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January 21, 2006
Sunny Day
A few weeks ago, while watching a commercial for "Sesame Street Live", Clara Jane made the connection that the be-costumed Baby Bear in the ad was indeed the same, real-life manifestation of the lisping Baby Bear from the show that she loves ever so much. And in that moment, in a frenzy of maternal love that completely blanketed all logic, I called B. at work. "Can you still get those discounted Sesame Street tickets? Because we so have to go."
Fifty dollars and three tickets later, I spent the next two weeks wondering what in the hell I was thinking. She's not even two. There's no way she can handle a 90-minute show, complete with lights, loud noises and about a million other screaming toddlers. We just spent fifty bucks for our kid to throw a massive hissy fit in public. Great. Just great.
Today day began with Clara Jane's first foray into public transportation. B. had been looking forward to this for a long time, being a regular traveler on St. Louis' Metrolink. Really, I'm surprised it's taken us this long to get her onto a train.
And with her first trip via public transportation, she also had her first encounter with an idiot on the train platform. Now, to be fair, he might have been very intelligent, had he not smoked his breakfast.
The entrance to one of the train platforms was barricaded with slashes of yellow tape and orange cones, but that didn't stop this fellow from crawling through the tape to the empty platform. "Hey buddy!" someone from our platform called. "That platform's closed. The trains from both directions are using this platform."
The trespasser shot him a look and kept walking down the deserted platform until a Metro employee barked, "Hey! That's closed! Get off the closed platform!"
To which the trespasser replied, "It's closed? Someone should have said something!"
And then he exited, once again climbing through the yellow tape.
That encounter aside, I do believe this was my first visit to Savvis Center where I didn't encounter so much as a passing whiff of anything being illicitly smoked. The "Sesame Street Live" crowd? Not quite as into the hallucinogens as the people at most shows I see at that venue. Maybe it was because it was the 10:30 AM show. I'll bet the hardcore fans don't come out until the 5:30 PM show.
What we did encounter - enough cotton candy and sno-cones to require Insulin Emergency Stations scattered throughout the venue.
Now, I'm going to admit something that's potentially humiliating. Angela wrote about something similar last summer in regards to seeing "The Wiggles". So at least I'm in good company.
I am such a crybaby, especially when music's invovled. Always have been. When I first started taking Prozac in 2002, one of the first changes I noticed was I no longer got weepy upon hearing jingles in Kleenex and Kodak commercials. While I was initially a little disturbed by this dulling of my emotional edge, I quickly came to embrace it. I could do things like watch TV and go to concerts with others without bursting into tears and looking like an idiot.
While I've adjusted well to life without mood stablizers over the past year, one pre-SSRI trait has returned: I'm a fucking bawl bag. I feared today's show would send me into a blubbering fit and I'm not-so-pleased to report that I was right.
During the opening number - "Somebody Come and Play", which always chokes me up on the show, even with it's the upbeat version and not Ernie's rather melancholy, lonesome version - with all the costumed Sesame Street characters parading onto the stage and my kid hollering, "Hello Bert! Hello Prairie Dawn! Hello Baby Bear!" I cried like someone had burned down my house, stolen my dogs and fed my favorite shirt to a goat all in the same day.
At least it's not choking sobs. I can limit it to the occasionally shuddery sigh, but my God, the tears! Great flooding rivers of tears! Tears that can't be passed off as allergy eyes or a reaction to the bright lights!
I eventually pulled my shit together and was doing fine. And then they had to do the "I Don't Want to Live on the Moon". The regular version gets to me, but oh my God lately they've been showing the version with Aaron Neville, and it's a song about wanting to be home, and with Aaron Neville involved it makes me think of all the people displaced by Hurricane Katrina and OH MY GOD!!! JUST STOP!!!! I'M NOT SUPPOSED TO BE SOBBING AT FUCKING SESAME STREET LIVE!!!
I mean, seriously. You would have thought I was at an Alan Jackson concert with the amount of tearshed I displayed. I can't believe I was concerned about Clara Jane going into meltdown mode. Clara Jane was fine. She loved it. Didn't shed a tear the entire time we were out. Unlike her mother, who left a hankerchief completely sopping wet and was reduced to wiping her tear-snot on her sleeve.
Speaking of my child's exemplary behavior, she had a wonderful time. We made it through the entire show and she was enthralled. Mesmerized. Totally into it. I'm even willing to overlook how she pointed to and addressed the performers. She's a bit young to understand that this breaks Cardinal Rule of Cooldom #73 and might get your ass kicked if you do it at the wrong show. I don't know. Maybe the etiquette is different at kiddie concerts. Regardless, I let it slide, since I was in flagrant violation of Cardinal Rule of Cooldom #32: Thou shalt not sob like a motherfucking sissy when Big Bird makes his entrance.
Besides, I think I'd embarrassed her enough for one day:
Posted by Robin at January 21, 2006 09:49 PM
Comments
I swear, those shows and Barney ones are seriously dangerous. I think they send some sort of subliminal messages in with the music or in the air or something.
I NEVER am weepy and these things make me mucky. I don't get it.
Posted by: TW at January 22, 2006 08:20 AM
I took Alfie to see Thomas the Tank Engine when he was about Clara's age - perhaps a little older, and I bawled too, I think it's partly the sheer joy of your child at the sight of the REAL version of their TV heroes. It's part of being a Mummy, and the upside of having to go and see these things!
(Honestly it is an upside!)
Posted by: Zoe at January 22, 2006 08:56 AM
I cried too! Thanks for letting me know I am not the only one. The lady in front of me turned around and looked at me mid-cry and thought I was upset b/c her son was standing on her leg blocking Zach's view. No, just hormones, but thanks for asking. We also arrived in plenty of time thanks to the helpful hints. : )
Posted by: Michelle at January 23, 2006 10:06 AM
Maybe you were also crying because you were witnessing your daughter experience her very first concert. It's a huge milestone, especially for a big concert-goer such as yourself.
Posted by: Anon at January 23, 2006 01:38 PM
Having been a former member of a Sesame Street Live touring company, I have to laugh (with you not at you) when reading your post. I will never forget the first day of rehearsals for "When I Grow Up." We all sat down in the dance studio in a circle for a read through. Well, by the end of the recording everyone was in tears. I was thinking what the hell kind of kids show is this? This particular show ended with prairie dawn singing "If Just One Person Believes In You" to Big Bird. The stage was dark and she brings BB a candle and half-way through the song all the characters come out on stage holding candles. Oh and did I mention that we did 8-14 shows a week for 10 months! I can't believe I made it out alive!
Posted by: former grouch at January 27, 2006 04:38 PM
