On Wednesday, I was spending a relaxing hour at Starbucks in between the gym and the dentist. Except that my usual quiet Starbucks was CROWDED! Why? Well, the high school seniors are done with school now, and it seems they all decided to spend the morning at Starbucks.
Sigh. I can’t see a scene like that without getting so, so sad that my son’s entire senior year of high school was ruined by Covid. He missed his prom! He missed all the “last” things a senior should have- the last football game, concert, saying goodbye to all his friends… am I going to be sad about this every May for the rest of my life? Probably. It should be noted that my son has completely moved on. I doubt he even thinks about high school anymore- he’s just happy that none of his college years were affected by Covid.
So, on this melancholy first Friday of May, I’m joining Coco and Deborah for the Ultimate Coffee Date! Pour yourself a hot beverage and let’s chat about “May-hem”.
Is this a crazy time of year for you? It is for us! Why does everything have to happen in the same week??? My daughter literally has something every day this week, including Saturday and Sunday. On Tuesday, the high school jazz band played an outdoor concert at Mizner Park, which is a big outdoor shopping district with a gazebo in the middle.
This was one of the events I was grumbling about because of the timing- it went right through dinner time. My daughter ate a snack in the car on the way there, but my husband and I decided to just wing it and see what happened.
We dropped her off and noticed a Mexican restaurant right across the street. Hmm! We were able to get a table outside with a perfect view of the band. Of course, we couldn’t just sit there without ordering something!
It turned out it was “Taco Tuesday,” with $3 tacos, AND the veggie taco was labeled “vegan” on the menu. This was too good to be true…
It was the best concert ever. We ate, sipped our beers, and were able to hear the band perfectly. And I was highly amused by this advertisement on the table:
The only problem is, now I’ll want tacos and beer at every concert- I have a feeling I’ll be sadly disappointed from now on.
At the end of the concert the band director said “Thank you! Come see us perform at Sunfest this Sunday at 1 pm!” WHAT? Who? Where? This is how I learned about the concert on Sunday. So much for my grandiose plan of doing Sunday meal prep! Apparently I’ll be spending the afternoon at Sunfest. That idea was short-lived.
I guess you can’t have it both ways. I can’t be sad that everything was canceled my son’s senior year, and mad that my daughter has so many events this month. I think the universe is telling me to just relax as much as possible, and enjoy the May-hem.
How is your May shaping up?
Have you ever seen a Chihuahua race? – It’s now one of my life goals.
31 Responses
Mexican food + drinks with your daughter’s Jazz band in the background sounds amazing! A surprise concert on Sunday doesn’t.
May is not super busy for us but we only have a kinder! And school goes until mid-June so it’s not the end of school period for us. We have our anniversary and a date night for that and blessedly I have my shouldless day next week which I desperately need. I’m typing this in my Uber home from the airport where I am just so tired because I was up until 11:30PST last night at the work event. Gah. Who am I? Ha. I did sleep in and skip my workout this morning which I hate to do but I had been up about 20 hours yesterday.
Speaking of activities, I’m very excited for Paul’s kinder music program next week. He is so excited about it and my MIL is coming down for it, too. I just love hearing little kids sing! And I am glad that I just have to hear the kinders so won’t sit there for hours on end. Paul is very very excited, too. I’m hoping this means he is going to take after me and be musical but time will tell.
I am sorry that Paul had such a terrible end to college. My good friend Paul’s son had the same experience and he was their oldest, too. But I am happy to hear that Paul isn’t upset over it and is focused on how he’s had a normal college experience!
Yes, I know not everyone is on this school schedule. People who have school ending in June are probably wondering what the big hullabaloo over May is all about.
I remember in one of the Peloton workouts I did (back in the day) the instructor started by saying “If you didn’t sleep well last night, skip this workout and go back to bed.” Well- sometimes that’s not an option, but the point is, getting enough sleep can be more important than your workout that day.
Yes, I’m excited for you and Paul’s concert! That will be so, so cute. It will be fun to find out if he’s musical. Can he sing on pitch? Funny thing- my son couldn’t at that age and I assumed he wasn’t musical- but he developed it later on. My daughter could not only sing on pitch but could pick out harmonies at that age. But now you can’t say she’s any different than my son who couldn’t do that so… I guess it doesn’t really tell you much!
Wow that is amazing that Angie could harmonize at that age!! But it’s cool that it all evened out and they are both incredibly talented in music. Paul can sing on pitch but he cannot harmonize!!
I think even families here with kids graduating in June would say that it’s Mayhem as well. No matter when school ends, May seems to fill up fast!
My son did most of his last two years of high school remotely, and my daughter did her first two years of university remotely. I’m still so sad for them, but they, too, seem to have gotten over it better than I have.
Taco Tuesday with the concert—what a win!
May here is fine for us because our school year ends in December but because my kids are all out of school that doesn’t matter for us now. We’ve got my younger daughter’s university graduation this month so that’s exciting. Her university has graduation ceremonies in the semester following graduation.
Ooh, congratulations to your daughter!!! And, it’s interesting that the kids seem to have accepted the restrictions of the pandemic better than the parents. I keep telling myself maybe it was good for them- taught them how to be resilient and roll with the punches.
Ok, someone at the band needs to figure out how to partner up with restaurants so that getting a meal while seeing the concert can be a permanent thing. It works for everyone==>it’s good for the parents, it’s good for the restaurants, and the band will get a very enthusiastic audience.
By this point in the school year it’s always chaos. Summer will be here soon!
Yes, I like that idea, but I don’t want it to be so crowded that we don’t get a prime table, ha ha. But it actually is brilliant- I might suggest something along those lines to the band director!
