sweepin' the clouds away

i have a different ringtone for each of the very special people in my life. eva has the b-52's "the deadbeat club," julie and tim have flight of the conchords' "the humans are dead," mom & dad have "we are family," paul has jimmy buffet's "son of a sailor," and another ex has bright eyes' "first day of my life." danielle has beyonce's "single ladies," jess has a latin beat, and tracy has the sex and the city theme song. michael jackson's "thriller" is reserved for anyone work related. and the sesame street theme song is reserved for when the lowell/poirier household gives me a ring.

when i first showed off my new purple phone to my niece & nephew they were thrilled with the choice of their ringtone and sang along: "sunny days, sweepin' the clouds away, on my way to where the air is sweet, can you tell me how to get, how to get to sesame street!" now whenever they see my phone, they want to hear the ring.

for christmas i bought the lowell/poirier clan tickets to see sesame street live at the flynn. earlier this week, i caught their party of 5 in the lobby just as they were about to head to their seats. baxter had his ticket in hand and asked me if he had good seats. i assured him that i didn't work at the flynn for nothing, and that yes, he'd be able to see oscar the grouch up close and personal (row 4 -- thanks AJ). the show was full of dancing monsters and silly antics that had the 2-7 year old audience in an uproar. there were phantom fluorescent feet dancing on the black lit stage, and of course, there was cookie monster and elmo, big bird and grover, bert and ernie, and zoe and rosita.

a 7 pm kid show is a late show. to have an intermission at a kids show is cruel and unusual punishment for parents, and this intermission was particularly torturous. just as the curtains closed on act i, two men walked down the aisles carrying huge elmo face balloon bouquets that threatened to sweep the men to the rafters. not only did every child in the theater see these balloons -- every child in the theater wanted one of these $8 balloons! the oh so purposeful light-up twirly elmo hand-held gadgets were in high demand as well. somehow jennie and derek escaped the show with cash firmly in their pockets.

jennie called me later to thank me for the gift and said that the best part of the night was watching paige dancing in her seat, waving and screaming hello to elmo and cookie at the top of her lungs. it brought tears to her eyes, which in turn brought tears to mine.

the next day, a stray elmo balloon and a lost light-up gadget found their way into my office, another perk of my job. later that evening, baxter and paige were momentarily dumbfounded when a big balloon-headed elmo walked into their kitchen singing "la la la la, la la la la, elmo's world" until they realized it was merely their aunt suzie using a balloon for her face. paige's laughter couldn't be contained, and baxter commented on his good fortune that "that kid" lost his light-up toy.

ah, sunny days. those kids sure do chase my clouds away.