So my friend, whose name is Marlee, happened to have her mother's car for the weekend, which worked out nicely. We were both very excited for the play! It was on a Thursday, so I had only one class in the morning and she had work in the afternoon, but this still happened to work. I thought that I told her that the play started at 7pm, but I guess that she heard me say 7:30pm, so we set off at about quarter to seven. I didn't think anything of it, I just thought that our destination was closer to us than I initially thought. Marlee had looked up directions on Google Maps, so I took the position of navigator on our excursion.
Everything was fine until we needed to navigate highways. Ordinarily, this would have been no problem with Marlee driving and me reading the directions, but the root of our highway problems was the sun. Stupid sun... it was in the process of going down, so even the visors couldn't hide it. We were driving straight towards the sun with nothing to keep the light at bay, so we were driving half-blind. We knew which highway we were looking for, but spotting it was a different thing altogether. We were looking for Highway 5 I believe. Our conversation sounded a little bit like this:
Yeah, turns out that that particular highway in question was the one we were supposed to take. My bad... so we were going in the wrong direction, but we didn't figure that out for a few more minutes. We were forced to take an exit because of a crazy driver, but that crazy driver must have been the hands of Fate, because we were back in familiar territory again. We were heading in the direction of my permanent address and Marlee's as well. So we were back on track.
After our driving adventures, we finally made it to the play! We parked the car and walked up to the building so that we could go in-- we were only about thirty minutes late, which in the scheme of things wasn't so bad considering our many gaffs. Here was our next problem: The door was locked. We had both been to plays before, and usually the doors are kept unlocked so that people who were coming could slip in to the back. Even in an intimate setting. They would just stand up until intermission and then go find an available seat. But the entire school was locked in this case. There was a cleaning lady by the door, so Marlee and I waved our hands wildly trying to get her attention. When we finally did get her attention, she told us that it was against the rules for her to let us in. Luckily, she was super nice and went to find someone who could.
Some people who were in the play, but not at the present moment, came to the door and said that they still couldn't let us in. They explained that the play was already a quarter of the way through and there really wasn't much of a point in staying. Plus, they didn't have the lock box to give us tickets. I told them that I didn't care if I had missed a quarter of the play already and that we were still willing to pay to get in because I had promised Ezra that I'd come. I might have tried to come the next night to see the whole thing, but the night in question was the last night Much Ado was being performed. They told us that we could still come and see the show, but we'd have to get in after intermission. Which meant we couldn't come in the building. They didn't want us wandering around...
So we were stuck outside of the school for the next hour.
The part of town we were in seemed like such a secluded area. There was one straight of road, so we walked up and down the street looking for something to do. The coffee shops were closed, so that option was out. We found a baby store and an antique shop. The antique shop, Marlee and I decided that we needed to come back to some other time (it was also closed). The baby store had an interesting window with giraffes and this display included a peculiar map. Almost all of the countries in the world were off in one way or another. the most striking part of the map for me were the countries France and Europe. You read that right. Europe was a country all on its own and France took up the normal space of France all the way down to Italy and over to the Atlantic coast. That was rather disappointing... I feel sorry for the child of the family who buys that otherwise beautiful painting.
Around 8:30, we headed back to the school, but the doors were still locked. Determined to get into the play, we waited. Another lady joined us who had also come late. Marlee and I discussed the Mayan calendar and superheroes-- this is how friendships are made, seriously-- up until the point where a friend of the other lady waiting with us came out and opened the door for us. I think the other lady was more bitter about not getting into the play right away than we were. I mean, we were disappointed that we couldn't just sneak in, make a fool of ourselves a little bit, and enjoy at least three quarters of the show, but at least we could make the most of our situation.
The lady sitting close to us contacted her friend inside, so when intermission came along, the doors were opened and we were able to slip inside, get our tickets, and... well, awkwardly wait for a spot until we figured out that some people who were present during the first half just left. I was sad that I had missed sixteen of Ezra's nineteen lines, but I was happy that I could at least see the second half.
