Cirque du Soleil, hon, hon hon!

Did you catch my French accent? If not, please go back and read the title in a French accent. It's much better that way. In fact, read this next portion in a French accent too. Ya know what, just read this entire blog in a French accent. Out loud.

Bonjour, mes amis! Bienvenue sur la blog! Je t'aime. Ferme la bouche, classe!

So for the past 2+ years, I've been living by the popular phrase "carpe diem" aka "seize the day". Living by this has allowed me to take advantage of many opportunities that have come up. Here are a few examples:

• Made Asha pack up and took a wonderful trip to NYC
• Saw Black Eyed Peas and Jay-Z within 2 weeks of each other
• I got a new job
• Met Jonathan Stewart (runningback for the Carolina Panthers) and hung out with him and his friends for my birthday (which included a free steak dinner, birthday cake, and V.I.P. access to a club - that's a whole other blog I'll get to some other time)
• Became one of the poster children for the YMCA of Greater Charlotte. I got to be in some photoshoots with random kids, in the newspaper, on billboards and online. It felt like my face was plastered everywhere!)
• Went to the Bahamas
• Oh yeah, and got engaged (I didn't forget)

So yeah, along with many other things happening, it's turning into quite an eventful life for me. And some of you may think I've got some fairly minor things on my list, so to you I said, "Look at my face. does it look like I care?" (that really means that I'm very thankful for my many blessings and I'm grateful for everything happening).

Well, the latest opportunity to seize happened last week when Asha and I went to see Cirque du Soleil: Totem (fo' FREE). I was able to get my hands on some tickets to the dress rehearsal which was basically just like any other show. There wasn't really a terrible seat in the venue (it was under a big tent), but we did have good seats despite being on the very last row. My biggest problem with my seat was when I returned from the bathroom to find out I was sitting behind Rachel's husband... who just so happens to be a giant. So this was my view...

Giant! (we still love you)

Cirque du Soleil tent!

Just kidding about the view... well sort of. I WAS sitting behind him, but I actually still had a good view of the stage. He wasn't really in my line of sight at all but it was nice of him to try and duck so I could see. Luckily, Asha was sneaky-sneaky and was able to take a couple of pictures (and the Charlotte Observer was lucky enough to get up close and take some great pictures seen below).

Neither of us had ever seen a Cirque du Soleil show, but we've heard many good things about them. The commercials always looked like a great show and, c'mon... who doesn't like amazing circus acts? This show was pretty incredible. I THINK (this is totally my interpretation, don't know if it's true) the show was about the various stages of life here on Earth. It started with like... an amphibian stage with frogs jumping around. There were also segments with Native Americans, what I viewed as the Industrial Revolution, some Asian stuff, and a portion on "the future" (again, all my interpretation).

After the show, I tried to determine what my favorite part of the show was and I honestly couldn't pick one thing. The entire showed was filled with moments that made me say, "how'd they do that?" or "...daaaang..." There women on unicycles flipping bowls onto their head, guys balancing 10+ ft. poles on their shoulders while other guys climbed up the poles, guys hanging from rings (Olympics style), and even some roller skating. I was thoroughly impressed with pretty much everything. My only gripe was that the first half of the show was so much more entertaining than the second half of the show. There was just a lot more going on in the first half that really kept me entertained.

This woman is very muscular (photo from charlotteobserver.com)

One of Asha's favorite parts of the show (photo from charlotteobserver.com)

These people are crazy talented (photo from charlotteobserver.com)

Quite possibly the best part of the show was the big group dance at the end. It was just like a High School Musical movie with everyone dancing together. Made me want to get up and dance too so I'd say it was a great ending. This show definitely gives a new meaning to the word 'circus'. All in all it was an AWESOME show and I recommend you all see at least 1 of their shows (especially if you can go for free!). I'm so glad I got the opportunity to take Asha and experience something new and check "see a Cirque du Soleil show" off the life goals list.

Cirque du Soleil = seized.