I had a really incredible weekend. But it was also a great reminder that sometimes romanticizing your life is simple and easy, and sometimes things don’t work out. And that’s okay! It’s an important part of the journey, too.
To begin, let me give you some background on my sister and me.
For those of you who don’t have a sister or, unfortunately, aren’t close with your sister, my heart truly goes out to you. I am so incredibly grateful that I have a built-in best friend in my sister.
She’s my favorite person to spend time with because we are so similar and enjoy so many of the same things that it feels like I’m spending time with myself. I’m incredibly blessed l that when I wanted to move out to Arizona for my own personal reasons, she was able to stay here for an additional year to live with me.
I’ll never be able to repay her for that sacrifice. She could’ve gone home to Minnesota immediately after college, but instead, she stayed out here, got a job, and turned into a really amazing adult. And I have been lucky enough to watch.
The one thing my sister and I aren’t similar in is that she’s wickedly smart. And she used that brain to become a nurse.
Because of her career, every other weekend she has Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off. Occasionally, she even gets a four-day weekend, and she tries to use those weekends for trips.
Because of her schedule, we’ve gotten to spend time in Sedona and California, specifically San Diego, where we both love to be. Her schedule has made it so easy for us to spend time together, and I cannot express how much that has meant to me.
So this week was one of her three-day weekends!
Because she knows her schedule so far in advance, I was able to buy tickets for the Romeo and Juliet ballet over a month ago.
I had never attended a ballet, but of course, as a recovering romantic, I absolutely love Romeo and Juliet, so I was super excited to see this performance.
I had the best date I’ve ever had in my life on Friday.
Sure, my date was with my sister. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that it was so easy to have such an incredible evening. I think it goes to show that dating can be much easier than people make it out to be.
I know from conversations I’ve had in my personal life, forums I’ve read online, social media, etc., that there’s a stigma around dating being incredibly hard. Or that it can be so expensive, or women want too much, or men don’t try enough.
Whatever the true cause of the changing dating dynamics in society, I’m not here to solve the world’s problems.
What I am here to tell you is that it was so simple to plan an incredible evening that I’ll remember for the rest of my life.
We got to spend multiple hours getting ready for dinner.
That’s one of my favorite parts of going out. I love the time I get to spend taking a shower, doing my hair, and doing my makeup. The whole time, I’m listening to music, smiling, laughing, and getting my outfit ready.
It truly sets the tone for the entire evening.
After getting ready, we had dinner in downtown Phoenix at The Compass, located inside the Hyatt Regency Phoenix.
For those of you who might not know what The Compass is, it’s a rotating restaurant on the 24th floor of the hotel. It slowly turns so you can enjoy views of the entire Valley while you eat your meal.
I’ve talked about the moon on this blog before, so the fact that we were only two nights away from a full moon was very exciting because she was large and proud in the sky all night.
But I’m also a view girl.
I could stare at the mountains for hours on end. It’s one of the many reasons I wanted to move to Arizona. I’ve always wanted to live near the mountains, so being able to have dinner with such an extraordinary view was incredibly special.
Truly, we could’ve been eating PB&J sandwiches while looking out the window, and I would’ve been just as happy.
But when you give me a Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc and whipped cheese, I exceed cloud nine.
The food was incredible.
My sister and I got to split our meal, like we love to do. One of my favorite things about going out to eat with my sister is that she’s always down to share some appetizers and entrées.
And to top off a wonderful meal, my favorite dessert in the world was on the menu.
I have been thinking about that crème brûlée since the moment we sat down.
Safe to say, we were already having such a fun and happy evening that when we crossed the street and got to Symphony Hall, we could’ve seen any show, and I think we would’ve enjoyed it.
The ballet was wonderful.
I will say, I knew they weren’t going to speak during the ballet, but something about accepting the fact that they weren’t going to speak for two hours took a moment to get over.
There was a giggle between the two of us here and there, but we were able to pull it together and return to our sophisticated, adult selves who attend sophisticated, adult things like ballets.
I truly will remember this night for such a long time. And I’m so incredibly grateful that I got to spend it with one of my favorite people in the entire world.
And the funny thing is, the whole evening reminded me how uncomplicated a wonderful date can actually be.
We made plans, got dressed up, went somewhere beautiful, and enjoyed each other’s company.
Nobody had to perform. Nobody had to impress anyone.
We just showed up excited to spend time together.
Maybe that’s what makes a really good date. Not the restaurant, the tickets, or the money spent, but the simple fact that you’re genuinely happy to be there with the person sitting across from you.
So, Saturday, we had plans as well!
Another thing about my sister and me is that we love live music and attend a ton of concerts. Because we both love music so much, we get to experience all kinds of different shows.
I’ve dragged her to some heavy metal concerts, while she drags me to country folk shows. And every single time, they’re so special because we get to spend that time with one another.
My sister got us tickets for the Smoke Show Festival out in Gilbert.
Now, I want to preface this by saying that I am a concert professional.
I’ve been going to concerts since I was very, very young. I’ve seen big bands, little bands, bands at festivals, bands in clubs, shows in huge venues, and shows in small venues.
I truly know concert etiquette, is what I’m trying to say here.
