leg's life: Partying like it's 1999.

So this past weekend, I turned 31. Woohoo! Luckily my husband is two years older than me so he goes through these ages before I do, so I know what I'm getting myself into. ;-)

A few months ago, my friend Traci sent me an email she had gotten announcing concerts at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Maryland. Lo and behold, one of my all-time favorite bands was scheduled to play there ON MY BIRTHDAY! So of course I began dropping major hints to Bryan, along the lines of "Honey, this is what I want for my birthday," or "Honey, don't forget how awesome it would be for me to see Incubus on my birthday." (One of the most important lessons I've learned about being married: Subtlety doesn't work. Be direct. :) )

And what did he get me for my birthday? Transformer foot rests for the motorcycle! Yes, seriously. But IN the box was the other birthday present--two tickets to Incubus!! And they were FLOOR TICKETS! I was naturally so excited about the tickets that were in the box that I neglected to realize that the foot rests were actually a gift, but I think Bryan forgave me for that. Especially because even once he told me that I was still kind of unsure what the hell they were. Once he put them on the bike though, I was pleased to be able to have two options for where to put my tootsies on long rides. He's so considerate--they really do make a huge difference! :)

But anyway, let's get back to Incubus.

So like I said, they were floor tickets. If you're not the rock concert type, this basically means we were going to be in the mosh pit... the standing room only area. We had the option to go back to the lawn and sit down if it got to be too much or if I got tired, though, so it's not like we were going to be forced to stand all night. I was a little nervous about this, because it has been YEARS since I went to a concert and stood for the whole thing, and in the past few years my arthritis doesn't take kindly to being made to stand for long periods of time. But there's one thing I haven't told you yet that made me SO not worry about any of this.

You see, I have an insane crush on the lead singer of this band. And the thing that makes my husband even MORE awesome for buying me those tickets is that HE KNOWS THIS. He knows I drool over Brandon Boyd, and yet he still indulges me! :) Oh, how I love that man. :)

I should have known when I also got footrest transformers for my birthday that this meant Bryan had figured out that we'd be taking the motorcycle to Maryland, but somehow I had a brief delusion that the 100 degree heat would encourage him to opt for an enclosed, air conditioned vehicle. Yeah, not so much. I whined a little bit about it, but ultimately decided that it was kind of a fair trade off... you know, I'd be free to openly lust for Brandon Boyd and he'd be free to scorch the both of us on the back of the motorcycle for a few hours. :)

After a birthday visit from my dad and stepmom, we hit the road. The ride up was alright until we got to Maryland, where I'm convinced traffic sucks 24/7, 365 days a year. Bryan had also booked us a hotel room near the concert venue, so originally I thought we'd go there first so I could freshen up and look cute for Brandon--I mean, Bryan--but by the time we got close, we would have missed part of the show if we did that.

So we changed in the parking lot. This was a little dodgy, since we didn't have a car to do it in, but we made it work. Thankfully I had decided to wear rather modest undergarments that day, so no one saw any of my bits and pieces. :) And once we got into the concert, I laughed at myself for thinking it would have made any difference to shower before coming there--it was so hot and humid that I would have been a sweaty mess immediately anyway.

The concert was amazing. I said earlier that it has been a long time since my concert going days, and this show made me remember why I used to do it so often. About halfway through, Bryan started checking to see if I wanted to go up and sit on the lawn. I may have said "no thanks" once or twice, but I think my primary response to this question was to look at Brandon then look back at Bryan with a face that said, "Are you crazy?"

Yep, I spent my 2009 birthday much like I would have spent it in 1999--standing in a group of sweaty people, groovin' to some kick ass music. The main difference was that in 1999 I turned 21, so I would have been drunk. This time, I was too afraid I'd pass out from heat and dehydration if I had even a beer--plus I'm too cheap to pay $8 for a tiny little alcoholic drink! :)

The next morning, we left our hotel and went into Baltimore to check out the aquarium rather than drive home in mid-day heat. Neither of us had ever been to the aquarium (although Bryan says he *may* have been), and we enjoyed seeing all of the sea life. The only bad thing is that it was PACKED to the GILLS (pun intended!), what with all of the family vacations and whatnot. So some parts we zipped through, but we did enjoy the 4D show and the dolphin show in particular! And Bryan took this awesome picture of a jellyfish: