Date Night For Cutie

It was about 2 months ago, when I got the email that Jenn’s favorite band Death Cab For Cutie was coming to Jacksonville in October for their only Florida show.  A few years ago when they were in town I dropped the ball only to find the show sold out.  I was determined to make up for it this time.

We decided we would make it a Death Cab For Cutie weekend.  As you get older these types of events become bigger in scale since they are no longer an every day occurrence.  We would get a hotel room and take Teresa and Nolin with us.  Teresa would finally get to experience the perks of being a nanny…except in Jacksonville.  Friday we would go to the show and then Saturday we spend time on the beaches.  It was a perfect plan.

About 4 weeks ago, I got another notice…Death Cab For Cutie added a show the next night in Orlando (if only I had waited)…which would have been a lot easier to arrange, but it didn’t matter because we had already planned a great date night/weekend.

Thursday night we were getting ready, when Teresa decided that the bad weather really wasn’t going to make it fun to drive two and a half hours simply to sit in a hotel room with Nolin (apparently not the travelling nanny perks she had envisioned), so she said they would stay home and we could enjoy ourselves with not only a date night, but a date getaway…this could be fun!

I left work early to pick Jenn up, say bye to Nolin and make our way to Jacksonville (hopefully before the traffic got bad).  I got home later than expected and both Jenn and I found it very hard to leave Nolin.  All Jenn could say was I feel really guilty.  It didn’t help that Nolin was waving and saying Bye Bye as we pulled out of the drive way.

I was surprised Jenn only called one time during the drive to Jacksonville.

We made it to the hotel, got checked in and then started walking downtown to the Florida Theatre.  As we were walking Jenn (getting very excited) announced, you know “Death Cab is our generation“…what?! They are a great band, but probably not the voice of our generation…I guess what she meant is that we wouldn’t need to worry about being significantly older than everyone else at the show.  And there we were…as I looked around we were in a sea of 30 year olds pretending to be 20 in a manner that I am sure I would have made fun of 15 years ago.  At that moment I realized one thing…you don’t know a whole lot at 20.

(not my video, but this one is much better than the one I took…minus the girl confessing her undying love)

The show was fantastic and definitely worth the trip.  We decided to make the most of our night and head downtown afterwards.  We walked around and couldn’t find anything open or going on…kind of disappointing, but at the same time we were a bunch of 30-year-olds acting like 20-year-olds and I think the 30-year-old in me resurfaced around 11:30.

The next morning, the weather was still bad so we decided to skip the beach and just grab breakfast.  Jenn conveniently suggested that we just get on the road and stop for breakfast on our way back…someone couldn’t stand to be away any longer.

When we got home, it seemed that Nolin had almost changed overnight.  Yes I know we were only gone for 18 hours, but maybe being away gave us a new perspective.  It is a subtle difference that makes complete sense to me, but I’m finding hard to explain…Nolin is starting to fully get it.

He has hit a whole new level of understanding, he now starts conversations and seems completely engaged in them.  So we are now back into the routine, but after this date night, I realized that I am pretty ok with being in my 30s.