A Concert & A Wedding*

This weekend was a bit insane.

On Friday night the Hubster and I traveled downtown to The Four Seasons to see Colm Wilkinson. I have been listening to Colm sing since I was a little girl, and I have long loved his voice. I was so excited to go. A few years ago The Hubs bought me the 10th anniversary edition of Les Miserables with Colm Wilkinson as Jean Valjean and it’s just… magical.

So, this year he found out that Colm was coming to Toronto and he bought me tickets as his anniversary gift to me.

(Isn’t he just the loveliest Hubster??)

I’ve had these tickets for MONTHS, and I was dying to hear Colm perform pieces from Les Mis. DYING. For days before the concert it was all I was listening to. I think I watched this video a billion times last week:

(Colm is the first male voice. Michael Ball is the second, and I also heart him with MUCH hearting.)

It’s my favourite musical, and Colm is my favourite male vocalist, so I thought for sure that the stars would align and my dreams would come true.

…and then he didn’t sing anything from Les Mis.

Oh, the concert was wonderful, and his voice was still incredible… but there was no Les Mis. He sang selections from Phantom of the Opera, South Pacific, West Side Story and a host of other broadway hits mingled in with contemporary pieces… but no Les Mis.

*sigh*

(It was still totally worth it to go. I just need to see Les Miserables again soon apparently. haha)

It ended up being a much later evening that we anticipated, and after falling asleep on the train right home we crawled into bed close to 1am.

On Saturday morning we lounged in bed before flying into whirlwind mode trying to get everything done before heading out to Star’s wedding. We were late leaving and knew our timing would be down to the minute. We parked outside the city and decided to take the subway in to avoid trying to find parking & pay for it downtown Toronto on a Saturday.

Naturally, as soon as we stepped on the subway the cars went out of service and an extra 10 minute delay was tacked on to our already precious time. By the time we reached the church we were nearly 15 minutes late. We tried to find a side door to sneak into…

…which ended up being the doors right at the front of the chapel. Haha! Thankfully the wedding hadn’t started yet so the Hubs and I ran down the aisle to the back of the church and stole some seats. We learned from the program that there was actually a half hour time difference between the start time on the invitation and the start time on the program. So, instead of being 15 minute late, we were 15 minutes early. WIN!

Star was… perfect. Her dress was incredible and the whole wedding was just like a fairytale.

We had a few hours between the ceremony and the reception so the Hubster and I decided to do some shopping in between. We got back on the Subway to head back to our car and ended up on the new Toronto Rocket subway car! As we were gawking like total tourists at the amazing new subway, a shadow came over us as we were leaning over to try and see to the end of the subway. I looked up, and standing in front of me was a good friend from my Ghetto U days that I probably haven’t seen in five years.

After my shock wore off, I jumped up to give him a hug and we chatted until he got off a few stops later. People always say that Toronto is a big city–but it definitely still has some small town qualities. :)

The Hubster and I toured around one mall for an hour or so then decided to drive over to another mall that was a little closer to where the reception was being held. We shop at this mall all the time. It’s on the way to my parents house, and it has the mother of all man-stores: Bass Pro Shop. We spent an hour wandering through the mall, popping in and out of stores as we tried to find a new pair of shoes for him. I was texting on my phone while he was browsing, then we’d continue on. We finally made it through the whole mall and decided it was time to head over to the reception. We walked to the car and as we drove off I began transferring items from my big red purse to the small black clutch I planned to take in to the reception with me.

I pulled out my lip gloss, camera, and other little items, then I reached for my phone.

It wasn’t in the pocket.

I wasn’t immediately worried–my blackberry often gets jostled and falls out of the pocket into the giant mess that is my purse. I began rifling through the items looking for it, and after I had emptied the contents and still hadn’t found it my heart started racing a little.

I searched the floor of the car in case it had fallen out: no luck.

My normal calm self dissolved as I panicked over my lost phone. The Hubster pulled over so that he could try calling it from his phone, but it was absolutely not in the car. We were several kilometers away from the mall by this point, but we whipped around and sped back to try and see if my phone had been turned in.

I had absolutely no recollection of setting my phone down anywhere. The only thing I could think of was that I had gone into a bathroom to fix my hair and I had put my purse down while I did it. I was praying that my phone hadn’t fallen out there, as I was sure that then it would have been gone for good. I searched the bathroom high and low with no luck. My only other hope was that I had set it down somewhere in Bass Pro, which had been our last stop in the mall. The Hubster set off to search the area where we had last been while I tried to speak with someone in customer service to see if it had been found.

While I was waiting to speak with someone, I decided to try calling my phone one more time in case it rang where the Hubster was searching. To my surprise, someone answered and told me that they had my phone and were holding it for me in a store just a bit further up in the mall.

I cannot even begin to describe the relief I felt when I knew that my phone was safe. I know it probably seems silly to be so distraught over a blackberry, but I love my little phone and I felt like such an idiot for losing it! The store employee who had found it handed it right over with a smile and I could have hugged her on the spot.

(Only I was a bit afraid that I would seem creepy. So I didn’t. ha)

By then it was after 7pm and we were late to the reception. We barely made it in before the entrance of the bridal party, but once we hit our seats the night was perfect. We ended up at a table with all my old friends from Ghetto U and it was such a great night. Words cannot express how much I love these people. :)

It was a amazing, lavish Italian wedding–complete with seven courses–and it was after 10pm before we even finished dinner. Star was glowing, and I don’t think the evening could have been any more perfect.

By 11:30pm I was completely and utterly spent, so we said our goodbyes and slipped out to begin our drive home. It was sometime after midnight when we rolled in, and we were both asleep minutes after walking through the front door.

It was an absolutely lovely weekend, but I was thrilled to have yesterday to relax and unwind after such a busy two days.

How was your weekend?