The last music festival I went to was in Minnesota. And maybe because I’m a Minnesota native, I was overestimating how much Minnesota nice actually exists.
Because I was truly so disappointed in how people acted at this festival.
They were rude. They would cut in front of you, walk right in front of you, and not even consider saying “excuse me” or “I’m sorry.”
We wanted to get closer to the stage for the main performer, and in that crowd of people, I have never been so annoyed with other people’s behavior.
For me, I’m not a huge fan of people who get sloppy drunk in public anyway.
It’s not to say that I’ve never been there. I went to a state school.
But as a grown adult, watching another grown adult get sloppy drunk just isn’t my vibe.
And this crowd was filled with sloppy, sloppy drunks.
They were yelling at each other, pushing, and the group behind me was loudly talking about how they couldn’t see over us.
And that was apparently our fault?
When I turned around to ask them if they had a problem, because I was so incredibly sick of listening to them talk about us, one girl actually started throwing out insults like I had attacked her.
It was truly so immature and so crazy that I just had to turn back around and let her lose her mind.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t even the worst part.
Not even 10 minutes later, a fistfight between 10 grown men broke out right in front of us.
All over where they were standing in the crowd.
For those of you who don’t know concert etiquette, I will explain it so you don’t end up in a fistfight similar to this one.
If you leave the crowd with your entire group to go get drinks, you actually don’t get your spot back.
Definitely not once the concert has already started, and definitely not when there are six of you trying to get back into a super crowded space.
You don’t get to just show up and tell people to leave or move because you had been there “all day.”
You left.
Needless to say, we didn’t last much longer in the crowd.
We went to the back of the show to watch the majority of the set and dipped out early, like we love to do, so we wouldn’t get stuck in the parking lot.
An experience like this could absolutely ruin your entire evening.
Rude people, crowded spaces, unnecessary aggression, etc., etc.
And sure, not every event you go to is going to be a perfect experience.
But that’s all part of the journey.
I got to see a band that my sister adores. We got to sit in the grass and share desserts because one thing about me is that I’m constantly on the hunt for a sweet treat.
We got to laugh and enjoy each other’s company.
We even have merch to prove it.
Our entire drive home, we turned off the country folk music and got to rap along to Drake, Kanye West, and 21 Savage.
It was a completely different music vibe in the car, and it was so much fun.
What I want you to take away from this is not that music festivals are bad and you shouldn’t attend them.
Absolutely not.
This will never deter me from going to another music festival.
If my favorite band, which is Sleep Token, for the record, announced that they were coming to Phoenix for a festival, I would sell my left kidney to go.
Saturday reminded me that not everyone moves through the world with the same consideration for the people around them.
And while I can’t control how strangers behave, I can control how I choose to behave.
I might not live in Minnesota anymore, but I hope I never lose that little piece of Minnesota nice.
If I bump into someone, I’m going to apologize. If I need to get past someone, I’m going to say “excuse me.”
And knowing myself, I’ll probably say both.
I also learned that it’s okay to stand up for yourself.
I really hate confrontation.
I could blame my star sign, my moon sign, or a whole plethora of other reasons, but I’ve hated confrontation since I was very, very young.
It spikes my adrenaline. It makes me shake. I don’t like it.
But because of that, I don’t always stand up for myself.
And I was quite sick of hearing how much we were ruining this group’s concert experience because I had chosen to wear cowboy boots that made me taller.
Even though this person ended up reacting the way she did, it’s still okay to turn around and let someone know that people can hear them.
Standing up for yourself doesn’t always mean staying in the confrontation.
And I think that’s an important part of emotional intelligence.
Knowing when you should stay in an argument and when it’s time to just ignore someone and walk away.
I didn’t learn this on Saturday, but the evening was an incredible reminder that I could do just about anything with my sister and have a good time.
I think we could be locked in a padded cell and would still be able to make each other laugh.
And that is so incredibly special.
I will be grateful for it every single day for the rest of my life.
I’ve spent a lot of time talking about romanticizing my life while I’m single.
But sometimes I wonder if we spend so much time looking for romance that we forget how much love already exists in our lives.
I might not have a boyfriend taking me to the ballet, but I have a sister who will get dressed up with me, split an entrée, laugh through a performance, and make an ordinary Friday feel extraordinary.
And I think that’s a pretty beautiful kind of love, too.
Friday night, romanticizing my life looked like a beautiful dress, a glass of wine, the moon hanging over Phoenix, and a night at the ballet.
Saturday night, it looked like walking away from a crowd of people who were ruining our experience, finding a patch of grass, sharing something sweet, and laughing with my sister.
Neither night was wasted.
And maybe that’s the part of romanticizing your life that we don’t talk about enough.
Sometimes the experience is everything you hoped it would be. Sometimes it’s disappointing, uncomfortable, or nothing like you imagined.
But you still went. You still tried something. You still made a memory.
And sometimes the best part of the entire evening happens after you stop trying to make it perfect.
So keep making the plans. Keep buying the tickets. Keep getting dressed up for the life you’re building.
Not every experience will be magical.
But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth having.
I hope to see you out there!
All my love,
Kaitlin
