San Francisco Trip

Yeah, I am fully aware the only time I ever update this thing is when I travel somewhere.  Today’s post is no different.

As you all know(all two of you that read this thing), I am a total and devout RENT-head.  I love love LOVE the play and the movie and all that stuff.  What you may not know is that the original Maureen from RENT is pretty much my Idol.  Idina Menzel has the voice of an angel.  I’ve never heard an equal to her.

When I was auditioning for RENT here locally I never even entertained a thought of singing anyone else’s songs.  Looking back, I realize I may have set the bar too high with that because I don’t have near as much talent as she does but that is neither here nor there.

What I am building up to is that I finally got to see Idina Menzel live last night and it was magical.

But in true Kelly fashion I must recap the whole trip, so here goes.

We left the house by 9:30 on Friday morning.  For some reason my memory of my last trip to San Francisco didn’t have bad traffic.  Now I don’t know if that was just because it was because Julie was driving and we chit-chatted the entire way or it really wasn’t a bad day for traffic but I was not prepared for what we ran into when we got passed Morgan Hill.

I’ll just say that my right bicep is really freaking sore today from gripping the “oh shit” handle so much on that drive.

At any rate, since we were going to be in the San Fran area Rob called up some work associates of his and they said they would like to take us to lunch.  They decided on a Mongolian Hot Pot restaurant.  If you are like me, you have no idea what that is.  Basically it is like the Asian version of fondue.  You are given a giant pot of soup broth, with lots of tasty seasonings floating around in it.  In our case, since I can’t handle the spice we were given a divided pot, one half for spicy broth, the other for mild and then you just basically order from a list of what you want to throw into the broth to cook.  We ended up with lamb, beef, pork, chicken, tofu, pot stickers, scallops, squid, shrimp, clams, and veggies.  I think there was more but I can’t remember at this point.  I have to admit I was very skeptical about the whole thing but it turned out to be really good!

The food was good, the company was excellent and a good time was had by all.

After lunch we scooted on over to David’s Bridal.  I know that I already did my dress shopping for the vow renewal, but my good friend Renee pointed out that I really needed to try some dresses on to see how they looked on my body.  It’s all pretty and fine on the rack but that can all change when you actually put it on.

How right she was.  Not that long ago I found a dress on the David’s Bridal website that I adored:

Cute right?  Looked like absolute crap on me.

Anyway, at David’s Bridal they help you find a bunch of dresses in your size so you can try them on and see how they look on you even if they are not in the color you want.  I had in mind what I wanted so I picked up a bunch of knee length dresses to try on and on a whim I picked up a full length dress just to try on.  The end result is that I discovered I do not have the legs to pull off a shorter dress.  I liked a couple of them but I was just not satisfied with the way my legs looked.  Hey, I have cankles.  It’s a fact of life and I accept it.  🙂

I tried on the full length dress and absolutely fell in love with it

It wasn’t what I thought I was looking for but it looked so perfect on me.  I didn’t feel like a big heifer, the opposite.  I felt like a princess and loved it from ever angle.  I called Rob in and he agreed that it looked very good so we bought it.  They didn’t have it in the color I wanted so I ordered it in the hot pink.  I also got a veil with a matching pink trim.

They were nice enough to let Rob and I change into our formal wear for the night as well and I ended up purchasing a black wrap for my dress to the concert that night.

At the check out there was a slight problem.  It appeared that no one had the color I wanted in stock and it would take too long to order it from the warehouse to have it available for the vow renewal.

I was devastated.  The clerk said she would call the distributor and see if there was any way to get something shipped ASAP.  In the meantime Rob and I walked around and brainstormed.  At that point it was too late for us to try anything else on and I really had my heart set on that dress so we started talking about maybe getting a different color but I really didn’t want to settle.  Just as we were getting ready to cancel the whole thing the clerk said that she would be able to get it shipped in plenty of time from the distributor and we were able to leave in just enough time to catch the BART into San Fran for the show.  I love that clerk and if I could remember her name I might name my first born after her… you know, if I were having kids.

Off to the BART station we got parked no problem and bought our tickets.  Safely nestled on the train we had a minute to finally relax.

You know it wasn’t that easy though right?

After we passed the first stop on the train Rob realized he had left the tickets for the show in the car.  So after a minor panic attack we got off on the next stop and traveled back to the original stop to get them and then re boarded the train.

Crisis averted, we got off on the Civic Center stop and hoofed it over to the restaurant I had picked to meet up with some fellow Idina fans.

A little back story here:

When my friend Richard found out I was an Idina fan he thought to introduce me via facebook to his friend Erin.  She ran an Idina fan website and was also a fan obviously.  She lived in Texas but was coming out to the San Fran show so we chatted a couple of times and made plans to meet up before the show.   She and her friends wanted to have some sort of get together before the show but there were no real plans made.

Since Rob and I would have some time to kill before the show, I took the bull by the horns and researched a restaurant that was near the symphony hall where Idina was playing and made the reservations.

As anytime I meet a new group of people I felt kind of awkward.  Apparently the place I picked was a half an hour walk from the hotel they were staying in and the service was very slow.  Of course I felt responsible for that and felt really bad about it but there wasn’t much I could do at that point.

They were a friendly bunch and I think we had a good dinner despite the fact that it took an hour to be served even with a reservation.  Then it was off to the symphony.

We parted ways since our tickets were not in the same area as theirs and took our seats.

All I can say about the show is that it was AMAZING!!  I was in awe from the second she took the stage from the time that she left it.  In addition to her fantastic voice she was charming and funny and adorable.  I can’t even describe it so I am not even gonna try.

The only thing that I will post is that when I was seeing RENT in San Fran, the person next to me didn’t have tissues and I was able to supply her with one.  This show, I forgot my tissues but the girl next to me heard me sniffing and handed me a tissue.  Karma at its best.

No pictures were allowed at the show but at the end ppl were snapping them like crazy so I was able to pull off one picture that didn’t come out fuzzy.