A Swimming Saturday

Saturday morning, I was to drive my twelve year old to Dallas to see the DSM production of “Chicago.” The weather looked promising as we left the house. It was slightly overcast, but the sun looked like it was trying to peek through the clouds, or maybe I was just being optimistic.

We had about thirty minutes of decent weather before driving into the storms. The traffic had been terrible the entire way, which was unusual. It seemed that we had “Dallas drivers” from the time we hit the interstate. People were driving side by side, and tailgating to boot, making it next to impossible to pass anyone or even drive the speed limit for that matter.

Once we were into the storms, it was even worse because these people never changed their driving habits. We did find that we were able to make better time all of the sudden. Then I realized that the same people that had been holding up traffic were the ones crunched on the side of the road with their hazards on. We must have passed about fifteen wrecks that we actually noticed (we were both more concerned with the road and the blinding rain.)

It only took us about three and a half hours to make what is normally a two and a half hour trip. Not too shabby, I suppose, considering we normally leave really early so that we can have lunch at Town East Mall and shop a bit before heading over to the Music Hall for the performance.

This time, we went directly to the Music Hall because I can never be certain of the traffic that we will run into over there. As luck would have it, there wasn’t any real traffic, and we were able to drive right up to the front valet parking station without any problem.

Since we had skipped our usual lunch habits, I allowed my son to choose something out of the deli line. We ended up having a sort of early tea in the balcony of the Music Hall lobby while we watched all of the people. It ended up working out for the best as the house wasn’t open to the patrons until about 1:45 (the curtain was to have been at 2:00.)

Over all, we had a really great time. Bregon followed the storyline of the show easily (and he hadn’t even seen the movie before) and he loved what he saw. This particular touring production was fabulous, even if the understudy had to take Lisa Rinna’s role for this performance (she had flown back to L.A. for the Emmy’s and her plane hadn’t been able to land that morning because of the weather.)

We were able to meet Tom Wopat during intermission and ended up with an autographed c.d. and all of the playbills and the program signed as well. He is really such a nice man. He even asked for Bregon’s name so he could include it in the autograph. Most actors don’t take the time to do that anymore. Bregon was really excited to get to talk to him a bit as well.

After the show, we were feeling adventurous and decided to go and try and find the Galleria so that Bregon could try ice-skating for the first time. Our directions involved using the toll road, so Bregon dug out a dollar in change just in case we needed to pay.

As luck would have it, the portion that we were on was under heavy construction and the kiosk where one would have normally paid was boarded off and shut down. All my son could talk about is that he couldn’t believe that anyone would have to pay to drive on a road that was as rough and full of pot-holes as this one. You would think he could drive or something!

Just when we thought our directions were sending us in the wrong direction, we happened upon the parking garages for the Galleria. We were even able to park without any problem. My son was amazed with the size of the mall as he is used to our dinky little one-story malls locally (he had thought Town East was huge with its space-ship spire and two and a half stories.)

We explored all three levels of the mall and didn’t seem to miss a thing. Every time we came to the center of the mall, he would wistfully look down into the ice-rink and give me his biggest “Puss” eyes in some attempt to make me feel sorry for him not yet getting to try ice-skating.

After dinner, I took him downstairs and let him buy his ticket for the skate rental and his skate-pass. He questioned (more interrogated) me as to exactly what ice-skating was like and how hard would it be to actually do it. I told him that it was just like roller-blading, but more slippery!

I told him that I would watch from the benches, and gave him a little push towards the ice. I had thought he would be a rail-clutcher at first. Not my kid, he just skated out onto the ice as if it was the most natural thing in the world and started around the rink as if he was speed skating. All I could do was shake my head, as he befriended a few other little boys and they all started racing. We all but shut the rink down for the night (they are open ‘till 11 for skating.)

Lucky for us, the rain had stopped completely. The ride home was very nice and uneventful save for the peculiar road construction divider down the middle of the highway that prevented us from being able to take the correct exit towards home. It was easily remedied, and we made it home by 2 a.m. We had had a lovely, very full day and didn't even have to worry about swimming home!