As a mother, I did many things wrong, but one thing I did do right was to instill in my children an intense love of live theater.

I suppose I should say that I TRIED to instill in my children an intense love of the theater, because trying is all anyone can do; the actual “instillation” of anything must be done by the individual himself/herself, but the fact is, this attempt actually worked. My kids are theater-lovers. This gives me great joy.

Perhaps our favorite, as a family and as individuals, is Les Miserables. We always took a vanload of kids with us to every show, and our journey to Les Miserables was memorable for several reasons. One reason is that although we had season tickets to a box up in the cheapest of all possible cheap seats Nosebleed Land, for Les Miserables we were in Row 5, center. Apparently, the Les Miz sound guys needed our Nosebleed Box for some of their equipment. No problem, sound guys.

Les Miserables, as seen from Row Five, Center, was so wonderful, so fantastic, that I feel justified in using that very misused (and usually wasted) word, AWESOME.

My beautiful daughter Belle sent me this video to remind me of the AWESOMENESS of our family’s history with this show. Also, I had the International Cast version in the Honda’s cd player last night when I picked her up, fed her, and bought her some toilet paper little things she needed. We sang it together as a family, and we sing it together as a family. We don’t need a libretto, either; this crew knows it by heart, baby. The whole show. Every word.

The video is from the 10th Anniversary Concert version of the show; it’s the Grand Finale to beat all other Grand Finales in the known universe.

Mamacita, Scheiss Weekly