Free Is GOOD!

A few days ago, I saw a contest over at Burgh Baby.  A contest to win four free tickets to see Madagascar Live, to be exact.  Here's where it gets a little weird.  As I was leaving a comment, I had a premonition.  I saw myself on the phone calling Jim, saying "I won tickets!"  

Now, I'm not saying I believe in premonitions, but I'm not saying I don't either.  But, I really didn't want to get my hopes up and then be all mopey later, so I put it out of my head.  I really, really wanted to win, because I thought Dylan would love it.  Plus there is the little detail that if we had to pay for tickets, we might be able to go... when Dylan is a teenager.

So, I had put the contest thing completely out of my head... until I saw an email from Burgh Baby's Mom in my inbox.  There may have been some shrieking before I even opened the email.  That was at about 11am yesterday.  Then, I called Jim, and said, "Jim!  I won tickets to Madagascar... for tonight!"  He said at first he thought we were flying to the actual Madagascar.

The confusion continued when I called my dad, whose birthday is on Sunday, to see if he wanted to go with us.  "What is this?  Some kind of CAR show?"  Perhaps I was so excited I wasn't being very clear?

When I picked Dylan up at preschool, I told him.  "Is there going to be a stage or a screen?"  (His only experience with a screen, at the Science Center, did not go over so well).  When he heard there was a stage, all was well.  I told him that we would watch the movie "Madagascar" when we got home.  One problem... I discovered we don't actually HAVE the movie.  Luckily, there were a few stories with the penguins on On Demand that we watched.

My dad, Dylan, and I were supposed to park in the garage that Jim parks in every day for work, and he would meet us there.  Well, I got completely disoriented and parked in the wrong garage, so we might have had to walk several blocks in the FREEZING COLD.  By the time we finally connected with Jim, I didn't care where we ate dinner, as long as it was as close as possible, so we ducked into the first place we saw.

I think we were the only people in the place, and I know Dylan was the only kid in the place.  It wasn't exactly a place that I imagine a lot of kids frequenting.  The waitress went bananas over Dylan.  He was eating it up, and was completely won over when she brought him ice cream with chocolate sauce - for free.  Not the best idea to give an already hyper child sugar right before the show, but what was I gonna do?  As we were leaving, she kept saying "Come back and tell me how the show was, okay?"

The show was AWESOME!  I won't say that Dylan sat STILL, but it certainly kept his interest, and we stayed for the whole thing.  When it was over, he asked, "When is the next part?"  It was past his bedtime and he was ready to MOVE IT, MOVE IT.  "Well, now what are we gonna do?!", he yelled, looking up at the tall buildings.  I don't think my kid is a country boy.  He loves the city.  Of course, he said we had to go back to the restaurant to tell the waitress how the show was.

Today, when I woke him up, the first thing that groggy kid said was, "Can we go see that show today?"