Smells I Love

There are certain scents I adore that always bring me back to childhood. Here, in no particular order, is a list:

Plain Chapstick

The Blend of Lawnmower Fumes and Cut Grass (yeah, I'd like to see Demeter make THAT one)

Sawdust (I've already talked about this)

Sawdust and Chainsaw fumes (again, Demeter get on this)

Sawdust from wood being dragged through the saw too long and burning (Subtle differences here)

Noxzema cold cream

Speedstick Deodorant (I didn't really understand what the heck it was when I was three but it's fun to take the cap off and maybe smoosh your fingers around in the transparent green stuff.)

The coffee/bacon/ damp unfinished basement smell of my Grandmother's old house

My other Grandmother's perfume (I'm not sure what it was but I know it when I smell it)

Just turned over dirt from the garden- when you see worms and grubs wriggling around

Campfires

White Rain Shampoo in Apple Pectin

Fall leaves- when you get to jump into piles of leaves and then all you can see is the sky

That weird sweet plastic smell that squishy plastic baby toys have

Robitussin cough syrup


Thanksgiving Dinner (this was mostly due to the turkey roasting and stuffing ingredients, and pumpkin pie)

Steaming hot bread

Play-Doh (A lot of amber/sandalwood/vanilla fragrances remind me of play-doh and I can't wear them for just that reason)

Garden fresh tomatoes

Ironing

Christmas Trees

No More Tears baby shampoo

Sea Breeze astringent facial toner

Homemade doughnuts

Snow-Ozone

Daisies (They were my favorite when I was little. On my 3rd or 4th birthday my dad brought me a bouquet of daisies and I pretended not to see them until he gave them to me and then I skipped around the dining room table with them singing a song that went a little something like this: "Daisies! Daisies! Daisies!")

Books (maybe it's the ink or something)

Silly Putty

WD-40

So how about you? What smells do you love? What smells instantly remind you of being 4 years old?

The Case for Marriage

Marriage has been on my mind lately. No, I'm not going to get married any time soon. I don't have any particular lucky groom in mind (unless it's this guy- I could get on board with that). I'm not really seeing anyone right now. But lately a number of things have happened that are making me realize that marriage is a really smart idea.

I'm totally not viewing this in a romantic way at all, which means that I shouldn't even think about getting married any time soon. I should not be thinking in terms the 13th (or even 19th) century marriage-as-a-business-partnership!

But....

I'm in the middle of buying a house. It would be so nice to have a partner who knows me, understands how my brain works, and is willing to hear me whine and freak out and plan and share the excitement of this time in my life. It would be nice to have a person (and I'm trying to not be gender specific here because women can do this stuff too and I'm not that attached to gender roles, although in my case yes this person would be a guy) who can fix the plumbing if it goes haywire or, I don't know, light the pilot light on the furnace or check out the creepy attic because I'm sure not going up there. It would just be nice to have somebody to share all of this with, so that when I am anxious I can get some reassurance and then when he gets anxious I can be the one to do the calming down. Right now I just seem to talk myself down from emotional cliffs all the time and it is tiring.

Another example: last week the clutch died on my car. Just DIED, as in I couldn't shift gears at all in the middle of the road. I didn't flip out, I just called AAA and had them to tow my car to the repair shop and took it from there. But it sure would have been nice to have someone to call at home who could have come and picked me up, who could have given me a ride to work instead of begging friends to do it, who would have been backup. Also, my car engine has been making a really quiet little noise that it didn't used to make. I took it to the garage and they could hear it but couldn't figure out what the heck it is. They said to come back if it gets louder. Or maybe it's a sound the engine has always made and I'm just now hearing it (because I am not too proud to admit that I am paranoid when it comes to cars). Who knows? But it would be lovely to have someone around who could just listen to my engine and be like, "Heather, you're working yourself up over nothing." Or, "Hey, let me drive your car for a while a see if I can figure out what's going on."

Basically I want a handyman and a mechanic and a psychiatrist. Who does it all for free. Because that's what love is, right? I'm a strong, independent, capable woman who can do this on my own, but I am getting tired of being alone. There, I said it. Somebody give me a prize, I just had a breakthrough.

