Sleeping Beauty

So I know that it's only Wednesday but damn has this been a shitty week. Work has just been utterly frustrating. Is there something about deadlines that makes people think they might be optional. Because I can even deal with people missing their deadlines by, say, a week. But when you're three weeks past your deadline you are damn well on my bad list. Of course, I'm only an assistant and no one gives a crap about my bad list so it's all just an exercise in frustration for me.


Anyway though, Sleeping Beauty. Wendy's student ID, unlike mine, is still valid so she went up to Lincoln Center fairly early in the day and got student tickets in the orchestra. We left maybe five minutes later than we ought to have, but under normal circumstances we would still have made it to the place in plenty of time. Unfortunately it was not to be as there was Police Action. We just barely missed the 1 and as we were going down the steps, policemen rushed past us and began peering in the windows of the stopped 2 train. While trying to rubberneck from the wooden benches in a ladylike fashion we realized that the ballet was starting in ten minutes. And when we heard some kind of angered screaming from the other end of the station we realized that we were just going to have to deal with being late. Seeing an angry man frogmarched out of the subway station with half his ass exposed did add a certain modicum of interest to our day.

Anyway, long story short, we ended up taking the 2 up to 72nd Street and running down Lincoln Center. The ballet was already starting so we were ushered to a small downstairs theater with a big screen we could watch on until a set change. I've never actually been late to a show of any kind and it's rather awkward feeling. Although it really wasn't our fault and there were other people there who were late for the same reason.

About 30 minutes in we were directed to our seats. Now, I know fuck all about ballet. The entire extent of my dance experience is a year of jazz. I was dressed as a Wonka bar and had a little silver hat and sunglasses and y'know in the movies where one kid is going the wrong way while everyone else goes the right way? I was that kid and my parents have the videotape to prove it. So anyway, I don't have the qualifications to tell you anything about the dancing. What I can tell you, is that I felt the prince was somewhat lacking. While my sensibilities have been honed by Disney, I don't demand white steeds and the fighting of dragons. I'm easier to please than that. But he's got to do something. The fairy just does all the work while he swans about after her. As Wendy said, she might as well have just have thrown him over her shoulder and carried him to the princess for all the rescue work he did. Other than that it was enjoyable, but that put a damper on the thing for me. Well that and the lack of exciting fighting through to the princess dance scene with the preponderance of dancing at the wedding scenes. I know it's a ballet and that's to be expected but it still made me a touch sad. Well, I suppose that's why I'm not a huge ballet fan except in occasional doses.