“I gotta go,” I said, cutting the party short. Well, sorta party — it was my boss’ birthday and we were all on our third (fourth?) bottle of prosecco: celebrating that, and our co-worker Kelly’s last day (cry), plus a welcome party for our new designer, Paulina.

“What, where you going?” tipsy boss asks.

“The Symphony.”

“Soooo cultured!”

Then I begin explaining the Artist Date — y’know, when you take yourself out on a date, yadayadayada. Go read The Artist’s Way, I recommend. Kelly and Paulina are excited at the thought, and Kelly mentions she wants to go see the ballet one of these days.

I manage to say my goodbyes (wahhh, Kelly!) and run to the Symphony.

I’m extra excited tonight because they’re playing Tschaikovsky and Bach, and I think I’m more familiar with their work (I’m not, actually, haha) and maybe I might recognize a tune or two (nope, I didn’t).

The only problem? I’ve had this nasty, wheezing cough for a few days now, and there were no signs of it getting better. So of course I brought a buttload of lozenges — no way was I going to be wheezing in between Bach tunes.

Of course I was wheezing in between Bach tunes. :(

Also didn’t help that the lady that sat beside me (who was also reapplying her lip gloss over and over again… I wanted to remind her that it was dark and we hadn’t really moved the past half hour) brought out a bottle from her bag and started applying the worst smelling super strong floral hand cream. I wanted to cry — not only was I going to be wheezing through this show, but sneezing as well. (My nose, I tell ya, is something else.)

Despite the occasional Christine keep your cough in this is a quiet part of the piece and ooh those soloists are great but oh no my brain’s about to explode and not in a good way LOUD COUGH, the show was amazing. I was still smiling and staring in between covered coughs and shoving lozenges in my mouth. ;)

Here’s a tiny bit of it, one of my favorite parts (thankfully cough-free!) Love that there’s so much piano, too.