The reason for dress rehearsals

Cathy, Kim and Christine came over last night to listen to my recital piece and a couple of other things. In return, I gave them mango margueritas and tortilla chips with guacamole. I have been playing my recital piece every day from memory for weeks and weeks; last night I forgot the opening chord! Hurray for dress rehearsals! Now I know that before playing on the 29th, I need to remind myself that the opening chord is the 1st inversion of C# minor. Once I had that chord, I did pretty well. The things that I didn't do well were not things that most audience members would notice.