Play Me a Tune

Because we a) bought a house and b) are expecting a baby, Chris and I have all but nixed going to the Kennedy Center for, well, pretty much anything. I cancelled my ballet season subscription this year to squirrel away some extra moolah for baby expenses. (This decision has resulted in dozens of desperate calls from the Kennedy Center, seeing as how the performing arts are in a world of pain at the moment.) Of course, as my stellar luck would have it, the Kirov/Mariinksy Ballet is performing Sleeping Beauty--a ballet that I have been dying to see for well over a decade--right about when I'm due to give birth. The Mariinsky! Arguably the greatest dance company in the world! Sigh. I've made a bargain with myself, Chris, and Charlotte that if this child has not arrived by time the Mariinksy comes to DC, I'm going to try to find a last-minute ticket somewhere, squeeze myself into a seat, and pray that nothing embarrassing happens with my uterus. In addition to cancelling the ballet subscription (Chris was overjoyed about that decision, by the way), we've opted out of every single National Symphony performance for almost a year, no matter how tempting. It's sort of a bummer for us because we love getting gussied up, going to the Kennedy Center, and seeing or listening to something spiffy. (Well, again, Chris could easily live without ever going to another ballet for the rest of his life, which is why I tried to coordinate performance dates with when his mom or my mom were in town--but I digress.) Well, it turns out that Chris's very favorite violin concerto (by Brahams) was being performed this past weekend AND there was a "special offer" (bless the recession), which saved about $65. It was an opportunity too hard to pass up (besides, how many date nights do Chris and I have left?), so we decided to go for it. I was so glad we did. Chris's pure contentment was worth the price of admission (literally), but it was also really nice to just have an old-fashioned date together. And I'm convinced that impending parenthood made us value the evening a lot more than if we had nothing but freedom for the next 18 years.