What a creepy daughter I have! (I'm so proud)

We got home from our road trip to my kid's college to see my youngest kid in her first college play.  May I say that she was awesome?  And that she completely creeped me out?

This was a series of  4 one-act plays, written, directed and performed all by students.  I feel they were shown in order of how good they were.  The first was a "musical" and I use that term loosely.  The fellow who played the school principal (he was also the psychiatrist in Dani's play) was good and his voice was great!  The play was not good at all.  One girl kept coming out of character and giggling (She was supposed to be a stone-faced emo girl ... sigh... hello!  You're supposed to be depressed and angry!!!  Even I know that and I'm old!)  This play was very NOT funny.

The second play was about Jesus and the 2 thieves on the cross, as seen by the perspective of two fellows who were watching the crucifixions.  I didn't really "get" it too well.  Difficult to find the point other than one was very upset by this and couldn't understand why no one was stopping it.  And one of the fellows was played by a girl.  I didn't get it.

The third play had 3 characters.  A hangman, his wife and another person who played all the other minor part.  It was well-acted but not really very well written.  The hangman's wife brings lunch for her husband and she leaves her son at home, alone, in his crib.  An old uncle next door is supposed to be nearby to watch him. While she's gone, someone kills the child with the tools from the hangman's shop and the wife is blamed for the death because she left him alone.  It's the hangman's responsibility to hang his wife for the crime. 

Wow!  I just realized how dark these kids are!

Then it was time for Dani's play.  She didn't have a big part, but it was important.  It was about a necrophiliac (yup, that's what I said) who is in a mental hospital and has to be evaluated by a psychiatrist.  The necrophiliac (who was also one of the actors in the crucifixion play) is an embalmer in a funeral home (the perfect job for him!) and he, of course, gets caught.  He's telling the story, and there is a flash-back scene.  Dani plays a girl who has committed suicide and is in the mortuary awaiting to be embalmed.  (you see where this going, don't you?  THAT'S why her dad was NOT allowed to come to the play!)  She's wheeled out on a gurney and is covered by a sheet.  She's wearing a flesh-toned body suit under the sheet because she's supposed to be naked.  In the scene, Dani sits straight up on the gurney and oh so slowly turns her head towards the embalmer.  (the sheet is attached to her and kind of hangs on her.)  She's wearing white contacts and she looks completely creepy!!!!  She gets off the gurney and slowly walks to the guy.  At the last minute, before they did their first performance, they decided to record Dani's lines and she never speaks during the play.  Her voice comes out softly and kind of echo-y, so it seems like she's in his head.  She gets back on the gurney and the guy comes over and lays on top of her and kisses her (this is where her father would have completely come undone and would have totally embarrassed her!)  At one point, later on, you find out the psychiatrist had a daughter who died at the age of 17 and guess who did the work on her??  He loses his mind and beats the crap out of the necro guy.  Shrink ends up in the looney bin, the necro guy gets out on a technicality, changes his name and gets a job at another mortuary.   As creepy as it is, it was a very good play!  (Come on!  Who here saw Sweeney Todd and loved  it?  "It's priest!  Have a little priest!  Is it really good?  Sir, it's too good, at least.")  Same weird, creepy concept.

Anyhoo, the trip was pretty good, 4 hours up, but I drove 7 hours on Saturday.  We left the house at 9 am.  It was 4 hours to the college, drop Dani's friend off, visit for a bit, drive to the hotel (1 hour away... it was FREE!  I'll stay an hour from the school because it's free!).  Check in, go eat, drive back to the college, see the plays, hug the kid, tell her she was great, drive back to the hotel, in bed by 1 am, watching Criminal Minds until I fall asleep).  

A good thing was Dani drove her friend to the hotel in the morning, so I didn't have to drive back up there and down again.  Saved me 2 hours today.  So it was 3 1/2 hours home (4 really because we stopped to eat, 30 minute break).  I wanted to go to John's after Gina left but I was falling asleep in my chair!  The last hour of the drive was a struggle, so I decided to stay home.

Gina got an audio book from the library.  It was 8 hours.  We listened to Big Bad Wolf by James Patterson.  It was really good!  We had to listen to the last hour at the house because we were an hour closer to home on the trip back.  I was falling asleep in my chair, listening to the ending!  Now I want to read all the Alex Cross books in order!