Beauty and The Beast and My Adventure in Down Town Tulsa

My wedding to the "boyfriend" with
Peanut as the flowergirl

In 1991, Beauty and The Beast was released at the movie theater and I took my then 3 year old niece, Peanut, to see it on an Aunt/Niece Day.  She sat on my lap throughout the entire movie and at the end, when the Beast dies, we both bawled.  She turned to me and said "Aunt Sissy, it's so sad!"  That  year, she had a Beauty and The Beast birthday party and I bought her a stuffed Beast from the Disney Store. For ever after, when I hear the theme song, I think of my Peanut.  Such great memories.  Now, 20 years later, I got an email from the Tulsa PAC telling me that Beauty and The Beast Musical was coming to Tulsa!  So I took my now grown Peanut, as well as my daughter, to see it.  It was fabulous! The music and the costumes and the set were everything I was hoping they would be! Absolutely magical!  It looked like the storybook came to life up on the stage.  At the end, when the Beast dies, I wasn't breathing...and, yeah, I was crying. :)  Another priceless memory with my Peanut and this time, my daughter. 

Our "adventure" began with driving to Tulsa and eating dinner at The Olive Garden.  We were only about 14 miles from the resturant to the PAC, according the the GPS on my iPhone, so I wasn't very worried about making it on time.  Until I actually GOT downtown.  It seems that Sugarland was in concert at The BOK that night, and that's pretty much in the same area as the PAC.  Some of the streets were blocked off, the traffic was HORRIBLE, and the 2 policeman I stopped and asked directions from were useless. I was getting frustrated and worried that we'd miss the show.  Finally, my 15 year old daughter took my iPhone, pulled up the GPS and started giving me driving directions from the back seat.  I started listening to her, because, after all, I had screwed this up about as much as I could on my own.  Street by street, she guided us straight to the PAC and we found parking RIGHT across the street!  She saved the night!. When the show was over, she repeated the directions in reverse and got us back on the BA Expressway in no time at all.  I told her later that she could never use the excuse "I got lost" if she was late for curfew. :)  When my bestest friend, Cara, heard this story, she reminded me of the time I had tried to drive in downtown Tulsa to see my boyfriend at TCC one day.  I called her when I got back home, (no cell phones in the 80's) crying.  I had apparently driven around, lost in all the one way streets, for 4 hours!  She got a big laugh out of that.  I have NO memory of that day whatsoever.  I guess my pride blocked it out.  Too bad I didn't have that cool iPhone with GPS on it  back then!!!