Holiday Pops!

Last night I went to see Patrick play with the Seattle Symphony. This was conducted by Marvin Hamlisch, who is very personable with an audience. The whole experience was vaguely surreal. With comp tickets, you never know where you're going to end up sitting, be it beside the loo or right up front. In this case, I wound up in a Founders Tier box seat!

What rich people see before the performance.

So there's me, after a long day at work, wearing my sneakers and reading Stephen King's The Waste Lands in a $365/person box seat while waiting for the symphony to make its appearance. I'm pretty sure I'm the only person who actually worked for a living in that box...

I met a couple of the musicians backstage before Patrick saw me to my seat, and I've now met almost all of the symphony's trombone section. I met the second trombonist at one of Patrick's recording gigs, and I met the bass trombonist last night. There was also a trumpet player named Justin, who was substituting for someone. They all seem like really normal people, which is nice. Sometimes musicians (cough singers cough) can be real divas, but all the instrumentalists I've met so far seem down to earth.

I tried to get a picture of Patrick as he was getting into place and warming up, but even his phone's (comparatively) mighty zoom wasn't going to do much to conquer that distance.

See? Terrible. Thank goodness for Paint...

Anyway, it was good. Sadly they inexplicably skipped Greensleeves, but I enjoyed the show. The guy two seats down from me kept getting up and leaving to go smoke during the first half. He'd come back and then he'd absolutely reek. Ugh! I finally tried to stuff my shawl up my nose to keep the smell out. Cigarette smoke gives me an awful headache. Fortunately he knocked it off during the second half, but started scratching his knee instead like he had some sort of meth itch. Everyone else I was seated with was polite, which was pleasant.

The singalong was fun! I wish it was a bit longer and more challenging, but it was great. We all stood up and I belted Jingle Bells, It Came Upon The Midnight Clear, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing and O Come All Ye Faithful. Fun times! People always look so terrified when they have to stand up and sing in public. I think it's a blast. Hopefully some of them sang out a bit more because of me!

There was fake snow, Santa, a children's choir (which was totally adorable, and I hate children, so you know it must be true), and for some reason a balloon guy. I entertained myself by judging the various outfits worn by the soprano they had singing stuff. There was one really abominable mermaid-looking getup and a terrible strippery-y thing with horizontal blotches, but the rest weren't too bad. The white dress she wore for a couple songs was genuinely nice. If I had smaller upper arms, I'd wear it. Tragically, I have no pictures of any of this since I consider it the height of rudeness to use one's phone during performances, so you'll have to take my word for it.

I'd never fork out all that money for this seat, but it was great to sit in it and see Patrick play. Hooray for being a musician's wife! I hope you're all having a great weekend and taking care of yourselves.