Bad judgement call?

Probably. But in my defense...

We love Brave Combo at our house. Mostly because of the Christmas CD. It's the first one we listen to every year, and it has become very near and dear to my kids' hearts. Their music is, well, fun. Lots of Polkas, but also Cha-Cha-Chas, Rhumbas, Waltzes, the Conga, and every show has a version of The Chicken Dance and The Hokey Pokey. We saw them at an outdoor festival when Gabriel was very young, but he doesn't remember. We've since pondered taking them to see a show, but they always seem to start too late, or be in a club.

Then I got the Levitt Pavilion Fall schedule. Levitt is an outdoor stage, with grass to dance, sit, eat, drink or lay down and listen on. FREE concerts, with the exception of one fundraising one each year. They have a summer schedule, with concerts Wed - Sun night, Memorial Day weekend through the 4th of July. Wednesday is kids' bands. We've been twice. Once each year since we found out about it. We always talk about going more, but then we have other plans, or we talk ourselves out of it because it would be way past the boys' bedtime, or it's too hot, etc....

Then I found out that their Fall concert opener each year is.....drumroll please.....BRAVE COMBO! When I told Gabriel he was so excited. We've had it marked on the calendar for 2 months.

The day before the concert, both boys started sniffling, and Gabriel's teacher informed me when I picked him up that she thought he might have a little fever. Rough nights for both boys (and mommy), so I decided not to send them to school the day of the show. I think in the back of my head I was still hoping they might have enough energy to do the concert. Yes, I am one of those parents who thinks it's okay to miss a day at school to do something fun once in awhile. There are lots of ways to get a good education in life. But as the day wore on I started thinking it probably wasn't a good idea and had to break it to Gabriel that I didn't think we would make the concert after all. The response was Big Fat tears. Sigh. We finished our quiet day, naps for all, and headed to Babe's Chicken Dinner House to have a goodbye dinner with Jav's aunt, who was going back to Mexico after staying with his mom for a month. The boys seemed ok, but droopy. I was resigned about our decision.




 But then we went to our cars, and realized that Levitt is only about two blocks from Babe's parking lot. You could hear the band start up. I'm not sure what came over me at that point. A wave of selfishness? Prickly Heat? I was a polka-obsessed zombie. How DARE these summer colds get in the way of our fun that we'd had planned for this long? We got in the car, found a closer parking spot, and went on in. My family looked at me as if I had lost my mind.

It was PACKED. We struggled to find a patch of grass big enough for all four of us. It was also HOT. But Jav got snow cones. I tried to get Gabriel to go do the Twist with me, he started panicking on the way down to the dance "green", but I told him no one was watching him. Everyone was having way too much fun. One of the things I love about Levitt shows is the range of people, races, and ages you get. There are grandparents, parents and kids all sitting together enjoying the music. Couples on dates, single people who just walked up with their dogs, UTA college students. It's all very laid back. So Gabriel did the Twist, which I was very proud of him about. When the lead singer announced they were going to do, "Sway, so get ready to Cha-Cha-Cha!", this couple in their 70's got up and walked out to the empty street the city blocks off for Levitt concerts. They proceeded to start dancing, REALLY well, to the point where a crowd gathered. I really wanted to take their picture, but I think that's rude if you don't ask first in that type of situation. It's one of those moments that I'll never forget - ever in my life. They really did set the mood for the whole crowd. We all four went up to watch this Greek wedding dance, which was too wild for us to join in. Then Gabriel and I did The Chicken Dance in a circle with a bunch of strangers, and had a blast. Then we all jitterbugged to Wooly Bully. I actually felt like I was about to have heat stroke at that point, so we rested. We went back up for the Hokey Pokey, then at the very end I tried to show G how to polka right around where we were sitting, because alot of folks had already headed to their cars.

During all of this the boys were looking droopier and droopier. When we got to the car after the show (probably 10:15 or so), it was still 101. Yikes. Gabriel was exhausted but jubilant on the way home. I was so proud of him for getting over that silly shyness and getting out there to dance his patooty off! This show he will remember.


So Gabriel first got worse, and coughed a bunch the next day, but then started to get better. Joel just seemed to have a touch of it and was fine the next day. I, however, started feeling worse and worse as Saturday dragged on. By 3am Sunday morning I almost had Jav drive me to the ER. I couldn't breathe, felt like I was going to cough up a lung, but somehow made it through one of the scariest nights I've ever had. I went to Care Now when they opened the next morning, was diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection, got a steroid shot and immediately started feeling better. When I told my mom the concert story, I beat her to it - "I know, mom, it was idiotic". She replied, as nicely as possible,"Yep, that's what I was thinking." Idiotic, perhaps, but fun.  But I won't be going to any more outdoor concerts when it's that stinkin' hot outside.