Divine Comedy Surprises

My last Divine Comedy weekend held a few special experiences and joyful moments for me. I'd really been hoping that people would come to the Saturday 9:00 show to see my final farewell, but much to my disappointment, most people couldn't make it. Among those was my friend BJ who was going out of town for the weekend, so there was absolutely no way he could be there. (He acted pretty remorselessly about it, too, which is unlike him and made me feel worse.) However, my dear, sweet, faithful roommates and one other good friend agreed to come to the Saturday 9:00 show, which meant a lot to me. I really looked forward to it, because I felt like the three of them would appreciate what an important event this was for me.

However, that all fell apart on Friday. As previously mentioned, I had to have B come help me, so she saw the show that night. And, imagine my surprise when the line was going into the Friday 9:00 show, and my friend who was supposed to come on Saturday 9:00 walked in with another friend I'd given Friday tickets to. I was glad to see him but then realized that meant he wouldn't be there on Saturday after all. (Plus, the Friday 9:00 show was the worst of the four shows--we had tech problems galore.) That only left Duchess coming on Saturday, and I knew she was coming straight from the airport, so I wasn't even sure she'd make it. I was very disappointed. The show that I'd been hoping would be so special suddenly seemed like it be just another show.

On Saturday, B told me she still wanted to come for my final show, so I felt a little better. I thought it was nice of her to come just because she knew it would mean something to me for her to be there. And I knew Duchess would try as hard as she could to be there, so I was grateful for both of them. Saturday as a whole went quite well (Guest Services actually showed up), and my part in the 7:00 show was fun. Then I went back out to let in the line for the last time. I honestly got choked up as I stood there saying my usual, "Please have your tickets out and ready! We've got two doors open!" While I was getting everyone where they needed to be, I looked up and froze.

BJ was standing there. I stared at him for a second as my brain slowly communicated to me that he was there, and then he saw me standing there in shock, grinned, and said, "So, turns out I'm back."

I almost started crying. I couldn't believe he was there. I thought he must've made it back earlier than he'd expected to and decided to come after all, but then the story came out from others that he'd been planning that for about a week and just not told me. It was the perfect surprise.

The other surprise was from the cast and crew of Divine Comedy. Every year at the Saturday 9:00 Best Of show, they have a little farewell halftime for the departing members. I knew this was coming, but I didn't know what they were planning. When it came to that point during the show, I heard our props mistress tell people to get their jackets on, and then she asked me to go to the other side of the stage and not ask questions. I couldn't imagine what they were doing that required wearing jackets. They called me up to center stage and said something along the lines of a bouquet of flowers not being good enough to thank me for all the work I'd done, so instead, they got me, "MAGIC!" and they each pulled out a bunch of flowers from inside their jackets--all except for Matt, who instead pulled out a loaf of French bread.

After the show, our props mistress gave me a framed picture of everyone in the group, to which she'd glued a couple of my early passes that I made for each show and had everyone sign. It was very touching, and I really did cry that time.

So, it was the special weekend that I'd hoped for after all. It's hard to say good-bye to the group that I've been part of for so long, but this was a great way to do it. Thanks to everyone for the memories!