So today was the day we had tickets to see Jesus Christ Superstar. We woke to find Owen had a fever. Am I a totally awful mom that it never even occured to me to cancel my plans for the day? I love him dearly but this is my favorite musical (that I haven't seen in over 10 years) and I've been looking forward to this since I got the tickets for my birthday in September. And I never get to do things like this. Whine. So we went. He was fine. He lay on the couch in the morning and we postponed plans a bit but by the time my mom came to pick him up for the zoo he was just slightly warm and rather perky. He didn't even need the stroller I went out to Goodwill to get this morning for him (but that's ok, we'll use it in D.C. too).
So first we arrived in New Brunswick. Unfortunately, today was also the Coexistance Festival which meant blocked off streets and 25,000 extra people milling around listening to the Indigo Girls and other performers. No biggie.
What WAS a biggie is that the downtown New Brunswick I remember so fondly is gone. Holy crap, don't go to a city for a few years (or 10) and they revamp the whole place! I don't like it. Huge, towering buildings everywhere. Ack, it was claustrophobic. Ok, yes, parts of the city were (still are) run down but it had charm and character. Now the new parts are cold and sterile and it was just sad. That cute little shoe repair shop, the local bar, the hair dressers - replaced by a high rise 20 stories in the air. Just sad.
It was so bad I got us lost walking. We were trying to find this tiny cemetary and just couldn't find it. I wasn't sure where it was anyway but we kept turning corners and being confronted with new buildings that weren't there the last time I walked those streets. Ok, so the last time I really walked around New Brunswick was the mid 90's but couldn't they have preserved the place for me? Sheesh.
So we gave up on that one and went to the big cemetary instead. Right across the street from it is now a huge, cold high rise so it's a bit different than I remember but it was there.
Wow. Just . . . wow. I have never seen a cemetary in such disrepair. It was the middle of a sunny day, cherry blossoms blowing everywhere, green grass under our feet and it was downright creepy. The vandalism was astounding. At least half of the stones were turned over or knocked off the bases. Some had plaques removed. Robert commented it was probably some "drunken college student" thing, or frat boy activity and I'm guessing he's right. No graffitti, just knocked over stones all over.
We walked to some tall, white monoliths that were near the back and saw a man sitting and reading. We didn't talk (did I mention it was creepy?) but Robert and I looked at the little section for a bit. There was a wrought iron fence making a small section out of that area (common in old cemetaries). All the stones in it had Japanese names and listed Japanese birth places and all had dates from the late 1800's! It was surprising. The tall monoliths that had attracted me all had kanji on them. And the most interesting part was that all of the monoliths had fairly fresh flowers in foil wrapped tin cans placed in front of them. I wonder who put them there?
So then we walked on and saw the most astounding sight. There was a white marble pile - probably 30 or 40 feet long and maybe 20 feet wide - of broken headstones and headstone bases. They were just all jumbled up in this section of the cemetary that was lower than the rest (so you couldn't see it from the street). I have never seen anything like that. Do the drunken idiots throw them there or is that the maintenence crew's way of cleaning up? On the other side of the pile there was a group of really old looking stones still safely standing (I'd guess 1700's by the style). I would have liked to go see them but it was getting toward show time and I couldn't see an easy way over the pile of headstones.
I wonder if there's someone to complain to? Not that it would do any good I'm sure. The most recent stone I saw was from the 50's. Old cemetaries like this just don't get taken care of like they should be once there's no one left that cares. But still, it was amazing the amount of damage that was done. I commented to Robert that I couldn't even write the pile into my book because no one would believe it. They'd think I was making it up. I wish we'd had a camera.
So then we went to the show! I had some minor issues with the fact that they changed random lines and music (when you've been listening to a soundtrack for 30 years you get a little on edge when they change things, LOL!).
But forget my minor issues. When the first chords came out I started bouncing in my seat. And when Jesus came on stage in his white robe, long brown hair, arms outstretched and the spot light hit him and made him glow - ack, I almost converted on the spot, LOL! I had an awesome time :-D
Unfortunately, my hard of hearing husband, who has never seen the movie or listened to the soundtrack, had a hard time following what was going on. I have almost the entire thing memorized so yeah, I had a bit of an edge there. Yeah yeah, the ex Catholic boy knows the plot of course :) and he was mainly humoring me being there anyway.
It's funny, I'm not religious, I just find religion fascinating, and the story of Jesus is a favorite of mine. Actually, being in love with this musical for most of my life is probably a good bit of why I became Christian for a few years. It didn't really take but it was fun while it lasted :)
Ok, enough rambling for today. Tomorrow is going to be a nice relaxing day (not). We're going to finish getting ready for D.C. which involves shopping, food prep, packing and (hopefully) cleaning the house a bit so I don't have to return to a sty. For some reason we've been very busy this week with family visits, playdates and musicals and the house has defintely suffered!
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