Simple Gifts

This past weekend has been so wonderful, and I didn't take a single picture of it for you.  

The highlight of it was returning to my high school to watch their musical production of "Titanic"--which also happens to be the first-ever musical I performed in, 12 years ago when I was a junior at the Academy.  

The first gift of the weekend was finding out that, for the first time ever, my dad was able to leave his job on time, which meant that he and I got to enjoy a daddy-daughter theater date together.  He's usually on the phones at work an hour and a half or more past "quitting time."  Our prayers through the week wrought a small miracle, because, you know, God cares about the little things, and He cares about our desires. 

The next gift was given by my mom, who despite exhaustion after a day of shop-vaccing a flooding basement, babysat my boys for the evening so I could enjoy the show.  

And an extra piece of that gift was that she let me leave earlier than expected to do a little SHOPPING!  I was hoping to find a pair of great-fitting jeans at TJ Maxx.  I didn't.  I miss when everything was boot-cut style.  And I miss jeans that are cut for short people.  Instead, I bought a top and new cute-crocs that went better with the jeans I've got, and made me feel fresh and pretty.

And the sun was shining on a 52 degree evening in Canandaigua.  I literally smiled my way across the parking lot and had to consciously slow down my excited lead foot all the way to the school.  I drive faster when I'm happy.  Do you?  

(As I write, I have all these beautiful mental snapshots illustrating my words.  Too bad you can't see them along with me!)

And then, the gift of the weekend--sitting in the auditorium of Canandaigua Academy to take in every last minute of the stunning and excellently done "Titanic."  I LOVE this show, and am always just blown away by the quality of the performances, and performers, of the CA theater department.  And of course, because of my roles in "Titanic" and "Les Miserables," there's a very special piece of my heart connected to all the memories I made there.  

I started crying about 4 minutes into the show.  When the captain, the owner, and the builder of the ship sing their first trio--oh my, there were Ryan and Joe and Dick, right there on the stage of my memory.  And that lasted all through the show: the ghosts of the actors of 12 years ago were all over that stage, living again in the wonderful kids performing this time around.  In their faces and voices, I saw Jake, Cyp, Ryan, Sarah, Katie, Dick, Phil, Katherine, David, and others. I saw them up there, and the beauty of it teetered back and forth along that fine emotional line I had set for myself.  I had expected, even wanted to cry at this show.  But I didn't actually want to sob uncontrollably.  And so between my own memories and the thoughts that these characters were real people, full of hopes and dreams that drowned in the Atlantic--well, let's just say the line was very, very blurred.  

At the end of the show, I got to chat for a few minutes with the director--my director--Scott Schauman.  When I found him to give him a hug he said, "One of my Kates!"  And you know, it just warms a girl's heart to not only remember, but to be remembered.  

Lots of simple gifts.