The Nutcracker

I know, I know, Christmas is over.  But this isn't really a Christmas story, it just happened at Christmastime.  And I was telling it to my class, and I wanted to write it.  So I did.

When I was 8 my grandma invited me to stay at her house for a week.  I was really excited.  We planned to go to see The Nutcracker and also she was going to teach me how to knit!

She picked me up at my house, about a hour and a half from her house.  We drove back to Orange County a few days before the show so that we had time to shop for new clothes to wear that night.  I loved my dress.  It was a soft jersey tank with a full skirt attatched, with hot pink and purple flowers.  And the best part of the dress was the jacket that matched the skirt.  To this day, I still love a good bolero jacket.  I also got a hot pink scrunchie for my hair.  This was the end of the 80's.  Scrunchies were HOT. 

But the best part of this outfit, the reason I'm writting this story, was the shoes.  There is a big difference between little girl shoes and grown up shoes, and I was obsessed with grown up shoes.  I wanted high heels so badly.  My grandma didn't buy me high heels.  But she did buy me some cute little black flats with a strap that could be removed.  They looked so mature to me.  So grown up.  Even though they were a little big, and prone to falling off, I wore them with out the strap.  I never felt more beautiful.

Me in my dress and shoes with the straps still on.  Man, my bangs went on for days, didn't they!

And so the night of the show I got dressed in my new dress, my grandma did my hair in a bun (my favorite at the time, go figure) with my hot pink scrunchie, and I put on my shiny black strapless flats.  We drove to the performing arts center and I remember my grandma looking for the signs on the freeway to tells us where to get off.  I asked her if the signs said Nutcracker.  She said they didn't.  They only said the name of the arts center. 

When we were standing in line to enter the theatre I took a step forward and my shoe slipped off.  I turned around to pick it up, but before I could get to it, the very handsome man behind me bent down and picked it up and slipped it back on my foot.  I was very shy back then, I don't remember if I even said thank you.  My grandma told me I was Cinderella.  It was a magical night.