For most of the world (or, just the US), this weekend is a holiday weekend.  Monday off, lots of cookouts, roadtrips, seeing family, opening pools, etc, etc, etc.  For me, since this is study block, I don't really get to take weekends off let alone a LONG weekend.  But, I did take most of Saturday to go with some friends to Charlotte to see Wicked... and do various other fun things.  Maybe not a long weekend, but it was totally worth it!

So last year, a friend and I went to see Phantom of the Opera, and while we were there saw that Wicked would be coming in a year.  Fast forward a year... to now.  We bought tickets AS SOON as they went on sale and added a couple people to make a foursome.  Off we went to Charlotte yesterday afternoon to see Wicked.

Eating before the show is critical, so we decided to go to an Ethiopian restaurant because there are none in Winston, and one of the girls has been to Ethipoia and loves the food, and another is going in a few weeks and we thought it would be good to give her a little practice eating with her hands.  For those of you who have never had Ethiopian cuisine, I highly recommend you stop reading right now and google the closest place you can get it.  It's delish.  All the dishes are served atop injera, a flat sourdough type bread that is used to scoop up the entrees.  No utensils are used.  We shared a lab dish, a chick pea dish, and a sampler (which had everything!)...  I would have taken a picture, but we ate it all before I could even think about it.  Sorry.

After dinner, we decided to head downtown to find coffee.  We were yawning, and that was just not ok.  Note to you:  Do NOT go to downtown Charlotte the weekend of the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600.  Most of the streets were shut down, they were handing out free cereal in the streets, there were cops on every corner, and to top it all off, they opened the new NASCAR hall of fame two weeks ago and that was bringing race fans in from the speedway to the city.  I think they made all the businesses in the whole freakin' city close early because we could not find coffee ANYWHERE.  We walked a lot though.  And paid $5 to park.  Coffee = fail.

Then we went to the theater, which happened to be located next to the Bojangles Colliseum.  Another note to you.  No major event center should be named after Bojangles.  Anyway, as we parked and we walking in, we noticed a fire truck and ambulance outside and everyone outside the bulding.  Bad start.  Turns out an old man had apparently fallen going to his seat :(  I hope they give him a free ticket.

Fast foward to the show... AMAZING!!!!  In college Sarah played a couple of the songs from the sound track a lot, and they really didn't make any sense to me.  Now they do.  And I think I listened to the sound track about 6 times in Starbucks studying today.  I may or may not have been singing outloud accidentally....

But really, the show was incredible.  I would see it again tomorrow if I could.  The girl who played Elphava had an amazing rich voice and was simply fantastic.  Everyone was.  It was the best show I've ever seen.  And now I need to rewatch The Wizard of Oz with new eyes....

After the show, and since we'd eaten dinner early, we HAD to stop at Cookout (at midnight) for milkshakes and associated delicious food.  It was an excellent end to an excellent evening.  And along the way somewhere we decided to start an weekly international food dinner.  So, look out for posts about Perogie, Chicken Paprikash, curry, and whatever else we decide to make!

Hope everyone else had a great weekend!  And I suppose for most of you, it's not over yet....

Lucky.