Friday, November 17, 2006

An early birthday celebration

Last night we celebrated Keith’s birthday (coming up on the 23rd – he will be 26). We took the kids over to Leanna’s around 5 PM and they spent the night with her last night, because I figured we'd be out until at least 11 PM. We drove downtown and ate dinner at Zola’s, which is a super-nice local restaurant, with all those weird dishes that you can’t pronounce. I’ve been there for business dinners before, and it’s a great place. We had a very nice dinner, and I surprised him with tickets to a Switchfoot concert (and some earplugs, because you know how he is with his ears). Then we hopped in the van, drove about 2 minutes more, and we were at the concert venue. It was a smaller place, standing room only, for about 1500 people. There were two opening acts (neither any good, no surprise there), and then Switchfoot took the stage about 9 PM. They were really superb. I don’t know a lot of Switchfoot songs (I think I recognized 3 last night), but they put on a heck of a live show. Even I had fun, and I normally am the Debbie Downer of concerts. I will tell you that I felt very, very old amongst the mostly-16 and under crowd, especially since Keith and I were both wearing earplugs. I had two girls in front of me that were probably 14, and the girls’ parents to my left. To my right was a group of five 15-ish year old boys, all lanky limbs and long hair and braces. To my dismay, they got great pleasure out of passing gas, and it was unbearable for a while.

(Close quarters + lots of people + farting = me leaving)

But they were so excited when the music started, and while they did jump around a little bit, I took no gangly elbows to the face. Totally tolerable.

The one thing that bothered me was the crowd surfing. I just do not understand this concept. What is so fun about it? It’s freaking dangerous, that’s for sure. People were flying over us, at least 6 feet in the air, over a concrete floor, and there are no guarantees that anyone is going to keep you suspended. My area was definitely a weak spot for the surfers, what with myself, two 14-year old girls, and a 50-year old woman all packed in together. More than one surfer lost their wave, if you will, when they hit our pocket. Keith tried to keep them moving away from us, and then finally one girl fell right beside us. Keith kept her from breaking her skull on the ground by grabbing her and kind of cushioning her, but in the process her butt knocked his glasses off. So down he goes, beneath 1500 jumping teenagers, feeling around on the ground for his glasses. Miraculously, he found them, and they aren’t broken. Figure that one out.

After that particular incident, we didn’t have too many more crowd surfers come our way. The show ended on a really great song (the ‘dare you to move’ song, you know the one), and we headed home – I was tucked in and snoozing by midnight. I think Keith liked it; I tried to surprise him, and we really had fun together (minus kiddos, no less). Hopefully it was a fun birthday.

Now I have to make it through today and get to my kids, because I miss them! Amazingly, I slept straight through last night (all 5 hours of it), because no one had to wake me up to take him pee, nobody coughed all night, nobody cried out or fell out of a bed. Just me, sleeping, worry-free.

Next week is a short work week (2 ½ days), then the holiday! And my family visiting! And all three kids get flu shots on Monday. And Kyle’s birthday, then Keith’s birthday. Where does the time go? 2006 is on its way out!

P.S. New books up in the goal journal.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I love Switchfoot. I am sure they are great in concert, glad you went!