"I'd rather be the one who loves..."

"...than to be loved and never even know."

I love Josh Ritter's music. Love. Deep, visceral love.

This is not like my 1984 - 1990 adolescent hormone- and "rebellion-" fueled love of hair metal bands like Poison and Motley Crüe where, let's be honest, the music was very secondary. Its not like the lyrics of "Girls, Girls, Girls" were speaking to me in a personal way:

"Friday night and I need a fight/My motorcycle and a switchblade knife/Handful of grease in my hair feels right/But what I need to make me tight are/Girls, Girls, Girls"

Oh yeah. I am so with you, Vince.

No. This is mature love. The kind that is comfortable and calm. The kind of love you settle into after the brain and body are no longer addled by passion, when the relationship is based mainly on mutual interests, easy companionship and dedication.

I have loved Josh's music from afar for four years, ever since I first heard him on WYEP in Pittsburgh (one of the ONLY radio stations I listen to because I am anti-commercial radio and they are awesome!) But for one reason or another, I have never seen him live. I was planning to go last year when he was at the Ramshead Tavern in Annapolis, but I would have had to go by myself because Papi didn't fully appreciate Josh at the time and I become narcoleptic if you put me behind the wheel of a car at night so that just wasn't going to work.

Having flashbacks to 1986 when I begged my mom to let me go with my friends to see Bon Jovi live in concert on their Slippery When Wet tour—Bon Jovi who is the best band ever and Pammy's uncle is taking us so it will be absolutely fine and please please please mom, I want to go soooooooo bad, they are soooo gorgeous, pleeeeeeeeze—I asked Papi to give me the early birthday present of seeing Josh in a special acoustic show at the Attucks Theatre in Norfolk. So the scene wasn't quite as hysterical as (oh my god) 20 years ago, but there was a lot of girly giggling and a little jumping up and down. Hey, I'm not too proud. And I had just had caffeine.

And bless his little pea-pickin' heart, he said yes! He's even paying for it, which I wasn't going to ask for because all I really need is a chauffeur, because it is 1.5 hours away and there's that falling-asleep-while-operating-a-motor-vehicle thing. My man went over and above! Muchas gracias, mi amor!

I think that Papi has also reconciled himself to the fact that we will be listening to all of Josh's albums every day until the concert and that I will repeatedly remind him of the amount of days left until we hear Josh live for real!

Yep, mature love.

(Only 14 more days!)