Dave (the other one)

So, today started off as one of those days.  Not surprising I guess since I wore the kids out yesterday and they're not morning people under the best of circumstances.  I don't understand that because I am a morning person.  Oh well, I  just let them be sleepy while smiling and reminding myself, "you choose your response".  

Since it's Tuesday, it was adoration day and I got us all ready and out the door to go to church.  Mia and Grace were still squabbling in the back seat.  When we got to church, I found out that Sophie had smuggled Harriet along and wanted to bring her in with us.  We don't let the kids snack or have any kinds of toys or books in church other than Mass books so I said "no--Harriet will have to stay in the car."  Well, Sophie went into melt-down mode.  I let Mia and Grace go into the chapel and told Sophie she'd have to get totally quiet before we went in.  About five seconds later, Mia came out complaining that Grace had told her the rosary she'd picked was ugly--a major crime in sensitive Mia's book.  Sophie still wasn't quiet.  Then Mia and Grace pinched each other and I decided it was time to call it quits for the day and go home.  At this news, Sophie went boneless and really started crying because she wanted to go to adoration.  Mia and Grace stomped grouchily to the car.  There were other homeschooling families and older parishioners outside of the chapel who witnessed all of this.  I am blessed in that I rarely feel embarrassed by my kids' behavior.  I live by a phrase I once read on a sugar packet-- of all things--"never explain--your friends don't need it and your enemies won't believe it anyway". 

Back at home, I put them all in bed (my solution to kid tantrums) and went downstairs for a couple of quiet, kid-free hours.  I had a lot of work to do so I got started on that and did something I almost never do these days--listened to The Dave Matthews Band on volume-- loud.  I don't put them on when the kids are around partly because some of the songs aren't appropriate for them (although Madeleine has been a fan for a long time and I always think of her when I see Boyd Tinsley with his "crazy violin") and partly because they are little sponges when it comes to music and there are better things for them to be singing.

For me, Dave is not just about the music.  I love the music.  It's unique and the lyrics are both poetic and philosophical.  A lot of the reason I love Dave though is the history we have with him.  Chris and I listened to the DMB way back when no one knew who they were.  We were supposed to see them at Benchwarmers, a small bar in Lawrence, KS, in 1994 but a band member's illness caused them to cancel.  That would've been a great show.  I was at UVA when they were playing every Tuesday at Trax.  I heard of them but never saw them because I wasn't into the bar scene--I kick myself for that now.

When we go to their concerts these days, it's like visiting old friends.  I like to watch Stefan Lessard--maybe because he looks a little like Gregory House--He's just so...cool.  Some of the songs I always want to hear:  "Crush", "Old Dirt Hill", "Grey Street", "Grace is Gone", "Where are you Going?", "One Sweet World" & "Ants Marching". 

Chris and I don't agree with Dave's politics but he doesn't make that an issue like some bands we've liked (TDC).  He restricts his comments to expressing gratitude to the fans and the weather.  In a show last August in Houston, Dave was sweating buckets on stage.  He said to the crowd, "You know, most places, when the sun goes down, it gets a little cooler out, it's nice.  Not in Texas.  In Texas, the sun goes down and it just keeps on getting hotter!  But you got beautiful people down here, man you are some beautiful looking people" (he was looking right at me when he said that :).

The most I heard Dave talk was at a benefit concert for the Dali Lama in Seattle last year.  He was on an interview panel that went on before the show.  He was like a little boy--shy and awkward.  He made a couple of jokes about his domestic life and later, during the concert, we got to see him rocking his twins, Stella and Grace (great taste in names), while listening to Tim Reynolds.

Chris and I have tickets to the DMB's show May 1st and are crossing our fingers that the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion will be operational by then.  (It's been closed since the hurricane).  We'll go, get a "little taste of the good life" and "stay, stay, stay for awhile" (And I'll probably buy yet another concert shirt!)

**Final note:  When the kids got up from their naps, they were like new little girls and Mia and Grace were best friends again.  As Shakespeare said, sleep is nature's sweet nurse!