Of Date Nights and Diets

FryDaddy and I like to do "Big Date Night" on a regular basis and it had been a while.  So this weekend, we got ourselves all slicked up and headed to the closest Greater Metropolitan Area ("GMA") to attend a performance of Orff's Carmina Burana.  I was very much looking forward to it - I think it's a rich, robust, over-the-top piece that serves Date Night well.

Turns out this one took some work and some attitude adjusting.  Driving into the GMA is often an adventure due to ever ongoing roadwork and an odd predilection for travel lanes to become "oh, but you can park here during the day and this jackass hasn't moved their car yet" adventures in merging.  We were both a tad grumpy by the time we'd parked our car (in a garage, mind you.  Not on the street, which would have added to the merging problem.  Part of the solution, that's us).  But things were about to look up.  The venue turned out to be spacious and the staff welcoming.  Heavy pick-up snackerels were provided and you could even take your beverages into the performance hall.  We sat down front again and saw our friend who plays that wonderful composite viola.  There were a couple of bumps - people who used the front row to cut across to the other side of the theatre, one youngthing who didn't understand the rudeness of tweeting throughout the performance (really, chickie?  In the front row in full view of God and the performers?) and a quartet who came in and blundered past us - I kid you not - a half hour into a hourish show.  (On the plus side, they blocked my view of Text Girl, who was seriously annoying me.)

Still.

Carmina is best known for the opening piece, "O Fortuna" which went through quite a vogue in the 90s and is found in many a film soundtrack.  Here's a fun version mocking the lyrics of the piece, but I must admit to a fondness for the sheer "bigness" on it.  Carmina also features a nearly hysterically funny bit told from the point of view of a roasting swan (I know, but trust me - scroll down for the English translation of the lyrics) who is gifted with a pure tenor voice.

I enjoy having the opportunity to get dressed up and go out with  FryDaddy  - we both clean up pretty well, once you get shoes on  us.  Nevertheless, I was pleasantly stunned by the number of comments from strangers about my dress, hair and overall "non scaring of the horses."  It pointed out something I'd been feeling lately.  This will sound strange and odd, but such is the life of the contemporary American woman.

I'm just fine.

Really.  Just as I am.  While I'd like to see the scale's needle come to a stop at a number lower than the one it hovers on, I really am just peachy.  I'd like to continue to build on the better diet habits I've been developing over the past year - water and vegetables are my friends - but cupcakes aren't the enemy, either.  I like walking for exercise and it's fine if I stroll with the Spookster instead of feeling like we have to gogogo.

It's a new feeling, this sense of being okay with myself.  I think I'm going to explore it for a while.