Category: Date night

Bands with husband

by Karen, posted in Date night, He and me, local fun

This week we were very happy to get to see some of our favorite bands from back in the day. In general, I am not a big fan of going to Boston (especially if it involves driving) for bands, but in this case, there were no Maine or New Hampshire options (at that time) so it was Boston or nothing.

For the first show, my sister- and brother-in-law helped make it less painful by offering to drive, and my mother-in-law let us stay over at her house (MUCH CLOSER TO BOSTON) so we didn’t have a two-hour ride home to Maine in the wee hours. For the second show, we took the Downeaster ($70 or so round trip with the meager-but-appreciated AAA Discount) that took us practically door to door. NOTE: One thing about the train…the phrase, “Hell is other people” kept coming to mind on the way down. ‘Nuf said.

With these deal-breakers taken care of, we were off.

 

The first show was at the Blue Hills Pavilion. The line up was Jason Bonham, Cheap Trick (my husband’s favorite band) and Foreigner (their 40th Anniversary Tour).

The second show was at the TD Boston Garden. The line up was Peter Wolf (of J. Geils Band fame) and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (coincidentally, also their 40th Anniversary Tour).

We decided to rate the bands in order of how much we liked their shows.

He:

  1. Cheap Trick (She: No surprise there! It’s been his favorite band since he was, like, sixteen  years old!) 
  2. Foreigner (Surprise! I didn’t think that was going to be number 2.)
  3. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (Tom Petty was a little uneven. Sometimes you just gotta give the people what they want–like Foreigner did.)
  4. Peter Wolf (I would have liked to have heard more from him.)
  5. Jason Bonham (He was really good!) 

She:

  1. Foreigner (As I was listening, I realized that I knew the words to every single one of the songs! Okay, except for one. Also, so many of them correlated to important people and events from my past that it was like watching an episode of “This is Your Life“.)
  2. Cheap Trick (I have come to love Cheap Trick, a band I loathed in my teens. I didn’t know as many of the songs they chose to sing this time, which was a little disappointing, but they were still great) 
  3. Peter Wolf (I saw J. Geils Band many times in my younger years, and one of the things I loved best was watching Peter Wolf dance. He’s as great as he ever was! And he sang several of my favorite songs.)
  4. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (Okay,I am sorry to say that TP came in 4th out of 5! What a letdown. He did sing a couple of my favorites, but many of his choices were obscure, and I could have done without the extended instrumentals and the dragged out introduction of the band members. Tom, maybe you would have had time to play “Here Comes My Girl” if you spent a little less time on those other things…Just sayin’. Reference: “Give the people what they want” said by he, above.)
  5. Jason Bonham (Wasn’t as bad as I expected. I didn’t want to leave or anything.)

That’s it! How would YOU rank these five bands? Comment below!

 

Rocky

by Karen, posted in Date night, Marriage, movies

Recently my husband wanted to see the movie Creed.  I had zero interest in watching it. I expected he knew that and that he would be watching it alone.

Somehow, though, we ended up watching it together.

I didn’t expect to like it, but guess what! I really did!

I thought it was a movie about fighting, violent and bloody. And it was, sort of. But it was also a sweet love story. I liked it so much!

My husband said, “You’ve never seen the first Rocky movie? Or any of them?” and I said, “Duh. No.” He suggested getting Rocky  and Rocky Balboa from the library, so I ordered them, but without much enthusiasm. What were the odds that I would like those movies too? Why not quit while I was ahead?
Anyway, after I picked them up, they sat for 2 weeks before a freak rainstorm washed out our beach plans and we decided to have the Rocky Movie night. (Yay)

Rocky

 

Here’s the thing: I loved the movies. Both of them. And it wasn’t just because of the love stories (Yo, Adrian!). It was because of the character Rocky. OMG. The more I got to know him, the more I loved him.

So, of course it’s partly due to the whole ‘he’s Italian’ thing. But, I never thought he was good-looking or anything when I (and he) was young(er). It was about who he (the character) was in the movie. His kindness. His caring. His awkward attempts to show these wonderful characteristics to others, many of whom weren’t interested at all in his overtures. Not one bit. But he perseveres. Not because who they are, but because of who he is.

And it got me. So, you know. That’s why I was crying at the end of Rocky Balboa.

 

Home is where?

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, Date night, Marriage, relationships, restaurants, the beach

Recently my husband and I took a vacation. This is news, because it was OUT OF STATE. Way out. Like, in NJ. Just getting the same days off from work together to go took weeks-and an aligning of the planets AND and act of congress.

What was better about Atlantic City than Wells, ME? Not much. I had to really think hard  for things.

  1.  The seagulls had black heads. Kind of cool.
  2. The ocean was WARM. WARM. The OCEAN.
  3.  The ocean was very close to the hotel; you could walk to it. There also didn’t seem to be very much
    variation between high tide and low tide.
  4. There were some different kinds of seashells from what I find here in Maine.

That’s about it.

