Mono Monday : : 15 Min Of Fame*

I suppose it is a question of what constitutes fame. Notoriety more like, but certainly fame of dubious distinction,, and it makes a funny story. 

About five years ago, a beautiful new concert hall called the Weill Hall opened at Sonoma State University. A friend who owns an advertising agency in San Francisco said he had been given tickets by a client to see Lang Lang there and would we like to go? I spoke to his wife about the appropriate dress for the evening and both of us, who, at the time were only in Sonoma County on weekends, agreed that nobody in Sonoma County dresses up and the very casual clothes that we kept here would be just fine.

As we approached the Weill Hall, we began to notice that the patrons approaching the hall were dressed in evening attire. Uh oh. We parked and joined the crowd only to be told at the door that we should step over to the ticket window. Thinking it a bit harsh to exclude us for being underdressed, we did as we were told. 

At the window we were met by a woman in a formal gown who ushered us, in our garden shoes, cotton frocks and aloha shirts, through a velvet rope, along a red carpet and up a flight of stairs to a backstage door. By this time the four of us were completely bewildered until we walked through the door and realized that our seats were ON the stage. The same spotlights that were trained on Lang Lang were trained on us. Kelly's client was the bank which had underwritten the concert series and not only that...it was the grand opening night of the new hall.

We sat trying to hide our garden shoes under our seats and not to look at each other for fear of bursting into giggles. Although the lights went down in the rest of the beautiful new hall, we remained in the spotlight. OilMan commented that we had better seats than the Governor Brown and Senator Pelosi.

We lurked in the corner of the room where champagne and caviar were being served at intermission....

The concert was marvelous. We stayed to watch fireworks through the open back wall of the hall, and despite our misbegotten wardrobe decision we all agreed it had been a magical (and memorable) evening.

Thank goodness I had a shawl....

*If you know how this ends, don't give me away, for I was a Blipper at the time and wrote about this when it happened....