These Days (otherwise known as "October")

Tonight at the grocery store to get ingredients for beef stew this guy came around the corner with his cart and nearly smashed into me. Instead of being apologetic or anything he was all "Hi! How are you tonight?!" And I immediately thought he was either Mormon (as in not from here, from waaaaay out of town, and besides he had that Mormon look to him, all clean cut and whatnot, not to knock any Mormons but y'all do have a certain look to you, although he could have been a Disney employee...) or mentally challenged. Which had me snickering at my own callous nature through the entire produce section. Mormon or mentally challenged??? Heather that is terrible! Pave the way to hell with memories you can cherish while you're there.

I'm still sort of a real estate stress-case but at least things are getting down to deadlines. If I want to buy a house I have to close on it in 6 weeks or no house for me (I'm greedy/ TOTALLY SENSIBLE and I want the tax credit). Well that's sort of stressful now but at least I know that once I get to November 30th I'll either have a house or I won't. End of story. If I really want to get stuck in an 8th circle of hell my closing date will be moved past the 30th and then I'll be in all kinds of trouble. Maybe one day I'll talk about firing my realtor here, but probably not. I'm not that mean and I like to keep some imaginary level of anonymity here. (Hahahaha!) However, between that and travel and other things I have lost about 2 weeks on my home search.

This morning I woke up at 6:15 (I don't even wake up that early on a weekday, let alone the weekend) to go to the Home Buyer's Education Class I am required to take for the kind of loan I am going to get. I have to say that considering the thing started at 7:30 and went until 2:30, the facilitator really held my attention for 7 hours straight. Everyone who attended got a book full of information about the home buying process. Granted, the other night I read the entire "Home Buying for Dummies" cover to cover in 3 or 4 hours, so I knew a lot of what we were talking about, but I figure at this point it can't hurt to get as much information as possible. Oh, and I didn't really have a choice.

So, keep your fingers crossed that I will find something good really soon. I'm back to the Zillow/Google Maps/realtracs/Google searches on property that I was doing back in June. It is amazing what you can pull up when you Google a community.

Last weekend I was in DC marching for equal rights for GLBT people in this country who deserve the same benefits that I would have in a "traditional" (heterosexual) marriage. Here are some pictures!
It was definitely one of the most interesting events I've ever been to. There were tons of people, the weather was beautiful, and while there were some really decked out queens there, I also noticed a lot of kids marching with their parents (straight or gay) so there was a really nice calm family feel to the march. On the other hand, and I'm going to get some hate for this, I'm not sure that I can personally think that the number of college kids really "count" in a march like this. I sound so old and self-righteous, but I remember being in school and how cool it was to be part of a cause. And how cool it was to be in a relationship with someone of the same sex. You put those two together, along with the funds that kids from Princeton and other Ivy League colleges have and you have an instant recipe for a terrific turnout. But I think it sort of weakened the cause a little. That's just my opinion, I know that there are loads of people in college who know who they are and have their political views hammered out, but I know there are a lot who will jump at a cause, especially if it irritates their parents. I would have liked to see more people there over the age of 25. (But then part of me is like who cares if they meant it? They were there and increased the numbers! How is that bad? When did I become such a purist?) When you just get the word out through Facebook and other forms of social media, it doesn't get out to a broader audience. Hopefully that is something organizers will think about as they plan more events....

So things here are fine. I realized the other day that I need to just take charge of some things at work that no one really wants to take responsibility for, but are driving everyone nuts. I've been watching episodes of Project Runway online and got tickled when one of the (male) designers was really excited about "a corset and sparkle panties!" I'm reading The Lost Symbol but it hasn't grabbed me yet. The low tonight is 34 degrees and I am seeing if I can get through the weekend without turning on the heat. I just seems wrong to turn the heat on this early in Nashville. I try to hold out until November. I also tend to do a lot of baking to warm up the apartment. (Sneaky!) Muffins anyone?

