First Date Night in...?

Brian and I went on a date Saturday night! A real one, where we planned in advance, left the baby at home, dressed up and everything! The last time we went out like that was the company Christmas party. No, not an early Christmas party this year, it was for Christmas 2011. So to say we were overdue would be an understatement. It really wasn't such a huge priority for either of us since we're pretty committed attachment parenting parents, trying to save some money, and not the night owls we used to be. Just kidding, I have never in my life been a night owl, but I did occasionally stay up till midnight for my love's sake.
For years now, we've been wanting to see Old Crow Medicine Show in concert. They came through Brian's favorite town in west Texas on the Railroad Revival Tour (wow that would have been amazing) with two other excellent Americana/Bluegrass bands. There would have been nothing to keep him from that show if it weren't a mere two weeks after Will's birth. The next time they're in town, we swore, we'll be there, no matter what. Well as it happened, the next time was Saturday ate the beautiful, intimate and historic Empire Theater in San Antonio, and as promised, we were there.
Just a little bit of backtracking for history's sake. Back when I was a graduate student with nothing better to do, I spent a significant amount of time reading and posting to some message boards, fratty.net. It doesn't exist anymore to my knowledge. There was a long thread about creating the ultimate frat-tastic playlist with hundreds of songs submitted. I downloaded (illegally of course) most of the ones I didn't already have hoping to expand my repertoire. Wagon Wheel by OCMS was listed and on first listen, my reaction was "AYKM?" are you kidding me? But on the second third and fourth I fell in love. I shared it with Brian who had the same initial reaction then also began to enjoy it. We looked further into their music, watched some live shows on youtube and a new love was born. Even still Wagon Wheel is our favorite song, everybody's apparently judging by the reaction at the concert. There was a fun moment at Allie and Karl's wedding when a bunch of Karl's fam and some friends sang it together, and almost every night we sing it to William going to bed. Sometimes we harmonize. I think we sound beautiful, you probably wouldn't if you heard.
So we got tickets and made plans. Mine included a new dress for the occasion. You might understand based  on the entirety of my posts that my clothes needs have changed somewhat. I don't have many going out clothes left anymore after I stupidly gave away everything cute when I was pregnant, assuming I'd never fit it again. What I have left is stay-at-home-mom clothes, church clothes, and some holdout teaching clothes. I wanted this dress. From the reviews about how short it is I settled for ordering this one and this one that I was going to accessorize just right, assuming I'd send one back. They still haven't come in, thanks a lot, ModCloth! I waited until the last minute to get ready Saturday, checking the mail repeatedly. My disappointment about not getting to wear the adorable outfit I'd planned threatened to ruin the mood, but Brian helped me put something together that worked well enough and when I got there, as often happens, I realized it didn't actually matter what I was wearing because the crowd was very diverse in their outfit choices and obviously didn't actually give two flips about what I had on. Sometimes it's good to realize you're not that important after all!
We spent ages in the downtown San Antonio Christmas season traffic. The Spurs were playing, the Nutcracker was showing, and no one can drive right because they're all looking up into the trees of the Riverwalk at the gorgeous lights. It took forever to find a parking garage that wasn't full, but it worked out just in time and we got our drinks and headed to our seats (second row of the mezzanine) right as the opener came on. The energy just built and built throughout. I loved how close we were to the band, I loved singing along, I loved linking arms with my honey while we tapped our feet together. After the concert we grabbed a coffee on the way back to the parking garage and laughed a lot.
When we got home we heard the report about how William had a great time, but didn't go to sleep until 10:40. Miracle of all miracles though, he slept through the night for the very first time ever, not waking up until 5! As you might guess, he's made up for it the last two. Oh well. Maybe next year we'll go out again and have the same success!