I’m going to burst

I wish I could hold this in for a full week, but I cannot. I am going to see G3 in Atlanta next month! Satriani, Petrucci, Gilbert. I am so amazingly psyched about this show, the description of my excitement pales in comparison to reality.

We shelled out the money for premium tickets (not the highest level, but the next highest). Seventh row very near center stage. Amazing.

This is a pretty big deal to me for a few different reasons. Most obvious is that these are three of my absolute favorite guitarists. Second is that I hardly ever get out much and haven’t been to a show with my wife since before we were married. Sad, but true.

The last, and most important, reason is that for most of my adult life my wife and I have lived a pretty meager existence. See, this concert is our Valentine’s present to ourselves. We’re going to Atlanta for the show and will spend the night there. A nice night out. But it’s rare that we do anything like this. Rarer still that we get much more than a card for one another for Valentine’s Day.

I’ve spent most of the past 13 years in the Army. And most of that we lived on a single income. Now I work as a civilian for the government, but the salary isn’t that much better. And we’re still on a single income. Most of our excess funds go to our children.

It’s exciting beyond words to be doing something this cool with one of the people that I care about most in life.

And I can’t wait to tell all of you how the show went.