Dreams denied

I've been hearing about this performance group - The Dream Engine - (please read that name with an angry voice) for weeks now. They performed at the Ann Arbor summer festival for four days this week. Or they were supposed to at least. A friend of mine who works at the AA summer festival had heard about them and told me it should be awesome. I checked out the flier she gave me and read about the show, which was described as a "mystifying performance of aerialists dancing and tumbling against an inflatable 26-foot high cone-shaped structure." Um, who wouldn't want to see that!? Anyway, I had planned to see them Wednesday night but it was canceled due to rain. I wasn't too worried because they were also going to be performing Saturday night and I figured I'd check them out then.

I called a bunch of friends and we all decided to meet an hour before the performance to get a good seat. The weather report said that it might rain, but the skies looked clear so we were pretty optimistic. When we got there, we saw the huge inflatable cone and got some excellent seats right near it. We laid out our blankets, got drinks, and settled in for what we assumed was going to be the kind of night dreams are made of. Then came the news: the show was canceled because a storm was coming in. What?! Again!? Admittedly, the group would be attaching themselves to what was essentially a lightening rod for their performance but still.

Everyone looked at me and said, "so what's the rain plan?" Um...rain plan? I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that what ensued can only be described as chaos. If you've ever hung out with a large group and had to debate what you should do next, you'll understand. We finally settled on seeing a movie. Sounds easy enough, right?

Once we got to the theater, the chaos and confusion continued. (It was actually pretty comical.) Here's a sample of the conversation:

"So what time does the movie start?"
"It started ten minutes ago."
"So what are we waiting for?"
"So&so isn't here yet ("So&so" shall remain nameless just in case she stumbles upon my blog)
"Well, when's the next showing?"
"In an hour."
"Should we see a different movie?"
"What's showing?"
"I've already seen that!"
"Let's move to a different line!"
"Wait, should we buy tickets?"
"Why did we move to a different line?"
"Has anyone talked to so&so? Where is she?"

As you can see, we were in desperate need of a leader. Luckily for us, Kara saved the day and gave us all of our options in a condensed form. An hour later, we were happily seated in the movie theater, where we watched the movie (Get Smart) and had a good time. I even got to sit by a boy who tried to hold my hand (as seen below). He was just kidding, but let's pretend he wasn't to give my ego a little boost (is that pathetic?).

Even though things ended well, I'm still mad at The Dream Engine (I wrote that name with a very sarcastic tone. Not sure if you caught that.) I guess I just wasn't meant to see acrobats attached to a giant inflatable cone. Sigh.