Girl's Night Out

I'm back to having bloggers block which is coincidentally a lot like writers block. So I took a little stroll through my picture folder and came across these & couldn't help but laugh out loud. I had been meaning to blog about this when I had time but then it had completely slipped my mind.

Long story short, a Chinese dance troupe who shall remain nameless was recently in our city. While I really, really wanted all of us to go it was just way more than we could afford for one night out. Mentioning this to a friend she told me that she might have two extra tickets and then that turned into a girl's night out with the two of us and our two precious daughters. We dined at the Spaghetti Factory and had just a grand ol' time catching up with each other. Good food, great conversation and yummy food just does wonders for the soul. We were on a roll and having a grand ol' time.

We made it to the show and into our wonderful seats and settled in to watch what had been billed as beautiful scenery and dancing. Sure enough, the first few numbers were beautiful and life was good. But every few sets there would be a scene with some weird undertones that I couldn't quite put my finger on. By this time we had two squirmy girls on our hands and it didn't seem like they were playing that close attention anyway. Then there was a really weird scene with a mother being killed and then ascending to heaven ... deep stuff. One couple ended up leaving part way through the show. We talked about it at intermission and were wondering what the undertones were but went right back in to finish the show. Again, had some beautiful scenes and then another few oddities and you could tell it was anti-com***ism but still, a word they kept using just didn't mean anything to me.

My friend had been invited to an after-party/reception and the girls were excited about getting to meet some of the dancers so as we were heading that way we were stopped in the hallway by a very insistent Chinese reporter. Being the sweet and kind friend that I am, I started inching away while he had her cornered. I know, everyone needs a friend like me :-) but as his questions seemed to change a little I inched back in to hear her answers. Once he had finished with her he asked me some questions too and then off we headed to the reception. We had no more stepped into the room and we were cornered by yet another insistent reporter. Being the friendly southern girls we are, we happily gave our names and our children's names. We enjoyed the refreshments, the girls REALLY enjoyed their refreshments, the liet. governor was even there, we listened to a few speeches/introduction things and then finally were able to meet some of the dancers. Off into the night we headed with our tired girls and we laughed and giggled all the way to the car.

Imagine my surprise when I got home and was recounting the night to Brian and I asked him what a certain word meant and he explains to me that it is an anti-comm**ism movement with a cult like reputation. Nice. Then I read an op-ed in the paper that basically said the same thing. Goodness, and to think we had just wanted to enjoy dancing and costumes! We've since laughed and laughed about our naivete and willingness to share whatever a reporter might ask us. The things that happen all in the name of fun!

For the record, our girls did enjoy it even though some of the scenes were a little on the scary side. The pretty costumes made up for that though! And the reception with all kinds of desserts and even chocolate dipped strawberries went a long way toward making up for the scary scenes!

Now, whether or not we're now on some 'no - entry' list to the land of our daughter's birth remains to be seen.