Hopefully I'll get back into this blogging thing, but for right now I can't make any promises. There's a lot of evaluation going on in my life and it tends to be time consuming. Be good my little cupcakes!

WOW

Okay, I haven't been to this blog in ages. I haven't even read anyone else's blogs in ages. I am in the middle of trying to buy a townhouse. It's actually proving to be very time consuming! (Imagine that!) So I'm not dead, I haven't abandoned my blog, I just have had some things to think about right now. Like financing. And where I want to spend the next 5 years. You know, little things like that.

Sorry for the silence! I'll get right back on it as soon as I can. For the moment my mind is elsewhere.... And I'll write all about that when I have time.

Adventures in Perfumery!

Sooooo, this morning it was really REALLY rainy. Again. It rained so hard that it woke me up at 3:30 in the morning (and then my weather radio went off an hour or so later to tell me there was a flash flood warning well DUH), and it did not stop until around noon. For the past few days the smell outside has been revolting. I think everything is mildewing or molding or decaying because the sun hasn't been out for 2 weeks. After I went to the gym I decided it was time for me to smell something nice for a change, so I went to my favorite fragrance counter. Dillards.

Sephora is good if you want to smell a ton of perfumes and not have someone bother you (aside from marauding hoards of teenagers). At Dillards the sales associates really are on the ball and will show you all kinds of fun stuff if you let them. The first thing I sprayed on was Estee Lauder Sensuous, which I actually LOVE. It is amber and honey and jasmine and just smells beautiful. It isn't a loud pop you over the head sort of perfume, it stays really close and is very cozy and sexy.

Then I wandered over to another counter where another sales lady introduced me to all of these "European Collection" perfumes. SO MUCH FUN. She told me the stories of all of the bottles, and the perfume houses that did them. Perfume is all about seduction and it it starts with the bottles. There's a story to most of them, even if you think they are plain and simple. Trust me, there's something behind it. So once they reel you in with the bottle and the color of the juice (you know that doesn't actually need to be any color, right?), you finally get around to smelling whatever it is you're looking at. Half the work is done before it gets anywhere near your nose. And while I'm lecturing, most of the gender assignment in the fragrance world is all about marketing. I smelled Jesus del Pozo J. Del Pozo In Black and thought it was really sexy for women as well as for men (the SA kept saying it was really "manly" but it was still on the women's counter), and would probably suit me better than the In White version (more feminine).

The second fragrance to go on me (I smelled countless cards) was Roberto Verino's Mellow, which was ok. It was really fruity and sort of sweet. I was aiming for something a little more grown up. So then I tried Tous In Heaven, which was a little warmer and not so childish. This smelled really good, but I knew I needed to wander around the store for a while to see how it went. The SA gave me a sample, and I looked at shoes for a while.

After an hour or so Sensuous was still going strong, while Mellow was fading fast and what I got from In Heaven was some serious bug spray notes. This is not what I aim for in any fragrance. So I returned the sample and then got sucked in by yet another SA who led me over to the Victor & Rolf Flowerbomb (bottle shaped like a grenade, get it?). Holy crap. That stuff is GORGEOUS but really intense (sort of like Chanel Coco Mademoiselle- I love it but I can't wear it because it wears me). She sprayed some of that into my elbow (I was running out of arm space...) and in 5 minutes it drowned out everything else I was wearing. It is not unpleasant at all, but you just need a little tiny bit or you will overwhelm everyone around you.

Then we moved over to the Giorgio Armani bottles. Ahhhh, this is where my grownup scents were hiding. First was Armani Code. Lots of different oranges (bitter, Italian, blossoms), mixed with jasmine, honey, and vanilla. Ohhhh how I love this one. (And can you even believe how beautiful that blue bottle is???) Then she sprayed some of the Emporio Armani Diamonds Intense, which is equally gorgeous raspberry, vanilla, freesia, and vetiver. At first it is very sharp but then rounds out into softness with a rich spicy kick to it. It's another cuddly perfume. I can see myself wearing it at night where I could wear Code to work and not offend anyone. I adore both of these.

