Two Amazing Shows

This weekend I have been so fancy and cultured. All of that is about to change since I have just sat down with popcorn and a drink to watch episode 2 of season 11 of Big Brother. Oh yeah.

On Friday night I went to the movies with the girlfriends. SOMEONE decided it would be a good idea to see My Sister's Keeper. Oh sister mercy me it was brutally heart-wrenching. In preparation for the show I had a purseful of Kleenex, popcorn, candy and a drink. In retrospect: one purseful = not enough Kleenex.

It only took approximately seven seconds for me to start crying. And that's how I spent the next eternity. My shirt got soaked to my belly button so I decided to craft a tear-catcher. I molded a wet Kleenex to the bridge of my nose and layered a dry one over top so it stayed nicely plastered there, catching all the tears before they could saturate my shirt further. All I could taste was salt and it wasn't from the popcorn because I discovered I couldn't actually eat while sobbing. Jen caught me with my tear-catcher mask on though, so that was a little embarassing. More embarassing, however, was when I leaned over to Jen to whisper "My head is going to explode" (because I was holding back all the sobs) and instead of whispering, as soon as I opened my mouth, my sobs DID explode and I showered us both in slobber and snot. And then we both started laughing, which was completely inappropriate at that moment and oh my GOD I was laughing, sobbing, just an overall disastrous mess. It was exhausting.

We took the boys down to - surprise! - the beach on Saturday afternoon. It was a blast! The water was so warm, and the shallows went on forever. We were wave-jumping and the boys were screaming with excitement. It was pretty perfect. The boys weren't wearing their swim clothes but were full-on swimming and the sand that came out of their underwear later could have filled a small sand box. Mar and Aaron came by after, and they had a bag of goodies for the boys that they'd picked up at the Tour de France. Just to fill you in, all four of us get up every morning to watch the Tour stage of the day. We have contests throughout the day and award each other the yellow jersey, green jersey, polkadot etc. Jack always gets the white jersey since he's always the youngest rider. So we are a little Tour-obsessed as a group, and more than a little jealous that Aaron and Marzia just happened to be at the right time and place to see a stage in the south of France! They brought the kids back all this swag, free stuff that was chucked at them from the Caravane before the riders came through in the peloton. It was like Christmas!

Then Saturday night I had a great dinner at Brix in Yaletown to celebrate Kim's birthday. It was a very nice evening out, lots of fun, and fantastic food. Mike did not have such a great night. He took the boys to an outdoor movie night on the beach. It was Monsters vs. Aliens so it sounded like a good idea. Nope. They got there at 8 pm with their chairs, and set up near some school friends, but the movie didn't start until after 10. The boys lasted a few seconds and both started to scream to go home. Jack got scared by "lightning" and Ethan by who knows what, and they both cried the whole way home. Mike said it was a LONG walk.

Today the boys got to see Grandma again after her three weeks in Florida. This week she is packing up and moving out, so they were busy helping her with that. I, on the other hand, had a matinee ticket to Les Miserables at the Stanley in Vancouver. I went with the theatre crew and the show was absolutely incredible. It was way better than a previous production I had seen, and even sounded better than some recordings I've heard from Broadway and London. Wow. My friends Chad and Erin have two talented children, Jack and Emily. Emily was one of the stars of the show - she played young Cosette and she just flat-out rocked. I also may have fallen in love with Enjolras. He was dreamy (in a Victor Hugo revolutionary way). And the men in the show could SING. What a great show. It's held over until August 2nd and I highly recommend it if there is any way to find tickets.

Big Brother is over, now I'm watching Dog the Bounty Hunter. I have fallen so far, so fast.