That Time I Discovered Something New

When Nick and I first started dating, we were very different from each other. He was a college senior, staunch Republican, lover of talk radio and musical theater. I was a college freshman, charter member of the College Democrats, into angsty, girly rock and lover of all things pink and green. The only thing that has changed for me since then is that I've aged five years, but Nick has changed pretty significantly. One thing that hasn't changed, though, is his love of musical theater.

I'll admit, when we first got together, the only musical I had seen was The Sound of Music (and I may have only seen the first 3/4 of the movie...) As we were driving along on our second or third date, I asked to see Nick's CD collection. He frantically yelled, "NO! Please. Don't look." I couldn't understand why. He told me, "if you look, you'll think I'm weird." He told me about his interest in musicals and what movies he loved. I was interested, but I knew nothing about this world. He made sure that the only CD we listened to in the car for the first few weeks of our courtship was Rufus Wainwright, the only musician we had in common.

(from those first weeks. outside my dorm room.)

When we started our relationship, we talked on AIM a lot. (Thank you, 2008.) Since Nick was student teaching at the time, he would put up an away message when he was busy. I realized that I had found a good one when this was his away message was this:

"I've grown accustomed to her face.
She almost makes the day begin.
I've grown accustomed to the tune that
She whistles night and noon.
Her smiles, her frowns,
Her ups, her downs
Are second nature to me now;
Like breathing out and breathing in.
I was serenely independent and content before we met;
Surely I could always be that way again."

My Fair Lady became my favorite movie, and I have my hubby to thank for that. I hated "old timey" movies before this one. Something about it just gets to me! (Also, we're going to name our hypothetical daughter Audrey but Nick doesn't know that yet.)

Like I mentioned last week, the first movie we ever watched together was Across the Universe. I had watched it for the first time with my dad and sister only a few months earlier and fell in love with The Beatles songs used in the movie.

Since then, we've seen quite a few shows live. Chicago, Avenue Q (twice!), Phantom of the Opera, and even Les Misérables. We love to have a night out at the theater! It's something we've enjoyed doing since our first summer together.

Now, I can't imagine my life without it.

Are you a musical theater fan?
What's your favorite show?