Past the point of no return

We're going to see Phantom of the Opera tonight! *happy dance* And now, for Marlon's amusement, here is another tale of Dawn's misspent youth.

My mom is a HUGE Andrew Lloyd Webber fan, so I've seen Phantom a few times already. I don't really remember the specifics of when I saw it the first time, but the last time I saw it sticks in my head a bit. :)

We had tickets to go see it on the evening of my last day of work at McDonald's. I was getting ready to go back to college for my senior year, and I had decided that whatever happened, I wasn't going back to McDonald's once I had a degree under my belt. (That was the plan. I did end up at a different McDonald's between undergrad and grad school, but that's another story.)

Simultaneous with my last day of work and this family outing to see Phantom, one of my favorite St. Louis bands, Sun Sawed in Half, was playing at a Denny's at some ungodly hour of the morning. I don't remember how I got there, but I know my friend Jeff was involved, and my own car was not involved. I suppose he may have picked me up, though I usually remember I was the one who drove, as I was a few years older. The details are pretty fuzzy at this point, seeing as this was in 1995. Any rate, we met up with some other friends at Denny's as well, and it was a good time.

Well, at some point, I decided that going to work on my last day EVER would be lame, so perhaps I should go do something more entertaining instead. I told Jeff this, and he said something like "I'm just going to go home and sleep all day. You can come if you want to." If I remember correctly, he hadn't slept prior to picking me up (I think) at ungodly in the morning. So I announced to my other friends "I don't want to go to work. Who's kidnapping me?" A couple of the guys, whose names I sadly can't remember, agreed that they would take me to the zoo and the Science Center. Sounded like a plan, so off we went!

Now keep in mind, I didn't call in to work, or tell my parents, or anything like that. Also keep in mind that my younger sister Sarah, who was 14 at the time, was working at McDonald's with me that summer, and she was also working that day. So I never showed up to work, while she did.

I went out and had a blast with my friends, basically running around and enjoying the last summer day I might ever really have to do such things. At that point, I had no plans for grad school. I figured I would graduate in May, and immediately go to work doing something that didn't give you summer vacations. So I had to take what I could get. :)

My friends dropped me off at home in the late afternoon, and my dad was waiting at the door for me. Unsurprisingly, my parents had no clue how to find me or get ahold of me. My dad mentioned that they had considered going to Jeff's apartment complex and banging on doors till they found him. As it turns out, that was a totally different Jeff than the one I was hanging out with, and then I wasn't actually hanging out with Jeff any more. So yeah, my parents were pretty pissed off at me, and I suppose I can understand why. But I was generally the good kid, totally responsible, and this was just way out of the ordinary for me. They didn't punish me or anything, though I know they were pissed.

And then we went and saw Phantom.

(Yes, I know this story has about nothing to do with Phantom. Just me and my misspent youth. And it's amusing that the tales of my misspent youth often involve Jeff... such a trouble maker... ;) )

(As an additional addendum, I'm still shocked that my parents then subsequently left my brother and I home by ourselves the following weekend... but we mostly behaved ourselves then. I just wrote all over myself with permanent marker, braided all of my hair into tiny braids, and took my brother to Pointfest. :) )