Lovely Ladies

Still on a Les Misérables jag at our house.

Although now I have both members of the PBA singing songs out loud around the house.

And in the car.

And at the dinner table.

Pretty much everywhere.

In an effort to keep the redundancy to a minimum (though it’s not really working because you know how it is…you get a CD and you have your favorites songs on it and your not-favorite-songs, and you tend to stick with the favorites…we have that going for sure), I even splurged and bought the entire soundtrack of the stage play.

I didn’t read the fine print, apparently, and it is a late 1980’s version…yes, same songs, same lyrics, but with a slightly 80’s twist.

Lesson learned.

The next time I want to purchase a live recording of a stage play which has been in production since 1980, I will make sure to check when the actual recording took place…

It’s fodder for the PBA’s comedy routine if nothing else.

And they’re still going around singing the songs, so they are clearly not deterred.

But they do like to point out the instrumentation which does sound “odd” to them; it just sounds “80’s” to me.

So on the day the set (oh yes, it’s a 2-CD set) arrived, I promptly popped the first disk into the player and we began singing along to the songs we know (well, I was singing along to all of them because I know them all…don’t judge).

NERD ALERT: every once in a while I paused the CD to explain what was going on in the storyline at the time.

And no, in case you were wondering, we still have not had the opportunity to see the DVD of the stage play. The new flooring is continuing to come along, but I was not willing to ask Mr. Always Random to stop working on it just to hook up the DVD player.

Could I have hooked it up myself? Probably, but why potentially risk injury to Mr. Always Random’s male ego by showing him up?

OK, I could barely keep a straight face as I was typing that…that’s not it at all…I have no idea how to hook it up and frankly we had enough going on in our crazy, everyday lives that it was OK if we didn’t have the DVD player available for a little while.

I do need to pause to say that it is hooked up now…we just haven’t had time to watch it. No more blaming the flooring project.

Anyway, we were singing along to our new CD set, and as this one song in particular started to play. And I started singing it, when suddenly my brain panicked and I began fumbling with the knobs on the CD player; I could not change the song fast enough.

Well, in hindsight, it WAS fast enough because the PBA had never heard the song before so the words hadn’t fully formed in their ears yet.

You know how it can be…hearing a song for the first time, you might not catch many/most/any of the words on the first go round? I was fortunate such was the case on this little ditty. And the fact that they only heard the first couple bars definitely worked to my advantage.

Yes, if you know the musical at all, you have probably already guessed to which song I am referring. If you are not familiar with the songs, I’ll tell you; it is called “Lovely Ladies”.

I can’t even bring myself to post a link to a Youtube video with the song…I am that much of a prude, I guess. Sorry…if you want to hear it, you’ll have to Goggle it yourself.

And I assure you that this isn’t even me simply being lazy.

Though I’m certain they witnessed my frantic scramble to change the track or turn down the volume…or do anything but let that song continue to be heard in our car, they did not let on that anything was amiss.

Which begs to differ why didn’t they notice, but that’s a whole other can of worms which shall remain closed at this point.

In spite of my manic exterior, my voice stayed calm while I casually said, “Yeah, we’re not going to listen to that one…”

Of course, THAT opened up a whole barrage of questions, all of which I put off with a “We’ll talk about it later. Individually.”

So, my 11yo has figured that language out…what that meant was that he is going to be privy to more information than his 9yo brother…so he was quick on cornering me into a private conversation.

11yo: “So, Mom…why can’t we listen to that song?”

Me: “Well…”

I cannot relay to you all the delicate things mentioned in this discussion…mostly because I have blocked it out. It was probably as traumatizing for me as it was for him, if not more so.

After I recovered, I tracked down the 9yo in order to get THAT conversation out of the way too...praying as I went, because I had no clue what I was going to say to him about ladies of the evening.

I walked in his room and said, “So…I wanted to talk to you about that song.”

9yo: “Mom, I don’t even want to know what it was about, but I promise not to listen to it.”

Inside my head I said, “Ok…thank you, Lord!”

To my 9yo I said, “Well, for now that will be ok, but we will talk about it sometime.”

9yo: (Insert eyeroll.) “Ooookaaaay.”

And to his credit, he’s on it…he knows the track number of “Lovely Ladies” and if I’m too slow on the uptake and so much as let one note of the song play, he’s quick to point it out.

I’m thankful that he’s diligent about something. Shows potential, right? (It’s all in the spin.)

I’m not sure how I will broach that one when it comes time for us to see the DVD of the production. I think there will simply be a fast-forwarded sequence…they won’t miss out too much on the plot.

And I was so glad to see, in reviewing the movie soundtrack, that that particular song has been omitted.  I had been trying to discern how I would address it in a movie theater situation…either be ready to face it full-on, or be prepared for a quick trip to the restroom just before it begins.

And make sure that the PBA know that they have to go with me. That would have been the tricky part. They’re boys. They do not comprehend the idea of going to the restroom in a pack.

So…I think it’s time I wrap up this really awkward and slightly uncomfortable post. And I hope you don’t have that song stuck in your head. If you aren’t familiar with it, I suggest NOT Googling it. 

And if you already did…sorry!