Rock On!

This weekend saw the 16th birthday party of a good friend of Miss 15, for the sake of the blog we'll call her Misty. Misty's mother decided a bit of a surprise was in order, not only for the birthday girl, but also for the guests. So she called all the parents to talk to them, but left the guests in the dark as to the plans for the evening.

Hubby and I discussed briefly whether we would let Miss 15 go, but we knew we wouldn't deny her this fun opportunity. We knew exactly where they would be, who would be there and how they would get there. We knew there would be adults there to supervise and most importantly that the kids would all be in a big group. (Wow, there are a lot of "there's" in that paragraph!)

Basically what it came down to was that a group of 10 of Misty's closest friends, male and female, would be picked up in a limo. They would then be driven nearly 2 hours to a concert performed by Matchbox 20! To say that this secret was hard for me to keep would be an understatement. I repeatedly had to bite my tongue in order not to tell Miss 15 and not to let it slip while I was warning her about how to dress and what to bring.

This concert took place at the State Fair. I used to live in the town where the State Fair is held, and I attended the fair, a lot, too much, in crazy amounts, more than is necessary, when I was a teen. I attended my share of rock and country concerts along with the midway after dark. It was so difficult for me not to set out warnings to Miss 15 about what she would see and the kinds of people you sometimes run into at events like these. I was nervous and excited for her. Miss 15 lives a somewhat sheltered life here, and this would be a radically new experience for her.

The night of the concert arrived and Misty and her friends still had no idea of their adventure. As the evening progressed I texted Miss 15 asking her how it was going, if they knew what they were doing, etc. No one had any idea until they got pretty darn close to their destination. But the limo driver was crazy, and managed to get them to the concert nearly 45 minutes after it was scheduled to start. It took the limo 3.5 hours to drive a route that takes me one hour and 50 minutes. They ran into the show, and still managed to work their way up to the front. Miss 15 texted me some fun pictures of their evening. The limo then drove the group home and they arrived at Misty's house with their ears ringing at 1:30 a.m.

The next morning Miss 15 was debriefed about her night. She had stories galore to tell us. For the first time she found out exactly what pot smells like, she learned that $5 beers and rock concerts lead to incredibly drunk adults who manage to throw and spill beer everywhere, she and her friends were able to deflect the advances of a 50+ year old lech, she learned that a rock concert is loud enough to make you lose your hearing for hours and she learned that you make your way to the back before the show is over so you can get out the door.
Despite the eye opening lessons, the entire group (minus one who's a bit of a prude) had a lot of fun, and when asked if they would do it again it was a resounding affirmative vote.

Now you tell me. How am I going to top that Sweet 16 Party next year??