I am totally fascinated by perfume and the more I smell the better I am at recognizing what the heck I'm smelling in them. I instantly hate some things- I don't want to smell like a melon or a Jolly Rancher, and I don't want to smell leathery. But once you dig a little bit to see who created these fragrances you can start to see the similarities. For instance, Armani Code was created by Carlos Benaim, who also designed Carolina by Carolina Herrera, Euphoria Spring Temptation, Flowerbomb, and the new Prada perfume. All of which I LOVE, so it makes sense that I like Code too. The perfumer who created Sarah Jessica Parker's Covet also made Euphoria, and the creator of Stella by Stella McCartney (another favorite of mine- I have too many favorites) also came up with John Paul Gaultier Classique- the one where the bottle looks like a torso.

I am a fragrance whore, and I'll be the first to tell you I am. Today I was trying to explain my tastes so I threw out "SJP's Lovely, Coco Mademoiselle, Stella, Victoria's Secret Dream Angels Heavenly, Sage Machado's Onyx." The sales woman's eyes got really big and she tried to be subtle, "Well you're sort of all over the place aren't you?"

Indeed I am!

TMI- you have been WARNED

Ah my rapt audience, I know you're dying to know what is going on in the life of HEATHER. Me. Moi. (Can't you just hear Miss Piggy saying that?) Somewhere in here there is a chunk of life that is more than most of you will want to know. You have been warned and you will be warned again.

THE SUN CAME OUT TODAY. This is a big event, don't you go giving me crazy eyes. It has rained every day since last Monday. Some days it's been rain-all-day rain. On others it has been gloomy and overcast passive-aggressive rain. Either way I am sick to death of it. It is September! We still have a few more 90 degree days to crank out here. But the leaves are just beginning to turn anyway. Poor confused trees.

Oh, and while I'm on the subject of plants, and before I completely gross you out (that's warning #2), check out the little succulents garden I threw together this weekend!
I got these at Home Depot, and none of them were labeled, so it's all just a big fat mystery as to what will happen. Will there be flowers? Will they get enough sun here by my computer? (Not likely in THIS weather.) Will I manage to over-water and therefore kill them? Ohhhhhh probably. I am not good at plants. But these seem like something even I can handle, and I have always loved the crazy geometric patterns and shapes that succulents have. That and the leaves are shiiiiiiny. OOOoooOOOOHHHHHhhhh.

Anyway, back to the original story of bodily functions (WARNING #3!). Before the sun came out I decided to get out of the office to eat my lunch. It was a very exciting lunch of tuna fish and whole grain chip/cracker things. Okay, it wasn't that exciting, but it was cheap. Payday is on Thursday and I'm not buying any foods until then. Anyway, I was driving along to nowhere in particular when I realized that the big Catholic cemetery was coming up. So I turned in there, hung out in my car, enjoyed the rain and the nice view of downtown Nashville. And then... then I realized I had to go to the bathroom like, pronto. (THIS IS THE BAD PART. I GUESS NOT THAT BAD BUT... YOU KNOW.)

Ahhhh IBS. You lord it over me at the most inconvenient, inexplicable times. For the past year things have been good for the most part. Sometimes I eat something too greasy, sometimes I eat lettuce, and sometimes I get so stressed out that my body rebels in the worst way. But really things have been okay. Until today when I'm sitting in the middle of the graveyard and this urge so strong washes over me that all I can think about is WHERE TO FIND. A. BATHROOM. RIGHT. NOW!

I start driving. Gotta go gotta go gotta go. I count the lights between me and the nearest bathroom at a grocery store. Gotta go gotta go gotta go. 5. Just five traffic lights and I'll be there. 4... just four more. Finally, I'm there. I fly into a parking space and (best I can) run into the store. Only to find the sign in front of the restrooms: "Please excuse our dust -we are remodeling for your convenience!" I wish I was making this up. My intestines do a kamikaze death scream. Ohhhhhh this hurts so much! I get back in my car. I drive the five minutes more back to work. I run into the 1st floor bathroom (mercifully empty). And proceed to lose something like 15 lbs. (I bet you thought I was going to leave a present in the cemetery, didn't you???? I am NOT THAT GIRL!)

