I'm Back!

Okay, so if you couldn't tell by my two previous posts, I'm back from my trip. It wasn't very eventful. The most exciting thing was going to Wicked which was closely followed by going to Barnes & Noble. Something that wasn't so exciting was that I got blisters from the shoes I chose to wear the night of the play.

We were walking in downtown Spokane and I knew before hand that these weren't the most comfortable shoes, but I didn't think that they would give me blisters. However, a few minutes into the walk, it became quite clear that I was not only going to have blisters on my heels, but also on both of my pinkie toes. Talk about nightmare. We had walked maybe three or four blocks when I mentioned it to my mom and her friend Amy. When we got to the restaurant to have dinner and I looked at my heels, I had the worst blisters I think I have ever had. My mom left from the restaurant to go and see if she could find more band-aids and flip-flops so I wouldn't have to wear the shoes from hell (all blisters are now covered by band-aids).

After dinner (we had Chili's and I only ate chips and salsa; lunch had been big), we headed for the performing arts center for Wicked. I was worried that they would look through my bag and see that I had shoes, but they didn't go through our bags (seriously, anyone could have brought in anything o.O). We stopped at one of the stands selling t-shirts, sweat shirts, cds, magnets, pins, and jewelry. I got a really cute shirt that has the main image of the show on it (Glinda whispering in Elphaba's ear). It was seriously one of the best musicals I have ever seen (and I've only seen a couple live; if anyone has a chance to see Alter Boyz please go). Even though it wasn't the same actors and actresses that are on the soundtrack, it was amazing. Most of them sounded nearly the same as the original actors. I was amazed (if you couldn't tell by now). Anne Brummel, who played Elphaba, had the biggest set of pipes ever. As I haven't read the book, I only knew a little bit about the play. I was blown away by both the acting and the singing. I want to see this musical again.

In other news, I made it to the bookstore (bad, bad Alyssa!). I bought The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima (I've been wanting this for ages) and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (I know, I know, I'm falling into the fandom; I want to read it before it became a movie). I'm sure I'll be blogging about these two books in the near future (I have to finish reading Harry Potter first).

Have you ever...

felt so excited for something that you couldn't possibly wait for it to come, but when it finally arrived you began to dread what would happen? What if things weren't going to be as awesome as you thought they were? What were you going to do now that it was over?

I suppose the best way to word this comes from Rapunzel and Flynn Rider in the Disney animated film Tangled. Rapunzel begins by saying, "I've been looking out a window for eighteen years, dreaming about what I might feel like when those lights rise in the sky. What if it's not every thing I dreamed it would be?"

"It will be." Flynn tells her.

"And what if it is? What do I do then?"

"Well, that's the good part I guess. You get to find a new dream."

I feel this way about a couple of things that will be happening this summer. One of them is I'm going to see the musical Wicked next week. I've been looking forward to seeing Wicked since my sophomore year of high school. That has been a pretty long time seeing as I'm about to become a senior in college.

The other is the final Harry Potter film. I have been waiting for this movie since 2001 when they first started making the films, but in all honesty, I don't want it to end. I started reading the books when I was in fourth grade and the seventh book came out the summer before my senior year of high school. Harry Potter has been in my life for 12 - almost 13 - years. Just over a decade of my life has been devoted to reading Harry Potter and watching Harry Potter and hoping that J.K. Rowling decides to write something else (according to her Twitter, she is busy writing).

I guess it is just a feeling of not wanting things to end. Yeah, I could always read the book Wicked and continue listening to the soundtrack a hundred more times. And, yeah, I could re-read the Harry Potter books and re-watch all of the movies, but it won't be the same as reading or watching it for the very first time. That feeling of awe and amazement and sadness that you have finally ended a chapter of your life.