This past weekend I witnessed probably the classiest ward activity I've yet to experience. The church gym was transformed into a lovely cityscape, with buildings lining the walls and black lamp posts lighting the way. The whole evening was a 40s theme. Many people came dressed to match the theme. One thing I have to say is that girls of the 40s were good with bobby pins. They definitely had hairstyling skills that I lack. I curled all my hair and my roommate Diana helped me do some pin curls. I think it turned out pretty well, though my hair does not know how to hold a curl and by the end of the evening my hair was once again impressively straight!
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| The gym was impressively transformed into a 40's cityscape. |
The evening started with a traditional Thanksgiving meal. It was so good. I'd had such a busy day I'd hardly eaten the whole day, so the meal was even more satisfying. After the dinner was the Langley musical review entitled Club Langley: A Love Story. I was a part of the play and we've been rehearsing the past 6 weeks. I played the part of Princess Buttercup in the opening scene. It was the scene in the movie where she accuses the man of being the Dread Pirate Roberts, pushes him down the hill, and then recognizes it is her sweet Westley and she throws herself down the mountain after him. It is a great scene, but also one that has left me with many bruises. The play continues on, kind of as vignettes of the dating process, many centered around a famous song from a musical. Included in the play are "Matchmaker, Matchmaker," "Goin' Courtin'," "All I Ask of You," (which in this play is kind of a creeper song - and oh so funny), "Kiss the Girl," and "Come What May." The play came off almost without a hitch and I thought it was remarkably good, especially considering the time and resources we had to pull it together.
So, a recap of two of my favorite parts of the play. First, in the Matchmaker scene Dan suggested a slight change in the words to make it even more appropriate to the audience. Yenta sang "He's handsome, he's young! Alright he's 32... but he's a nice man, a good catch, true? True!" (The original says 62). That got some big laughs. My other favorite part was the "All I Ask of You" scene. In this scene Dan was on a date with Brittany Wyatt, and Steve Meilstrup was on a date with Wendy Hancock. Brittany plays a forward woman who makes Dan totally uncomfortable and Steve details over dinner what made him decide to become a butcher. Of course both dates end badly and on the walk home Steve is begging Wendy to love him with the All I Ask of you song. When it switches to the female voice of the song, Brittany likewise pleads with Dan. At last Dan and Wendy escape into their respective houses. At first Brittany and Steve look quite dejected, but then their eyes meet and there is blossoming love, with a lot of bodacious black girl attitude from Brittany. It is quite funny to see Steve play opposite her!
The activity was great, but what is even better is that I have had my own Langley love story budding. I've mostly neglected dating stories and experiences on my blog, but news like this can't be held back. Especially because from this point, a lot of things posted will be things we are doing together! Ryan Nokes has been in the ward since before I got here, and while I met him early on, I didn't really get to know him for quite some time. In October, he was away on a 3 week business trip, but we began exchanging emails. The Saturday after he returned we went out on an adventuresome ghost tour of downtown DC and things have subsequently blossomed from there. Ryan is wonderful and I'm so happy to have him in my life. After the dinner and show, we all cleared the floor and had a dance. We started out with big band swing and jazz, stuff that was super fun to dance to. It was so much fun, and I have to say, I think people really took note of us together that night. I heard lots of positive comments about how good we look together!
