I'm crazy for WICKED, apparently.
After I posted about going to Wicked, I had a fantastic fan email me, "You mentioned you'd love to go see it again, here's how you can..."
It turns out WICKED does a lottery system. For every show, they have a lottery, you show up 2 1/2 hours before showtime - along with about 100 other people. You put your name in the cauldron (appropriately themed) and then you wait for 30 minutes. Then they pull names from the cauldron. If your name is called, you can purchase up to two tickets for $25 in the orchestra section.
Sounds fair enough. And considering we were on the second to last row when we saw WICKED last time - what with the head bobber and a big fat head in front of us. With all of that, it was still a great show, but wouldn't it be fun to sit in a lower section...and just to see it again?
So, I hustled Julz(HOLLA!) and fellow WICKED pal, Jessica, to go try for the tickets. I'm pretty sure our husbands won't let us hang out and come up with ideas like this. To get there in time, though, we had to bring the kids with us - all 7 of them - have them wait in line to sign up for the lottery, then wait to see if our names were called. And then the plan, if we got the tickets was to take the kids to husbands and then go to the show. If not, we go home and cook dinner and chalk it up to an adventure downtown that was worth a try.
Lucy really wants to see WICKED, and I think she gets a lot more than I expected her to. When she heard POPULAR, within 1 minute of the song, she said to me, "Well, Glinda's not very nice at all. She's bragging about being good and nice, and that is not nice at all." Pretty impressive. Still, she's too young. So, when I picked them up from school and told them about the "adventure" we were going on, I had to pinky swear that one day, when she was older, I would take her to see WICKED. And then I had to promise that I'd take her to a musical this year here sometime. And I had to give them a yummy snack, and THEN they were sold.
We waited in line. I taught the kids how to play the handslapping game. They ran around and through all the people waiting in line. And then the guy comes out and explains all the rules again. And he mentions that if you're old enough to write your name down, you can put your name in the lottery. You have to show a photo i.d., and if it's a kid who wins, the parent has to show her i.d.
What? WHAT?
I think about it, exploiting my kids for my benefit. I think, nah, it's not that fair. I'll just sign up. And then I look back at the line, and realize, I have an opportunity to triple my odds to get into the show.
"Kids, guess WHHHHAAAAT? You get to sign up too! Doesn't that sound great?! No. If you win, you can't go. But you could win MOMMY tickets, doesn't that sound fun!? Now, I need you to write your name VERY NEATLY..."
They had fun writing their names on the paper, and listened well to the guy belting out the protocol orders. And then we waited.
Finally, they drew out the names. After 3 people had been called, I told myself, "I never win anything, but this was fun anyway." And then they called LUCY's NAME! Wheee!
Lucy won us tickets to WICKED! She was so proud, and as we walked up, all the lottery LOSERS, assessed Lucy's age, realized I'd totally sold out my kids for tickets and everyone kind of growled at her. So, I just patted her on the back and said real loud, "That's my girl!" And we went and got our tickets.
Unfortunately, we only got two tickets. So, Jessica went home, with a promise that we'd help her get tickets later. We dropped our kids off with Sven. THANK YOU SVEN. We went to dinner and then went to the show. When we showed our tickets to the seater lady, she said, "Oh, row C! All the way to the front ladies." What?
It's a slightly different view when you're on the second to very last row, up as high as you can go versus SECOND ROW...FROM THE FRRRRRROOONT.
So, thank you, Lucy! Max is starting to learn how to mow the lawn, and now this. Man, having kids really pays off!
That's how I roll.
