Anyway, the city of Plymouth has for years been punching above their weight class when it comes to bringing in well-known bands and acts. They seem to do it once a summer, maybe a weekend, but people I and many others have wanted to see -- Trombone Shorty, Big Head Todd & The Monsters -- have veered west of downtown and played in Plymouth. And now Gary Clark, Jr., a guy I haven't seen but want to, and Cold War Kids, a band I've seen twice (once at First Avenue and once in Boulder, Colo., believe it or not) are playing in a city that has free parking for all?! I'm going!!
But then my parents said they're flying back home the next night. I thought really, really hard about going anyway -- either I would finish cleaning up the house so that I would be able to go with a clear conscience, or say to hell with it and try and clean up like crazy all day the next day before they return home. But I couldn't do that. I went home, did some light tidying up, and moved all of My Stuff to my storage unit.
There was another thing that made me think twice about going. My stripper friend lost her mom over the summer, she was willed the family home, and she was getting evicted from her place. July 29 is the end of the month, so she was busy packing everything up and leaving the Twin Cities for good to move back to her hometown. She actually asked for help a week or two before, and I wanted to help, but my parents threw a wrench over everything. Nonetheless, she was in bad shape: Only one friend came over to help her, her boyfriend recently left her, and apparently her neighbor was psycho and threatened both her and this friend all day Friday.
I will say this: Things were copacetic enough at home that I could have gone over to her place -- she didn't live very far -- to help her pack and load stuff onto her truck. But I couldn't get ahold of her. Actually, her friend got ahold of me, but I didn't see his text until a couple hours after he sent it, and I saw it just as I got home from work. I replied and it took an hour or so for him to get back to me, and then I sent another text and it took another hour or so for him to get back to me. I was doing nothing but waiting, but eventually I just got bored and decided to eat at Culver's ... at which point my stripper friend called me and asked if it would be a good idea to throw her cats into a box to make the four-hour trip out west overnight and be done with moving -- and this asshole neighbor -- for good. She sounded really happy that I listened to her, but I really don't know if my time wouldn't have been better spent if I just went to the concert.
One more thing discouraged me from going I knew well before either above obstacle got in the way. I was filling in for someone in My Favorite Department. That shift doesn't end till 5:30. The concert started at 5, and it would have taken me at least half an hour if I went to Plymouth straight from work, and I had designs of at least stopping by home and changing clothes. There were two local acts that went onstage before Cold War Kids and then Gary Clark, Jr., so I figure I had time to park and buy a ticket well before CWK went on. But ...
... yeah, that "but" kind of escapes me now. There was my parents, and my stripper friend, and work. But, as I felt leading up to my parents coming home, my energy was at a low. Maybe I wasn't as enthused about going to the concert as I initially was. Yeah, it's probable that all these other circumstances played a part in dampening my enthusiasm for it. However, if I recall correctly, there was a part of me that didn't mind not going. And so I didn't.
Hey, maybe next year. I could leave work on time, my parents won't be coming home the next day, no strippers need help moving and getting away from prick neighbors, and, like, Billie Eilish will come and play at Plymouth. That'd be a concert I'd go to!
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