Heart

Wednesday was our Second Annual Just Us Four night. Me, my dad, and my two siblings, at a musical play, in downtown Seattle and the Fifth Avenue Theatre, with its cool Chinese-style exit signs and the amazing decor.

Getting there was half the fun a total pain because my smartphone's GPS app kept trying to route me back to I-5, no matter that the theater was actually between me and the freeway. We went to The Rock Bottom Brewery (which is not at the bottom of anything, but which the waiter explained has the same name as the original in Chicago, which is at the bottom of... I forgot what) for dinner and I had an appetizer of hot wings - but not the usual buffalo wings; these were honey chipotle and they were fabulous. I knew I was going in for (yes, more) dental work today, so I took advantage of the opportunity to eat things that require chewing.

And then, on to the play! As you may have guessed from the title of this post - even if you didn't click the link as you should - it was Damn Yankees. And it was damn good. They had Heart (and a little brains and a little talent, although I don't know whether they put an emphasis on the latter). The actress playing Lola was clearly having a ball vamping it up (whatever she wants, she gets, you know), and whoever designed those costumes, well... both Lola and Gloria wore costumes that were miracles of engineering. Hoo boy, and was Evil ever Hammy! Both my brother and I had forgotten how this particular play - even more so than most of its type - is a series of set pieces. Lots of dancing, and the sorts of songs that we would know even if we hadn't seen these as children/teens, because they're a ubiquitous part of our culture.

So today, as I'm lying in the dentist's chair with nitrous oxide flowing fast, the songs are going through my head (I'll spare you the mental image of "miles and miles and miles of heart"), and I think, "you know? That's what I've got, in my usual silver-lining way... I've got heart."