This past weekend? Awesome.

Considering how I've spent most of August saying to myself, "I don't want to go back to school", Saturday probably made up for it. It's not too often that my priest (aka Padre) and I get to do stuff together for obvious reasons, but with the assurance that one other person was going, we made plans back in June/July to go see the Broadway Across America showing of Wicked in Austin. The extra person was originally supposed to be a friend of mine here in Austin, but they couldn't make it, so I invited my little sister instead.

He came by the house at about 9:30am to pick us up and wander around, and we were off on the looong-ass drive to Austin. I had offered to drive, but he is a manly man and said no way. This is a typical theme with him, though it is rather nice in that old-school gentlemanly sort of way despite all of my desires for gender-equality. Anyway, Austin was packed on Saturday due to everyone moving in (I had done so on Thursday because this is my fourth year and I know better), but we eventually found somewhere to park. We got over to the theater just in time to sit and eat at the cafe there--Lori and I had turkey paninis while he had a bleu cheese pizza that looked like it would be really interesting.

Then we wandered in and got seated. The tickets were not the best ever, however Padre is 6'3" tall so he had no problem seeing over anyone in front of him. I think Lori got a nice seat too. However, I had the generic yammering lady with poofy hair sitting in front of me, and when you're 5' tall, it's hard to win in such a situation. Next time I'll blow the extra cash to be close up. I was at least happy that everyone else could see, and with enough leaning, I could too.

The play itself? Amazing. I actually enjoyed the play far more than the book, though they could be viewed as two entirely different stories as different as they were. If you don't like musicals, you won't like it much, but otherwise I'd recommend it to almost anyone. The soundtrack isn't the most beautifully arranged one I've ever heard, however, some songs really shine. One or two sent shivers up my spine and made me smile, particularly "Defying Gravity". Lori loved Glinda, mostly because they're practically twins personality-wise. I loved Elphaba, but then it's hard not to love the social-outcast that takes a stand against the world. I think Padre enjoyed the music but found the story a little weird. He's in his sixties, so I'll cut him some slack. XD I'm going to try and get tickets for "The Lion King" if it ever comes to Austin again since he seems to really want to see that one. Then again, so do I.

After the play, we drove around Austin a bit and parked near 6th Street, the infamous party-street. We walked around wasting time until "Chez Nous", Padre's favorite French restaurant, opened at 6pm. He called and made reservations and took us into the Driskill since neither Lori or I had ever been. We sat at a table and he ordered us drinks. Water for Lori since she's only 18, but we had Tito's vodka (a Texan vodka) and tonic water with lemon. We looked around to see if we could see any famous people, but we didn't. Alas.

Headed over to Chez Nous at about 6:30 and sat down for one hell of a dinner. I had never truly had French cuisine before, so Padre pointed out all sorts of things for us to have. We had two appetizer plates, one with cheeses and one with pâtés and meat slices. I adored the cheeses, though the one goose liver pâté was a little too pungent for my tastes. We had champagne to go along with the dinner. Padre got a really delicious backed fish, and Lori and I got a veal dish. I liked mine a lot, but later Lori confessed to me that she wasn't terribly fond of French cuisine. Bah. :P Then came the desserts, which were heavenly. I had a chocolate mousse, Lori had creme puffs, and Padre had a creme brûlée. Sharing was unavoidable, and oh so good. We had coffee with our dessert, but mostly because it was already like 9pm and we were sort of getting tired. When the bill came, I knew it would be expensive, so I insisted that we split the bill at the least, but no. He dropped $160 for our dinner. I think that's the most expensive dinner I've ever had. >> Damn it was good, though.

And of course halfway home he was pondering stopping for Blizzards at every Dairy Queen we passed. That man is going to make himself diabetic. And poor(er).

Got home at around 11:30pm. I sort of felt bad because he had to get up the next morning to preach, but he did a good job despite being tired. He's my only "local" friend and my only "best" male friend, and he is independent, hilariously snarky, and an awesome guy all around. If I could choose how my last weekend at home for the summer would have gone? I would have picked this. Every time.

Also, this has nothing to do with the rest of the post, but if you grew up on Nintendo and/or Lego blocks, you should really watch this. ^^