She Date, Me Date

In March my momma had a birthday. My Aunt wanted to take her little sister to a play for her birthday instead of getting her another appliance, so she commissioned me to find a suitable play that would be on stage some time relatively close to my mom's birthday. 

There was the Pirate Queen... nahhhh...

There was Peter and the Star Catcher... maybe... but sold out.

So I looked a little further from home and found that the Hale Center Theater in Orem was putting on a version of Jane Eyre. Jane Eyre just so happens to be in my top three favorite books! And when you are the one coordinating the activity, you can afford to be a little selfish and choose the one you want the most!

Jane Eyre it was! My auntie invited her sister, daughter and me (because I'm so awesome) but there were people we didn't want to leave out and eventually it turned into a huge Baker production and all the girls went (except for JaNeil who couldn't get away... boo!)

Valeri and her kids came and stayed with me the night before the play- we celebrated Earth Day by eating dirt pudding and watching Wall-E.

I might have a new Earth Day tradition!

The next day my mom, sister Kim and SIL Lisa drove down. We all met up at my aunt's house (along with my cousin, Sharon and her BF) and had a lovely lunch of chicken salad sammies and fruit.

We then headed off into the void that some call Happy Valley... or Orem. We stopped only once, for a minute or two (to shop at a store that I can't afford) and then to Orem. Actually, I guess we did stop to shop twice. We went way early because we didn't know what traffic would be like so we had some time to kill. And how *convenient* that right next to the theater was an old closed down K-mart that had been turned into a scrap booking warehouse (most Baker girl's dreams... not mine). It was really hard to get Kim out of there... like, we were almost late for the play...

The play was so good! That theater is teeny! but it's amazing what they can do in such a small place. We had great seats. We were on the top row- but in a theater (that is basically just someones basement) that small, there are no bad seats.

A lot of the girls in my family didn't know the story of Jane Eyre. Where did I go wrong? Even my mom had never heard the story. Sigh... I love this story. So even though it was a musical- which, don't get me wrong- i LOVE musicals... I just wasn't expecting it to be a musical- it was fun to sit and watch the reactions of everyone. Lisa kept asking me spoiler questions- which I would not answer!

The one thing I love best about local theater is that after the show the actors are out to meet the audience. Jane and Rochester are two of my all time favorite characters so I felt a little like I was at Disneyland meeting them and getting pictures with them.

This guy (I'm sorry- I threw my program away!) played St John.. I think he's actually married to the girl who played Jane...) anyway, Mr Rivers has never been my favorite character, and they don't often show why in the tv shows and movies- nor in this play... he's not just a foil to Rochester... he is a rather heartless guy.

But my Aunt felt sorry for him- that he was so outright rejected by Jane (oh come on- the story is like, 200 years old... if you're angry about spoilers, it's your own fault!) so she wanted a picture with him.

It was such a fun day. I thought it was going to be a nice, spring day so I wore shorts and flip flops... it was a cold, dismal day and I'm pretty sure that was the day I caught my cold (achoo!)

Sometime later I got an email announcing the Star Trek 50th Anniversary tour. I'm going to go ahead and let my geek show and tell you that I almost screamed when I got that email! It is a traveling symphony that plays the music of Star Trek- all of them!

I tried to find someone to go with me- but no one could- so I decided to go it alone. I'd rather go out and do things alone- than sit at home and do nothing. Besides, it's been a long time since I've had a real Me Date.

Usually I dress up and go out to a nice dinner- by myself with a good book- but this time I decided to save the money on dinner and spend it on a better ticket instead. I'm so glad I did! I'm pretty sure I had the best seat in the house! I was on the front row of the balcony so I had no obstructed view. I was on an aisle, and the seat next to me was empty so I could spread out (whenever I go to an event with an empty seat next to me, I always assume that is Melanie's seat- she would have LOVED this).

Along with the music they had a big screen that would show scenes from the movies/shows and they would play the soundtrack along with them. Sometimes it was easy to forget the music was live! It was so amazing!

These pictures were all taken during the encore. I am NOT that person who has her phone out during a performance... but people were already leaving during the encore, so I figured it was Ok.

I would totally do it again. It's not like I don't spend enough quality time with myself (hello, typical day) but it's still fun to go out and do things that are both cultural... and nerdy. That's me in a nutshell. :)