A matter of odds and evens

I don't normally get excited over music concerts. I rarely plan on going to one months in advance, I have no clue what the actions of the bands are out there, what venues they play in, or they will play in. I do not own a single shirt with the name of some band written across it, nor do I own posters of bands. This is due in large part to growing up in a household where one could not listen to anything but classical music, and even Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald were frowned upon.

(By the way, what is hip-hop? Rock and roll?)

So this is why it was an absolutely new sensation for me to realize I was hankering after going to a Gipsy Kings concert. My version of rock and roll. They are playing at Ravinia, the outdoor theater, as we speak, and will be playing tomorrow as well.

Because this is such a new feeling, I didn't know how to deal with it. My first instinct was to go online to see how much tickets were. Do you realize what the situation is? Because my love for them runs quite deep, my pocket might as well, but the tickets that are reasonably priced are only sold in pairs. While I would possibly consider paying an exorbitant amount for the tickets, how much fun would I really have? The point of going to Ravinia is to sit on the lawn with friends and a few bottles of wine and snacks while talking or, once the bottles get emptier, wild dancing. And who do you know you likes the Gipsy Kings who would pay for tickets? (That actually might not be a rhetorical question, because I still really want to go.) Since I have no unconditional love of a significant other who would follow me around anywhere my heart desired, saying "I wouldn't normally do this, but since it makes you happy, I will do it for you," and since I also do not I have a friend who would turn a blind eye to the ticket price, even the lower priced ones, I am left to contemplate the hard life of solitary fans. Maybe this means I am friends with the wrong people. Which would definitely not make my previous inquiry of who knows Gipsy Kings fans merely rhetorical, because maybe I should do a serious end-of-the-season cleaning out of the figurative closet of my friends so that I'm not stuck in meaning-of-life-questioning dilemmas like this.

This afternoon I went to Trader Joe's and my cashier asked if I had any big plans for the weekend. After a moment's deliberation I launched into this story. At the end, he just asked "Dixie Kings?" Which, I suppose, means I should nix the plan of striking up friendships with complete strangers in the hopes they also have an unadvertised love for the Gipsy Kings.