My husband and I had a date night!
Wow!
That's really a big deal around here. More so than it would be in the States. I can't speak for all of Italy, but in our town, babysitters do not want to work in the evening. They want to go out and have fun themselves! They will work in the morning or the afternoon, but the evening is sacrosanct . . . they are quite put out if you even ask.
When my oldest son was little, I had hired a babysitter so that I could return to work parttime. I also asked her to come for two hours each Thursday night so that my husband and I could go to the movies once a week. She was shocked that I would have the nerve to ask her such a thing. She said to me, "I go out in the evenings. I'm young. You wouldn't understand!"
Thanks.
Seemed strange to me. I mean, it was just one night a week. She could go out with her friends the other six nights. And . . . I was going to PAY her, not a minor detail in my way of thinking.
Oh, well . . . that's the kind of subtle cultural difference that would just never cross your mind to even imagine. I just assumed that babysitters would work evenings. She just assumed that I would never even think to make her such an indecent proposal. Expectation Clash!
My sons are older now and we feel comfortable leaving them alone for a couple of hours every so often, so last night we grabbed the chance to hear Joe Valeriano live in concert right here in our town.
Joe Valeriano is one of the top blues guitarists in Italy and Europe. And he's an old high school friend of my husband's. Last night he played with a local blues band, led by another school pal of theirs who is not famous at all. He was truly amazing on the guitar. He didn't just strum it, but had all kinds of amazing techniques on the strings. He even punched them sometimes!
 |
| Forgive me the lousy iphone photo... |
All of my husband's high school classmates were there, cheering on their old friends, both the famous one and the unknown one.
Finally, a night out on the town for mom and dad, yeah!