To say it is hard to live with the unpredictability and pain of IBS is an understatement. There are days when all I can do is drink ginger tea and eat white bread toast, if I eat at all. There are days when I am fine. The only trigger foods I've really found are coffee, milk, sometimes alcohol, and sometimes eggs if they are all I eat. The best things I've found to sooth the raging beast are peppermint oil capsules, ginger tea, and heat therapy. I will sit with the hottest cheapest heating pad (and in my experience, the cheaper ones are the only ones to heat up enough) I can find for hours. The drugs from the doctor (Bentyl for cramping, and Lomotil for diarrhea) leave me spacey and unable to function. One good IBS attack can leave me feeling sleepy and physically beat, and I don't need medication on top of that.

No one really knows why people experience IBS. Some think that those with IBS have overly sensitive intestinal tracts (scroll to the graphs about halfway down the page- this is the most visually informative stuff I've ever seen about IBS), and this makes sense to me. In one person a little gas or indigestion is not a big deal, but for me it is very painful and I feel like an alien is going to pop out of me. Some can handle food with a high insoluble fiber content like nothing is different, for me it feels like all of those little bits of fiber are trying to sandblast holes into me. I have never actually passed out from IBS, the pain hasn't made me vomit (although really not much DOES make me vomit, I'm just not a vomit girl). The more I stay away from coffee the better off I am. It's all a matter of discipline and research. If you have IBS and you need some help, the very best website I can recommend is helpforibs.com. And no, I'm not that Heather either!

Okay, so now I feel like I owe you something really nice since I put you through all of that and you're still reading! Here's a pretty picture of a ring I got this weekend. It is the only thing I bought from 2 shopping trips with 2 different sets of people. It was a rip-roaring $7.49! I think the budget thing is really starting to get through to my brain!Tonight I'm going to make something healthy because I'll be watching that cry-fest known as The Biggest Loser. I get really addicted it every year. Manipulative bastards.

A thought: I keep getting fliers in my mail from the Scientologists. Can I tell you how tempted I am to go to one of their open houses? Every single one says "Open House This Sunday!" Of course, there is no date. Soooo tempting. Soooo not going to do that. Watching the video of Tom Cruise ramble on and on is so creepy I'll pass.

New Bed

Last weekend I decided that enough was enough. I had to get a new mattress. I blame it all on my sister. Okay, I'm kidding, I don't blame her at all, but spending about 5 seconds on her bed made it clear that I had to get a better bed or I was going to lose my mind from lack of sleep due to tossing and turning. Confession: for the past 6 weeks or so I've been sleeping on my couch because it was so much better than my bed. That is bad for my couch AND bad for me. So things had to change.

First, let me tell you about the truly terrible bed I was sleeping on. I have a full size frame with a full size mattress foundation. A few years ago my then-boyfriend and I got a great deal on mattresses at Walmart that were supposed to be temporary. It was an air mattress with a 2" memory foam topper zipped into a mattress cover. The mattress is queen sized. The rest of the bed is full sized. I just slapped that mattress on the full sized foundation and frame and it was not really as big a deal as you'd think. It wasn't like I was falling off the sides or anything. But part of the problem was that it became less and less comfortable over time, and the other issue was that every time I'd move or turn over the air mattress would shift inside the mattress cover and make a sort of creaking noise.

The most difficult part about mattress shopping is that it is so hard to comparison shop or do any research at all. I research practically everything I buy before I buy it. I want consumer reviews, industry reviews, rating systems, and a clear way to make a decision. If I'm thinking I need new mascara I'll spend about 400 years on makeupalley.com trying to find one with the best reviews from people with lashes like mine. When I got my air purifier I spent a long time looking at Consumer Reports ratings and amazon.com ratings and just googling the heck out of the subject. Even before I go to Target and I think I might want to buy clothes I'll go to target.com and see what people have to say about what is currently available. You would be impressed (or maybe appalled) at how long I spent on cnet.com trying to find the perfect cellphone. I like opinions! I want to know what's going to break down too soon. Or what shirt is going to twist funny in the wash. Or if my new mascara is going to flake into my eyeballs.

