Blue Moon and Bubblegum

I blame Laura at History of a Woman for this. Her blog is new to me but I love her voice already. Check her out if you haven’t done so yet. Today she encouraged readers to dust off an old post and reblog it for Throw Back Thursday. Here it goes. This is the mister and I a couple years before the parenthood chapters began. Shenanigans.

“For the first time in almost 20 years, a bright “blue moon” will grace New Year’s Eve celebrations worldwide.” -Andrew Fazekas, National Geographic News, 2009.

Went to Santa Cruz (SC) to see The Devil Makes Three show for New Year’s Eve (NYE) at the Catalyst. It’s been our tradition for the past 5 years to forgo a gift exchange for Christmas in favor of a NYE stay together in SC. NYE shenanigans usually consist of a nice dinner out and a few-ish pit stops at various watering holes along the way. Normally we steer clear of the downtown area as it typically attracts hoards of people, and we’re not “hoards of people” enthusiasts. So making our way into downtown SC was new to us, as was celebrating the end of a decade under a blue moon.

After midnight, we found ourselves behind a small crowd of families who were heading home with their kids. One older child, maybe 12 years old, was steering a long low to the ground bike (think of a larger version of a tricycle) it had a bench in the back where two younger children were seated, both maybe 6 years old, clearly from separate families. Remember the games we used to play at that age where you would see how long you could hold someone else’s gaze without blinking or you would try to see how close you could get without giggling or actually touching noses? These two were engaged in this sort of play when I heard the girl say to the boy through a burst of effervescent laughter, “I can smell the bubblegum in your mouth!” Just then the mom scooped up the young girl who was still giggling uncontrollably. The mom smiled and said “You like Ryan!” and the girl replied…”uh-HUH!” Then the mom asked, “do you LOVE him?” and the girl squealed “YEAH!” I felt so lucky to be walking in a tiny town by the sea, under a blue moon, on the verge of a new year while watching someone fall in love for the first time….ever!

Oh yeah, and the show was outrageous! Erik has since decided he’s hot for female upright bass players as a result. Last song of ’09 was The Plank. Wonder what the new year has in store…