The Blonde Leading the Blind

It’s been a long time since there’s been a date night in the Blonde household.  Unfortunately for Spider-Husband, there happened to be an ABBA tribute band in town when the occasion struck, and to add insult to injury, they were being backed by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.  ABBA and orchestra music – two of his very favorite things.

I was in disbelief myself until the picnic dinner was packed, the car was loaded, and the Blondes were en route to Connor Prairie for the Saturday night Symphony on the Prairie.

We got there early and were able to eat about half our dinner before an announcement was made that a nasty (but fast-moving) thunderstorm was about 15 minutes away from the venue and that in the interest of safety, everyone would need to pack up and return to their cars until the storm had passed.

Fortunately, the Blonde family packs light, and we made it back to the car before any rain started.  This was not the case for several other attendees who treat the event as a backyard BBQ complete with lawn chairs, tables, umbrellas, and a feast to feed a small country.

The weather was not helping my date night out.  If not for the chocolate chip cookies brought for dessert, I’m pretty sure Spider-Husband would have seized this opportunity for escape.

Karma was on the Blonde’s side, though, and the storm passed by us in plenty of time to return to the lawn and people watch before the show began.

Spider-Husband is always amazed at the crowd who attends the Symphony events and has a knack for picking the one group of people no one really wants to sit by, and last night was no exception.  Last night’s luck of the draw included 45-year-old, overly-tan, way overdressed, golf-playing John and his equally over-tan, slightly intoxicated, reminds me of Janice from Friends, bride-to-be who spent most of the night telling anyone who would listen about the impending nuptials and proposed honeymoon in Italy, making suggestive comments involving the food they were eating to the two couples they were with, edging their chairs and other crap onto our blanket inch by inch, rattling off which golf courses they are members of and which ones to avoid because the staff wasn’t up to snuff, dumping their discarded cocktail shrimp tails on the lawn by our blanket, and my personal favorite, using the free eco-friendly grocery bags that were given out at the event as a garbage bag.

Self-important and a friend of the earth, too.  Nice.

At least, they shut up during the performance, which was fantastic.

Aside from some bizarre voiceover which invited us to spread our wings and fly back in time to Sweden in 1969 when a young ABBA takes the stage for the very first time, the show was a lot of fun.  The tribute band was actually very good and played all of my favorites (except “Lay All Your Love on Me”) including “Voulez Vous”, “Mamma Mia”, “The Winner Takes It All”, and, of course, “Dancing Queen”.

It was the best date ever.