Don't Tell Me The World Is In Trouble

Slow sleepy Father's Day today, owing to a late night out at the Showbox last night. The Old 97's came through with another in a long line of fabulous live shows, and we dove right in.

It was an all-ages event, with a strict protocol separating the bar from the rest of the club, and the teenagers from the alcohol. Which was fine -- though it was a little odd to have to drain your drink before passing through the checkpoint and being admitted to the dance floor. Kind of like wolfing down all your fresh fruit at the border. Or having to clean your plate before being excused from the table.

Lauren came, and Stacy & Brian from school, and I ran into Susie (Orca too) in the bathroom line. Lexi and Jenny were AWOL (with a good excuse though: one of Lexi's friends was getting married in San Francisco on extremely short notice. As you may be aware, starting at 5:00 pm tomorrow gay marriage will be legal in California, and as a result there are no available slots at City Hall from 5:01 tomorrow until sometime in December. So straight couples who wanted to tie the knot in the next six months all had to cram their ceremonies in last week. Elise's was Thursday. Congratulations, Elise!) so we gave their tickets to some homeless guys outside to sell.

As I say, it was a great show. There's just nothing like standing in a hot dark crowded room, closing your eyes, feeling the sound pounding in your ribs, letting your body move along with the music, clapping and yelling at the opening chords of your favorite song, singing along because you are a dork who knows all the words, shouting with Rhett when he hits those key lines ("Don't tell me the world is in trouble!" is my new mantra), surrounded -- after the elbow-jabbing killjoys behind us moved on -- by other people doing the same. After a while the movement and sound and Jack & Coke just melt into one rollicking sensation, and you kind of lose track of yourself as a separate being and become One with Everything. This might convey some fraction of the feeling:



Oh yes.

But you can imagine that several hours of this sort of thing might leave a pair of parents moving gingerly the next morning. Fortunately this turned out to be the first sunny day since Memorial Day, so everyone has been quite content to putter around outside. After a Father's Day breakfast with the neighbors, we bade Aly farewell (she's headed to China for 2 weeks) and carted all five kids off to the lake, where they played happily while we sprawled dozing in the sun. The sun! Which won't set until well after 9 pm tonight.

Did I mention school's out in two days? Don't tell me the world is in trouble.

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