Where I Drove This Weekend

Yes, another weekend spent driving around the area.  Also, much sitting on uncomfortable seats.

Saturday morning I took Thalia to the Muny Teen auditions.  She'd never auditioned for the Muny before, and wanted to see what it's like.  They run a pretty nice audition -- keep things relatively on schedule, try to be upbeat about the kids' efforts. She expected to be rejected, which was okay because our Sunday schedule was pretty packed and I didn't want to have to mess around with callbacks Sunday morning (I mean, you want your kid to do well, but it's easier if you can just skip some of this stuff, you know? Plus I'd already spent 2 hours on a metal folding chair while waiting for her to get through this, and was really DONE with hanging around Orthwein.).  But, much to our surprise, she got a callback.  They hand them out right there at the end of the audition.

Anyway, we zipped out of there, stopped by the house, she changed, grabbed a sandwich to eat in the car, then off to ballet.  We took Annabeth along so that after ballet (and the really awful bench you sit on for an hour THERE) we could drop her off in Maryland Heights for a rehearsal of Annie.  Which we didn't have to stick around for, thankfully (the chairs in that place are really horrible).

So, after picking her back up a couple of hours later, we all crashed and spent the evening watching Dr. Who episodes.

Although I then woke up in the night and recalled that we'd meant to find out Thalia's blood type by the meeting Sunday (we were supposed to fill it out on the paperwork for the trip she's taking over spring break, and Sunday was the final meeting, so it seemed likely we'd be asked).  Also, sudden visions of relatives wanting to come to visit if Thalia made it into a Muny show because they'd want to see her perform on the big stage.  Ack.

Anyway, up early, and a crash course in how to use an Eldoncard.  By the time we left for the callback we'd bloodied up her finger and she'd burned her tongue on hot tea.  Yay, us!  Then zipped off back to the Muny, although this time we knew precisely where we were going (if you ever do this, they have it all marked with big yellow signs).

Much hanging around, this time sitting on the floor.  Many kids totally pumped up on adrenaline, much really LOUD laughter and giddiness.  About 2 hours later Thalia was dismissed, having not made it through the next round (also, if you ever do this, they did the callback like they do for the adult chorus -- first you dance, then if they like you they have you dance something else or else sing, and gradually winnow it down that way -- Thalia's singing had brought her that far, so she wasn't really surprised to be dismissed).  Various kids were breaking into tears at that point -- good lord, this was so much more low key than, say,  Oireachtas, that it didn't seem like worth getting upset about.  Thalia just said she probably needed more dance lessons.  I was just relieved it was all over  (other people were stuck there for HOURS) so we could hop back in the car and zoom to church -- we'd missed all the services, but got there in time for the meeting about the mission trip, which was a required meeting.

(Other Oireachtas vs. audition notes:  You audition in front of 3 judges who are seated behind a table.  And you have a number pinned on your front during the audition.  Thalia was peeved that she couldn't figure out how to pin the number on her outfit with the safety pin INSIDE the clothing, since Miss Mary would've been horrified to see that pin hanging out there for all the world to see.  Anyway, same old routine as Irish Dance, to a great extent.)

Anyway, we went to the  meeting (best chairs of the weekend), then back home to eat lunch and change.  Back to church for Thalia's choir rehearsal, stopping to get gas, having gone through about 3/4 a tank thus far in the past 2 days.  Take  Annabeth to her choir rehearsal next, picking up Thalia early so she could come home and work on Physics.  Pick up Annabeth.  Decide that ice cream would make an appropriate supper.  Run various other errands, like returning overdue library material we'd forgotten about in all the mayhem of the past couple of days.

And now back to regular life.