"I think I'll try defying gravity!"

*be glad you can't hear me sing this post's title. 

When I was growing up, Durham was the county that you didn't want to admit you were from. While we could boast the first cigarette company and factories in the U.S.(thanks to Washington Duke who later built Duke university-- at least he did something good with the money after getting 70% of the US addicted to smoking), the inner city was sort of lacking. It boasted a Lucky Strike smokestack, the Durham Bulls stadium and old Brighleaf tabacco buildings-- but now it has turned over a new leaf (and it's not tabacco)! Durham could rival Chapel Hill in coolness factor. It has tons of community events, boasts a new 30 mile bike trail (albeit it is called the American Tabacco trail) built a HUGE mall, and built a new Performing Arts Center. . . which happened to be playing Wicked the week I was home. 

My mom and I went in to buy tickets a few days early and found that all they had left for sale were the very back row of the entire theater. My friend Nicki had just told me about a lottery that they do for this show where you can enter your name and if you get pulled, you and one other person would get 3rd row seats for $25. We decided to try our luck gambling and found that we should go to Vegas! All three of us were pulled out of the 30 people there. 

Cath and I headed to Cosmic Cantina-- yet another amazing location Durham boasts-- and probably my all time favorite hole-in-wall eatery. All of that food on my plate (including the best burrito in the world) is $2.50. Cheap delicious food=way to my heart. See the joy on my face here? 

And now the show: WICKED WAS AMAZING!!!!! Third row seats let us see the costumes, facial expressions and choreography so well. I was totally sucked in and couldn't stop singing the songs all week. The special effects were stunning and I loved, loved, loved it!