An evening out at the "MTC Warehouse Theatre"...November 27, 2004
Shandi,
our "Events Coordinator" at Masquerade, planned a wonderful and very appropriate
outing for the girls on Saturday, November 27, 2004. To go see Damien Atkins'
performance "Real Live Girl" at the MTC Warehouse Theatre in Winnipeg!
This was perfect, since the performance was about the character growing
up a boy, with "A Little Girl" inside him!
As it turned out, I had another commitment for earlier that day and would not be able to make it to the 8:30 PM show time. Major pouts! Shandi and the girls pre-purchased their tickets to ensure they had good seats.
As luck would have it, my prior commitment got canceled the evening before, leaving me free for the day and evening! I was so upset since I could now make it to the show, yet didn't have a ticket! Talk about stress!
While I was visiting with Dawn at her hotel suite after our afternoon of shopping, I called the MTC Warehouse Theatre and found out that they did indeed have tickets available at the box office. So if I went, I'd most likely be sitting somewhere by myself. That was OK with me, since I would at least get to see the show!
Now that meant getting some cash and the best part was the "Sidewalk Time". While Christie and Dawn were getting ready for the evening outing I left Dawn's hotel, the Place Louis Riel Hotel, and walk to the neighboring Sheraton Hotel where we had spotted a bank machine earlier. After so many years never getting out it seems like I just have a lot of catching up to do and take every opportunity to walk the sidewalks of Winnipeg in my mini skirt and heels!
So we were set! Dawn traveled with Christie in her car and I traveled ahead in mine, wanting to make sure I got parked, and got a ticket to the show in time. The MTC Warehouse Theatre is on the next block east of the Manitoba Museum of Man And Nature, where I parked in the outdoor parking lot! It was kind of frustrating, wanting to be on time and finding the parking meter ticket dispenser wouldn't take my coins. So I had to walk through the show covered parking lot to the other dispenser and found it also wouldn't take my coins so I figured I'd give my credit card a try and back to my vehicle I went, feeling the below zero air on my legs and feeling so happy just to be a girl out for the evening!
I thought back to the many late evening walks before meeting the girls of Masquerade, at just the same temperatures, yet with no destination, just a walk to experience the feeling of being a girl out for just a little while. And now to how it feels so wonderful to be that girl going out for an evening, doing very real things. No pretending. Just being myself. For so many years I feared being seen by another person, even it if was at night and from a distance. Yet now, walking into a crowded theatre, or a mall full of strangers seems so natural. It really amazes me just how that fear fades fast once we get to know first hand how we are accepted in this world.
At my vehicle and digging my credit card out of "HIS" pants I thought "How Typical", the girl spending the guy's money<LOL> One the way back to the ticket dispenser I walked past a man begging for money who called out "Miss!! Can you spare some change so I can get a room for the night?" I probably would have, but I had left my purse in my vehicle, locked, and now only had my, er, his credit card, and just walked to the dispenser. On the way back to my vehicle with my ticket the beggar again addressed me as "Miss".
With my ticket proudly displayed on my dash I walked the half block to the MTC Warehouse Theatre and spotted the Girls of Masquerade in the window! At the box office I asked for a ticket and the clerk right away asked if I'd want a seat near Shandi! WOW! I felt like a celebrity! People knowing me as Sabrina and the group I belong to!! I eagerly said yes and paid for the ticket. When I met up with Shandi and Charm inside the lobby area I found out I got a ticket right beside their seats!! That was so cool. I went from thinking I would get a single seat somewhere at the back, and there I was...Sitting with Shandi and Charm in the FRONT ROW!!!!
It had always been a dream of mine, to go to the theatre, the movies, wearing a mini skirt and heels and I have my "Date", Foot Lover, whom I had met in TG Chat to thank for making the dream a reality when I first started getting out into the real world as Sabrina. And helped me realize that it really is ok to get pretty and just go out and enjoy life! And to be sitting in the front row seat, wearing my mini skirt, the feeling is wonderful! And to have such wonderful friends like the Girls of Masquerade to get out and do such things with is priceless!
Shandi, Christie, Rhiannon, Chantal, Vanessa, Dawn & Sabrina
(Charm and Ardra were behind the camera!)
We certainly enjoyed Damien Atkins performance and WOW did a lot of the show hit home, big time! Many of the feelings expressed in the play "Real Live Girl" we could certainly relate to. It was like he was telling my story. After the performance we all met in the lobby for a group picture!!
After the show I drove Dawn to Club 200 so she could continue
enjoying her evening out. Rhiannon and I stopped back at the theatre
for a few outside pics. It was Rhiannon's first
time
out
to such an event and we just had to capture it in pictures!
<<< Rhiannon outside the MTC Warehouse Theatre
Thanks for reading my story,
Sabrina
E-mail me at sabrina_markes@masquerade.ca
Member of the Winnipeg support group - "Masquerade"