mamma mia here we go again

I am not a huge Abba fan. No that distinction falls to Mike. He would play the Abba Gold album until it darn near drove me nuts. So you might think it's odd that I managed to see Mamma Mia! twice in seven days. Funny story that.

I can't remember exactly how it first came up, but the year I turned 30 Robin thought we should do something special. We were going to see Mamma Mia! together. Now I do love a good musical. I have been to see Cats, Miss Saigon, Camelot, The Lion King, We Will Rock You and a Chorus Line over the years. So I was game. But somehow my birthday came and went and we never actually made it. Probably because Robin was pregnant with Kailey at the time. Months later she called me up to say we had tickets for the two of us to see Mamma Mia! We would be going a couple of weeks after Christmas.

Fast forward to Christmas and opening gifts at Papa and Grandma Linda's. I receive an envelope and inside is...... if you guessed two tickets to Mamma Mia! Give yourself a pat on the back. Bonus points if you guessed they were for January as well. And in a move that made me look like the world's most ungrateful daughter in law I sat there staring at them and said nothing. Inside, of course I was panicking. What if they were for the same day? What on earth was I going to do? Finally I managed to choke out a thank you and said a silent prayer that everything would work out.

As it turned out the tickets were seven days apart. Mike and I saw the show together with Papa and Grandma Linda's tickets first. They didn't know I would be seeing the show again nor did Robin know I had already seen the show when we went the following Saturday. In an amazing stroke of coincidence the tickets for both shows were virtually the same.

So why didn't I tell everyone that I had two sets of ticket? Well I did eventually, a year or so later in Robin's case when it accidentally slipped out that Mike had seen the show as well. I just didn't want anybody to feel bad. Plus Robin had had a string of bad luck in which she couldn't buy me a present that I hadn't already received from someone else. I didn't want to disappoint her.

In the end seeing the show twice in one week was a gift. I completely loved it and was singing Abba songs for weeks afterwards. I told anybody and everybody that I would see it a third time if I could. Yeah, I loved it that much.

So given our history it should be no surprise that we celebrated Robin's birthday by seeing the feature film edition of Mamma Mia! I have to admit I wasn't sure about their casting choices, but Meryl Streep surprised me. And, for the record, the woman looks incredible. The part where she sings The Winner Takes it All was amazing and brought one poor movie goer sitting in front of us to tears. The actress that played the daughter was great. If you remember her at all from Mean Girls you will be impressed with her performance. Or at least you should be.

It was just the perfect day. No husbands. No girls. Just us, a bucket of popcorn and some of Abba's finest hits. Then we hit dinner at a place where we could doodle on the "tablecloth" and chat about everything and nothing. I'm starting to think we should make this a monthly thing. What do you say Robin, what should we see next month?