So, for the life of me I cannot remember if I blogged about Rent coming to Portland this month and whether or not we would be going to see it.  I feel like I did.  I feel like I wrote a big long post about the show and our financial situation (we were able to afford the good turkey sandwich meat at Safeway tonight so I have renewed faith in us) and being a grown up when I realized that we couldn’t afford to go see it.  But you know, I don’t know if I actually wrote that or if I just thought about it so hard that now it feels like I wrote it.  It is also possible that I talked about this with someone (most likely my Mom) instead of blogging it.  That happens a lot.

At any rate, as it turns out we ARE going to go see Rent, barring any unforeseen circumstances that keep us from physically being able to go.

The backstory: Me love Rent.  Me love Rent more than a person probably should love a musical. Rent is kind of special to me.    A few years ago when the movie came out I forced Will to go see it with me and then forced him to promise that, should we ever be in the vicinity of a live show that we would go see it.  No exceptions.  Imagine how thrilled I was when it was announced a few months ago that Rent would be performed at the Keller Auditorium here in Portland in June!  Imagine how disappointed Will was that he was not going to be able to get out of seeing it after all (musicals aren’t his bag).   Now imagine how disappointed I was when I took a look at our finances a few weeks ago when tickets went on sale and realized that I had a choice between seeing the show and paying bills and doing all that other grown up stuff.  It sucked but I shook my head and told Will “we can’t afford to go.”  Will did not do a very good job of hiding his relief at this news, though he did try. Sort of.

Here’s the thing:  I know that there will be other shows.  Heck, I have the DVD of the show’s final night on Broadway.  I can see it “live” whenever I want to (haven’t yet opened the thing but will probably do so soon).  And even though it made my inner theater geek ache, I tried not to get too down about the fact that I was actually being a responsible adult for once in my life.  I think I did a pretty good job of not getting to bogged down in the “but I wanna go-o-o-o-!” feelings.

Then comes last night.  About a half an hour after posting that blog entry, Will goes: “okay, I’ve picked out three finalists for your birthday present but you have to do the final choosing.”  (My birthday? Is a week from today)  And warily I said “okay…..?”

Choice A) An XBox 360 (hello, this is so not actually for me but an excuse for him to buy one for himself)

Choice B) One of those holy crap super cute itty bitty laptops (which I really really want but seriously, I’d rather we buy food and pay the power bill)

Choice C) Tickets to Rent.

After telling him that no, seriously, we couldn’t afford any of those things and I didn’t need presents on my birthday and being told “it is your birthday.  It is not for budgeting, it is for making you happy. So just pick one.”  I chose the Rent tickets.  Obviously.

So I AM (barring unforeseen circumstances) going to get to see Rent when it comes to town.  Will bought tickets for Saturday, June 27th’s evening show so that we could do a late birthday celebration as well as do a “monthiversary” celebration because the last few monthiversaries have gotten bogged down in busy schedules and lack of funds (not that we ever did anything super huge for them, but acknowledging them has always been nice).

So… Yay! Rent! Woooooohoooooooo!

And Yay! for my fiance.  A man who said “I’m pretty sure that I would rather eat live spiders than see this show in person but you love it and I’ll love watching you love it, so eff the budget.  Your birthday is more important.”  Okay, he really didn’t actually say that, but his actions did and that is what really matters.

And Yay! for the man who, just as I was about to write a big ol’ mushy “why I love him” paragraph suddenly let out a lengthy paint peeling belch and then ran for the bathroom saying “that made me need to pee!”