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The best thing about Atlantic City? We were on vacation! We were together! That is all we needed.

Boldly going

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, Date night, Marriage, no fear

On the ThunderboltMy 51st birthday was this year.

When I picked out a cake and asked the person behind the bakery counter to write on it, this was what she wrote: “Happy 50-First Birthday Karen”.

I know, right?

I decided that might be a sign.  What if,  I thought, I did some things for the ‘first’ time in my 50-“first” year?

And so I have been  (informally) doing just that. The most recent thing I did for the first time was going to the Fryeburg Fair. While there, I went on…wait for it… a RIDE. Okay, so maybe not for the first time ever, but for the first time this decade.

I used to love to go on rides. When I was growing up, my grandmother lived within walking distance of Paragon Park in Hull. Needless to say, I grew up going on the rides-lots of them. My parents actually met at that park. We went all the time and I went on every ride, including the most vomit-inducing rollercoasters, with no problem at all.

I stopped going on rides when I was in my thirties. Somehow, the act of giving birth had reorganized my physiology such that when I even thought about going on a ride I got dizzy and nauseated. Sad, but true. I also joined the legions of people who get car sick when riding in the back set of the car, but I digress. Full disclosure: I did try to ride the Tea Cups at the Acton Fair several years ago, but that did not go well. Let’s just leave it at that.

Anyway, I went on the ride. It was one that I loved from Paragon Park when I was a teenager. It was called something different then: The Matterhorn, maybe? Now it’s called The Thunderbolt, but it was the same ride that I remembered from the 70’s.

I didn’t get sick. Nope. I was laughing and yelling and waving my arms around like a kid.

What I learned from this experience is this: my teenage self? She is alive and well and just waiting for opportunities to come out and play. Maybe yours is too.

An old dog, a new (cheap) trick (part one)

by Karen, posted in Date night, local fun, Marriage, Midlife Crisis, relationships, Turning 50

Cheap TrickYou know how they say that your tastes change as you get older? I have found this to be true in my own life.

  1. I never liked cheese on my pizza. When I was little, maybe 4 or 5 years old, my parents used to scrape it off (and onto their own slices, I imagine) and tell me that they got some cheese-less pizza, “special” for me.  That changed by the time I got to high school, when I ordered my pizza with ‘extra cheese’, just like everyone else.
  2. I never liked seafood. With the exception of canned tuna (white, tuna, in water), and the odd clam strip filched from Dad’s plate once a year when we ate out at HoJo’s, nary a fish crossed my plate…for years. I didn’t start eating (fried only) seafood until I moved to Maine because, you know, it’s the law.
  3. Melted American cheese. No, wait, I still hate that.

To approach this from the standpoint of musical tastes, I also have undergone a transformation. Back in the day, I liked The Cars. The Motels. Face to Face. Fleetwood Mac. Still do.

I didn’t like Kiss. Def Leppard. Guns N’ Roses.  Headbanger music is what I called it.  Poison. Motley Crew…and Cheap Trick. As my grandmother would say, I ‘had no use for them’.

Then I met my husband. The first time I got in his jeep and heard what he was listening to on the radio, I knew that we had, um, widely different tastes in music. I was a Kiss 108 kind of girl. He was an FNX (listen to it? I’d never even heard of it) kind of guy.

We met in the middle with John Mellencamp and Bon Jovi and made the best of it. I didn’t make him listen to my music and he didn’t make me listen to his.

Then Cheap Trick (did I mention that’s my husband’s favorite band?) came to town.

(to be continued…)

Getting married at the wedding

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, Date night, Marriage, Midlife Crisis, relationships

wedding 3 When my husband and I got married, we had very little money. To make our dollars stretch as far as possible, we decided to have our wedding at home. We contacted a Justice of the Peace who was happy to perform the ceremony in our living room. I chose a bouquet of mostly carnations with a few roses instead of mostly roses with a few carnations. We ordered a small cake. We kept the guest list short, inviting only our immediate families.

Also, we decided not to hire a photographer.

We had a lovely wedding and I have always been happy with how we did things…except I wished we had a nice wedding picture.

Our 22nd wedding anniversary was in June. As it approached, my husband mentioned that he had been thinking about how he wished we had a nice wedding picture (you know, Great Minds Syndrome?)!  So, we talked about it on and off, here and there, when suddenly we thought:

                                       

                        Why not take a nice wedding picture now?

(At other times in our marriage, we have had blinding flashes of brilliance like this, such as: Instead of waiting  until we retire to move to Maine…why not move to Maine now?)

Once the decision was made, everything just fell into place. We chose our wedding clothes. We scouted locations (and may I say that the Episcopal Churches in southern Maine are beautiful??) and found one we both loved: St. Ann’s Episcopal Church in Kennebunkport. My brother, who is an excellent photographer, agreed to take the pictures…and 254 photos later, here we are.

Now my only regret is this: why didn’t we think to get a CAKE?

🙂

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Moscato who?

