Too Perfect

All my dreams came true Saturday night. Okay-maybe not ALL of them....but following is an accounting of a whirlwind trip to Chicago!

We flew in on Friday night and were picked up by Brian and Claudia, whose amazing house we stayed in all weekend. On Saturday we jumped on the train and headed off to spend a day tromping around the city. It was really not that cold, that is until the wind blew off the lake, or the wind blew down the giant tunnel created by the skyscrapers-which was pretty much always. We saw lots of great sculptures and got popcorn at Garretts (even though I basically refused to eat the cheese and caramel corn mix-it just seemed too, too weird). We also stopped by the American Girl Store to buy a present for my favorite niece.

Me, Maddie, Brian, Mom and Claudia in our only group picture at "The Bean"

Then we had a late lunch/early dinner at The Grand Luxe Cafe. We sat in a window overlooking the street below, it was such fun. The food was great and the dessert was...amazing, magnificent, intoxicating, ridiculous, fantasmic...truly indescribable!! These magical creations which are, of course, french inspired are called Beignets. Honestly I can't even begin to explain it to you.

Then we walked and saw more before it was time to head over to the theater for the preshow drawing. The lottery basically works like this, everyone who wants to puts their name in a giant black witch's hat (cute huh?) and then about 2 hours before the show they draw a handfull of people to win. Each winner gets 2 floor tickets for $25.00 each. Mom and I already had tickets but we thought we would try for the lottery and if we won my cute cousin Maddie could stay to the show with us. So me, mom, Brian, Claudia, and Maddie each put our names in the "hat." (litteraly and figuratively!) So there were about 50 people who had entered and they were going to draw 10 winners. So they called some lady and I cheered happily for her, I believe deeply in karma. The next name they called was "Dawn Taylor." We were all excited and the rest of our group clapped as I walked to the front to claim my prize. Then they called the next name, "Claudia Washburn!" At this point I think a few of the other people waiting had figured out that she and I were from the same group. Then they called a guy and another lady, then "Denise Taylor!" By now everyone knew we were all together, and now they all hated us. I fixed my vision on Brian and Maddie across the room to avoid all the death stares we were getting. Then they called, "Brian....something else" but we all about peed our pants thinking it was going to be Uncle Brian. Then they called "Maybeline Washburn" (either Maddie can't spell her own name or the guy can't read) but as we were all now afraid that we wouldn't make it home that night, we quickly said "we don't need those." So 4 out of 5 of us won the lottery. We took 6 tickets for $25 dollars each. We ended up keeping 4 of the tickets we won and selling 2 of the tickets we won as well as the tickets we had purchased beforehand. It was great!!

Me, Maddie, and Mom outside the theater! Can you feel the excitement?!

Then it was time to see the show. I have been sitting here for 5 minutes trying to think of a way to describe my joy and my excitement and I've got nothing so I guess I'll just go on. When the first chords of "No One Mourns The Wicked" sounded in my hears it changed the rythym of my heartbeat forever. I was asked afterward if it was everthing I imagined and the answer was no, because it was SO much more than I could EVER have imagined. At intermission I was suddenly overcome with sadness at knowing I was already halfway through. So then I decided that I would just have to plan a trip to LA in the near future to see the show again, and as an added bonus-go to Disneyland. (by the way everyone is invited)

Maddie and Me were SO tired as we waited for the train late Saturday night after the show! (track numer 7.....track number 5: a little memory for Maddie)

It was truly a perfect weekend! I can't thank all the people who wrote the screenplay, the music and choregraphed the show enough. And it really wouldn't have been the same with the Washburn's hospitallity, and know how (for example the Beignets). The whole thing was WICKED awesome!!! (you know there had to be at least one cheesy pun!)