Monday, March 14, 2011

mental health monday: dance the night away with janet jackson.


When you have a child with Autism, going out on "dates" becomes an infrequent event. There are only a few people that Max is comfortable with, and even then he can be a lot to manage. Scott's parents (the famous No-Nonsense Nana and Super Bumpa) are our #1 go-to sitters for the kids. They help us out multiple times a day during the work week, which allows us to both have jobs. Because of this, we are hesitant to ask for additional support on the weekends as we are worried about wearing them out. We save the requests for extra weekend support for big deals.

An example of a "big deal" is the Janet Jackson's #1's tour.  Scott bought us tickets for her March 13th show in Toronto for Valentine's Day (not a Valentine's Day present, but good timing nonetheless).  I hadn't been to a concert since I saw Norah Jones last year with my concert boyfriend Chris (I also saw John Mayer with him on Valentine's Day last year).  Being a huge Janet Jackson fan (I even own a copy of Damita Jo), Scott hit a home run with these tickets.  The only concert that would be on equal footing with Janet is if The Brand New Heavies came to town (unlikely as they rarely leave Europe). 

The concert was terrific.  The Sony Centre only seats 3000, so the venue was much more intimate than seeing a show at the ACC.  Janet sang all of her #1 singles, so you know everyone was singing along to every song (myself included).  I love the energy that erupts into applause as people figure out what song she is transitioning to and start to cheer in anticipation of having her perform a favourite.  Also, she looked AMAZING, sounded terrific, and can still dance like nobody's business.  I danced for the entire show, grinning from ear to ear.  Every once in a while I looked over at Scott, who was also having a terrific time (but I think he enjoyed seeing me dancing and smiling more than anything else). 

When we got home, we found out that Max had given Nana and Bumpa a taste of our morning routine, which we felt badly about.  It's one thing for us to deal with it, but we don't wish it on anyone else.  They were good sports about it, but we could tell it had upset them.  We had such a good time, I hope that as Max grows up it gets easier for us to go out together.  It is so important for our relationship and we need to figure out ways to do it more often. 

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:58 p.m.

    Love reading your blog; nice to hear you two are getting out together!

    ReplyDelete
  2. thanks! it really does make a world of difference.

    ReplyDelete