Saturday morning Chase woke me up around 8am. I said hi to his mom and we lazed on the couch for a while before getting ready for breakfast. We went to Sophia's House of Pancakes in Kalamazoo. They had the most breakfast selection I've ever seen! (and the stiffest menus!). Pretty good breakfast tho. I had a scramble, as they call it, with potato cubes, onions, mushrooms, peppers and ham. yum-yum! Chase had an apple and cheddar cheese omelet ... interesting combo ... After breakfast, the three of us were going to go to a craft show at the stadium, but it looked like everyone in town had the same idea so instead, June took me on a tour of Stryker - a company that produces innovative medical technologies to ease medical professionals and patients. They make things like the rugged stretcher with wheels that can go through mud and such, a chair that has a tread to go down stairs, and a self propelling bed! They are working on making beds with gps so medical professionals know where all the beds are in the hospital too! Such cool stuff! After the tour we headed to downtown Kalamazoo, the first place in the US to have an outdoor pedestrian mall! The shops and the mall were still there and still (I imagine) very quaint. There are a couple of high rises in Kalamazoo, making it look slightly more modern. We headed home after the drive and decided to relax for a while. When we got home, I met Chase's dad Donald, who had been at the gun club all morning. June made roast pork for dinner so we gathered around the table just after 4pm. I haven't had a family meal in ages - it was a really nice change to dinner by myself! After that we all embarked on our own getting-ready journeys for the play Wicked! We arrived at the Miller Auditorium in Kalamazoo after 7pm for an 8pm show time. The show was amazing. They did some incredible things on that stage that looked really complicated.
For those who are familiar ... The time dragon was built over the stage and moved. The eyes glowed read and nearly all the sets on stage throughout the show had a rusty, inside-of-a-watch theme. Glinda arrived first in a "bubble" that vaguely looked like a watch hand with a round end. The green skin of Elphaba never faded or rubbed off. The actress that played Glinda was so perfect; she had an immense amount of energy, a high voice like a spoiled rich girl, and just the right girlish movements to accentuate her character (toss, toss, hahahahahaha). Elphaba and Glinda's voices sounded so wonderful together the whole cast was a load of fun to watch. The costumes were so cool. They looked like if you asked someone 20 years ago what we would be wearing in 2000; kind of a space-age sort of thing. The contraption that was the Wizard of Oz (not the man behind the curtain) scared the bejesus out of me! I'm not sure why it was so scary. It looked like a mechanical man's face that glowed, emitted steam and spoke in a monotone, mechanical voice very loudly. A whole lot more frightening than the movie and I thought the movie was scary! The flying monkeys were played by people and although Chistery's role wasn't very large, I was amazed how he really acted like an animal. Awesome acting on that guy's part. One of my favorite scenes was while Elphaba was singing "no good deed". She was hoisted up and the light was fixed on her so you couldn't see much around her. They had black fabric surrounding her so it looked like her cape was enormous and just flowing in the wind while she was flying. I thought the effect was incredible for a stage that is not dedicated to Wicked, as so many in NYC are to their respective plays. Something both Chase and I really enjoyed is the language they used in the play. They changed words to end in "ified" or "ized". I can't remember a specific example off the top of my head ... ANYWAY, overall, the play was wonderful. They really jazzed up the book from something that normal people would find a little discomforting to a play that really warmed peoples hearts and emphasized the most important lessons: love, friendship, and standing up for what is right.After the play, Chase and I ran off to Bell's tavern and had a beer each, enjoying being each other's company before heading back to the house to turn in.
Sunday night was a rough one for me due to my allergies, making Sunday morning a little rough as well. I got up and took a shower before we loaded up Chase's car and went to breakfast at the Cracker Barrel. Chase and I both had french toast but I had lovely cinnamon frosting all over mine while he stuck with maple syrup (yuck!). After breakfast we went back to the house to pack up the last of his and my things before we said goodbye to his mom and stopped at the gun club to say goodbye to his dad. We still had a little time before I wanted to be at the airport, so we stopped at best buy and jimmy john's. Then I had to get on my plane and fly away ... I seem to be doing alot of that lately :( But it was a wonderful weekend that I wouldn't have traded for anything!
Ciao,
K
PS. Steph was supposed to be my guest poet! You should tell her to get on that so we can have Poetry Friday!
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