It was a very off-the-wall performance, complete with squeaky cupcakes and trench coats, but the play itself was quite comical and made for a lovely evening.
Now I just have to go and read the play myself so I know what I missed!
Stay tuned for more college adventures.
Thanks for Reading!
--Jude
M: We're looking for 5, right?
J: Yeah, that's right.
M: That's it right there!
J: No, no, that's definitely 55.
M: Wait, are you absolutely sure?
J: Positive!
M: We're looking for a 5...
Yeah, turns out that that particular highway in question was the one we were supposed to take. My bad... so we were going in the wrong direction, but we didn't figure that out for a few more minutes. We were forced to take an exit because of a crazy driver, but that crazy driver must have been the hands of Fate, because we were back in familiar territory again. We were heading in the direction of my permanent address and Marlee's as well. So we were back on track.
After our driving adventures, we finally made it to the play! We parked the car and walked up to the building so that we could go in-- we were only about thirty minutes late, which in the scheme of things wasn't so bad considering our many gaffs. Here was our next problem: The door was locked. We had both been to plays before, and usually the doors are kept unlocked so that people who were coming could slip in to the back. Even in an intimate setting. They would just stand up until intermission and then go find an available seat. But the entire school was locked in this case. There was a cleaning lady by the door, so Marlee and I waved our hands wildly trying to get her attention. When we finally did get her attention, she told us that it was against the rules for her to let us in. Luckily, she was super nice and went to find someone who could.
Some people who were in the play, but not at the present moment, came to the door and said that they still couldn't let us in. They explained that the play was already a quarter of the way through and there really wasn't much of a point in staying. Plus, they didn't have the lock box to give us tickets. I told them that I didn't care if I had missed a quarter of the play already and that we were still willing to pay to get in because I had promised Ezra that I'd come. I might have tried to come the next night to see the whole thing, but the night in question was the last night Much Ado was being performed. They told us that we could still come and see the show, but we'd have to get in after intermission. Which meant we couldn't come in the building. They didn't want us wandering around...
So we were stuck outside of the school for the next hour.
The part of town we were in seemed like such a secluded area. There was one straight of road, so we walked up and down the street looking for something to do. The coffee shops were closed, so that option was out. We found a baby store and an antique shop. The antique shop, Marlee and I decided that we needed to come back to some other time (it was also closed). The baby store had an interesting window with giraffes and this display included a peculiar map. Almost all of the countries in the world were off in one way or another. the most striking part of the map for me were the countries France and Europe. You read that right. Europe was a country all on its own and France took up the normal space of France all the way down to Italy and over to the Atlantic coast. That was rather disappointing... I feel sorry for the child of the family who buys that otherwise beautiful painting.
Around 8:30, we headed back to the school, but the doors were still locked. Determined to get into the play, we waited. Another lady joined us who had also come late. Marlee and I discussed the Mayan calendar and superheroes-- this is how friendships are made, seriously-- up until the point where a friend of the other lady waiting with us came out and opened the door for us. I think the other lady was more bitter about not getting into the play right away than we were. I mean, we were disappointed that we couldn't just sneak in, make a fool of ourselves a little bit, and enjoy at least three quarters of the show, but at least we could make the most of our situation.
The lady sitting close to us contacted her friend inside, so when intermission came along, the doors were opened and we were able to slip inside, get our tickets, and... well, awkwardly wait for a spot until we figured out that some people who were present during the first half just left. I was sad that I had missed sixteen of Ezra's nineteen lines, but I was happy that I could at least see the second half.
It was a very off-the-wall performance, complete with squeaky cupcakes and trench coats, but the play itself was quite comical and made for a lovely evening.
Now I just have to go and read the play myself so I know what I missed!
Stay tuned for more college adventures.
Thanks for Reading!
--Jude
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