran from the garage (it was a good thing that I wore flats) and jaywalked to get to the box office a mere ten minutes before start time. Fortunately, Moncia was already there (had been for probably about an hour). The countdown is on, we are next in line and...a woman approaches us and asks if we are going to buy tickets to which I reply "yes." I am thinking that she might want to know which line is the line to purchase tickets or maybe she is going to tell us that we have been waiting in the wrong line and that we need to start over in a new one. "Here, you can take these." She produces two season tickets, orchestra level, dead center about twelve rows back from the stage. Seriously, this is one of the nicest things that anyone has ever done for me and this woman is a complete stranger. She declines payment (not like I had any cash on me, at least not that much anyway) and says that it is her treat and walks away. What an awesome surprise. Does this make me want to go out and do nice things for others, why yes it does.

About "Director's Choice," three pieces were featured, "Dances at a Gathering," Jerome Robbins, "After the Rain Pas De Deux," Christopher Wheeldon, and "Symphony in C," George Balanchine. I liked all of these for very different reasons. "After the Rain" was definitely the most modern, intriguing when the music is going crazy and the dancers are hardly moving at all. "After the Rain Pas De Deux" was quite passionate, stunning really in it's simplicity. "Symphony in C" was pure Balanchine. The blue and white costumes against a blue and white stage made this piece a standout. Plus there was quite a bit the entire corpse de ballet moving in synchrony which I love to see because I think that it would be really hard to do. I am glad that I hurried through my morning to get to this production at the 11th hour on the last performance. And bless you most gracious and generous ticket lady wherever you may be.