A Night on the Town - or - "Will You Be Able to Hear From Here?"

Hobbled Wife, daughter, and father-in-law attended the "Away in the Manger" concert by Cantus last night. The Dude opted not to attend - he thinks everyone is getting carried away celebrating Christmas - when Thanksgiving is not over yet. He stayed home with Grandma-ma.

We got nice seats in the full house. A few minutes before the show began a fifty-something man and his mother came around looking for seats. They decided to sit directly behind us. He asked his mother several times, "Will these seats be OK? Will you be able to hear from here, Mom?" Each time he asked, she assured him that, "Yes" she would be OK.

Midway through the performance one of the singers steps forward to announce the next selection. Granted he was the quietest of the group (in speaking voice that is) and they didn't have a microphone since there voices are enough in most spaces. Sure enough, she starts muttering (loud enough to be heard), "He needs a microphone. I can't hear a word he says. He really needs a microphone." The son, dutiful as ever, agrees with Mom.

Taken alone that wouldn't get my goat, but son was quite the Cantus fan. In that short interval between the last note and the clapping he usually exclaimed, "Oohh" or "Mmmm" - or some other indicator of pleasure. I almost wanted to turn around and ask, "So, was it good for you too?"

Anyway despite the Mom (I cant' hear you) and Son (Ooh, Aah), and the three cell phones that went off during the performance, it was a beautiful time. To top it all off they had hay-rides around the intermission at Harriet Island.

Sheesh - I'm beginning to sound like an old fart. Given the Hobbled Wife's latest post - you'd think we spent most of our time at home - with every attempt to venture out into the real world resulting in disappointment and surly anger. That's not true. We are actually very nice people. Go ahead, invite us out to do something. We won't embarass ourselves - really.