Saturday, Part 2: Miserable at Les Miserables

As if the day at the falls was not adventure enough, that night Ryan and I had free tickets (from Cathy) to Shasta High School's version of Les Miserables. The tickets were about 4 rows from the back, and we were not exactly thrilled about seeing a high school interpretation of the play, so the seats did not matter to us. We discovered upon finding the assigned row that a group of 4 older ladies were right next to us. Once we sat down, we wished we could have had a say in the seat choice, for the conditions were worse than on an airplane, and Ryan and I were quite uncomforable with zero leg room. Because of the way the seats were labeled, we did not notice that the ladies had counted wrong and were in one of our seats. We were all one off when the show began and 4 people showed up to take the 3 empty seats to my left. A couple of hosts were on stage to give announcements, and that's when a lady in an official looking shirt showed up with a flash light to settle the seat situation. When the ladies next to us were asked for their tickets, they grew quite catankerous and I felt sorry for the hostess. Ryan, who had a more generous head on his shoulders, told the woman that we would be glad to relocate if it made the situation easier. She thanked us profusely as we got up from our seats. What Ryan and I noticed was the judging looks of the audience as we were ushered out, as if we had done something mortally wrong to get the escorted behind closed doors.

Once in the lobby again, the hostess said to the lady at Will Call: "These nice people gave up their seats. Is there anything we can do for them?" The lady looked through her tickets and said, "Well, I have two seats in the front row if you would like them." We snatched up the opportunity and grinned at ourselves for the surprising turn of events. When we got to our seats and sat down, I looked up to find the host grinning down at us while Ryan yelled to him, "Hey thanks man!" Looking around, the audience was staring at us. What had happened was: as we were walking to the front, the man on stage pointed us out, saying into the microphone, "Hey guys, glad you could finally make it!" and that's when Ryan responded. I could not believe my ears! If only Mr. Host Man knew what we had just been through! For the next 3 hours, Ryan and I very much enjoyed the high school version of Les Miserables, with all the blessed leg room in the world. Small miracles.