Mattresses, however, are an entirely different beast. Consumer Reports didn't even review mattresses until this year because they are so subjective, not to mention impossible to compare. Since different companies give the same beds different names so that they can be sold at different stores for different prices, there is almost no way to compare products. And the pricing is INSANE. Apparently the manufacturer's suggested retail price on the mattress set I got was something like $2600. But of course that was slashed in half at the store, so it was $1300. And THEN there was a SALE (because there is ALWAYS a sale) so I got it for less than $700. (I found the set after wandering around the store for a while once I tried out the stuff the salesman told me to. Once he saw where I had disappeared to he told me that was the mattress deal they advertise to get people in the door but usually try to steer people to other sets because it was such a good deal. I can't decide if that was a way of honestly telling me I was getting a deal, or him trying to get me to buy the mattress. Oh probably just a good sales tactic.) Give me a break, no other industry works like that. And unless you cut the thing in half you're not going to know what kind of padding your mattress has. And if it has a lot of padding, how do you know it is good quality? Will it last for the next 10 years? Who knows?

Furthermore, people have vastly different tastes, and this is a huge reason why Consumer Reports didn't rate mattresses (unless it's a Tempurpedic or Sleep Number, I forget which one they liked but it was one of the major ones). This is also why you can't trust online reports. One of the mattress stores I went to had me lie down on all kinds of beds to start: plush, pillowtop, firm, Tempurpedic, and Sleep Number. For a long time I thought I liked firm beds, well it turns out I don't. I like softer beds. I like to feel like I'm sleeping on a cloud. (OKAY not literally, that would be a bad drop wouldn't it?) So if I bought a firm mattress and hated it, of course I'd give it a bad review if I felt like going online to whine about it. But a person who really does appreciate a firm mattress would LOVE it and give a rave review. As a researcher you just can't trust what you read.

So after laying on lots and lots of mattresses in several stores (and YES, you have to lay down on them and yes it is soooo weird. I'm carrying on these conversations with sales guys looking up at the ceiling thinking "Hmmmmm there is no way to make this less AWKWARD!!!!!"), I found one I liked (a Simmons Beautyrest something or other). It was actually the 5th mattress I tried out of countless mattresses. It came with free delivery and free removal of my current bedding stuff (pretty typical of any mattress store). I popped the 2" memory foam topper from my crazy ghetto mattress configuration on there. (I really did agonize about putting the topper on, and then I was like "HEATHER, this is your mattress that you paid good money for. If you want to put a tornado siren and cowbells on it that's your decision.") It is sooooo comfortable. When I lie down it immediately conforms to my body. My back doesn't hurt (sometimes it does for a few minutes when I am on a firm mattress). Oh, and my arms don't go numb while I'm sleeping, which is also a sign of a mattress that is too firm.

It has taken some getting used to, mostly because there isn't any noise when I turn over. How sad is that??? But I really love it and I am actually looking forward to bedtime now. You can't tell there's a new mattress there, and ya'll have already seen it, but wouldn't you like to see my bedroom again?
And check out my fancy moody voo-doo wall art that I ripped out of magazines and framed:

There, now you've had a little tour of my bedroom!

Serious Problem

FRIDAAAAAYYYY!!!! Is anyone happier than me that it is the weekend? No.

The other day in a massive house-cleaning fit I rounded up all of the various moisturizers in my house. I think we can all agree that I HAVE A PROBLEM. Hello, my name is Heather and I am a moisture-holic. Observe:

Is that not insanity? That is more creams and lotions and potions (okay, there is a bar of soap, and a bottle of hand sanitizer- those don't count) than I would use in a year. And this doesn't include big bottles of body moisturizer, or the Lush massage bars that are sitting on my bathroom counter, or the tubes of lotion in my purse. I am a girl with dry skin. The funny thing is that when I find something I like I try not to use too much of it because I want to save it or not waste it or something. Ever since I did my roundup I have been slathering on the lotion- on my feet before I go to bed, on my hands and cuticles, on my arms and legs... I think it clicked that having 10,000 different kinds of moisturizers doesn't do me any good if I don't use them. Oh, and CLEARLY there is a ban on any lotion-type shopping until this pile is used up. So I won't need to buy anymore until something like 2012.

