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Wouldn't Believe It

I haven't done one in a while, but the topic was too good to pass up. Today's "Ask the A.V. Club" column is on worst pop-culture dates. As in, bad experiences on a date to a show, movie, etc. In my own life, I have one that sticks out prominently. Since I didn't want to bring it up in my original review, I figured it would be funny now to share about how I was ditched at a Get Up Kids show.

For the most part, the Get Up Kids sing about break-ups, whether it's with someone you love or someone you work with. The music (and passion behind it) were why Four Minute Mile, the Red Letter Day EP, and Something to Write Home About were fixtures in my CD player throughout college. I still enjoy the material and I try to catch them when they come to town.

A couple weeks before their first trip back after reuniting, a friend of mine hit me up on Facebook. She's someone I crushed on for a while, but she was sorting out the remains of a collapsed relationship. We'd run into each other here and there, but I hadn't heard from her in a while. So it was a surprise to see a message from her, asking if she could tag along to the Get Up Kids' show.

I picked her up at her place, and something didn't seem right. She was all dolled up in make-up and perfume, in a style not that far removed from what you see on Toddlers & Tiaras. This is a punk rock/indie show, where something like this is rare. You could dress like you just woke up and fit perfectly in. Alas, we had a good time talking about small things and big things in life, and we both enjoyed the Kids, Youth Group, and Pretty & Nice. Things were, for the most part, successful and enjoyable, until the end of the show.

As we walked out to the lobby, she approached a member of Pretty & Nice and started talking to him. She convinced the band to stay at her apartment, as well as her next door neighbor's. Thinking she was being nice to some guys who weren't going to put "the moves" on her or her neighbor (because, judging by their mannerisms and lisps, I figured they were all homosexual), I didn't mind that she wanted to do this. Yet she wanted to go back to my car, get the poster she bought earlier in the night, and be dropped off in the front of the venue.

Driving up the street, she got a call from the band member, said she be right there, referred to me as her friend, gave me a hug, and got out of the car. I haven't spoken to her since.

Of course this was a shitty experience. Two months later, I started dating a wonderful woman. We were together for twenty months, filled with many, many great moments until the last couple of months. Receiving the break-up letter before I saw Mission of Burma, I had a hard time concentrating (maybe it's obvious in my review?). But I don't regret going through the pain because it helped me re-evaluate the great things in life, in the shadow of the truly terrible.

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