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, Date night, italian, Marriage, quest for the best

bella bolle

My husband and I have different tastes in a lot of things, and wine is no exception. Years ago, someone gave us a bottle of Moscato D’Asti by Nivole, which (surprise!) we both loved. Every so often we bought a bottle, for a birthday or anniversary or some such occasion.

Then suddenly we couldn’t find it anywhere anymore. Everywhere we went, we looked for and even asked for it, and everyone was familiar with it, but no one actually stocked it anymore.  Which totally sucked.

So, we finally gave up. One day when we were food shopping, I saw a pretty bottle of wine that happened to be a moscato d’asti. It was a different brand, but it met our wine-buying criteria:

1. Pretty bottle

2. Cheap

I’m talking $7. We decided to live dangerously and buy it. It took a couple of weeks to finally open it. If either Bill or I had to be up by 4:30am the next day, neither of us was very interested in sharing a bottle of wine the night before.

The planets finally aligned on Christmas day. We both had the following day off from work so we cracked open the wine. There was only one negative: what a bitch that cork was to remove! Other than that, however, we both loved the wine. I am saving the bottle so we don’t forget what kind it was.

We definitely plan to get this one again. You know, unless this brand goes MIA next.

Shopping at the Ocean State Job Lot

by Karen, posted in books, Date night, local fun, Marriage, Midlife Crisis, relationships

I was at the Ocean State Job Lot today, shopping for a bug zapper (bottom left page of flyer) with my husband. Of course, once I was in there I had to look around at everything (sorry, Bill).  Did you know that you can get audio books (on CD) here for only $3.99? Many of which you may have even heard of and be interested in listening to in the car on your way back to Wells from Sanford when you are sitting in traffic on Route 109 from now until eternity, watching the workers stand around waving “Stop” and “Slow” signs at you, taunting you ad nauseam.

I bought two.

Next, I wandered over to the bathing suits. I know; I know. What was I thinking? Well, they were on sale for only $10. Some of them were even kind of cute.

After rifling through the racks for a few minutes, I found a red one-piece that was my size that was kind of interesting looking. I held it up to show my husband, who thought it was okay (I need the reality check of asking another person how something looks on me because I apparently have Body Dysmorphic Disorder–in other words, I have no freakin’ clue how I really look).
I found a clerk to ask where the fitting rooms are and surprise! Ocean State Job Lot has no fitting rooms. I decided to take a chance and buy it, thinking I could always return it tomorrow if it didn’t fit. As I was giving it a final once-over, I thought that the back of the bathing suit didn’t look quite right. Now, I’m no fashionista, but the back was very…plunging, and the butt was very…insubstantial in a way I couldn’t quite put my finger on…until suddenly, it hit me. How had I not noticed how thin the strip of material at the butt was?

This bathing suit was a thong in the back! I can’t wear that to the beach!

I’m not even a little bit French!

Get out of your rut

by Karen, posted in Date night, fitness, local fun, Marriage, Midlife Crisis, no fear, relationships, Turning 50

In the interest of getting out of my rut, my husband and I went away…to the other side of town.

One of the perks was that the facility had a pool. No big whoop for me, because I don’t much like chlorinated pools. My husband does though, so even though it was late (9:30pm is late when you are usually in bed by then), and even though it was freezing out, and even though it was snowing out, and even though we had to walk outside (the equivalent of about 3 blocks, maybe, but still) to get to said pool, and even though I had to put on a bathing suit in February…I went with him.

I took swimming lessons when I was 12, but it never clicked for me. I was always awkward in the water, so do not consider myself a swimmer.

My husband is a great swimmer.

I had planned to sit on the side of the pool and watch him, but he convinced me to swim a little…and guess what?  

I swam the length of the pool 3 times! I enjoyed it! I wanted to stay longer! I didn’t even mind the walk back to the room!

Go figure. Maybe there are things that you can do but haven’t you haven’t tried because you keep telling yourself that you can’t.

What if you can?

Another book to read

by Karen, posted in books, Date night, Marriage, relationships, writing

The Secret Lives of Wives: Women Share What It Really Takes to Stay MarriedThe Secret Lives of Wives: Women Share What It Really Takes to Stay Married by Iris Krasnow
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I thought this book rocked. I was especially happy to find it when I did: at the end of my writing “How to Stay Married in Midlife” and launched the “Sharpen Your Knives” blog (http://sharpenyourknives.wordpress.com/), and not before or during that process. The book includes stories from women who have been married for a long time, and includes their strategies for having been able to stay married. Hint: some are sort of kinky. Iris sprinkles in anecdotes from her own marriage, about which I am not sure how I feel. It might have been okay if she had confined her marriage story to one chapter. Instead, she randomly sort of randomly puts in her two cents where maybe it isn’t needed. In some of the stories, the women retain their anonymity, in some they just let it all hang out. You get to hear from women who are in their 70’s and (yep) are still married. It’s really a quite hopeful, “You can do it!!” sort of a book. Definitely worth reading.

View all my reviews