April 29, Two Thousand Awesome

Best. Day. Ever! (As Rapunzel would say). Yesterday was truely epic. It begun with a wedding! Nathan and I ventured about 10 minutes from our house to join our fellow Bristolians in celebration as William and Kate were wed. We were in Millenium square, which is kind of like the inner harbour in Baltimore. It's right next to the Aquarium and Kids' Science museum and the water. There's a big screen there, where they showed the coverage of the wedding, and lots of people showed up with blankets, chairs, picnics, and flags.

After the wedding, there were festivities around town, but it was chilly and we were tired, so we stopped in to Jamie's Italian for lunch! It's Jamie Oliver's reataurant that's literally two seconds from our flat. We always thought it'd be way too fancy for our budget, but it really wasn't that expensive! Nathan had a rabbit pasta and I had a risotto with bone marrow (YUM) and cruncy squid on the side. Yummo.
Then we went home and rested up before getting ready for Hairspray! Mind you, I'd been waiting for this since before Christmas, so I didn't nap with Nathan. The show was great! We were impressed with all the accents (they were all Brits) except sometimes Corny Collins was a little too corny and hard to understand. It was funny because when we met the actors outside the stage door, almost all of them asked us how their accents were. We had a hard time recognizing the acters, since most of them had crazy wigs on for the whole show. I recognized Amber Von Tussle, so Nathan stopped her and asked for her autograph and she said,"Would you like Tracy's too?" I was like... YEAH! She was standing right next to 'Amber', but she looked totally different! I recognized 'Link', so after we got his autograph and picture I asked him to point out 'Penny'. When Mickey Dolenz came out (he played Wilbur Turblad) of course the ladies started singing "Hey hey we're the Monkees..." He actually didn't seem that friendly. I think he knew we were all there for Michael Ball and he was a perk.


Tracy and Amber
Link
Seaweed, so dreamy
Little Inez. She's actually 23!
Penny
Mickey Dolenz

And then. The moment I've waited for since I was 6 or seven. The Marius to my Eponine. The curly haired, dimpled, blue-eyed dreamboat from my worn-out VHS tapes. The one. The only. The slightly older than me. MICHAEL BALL! This may not mean much to a lot of people, especially the ones my age, but this man has influenced my life! He's the reason I love music and musical theater as much as I do! I put a few other people on that list, like Lea Salonga and Bernadette Peters, but this definately checks off one of my bucket list items: meet Marius. It was funny because I know him as the young, dashing love interest in Les Miz, Aspects of Love, Phantom of the Opera, etc, but now that he's older he gets older roles. Like Edna Turnblad. A woman. He made a good woman though, if I do say so. And he had the best voice of any Edna I've seen (Harvey Firestein anyone?). He kind of out-shone the rest of the cast (except maybe Tracy), but... I mean... he's Michael Ball. So anyway, I got his autograph and then people started asking for pictures, so I thought I'd squeeze my way back for a photo. I told him he's the reason I love music and he said "Oh, what a kind thing to say." Sigh. I was glad I didn't make too big a fool of myself like..."Uh dur I love you uh you sing good". Although I look a little derpy in the picture because I was talking while Nathan was snapping. Haha oh well. (When the video cuts, Nathan was taking a picture. Cool thing my camera can do, video and pictures at the same time!)
Walking home I was on cloud nine. I cried a little and Nathan thought I was adorable. We talked about our heros (he said his equivalent would be Steven Speilberg) and reminiced about our wonderful day.
Here's some Michael :)