The Challenges of Going Out

03.26.2010

Rob and I went to see John Mayer at the Staples Center last night which was a great time. I always love spending time with him and am always grateful for the time we have together; however, such occasions always remind me how much I dislike crowds and people. (haha.) I hadn’t been to LA Live yet and we took this opportunity to visit it and see if we could grab a bite to eat before the show but that didn’t work out. The wait at the restaurants was too long and we weren’t sure exactly when John Mayer would get on stage so we opted to grab whatever we could at the concert (bad idea).

The throngs of people walking about LA Live and the amount of time it took for us to finally decide we can’t spare the time waiting to eat made me think about what a production going out has become. I’m sure it’s a product of our age, we’re both older now and our level of tolerance for bullshit is much lower than it was in our early 20s, but I still stand by the notion that it was much easier back then to grab a bite to eat before a show and there was a lot less crap you had to deal with.

The lines to get into a show were much shorter, there were no bag checks, and definitely no metal detectors to go through. I know the latter two are a result of 9/11 but it just gets me thinking about the overall era we’ve entered.

So, overall, what does this have to do with kids? It’s gotten me thinking about what this next generation has to contend with and makes me wonder about what the future holds. It also makes me wonder how Rob and I will be able to have to have an evening like we did once we have kids. The concert was on a Thursday and, while I’m unemployed, we still had to coordinate going into downtown in one car. If we had kids and both were working, I’m not sure this would’ve happened. One of us, most likely me, would’ve had to leave work early, pick up the kid from wherever, and wait for a babysitter to come and then drive separately into downtown unless, of course, I left work at, like, 3 pm in order to get everyone situated and take the bus into Rob’s workplace. This coordination makes my head spin. It almost seems like it’d be easier to just skip the concert unless it falls on a weekend. I know this may seem like a lame thing to think about but it is worth taking up space in my thought bubble cause Rob and I do a lot of extra curricular activities and it seems like we’d have to seriously curb that with kids. I s’pose that comes with territory…but I just wonder about it.