What an amazing score on your cantina concert seats. That does look like a great way to enjoy the performance. What are the seating options at Sunfest?
LOL, that chihuahua race sounds like mayhem for sure.
I have no idea what the Sunfest situation will be like- but I doubt it will be as comfy. I guess I’m going to find out!
Well that sounds like the perfect way to watch a band concert! May is stacking up to be a busy one for us as well we just have to go along for the ride
Yes, from now on a want a comfortable seat with a delicious beverage and vegan food for every concert (what? It doesn’t work like that? Darn.)
Looks like a perfect setting for a concert! With refreshments & everything!
It was perfect! I’m going to demand beer at every concert from now on.
That taco looks amazing and it’s nice that you were able to enjoy your daughter’s concert while having dinner. That would actually be a great idea for all concerts!
There’s a big Oktoberfest event near where my parents live that I’ve been to a few times and they do dachshund races! It’s very entertaining and some of the dogs wear costumes too!
There’s a blogger- StephanyWrites- who goes to a dachshund race every year (her mom owns two, and they go to the race and one of them won last year.) I would love to see that too- it sounds hilarious.
That concert dining experience sounds like a DREAM (even if it did end with messing up your weekend plans)! How lovely for you and your husband. Our May is busy until the last week, so we are just going with it. I am hoping to keep my meal planning going during the week, but fully expect eating on the weekends to be a mix of desperation and what I can carry to various dance competitions and hotels. My daughter is overly excited about the amount of “fun snacks” that will be at her disposal and is timing out her dance routines with when she can grab an Oreo, haha!
Yes, the last week of May we suddenly have nothing. I’ll probably just collapse in a heap at that point.
Have fun at the dance competitions! Oreos sound like a good fast snack for a kid. : )
Aww, I’m glad your son has moved on from that! I didn’t care very much about high school, but if I’d missed all my college “lasts,” I would’ve been pretty devastated. :[
Glad you had a great time at the concert + yay for Taco Tuesdays! There’s a taqueria that’s open 24/7 here that has tacos for $1 each and is, understandably, quite hard to resist. 😛
$1 tacos??? That would be hard to resist!
Okay, this made me LAUGH: “At the end of the concert the band director said “Thank you! Come see us perform at Sunfest this Sunday at 1 pm!” WHAT? Who? Where? This is how I learned about the concert on Sunday.” But laugh in a painful way. There goes your Sunday.
It is interesting to read this because June (like the very last day of June) is when our schools let out. It seems so foreign to me that some students in the US finish early in MAY! Though, with your weather, this 100% makes sense.
What a great concert seat. Good food, a great view, and awesome background music. Check, check, check.
That would be…quite a race. Where I live, each year for charity you can “buy” a numbered rubber ducky. They release a huge dump truck of them at the top of a river and whichever duck crosses the finish line first wins. I’ve only entered once and I didn’t win, but what a fun premise, eh?
Ha, that does sound like a fun race! And just about as random as hoping your chihuahua crosses the finish line first.
It was pretty funny when the band director said that- we had moved over onto the grass with some other families and everyone else looked just as astonished as we were.
What a perfectly enjoyable vantage point for that concert! Yes May is pure Mayhem here, as you know. So many fun events, I’m just going to roll with it and make the most of it. Now I want tacos!
Get yourself some tacos! Although I don’t know when you would have a chance, your month is so crazy. But crazy in a good way.
Now I’m dying to know what a chihuahua race looks like LOL!
And what a fun way to enjoy the concert.
I don’t know why May has to be so crazy but it seems like we’ve all got some version of the madness!
I know- I don’t remember May being like this when I was a kid??? Like everything else now, it’s over the top.
“Is this a crazy time of year for you? It is for us! Why does everything have to happen in the same week???” YES. Why indeed Jenny?!?! May is bonker balls! So many things!
Sometimes I feel so overloaded that I wonder if it used to be as busy before Covid and I just got out of the habit… or if we as a society are piling on a billion things as a way to sort of overcompensate for all the things we missed??? Either way, it’s too busy!
Love that you got tacos and beer, though. What a great way to enjoy the concert!
That food + band worked out great! I love sitting outside with a taco listening to music! A+ kind of day! Re racing Chihuahuas I have never seen that, but I have been to a wiener dog race! At our local horse track they have a sort of “half time” and they let people race their wiener dogs during the break. It is the cutest thing ever! I hope that your month is not TOO hectic! (PS May is my favorite month!)
I would pay good money to see a chihuahua race.
I am very familiar with Mizener Park! I think I saw The Black Crows play there, as well as the Goo Goo Dolls and Counting Crows. My college roommate lives a few blocks away from there and I used to live in Coconut Creek, so not far.
Our seniors are finished this week. And then instruction is pretty much over, but the underclassman still have to go to school. Sigh.
I imagine it was hard for the seniors. We were lucky in that it was A’s 6th grade year. By the time he got to high school, things had evened out a little. 8th grade was a bit of a wash, but we have moved on. Hugs to you. I understand how that would hurt a mama heart.
What a perfect concert-watching experience! I love that you got to enjoy beer + tacos and watch the concert. Good job on that find!
I haven’t seen a chihuahua race but I attend a wiener dog race on a yearly basis, and the last time I went (2022), my mom’s dachshund Chip came in second place overall, which was super exciting!!
“Sorry band director, we can’t be there for Sunfest, we have a CHIHUAHUA RACE TO ATTEND!!!”
I love that you had the perfect table with dinner and were able to see/hear the performance too. Excellent.
Chihuahua races… band concerts… Taco Tuesday. What’s not to like? Oh, right. A surprise concert. Whomp, whomp. Sigh. Hope it all worked out in the end.