A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to visit my 1980’s self by seeing The Psychedelic Furs and The Church in concert. The last time I saw The Furs was in 1990 at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo as a single ,college-age person. 25 years later, I am a 40-something mother of 4 kids (ages 8, 11, 11 and 13). I went with 2 other special needs mom friends and one of their friends. Let me tell you how our night went.
We carpooled to downtown Louisville (yakking the whole way) and parked strategically so we could eat dinner, then walk to the venue. We wound up at the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner and it was magical. The 4th in our party is also a special needs mom so there was no awkward small talk – I felt I had known her for years. We ordered beverages and an appetizer and I had a small lapse of habit when I automatically started dishing up the plates for everyone. I caught myself before the second plate though and moved the platter to the middle of the table. Dinner was spent talking about early intervention services and medications. It’s always energizing for me to talk with other parents who GET it. Even though specific challenges may be different, there’s a universal understanding that things may not be as we planned, but we are adapting our expectations to our current reality.
After dinner, we walked the short distance to the Mercury Ballroom and waited for the show to begin. I had never been to this particular venue (but I had been to the one next door to see Yo Gabba Gabba!). It’s general admission with no seating so we stood the whole time. I had flashbacks from seeing bands at The Roxy, Troubadour and The Whiskey-a-Go-Go in Los Angeles during high school.
The Church played first and I knew a few of their songs, but not a lot. They were still great though. After they were done, they got set up for The Psychadelic Furs. During the intermission, we got on the topic of poop (it happens every time!) and relayed scenes from our bathrooms. Scenes where if you don’t laugh about it, you’ll scream and cry. That conversation continued until The Psychedelic Furs came on. i will spare everyone the details of our conversation but feel free to use your imaginations.
They played for about an hour. I was amazed at Richard Butler’s energy and couldn’t help but notice a similarity with my own kids as he bounced all over the stage. We left before the encore because it was a school night and well, it was a school night and we had early carpool to look rested for.
As I dropped everyone off, we all said we need to have a girls night out more often. It
WAS good for me to get out and socialize. I find myself not accepting invitations to do things because of the logistics of it. It’s easier to plan a evening out with all the kids because then we all get to socialize. The only issue with that is I can’t pay complete attention because I’m continuously doing kid inventory and status reports. I sometime have a hard time finishing a sentence!
My goal for this year is to go out on “dates” with my husband more and go out with friends. I have a great support group and I need to allow myself some “me” ‘time that doesn’t involve sitting at home looking at the laundry and toys that need to be put away! Actually I have a feeling that if I get that time, I may be more likely to actually put it away instead of just looking at it (ok, judging it) as I peruse my iPad.
With that said, I’m missing the Billy Idol concert because of Back to School Night.
Autism Odysseys 