Wannabe

I am a wannabe--- a wannabe fan for the Reloaded Band. I wanna be at the gigs they play to support my husband in pursuing one of his favorite activities. I consider myself to be one particular bass player's groupie. Tonight the planets are finally in alignment for me to go check out the band.
There have been several near-misses when he plays the night before or after a grandparent visit. It's difficult to find a sitter since the majority of available sitters are in the 13-15 age range which leads to several issues. The first being the boy's age--- he's just a couple of months shy of 13 himself. The second is the boy's tendency to strip to his drawers without considering that most people do not wish to see whether he wears briefs or boxers. Couple the oddity of a 13 year-old girl being in our home at night with an almost 13 year-old boy in his drawers and you have a compelling third reason. The fourth is Katie's resistance to the idea of any sitter at all.
Tonight Evan will spend the night at Joey's house. That frees me up to look for a sitter for the girls. Katie objects to a sitter while begging to be allowed to stay home with Erin. I point out that I will be almost 45 minutes away, and that 45 minutes is a long time to be home waiting for parents to return when one is frightened, ill, or injured. (Or longer if there is any delay in reaching Mom or Dad because they do't hear their cell phones or have an interruption in service!) On with the hunt for a sitter. There is one who moved to Lubbock so she's out, another has a boyfriend and is now making bad decisions... Ariel C. would be great except that I would have to drive almost to the location where Don is playing to pick her up, then bring her to our house, drive back to the location, and repeat the whole back and forth procedure to take her home at the end of the evening which would require getting the girls out at 10:30 or 11:00 at night because Don will still be out playing a second set when I leave to head for home to relieve the sitter who is not yet legal to drive. Things are not looking good on the sitter front. I don't typically ask friends to let the kids come visit just while I am out because these gigs are almost always after bedtime!
I call a mom with girls Katie & Erin's age to ask for sitter recommendations. She tells me about her misadventures with the sitters she calls in an emergency. This is not an emergency, and I would prefer to avoid the sitters she describes. This mom is a night owl. She offers to just have me drop our girls off at her house to hang out and watch a movie with her four girls tonight while I drive to hear the Reloaded band play tonight. Part of me wants to say "No thanks, I know you have your hands full with your own girls." That part gets shut-up by the part of me that really wants to finally see Don play with band tonight.
So tonight I will run Evan to Joe's house, hurry home to shower and dress to go out (not that challenging since Bullwinkle's is a pool hall), drop off the girls after dinner and showers at their friends' home, and I am off to be my favorite bass player's biggest fan.