a good memory

there was a week night in january or february, i think, of 2007, when i got a call from my boyfriend. he was an admissions counselor, and he was staying in bakersfield that night, visiting high schools in bakersfield and trying not to be too bored. he looked up one of our favorite musicians, to see if he could surprise me with tickets to a show in the future - but he found out that this guy would be playing at a lounge in LA that night.

so, this very spontaneous "P" of a boyfriend called his plan-ahead "J" girlfriend and suggested that they both drive from their respective places - santa barbara for her - to largo, in LA, for the show. she surprised him and said yes, and so he drove down the 5 and she went south on the 101 by the ocean until camarillo, and they parked their cars in really lucky parking spots and met each other outside the restaurant - bar - lounge - venue.

the menus had big pictures of marty feldman on the cover, and it was hard to get over the googly eyes while they ordered their penne al pesto and red wine, but the whole place was eccentric. their table was a few feet from the musician, and the opening act pleasantly surprised them, and it was the kind of night that made them both exhausted the next day and that found them both on solitary highways at 2 in the morning on a thursday, the moon glimmering off the ocean for one and almond fields for the other.

she had so much fun that she went back the next night with three girlfriends, and again the next year. and now, coming up on three years later, these two are sitting together in their little bungalow of a house listening to teitur less than one month after they got married to each other. it was a good time. it is a good memory.