You know when...

all of a sudden you listen to a song or watch a movie and you notice something that you never really did before and all of a sudden it makes sense? Not that it didn't make sense before, you just didn't really think about it or notice it or it made sense, but you didn't get why it made sense? You know, when you finally get one of the adult jokes (that makes it sound bad, not that they are, but just the ones you don't get when you're kids) in a Disney movie you've been watching since you were 2 and can recite word for word, but you just never fully comprehended that line before and didn't realize it. You know what I'm talking about, right? Right....?

Anyway, whether you do or don't, that just happened to me.

I've been obsessed with Les Miserables ever since Junior High. I fell in love with the music and the story in 7th grade, my mom took me to see it in SLC in 8th grade, and then by about 3 weeks after I saw it I had the whole thing memorized. I was in it my senior year of high school as an extra, so even if I hadn't been in love with it for forever, I'd still know it like the back of my hand. I paid an arm (okay, not really, but it was twice as expensive as any the next most expensive ticket I bought there) to see it in London and it was worth every penny, even though I still have the entire thing memorized, had seen it before, etc etc etc, reiterate everything I've already said.

About 15 minutes ago I'm sitting the Music/Dance reading room on the 4th floor of the HBLL when "Red and Black" pops up on my completely-random-all-of-the-thousands-of-songs-I-have-on-my-iTunes music selection. It's always been one of my favorites; right before "Do You Hear the People Sing?" Really powerful. Love it. Anyway. Marius comes in, having just fallen in love with Cosette. Grantaire sings, "You talk of battles to be won, then here he comes like Don Ju-an. It's better than a opera." AH! INSERT THE MOMENT DESCRIBED ABOVE HERE! FREAK. BYRON. DON JUAN. NOT HWAN, LIKE IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE PRONOUNCED. JU-AN, LIKE BYRON'S POEM WRITTEN IN OTTAVA RIMA. PLUS THE STORY IS AN OPERA...

Not like I had never understood it before. I knew Don Juan, the story, the opera, the stereotype. I knew that Marius was in love and that it was opera-like and everything. I HAD JUST NEVER PUT ALL THE PIECES TOGETHER AND FULLY COMPREHENDED AND NOW I FEEL REALLY DUMB FOR NOT HAVING DONE IT EARLIER.

Thank you, Dr. Westover, for having us read Byron's Don Juan, simply for the fact that now I can always think of Byron's purposely-horrible rhymes whenever I listen to that line in Les Mis now.