Mama Mia

What a fun way to end a hectic evening with friends!!

Thursday, after work, the plan was for the five of us to meet at a pricey little restaurant for wine and dinner, then carpool over to the play. On the way, one buddy got into a nasty fender bender [well it also bent her hood, her front left panel, etc.] but she was able to drive her vehicle to the restaurant and join us. My buddy is in a wheelchair and the crash made it almost impossible for her to get out of her car--the door not opening wide enough for her chair so she could transfer from the driver seat. The first twenty minutes or so of our limited dinner time was spent arranging for a tow-truck, calling her insurance, and figuring out how she would manage without a car for a couple of days (at least). Our waiter didn't want to give us a "tour of the menu" as he put it, until we could all listen to him. Ugh!

The play started at 8:00 and at 7:15 we still didn't have our dinner! By 7:20 the plates arrived, but then, so did the tow-truck and we tried to inhale our very pricey dinners, slam down our very tasty wine, get the car on the truck, pay the check, and load up into my car. Whew!

We arrived at the theater only to find no handicapped parking. Luckily they reserved the front walkway [large bricked surface] for overflow handicap parking. We got out, put the chair together, got my buddy unloaded and ran to the door of the theater, just as the lights started to flicker, indicating the play was about to start. We found our seats and the lights went out immediately after.

It took about 20 minutes, but once I let go and got lost in the musical, I started to have such a good time. You can't help but buck up seeing young men dancing in snorkel gear with flippers! It really was a fun production.

Afterwards, I drove everyone back to the restaurant for their cars, and drove my buddy home. Just to top off the evening (now 11:30 pm) my poor girlfriend realizes that in the chaos of the evening she gave the tow truck driver ALL of her keys! She was locked out. Fortunately, she has a friend who lives relatively close, who also had a key. So we woke her up, went to get the key, chatted with her briefly, headed back to my gal's home, then I finally headed home. I was exhausted, but all the while one refrain kept ringing in my head...

"You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life. See that girl, watch that scene, dig in the dancing queen."
-- ABBA