Do Over

On Friday night we had a repeat of last Friday night. Sort of. Instead of meeting adults at Bluefin for dinner and drinks before going to the Orpheum to see Tom Waits, we took the monkeys to Bluefin (read all about that here) and then to the Orpheum for the Wizard of Oz.

I stayed away from all alcoholic beverages and did my best to be the MVP on Team Oster during the movie. Warren, who's favorite movie happens to be the Wizard of Oz, read that they do a costume contest every year before the show and immediately wanted to enter the boys. "Satchel can be a flying monkey and Jiro can be a scarecrow," he informed me on Wednesday night. I nodded and smiled and took a deep breath. I knew that getting Jiro in a scarecrow costume would be an impossible task, but I figured Satchel would be game. (Satchel also loves the Wizard of Oz. When he was two he had his own pair of ruby slippers that he wore everywhere.)

Once informed of his father's plans to dres him as a flying monkey, Satchel was 100% on board. On Thursday night they had a dress rehearsal (minus make-up) and practiced jumping and howling like a monkey. (I told Warren that he was just a few steps away from being a "stage mother.")

When Satchel woke up on Friday and learned that he had to attend school before attending the movie he was pretty devastated. (Getting him to go to the restaurant minus his wings and make-up was also akin to torture in his mind.) Once inside the Orpheum, Warren took Satchel in the men's room and got him all gussied up. (It took about 25 minutes!) When he came out, he looked pretty freaking amazing I have to say. People all around us started dishing out cheers and compliments. Satchel (and Warren...and me too) was eating it up. It was actually the first time in a long while that Jiro wasn't getting all of the attention.


When it came time for the contest, Warren got all shy and I was the one who got to accompany Satchel on stage. (Jiro of course came too.) His competition was three dorothys and two witches. Voting was done by applause. Each contestant got a healthy dose of applause, but when it was Satchel's turn the crowd literally went wild. I whispered, "Jump like a monkey" in his ear and amazingly he did--just for a second--and we soon had a standing ovation. (Okay maybe I'm exaggerating a little, but really, the dorothys and the witches didn't stand a chance!)

Satchel won 4 tickets to see Annie and Warren was finally vindicated for Satchel's loss (as Elvis) to the freaking bumblebee who chased the emcee around saying "I'm going to sting you!" at Zoo Boo 2004.