Shaddup Already!
2004-07-05
Arabian Nights
Okay, so I finally went to a local dinner show attraction called Arabian Nights. It's a show that involves horses. Many, many horses.So let me confess here, I'm a girl, I'm one of those girls who was always fascinated with horses and who will never outgrow it. I will take any excuse to watch horses. Honestly. I'll even pay $40 to do it.
This show had a pretty dumb premise, but the horsemanship was superb. Not only that, the horses seemed to want to do this stuff. That's important for me as I tend to avoid entertainment that involves animals. I have to say that I don't believe these horses are trained through intimidation or force, so that was a good thing to see. They were all also in very good shape and just incredible creatures. Some of the riders were incredible creatures as well :o)
I took my nephew, which was a good idea because seeing the show through his eyes made it much better. There were a few very cute and funny moments. One of the first acts they had was a "gypsy" act. These were the trick riders. They had been riding for about 5 minutes when Jarrod turned to me and said, "Aunt Chelle, are they sure this is safe?" It was so cute, it almost made me want a child of my own. Um, okay, not really.
Then, the gypsy portion had been going on a while and Jarrod leaned back and asked when the show was going to be over. I asked if he was having a good time and he said, "Yes, I'm just tired of all these gypsies."
Finally, they did a moment of silence and a tribute to the troops. Regardless of my last post, I am fairly patriotic. I get goosebumps when I think how lucky I was to be born in America and I am forever grateful that I don't face criminal punishment for speaking out against our Commander in Thief. I mean, our *ahem* president. And ever since the Gulf War broke out while I was in high school, I have teared up at the song "Proud to be an American," which my high school played over the afternoon announcements the day after war was declared.
Okay, so they say the obligatory thank you to the troops then a bunch of horses and riders come into the arena. There are about four riders holding American flags and the other riders are holding flags from the countries who actually support our inane efforts in the mid-east. Then they played "Proud to be an American." They do a little choreographed ride around the arena and then the riders position themselves facing the audience. The audience is on both sides, so they were like in an elongated oval shape. Make sense? Tough. That's the best I can do. Then they start dropping this snowy stuff on the arena and the music continues. Finally, about 10 horses come galloping into the arena, no tack, no riders. It was really beautiful. And I'm a mush (that is pronounced somewhere between mush and moosh--it means a sap in teacherladyese).
I would like to state for the record that, while I don't approve of our war efforts, I support the men and women who have chosen to defend our country. I appreciate them with all my heart and soul. I cannot express my thanks enough for what they are willing to do for me. So I will continue to speak out against the war, but hold the soldiers in my heart and thoughts.
