Average Jane Has Fun

Last Friday evening, my brother-in-law had planned a surprise party at a comedy club for my sister’s birthday. I’d known about it and had tickets for the past week or so, and I had to dodge my sister’s efforts to get me to babysit that evening and also bite my tongue when she revealed that she was going to the same theater the following night with some college friends.

We saw D.L. Hughley perform and he was funny enough that my face hurt from laughing by the time the show ended.  After the show, we walked to a pub and spent a couple of hours on the upper deck enjoying the warm evening breeze. 

The next night my husband and I had tickets to see Nickelback, Hoobastank, Chevelle and Hinder.  The show was held at an arena that isn’t used as a concert venue very much anymore.  I reviewed my collection of old concert ticket stubs the next day and it seems that I hadn’t been to a concert there since I saw Def Leppard in 1992.  The venue was a lot smaller than I remembered.

The main use of the arena is for the American Royal rodeo, and I noticed a distinct odor of Eau de Livestock when we sat down.  Sometimes it’s really difficult to make the case that Kansas City is not, in fact, a cowtown.

I was determined to party a bit, but it was not an easy task. The only beer for sale was Michelob Lite and Bud Light and it cost $6.00 a cup.  I guess the $24 I eventually spent must have accomplished something; I had my arm around my husband at one point and thought I was caressing his shoulder, only to realize that I was actually fondling the knee of the guy sitting behind him.  Heh.

The concert was the last one of the tour, so the bands were in practical joke mode.  Apparently Nickelback hired four male strippers to parade onto the stage during Hinder’s set.  I had to hand it to to the Hinder guys – they looked bemused but continued their song.

On Sunday, tapped out from the expense and effort of all of the previous evenings’ gaiety, we chose to stick close to home.  My husband watched football while I went and had my hair dyed back to dark brown for fall.  I also bought and read "My Sister’s Keeper" by Jodi Picoult for a book club meeting I have next weekend.  It’ll be nice to go and discuss a book that I didn’t read at the absolute last minute, for once.

This should be a very busy work week for me, but I’ve kept the evenings scheduled fairly lightly.  Aside from a Wednesday evening meeting and a probable recording session on some other night, I should be able to take it easy.

So what’s up with you?  Seen any good comedians or bands perform lately?  Have anything good scheduled for this week?