. . . saw the ballet

with Betsy and Stephanie. Betsy was just a spark of sunshine in the gray rainy day, with her pretty dress and her colorful umbrella.






The ballet was a cleaned-up PC version of "Peter and the Wolf", where the wolf is not shot and hauled off, like it was when I was a kid. . . instead the wolf is captured and taken to the zoo. As the procession of hunters and Peter led the wolf by a rope, it appeared to break loose and came out into the audience, where it ran down the aisle and growled ferociously right in Betsy's face. . . maybe that will be something she remembers and tells her grandchildren, just like I remembered my first rather terrifying experience with Peter and the wolf.






After the performance, the kids had an opportunity to meet and visit with the ballerinas. Here's Betsy checking out the duck, who is sitting next to the wolf. Unfortunately for the duck, the wolf eats her alive, but the duck comes back as an angel duck, complete with halo.


Then we went for a brief shopping trip on the Plaza, and Betsy invited me home to eat with her. Her mommy had fixed "a whole lot of asagna" and there was plenty for me. We sang Betsy's favorite songs on the way back to her house: "Rocky Top", the Tennesse fight song (for some reason?); "Islands in the Stream", Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton; "Doughnut Make My Brown Eyes Blue", Crystal Gayle. The CDs were volumed up and we blasted out whatever lyrics we could remember.


Completely wonderful afternoon. . .