K-Mart Parking Lot

Today around noon I went to K-mart to get a couple of things for my BRAND NEW BED (which I will talk about in another post). I drove into the parking lot and here's what I saw:
Oooookay, if you can't see (and you can always click the image to make it huge) that is a massive empty bottle of Jack Daniels, an empty bottle of wine, 2 mugs, and a trash bag.

Ever since I saw it I've been trying to come up with a good name for this picture, and really to just figure out the context. The other angle (from the road) is better because it's just like BAM! Jack Daniels! But this angle was a little more stealthy because I sort of got the feeling that I was taking a picture of someone's living room. Keep in mind that this was in the middle of a HUGE parking lot, and there weren't any cars around for maybe 20 or 30 yards.

So, was this a teaparty for the homeless? A Sunday night seance? Were those calling up the spirits (so to speak hardy har har) hauled off to jail for public intoxication? And why didn't somebody in one of the surrounding businesses come and haul this stuff off? I mean, it was NOON already!

Wicked

The touring production of the Broadway musical Wicked is in Nashville for 3 weeks straight, playing something like 24 shows, and tickets are now impossible to get hold of. I saw it last night and overall it was pretty spectacular and definitely worth seeing.

Wicked is the story of the witches of Oz, Glinda and Elphaba. It's about how they became witches and got to Oz and met the Wizard, how the Lion and the Tin Man and the Scarecrow came to be. But ultimately it's about power and corrupt leaders and standing up for what is right, even if it means that you're going to be unpopular or even branded as "Wicked".

The two girls who played the leads, Helene Yorke and Marcie Dodd were amazing. Those two have KILLER voices that perfectly blended so that listening to them sing either alone or together was wonderful. There were a couple of times I thought they'd literally blow the roof off of TPAC, they were that good. On Broadway the roles were originated by Kristin Chenoweth (who by the way is AWESOME, I love her) and Idina Menzel and you can definitely feel their influences on the parts.

The sets and costumes were also wonderful, and I was so distracted by the costumes that I really did miss a lot of the story, but I'll get to that in a minute. The costumes, especially for the "Oz-ians" and those flying monkey wings were mesmerizing. There were all sorts of influences from all over the place. The sets were mostly huge gears and set pieces on tracks. It had a really steampunk feel to the whole thing (and I don't really know how to describe that but I'll give it a shot: it's a sort of sci-fi/fantasy subculture that takes a lot of influence from Victorian times or times when steam power was popular- hence "steampunk", and has an industrial/punk vibe- you know it when you see it and it is really REALLY cool). I kept kicking myself for being cheap and getting a ticket up in the balcony because I wanted to see everything better, but I couldn't justify the cost of a $200 orchestra ticket. I wish I could see Wicked on Broadway because I think the show needs a big stage and a big cast to really make it feel as lavish as it deserves to be.

So after all that raving, I have to say that the music and the story were weak. The singing was beautiful, don't get me wrong, but there were only 2 songs I remembered from the entire show once I got in the car. Several of the songs felt like filler while sets or costumes were getting changed around. And the story, while cute, was really predictable. But if you've read this blog for very long you know that I won't let a boring story get in the way if I have good stuff to look at, and this show did not leave me disappointed in that regard.

Here are a couple of youtube clips I found of the two songs I DID actually remember. The first is when Glinda (the blonde, cute, popular, used-to-getting-her-way girl) decides that Elphaba (born green, so everyone is scared of her) is in desperate need of a makeover.



The second song is at the end of Act 1 and it is a total showstopper. Glinda and Elphaba find out that the Wizard of Oz is corrupt and doing everything he can to control Oz so that no one finds out that he actually has no power. Elphaba knows she has to try to stop him, even though she's putting her life in danger. This is the live version from the Tony Awards in 2004.