Shirlington and Our Eventful Weekend

One important event I wanted to write about for a month now is something LJ and I attended in our neighborhood a while ago. The Signature Theater, a regional theater similar to the Guthrie, produces mainly musicals with local and national talent. We haven't been to a show which is shameful, but I have every intention of going. Each summer they put on a showcase of their upcoming shows as well as performances of contemporary musical numbers by the company (if they have a company, not sure if they do), but it is a day-long event with a number of performances in their performance spaces and in the Shirlington courtyard area.

This year it was crazy hot, so they moved everything inside. I was very determined to grab tickets to the showcase in the main performance space (that is kind of like a large black box) of a song from each musical of the upcoming season. My main motivation was because they are doing Jesus Christ Super Star, one of my favorite musicals of all time from which I actually learned the story of Jesus (as someone said on public radio, Unitarians tend to spend more time on social justice discussions than theology in their sermons - probably why I have a hard time attending any religious event). We met LJ's friend and her mom there and nestled in for the show. It was AMAZING! I would have paid $100 for it. The most wonderful part of this performance was the encore from Jelly's Last Jam, the bio-musical of a Jazz pianist. At the end of the performance, he came out to play a song. LJ asked if there would be singing but I assured her just watching his piano playing would be entertaining when, from the vom, a tap dancer slid out and started tapping. And on the other side another came. And then another center stage! They basically did a tap off and it was TRULY breathtaking! Caroline, LJ's best buddy's mama, and I were just cheering the entire time. I felt so very lucky to have this opportunity and it was a reminder of how awesome our neighborhood is.

Of course, the eventful weekend was EC's weekend full of seizures. Maybe I'll write more about it sometime, but it was traumatic and I am panicky and guilty and changed, at the risk of sounding dramatic (note, I hate when women are called dramatic). Her final seizure was in my arms and while I was reminded by the doctors over and over how seizures are not harmful, there is no lasting damage, etc, it is painful to hold you child as she thrashes and chokes and falls into the postictal state. Ambulances came three times, we rode in them twice. The final one came late and the sweet firemen took EC's vitals and held her tenderly as I panicked and begged for an ambulance (Saturday night, worst time to need an ambulance).

EC is better and energetic and happy. She is taking medicine much better. We have an EEG coming up and probably more tests on her kidneys. I thought we'd be done with the kidney reflux soon but I'm concerned we may have to do the surgery. We'll see.